Synthesis Of Working title

Working title was founded by Time Bevan and Sarah Radcliffe in 1983, at first they produced films
such as: My Beautiful Launderette (1985), Paperhouse (1989) and The Tall Guy (1990). Due to the
film company not being very large during this time of production, funding would have more than
likely come from government grants, lottery funding, tax shelters, film council and tax schemes.
These grants would have been considerably smaller than they are now, so due to this, Working Title
would have to have worked at a lower budget and working in a more realistic genre such as social-
realism (this is a very similar position to Warp films at the present time). In 1992, Polygram became
Working Titles Corporate financer. This is the time when they started to produce their more well
known films such as The Borrowers (1997). During this time, in 1991, Working Title were put in a bid
for ITV to have a London Weekend Viewing license, so only people in London could view their work,
but this bid failed. By having a new financer (Polygram), Working Title experienced some great
advantages, such as: larger funding, better technologies, more well-known actors and more exciting
genres. However, they did have their disadvantages too such as: a high interest rate, high liabilities
and insecurities. In 1999, Polygram were sold to Universal Music Group which is under the main
name of Vivendi and then Universal is the parent company of Working Title, therefore making
Working Title a conglomerate of it. Working Title was then renamed as Working Title 2. This, again,
came with advantages such as: larger funding, greater distribution of the film, Universal Branding
and the likelihood of new technologies being used was dramatically increased to the larger parent
company and the greater funding. However, disadvantages are: genre restrictions (Universal are
picky about what they allow and disallow, so they practically control what you make) and the
disadvantages just about end there. Since this episode of buying out new companies, Working Title
has been able to create their most successful and memorable films yet, such as: Ali G In Da House
(2002), Hot Fuzz (2007) and Shaun Of The Dead (2004). These films contain the latest technologies,
such as digital cameras (3D in their latest films, but as a post production enhancement), editing
software and CGI. Universal bring these things to Working Title as they lead the film industry with
their technologies, so as a conglomerate, Working Title can borrow and invest into their equipment
more easily.

In the Present, Working Title have created over 100 films, this includes the films I have
named already ad other films such as: Greenzone, Atonement, Mr Bean’s Holiday and Nanny
McPhee . Working Title are currently producing films with 3D, which will enhance the audience’s
viewing experience with them and help to bring in a new target market group also. This, hopefully,
will increase their profitability and will motivate them to create more films of a different genre.