Morgan Spurlock commercial production company hires new directors

Warpaint, the commercial production company started by Morgan Spurlock, is expanding its roster of directors, recently bringing on two filmmakers based in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Sean Dunne, whose latest film, “Oxyana,” won this year’s Tribeca Film Festival award for best new documentary director, and Braden King, whose latest film, “Here,” came out in 2012, joined Warpaint last week, the company said.

Spurlock created Warpaint to give the directors in its lineup more control over the creative process and to allow them to experiment with new formats and technologies, the company said when it launched last year.

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For Dunne and King, it’s a way to make a living from filmmaking while also working on other projects.

“The opportunity was really appealing to me from the standpoint of joining what felt like a group of like-minded filmmakers and artists,” said King, 42, whose credits include features, short films and music videos, along with ads. “This seemed like an opportunity to unify the two sides of my creative life in an interesting way.”

Dunne, 31, got his start by posting his short documentaries on Vimeo, a streaming video service. An early effort, “American Juggalo,” examined the subculture of hard-partying, diehard fans of the rap group Insane Clown Posse. In June, Dunne self-released “Oxyana,” about a West Virginia town ravaged by Oxycontin.

He said in an interview that he’s often told he leans toward characters on the extreme edge of society, but that he doesn’t see it quite that way.

“I think really what it is, is that I’m drawn to the stripped-down honesty that seems to be plentiful on the fringes of America,” he said.

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Never shy about merging interests in documentary filmmaking and commercialism, Spurlock is best known for documentaries in which he inserts himself into the story to illustrate a point. They include “Super Size Me,” “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” and, most recently, “Mansome.”

Spurlock’s work on “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” an expose of product placement, led to the creation of Warpaint with commercial production veteran Shannon Lords and film producer Keith Calder.

Spurlock “has his finger on the pulse, both in the commercial and the documentary world, probably more than anyone I can think of,” Dunne said. “He has a really good understanding of both.”

Dunne and King join a list of filmmakers represented by Warpaint that includes Gary Hustwit, Rupert Wyatt, Damien Toogood, Adam Lisagor, Michael Tucker, Petra Epperlein and Maggie Choo.

In the past year, Warpaint has done ads for brands including Revlon, Chase, BMW and Friskies.

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