Actor David Black Interview!

An Interview with Australian Indie Actor David Black

I recently had the chance to talk with Actor David Black.

I'm happy to say that this is my first interview on the blog here! I was pleased to interview actor David Black. David Black is an actor from Australia, and he has some interesting things to say in our interview here. So, without further ado, the interview:

Quintessentialist - For those that don't know you, please tell us a little about yourself and where you're from?

David – Hi Quintessentialist.  Thanks for having me as a guest on your blog.  I’m an actor, director, blogger and cartoonist.

With all these creative projects, I started with cartooning and published 3 underground comics before I was 18.  “Gooby, Sartorial Titbits and St Kilda Funnies” were photocopier produced and distributed to shops around Melbourne.  Later, I did a cartoon strip called Punkz for the national rock music magazine, Juke in 1988. After that, I became the Editorial Cartoonist for “The Truth” in 1989/1990 and even won an award in 1990 at the Coffs Harbour/ Rotary National Cartoon Awards.  My biggest achievement in cartooning was the release of the comic book, “Punkz In Space” that was distributed to newsagencies nationally.

During the 1980’s, I sang and played bass in the Punk band, “Thrush”.  By the 1990’s, I was singing,  playing bass and writing songs in the gothic rock band, “Darkness Visible”, which is still going to this day.  Darkness Visible have had songs on numerous compilation albums, as well as releasing 2 Ep’s.  They’ve also appeared in two of Mick Mercer’s gothic rock books – The Hex Files and Music To Die For.  Along the way, I’ve produced 9 music videos for the band and they can all be seen on my YouTube page.

My main love though is acting.  This is a more recent development but in the couple of years, I’ve has been on sets regularly.  I’ve also produced and directed a segment for Shane Ryan’s “Ted Bundy Had a Son” as well as a short movie called “Dark Night of the Zomboogies”, which debuted at the Warrandyte Film Feast.

I also do a bit of blogging and write articles and conduct interviews for OZ Indie Cinema and The Movie Blog.  These cover all aspects of the Australian indie movie industry.

Quintessentialist - Can you tell me about how you got into acting?

David – I was invited to be an extra in Mark Bakaitis’s  horror movie - “Cult Girls.”  I’d already produced 8 music videos for my band, Darkness Visible, but this was a whole other world. There were a lot more crew members involved than on my previous music video shoots and a massive amount of equipment.  Maybe that was because this was a feature movie while my previous shoots were music videos?  After a couple of days on this set, I was invited by various crew members to be in a number of other indie movies and before I knew it, I was on sets most weekends.

Quintessentialist - What has been the most interesting thing that has happened to you on a set?

David – That would be Cult Girls.  I’d never been on a set with a real armourer before.  Being handed a genuine AK 47, hearing the roar, feeling the kick and seeing the fire come out of it was something else.  We have some very strict gun laws in Australia, so most Aussies are unlikely to ever hold a real gun, let alone an automatic weapon.

Quintessentialist - Is there a project you are currently working on, and if so, what’s it about?

David – I’m currently making short films every three weeks for a series called “Tales That Broke My Brain.”   Each movie is different but they all have one element in common in that they are off the wall.  Most have a twist, although some are just disturbing enough to stand on their own.\

I also have a project called “Horror House”.  It’s a hosted horror show that we’ve finished filming and are now getting edited.

Quintessentialist - If you could collaborate with any actor, who would it be and why?

David – That would be Bela Lugosi.  He’s mainly known for being Dracula and horror after being typecast, however, I’ve been impressed with interviews I’ve seen.  He talks about acting in general and seemed to have a different take on it to other actors.  He seemed to regret that he didn’t get to do a wider variety of roles after he got to Hollywood.

Quintessentialist - I noticed you started a youtube channel, what are your plans for it?

David – I’ve had the YouTube channel for ten years now.  Originally, it was a place to put the Darkness Visible music videos and TV appearances.  Those uploads were just one or two in a year.  

Over the last 5 months though, I decided to put up regular, weekly content and to try to build a following.  This pace is very difficult though and I can’t see that I am going to manage to keep that up forever.  I think that with the changing of the YouTube algorithm that the days of building a big following there are over, so I’m just doing this until I can find new opportunities to promote my film work.  The problem for now is that I can’t see any new alternatives that offer a high reward to effort ratio.

Quintessentialist - Do you plan on writing your own film, and if so what would it be about?

David – The first feature that I’m planning will be an anthology where I put all the “Tales That Broke My Brain” episodes together.  There will be some writing involved as I want to present them, rather than just have a bunch of shorts strung together.

Another in the plans is a feature movie for Horror House.  If the show takes off, I want to have the feature ready to go.

Quintessentialist - Is there any advice you would give to those wanting to enter into filmmaking?

David – Just do it.  Technology has come so far that you can just film something on your phone and upload it to YouTube that there are no excuses for not starting right now.  Davinci has a pro editing suite that you can download for free, and the next generation of smart phones can film in 4k.  

I would like to thank David for doing this interview and I wish him the best in the future.

If you would like to see more of David you can check out his youtube channel, Click here, and you can check out his page click here!