The Welsh company making sets for the latest Netflix movie
Two brothers have been carrying out the painstaking work to transform a street in the Welsh capital for Tom Hardy’s new thriller, writes Laura Clements...
TWO brothers from Cardiff have had a behind-the-scenes look at the Tom Hardy thriller being filmed in the Welsh capital because they’ve quite literally built the set.
Tom and Dan Berrow, who initially set up Benchmark Scenic Construction Ltd from a small workshop in Caerphilly, aren’t allowed to say much about the Netflix production, Havoc, having signed certain agreements.
But pictures have shown the capital’s Bute Street turned into a typical American street, complete with fake snow, American road signs and the base of a bridge built on the pavement and next to the entrance of Customs House. And some of those classic American features were in fact built in Benchmark’s workshop in Bridgend, with the team working tirelessly this summer to turn production designers’ and art directors’ visions into reality.
Tom, 36, and Dan, 33, both started out as carpenter apprentices 18 years ago working for the same firm. Then, the film industry in Wales was “nowhere near the size it is now”, Tom, pictured right, said, with most work coming from low-budget S4C and BBC productions.
It was the reincarnation of Doctor Who in 2005, spearheaded by Russell T Davies, that injected some energy into the film industry and that’s when things took off “in a big way”, Tom said.
“I remember going to the golden wrap party with David Tennant and that was the first taste of things to come,” he said. “With some of the bigger studios expanding in Cardiff, these big projects seem to be coming down now, culminating with Tom Hardy and Forest Whittaker in Havoc. They’re really big names and it’s nice to be involved in something that’s so popular and publicly acknowledged in Wales as well.”
The Welsh public have been delighted to see the big names out and about enjoying some of Wales’ popular sights. None more so than
Tom himself, who got to meet the actor Tom (Hardy) on set.
“He’s obviously an A-list star. I think Venom (Hardy’s latest film) is about to be released, he’s as big as they come,” he added.
Havoc tells the story of a drug deal gone awry, leading a detective to fight his way through a criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son, while untangling his city’s dark web of conspiracy and corruption. The Netflix thriller is directed by Hirwaun-born Gareth Evans, best known for the television series Gangs Of London.
“The architecture is obviously very different in Cardiff than it is in America,” Tom explained about the Havoc set. “To ensure we created a realistic representation of an American street a mass of research was conducted by the art department with a view on how best to transform a Cardiff street into an American one.”
He can’t go into specifics, but, generally, once references are gathered, one of the art directors will draw up a plan of the intended build for whichever location: “Once they’re happy with the look, we try to take a Cardiff street and turn it into an American street,” Tom added.
Filming for Havoc lasted four days on Bute Street, finishing on September 30. Residents were sent a letter explaining parts of the street would be closed to allow film crews to work while a new subway-type structure sprang up overnight.
“We built that subway structure using references we were given,” Tom explained. “I’m not sure which American city exactly, we just aimed to copy that.”
All of his build material had to be
Sets are very temporary so there’s always a tradeoff – there’s almost no point throwing a ton of money that might only be seen in soft focus in the background anyway Tom Berrow
lightweight and non-intrusive so as not to damage the listed buildings along Bute Street.
Once the set has been built, the carpentry team give way to the scenic art department who are specialists in creating textures and finishes for theatre and film.
“These guys can turn a piece of MDF into the side of a spaceship, a broken down bit of concrete or a piece of marble,” said Tom. “It’s indistinguishable from the actual thing, so they really are magicians. It’s fascinating seeing it happen.”
Building sets on big-budget productions isn’t quite as glamorous as it sounds, said Tom. “Sets are very temporary so there’s always a tradeoff – there’s almost no point throwing a ton of money that might only be seen in soft focus in the background anyway,” he continued. “You can build two identical sets that are going to be shot in different ways that one can be wildly more expensive than the other depending on the duration they spend and how under scrutiny they’re going to be. We can’t just say a house will be this much and a spaceship will be this much to build.”
After starting out as apprentices, Tom and Dan set up as freelance scenic construction carpenters, eventually taking on their own projects including Doctor Who (series 13), Grand Tour (Welsh special), Brave New World, the Alan Carr Christmas Special, Keeping Faith (series 2) and End Of The F**cking World (series 2).
The latest big blockbuster, Havoc, is their biggest project yet and has meant a team of around 40 workers, all freelancers, getting a tiny role in a massive film.
“I get to work with a range of people,” Tom said. “Two of my team have gone out to work on Indiana Jones because they had that opportunity. It’s nice that all these people get to intermingle and you get to see a lot of
interesting things and people.”
Havoc is up there as one of their most exciting jobs to date: “We’ve got to meet Tom Hardy and there’s a lot of buzz surrounding this film,” Tom said. “It’s fantastic and it’s really quite invigorating for the guys. With the public getting behind it, it really spurs us on and we want to do a good job.”
Doctor Who was also “amazing fun” to work on while Benchmark was called on to help out on the set of War Of The Worlds to build “quite an interesting spaceship”. Tom has just finished working on the upcoming Grand Tour, Wales Special, but he can’t really talk about that.
“It’s always a great feeling seeing your work on a big screen,” Tom continued. “There is a whole load of work that goes into post production and editing, so what we see our end is usually very different to the final product. But when you see the finished article on TV you think you’ve been a part of something quite enjoyable.
“There are times you’re sticking faux bolts onto a wall to create a panelled wall and you might have 3,000 bolts and you can bet that by the end of the week, you’re bored of that. It’s not all glamour.”
There’s been a Benchmark standby carpenter on the Havoc set throughout filming in Cardiff.
“The construction team tend to work ahead of the film crew, so we would go to a location, build out, paint everything and make sure everything is ready for filming,” Tom said. “They then come in and film and we take it away afterwards.
“While they’re still there, there might be times where they need a door moved or something in addition to what you’ve already built, so one of our guys is on set constantly. He gets to see every shot, every take, every piece of action. But if you do it day in, day out, it does become a job.”
Covid means they have to work in bubbles and separate teams try not to mingle. “We do see Tom Hardy about, but it’s not like we say come and see our set,” Tom laughed. “He’s a very busy man.”
The two brothers have come a long way from their workshop in Caerphilly, having quickly expanded into a bigger base in Bridgend, which is just around the corner from Dragon Studios. It’s a fun job, Tom admitted, and always has been since the day he started out.
“I was quite young and I don’t think I really appreciated how lucky I was at the time,” he said. “Back then it was a lot smaller, we did a tour with one of the S4C comedians and we went around Wales setting up in working men’s clubs and social clubs and really nothing like it is today. It’s just expanded and blown up in Wales in a really big way.”
Wales’ film industry is growing at a rapid rate and is now ranked third in the UK for film production, behind London and Manchester. Speaking in 2018, Ken Skates, then economy minister for Wales, said that for every £1 the Welsh Government invests into TV and film production, an average of £8 ends up being spent within the
Welsh economy. Mr Skates estimated that productions filmed in Wales with Welsh Government assistance would result in an additional £55m being injected into Wales’ economy in 2017/18.
“This past year has been the busiest I’ve ever known,” said Tom, saying there was almost too much work to cope with earlier in the year. “We have a fantastic opportunity to capitalise on the growing media sector in the UK and with the support of the various film bodies hopefully Wales will realise this potential creating even more jobs in the process.”
Earlier this year, ambitious plans to make Cardiff a “world leading” film production location were announced with a £50m fund to help create 2,000 jobs. The secret to Cardiff’s success is its location – within 10 minutes you can be at the seaside and the coast and within an hour you can be in the Brecon Beacons, Tom thinks.
He added: “We’ve got every type of landscape or scenery that you could want within a short distance. We’ve got the labour and skills to cope with demand and it’s growing year on year and it all seems to be going in the right way.
“It brings in a lot of work for such a broad range of people. Some of my guys are carpenters, straight off site, and then on the other end of the scale, we’ve got highly-skilled camera operators.
“All we’ve got to do now is play catch up and make sure were able to service the productions that come in.”