What is Working Title?
Working Title is a production company that produce movies and television programs. It was co-founded in 1983 by Tim Bevan, Sarah Radclyffe and William Royal.
Structure:
It is based in London but has studios across the world, such as Ireland, Los Angeles and California. It is owned by Universal studios, and Comcast, Working title get most of the funding from these companies as they support the making of Working Titles films and television programs. There have been many company collaborations. Working title productions have working with companies such as Carnival Films, Monkey Kingdom, Chocolate Media Universal Pictures,Relativity Media and Cameron Mackintosh Ltd. Although contractually allowed to produce any film with a budget of up to $35 million, Bevan and Fellner consult with studio executives Comcast.
Products:
Working title have produced many films. their main genre is romantic comedies, such as: About Time, Bridget Jones’ diary and definitely, maybe. They also produce smaller low budget indie films such as: Notting Hill, Ned Kelly, A serious man, Frost/Nixon. Working Title have also done many comedies such as hot fuzz, johnny English, Paul and Shawn of the dead. The cast in the film ‘about time’ consists of a mostly British cast, the actors (that are British) are:
- Rachel mcadams
- Domhnall Gleeson
- Bill Nighy
- Lydia Wilson
- Will Merrick
- Vanessa Kirby
the director is Richard Curtis, He is a British screenwriter and director. he has also directed, love actually, and the boat that rocked which are all British films.
The mise en scene in Les Miserables is very consistent as it has the same style throughout to show the time period (French revolution) there is a clear contrast between characters, this means that the audience can easily see what class they are just by looking at the costumes. The backdrops are quite dark this is to symbolize the characters emotions and thoughts. There is a range of camera angles and the scenes do not cut very sharply however they do not slowly fade in and out, the scenes jump but only at necessary times such as when the character is talking to another character. This is because the director wanted to keep the audiences attention by keeping the camera as still as possible to see the facial expressions and body language clearly. There is clear meanings created through the songs because it is a musical they have to show emotion through their voices. this means that the audience can clearly understand how the character is feeling.
Production Process:
Pre production:
Les Miserables (2012) is not an original idea, although it is meant to be played in theatres, it has been adapted to be a musical film, it is based on Les Misérables by Claude-Michel Schönberg which was originally based on The novel, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. casting for the main characters started in November 2011. Casting for extras started in February 2012. The script was written by, William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michael Schonberg and Herbert Kretzermer. The latesat veersion (2012) had Kate Fasulo as the production supervisor, she works for Working Title. All location scouting and filming was done in:
Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, UK
Working Title promote their films/TV shows through social media, they advertise the shows/films more than the company, because they make small clips of a particular film/show and put that on Facebook or twitter this appeals to a wide audience because people across the world use this social media as it is a way that people can stay in contact with each other, YouTube is a big contribute for this as they allow trailers before vloggers or entertainers videos. Les Miserables’ first teaser trailer posted online on 30 May 2012. The film also has it’s own official Facebook page which launched on 20th of September 2012. Les miserables was advertised through the internet, the trailers were streamed on social media such as Facebook and twitter. The official photography of Les Miserables was posed on billboards the photography was usually the main character with the release date. this is to keep it simple because people will be in their cars and will go past it quite quickly.
reviews:
“This “Les Mis” does make you feel, intensely and sometimes thrillingly, by honoring the emotional core of its source material.”
“Absolutely incredible – easily matches the likes of The Hobbit, Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty”
“I`m not a fan of musicals at all, so I watched this expecting to hate it, but I liked what it was all about.”
“There are undoubtedly some amazing scenes in there, almost all the feature songs of the original musical have really been captured well”
The Telegraph gave the film a 5/5 star rating, and metacritic gave the the film 63% out of 100% the film overall was very successful with mostly good reviews. the cast had done radio interviews before and after the film with BBC radio 4, Ollie Cole and radio times, they mainly spoke about how it was going, what had happened and if there were any funny stories, they also said when the film was coming out along with when the teaser/main trailer was coming out. (before the film) once the film had come out they mostly discussed how many takes they had to do, what the other actors were like, if there were any more funny stories, and how close(relationship wise) the actors had become. The merchandise is mostly clothing, this includes t-shirts and pajamas. They mostly have the main characters prisoner number on them or characters faces. There are also phone cases, bracelets, posters and stickers. The main product is the DVD or Blue-ray and the second main product sold is the CD with the main songs on which is sold online (amazon or ebay) or in stores such as HMV and most supermarkets.
Distribution:
Les Miserables was distributed by Universal Pictures. Working title have a strong relationship with universal because universal is the company that provides most of the funding so naturally they helped fund les miserables.It has been shown in multiplex cinemas such as odeon and vue. The DVD individually is £8.45 online. The film has now been distributed onto now tv and sky movies, the two companies work together.
Market Position:
Working Title’s competitors include: Studio Canal, Tiger Aspect Pictures & Film Four. The appeal of the film to the UK audience is mostly that it is shot in UK locations and that it has UK actors in. The contrast of this being that it appeals to the British audience, this makes it appealing because many people find this interesting or entertaining. Working title isnt associated with Hollywood much because it is an English film production company, however they do have studios in america, Los Angeles and California.
Audience Appeal:
The film appeals to a passive audience because they can loosely follow the film by listening to the songs or just glancing at what is happening occasionally. It appeals to active audiences because it has an easy story line to follow and is in English so most of the world can understand it.
references:
https://www.workingtitlefilms.com/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3575723/?ref_=tt_cl_t4
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_Title_Films
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=who+ownes+working+title&oq=who+ownes+working+title&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.6431j0j4&sourceid=chrome&es_sm=122&ie=UTF-8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables_(2012_film)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/locations
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/companycredits
https://www.arri.com/news/news/les-miserables-revolutionary-filmmaking/
https://www.fxguide.com/featured/making-a-musical-les-miserables/
TV Production Megan Worley 