Working Title Films are named after the concept of a Working Title (also known as a production title).

This term is used in the film industry to describe the temporary name for a film while it is still in production. This can be either to keep the title of the film a secret or simply because the title has not been decided yet e.g. The James Bond films are commonly produced under working titles such as Bond 22. See if you can guess which of these working titles were for which films Working Titles Blue Harvest Star Beast Planet Ice Rorys First Kiss Project 880 Prime Directive Alien The films actual title Star Wars VI; Return of the Jedi The Dark Knight

Transformers Titanic Avatar

Lesson Aims
To understand the history of Working Title and how they fit into the film industry in terms of ownership To practice research and independent study techniques To know the effect of media conglomerate ownership on Working Title

Research task
Much of this Audiences and Institutions unit requires you to conduct your own research outside of the classroom In order to practice your research skills, go to the AS Media blog and complete the task there.

Quick Task
Arrange the types of company you have on the pieces of paper to create a diagram to show Vertical integration And Horizontal integration

You will be able to do this in one diagram by using all of the companies

Solution
If your arrangement looked like this, well done!
PARENT COMPANY

Tabloid Newspaper

Magazine

Film production company Film distribution company Cinema chain

Solution
If your arrangement looked like this, well done!
PARENT COMPANY
Vertical Integration

Tabloid Newspaper

Magazine
Horizontal Integration

Film production company Film distribution company Cinema chain

Working Title was founded in London in 1984 by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe. In 1992, Polygram became the parent company and Radclyffe left. She was replaced by Eric Fellner.

Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are currently the coowners of the company.

Timeline so far

1984
Working Title is founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe

Working Titles first move was to co-produce a short film called The Man Who Shot Christmas (1984)
This led to them working with Channel 4 to produce their first of many landmark feature films, My Beautiful Launderette (1985) They are the most successful British film production company ever. Their films have grossed more than 1.2 billion Since 1984, and that is a conservative estimate. (and this quote was from a few years ago)

My Beautiful Launderette (1985)

My Beautiful Launderette (1985) was a groundbreaking film.

Co-produced with Channel 4, it fit their remit of producing challenging work that would not find a home elsewhere in TV or cinema. Directed by Stephen Frears, it followed the story of Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis), a right-wing extremist and Omar (Gordon Warnecke), the nephew of an archetypal Pakistani entrepreneur. The two are brought together through the re-vamping of a run-down launderette. With interracial homosexuality at its core, the film caused quite a stir.

My Beautiful Launderette had a budget of just 650,000 (about $400,000)

It made $2,451,545 in the USA alone.

In 1989, just four years after becoming know for his role in My Beautiful Launderette, Daniel Day Lewis won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in My Left Foot.

He has since won another academy award, three BAFTAs, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe.

The success of their early films in the 80s, which all dealt with British subjects, brought the attention of this independent production company to the wider film industry.

This led to international co-productions, in 1988 their first such film was released. For Queen and Country (1988), which starred an up and coming actor called Denzel Washington
At the time, he was becoming fairly well known for his role in Cry Freedom (1987) for which he had been nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

In For Queen and Country (1988), Washington (An American actor) plays Reuben James, a young, black, British soldier who is discharged from the army after serving in the Falklands. He returns home to London as a hero, but finds himself unable to get a job and shunned by society, all while local tensions threaten to explode into violence. The film was moderately successful, enough to give Working Title a solid international coproduction template to work from.

Timeline so far

Working Title produce their first feature film, My Beautiful Laundrette 1985

1984 Working Title is founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe

1988 Working Title produce their first international coproduction, For Queen and Country.

How do you think the moderately good response to For Queen and Country affected the way Working Title produced future co-productions?

Why UK/US Co-productions? According to Bevan: "Before co-productions we had been independent producers, but it was very hand to mouth. We would develop a script, that would take about 5% of our time; we'd find a director, that'd take about 5% of the time and then we'd spend 90% of the time trying to juggle together deals from different sources to finance those films. The films were suffering because there was no real structure and the company was always virtually bankrupt."

The Working Title template ________ + ________ = $$$

What do you think could fill the gaps?

The Working Title template

British Film + Star American Actor = $$$

The Working Title template - TASK

British Film + Star American Actor = $$$ Go onto the Internet and find two Working Title films that follow this formula. Write them in a blog post complete with the following info; Genre Year released Director Main cast Title your blog post Examples of The Working Title Formula

What is a Working Title film like? It is easy to categorise them until you look through the catalogue and realise that this is a company categorized only by diversity and the ability to detect changes in the market for feature films. There is no other British Film Company like Working Title - it is allowed freedom to make creative decisions but it is owned by a US based conglomerate.

How do Working Title choose which films to make?

Eric Fellner says projects get championed by individuals in the development department and these 'percolate' their way up to the top. Tim Bevan and I then both take the decision on what to greenlight.

Integration
Working Title went on to produce another 10 films in the 1980s. In 1988, Working Title signed a production deal with Polygram Filmed Entertainment.

In 1992, Working Title was bought outright by Polygram (a European music and film company) and became a subsidiary company.

Timeline so far

Working Title produce their first feature film, My Beautiful Laundrette 1985

Polygram buys Working Title Sarah Radclyffe leaves the company and Eric Fellner joins 1992

1984 Working Title is founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe

1988 Working Title produce their first international co-production, For Queen and Country. Working Title sign production deal with Polygram Filmed Entertainment

In 1992, Working title produced Four Weddings and a Funeral.

The film was a huge box office success, with a budget of $6 Million and a gross of over $244 Million worldwide. This launched Working Title as a major film producer. How do you think the deal with Polygram effected the films success?

Seagram In 1998, Polygram was bought by Universal, a Hollywood studio which itself was owned by Seagram. Universal

Polygram

Working Title

Seagram

Seagram bought Polygram (and therefore Working Title) in 1998 and in 1999, merged it with its film production arm, Universal Pictures. Working Title remained a separate entity, owned by a larger company.

Universal Pictures

Working Title remained a subsidiary company, however this marked a change in Working Titles methods.
They would now begin to focus even more on international prospects rather than traditionally British films

Working Title

Timeline so far

Working Title produce their first feature film, My Beautiful Laundrette 1985

Polygram buys Working Title Sarah Radclyffe leaves the company and Eric Fellner joins 1992

Seagram merges Polygram with its film production company, Universal Pictures. 1999

1984 Working Title is founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe

1988 Working Title produce their first international co-production, For Queen and Country. Working Title sign production deal with Polygram Filmed Entertainment

1998 Polygram is bought by Universal which is owned by Seagram.

In 2000, Seagram was bought by a French multimedia conglomerate called Vivendi.

Vivendi

Universal Pictures

Working Title

Timeline so far

Working Title produce their first feature film, My Beautiful Laundrette 1985

Polygram buys Working Title Sarah Radclyffe leaves the company and Eric Fellner joins 1992

Seagram merges Polygram with its film production company, Universal Pictures. 1999

1984 Working Title is founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe

1988 Working Title produce their first international co-production, For Queen and Country. Working Title sign production deal with Polygram Filmed Entertainment

1998 Polygram is bought by Universal which is owned by Seagram.

2000 Seagram is bought by French media conglomerate Vivendi

In 2004, Vivendi merged with NBC become NBCUniversal.

NBCUniversal

Universal Pictures

Working Title

Timeline so far

Working Title produce their first feature film, My Beautiful Laundrette 1985

Polygram buys Working Title Sarah Radclyffe leaves the company and Eric Fellner joins 1992

Seagram merges Polygram with its film production company, Universal Pictures. 1999

Vivendi merges with NBC to become NBCUniversal. 2004

1984 Working Title is founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe

1988 Working Title produce their first international co-production, For Queen and Country. Working Title sign production deal with Polygram Filmed Entertainment

1998 Polygram is bought by Universal which is owned by Seagram.

2000 Seagram is bought by French media conglomerate Vivendi

NBCUniversal isnt the top of the ladder, it is also a subsidiary two even bigger companies. This is what the ownership of Working Title looks like in 2012. Its also important to remember that NBCUniversal is the parent company to lots of other smaller companies including Working Title.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers al_Studios

General Electric (49%)

Comcast (51%)

NBCUniversal

Universal Pictures

Working Title

Homework/independent study For Tuesday

Go to the Wikipedia page for NBCUniversal.

Go to the bottom of the page and follow the instructions in the next two slides to see all of the subsidiaries owned by NBCUniversal.

Research these companies to find three examples of those that could be of benefit to Working Title Films when producing or promoting their films.

Create a presentation (Maximum 5 minutes) using PowerPoint or Prezi and give your reasons as to why each company could be used to benefit Working Title Films. You will deliver your presentation to the rest of the class on Tuesday.

If you go to the Wikipedia page of a company, at the bottom of the page you will see this;

Clicking on show will show you all of the subsidiaries owned by the company