- Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London.
- The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983.
- It produces feature films and several television productions, including films starring comic actor Rowan Atkinson. Eric Fellner and Bevan are now the co-owners of the company.
- In 1992, PolyGram became the company's corporate backer.
- The company produced a variety of films for PolyGram's London-based production company PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
- PolyGram Films became a major Hollywood competitor.
- In 1999, PolyGram was sold to Seagram and merged with MCA Music Entertainment, to form Universal Music Group. PolyGram Films was sold and folded into Universal Studios in 1999.
- Although contractually allowed to produce any film with a budget of up to $35 million, on a practical basis, Bevan and Fellner consult with studio executive at Working Title's parent company NBCUniversal.
- Working Title is located in London, and is known for having a limited number of employees. The company also has other offices located in Los Angeles, and Ireland.
- In 1999, Bevan and Fellner launched a subsidiary company named Working Title 2 Productions, commonly known as WT2.
- The company is an independent film production arm run by Natascha Wharton, and has produced films that include Billy Elliot, Shaun of the Dead and The Calcium Kid.
- Working Title Films, the UK film production company behind box office hits including Four Weddings and a Funeral and Shaun of the Dead, is to launch a TV division.
- Working Title Television is a joint venture with NBCUniversal and will be based in London and Los Angeles. NBCUniversal is Working Title's parent company
- The company released a modernised version of the children's novels, The Borrowers in December 2011 and Abi Morgan's adaptation of Birdsong in January 2012.
- These are some films that they have made
Green Zone March 12, 2010 Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang August 20, 2010 Paul March 18, 2011 Senna August 12, 2011 Johnny English Reborn October 21, 2011 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy December 9, 2011 Contraband January 13, 2012 Big Miracle February 3, 2012 Anna Karenina November 16, 2012 Les Misérables December 25, 2012
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Working Title
Working Title
Essay
Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices”. To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?
I do agree with that statement as marketing is a vital part of post production. There are a lot of different methods of marketing and will mainly depend on the budget the film has to the amount of marketing and advertisements the film uses.
I think that marketing and distribution is as important as good production practices. The idea of a film may not have an audience like other films, such as films made of books, so the teaser trailers, teaser posters, tv spots, billboards etc. are very important in getting initial interest in the film. If a film doesnt get attention and interest before it is released, not as many people would go and see it and it might be so successful.
A film such as Inception which was directed by Christopher Nolan, also director of The Dark Knight, in 2010. It had a budget of $175million, and a marketing budget of $100 million. Overall it made a profit of $825 million. On the opening weekend it made $64 million. It is a blockbuster, however it is unlike others as it’s not based on anything e.g. Harry Potter is based on books, Spiderman is based on a comic, etc. It is a completely original idea, and this along with the intellectual level of the film worried Warner Bros.
Also the statement is backed up even more by a film like The Kings Speech as this had a budget of only £8 Million but made a total of £250 Million at the box office. The film achieved such a high box office taking due to the fact of how high the anticipation was for the release of the film. The film premiered at the Telluride film festival in the United States and also at the 2010 Toronto international film festival so this helped raise awareness of the film and ultimately helped the film achieve what it did.
I do agree with that statement as marketing is a vital part of post production. There are a lot of different methods of marketing and will mainly depend on the budget the film has to the amount of marketing and advertisements the film uses.
I think that marketing and distribution is as important as good production practices. The idea of a film may not have an audience like other films, such as films made of books, so the teaser trailers, teaser posters, tv spots, billboards etc. are very important in getting initial interest in the film. If a film doesnt get attention and interest before it is released, not as many people would go and see it and it might be so successful.
A film such as Inception which was directed by Christopher Nolan, also director of The Dark Knight, in 2010. It had a budget of $175million, and a marketing budget of $100 million. Overall it made a profit of $825 million. On the opening weekend it made $64 million. It is a blockbuster, however it is unlike others as it’s not based on anything e.g. Harry Potter is based on books, Spiderman is based on a comic, etc. It is a completely original idea, and this along with the intellectual level of the film worried Warner Bros.
There were several posters for Inception, with each poster having a main character on it. This allowed people to see who was in it, and it would attract fans of the actors/actresses in it e.g. Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page. There was also a teaser poster campaign. The posters didn’t give much away about the film but were eye catching and mysterious so people would be drawn in. There were also billboard posters and on the side of buildings, which would be very hard to miss. The teaser trailers gave a bit more away but still left some speculation as to what the actual plot was. All of these raised awareness of the film and made it well known to the public. After that, the proper trailers were released. This gave the audience enough information about the film for them to understand what it was about and make them excited about going to see it, but not so much information that it gave key things away.
Inception was aimed at different audiences including Christopher Nolan fans, Batman fans (in most trailers it opened with “from the director of The Dark Knight”), action film fans, people who like drama, people interested in special effects and fans of the actors/actresses. However, because it is such a complex story line and it is different to a lot of other blockbusters, the audience may be limited.
Monday, 19 November 2012
Hustle Gender Essay
In the first scene in the clip shows a shop assistant played by David Walliams who is very posh and looks down on the elderly women who is very scruffy and looks very out of place in the shop as she cannot afford the dress. The camera shot is an over the shoulder shot and it is used so that it looks like the shop assistant is looking down on the elderly woman.
When we are introduced to Sarah the camera starts at her shoes and pans up to her watch, this is done as Sarah looks like she is of a higher class and that she should be able to afford clothes in the shop. Also the shop assistant is instantly drawn to Sarah as he thinks she is of a higher class. Sarah is also very well presented and also softly spoken. The next camera shot is of a sweep which is meant to show the pulling of the dressing room curtain as Sarah is going to try on a very expensive dress.
The clip showing the two men in the pub is very stereotypical of men as they are very masculine and drinking alcohol and smoking.
When Sarah pretends to lose her ring the shop assistant starts to worry a lot as she is making big mess in the shop and the shop is meant to be of a high class so this type of behaviour is frowned upon. The scene is shown at a very fast pace to show the the feel of panic and confusion. When Sarah says that she will pay £5000 to whoever finds the shop assistant is instantly drawn to it as he is a very greedy person and is motivated by money.
There is a push up camera shot when the shots change from the con artist with blonde hair to the two men in the bar. The men in the club are shown to be laughing and drinking which would be another stereotype of men at that age. The music is also very upbeat when the con is taking place as this shows that the con the pace of the show is starting to pick up as the main part of the show is taking place.
When the con artist hands the shop assistant his card he knows that he is going to shout him back and when he does the con artist stares down the camera this technique is used a lot in Hustle and also there is normally a narration describing what is taking place on the screen.
When we are introduced to Sarah the camera starts at her shoes and pans up to her watch, this is done as Sarah looks like she is of a higher class and that she should be able to afford clothes in the shop. Also the shop assistant is instantly drawn to Sarah as he thinks she is of a higher class. Sarah is also very well presented and also softly spoken. The next camera shot is of a sweep which is meant to show the pulling of the dressing room curtain as Sarah is going to try on a very expensive dress.
The clip showing the two men in the pub is very stereotypical of men as they are very masculine and drinking alcohol and smoking.
When Sarah pretends to lose her ring the shop assistant starts to worry a lot as she is making big mess in the shop and the shop is meant to be of a high class so this type of behaviour is frowned upon. The scene is shown at a very fast pace to show the the feel of panic and confusion. When Sarah says that she will pay £5000 to whoever finds the shop assistant is instantly drawn to it as he is a very greedy person and is motivated by money.
There is a push up camera shot when the shots change from the con artist with blonde hair to the two men in the bar. The men in the club are shown to be laughing and drinking which would be another stereotype of men at that age. The music is also very upbeat when the con is taking place as this shows that the con the pace of the show is starting to pick up as the main part of the show is taking place.
When the con artist hands the shop assistant his card he knows that he is going to shout him back and when he does the con artist stares down the camera this technique is used a lot in Hustle and also there is normally a narration describing what is taking place on the screen.
Monday, 12 November 2012
A Touch of Frost
Disability
in A touch of Frost is represented as the audience is made to feel sorry for
Billy because he is disabled and makes you feel as if you should be sympathetic
towards him. When Billy is arrested and taken back to his house there are a
group of people waiting to see what had happened so this shows that because of
his disability people have more sympathy for him and are wondering what has
happened.
When Frost is talking to Billy’s dad it makes the audience feel like they are eves dropping on the conversation as the camera shot is an overhead and zooming in to the conversation. Billy’s mum wants to clean Billy up before detective Frost speaks to him, this shows that even though he is grown up his mum still wants to treat him like a child. whereas his dad believes that he should live a normal life and not be constantly looked after but in the next scene the dad is very caring over Billy and speaks to him like a child so this shows that although he wants to make sure Billy is independent he still wants to protect him this proven as throughout the whole time Frost is speaking with Billy his dad is always behind him making sure that he is ok and can understand everything that is happening.
There is an over the shoulder shot of when Frost is questioning Billy about when he last saw Trisha this shows that Frost is starting to think that Billy may have done something because he then starts to change his story and the sympathy vote that Billy wants starts to fade away.
It looks like Billy is being looked down on by Frost and his dad when the interviewing is taking place due to the fact that he has a disability and is not of the same importance as other people, this makes the audience feel sorry for Billy as he is sat there with cuts to his face as well as not being able to clean himself up and is being interrogated by Frost about the disappearance of Trisha. When Billy speaks to his dad about the fact he went for a walk rather than 'play' shows that he is starting to get worried about what might happen to him so he tries to cover up parts of his story even though somebody saw him with Trisha he still denies it. I think this gives of the impression that Billy is guilty but because of his disability he is having pity taken on him and nobody wants to see him get hurt or get into trouble.
When Frost is talking to Billy’s dad it makes the audience feel like they are eves dropping on the conversation as the camera shot is an overhead and zooming in to the conversation. Billy’s mum wants to clean Billy up before detective Frost speaks to him, this shows that even though he is grown up his mum still wants to treat him like a child. whereas his dad believes that he should live a normal life and not be constantly looked after but in the next scene the dad is very caring over Billy and speaks to him like a child so this shows that although he wants to make sure Billy is independent he still wants to protect him this proven as throughout the whole time Frost is speaking with Billy his dad is always behind him making sure that he is ok and can understand everything that is happening.
There is an over the shoulder shot of when Frost is questioning Billy about when he last saw Trisha this shows that Frost is starting to think that Billy may have done something because he then starts to change his story and the sympathy vote that Billy wants starts to fade away.
It looks like Billy is being looked down on by Frost and his dad when the interviewing is taking place due to the fact that he has a disability and is not of the same importance as other people, this makes the audience feel sorry for Billy as he is sat there with cuts to his face as well as not being able to clean himself up and is being interrogated by Frost about the disappearance of Trisha. When Billy speaks to his dad about the fact he went for a walk rather than 'play' shows that he is starting to get worried about what might happen to him so he tries to cover up parts of his story even though somebody saw him with Trisha he still denies it. I think this gives of the impression that Billy is guilty but because of his disability he is having pity taken on him and nobody wants to see him get hurt or get into trouble.
Thursday, 8 November 2012
The Street
In the Street we can see the difference in class and status is massive as in the opening scene there is a big argument between the two parents about the how much the children are costing them, this shows they are a lower class family as they are struggling with money which is then causing arguments in the family.
When the man goes to work he is working at a building site so this shows he will not be earning a high wage and with 3 children this is very difficult to make sure they have a good upbringing, also he is shown to be very angry at work and also frustrated about what has just happened with his wife this could lead to him having poor work ethics and could cost him his job if it carries on.
The women is at home when he is working so this shows that she doesn’t have a job and the husband has to go and earn a living for the family but maybe if she got a job the family would have a higher income and a better standard of living. There is then a jump cut to the man across the street who is seen sorting things out in his car when the women shouts him to help, it is obvious that the women is having an affair with this man as she is unhappy in her current relationship even though she has 3 children. When the man goes back to his house he is rushing around looking for some paper and also ignoring his wife and children this shows that he does not spend a lot of time at home and is always at work this is probably why his relationship has broken down and he is having an affair.
When we cut to the father watching the football with his 2 sons but not really interacting with them and is not paying attention to his daughter as she wonders out of the house this shows how he is not interested in spending time with his children and would rather watch the football. When his daughter gets run over you see his angry side and it looks like he wants to kill to the man who has just done it, this shows that even though he doesn’t spend a lot of time with his children he is still very protective over them and wants to make sure they don’t get hurt.
It is also ironic that the man she is having an affair with was the one who has ran over her daughter it is also as if it is payback for having an affair with him and betraying her husband.
Wednesday, 7 November 2012
Thursday, 1 November 2012
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