Mark Garvey

…on filmmaking & the importance of coffee.

Written by Alex Bamforth

Independent filmmaker Mark Garvey is no stranger to the rigours of day to day life, the mundane that demands our time alongside the things we must do to survive. Such things often go hand in hand but there are plenty of hours in a day and Mark has found sanctuary in the hours untouched by responsibility and obligation to allow himself to flourish creatively. That and plenty of coffee of course. ‘Ultimately it is discipline. I want to do it, perhaps even need to do it so I find a way to find the time to do it, and it goes without saying that an abundance of coffee facilitates this process.’ The need to create is always present for Mark. It is a necessity. Perhaps like it is for many, for the sake of his sanity. Mark works as a lecturer and alongside the many responsibilities that come with adult life he says, ‘I try to squeeze in as much work as is humanly possible in an average day, and if you love the work and are obsessed with it, that can add up to many, many hours.’ 

Mark finds his creativity when he least expects it or when he purposefully isn’t searching for it, ‘The big ideas always seem to come in non-creative mind-numbing everyday situations such as half falling asleep in the bath, or as the mind wanders while filling up the car with petrol at Tescos.’ Despite this and the long list of short films on his IMDB page, it isn’t to say Mark’s mind is a magical treasure trove of ideas. There are a number of different ways he goes about finding inspiration, ‘To keep a project churning along and to maintain inspiration, regularly watching other work, reading, researching, doodling, walking, listening to music etc. all help to keep the work focused and on track.’ When this doesn’t work Mark resorts to a more off-the-cuff technique to keep things flowing. ‘Oblique strategies are a series of cards with advice and guidance on them which you then interpret in order to solve whatever issue you’re experiencing. They’re good fun and the team members’ wildly different interpretations of them are often hilarious.’ It is this carefree willingness to incorporate spontaneity into his work that provides it with the sense of fun and comedy that is exhibited throughout one of his most recent projects; Union Jack, a fan series about the Marvel superhero available to watch for free on his youtube channel. 

Since he was young Mark has loved creating things, an early memory of his being a TV that he made from a cardboard box with a paper football match taped to it. ‘I ran the taped drawings along the hole I’d cut out to be the screen so I could watch it like a TV. Obviously, this didn’t work and I was furious that I couldn’t get my head around the mechanics of it. I loved Film from an early age but didn’t understand it.’ He went on to study Art at college and during an assignment chose to make a film thus beginning his love affair with filmmaking. ‘Prior to this, my creative output included drawing, painting, making sculptures, creating music, experimenting with technology, and writing stories and poetry, so film was a way of fusing all my interests into a single medium. From that point onwards, all of my creative work was in Film.’ It’s this variety of creative output that has helped Mark to develop his style of filmmaking along with delving into the weird and wonderful side of film. ‘I absorbed everything I could, constantly reading about films and filmmaking, and experimenting with cameras and editing, albeit with very limited technology. I bumbled my way through with a great deal of trial and error.’ 

‘The old stuff was more like pages in a personal sketchbook and the current work is more like paintings to go on display.’ Mark says, reflecting on a time before there was external pressure to create something to be shared and seen by others, a time before filmmaking felt as serious as it does now for him. A time before the internet. Despite this Mark perseveres and it is evident throughout his work that he still maintains an understanding of his original incentive to make films. His works are a homage to all that has inspired him and he isn’t afraid to play around with his ideas and incorporate his own sense of what film is about. ‘All of the films focus on the balancing of extremes: the ridiculous and the sublime, the profound and the absurd. Philosophical life-lessons are merged with the mundane, life-and-death situations are defused with a crude joke, the ordinary is actually extraordinary and vice-versa, and much of the work oscillates from these such extremes.’ 

In his projects Mark acknowledges that there are stylistic commonalities and consistencies throughout but says he makes a conscious effort to experiment. ‘The theme of madness and monomania won’t seem to go away. All the protagonists have an all-consuming obsession and are often not at all qualified to carry out their against-all-odds objective, desperately struggling from A to B via madness. Duality, the double and the shadow self always seem to creep into everything.’ In one of his most recent projects ‘Twas the Devil, an interactive film in which viewers are able to take control of the protagonist's fate, Mark showcases his many occurring themes but also a willingness to try different things. It follows the bleak journey of a man named Zachary trying to take his wife’s body to its final resting place. Along the way untrustworthy and eccentric characters are introduced and it is in the hands of the viewer to decide who to help, trust and where Zachary goes. It’s an immersive experience with the recyclable satisfaction of multiple outcomes and flawlessly executed. 

As for the future Mark has an upcoming documentary he is getting ready to release. ‘The finishing touches are being applied to a documentary “The Freedoms” which is about spirituality and art, and it blurs the boundaries of what is real, what is fiction and what is art.’ Along with another documentary currently in its early stages. To keep up to date with Mark's work you can follow him on Instagram, Twitter and Youtube. To know more about his past works you can visit his Website.