Method 5 - Warp Films

Warp films was set up in 1999, with funding from NESTA. The company is based in Sheffield and has 3 full-time staff. Warp Films is an independent film company which aims to mirror the methods of its partner music label “Warp Records”. The company aims to keep the creative process at the core of the film-making approach, and to create fresh and innovative short and feature length films, to be viewed by a wide audience. They develop existing talent as well as discovering new and exciting filmmakers/directors. The company has won numerous awards (including 3 BAFTA’s) in the last 5 years.
According to Rob Young's book about Warp they are currently developing their first feature documentary production, a film about disinformation directed by John Lundberg and written by Mark Pilkington.In April 2008, Australian film distributor Madman Entertainment announced "a collaboration" with Warp Films. Warp and Madman plan to make "at least 2 films together over the next 3 years."
“My wrongs 8245-8249 and 117” by Chris Morris was one of the first films produced by Warp Films and it won the Best Short Film award at the BAFTA Awards 2003, and more than one million viewers watched it's television premiere on Channel 4. Warp Films sold 22,000 DVDs of "My Wrongs" and was the first DVD single in the UK market.
Warp Films has also worked closely with the Arctic Monkeys, helping produce 2 music videos, one of which "Scummy Man" starring Stephen Graham, which won best music video at the NME awards.
Another popular film produced by Warp Films is Shane Meadow’s “This Is England” which won 7 awards, including a BAFTA. They also produced another film by Meadows, called “Dead Man’s Shoes” which won 4 awards, which included the Empire Award and the Evening Standard British Film Award.
Since 2002, Warp Films have released 6 films;
My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117, directed by Chris Morris (2003)
Dead Man’s Shoes, directed by Shane Meadows (2004)
Rubber Johnny, directed by Chris Cunningham (2005)
Scummy Man (Arctic Moneys short film/music video)
This Is England, directed by Shane Meadows (2006)
Dog Altogether, directed by Paddy Considine (2007)
Warp films also funded “The Englishman” (2007 funding) directed by Ian Seller, released in 2008.
Warp Films film-ography is mainly seen as a Production Company, although they are also distributors and a “Miscellaneous Company”.

Christ Cunningham is one of the most influential filmmakers of the last decade, an has been at the forefront of innovation and inspiration for technological boundary-breaking world wide, even though so far he has only made a handful of music videos and short films. Cunningham and Warp Records began a relationship in 1995 with his debut promo "Second Bad Vibel" for Autechre. Cunningham has since directed a score of mind-bending videos for the likes of Squarepusher, Bjork, Madonna, Portishead and Aphex Twin.
Both Aphex videos have been showered with approval, but were deemed too dark for daytime MTV. However, his sensual, milky robot promo with Bjork won him the best breakthrough video MTV award and a Grammy nomination, as well as 4 silvers and the first ever Gold Award for a music video at the D&AD Awards.
Cunningham’s film making successes followed on from an accomplished career in feature films. He learnt his craft as an FX sculptor, designer and engineer on numerous feature films, which included working with the likes of David Fincher, Clive Barker and Stanley Kubrick.
In 2000, Cunningham created a video art installation “flex” for the Royal Academy of Art’s Apocalypse exhibition. His other two short films with Warp Films, “Rubber Johnny” and “Spectral Musicians” were released on DVD in 2005.
Cunningham (with anticipation from his fans) is finally turning his attention to feature films and has developed/is developing a feature length script with Warp Films.

Christopher Cunningham created a music video in 1999 called "Africa Shox" which i feel portays America in a bad way, as it demonstrates the unhumane way in which the American's treated Black African/Americans. The main character in the music video is a Black African/American, and seems lost in a big city in the USA. At one point in the video, when the main character experiences his first "breakage" - which is when half of his forearm is shattered off by a person walking past, as if he was made of glass. It also shows a middle-aged rich looking white man reading a newspaper, acknowledging but completely ignoring the event of the "shattering".
The music video has certain resemblences to Shane Meadows' film "This Is England", such as the theme of racism, and how the white people act as if they are better at life than non-whites. "This Is England portrays a real image of what England used to be like, and shows the lower class racist side of British citizens living their life. "Africa Shox" is a more modern-set making, but still shows the harsh reality of how Black African/American's are treated by rich and upper-class white's. However, even though there are some similarities of the racism theme, and outlining how Black African/American's were so badly treated, there are also differences about the racism. For example, in "This Is England", we see that it is pure racism and hate that drives the people to do what they do, because the victims of the abuse and racism are the same social class as them. However, in "Africa Shox", the Black African/American also appears to be homeless, jobless and helpless, meaning that the American's could not only be recoiling away from the main character because of his colour, but also because of his class and "rank" in society.