Someone once said, “a movie has a life of its own”. Beyond the Pale began it’s life in the spring of 1996 when New York-based writers Patrick Clarke and George Bazala wrote an original screenplay based on the life of a modern-day Irish Immigrant. Like most first-time screenwriters, they had little hope of catching the attention of a big-time agent or producer, so they decided to take the self-reliant route and make the picture themselves. Bazala, a graduate of the Hunter College Film Program would direct the picture and Clarke, a graduate of the school of hard knocks would produce it. The process began when Clarke invited Jack Alvino to become his partner, Clarke and Alvino had worked together on the multiple award winning short film, The Last Actor. When Alvino came aboard, Maiden Voyage Pictures was established and preparations got under way to shoot the opening segment of the film in Clarke's hometown of Dublin, Ireland. This would prove to be an extremely ambitious undertaking considering that they had only managed to raise a mere $20,000USD, it was also decided that Clarke would play the title role.

Alvino recalls, “Patrick played the lead out of necessity, we needed to find a Dublin born actor who was living in New York and willing to work for no pay and willing to stick around for about two and a half years, he was the perfect candidate".

Clarke flew to Dublin alone on December 2nd to find accommodation for the crew and to scout locations. A week later, Bazala flew in to round up the actors. By the time Alvino and the rest of the crew arrived, everything was miraculously in place.

December 1996, first 11 minutes of the movie were shot.

The five-day shooting schedule was tight and with a small crew everyone performed multiple tasks. Clarke’s friends and relatives were drafted in to help with locations, transportation, catering and the horse needed for one of the scenes. On December 19th, 1996 the opening 11 minutes of Beyond the Pale was in the can.