Waking Hours

Rebecca Bourke (35) is the founder and executive producer of Assembly — a Dublin-based production company. She started out as a runner in RTE and toyed with the idea of being a presenter. From Mayo, she lives in Dublin

Making ads with Conor McGregor

Normally I wake up at 8am. I’m a creature of habit. I hop up out of the cot and start with emails. This is before I’ve even had breakfast. I like to make sure that I have everything covered and up to date.

I work with people in different time zones around the world, so I will always have my phone on me too. If a script comes in at 11pm that I need to pitch on, then that’s what I do. I’m always on.

If I’m not on a shoot, I can work anywhere. I love that I can work remotely. If there is WiFi, I could work on the moon.

My emails could be anything to do with the four departments in the company — Assembly productions. I’m the managing director and founder. It’s a production company that celebrated its fifth anniversary in January. I have a roster of directors, illustrators, composers and photographers. We work predominantly in advertising, but my talent would also have their own projects going on. More often than not, I will be involved in them too. We operate as a production company but I also act as an agent to the talent, which involves producing and managing the work that they do.

We did a short film, Wave, which had a worldwide premiere in April 2017 at the Tribeca Film Festival. Since then it has been doing the circuit of festivals. It won an Ifta for the best live-action short. I’m always working on that.

Being a producer is all about organisation. It is about problem-solving and overseeing productions, both big and small. It’s about making sure that the ship is running. I could have a production that comes in from an advertising agency and a brand that has a budget behind it. I look at schedules and budgets and see what is feasible.

At the moment I am working on a job for Amnesty International with one of my directors. This is a job that we have created. It is called The Quiet World and now we are actively trying to find funding for it.

We also did a commercial for Burger King with Conor McGregor earlier this year. The job was fantastic and it was great to work with the guys in the US. I think the angle they were going for was the chicken aspect. At the time, people were calling him a chicken for not getting back in the ring. The message was: you’re all calling me a chicken but Burger King are asking me to endorse their product and you can only imagine how much money I’ve got for this. The end line was: “You’ve just put Conor Junior through college.” Burger King are quite notorious when it comes to advertising. Their aim was to be provocative.

Conor came in and he did the job. You maintain your professionalism and you get on with it because at the end of the day that job went very well for me. I know there is going to be repeat business. I like to be as positive as possible. I don’t think it helps anyone in any industry to have a negative approach. There is a solution to every problem.

Those jobs are fun, very rewarding and quite challenging. It had a very quick turnaround. I had 10 days from when I was awarded that job to the finished product. But when you have an incredible team around you and you get it done, it is most enjoyable.

Then the next job I worked on was for the Road Safety Authority. If you are working on a job that is addressing social change in some capacity, you know that you are going to make a difference. We made a virtual-reality film where people put on a VR headset and saw first-hand what happens if you make the careless and selfish decision to drink-drive. There are two narratives, and there is no happy ending here, just the reality of the situation. You are either in jail or you are a paraplegic in a wheelchair.

I knew from a very young age that I wanted to work in the film industry. My dad is a solicitor and in my family, five out of the seven children qualified as lawyers. I used to think that I wanted to be a television presenter, and I cringe when I think of the videos I sent in to MTV. I went on to do work experience in RTE as a runner. I saw Gay Byrne in action doing The Late Late and he was absolutely brilliant. Anne Doyle also blew me away. It was incredible to see her in the newsroom. She would do the last stroke of her hairbrush seconds before they would go live. I went on to work with her years later.

On days of a shoot, the hours can be very long. But other days, when I’m at my desk, I have to be careful about my working hours. I love my job so much that I’ve definitely been guilty of living to work. I know that work-life balance is crucial and so, I try to make time for me. I love doing yoga and meeting family and friends.

My partner Ian is an incredible support. He has a great understanding of what I do. He knows that I give my job my all but he will keep me in check. He is a fireman and paramedic. They are the real heroes, the ones who see the reality of the world. They see life and death and we are hidden away from it.

I always watch something at night. It’s not just to wind down but research. I aim to get eight hours’ sleep. I very rarely get stressed or feel anxiety. That’s because I keep on top of things. Before I go to sleep, I block my brain of thoughts. Otherwise I’d be back up with the laptop in the middle of the night.

“As a producer, you have to be as positive as possible. There is a solution to every problem”