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UK director Dominic Burns: Jumping the queue

You may not have seen his movies, you may not have heard his name or even recognise his face. But Dominic Burns is a novice director that’s cracked a filmic mold-he’s making actual full-length features. No sifting through film-festival applications or  back garden shorts for Dominic. He has set his sights well above the bricks and mortar of the UK Film Council. Between acting, producing and writing under the pseudonym Alexander Williams, Dominic has co-directed the avant garde gangster film, Jack Falls. This Sin City inspired revenge flick, staring Alan Ford, Simon Phillips and Martin Kemp, is the last installment of the first ever British-born film trilogy. The preceding films ‘Jack Says’ and ‘Jack Said’ share its unusual directorial style; shot in high-contrast monochrome with splashes of saturated colour to pace the story.

Dominic’s first project was filmed in just one take, a claustrophobic slasher named Cut, but it was enough to get him noticed on a surreal scale. As we type, Burns is feverishly completing his next feature film, AIRBORNE staring the fanboy luminary, Mark Hamil (Sir Skywalker). At the Jack Falls premier, THN caught up with Dominic; a beaming, unassuming bloke with freshly plaited cornrows to discuss film noir and his fast-developing career;

THN: So, Dominic, how did you get into a ruthless business like film making and achieve so much so quickly?
Burns: It’s such a difficult process, the first film I ever did was a film called CUT and that was a movie we did in one continuous, unedited take. We were the first kind of thriller-horror to do that. The idea was that we had no money to make a film but we wanted to make something that, even if we fucked it up, people would say ‘well, at least the intention was there and it was honourable’. We made it and we ended up getting a deal for it, it’s actually going to be released in America. I feel we did enough to get noticed and get people to go ‘OK, these guys they’re trying something new and something fresh, lets take a chance on them’. So it kind of goes from there, you gain momentum and you gain momentum, that’s how its worked. For me I am never happier than when I am on set, when I am directing or acting, that is the best thing in the world to me so I’ll keep doing it for as long as they keep letting me do it.

THN: Jack Falls is clearly inspired by Sin City, what attracted you to that style of film making?

Burns: It was a beautiful film, and it was very ambitious of us to try and create something on a similar line to it. It’s nice because of the whole graphic novel feel, it’s like you are trying to bring the whole graphic novel to life. There’s motivation behind it. The fact that we are doing something that’s new, fresh and different, it’s difficult to do that nowadays, especially when you are in that kind of gangster genre. I tried to do it a bit more like a British film noir. I love noir films, it’s the look and feel of them, you can draw an audience into a film like that, the possibilities are limitless at that point.

THN: Jack Falls is based on a graphic novel. Do you enjoy that form of storytelling?
Burns: I am actually not a massive graphic novel fan. I am obsessed with film and I am quite into football so it’s quite hard to find the time, that’s it, when you are working in this business it’s just non-stop. I do a lot of writing so it never comes to a point where you get to sit down and absorb something like a graphic novel. I have of course read the Jack series and I love the look of them, I love the feel of them. He (Paul Tanter-author & screenwriter) did a great job with them. He was great to work with obviously because he was so into the story so we worked quite well together.

THN: And what are you working on right now?

Burns: I have directed two films since Jack Falls. I directed one called How to Stop being a Loser with Simon Phillips again, Gemma Atkinson, Martin Kemp again and Sheridan Smith. We have also just finished the second film, it’s kind of a horror-thriller called Airborne. It’s principally set on the 747 passenger jet, we actually brought over Mark Hamil for that so that was amazing. I just spent half the time staring at him in awe, you know. We also had Julian Glover for that. We actually reunited Julian (who played General Veers under the command of Darth Vader in Star Wars) and Mark Hamil for the first time since The Empire Strikes Back-so that was just weird and wonderful. I love little tidbits like that. The next one we have got running in a couple of months time is a film called UFO-I’m keeping fairly tight lipped on that but that’s the plan. It’s all non-stop at the moment.

Jack Falls received a very limited cinema release but is available now on DVD. The Brit-gangster pastiche is taking an undeniable dive but Burn’s doesn’t strike us as a one-trick gunslinger. As a person, he’s as nonchalant as Herzog and as lovable as Kevin Smith. But as a director? Watch this space.

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