Working Title Visit

 This gone Tuesday (5th April) a group of media students from years 11 - 13 ventured down to London to visit Working Title Films - and I was among them! We spent the morning talking to a variety of staff that worked at Working Title including Tim Bevan (founder and co-chairman), Sarah Jane Wright (Production), interns from different areas (including runners, a projectionist and creative executive) as well as Anthony Hines (writer & producer - famous for Borat, Bruno, Ali G). This post is a summary of what we found out from talking to the people of Working Title.

Tim Bevan

• Working Title is unlike other British film companies as it receives Hollywood funding from Universal Pictures. Who also come into play regarding distribution of films made, as well as funding for them.
• The large departments at Working Title include business affairs, finding new film ideas & hiring script writers/pitching (creativity) and production. The main things done in production include packaging the film; gathering cast, crew, sorting a budget, etc. After this is done the package will be shown to Universal, if they 'green-light' it, it will get made.
• When releasing arthouse films (the majority of Working Title film) a safe film will often be released at the same time that is aimed at families for example (like Johnny English), to ensure the entire year isn't a total flop.
• Also, we found out that the most difficult kind of film to make is one that is very historically fact based- as there is a lot of legal things to go through to ensure the event is portrayed accurately and persons involved are protected, etc.
• When questioned about piracy, Bevan was sure that cinema sales would generally not be affected as people go to the cinema for the unique experience as oppose to just watching a film. However, DVD sales are reasonably affected by piracy in relation to Working Title and Bevan hopes that there will be some form of download service in the future where a customer can download a film for a cheaper price than buying it on DVD, so the customers get a fair deal and the film industry doesn't lose out.

Sarah Jane Wright

• Informed us that films under the Drama genre were less favoured by the public, and seeing that most Working Title films are Drama-based this was a problem at the time as Universal simply wouldn't green-light Drama films.
• Closure of the UK Film Council won't affect Working Title as much as others such as upcoming talent and independant films companies- sees it as a government message that they don't value the industry/see how important it is (for economy, etc).
• Working Title prefer to film in Britan when appropriate and possible (all of Atonement was filmed in the UK, mainly resident locations), but filming location are often comprimsed by rebates gained from filming in foreign countires (e.g. filming in Hungary receives a 20% rebate). Also, studio spaces in the UK are limited, so other locations need to be considered.
• Info on Atonement included: it was shot in 62 days, cost £17million (cheap for period drama), more location shooting than building sets as its more economical. Good team chemistry & effort and brilliant Director, rewarding.
• Dunkirk shot in Atonement - soldiers were actual 500 local army boys (paid little, wanted experience), every three rows are so tiled (a lot cheaper than CGI). Waited until right time to catch sunset, limited amount of time to get it just right - rehearsed over and over.