Hello everyone we're here today with Mark Murphy for another instalment of our Q&A sessions. This time around, we're just going to get to know Mark a little bit more, so Mark, how are you? Are you good?

1. Mark Murphy Director Q and A #2
Interviewer:
Hello everyone we're here today with Mark Murphy for another instalment of our Q&A sessions.
This time around, we're just going to get to know Mark a little bit more, so Mark, how are you?
Are you good?
Mark Murphy Director:
I'm very good thanks how are you?
Interviewer:
I'm good thank you.
As a director yourself, who are some of the directing Heroes that you have, who inspired you or
whose movies you always go rush to see?
Mark Murphy Director:
Well I mean it's it's a bit of a cliche, but obviously Steven Speilberg, I think is an influence for
everyone in the film industry, but I guess outside of him, there are a few. Tim Burton, the film
that I saw that made me want to work in film was Tim Burton's Batman in 1989, I saw that
several times, and it was like okay, this was my moment when I was like “This is what I want to
be doing”, so I guess Tim Burton is one of them. Although, since the Planet of the Apes film he
did it's sort of went down. I sort of feel like Helena Bonham Carter is the curse on that one, that's
when they met and she was in all his films afterwards. David Fincher, anything he does I'll make
sure I see. I still regard Seven as his best work and also Alien 3, I know no one else likes it but I
love it. Terrence Malik just because of his interesting story, and I think Thin Red Line is truly one
of the greatest films made. Lastly used to be Michael Mann, Last Mohicans and The Insider

2. were incredible films, and then he just went downhill with Ali, so he's sort of off my list. But for a
time he was one of those people that whatever he was doing, I'll go and watch.
Interviewer:
I know you mentioned Spielberg, do you have a favourite Spielberg movie?
Mark Murphy Director:
Yeah, well my favorite movie of all time is Jaws. I know for a lot of people it's like, “Really? A
shark film?” But if you actually watch the film it's a masterpiece of character interaction. The
three men on the boat. Yes, it was officially the first Blockbuster, the first film in America to
surpass a hundred million at the Box Office, although when you count inflation a lot of films did
that before. We think of Blockbuster these days and they tend to be sort of generic cookie-cutter
action films, Marvel films but if you watch Jaws now, you'd actually see it as a much different
film. That and Indiana Jones in the Last Crusade, I think is a fantastic film and then obviously
Schindler’s list is pretty good as well.
Interviewer:
So, let's say you were making a new project, you had an unlimited budget and you could work
with anyone in the world you wanted to, What's your top three actors or actresses you would
love to work with?
Mark Murphy Director:
Well, an unlimited budget is a poisoned chalice, because with more money, comes more
interruption from the money people so you have less and less control. It's actually better to have
a smaller budget. but let's pretend it was without any interference Anthony Hopkins is obviously
one. I actually would have liked to have worked with Michael Gambon, sadly you know, he just
passed away. I think maybe Jody Foster throwing in another one. it'd be fun to see what Arnold
Schwarzenegger would be like, see if I could get a really deep incredible performance out of
him, that would be an interesting challenge.
Interviewer:
I know you've seen thousands of films obviously, if there was one film in history which you could
say you were involved in or you had some direction on, what film would that be?
Mark Murphy Director:
The assumption by saying that is it was a great film, if it's a great film, it was a great film without
me, so I wouldn't want to sort of take any responsibility for ruining if I was involved. Actually, I
tell you what the one film I wish I had directed that has been made, was The Woman In Black,
and that's simply because that was something I was trying to shop around about 25 years ago,
and no one thought it was a good idea. There's one producer who said “nah it's you know,

3. there's no market for horror” and that was like the week that scream opened and made over 100
million. There was another producer that I sort of knew, and he's actually gone on to win an
Oscar, so he's quite a successful producer now, and I pitched it to him and I went back to see it
at the West End. Funnily enough, he had gone to see it as well, so I guess he'd taken my
advice. Yeah, no one ever made it, he passed, and then of course they made it with Daniel
Radcliffe and it was the most successful British horror film in sort of 30 40 years. It's like yeah i'd
been pitching that and you all ignored me, so yeah I would have liked to have done that
because that was a project I already wanted to do.
Interviewer:
Seeing as you've brought up horror films and it is nearly Halloween, do you have any favorite
horror films or a particular category of horror films that you enjoy?
Mark Murphy Director:
Yeah, I think The Thing, the John Carter version is an awesome film that's one. I'm not a
massive horror fan I'll be honest, apart from obviously wanting to do The Woman In Black. It
depends on the other horrors you know, like obviously, The Scilence Of The Lambs is a
psychological horror. I mean if I was to recommend, okay you've got Halloween coming up
you're going to have a Halloween marathon, the three films to watch, I would recommend three
different types of films. I would recommend The Thing, I would recommend The Silence Of The
Lambs, and then maybe the Texas Chainsaw Massacre or something.
Interviewer:
Going back to when you first started off, was there any particular advice that you were given
when you were just starting as a director that's really helped you develop your skills?
Mark Murphy Director:
Not really advice, but more of a work ethos. So when I started at the TV Theater and Film
Schoo,l it wasn't just a case of “Okay right you want to direct, let's focus on directing”, it was like
“Right, we do everything here, you need to do wardrobe, you need to try out camera, sound,
makeup, acting, everything, every single thing, every sort of discipline within the industry. You
had to have a go at”, which sort of worked well, because as a director you do need to
communicate across the departments, so that helped, but more so it was unlike, say a
university, when you have X amount of lectures or sessions a week. This was like six days a
week, working beyond the hours anyway, just non-stop working. I remember the first film I
worked on Welcome To Sarajevo, a very old film, I came on towards the end as a runner and I
instinctively was literally running around, trying to get everything done as efficiently, but as
quickly as I could, and they were like “You got to slow down y,ou know you don't have to rush
around doing everything”, and it was like, no you know this is how I've been trained, it's like get
on and work don't sort of sit around. So yeah, there was no advic,e but it was definitely a
training process, which was you know as good.
Interviewer:

4. So when you're starting work on a new project, do you have a certain thing that you do or a
certain routine that you get yourself into?
Mark Murphy Director:
Well it depends on what the ambition for it is. If it's just a, “let's try and make this next year”, then
there's a different process than, “oh this would be a good idea let's write a script and see what
happens”. So for example, the projects I'm working on now, I know I will make, so it's it's a more
mechanical process, in terms of “Right, let's focus on how efficient it is and in terms of budget
and schedule Etc we can make this, and who we can get and so on”, and then try and tailor it
around that. I mean, assuming you've got the the basis of an idea, I think whilst writing the script
you've got more elements in mind, and that sort of helps in terms of knowing, takes out some of
the vagueness. If you don't know, then it's just like I'll write out a treatment, could be 10, 20, 30,
pages, see if it works, put it into a script and then send it off to a couple of people, and then just
focus on something else.
Interviewer:
What about the actual filming process, do you have any kind of methodology to it? What does
the filming process look like for you?
Mark Murphy Director:
The last one I did was a massive, massive failure. I wore too many hats and when you try to do
too many things you can't do any one thing properly. With what I'm doing now, having learned
from that mistake, I'm sort of handing over control to someone else as quickly as I can, so I can
literally just focus on directing, working with the cast and the crew, looking at the technical sides
of it, but not worrying about the logistics, or the finance, or the contracts. I think that's the key to
it, you just want to narrow what it is, that your sort of purview, your role within the whole project
is, so you can do your best job.
Interviewer:
One final question for today, what is your favorite project that you've worked on, out of
everything you've done, what did you have the most fun doing?
Mark Murphy Director:
I think the first two films, because I had no idea in terms of I was just focusing on making them,
and enjoying making the idea, you know it was. It was the idea of “Hey I'm doing it, I'm directing
a crew and cast”, so because that is the initiation of something that I'd always wanted to do.
There was a lot of fun with that, and because they were lower budget, it was less rules and
restrictions let's say, whereas afterwards if I do something now, then I'm more aware of the
painful side of it, which is keeping on budget, keeping on schedule, the consequences of not.
The hangover of any mistakes that may then result in not being able to sell it properly, because
you don't have the right contracts or you don't have the right information or permissions. The
more you do it, the more it becomes an operation, rather than adventure, so I think my first two

5. films. The First one was absolutely awful, but they had no reason it would have been good,
because it was shot in about two weeks, but it was a lot of fun. The next was also fun because
we were all on location. I think that's the other thing, when you're on location somewhere. it's a
little more interesting.
Interviewer:
Well, thank you so much for your time today Mark, we're really looking forward to whatever you
do next!
Mark Murphy Director:
Me too! Tt's been lovely chatting with you!
Interviewer:
Thanks, you too!