Working Title

How has working title adapted their films and marketing for different audiences?

Working title has been a successful British film company, producing British films which include iconic scenery and a-listed actors such as Hugh Grant and Kieran Knightly, appealing to wide family audiences. Originally a independent company however with the alliance with Universal, it has allowed Working Title to adapt to create bugger budget film which would appeal to the American audiences. Through Working Title in alliance with Universal, the smaller British film company can rely on Universal to immediately come up with a distribution plan; reduces time on the production of a film for the release to be as fast as possible It has produced famous well-loved films and characters such as Mr Bean (making $229,736,344 worldwide on box office) and Jonny English (making $160,583,018 worldwide on box office)  played by Rowan Atkinson, and “The Boat That Rocked” which involves well recognized actors such as Bill Nighy (making $37,472,651 worldwide on box office).So how does Working Title adapt their films and marketing for different audiences?  

If you have not already noticed, Working Title only produced films which are ‘very British’. This in itself is a marketing technique as it will appeal to the American audience. It is essential that films will sell in America, as they are a massive consumer in the film industry creative a massive percentage of the box office ratings. America’s fascinated with British culture as it dates back in history which America lacks, their history is not quite as wide and only technically begins when it was found by Chris Columbus. When Working Title introduces the iconic British locations such as Buckingham Palace and Houses of Parliament, it instantly attracts and audience.  Take ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ produced in 2001, set in London about a ‘normal’ English woman, the key selling point and made a massive amount of $281,929,795 worldwide on box office.

Depending on the seasons, can have a massive effect on what films are going to be shown in cinemas as they will be aiming for a different audience. Take Christmas for example, it’s a big festive time of year were families will be spending time together as the majority of people will have time off work and school, so Working Title will adapt their films and marketing to suit when the film will be released by either making them a festive family film. Take “Love Actually”, released in 2003 with A-list actors such as Hugh Grant and Kieran Knightly (iconic British actors). Appealing to a wide target audience due to its content involving politics for the older audiences which is included though a prime minister being a character played by Hugh Grant, love scandals through the content of cheating, and sex appeal brought in by Colin Firth with the iconic lake scene first seen in pride and prejudice.  Also films won’t be released during big active events such as the Olympics, or the World Cup as the audience going to the cinema with be scarce.

How films are marketed affects who they appeal to the target audience. For a teenage target audience a trailer maybe posted onto networking websites such as ‘Facebook’ (word to mouth spreading quicker thanks to social networking websites) as the stereotypical teenager spends the a great deal of their time in front of a computer screen (and stereotypes are made through majority), or shown on television during the breaks of shows which appeal to the teenage audience such as ‘Vampire Diaries’. For an older audience the trailers would be shown at a later hour, predominantly around ‘prime time television’ which is from 7pm-9pm after shows which would attract the audience. For example an audience which enjoys the crime genre, a trailer may be shown during the breaks of ‘Law and Order’ (a television series which takes place inside a court room). If the film is aimed at an intelligent audience, or an audience whom will be interested in a specialised genre such as historical, articles in the newspaper such as the Daily Mail or maybe a magazine which specialised in that particular audience would advertise the film. Jonny English Reborn, the trailer sells the film; its easily accessible worldwide thanks of Atkinson. He is the world famous Mr Bean, which is a worldwide success due to the lack of spoken language, and relying on mime to get a message across. The trailer evidently shows the genre(spy action, comedy film)  suitable to a niche family audience, it shows the story before you even entre the cinema, it shows the action, the props, the characters. However Anna Karenina was marketed a slightly different way.

 Anna Karenina, produced in 2012, was originally a famous book in Russia before it became a film. It is aimed at an intelligent audience, as well as wanting the teenage appeal. Anna Karenina was mainly advertised though old fashioned billboards and posters, with advertisements and articles in the Newspaper. It’s stayed away from continuously showing a trailer on the television to stay with the nature of the film, and tradition of the book. Anna Karenina was a low budget film which took a fresh and artistic view on Leo Tolstoy’s novel, which includes politics, history and sex appeal (brought by Aaron Johnson’s bottom). As the target audience of Anna Karenina also involves the young adult, teenage consumer, in the United States the film shall be released at the same time as the last of the sage Twilights’s Breaking Dawn Part Two in hopes to catch the same audience with the box office breaker.

The 'Dead Zone' in film production is the guidelines film producers stick to in the amount of money spend on a film project. the maximum minimum amount of money spent on a film (if you follow), if $30 million, and the minimum maximum amount of money spend on a film is $75 million. The amount between $30 million - $75 million is called the 'dead zone'. This is all due to the amount of money earn through the box office takings; through studying the data collected from films produced over time the least amount of profit made is between $30 million - $75 million. Bigger budget films such as ‘Atonement’ do not get produced anymore and, smaller budget films such as Anna Karenina with the budget of $30 million,  has proven to be more profitable for a niche market as they go straight to DVD or LoveFilm; an industry that has shifted with new technology.

New 21^st century technology would involve a company like NetFlix, however sound and colour can still be classed as a relatively ‘new’ due to the non-stop improvement made such as ‘surround sound made higher quality’, and ‘HD’ picture.