Working Title Films is a British film production company that was co-founded in 1983. It produces feature films and television shows. One of its most successful films was Les Misérables, directed by Tom Hooper in 2012. Hooper had the actors sing live on set instead of pre-recording their songs. The film had a large budget and cast, and grossed $379 million at the box office. It was distributed by Universal Pictures, who acquired Working Title, and had a marketing campaign involving trailers, posters, and a soundtrack album.

1. Film Production

2. Working Title films
Working Title Films is a British film production company based in London. The
company produces feature films and numerous television productions.
Working Title Films was co-founded by producers Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in
1983. In 1992, PolyGram became the company’s corporate backer. Radclyffe left
Working Title and Eric Fellner, a fellow independent film producer, joined the
company. The company produced a variety of films for PolyGram’s London based
production company (PolyGram Filmed Entertainment). PolyGram films was later
merged and sold to Universal Studios in 1990.
Working Title use the template of having a British film with an American star to make
money.
Working Title usually do 40-50 projects in development at any time and their average
spend on development is around $250,000 to $500,000 per script.
They aim to make around 5 -10 films a year, spread across different budget sizes
(with and average of $30-$40 million)

3. http://www.workingtitlefilms.com/films/view/film/111/les-mis-rables

4. Production
Tom Hooper, the director of Les Miserables wanted to do something that had never
been done before and have the actors/actresses sing live on set and not pre-record the
songs for the film. When the actors were singing they had an invisible earpiece which
had a piano being played live into their ear so they could hear the music and set the
tempo and whilst editing a 70 piece orchestra was used to accompany the actors
voices for the final production. Simon Hayes used 50 DPA 4071 lavalier microphones
to record the vocals.
Size of cast as approx. 277 and crew approx. 1,243
Tom Hooper chose to have the actors sing live to give a sense of realism to the film and
give the actors freedom and control. Using this way of working you get the fragility of
the voice which matches the emotions of what a character is saying. It also helps the
audience connect with the characters and feel for them.

5. Production
The filming for Les Miserables began on 8th March 2012 in Gourdon in France and on
23rd June 2012, Hugh Jackman confirmed that all filming had been completed, but
some late filming was carried out in Bath, Somerset in October due to an error found
in the footage of stunt scenes of Javert’s suicide scene in the post-production, so it
was re shot.
In this film there is a lot of big name actors such as Anne Hathaway and Hugh
Jackman, who both did a lot for the film such as losing a considerable amount of
weight and cutting of their own hair. Other names including Amanda Seyfriend, Eddie
Redmayne, Russell Crowe, Samatha Barks, Helena Bonham-Carter and Sacha Baron
Cohen have main parts in this film.
The budget for Les Miserables was $61 Million and so
far has made $379,064,425 at the box office.

6. Production
Locations
Filming started in Gourdon, France
Other filming locations:
• Wolvesey Castle, Hampshire,
• Richard Attenborough Stage, Pinewood studios Winchester Cathedral
• Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire
• Boughton House, Northamptonshire
• Ewelme, Oxfordshire In 2009, producer Eric
• Winchester, Hampshire Fellner began
• Portsmouth, Hampshire negotiations with
• Chatham Historic Dockyard, Kent Cameron Mackintosh to
• Pulteney Bridge and Weir, Bath Boughton House acquire the film's rights
• Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich and concluded it near
the end of 2011
Pulteney Bridge and
Weir
Old Royal Naval Chatham Historic Dockyard
College

7. Distribution
Les Miserables was distributed by Universal Pictures, who
Working Title are a subsidiary of and part of the conglomerate
NBC Universal. NBC Universal is a subsidiary of Comcast
In North America, the film opened on 25th December in 2,808 cinemas placing first at
the box office with $18.1 million. This amount broke the record for the highest
opening day gross for a musical film, previously held by High School Musical 3: Senior
Year, and was also the second highest opening day gross for a film released on
Christmas Day. It earned $27.3 million in its opening weekend, placing third
behind Django Unchained and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
The film was released in the United Kingdom on 11 January 2013 and earned £8.1
($13.1) million in its opening weekend, making it the largest opening weekend for a
musical film, as well as Working Title.
The film is confirmed for a 22 March 2013 home release on DVD, Blu-ray, and Video on
Demand
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables_(2012_
film)#Marketing

8. Marketing
On 30 May 2012, the film's first teaser trailer debuted online, and later in cinemas
with Snow White and the Huntsman
On 20 September 2012, an extended first look was released on the film's
official Facebook page. This short introduces and explains Hooper's method of recording
vocals live on set, and compares it to the traditional method of pre-recording the vocals
in a studio months in advance. Hugh Jackman stated that filming in this way allows him
more creative freedom with the material and that he "only has to worry about acting it."
Both Hooper and the actors believe that this choice of production method will make the
film feel much more emotional, raw, and real. The actors praised Hooper for his method
and provide brief interviews throughout the video. Hooper mentions, "I thought it was
an amazing opportunity to do something genuinely groundbreaking."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cDVdg7gVdg&feature=youtu.be
On 24 September 2012, a new poster for the film was released on the film's official
Facebook page. The poster featured young Cosette, played by Isabelle Allen. Posters
featuring Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine, and Cosette were later released on 12
October, with further posters of Thénardiers and Marius released on 1 November.

9. Marketing
The Les Miserables album was released on the 21st December 2012.
The label for the album was Universal Republic Records showing
synergy within the conglomerate.
Comcast
Universal Studios
Universal Music Group
Universal Republic
Records

10. Exhibition
Les Miserables was shown in 2,808 cinemas in North
America and has been released in 42 countries.
Unsure on how many cinemas in UK the film has reached.

11. Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures is one of the major 6 American
film studios. The studio now forms part of the
Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by
Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the
conglomerate Sony.
The studio, founded in 1918 as Cohn-Brandt-Cohn Film Sales by brothers Jack and Harry
Cohn and Joe Brandt, released its first feature film in August 1922. It adopted the Columbia
Pictures name in 1924 and went public two years later. The name is derived from
"Columbia", a national personification of the United States, which is used as the company's
logo.
In 1982, the studio was purchased by Coca-Cola; that same year it launched TriStar
Pictures as a joint venture with HBO and CBS. Five years later, Coca-Cola spun off Columbia,
which merged with Tri-Star to create Columbia Pictures Entertainment. After a brief period
of independence with Coca-Cola maintaining a financial interest, the combined studio was
acquired by Japanese company, Sony in 1989.
Some of Columbia Pictures top grossing films include: Spider-Man,
Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3 and Hancock

13. Production
The budget for Skyfall was $150-200 million and has made
$1,108,058,404 at the box office.
The director for Skyfall was Sam Mendes
The film has some big name actors including: Daniel Craig, Judi
Dench, Javier Bardem, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris
Size of cast was
approx. 92
Size of crew
was approx.
Locations Skyfall was filmed: 1,371
• London
• Surrey
• Turkey
£29 million of the film's
• Pinewood Studios
budget, was raised by selling
• Glencoe, Scotland
product placement
• Japan
spots, including a deal with
• China
Virgin Atlantic.

14. Distribution
Skyfall was distributed by Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
The film was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in the US on 12th February
2013 and in the UK on 18th February 2013.
It was the first James Bond film to be screened in IMAX venues, although it was not
filmed with IMAX cameras. The film’s release coincided with the 50th anniversary of
the James Bond series which began with Dr. No in 1962
The film is now available on Itunes, Lovefilm
and home TV box office (Sky and BT).

15. Marketing
Sony Pictures released 4 new TV spots for Skyfall that were broadcast in
UK and USA
http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/bond_23_oct13_tv_spots.php3?id=03324
Heineken and Skyfall come together to market the new film. Fans
were critical of the partnership however as it shows 007 drink a beer
rather than the shaken not stirred martini that Bond traditional drinks
http://beerpulse.com/2012/09/heineken-
launches-james-bond-skyfall-marketing-
campaign-with-first-video/
Posters

16. Sony and Skyfall Marketing stunt
Marketing
During the opening week of the new James Bond movie
in Stockholm, a large group of Swedish Bond fans were
given quite a surprise, unaware they were being filmed
for a Sony marketing stunt. The agency Crispin Porter +
Bogusky thought this genius stunt up to help Sony
Nordic promote their new James Bond smartphone
Xperia Acro S which is waterproof
http://www.brandsynario.com/
outdoor-
advertising/detail/sony-skyfall/
During the opening ceremony of the Olympics 2012, Daniel
Craig was shown acting as James Bond escorting the Queen
to a helicopter from Buckingham Palace and then both of
them supposedly parachuting out of the helicopter to the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
opening ceremony, this excited people about Bond and =1AS-dCdYZbo
reminded them about the kind of thing Bond gets up to.

17. Marketing
Coke and Skyfall created a marketing campaign where Coke made
a contest where participants have to race through a variety of
obstacles in order to win tickets to see Skyfall.

18. Marketing
Before the release of Skyfall, the
theme tune by Adele was released
on 5th October 2012 which marks the
anniversary of the release of DR.NO
and is was celebrated as Global
James Bond Day. The song went to
number 1 at the UK’s iTunes online
store less than 10 hours after it was
released.

19. Exhibition
The film was released in cinemas on 26th October 2012 in Uk
and 9th November in US
In North America, Skyfall was shown in 3,505 cinemas and was
shown in 74 countries.
Unsure on how many cinemas in UK
Total Box Office: $1,108,058,404