Actor, writer and producer Mark Gatiss recently visited Solent, to offer advice and feedback to film and TV students

Screen legend Mark Gatiss visits Solent

Feature

Film, TV and media

Mark Gatiss in the Atrium of the Spark building at Solent University, overlooking the Pod lecture theatre

Hello, I'm Mark Gatiss. I'm an actor, writer and director and producer, best known for The League of Gentlemen, Sherlock, and Doctor Who, and various bits and bobs, and I'm here today at Solent University to talk to students 

Mark Gatiss in a Solent classroom, discussing students' short film projects with a diverse group of students

about their burgeoning careers in film and television.

I have had a lovely morning. Really interesting. It's always nice to give something back; also to keep connected to the young people who are just starting out.

Mark Gatiss in a Solent lecture theatre, in conversation with film and TV lecturer Mark Aldridge, with a large group of students listening and asking questions.

There's some great ideas. I've just been talking to a group about different ideas for short films, documentary and fiction. 

And, you know, they've got some really great notions I think. It's always about, I think, about how to punch through with an idea like that, because the first thing everyone does is make a short film, and therefore the world is awash with them. And even if you get selected for a festival, it's very difficult to stand out.

So the thing I keep banging on about is giving it the structure of a joke, which is beginning - middle - punchline. It doesn't mean it has to be a funny punchline, but it's a punchline. And those are the ones I think that are distinctive.

So if you've got a narrative, you need to make sure you can boil it down into 10 or 12 minutes

Mark Gatiss in a Solent classroom, discussing short film projects with a Solent student and his group.

and you need to go on a journey with it. I've lost many hours of my life watching beautifully made 

short films which don't say anything. And, you know, I just look at people who spent two years on them thinking,

no one's going to watch this. So to be brutally honest, you need to cut through.

Well, the value of higher education, obviously, is that

no matter how a technology changes, there are skills to be learned. And you can't just pluck those off YouTube. You know, you can pluck lots of good things off YouTube, but it's all about practice and training. But obviously talking to people who've been doing it for a long time, which is how teaching works.

And this is a very obvious thing to say, but there's a huge value in that. And also, I suppose...



I was talking earlier about the capacity to fail, the room to fail. And surely university is the place where you can have the cushion of trying things out.

It's the place where you can experiment, you can do these things and and no one will judge you for it; in fact, they'll help you, they’ll have constructive criticism. 

I mean, I know I felt that in my time in college, there was an atmosphere to it of “What the hell? Let's try this!” 

because you weren't being judged on your efforts as if you've been doing it for 30 years.

The industry is in a very interesting state. It's a bit scary, 

but there's also an awful lot of opportunity and change, you know? And change is a bit scary for everybody, but it's very rapid. Things are moving very quickly.

A lot of uncertainty about AI,

but also about what people really want; it feels a bit like a punky moment where something might come through, which is a bit more exciting and interesting.

I always try and keep everything very positive and optimistic, but I always try to stress that, you know, it's a very, very tough industry everyone's getting into. 

But the key is to persist and to, you know, keep the passion for it in whatever aspect. 

I always use as an example my friend Arwell Jones, who designed Sherlock; he goes into schools in Wales to talk to them about working in the industry and, you know, usually there's not much interest because people don't see it's possible for them.

But then he talks to them about being an electrician, being a carpenter, doing hair and makeup, doing costume,
and then at the end of it, he says 

“who wants to work in film and television?”, and everyone puts their hands up... not necessarily because they will, but because they can see a way in.

And that's a crucial thing, I think. So whichever part of the industry you end up working doesn't


mean you're going to be working on Marvel films or whatever, but there are different aspects of it which are a job.



And you can find your way into it that way.

it's a dream, really.

A dream come true. I'm very blessed. I'm really doing exactly what I always wanted to do, which so few people can say, which is wonderful.



I don't have a favorite... you know, if I find I've been stuck behind a desk for a long time, it's lovely to go and act in something.

Directing my ghost stories I'm very passionate about, and I love that whole process, partly because it's actually quite a small group of people, usually the same team. And there's a bespoke-ness to it, which is different to sort of tackling something bigger and more terrifying. So it really just depends on what's out there, I suppose.

So yeah, I'm very blessed.

Solent branded outro - a red wave moving across a white background, before the screen goes red and the Solent University logo appears.

Screen legend Mark Gatiss visits Solent

Related articles

Student films shine a light on mental health issues