Kick Ass
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
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Thursday, 9 December 2010
Working Title Synthesis
Working Title
Synthesis
As we know Working Title are a production company based in London. They were founded in1983 by film producers Tom Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe. In 1991 it was involved in an unsuccessful franchise bid for ITV London, along with Mentorn, Palace and PlayGram. Following a year onto that, PolyGram, became Working Title’s new owner, and funded the company to expand upon the previous productions for which Working Title had made. During the takeover, Sarah Radclyffe decided to leave, and was soon replaced by (the then) unknown Eric Fellner. They immediately began work on their first hit production, Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). In 1999, PolyGram were then sold onto Universal Studies citing “big things” for the company, and were now allowed to produce a film of up to $25 million. They were now also able to call upon a wealth of experience over at the headquarters of Universal Studies in California. Since the takeover, Working Title has now gone onto produce many hit films such as Hot Fuzz, Love Actually, Jonny English, and Green Zone.
Influence of Ownership:
There are various influences which an owner can have on a production, be it a multinational media giant such as Hollywood, or an individual such as Mark Herbert at Warp Films, any type of owner has a significant effect on the productions. For example, Mark Herbert of Warp films, produces many of their productions because he feels he has the right ideas to create a successful production. This is evident in the production from 2006 called ‘This is England’ where he, and director Shane Meadows created a successful film about the skin head culture of the 1980’s. Also at Working Title, their lead producer Eric Fellner is good friends with Hugh Grant. This has enabled Fellner & Bevan to include Hugh Grant into many of their productions, such as one of Working Title’s highest grossing film – Bridget Jones Diary (2001) which also starred Rene Zellweger. This would have been different in a film created before the take over, this is evident when Working Title produced ‘This is England’ because they have to use ‘untried’ or unknown actors, because they wouldn’t of been able to afford a big household name, so in ‘this Is England’ they used Tom Turgoose who had never performed in a film before, and was a rebel at school. Shane Meadows was quoted as saying “it was a risk worth taking”. However, when a film company, such as Working Title is owned by a media powerhouse such as Universal Studios, they can have a massive influence into their productions, this is because Universal provide the funding (aswell as a wealth of experience for WT to call upon) for Working Title’s productions, in return Working Title offer the rights for distributing the film (pre-sales), and Universal are also allowed to “have their say” in how the film is produced.
Advantages of Investment:
More of a budget available for your productions meaning you can incorporate new features into your production e.g. 3D technology, special effects, and new cameras such as silicon cameras etc.
The subsidiary of the two companies may be able to use the experience of the larger company e.g. Working Title asking Universal for advice etc.
Increased avenues for advertising the film, the parent company will help the subsidiary advertise the film because as they parent company will want the film to make as much as possible so that they can maximise the return on their investment.
Disadvantages of Investment:
If you have too many investors, it may result in conflicting ideas, and may disrupt the production
If the company has just one financial ‘backer’, they may decide to pull out, therefore ending the production
The investor(s) may try to have too much influence into the production, causing the producer & director to have less control
Sunday, 5 December 2010
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