Visit to Working Title.

On the 5^th of April us Media students (among Years 13 and 11 students) were privileged enough to go and visit the prestigious Working Title film studio in London. We arrived in the city at mid-morning, officially entering the doors of Working Title at around 11.40. We were almost immediately greeted by our insider at WT, Debra, and directed downstairs into the plush Screening Room. Upon making ourselves comfortable, we were given a brief talk on who would be visiting and talking to us. Firstly we were lucky enough to chat with Tim Bevan, Co-Founder of Working Title, and Producer on the mightily successful period drama Atonement. Here are some brief notes regarding what was discussed:

Tim Bevan.

• Working Title is funded (among other British film studios) by Universal Studios in America. This covers ownership; anything that Working Title does is given the all clear by Universal Studios.
• The screenplay of a film is the ‘Bible’ of movie making.
• When developing the beginnings of a film, they must firstly approach multiple writers with the potential project.
• They must create a ‘package’. This consists of script, budget and cast.
• Along the way, the Marketing Department hint at good and bad ideas regarding promotion, and audience.

Piracy…

• One way of deterring piracy is promoting the appeal of cinemas, giving people a reason to go out and view films at a big theatre.
• Piracy is a large problem for Working Title in the DVD sales, therefore they believe that lowering the cost to a fair price would be a successful solution, making people to be more inclined to buy a DVD.

Challenges and Problems…

• Fact based films are the most difficult to create, as you must move through ‘a legal minefield’ in order to create a movie.
• Translating a novel onto the big screen is normally a gamble, as it is a challenge to create a strong and relevant narrative.

After talking to Tim Bevan we were then spoken to by Production Executive of Working Title Sarah Jane Wright.

Sarah Jane Wright.

• One of the main tasks of the Producer is to break down the script and to work out an estimated cost for the potential movie.
• Monitor filming and production on a daily basis.

Film Budgeting…

• A film costing under 20 million gives you a 20% tax rebate in the UK, whereas the rebate in Hungry is 25%.
• Atonement cost around 17 million - cheap for a period drama.
• When deciding on the setting, location shooting is very much favoured, as construction is far more expensive. Atonement was all shot on location and in 62 days, probably the main reasons for it being so cheap to produce.

Problems and solutions…

• Studio space is very much a problem in the UK, there are few big film studios in the UK, whereas there are considerably more in the US.
• Studios are no longer favouring the genre of drama, so there is far less funding for these films. However upon the vast success of The Kings Speech, film producers are hoping that drama will become more popular again, and that there will be a boom in the market for film drama.