The UK film and TV industry has made progress in recent years representing working class and marginalised people on-and off-screen but a “huge push” is still needed to tell more of those stories, according to Warp Films executives Mark Herbert and Emily Feller.
Warp made its name with landmark films that centred working class stories across different genres, including Dead Man’s Shoes, Four Lions and This Is England, the latter of which was spun-off into three series for Channel 4.
Warp’s co-chief executive Herbert and recently-installed chief creative officer Feller spoke to Screen’s sister title Broadcast ahead of a retrospective gala screening of its seminal film Dead Man’s Shoes at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival. The film was a career breakthrough for director Shane Meadows and star Paddy Considine, who co-wrote the script with Paul Fraser.
Other talent that got their breaks in Warp projects include Stephen Graham and Vicky McClure (This Is England) and Riz Ahmed (Four Lions). The indie has a long history of working with ScreenSkills and various schemes to provide opportunities to talent from diverse backgrounds.
Feller said it can sometimes be easy to lose sight of telling stories when the opportunity arises to work on high-end “glossy” dramas.
She cited US drama The Bear as a good example of a “grounded, blue collar” contemporary drama, adding that Warp wants to be a home for people from lower socio-economic and underrepresented backgrounds to tell their stories.
“Even though we’ve come a long way, I think there’s still a huge push that we as an industry can do to make sure that [underrepresented] people feel their voices can be heard,” she added.
Feller also highlighted the importance of providing funded placements to talent so that they can learn and develop their trade while being able to afford to pay rent and bills, “which doesn’t necessarily happen a lot of the time”. She noted that Warp has been offering such paid opportunities since its inception in 2002.
State school shortage and revisiting IP
Herbert said that although representation has improved since he produced Dead Man’s Shoes in 2004, there are still “not many” indie bosses or commissioners who went to state schools.
He added: “You have to find people who have got the same ethos as you and partner with them, and they are out there but there needs to be more done [to help them into the industry]. It’s certainly getting better, but it’s still got a long way to go.”
Herbert also didn’t rule out interrogating his back catalogue for spin-off series as Warp did with This Is England, but he was adamant if they were to revisit some of these worlds, it would have to be “driven by the creative process”.
Warp titles have gained cult status in the decades since their original release, with Four Lions’ recent addition to Netflix garnering the film a new generation of fans. The indie’s portfolio also includes Channel 4 drama The Virtues, Sky’s adaptation of Little Birds and the film adaptations of stage plays Everybody Is Talking About Jamie and Ghost Stories.
“It has got to be as good, if not better, than the original and enhance it, which is what This Is England did as a TV series. I’d never rule anything out but it would have to come from me, the writers and the people involved really wanting to do it from a creative standpoint,” said Herbert.
Growth
The production company recently announced a partnership with Graham’s indie Matriarch Productions with a number of projects already in development, as well as working with Adult Material actor Hayley Squires on a development script.
Feller said previously these type of partnerships build towards the indie’s focus on creating “brilliant British drama with global appeal”. She elaborated that ‘British drama’ can sometimes be “pigeonholed” to mean a “Northern story”, when British drama can come from all areas of the country.
“Sometimes a writer will say to us ‘Oh, I’ve got an idea, but it’s not set in the north’ – but we just want to tell stories. For example, we’re talking to a writer at the moment who lives in the southwest, and it’s a story about their world and how they want to talk about it,” she said. “Our deals with the most incredible talent are really about stories with heart that feel as though they will reach out to everyone.”
Dead Man’s Shoes screens on August 22 at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
This story first appeared in Screen’s sister site Broadcast.
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