Chris Warner

Chris Warner has been an independent Melbourne filmmaker for over forty years, having worked as a producer, director, writer and script editor in both drama and documentary, as well as a director, writer, producer and executive producer of multimedia. After abandoning studies in pure mathematics for the allure of Melbourne University student publications, Chris established himself during the early 70s as a freelance graphic artist specialising in magazine design. A brief stint at the then Preston Institute of Technology at Bundoora led to an involvement in a number of student film productions and from that point on the die was cast. Chris teamed with Maureen McCarthy in 1979 to form Trout Films. Their first production was the international award-winning documentary 'Working Up' which Chris produced, directed and edited. 'Working Up' established Trout Films as a respected on-going producer of educational documentaries, culminating in the feature-length documentary 'Eating Your Heart Out' which Chris produced and directed. After Chris made the move into writing, producing and directing drama with the short feature 'Skipping Class', Trout Films teamed with Open Channel to make the half-hour dramas 'Doherty' and 'A Hard Bargain' for SBS-TV, both of which Chris produced and directed. Maintaining the relationship with Open Channel and SBS-TV led to the ground-breaking 4-hour miniseries 'In Between', conceived and co-written by Maureen McCarthy, produced by Chris Warner and Kim Dalton, and directed by Chris Warner and Mandy Smith. The first major multicultural drama production by SBS-TV, 'In Between' went on to win a number of awards including an Australian Film Institute Award for screenplay. Formalising the successful collaboration with Kim Dalton with the formation of Warner Dalton, Chris then wrote and co-produced the 6-hour international mini-series 'The Magistrate'. Starring Franco Nero, directed by Kathy Mueller, and shot in Italy and Australia, the series earned Chris both an Australian Film Institute Award and a Penguin Award for best television screenplay. Spending the first half of the 90s writing screenplays, Chris returned to producing in the second half of the 90s with David Swann's comedy feature film 'Crackers' and the 4-hour ABC-TV miniseries 'Queen Kat, Carmel & St Jude', based on Maureen McCarthy's novel of the same name. Chris also script edited both of these projects. Chris was Director of the Film Development & Marketing Branch of the Australian Film Commission from February 2000 to May 2001, during which time he completely revised the Branch's policies, program guidelines, assessment processes and administrative procedures to bring them in line with industry practice. During this time he devised and instigated the Commission's 'Short Feature' and' Online Documentary' initiatives, as well as fostering the Commission's involvement in interactive media. In January 2003 Chris was appointed as the foundation Executive Producer (Education) at Film Australia where he was responsible for the planning and establishment of Film Australia's Educational Production Initiative. Over the following three years he fostered and guided the company's profile in the online educational materials sector, executive producing a slate of twelve online projects, including devising the multi award-winning 'From Wireless To Web' and the DVD set 'Ceremony'. During this time Chris also co-directed and co-wrote (with Steve Thomas) the major ABC Broadband website 'Dust On My Shoes'. After time out for a serious illness in 2007 Chris returned to work part-time in 2008, drawing on his wide experience of Australian filmmaking to research and write a cross-disciplinary PhD thesis in film and sociology entitled What Makes A Filmmaker Make Films?, resulting in him being awarded a PhD in Film and Television by the University of Melbourne in 2015. Since then Chris has returned to writing. Over the years Chris has been a regular lecturer in the Open Program of The Australian Film, Television and Radio School as well as lecturing for the Writer's Guild and The Australian Screen Directors Association. He has been a board member of Film Victoria and Open Channel and has served on the Film Victoria Evaluation and Advisory Committee and the Melbourne Film Office Advisory Committee. Chris has also done consulting and assessing for the Australian Film Commission, Film Victoria, Screen Tasmania, the Victorian College of the Arts, and Telstra, including formulating guidelines for the Australian Film Commission's Broadband Production Initiative and the Telstra Broadband Fund.