Study Day Course Work

• Working title films is mostly owned by NBC Universal; who are one of the world leading media and film companies.

• The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983.

• Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner now own Working Title

• PolyGram was the companies backer in 1992. PolyGram then became Universal when it was sold and merged with Universal in 1999.

Ownership

Funding• There are lots of different funds available for films including;• The Film Fund, This fund is for developing productions like small productions

that are able to create “creative, distinctive and entertaining work”• The prints and Advertising fund is to help a production get out to the public

eye, so that the public come to see it.• Other funds available include the lottery funding where the lottery have to

give away a certain amount of money a year to help films. Some films are known to have been awarded £175’000’000

• Where funding from America and the Hollywood area are concerned in British films this can be a disadvantage as Hollywood will be expecting big things and will want to be included. Pros to funding with Working Title is its one of the only companies receiving funds.

• Where working title comes in if the funding from Universal isn’t available then production companies may want to try for funding from some of the areas above.

What they do

• In a recent article working title films was described as a “Hit Factory” that “consistently produces box office smashes”.

• Working title only employs 42 full time members that are based over two projects the main production and WT2.

What have they produced?

How has it survived?

• Working Title Films now aims to produce at least 5 films a year. This means that it will bring in more revenue and will be able to keep running throughout the current difficult economic climate.

• Another reason as to why it has survived will be that it has backing from major Hollywood film studios.

• Part of Working Title Films goal is to consistently produce films of a genre that the public want to see; Films that will be a box office hit and draw the public in to pay back the backing funds and make profit.

Working Titles relation with Universal Studios

• Woking Title was brought by Polygram which was taken over by Universal in 1999.

• By being part of Universal, Working Title can spend more time on developing a great production and less time worrying about where the money comes from.

The Importance of distribution and marketing

• Marketing and distribution in the UK is controlled by the Film Distributors Association.

• When and film is distribution this means that it is released into cinemas.

• In the UK films are released on a Friday the FDA will co-ordinate when films are distributed and publish this information to the nation.

• The though is that when a good film comes out the more money they have to give to the distribution the better the slot they will get for release. For example the FDA won’t put your film in a week where similar films are on for example similar genre or story line.

• If you can release your film during a quiet week then the public are more likely to choose to watch your film.

Recent Developments

• Working Title has just opened an internship program where they give trainees the change to work for them for 12 months getting to work in all the Working Title departments.