We look at the story behind the renowned film production company Warp Films.
What do This is England, Dead Man’s Shoes, Four Lions, Submarine and Bunny And The Bull have in common? Of course, they represent some of the finest British films of the last decade, but they’ve all emerged from production company Warp Films and its sidekick Warp X.
The first Warp Films production, Chris Morris’ My Wrongs 8245–8249 & 117, featured Paddy Considine as a man whose mental health issues are further conflicted by the interference of his friend’s talking dog. It debuted at the 2002 London Film Festival and, after earning a BAFTA for Best British Short Film, received a successful DVD launch. Warp Films was officially in business.
“I remember being really skint!” laughs the film’s producer, current Warp Films CEO and joint MD Mark Herbert. His meagre fee for nine months of work on the project meant that he was reliant on his wife’s earnings as a nurse to get by.
By contrast, the momentum that My Wrongs had created was invaluable. The BAFTA win gave the nascent company fresh credibility, but credibility alone doesn’t pay the bills, let alone fund feature films. It was around this time that Shane Meadows was looking for a new producer to work with. Herbert had been a fan of his low-budget shorts and already knew his friend and collaborator Considine from working on My Wrongs. When Meadows and Herbert first met in February 2003 they didn’t even have a script. But by May, everything was in place and shooting commenced on the superlative Dead Man’s Shoes.
The early days of Warp Films were modest. Herbert and Head of Production Barry Ryan were based in the Sheffield office (a shed based in Herbert’s back garden), while producer Mary Burke was alone in London. Burke started out as a runner on My Wrongs, worked with Chris Cunningham on his disturbing short Rubber Johnny, acted as a script consultant on This is England and is now a key producer at the company. Her journey reflects that of much of the talent involved with Warp Films: Morris eventually followed My Wrongs with Four Lions, Considine graduated from acting to directing the short Dog Altogether and his upcoming feature-length debut Tyrannosaur, and Richard Ayoade progressed from directing promos for Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian and Vampire Weekend for the company to crafting the new movie Submarine.
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The current Warp is a multi-faceted business, but its growth is organic rather than a corporate entity relentlessly expanding in size. Warp Films continues the essence behind Warp Records. “The founders Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett always supported the creative artist and that ethos has been replicated for the films,” explains Herbert. “I used to work on a lot of productions where there’d always be a battle between the director and the producer. Our ethos is to support creative talent by putting a structure around them to allow them to do what they’re good at.”
Often, directors and producers will work on a single project before going their separate ways. The Warp Films ideal is different. Herbert’s opinion is that it takes the making of a film just to build that connection so it’s foolish to let it go. Like Warp Records, Warp Films is committed to having a long creative partnership with its creative talent. As Herbert states: “Our thing is finding the best talent and hopefully working with them through their careers. If you try to pursue one-hit records or one-hit films, you normally fail.”
The company’s Music Videos and Commercials segment is seen as key to identifying emerging filmmaking talent. “When we first started the music video side we wanted to use it as a talent pool,” says Burke. She explains that a music video allows both parties to work together without the multi-year commitment of a feature film, and also allows the Warp team to examine a director’s particular strengths. “It’s about finding out what makes each director tick.” Not that the process benefits directors alone; it extends to the supporting crew as well. Erik Wilson, for example, shot Ayoade’s music videos and moved on to be Director of Photography on both Submarine and Tyrannosaur.
Warp X also helps to enable emerging talent. The key distinction between Warp Films and Warp X is a matter of funding, as well as that the latter focuses on digital productions.
“It’s a slate that has evolved,” begins Robin Gutch, the company’s other joint MD who helped launch Warp X with Herbert. “When it started it was very much focused on genre films, with Warp Films being more director-led. In practice, that distinction was gradually eroded. If you took Warp X’s most recent film to go out into the market, Tyrannosaur, it’s very much a director-led film and not a genre film.”
“The key thing is originality,” he continues. “That’s where the market has shifted. A low-budget British genre film, unless it really stands out from the crowd, is going to really struggle in the market.”
All of the initial Warp X films were helmed by debutant feature film directors. That’s changed slightly with the current development slate; Ben Wheatley is directing Kill List having completed Down Terrace on a micro-budget, while Peter Strickland follows Katalin Varga (funded primarily with inheritance money and shot with a small crew in Romania) with Berberian Sound Studio.
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The highest profile upcoming Warp Films project is the reprise of This Is England for a further two instalments set in 1988 and 1990. Like TIE 86, the 1988 storyline will screen on Channel 4 in the UK and will be packaged as film for international audiences – TIE 86 was sold internationally as two films (the opening two episodes directed by Tom Harper were merged for the first film, as were Meadows’ concluding two episodes for the second) and proved to be a huge success for the company.
Burke is producing another key project, the pilot for a television series by Beastie Boys-meets-Flight Of The Conchords comedy band The Midnight Beast, who are currently best known for their ‘Booty Call’ video as their parody of Ke$sha’s ‘Tik Tok’. Burke bursts with enthusiasm for the project, but there’s a deeper thought behind it too: “I’m really committed to bringing what we do to younger audiences because we don’t really have that many projects that work for that age-group [16-25] at the moment.”
Key to Warp Films is, says Gutch, that it “can be any platform, it can be high-budget, low-budget, medium-budget. It’s very much about do you love the film and do you love the people making it?”
The trio’s motivation is obvious. “We do it because we love it,” says Burke. For Herbert, the key interest is “identifying directors and producers who can keep the spirit going.” Or, as Gutch concludes, “As a bunch of people and as a company, we’re always looking to the next chapter.”
Words by Ben Hopkins
‘Submarine’, the latest Warp Films production, directed by Richard Ayoade and based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne, will be shown nationwide in cinemas from the 18th of March.
The feature appears in the latest issue of Clash Magazine, our film special. Access the issue digitally HERE or subscribe to Clash HERE.
