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Mark Herman | |
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| Born | Mark Herman 1954 (age 68–69) |
| Other names | Mark Black Black Amber and Black Amber & Black M. Henry Herman M Henry Herman |
| Occupation(s) | Film producer, film director, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1987–2009 |
Mark Herman (born 1954) is a British film director and screenwriter, best known for writing and directing the 2008 film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas .
Herman was born in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. [1] [2] His father worked as a bacon importer. [1] He was educated at Woodleigh School, North Yorkshire and thereafter at Sedbergh School and Bridlington Grammar School, Bridlington. He worked for his father's bacon importing business until his mid-20s. [1]
He was late entering the film industry, first studying art at the Regional College of Art and Design in Kingston upon Hull aged 25, then going on to study graphic design at Leeds Polytechnic for 3 years. [3] At the end of the first year he had to choose between illustration, printmaking, graphics or film for the final 2 years. He applied to the illustration, printmaking, and graphics parts of the course, however he wasn't accepted into any of them, so had no choice but to pick film. It was there in the film part of his graphic design degree, that he started doing animation. [3]
He then progressed to the National Film and Television School. [1] [3]
At the NFTS, he recognised the superior talents of people like his neighbouring classmate Nick Park, and other classmates like Tony Collingwood, so decided to move away from animation and towards live-action instead. [3] [4] Nick Park was making A Grand Day Out at the time. [2] [3] [5]
Herman was a schoolfriend of musician Henry Priestman, who like Herman is a Hull City A.F.C. fan. [6]
In February 1983 Priestman as Harry Amber and Herman as Mark Black, together as Amber and Black, along with the Hull City players themselves, released the song "The Tigers are Back". [6] It was made to raise funds to help pay the players wages, as the effects of Hull City's previous seasons money struggles were still visible. [6] Herman reworded the song "Out of Luck" by Priestman's previous band Yachts, to get the lyrics. [6] The record sleeves and records themselves contained the made up record label logo Don Records in tribute to Hull City's then chairman Don Robinson, and the made up issue number COL001 in tribute to their then manager Colin Appleton. [6]
In June 1983, Herman filmed Hull City's end-of-season tour of Florida, where the players and staff visited Walt Disney World, and played the Tampa Bay Rowdies who were managed by Rodney Marsh, in the return leg of the Arrow Air Anglo-American Cup. [6] It was directed and edited by Herman, with Priestman composing the music. Herman released the documentary online in 2016 with the title A Kick in the Grass. [7]
He made his directorial debut on his final graduation film See You At Wembley, Frankie Walsh (1986), which he also wrote. [8] It won the Foreign Student Film award at the Student Film Awards. [9] He then spent the next 2 years writing for the BBC. [1]
Herman co-wrote lyrics for the songs Ideal World, Hooverville and Sad Songs for Henry Priestman's band The Christians on their first album, The Christians (1987) , alongside Priestman himself. [3] Priestman had done a football themed song for Herman's film See You at Wembley, Frankie Walsh, and Herman had done the lyrics for it, however the lyrics didn't fit the song, so they were scrapped. However they tweaked the lyrics, which were eventually used for Ideal World instead. [3]
On 1 January 2008, midway through Hull City's Premier League promotion season, Amber & Black, released the song "The City's on Fire" on Myspace. [10] [11] It was their first Hull City song since 1983. [10] It was later re-released just before 2014 FA Cup final between Hull City and Arsenal F.C. [6] [12]
Herman’s first feature-length project was Blame It on the Bellboy (1992), a comedy of mistaken identity starring Dudley Moore and Bryan Brown. It failed at the box office, and with critics. [1]
Next, Herman wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Brassed Off (1996), following the members of a colliery brass band, still struggling to survive a decade after the miners' strike.
In Little Voice (1998), adapted by Herman from Jim Cartwright's play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Jane Horrocks reprises the title role of a harried young woman whose only escape lies in the memory of her father and in imitating the singers he admired.
Purely Belter (2000), adapted by Herman from Jonathan Tulloch's novel The Season Ticket, is the story of two teenage boys trying to get together enough money for a couple of Newcastle United F.C. season tickets. Hope Springs (2003), is an adaptation of New Cardiff.
His most recent work is the adaptation of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas . It was produced by David Heyman and stars David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Sheila Hancock and Rupert Friend. Herman directed and adapted the work. [13]
Herman is a fellow of Film and Television Production at York St John University, York, England, and has received Honorary Doctorates from Hull University and Leeds Beckett University.
Jessica Winter in The Rough Guide to Film criticises Herman's fondness for "cloying" close-ups and "contrived melodramatic showdown[s]", saying of the film Purely Belter that it "probably didn't create many new converts to Herman's partly gritty, party feel-good socialist realist strain of filmmaking". [14]
Frankie Goes to Hollywood are an English pop band that formed in Liverpool in 1980. They comprise Holly Johnson (vocals) and Paul Rutherford, Mark O'Toole (bass), Brian Nash (guitar) and Peter Gill (drums).
"Relax" is the debut single by English synth-pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, released in the United Kingdom by ZTT Records in 1983.
Bananas in Pyjamas is an Australian children's television series that first aired on 20 July 1992 on ABC. It has since been syndicated in many countries and dubbed into other languages. In the United States, the "Pyjamas" in the title was modified to reflect the American spelling pajamas. It aired in syndication from 1995 to 1997 as a half-hour series, then became a 15-minute show paired with a short-lived 15-minute series The Crayon Box, under a 30-minute block produced by Sachs Family Entertainment titled Bananas in Pajamas & The Crayon Box. Additionally, the characters and a scene from the show were featured in the Kids for Character sequel titled Kids for Character: Choices Count. The pilot episode was Pink Mug.
Bridlington is a seaside town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is on the Holderness part of the Yorkshire Coast by the North Sea. The town is about 28 miles (45 km) north of Hull and 34 miles (55 km) east of York. The stream called Gypsey Race flows through the town and enters the North Sea at the harbour.
Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship and play their home games at the MKM Stadium, after moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's traditional home colours are black and amber, often featuring in a striped design on the shirt, hence their nickname, the Tigers. Hull also contest the Humber derby with both Grimsby Town and Scunthorpe United.
Bridlington Town Association Football Club is an association football club based in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They were founded in 1918 and currently play in the Northern Premier League Division One East.
"A Little Respect" is a song written and recorded by English synth-pop duo Erasure, released in September 1988. It was written by Vince Clarke and Andy Bell. The lyrics are a plea to a lover to show compassion and respect. The heavily synthesized instrumentation is accentuated by acoustic guitar and Bell's vocal falsetto in the chorus. It was their tenth single and was taken from their third studio album, The Innocents (1988). Known as one of their signature songs, the single reached number four on the UK Singles Chart and was Erasure's second consecutive top-20 hit on the US Billboard Hot 100, where it made number 14, and reached number two on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a 2006 Holocaust novel by Irish novelist John Boyne. The plot concerns a German boy named Bruno whose father is the commandant of Auschwitz and Bruno's friendship with a Jewish detainee named Shmuel.
John Boyne is an Irish novelist. He is the author of fourteen novels for adults, six novels for younger readers, two novellas and one collection of short stories. His novels are published in over 50 languages. His 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was adapted into a 2008 film of the same name.
"The Lady Is a Tramp" is a show tune from the 1937 Rodgers and Hart musical Babes in Arms, in which it was introduced by former child star Mitzi Green. This song is a spoof of New York high society and its strict etiquette and phony social pretensions. It has become a popular music standard.
"Temptations" is a song by American rapper Tupac Shakur (2Pac) from his third studio album, Me Against the World (1995). It was released as a single in the US on August 29, 1995, and was released as a CD, cassette, and 12" promo. While rapping is solely performed by Shakur, Erick Sermon and producer Easy Mo Bee are also featured in the song primarily as background vocalists. The song uses the bassline from the "Computer Love", and the theme focuses on relationship and infidelity issues. Debuting at number sixty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100, the song did fairly well in the United States. It was also well received by critics, with many writers commenting on its romantic tone.
Repo! The Genetic Opera is a 2008 American rock opera horror film directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Based on the 2002 opera of the same name, written and composed by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich, the film stars Alexa Vega, Paul Sorvino, Anthony Stewart Head, Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton, Bill Moseley, Nivek Ogre and Zdunich.
Woodleigh School was a preparatory school for boys and girls aged 3 to 13, located in the village of Langton, North Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1929 and closed in August 2012. In its final year, it had 61 pupils, a mixture of day children and boarders.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a 2008 historical drama film written and directed by Mark Herman. It is based on the 2006 novel of the same name by John Boyne. Set in Nazi-occupied Poland, the film follows the son of an SS officer who befriends a Holocaust prisoner of his age. It was released in the United Kingdom on 12 September 2008. It received generally positive reviews from critics for being touching but was panned by scholars for misrepresenting elements of the Holocaust.
Asa Bopp Farr Butterfield is an English actor. He has received nominations for three British Independent Film Awards, two Critics' Choice Awards, two Saturn Awards, and three Young Artist Awards.
Jack Charles Scanlon is an English former child actor who is best known for his role in the 2008 Holocaust film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Amber Louisa Oatley Beattie is a former English actress, mainly known for her roles as Lulu Baker in Jinx (2009) and as Gretel in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008). She now works as a producer.
The 11th British Independent Film Awards, held on 30 November 2008 at the Old Billingsgate Market in London, honoured the best British independent films of 2008.
Henry Christian Priestman is an English rock singer, keyboardist, record producer and songwriter.
See You At Wembley, Frankie Walsh is a 28-minute long, comedy-drama, short film written and directed by Mark Herman, as his graduation project from the National Film and Television School. It was his directorial debut.
Mark Herman at the British Film Institute [ better source needed ]
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