He’s been blown up, dragged down a runway by a parachute attached to a driving car, squashed by a prison van underwater, been face-to-face with a 300 pound tiger shark and his name is Dan Dark.

But he’s not a new superhero about to hit the screens, he is the managing director of Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden who oversees everything going on behind them.

These incredible feats took place long before the studio set up shop in the location of an old Rolls Royce aircraft factory. Having been part of the industry for his whole life he has quite an incredible career reel.

His father was a film producer and since he was very young, Dan could be found on studio sets. But accusations of nepotism would be ill-founded, Dan grafted from an early age and soon became a runner during the school holidays.

“This was in the days of no mobile phones or fax machines and anything like that,” he recalls. “In those days a runner used to run, literally.”

He was so committed to the work that when his O Levels came around he had to take time off work. He left school almost immediately to work on Peter Hyams’ film Outland, starring Sean Connery.

He gradually climbed the ladder and became an assistant director, but in those days, he tells me, the British film industry was not what it is today and work would “ebb and flow quite substantially”.

To plug the gaps he returned to work as a runner but this time in special effects, working his way up the ladder all over again to become a floor supervisor.

He did this for more than ten years, working on various James Bond films as well as Aliens and Alien 3.

It was of course during his time in special effects that the aforementioned dangerous exploits took place.

“What is interesting,” he tells me. “What I’m doing now has really benefited from my time doing special effects. The mechanical and physical side of doing that really helped me to understand how facilities operate.”

Later in the interview I ask what the biggest change in the film industry has been and, unsurprisingly, he says it is the emergence of computer technology.

He reveals: “One of the reasons I decided to move on from special effects is because we were moving away from physical and more to computerised effects. That was when they were in their early days.”

As we continue to discuss technology and effects it becomes clear that there is more physical work still going into films than we might think.

“If you’re standing on the set of an action film, you will know you are standing on the set of an action film.

“The demand is for bigger and better and we need to be able to provide that in physical form and visual effects.”

So how did he go from being blown up to landing the role he is in now?

After his work in special effects Dan went to the south of Spain to build a television facility from scratch for the BBC show, Eldorado.

When he returned to the UK in 1994 he met with producers of the Bond movies and the next day found himself in the old Rolls Royce warehouse being asking if he could build a temporary studio there for Golden Eye.

Almost 25-years later and a decade of Harry Potter films is evidence that the answer was yes, however it wasn’t until after those films were shot that Warner Bros. decided to purchase the facility and invest – something Dan had been long been suggesting and even drawn up plans for.

Watford Observer:

Since then Dan has built relationships with various organisations across Hertfordshire, from working with the university and West Herts College to volunteering in organisations such as Herts in Trust, Watford Cultural Leaders Forum and Skillmakers, as well as supporting and donating to a number of charities including Peace Hospice Care, Herts Virtual School and Watford New Hope.

Last week staff at the studios were given time out to volunteer, during which time over 1,000 bags were prepared for Small Acts of Kindness and a mural was painted at Watford Mencap Children’s Centre.

Beaming, Dan tells me: “It was amazing the level of uptake we had from our staff, I was very proud.”

I asked what the driving force was behind all this charitable work and he defiantly refused to take any credit, although I’m sure plenty is due as he gets personally stuck in week-in and week-out.

“It would be wrong of me to take credit. Before this was Warner Bros. I already felt very much a part of this community.

“Something I’m able to do a lot more now is connect the dots. Quite often I’m in a lot of different environments and very often I’m listening to similar ideas and so then it’s about bringing people together so that we can make a much greater impact by joining hands. I’m a real believer in that, collectively we are a much more powerful body than individual organisations working at something.”

On and off set they’re clearly doing wonderful things at Warner Bros., but it is no secret that their industry is in turbulent times with the recent outpourings of sexual assault, misconduct and bullying across the globe.

I asked Dan what his reaction was, what Warner Bros. reaction was and those who he works with day-to-day.

Unsurprisingly, albeit a little disappointing, he didn’t say much: “We take people’s behaviour incredibly seriously. We don’t tolerate any inappropriate behaviour,” was all he would say on the matter.

The current scandal isn’t the only thing under address at the moment, stars have begun speaking out about the shocking gender pay gaps. Noomi Rapace (Girl With a Dragoon Tattoo) has called the issue “disturbing”, while Emma Stone (La La Land, The Battle of the Sexes) has claimed male actors have taken pay cuts so that her salary could match theirs.

I asked Dan how he had seen things change for women, considering he has been in the business since he was so young.

When asked if the balance has changed he simply said “yes”, before commenting: “If you look here at the studios and the people I’m responsible for I think you’ll find we are an incredibly diverse environment and I’m really proud about that. I think you’ll find that around the senior leadership table it is very evenly split.”

For everybody reading this wondering how to break into the industry, let alone reach a senior level, regardless of gender, Dan has some words of advice.

“There’s two ways of doing it: One, go and do a course. Two: look for a job.”

He does know it’s not quite that simple, and adds: “It’s tenacity, it’s not giving up, it’s believing in yourself. You’ve got to have a second string to your bow, most of the industry is freelance so you’ll be working on one production and then looking for another. If you’re passionate enough, don’t give up.”

So there you have it, maybe one day you’ll be squashed by a prison van underwater or something a little more reserved, like managing an entire film studios.