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Issues of the British FilmIndustry and Ownership

L/O: To discover the role of Film Fourand Working Title and to determine theissues/successes of each company withcase studies.

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TodayWe are focusing on two British companies;

Working Title/Universal how are these companies connected?

WORKING TITLES AND Universal are connected as working titles is a smallcompany within universal which distributes other films to the market.

Film Four- Film Four mostly fund and produces films.

What films do you think each company produced/funded?

Working Title = GreenFilmFour= RedELIZABETH- Working Titles

ABOUT A BOY- Working TitlesSLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE- Film Four

ATONEMENT- Working Titles

BORAT- Film Four

NOWHERE BOY- Film Four

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Are there any films in the list that areslightly more alternative? Why do you

think the company who produced the filmsbelowed released more alternative

material?ELIZABETH

ABOUT A BOY

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

ATONEMENT

BORAT

NOWHERE BOY To provide a wider range of audiences also a change of genre to increase on

audience as they would enjoy watching a variety of different genres rather than one.Also the company may of produced more alternative materials to keep the audienceengaged. For example Slumdog millionaire is a film four film however other

companies are also distributing and funding the film.

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Notes

FILMFOUR Funds and produces films

WORKING TITLE Produce films

UNIVERSAL PICTURES Distribute films forWorking Title (this is called HorizontalIntergration working with companiesoutside your remit as they need your

expertise this also happens with Pathe20th Century Fox)

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Ownership

Film Four Productions owned by Channel 4

Working Title is owned by Tim Bevan and EricFellner. Their films are distributed by UNIVERSAL.

Why do you think Film Four produces more alternativeproducts now?

Film Four produces more products as They have themoney as they are owned by a larger company and

have less independent backing

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Positives and negatives

Positives Of Film four Channel 4 invested in the hit Four Weddings and a Funeral andjumped aboard the Cool Britannia/Britpop bandwagon, providing100 per cent funding for Shallow Grave and Trainspotting

They were creating their own stars and making big profits

They also was the nearest thing Britain had to a movie studio. Film four allowed the audience to have a quick view of the well

known and less known films.

Negatives of Film four

The channel's identity and function changed over the years, and itsfilm division has changed along with it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3579876/How-the-life-was-sucked-out-of-FilmFour.html

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Positives and negativesPositives of working titles

They have been listed as the most powerful figures in the British industry Atonement has been a great success for Working Title functioning

as a film in the "heritage genre

The Working Title has always been to make films for an audience

It is a independent company therefore they have more freedom as

they are able to take risks.Negatives of working titles

It was difficult for less experienced film makers to produce a film

Without good producers in the last few years British Film culturewould have been much poorer

Failures includeCaptain Corelli's Mandolin. It was their mostexpensive film and, the one that seemed most likely to succeed

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/working_title_history/

http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/working_title_history/http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/working_title_history/

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The Demise of FilmFour

After the cut of lottery funding in 2002, FilmFour hadits budget cut by 10m. After funding such films as

Trainspotting and the first ethnically gay film My

Beautiful Laundrette FilmFour changed its slant onfilmmaking.

Taken over in 1999 by Paul Webster, FilmFour was

acquired, in part, by Warner Brothers. The companybegan producing films such as; Charlotte Gray andBirthday Girl (which flopped due to poor marketing)and these films were disasters!

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The Demise of FilmFour (aproduction funding company)

The difficulties were; high production budgetsand poor box office returns.

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FilmFour

Theres been a change. Theyve rebranded and you will be finding information

about them later.

How have Film Four made attempts to revamp their image again?

Film four made attempts to revamp their image again by adding moreinteractive features onto the website such as adding on Film four on

demand which would allow the audience to watch the films online instantly.

Also the company never use to broadcast blockbusters however nowadaysthe company attempts to broadcasts mainstream Hollywood films.

Film four also introduced additional channels which were, FilmFour World

and FilmFour Extreme

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Working Title

Are a company that did get it right and still continue to do so.

Working Title have a small budget production arm called WT2.

They have been producers of such films as Dead Mans Shoes, the

Elizabeth franchise and many Coen Brothers films.

Take a look at their website, why do you think they are so

successful? http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/ Working Titles films is more successful as they have a range of links

on their website to allow the audience to find out more informationabout the different films. Also seeing as the company doesnt have a

particular target audience everyone is welcome to their website and

allows them to go on different links such as Trailers Latest news

http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/

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Working Title

After Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Working Titledecided to abandon the rom com movie genre.

In pairs, go on to the working title website and decide:

Do you think this idea is good or bad?I believe the website is a very good idea as it allowseveryone to view it and it gives all directors a equalopportunity to exhibit their product to the audienceregardless of how bad they are as a film e.g without bigbudgets cast and crew.

Have they kept to their word? What ideas can you seeon the website as evidence of this?

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What I focused on

Looking back at my sheet from last week I think

Today I have focused on institution and issuesregarding the ownership of British film industry

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Using the computers

In groups of four, select a film that has been funded by FilmFouror produced by Working Title. Create a Powerpoint or Prezi onthe following;

www.imdb.com is a good website for this information, along withFilmFour and Working Title websites.

Which company gets it right. Create a case study of each companyon your blog and decide:

Funding, cost and total money grossed

Ownership and control are there any restrictions? Cult status

Select a film from each and discuss the impact it has on thebox office

Work will be checked!

http://www.imdb.com/http://www.imdb.com/

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HOMEWORK

Create a case study of a mainstreamWorking Title film against a more niche Film

Four film.

ON THE BLOG- SLUMDOG MILLIONARE

What successes or issues has each film hadin terms of ownership/control and reaching

audiences? Due: Monday on homework blog

EXAMPLES: We looked at some today