Today we’d like to introduce you to David Bornstein.
Thanks for sharing your story with us David. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I was born and raised in Orange County, California. When I was a senior in high school, I caught the filmmaking bug, but it took me several more years before I found that directing was what I was really passionate about. I transferred from Saddleback College to the University of Arizona, and that’s pretty much when I began to finally be proactive about creating. I made about five or six shorts of my own, in addition to being on as many of the student film sets as I could get on. After graduating, I made another low budget short for the ABC’s Of Death 2 competition, and with that body of work under my belt, I was able to leverage a budget for the first time for a project. This was a short film entitled A King’s Betrayal, it was a dark comedy about the life of a Piñata as told from the Piñata’s perspective.
This was the first film I made that went out farther than the friends/family circle, we screened at over fifty film festivals, won at least six awards, and accrued over 400,000 total views online across several platforms. It can currently be streamed on Youtube and Vimeo. I’ve made two more films since then; Perfect Breakfast, which is now available on Amazon Prime and Vimeo On Demand, and my latest film Unholy ‘Mole is currently on the festival circuit right now and features the voice talent of Ray Wise (Twin Peaks, Fresh Off The Boat). I also had my first music video commission this year by another great artist who was interviewed here on LAVoyage, Jacquill. His music video for CREEP which I directed can be seen on YouTube, IGTV and Vimeo.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I wouldn’t say it’s been smooth. In film school, I wasn’t in the production track, most of my projects were in my own time and dime, so I learned the reality of begging and scraping favors pretty fast. I’ve had opportunities fall apart, I’ve been backstabbed by people I thought were my friends. But that’s just how it goes for people that don’t come into this with money or family in the industry. I’ve hit many walls that tested my love for this craft, but to make films that carry on to have lives of their own is a tremendously rewarding feeling. Worth the bullshit.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m a director first and foremost. Sometimes I write but I also love developing and honing other people’s material as well, any ideas that excite me I always want to see it actualized to its most engaging and entertaining potential. As far as what sets me apart, I dunno, I always practice patience and kindness on set, as best as one can even in stressful situations, while still holding firm to my creative vision. I have an affinity for the absurd and the surreal in everyday life. As much as I make movies with my legacy in mind, I also don’t try to smother the end result with my own ego; I don’t operate as an intense helicopter parent towards my own films, that can certainly be counterproductive. Overall, I’m at my happiest whenever I get the chance to film something new, and it’s always exciting to see what happens in the end.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Everything about where I am now is because of lessons I learned along the way. I don’t know exactly what I’d do differently. I certainly could have benefited from being less naive about human nature at the beginning, but again, that sort of thing just comes from experience.
Pricing:
- $400/Day for directing commercial/narrative work
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/dabornstein
- Other: www.vimeo.com/davidbornstein
Image Credit:
Danyelle Leah Sims, Daniel Davis, Cassandra Church, Nicole Prokes, AJ Starzak
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