DMS Research - Producers - Mark Herbert

Warp Films’ Mark Herbert interview

Mark Herbert is CEO of Warp Films, producers of Dead Man’s Shoes, This is England, Four Lions and Submarine. As Warp Films celebrates its 10th anniversary, Mark tells Tom Seymour about producing from his shed, enabling excellence and avoiding the Soho film bubble...

When Warp Films was first founded, what was your aspiration?
The idea was to give freedom to artists and create artist-driven content. It seemed to us, when Warp Films was first coming together, that there seemed to be an arthouse cinema audience and a mainstream cinema audience; we wanted to make films that crossed over between the two.

What are the benefits of working from Sheffield rather than London?
If you look at some of the best directors in this country – Lynne Ramsay, Shane Meadows, Andrea Arnold – they’re not all Londoners. But it’s very hard for people to get films made without getting involved with the Soho film bubble. I think not being in London has actually been an asset. After we made This Is England, we were working out of a shed in the bottom of my garden. We keep the overheads incredibly low and it means we’re able to make creative decisions that aren’t based on constantly feeding a high overhead. It means we can look at projects on their merit, and think constantly about our audience.

What do you look for in a filmmaker?
I met Paddy Considine through My Wrongs, the [Chris Morris-directed, Bafta-winning] first film we made, and he introduced me to Shane Meadows. Within three minutes of meeting Shane I’d decided to make his next feature, which was Dead Man’s Shoes. Shane Meadows had made award-winning films before we met him – A Room For Romeo Brass and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands – that cost nothing but were full of creativity. He didn’t wait for someone to offer him a lot of money. He had gone out and made the films because he obviously had something to say.

What makes a good film producer?
Production is about enabling; you’ve got to tailor the production for the talent you’re working with. On Dead Man’s Shoes, Shane didn’t want to work with a script. He wanted to shoot everything chronologically and have the ability to change the film from one day to the next. It was our job to build a structure around him that allowed that to happen. I firmly believe there’s a lot of wastage in the film production process. A lot of films are classed as low-budget but there’s still a lot of money thrown around and wasted. Myself and my colleagues at Warp know production inside and out. We’re very hands-on and we’ve got a philosophy of getting the right people in place to allow the director to be the best they can be without having to move heaven and earth.
  
What’s your advice to young filmmakers looking to approach Warp Films?
We’re celebrating our 10th birthday but Warp is still a small company with stretched resources. We can’t look at every script that comes in; that’s a fact. If someone sent us their script and they hadn’t made anything before, we probably wouldn’t be willing to sit down with them at that point. A film is hard to get made, so I turn down good projects all the time. I’m a big believer that people have to learn their craft and demonstrate they’ve gone through that. I look for an amazing voice. I look for directors who have made shorts that aren’t necessarily glossy or highly polished but have something distinctive and show promise. If you can do that, you’re in business.

http://www.ideastap.com/ideasmag/the-knowledge/Warp-Films-Mark-Herbert-interview