Profile: Steve Warr
The producer profile
STEVE WARR Company director and executive producer, Raw Cut Television
After studying history Warr entered journalism as a graduate trainee before joining a local newspaper group. Later he specialised in investigative work for titles such as The Sunday Times and The Sun, moving into TV in 1990 as a producer on The Cook Report, before setting up Raw Cut in 2002, creating Road Wars, Police Interceptors and BBC1 daytime series Neighbourhood Blues
Investigative journalist Steve Warr has pioneered the use of file based cameras such as the PMW-EX1 at his indie Raw Cut TV
A
n ability to anticipate future trends has been one of the recurring themes in current affairs producer and indie boss Steve
Warr’s career. The former Fleet Street investigative journalist turned The Cook Report producer left ITV to go freelance, eventually setting up his own production company Raw Cut TV in 2002 – several years before the mass exodus of producers to set up their own companies began in earnest.
THE WRITING ON THE WALL Warr recalls: “I could see the writing on the wall. ITV was clearly going through a process of consolidation and current affairs investiga- tions were much less likely to be fully funded,” a trend which was illustrated by the demise of ITV current affairs programmeWorld In Action. The first producer in the UK to successfully mix police video with observational documentary in the hugely popular BBC1 docusoap X-Cars, Warr joined forces with producer Bill Rudgard, creator
of the original British TV police video series Police Camera Action. At Raw Cut the duo went on to create a series of hit formats using the same technique, including Road Wars for Sky1 and Police Interceptors, now in its fourth series on Channel Five. Raw Cut’s latest commission is Neighbourhood Blues, a five-part ob doc series for BBC1 daytime, following the work of a Kent police force as it confronts the problems of troubled local housing estates. Having established a broad network of contacts
for sourcing CCTV and crime-related footage, Warr quickly realised there was a demand for this sort of material and set about building an archive business with Rudgard. “We had developed the contacts and made sure they offered us rights to their clips first.” Setting up Raw Cut’s profitable archive made a lot of sense, explains Warr. “Diversification has been essential,” he argues. “The recession showed us that we were too narrowly focused and we needed to expand into other areas. If you are too narrow you stand the risk of having the rug
16 theproducer Winter 2011
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