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1. Ryan Banks
Working Title Films is a UK film production company that is owned by Universal.
Sarah Radclyffe and Tim Bevan set up the company in 1983; however, Sarah
Radclyffe left the company shortly after and got replaced by Eric Fellner.
Polygram became the companies corporate backer, which means they would
fund the films for Working Titles to make.
In 1999, Working Title 2 Films, also known as WT2 was created, it’s an
independent film production arm that has produced titles such as Shaun of The
Dead.
Working Title Films is now owned by Universal. If Universal ever want a film but
don’t want to make it, normally little, smaller budget films, they will give
Working Title the budget and project to make, this benefits Working Title, as
their films will now appeal to a much larger audience.
Before Working Title became affiliated with Universal they only made UK films,
but since their collaboration, they make a number of American films and no
longer just UK films.
To receive funding for their films, Working Titles would have had a number of
ways. The money doesn’t usually come from one company; it will be a number of
investments that will make up the whole budget for the film. The budget may
have come from various film companies such as BFI (British Film Institute) who
receives money from the National Lottery to fund into films. Film4 would have
also been an option as they co-fund films so they can get rights to show them on
their various channels, such as Film4, Channel 4, E4 etc. Creative England is also
another way to receive funds as they have smaller agencies within the company
that are very local.
Marketing is very important for a films success; the marketing campaign will get
the film more known and attract more people to watch the film. The main ways
to market a film are trailers, websites, billboards, posters, red carpet events and
talk shows.
A trailer will be shown on TV during ad breaks and will also be on the Internet, it
gives the audience a short preview of the film, without giving away the plot, and
gives information about the film such as release date. The Worlds End trailer
shows what the film is about and shows the different genres, such as comedy.
However, at the end it says ‘From the creators of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the
Dead’ which will attract any fans of those 2 films.
The film will also be advertised on various billboards and posters so people can
become aware of the film and the people starring in it, this may cause people to
check out the trailer on line and then watch the film. People will see the actors
from the film and may want to go watch the film if they’re a fan of that particular
actor, for example, on the poster of The Worlds End, they show Simon Pegg and
Nick Frost so this will attract any fans of Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz.
The films will also release a website, this is what The Worlds End did. It has the
trailer on there, cast, director, places to buy the DVD, Blu-Ray and order it on
iTunes. It basically tells you everything about the film you could need to know.
The cast of the film, if it’s a big film, will appear on famous talk shows. This will
raise the awareness of the film massively because the thousands or even millions
of people that watch the talk shows will now become aware of the film.

2. Ryan Banks
On the release of the film, there will be a red carpet event, where all the cast and
crew will attend to be at the first release of the film. The red carpet will help
publicity, as a lot of press will attend to interview the cast and crew, the
interviews will then appear in magazines etc.
As you can tell, a marketing campaign is very important when it comes to
attracting an audience to watch your film. However, marketing campaigns are
much more successful in America, that is why films are more successful over
there. They are more successful because America is much larger than the UK,
they have much larger audiences therefore they are able to put more money in
both the production and advertising of the film. For example, Transformers had a
budget of $150 million (£98.5 million) and they spent around $40 million of that
on marketing. The Worlds End had a budget of £13 million ($20 million) so you
can see that American films have a much larger budget as Transformers spent
double The Worlds End budget on advertising alone. American films advertise
their films to more countries than just their own, they advertise them worldwide,
hence why it costs more and why they make more, whereas UK films only
advertise for the UK.
Distribution
Working Title has multi-national links with other companies such as Universal,
as universal own them; this means that Universal would have distributed the
film to certain cinema chains that they are connected with such as UCI Cinemas
and Odeon Cinemas. The film ‘The Worlds End’ got released in cinemas on 10th
July and was released on DVD 19th February.
After a while of the film being released, certain rental services could buy it such
as Netflix, LoveFilm, Xbox, iTunes, etc. Amazon and iTunes bought rights to
distribute the film as you can see on their official website. The Worlds End came
out on Netflix and LoveFilm, it is also on Sky Demand so there are various places
you can watch the film.
Other companies such as Film4, Sky etc. will also try and get the rights to
distribute the film on their channels, this will allow them to show the films on
their channels so people can watch them on TV.
When the film has been available on all these platforms, people record the film
and release it on piracy websites such as Futlocker, where you can download or
stream the film for free. However, this way is illegal and you could get fined an
estimated $150,000.
Market Position
The market position of the UK is 2nd, USA is 1st and India is 3rd. USA films are
normally aimed at worldwide audiences which is why they make a very large
amount of profit, whereas the UK aim only at their own country with the
possibility of it going worldwide if it’s popular. A good example of this is The
Kings Speech; it made £44 Million in the UK, which shows how popular it was
with its own audience. However it made $414 million worldwide, $138 million of
this was in the USA so you can see why America has the highest market position
in the world. Hot Fuzz is another example of how famous UK films are with a UK

3. Ryan Banks
audience. Hot Fuzz made $23 million in America and made £20 million in the UK,
which is $30 million; this shows how popular they are with their own audience.
Some UK film companies have connections with American film companies such
as Working Title. Working Title were taken over by Universal so they can
distribute their films, this is why films such as Shaun of the Dead did so well
abroad. America often takes over smaller companies in the UK for the same
reason.
Audience
Working Title produce UK films, and unlike America, UK films are targeted to
their own UK audience, with the possibility of it going worldwide if it becomes
popular. It attracts a UK audience because of the UK stars, directors and just the
fact it’s a UK film. Working Title have produced films such as The Kings Speech,
this would be aimed at 25 to 35 year olds with social economic grouping C1 or
C2. Another film is Pudsey the Movie, this is a family orientated film and would
be aimed from anywhere between 8-20 years old and people with disposable
incomes. These are the main audiences that Working Title would target.
Shaun of the Dead
The genre of Shaun of the Dead is Horror/Comedy which are two very common
UK genres.
There’s a lot of iconography used in Shaun of the Dead to show that it’s a UK film,
the first one being The Winchester, the pub. They have an ongoing joke
throughout the film about going down to The Winchester and it ends up being
the place that they take cover in later in the film. It’s a very British thing to do,
going down the pub which shows its set in England and is a UK film. Another one
is the flat that they live in, also a very British thing. They use a block of flats in the
film which is something that the UK have and shows again that it is a UK film.
These are just two of the many uses of iconography in the film.
The main 2 stars in the film are Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, these are two of the
biggest UK comedy actors as they have done a lot of films together. This is very
important to the representation of the film as it appeals to a UK audience, also
what defines a UK film is having UK stars, funding and crew within the film. Also
the cost of UK actors is much lower than the cost of Hollywood actors, UK films
are often on a low budget therefore they can only afford to hire these actors
without having to get their funding from a bigger, American company.
This also works for the Crew, such as the director, producer, writer etc. The
whole idea of a UK film is that it is created and funded by UK people, therefore if
these people weren’t UK then it would raise question marks as to whether the
film is UK or not.
The use of music in Shaun of the Dead is also representing UK, with the use of
The Specials – Ghost Town which is a very famous song in the UK. They also use

4. Ryan Banks
Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen which is also a very famous UK song which is by a
very famous UK band.