Sunday, 12 December 2010

Representation Of disability in the street.




The Street
The first two shots we get from the camera are through barbed wire and a fence, though from the audiences point of view it makes it look like we are looking into a cage, not it in. Over the top of this first shot we can hear natural sound there has been no music been put into this shot,  the use of natural sound allows us to tell where we are.
We then see a mid shot of a man looking through a door with wire on it, so it looks like he is looking into a cage, we then see that the camera angle presents the second man as dangerous, and animal,  the shot then changes to an over the shoulder shot that follows a man walking up to the van, then shot then changes back to the first man so we can see his facial expression, we can instantly see that the first man is distressed to see the second one. 
The second man is actually the main character, his name is Nick and he is the disabled one as we can see he has lots of scarring across his face. Nick has come back because he wants he job back, at this point we see a shot of the first man walking out of the hardware shop, he instantly changes his facial expression from distressed to happy as he doesn't want Nick to notice that he isn't pleased with his presence. The first man then greets Nick as if he  wasn't distressed while the man in the van has a look at Nicks injures when he isn't looking. during the dialogue neither of the men really know were to look as the gazes try not to look at his scares and they can't look him in the eyes because they are trying to make sure that Nick doesn't notice there worry about his sudden appearance.  
Most of the time when Nick has dialogue the camera focuses on his scarred half of his face, to try and re enforce the idea that he isn't normal. The conversation between the men unfolds and we can tell that Nick wants his old job back, but it seems that everything has started to change after he received his injuries, Nick seems to realise that his so called friends are acting differently because of his disability, then we get the through the cage shot of Nick again, portraying his as something which should be locked away in a cage, like he was less than human and with his scares he seems to be being treated like he was less of a human to.


The next shot we get is a point of view shot, in this case we are seeing the world through nicks eyes and he See's a woman trying to get her shopping out of the car, its then re enforced that Nick knows the woman by the camera giving us a close up of her. We then see that she drops her shopping, and like a normal person would do Nick runs over to help her with the shopping, she then jumps at seeing Nicks face, we then get to see what she saw from a close up of nicks injured side, see then trys to shrug of the revulsion of Nick by trying to explain that she would have jumped no matter who had come up behind her. We then see Nick saying that it was alright of her jumping at that he understood that it was his looks, he then starts to walk away but the woman follows him and try to explain herself, she says that even if it was George Clooney behind her she would have jumped, though this could be seen as a insult to Nick as she seems to say that Nick is the polar opposite to George Clooney, she compares them in looks and then openly says that it wasn't Nicks face so if he hadn't of guessed that she was sacred of his face it would seem pretty obvious know Nick understands this and walks off angrily , he has had the fact that he is know different by peoples ideas  social norms  that he has know become an outcast, no body will speak to him without  not looking at his face and trying to explain that he doesn't scare people.


In the next sequence we get a soundtrack of tribal drums, this is a non diegetic sound added to the scene to heighten dramatic tension, we can clearly see by the way Nick is walking that he is very angry, even when he is walking in a crowd it looks like he is still singles out, we see also the re enforcement of him being ugly and an outcast by various close up expressions of peoples faces as he walks by. The way that Nick is looking right to left constantly gives us the impression of him trying to look at anyone that is looking at his face, daring them to look almost, trying to get someone to mention him. He looks like wolf among sheep, less human than person, his attitude has been molded by the people who have scorned him for his disability and his effort to re integrate back into society. He has been made  believe that he isn't good normal or good enough to become just another person in a crowd, he know stands out and society has marked him as an outcast.



In the few lines of dialogue we hear nick calling himself ugly and scary,  he tries to tell the general that he could become a recruitment person just like the general, we can see the general looking away from Nick, eye contact is rarely made between them because the general doesn't want to look at Nick.

Regional Identity


North Stereotypes

  • Flat cap wearing 
  • Pigeon racers
  • Friendly but "bloody minded"
  • Stubborn and argumentative 
  • Whippet owning
  • menial manual jobs.
  • Little education
  • Sexist
  • Thick accent
  • Bitter drinkers
  • Hot pot
  • Miserable weather
  • Cobbled streets





Country Stereotypes 
  • There inbreed
  • stupid
  • happy
  • Livestock bothering 
  • Farm hand yokel or hunting toff
  • slow pace of life
  • have animals
  • Landowners
  • Tractor drivers.

Thursday, 9 December 2010

Film 4 Distribution continued

Tessa Rosa

Trivia
In May 2009 was named by 'Time' magazine as one of the hundred most influential people in the world.
She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2010 Queen's New Years Honours List for her services to Broadcasting. She is the Controller of Film and Drama at Channel 4.


  • Needs to boost annual investment through third party partnerships.
  • Will no longer distribute it's own films.
  • Ross secured a budget of £8-10 million to £15 million
  • They make between 6-8 films a year
  • set up a low budget studio with the council and distributors optimum, warpx (digital production house)
  • Working across TV and films, also allows economies of scale and cross fertilisation. 
  • lots of Film 4's money is from advertising.
  • Ross See's Film 4 as part of a wider creative community with, for example 'working title, the BBC and BBC films'.
  • Partnerships with distribution companies.
  • Warp X - a film 4 / UK film council project with the Sheffield based indie warp- that can finance three low budget films a year.

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

Film 4













Film4 is a free digital television channel available in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned and operated by Channel 4, that screens films.



Film4 did not originally focus on broadcasting blockbusters, but nowadays broadcasts mainly mainstream Hollywood movies. The channel frequently has themed nights or seasons in which a number of films centred around one genre, director or actor are shown. As Channel 4 also owns a film production company, Film4 Productions, it shows many of its in-house productions.
Occasional non-film (but film-related) programmes are also shown.
Wherever possible, films are shown in their correct aspect ratio. No digital on-screen graphics are superimposed. Under UK broadcasting rules, it was able to screen most films unedited and in earlier timeslots when it was a subscription channel, but these concessions were lost when it became free-to-air, and more adult material is now confined to after the 9pm watershed. Some films are also now edited to make them suitable for pre-watershed screenings, a decision which was criticised by viewers on the channel's now defunct internet forum.










To alert the public to it going free-to-air, Film4 launched a massive campaign directed by Kevin Spaceyfeaturing major celebrities advertising Film4 in odd ways. The slogan of the campaign was "FILMS FOR FREE". Examples include:
  • Judi Dench in a lobster costume, operatically singing the words "Film Four!"
  • Lucy Liu in a banner plane, insulting Ray Winstone and Christian Slater who have incorrectly erected a 'Film4 is free' sign, whilst her own banner is displayed upside-down.
  • Ewan McGregor in a tomato costume, talking to Judi Dench about whether he is a fruit or a vegetable.
  • Gael García Bernal putting leaflets, advertising Film4, onto cars and setting off their alarms. To which he then throws the remaining leaflets in the air.
  • Willem Dafoe saying to one of the advertising campaigners (played by Mackenzie Crook), "First day? It'll get better."
  • Rhys Ifans advertising the channel door-to-door, but often having a door slammed in his face.

These are some of the films that they produced 

  • 24 Hour Party People (co-production with United Artists, UK Film Council and Baby Cow Productions)
  • A Month in the Country (co-production with Euston Films)
  • A Room with a View (co-production with Merchant Ivory Productions and Goldcrest Films)
  • A Zed and Two Noughts (co-production with British Film Institute and Artificial Eye)
  • And When Did You Last See Your Father?
  • Beautiful Thing
  • Birthday Girl
  • Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
  • Brassed Off (co-production with Miramax Films and Prominent Features)
  • Brothers of the Head
  • Buena Vista Social Club
  • Buffalo Soldiers (film) (co-production with Good Machineand Miramax Films)
  • Bunny and the Bull (co-production with Warp X Productions,Wild Bunch, Optimum Releasing, Screen Yorkshire and UK Film Council)
  • Charlotte Gray (co-production with Ecosse Films andWarner Bros.)
  • Dancer in the Dark
  • Dead Man's Shoes
  • Comrades (co-production with now-defunct National Film Finance Corporation)
  • Death To Smoochy (co-production with Senator Film andWarner Bros.)
  • Deep Water
  • Dogma (produced by View Askew)
  • East Is East
  • Elizabeth (co-production with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Working Title Films)
  • Enduring Love
  • Fever Pitch
  • Four Lions (co-production with Warp Films, Wild Bunch andOptimum Releasing)
  • Four Weddings and a Funeral (co-production with PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Working Title Films)










  • Funny Games (co-production with Warner Independent Pictures and Tartan Films)
  • Hallam Foe
  • Happy-Go-Lucky (co-production with Ingenious Film Partners and Summit Entertainment)
  • Hidden City
  • In Bruges (co-production with Focus Features)
  • Late Night Shopping
  • Lucky Break (co-production with Paramount Pictures andMiramax Films)
  • Me and You and Everyone We Know
  • My Beautiful Laundrette (co-production with SAF Productions and Working Title Films)
  • P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang
  • Red Monarch
  • Series 7: The Contenders
  • Sexy Beast (Co-production with Kanzaman, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Recorded Picture Company)
  • Slumdog Millionaire (co-production with Fox Searchlight Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, Pathé and Celador Films)
  • The Crying Game (co-production with British Screen, Eurotrustees, Nippon Film Development and Finance and Palace Pictures)
  • The Future is Unwritten: Joe Strummer
  • The Last King of Scotland (co-production with DNA Filmsand Fox Searchlight Pictures)
  • The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse (Co-production withUniversal Pictures and Tiger Aspect)
  • The Lovely Bones (co-production with DreamWorks Pictures)
  • The Madness of King George (co-production with The Samuel Goldwyn Company
  • The Motorcycle Diaries
  • The Pope Must Die (co production with Miramax Films, Palace Pictures and Michael White)
  • The Straight Story (co-production with StudioCanal and Walt Disney Pictures)
  • This Is England
  • Touching the Void
  • Trainspotting
  • Venus (co-production with UK Film Council and Miramax Films)
  • Wish You Were Here







Wednesday, 24 November 2010

Editing In Memento






In Memento the editing is very fragmented and not in order, this shows how the life of Leonard Shelby is all muddled up this shows how Leonard makes sense of his life with short term memory loss.
The First scene we See is when Leonard is holding and waving a photo in the air, and the start we do not realise what he is doing but then we realise that the shot is actually being shown backwards and we see that he has taken a picture and it's actually being developed in reverse, this edit allows us to see that Leonard's life is all mixed up and confusing to him.
In the shots where Leonard's life is being shown in black and white we can see fast paced editing which shows close ups to certain parts of the room like reminder notes, the closeups allow us to see what they are and how unfamiliar they are to the main character, all the small notes are symbolic to Leonard  because of his memory problem, he can gain insight from what he See's written on them .
The first scene that is shot in black and white is just after the scene were we see Leonard kill someone, the kill scene is shot entirely backwards this gives us the ending at the start of the film, but we have no idea how it got up to this point, this hooks us instantly, we want to know why Leonard kills this man.

The next scene is in black and white and is shot In the right way round, we can tell that it is in a different time frame, as he seems to be back in a hotel room that he has been in before but can't quite remember. The dialogue that we get is his own subconscious as we can hear that he is constantly reassuring himself as to what he is doing there, he finds it hard to determine what time period that he has been in the room, this is the point where we can tell that he has a memory problem. In this scene we know that he is unsure about himself and has to try and make sense of his surroundings. He is wearing a dressing gown so we know that he has been there for a while but we are not told any more information about it.

The next scene shoots back to colour and we see him interacting with the motel assistant, though we can't tell what he is saying, the camera then jumps to a close up of someone coming through the door, we know that this person is familiar to him as he calls he by a nick name, the camera cuts back to Leonard so we can see his facial expression.
File:Memento Timeline.png

Monday, 22 November 2010

sound/How is sexuality represented in skins

  • Tv drama
  • sexuality
  • moral panics
Diegetic-natural sound added to a scene

Non Diegetic- sound added to a scene /soundtrack potential problem- less realistic, potential benefit-more dramatic

Sound bridge-sound which carries over two scenes, literally creating 'bridge' between events

Incedental music-short sequence of sound to create an emotion/feeling.

Asychronons- sound which creates an opposite emotion to the one on screen.

Contrapunctual-sound which creates an opposite emotion to the one on screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9lg5S1CwYE&list=SL

I have to link the video because embedding was disabled by request.

The clip starts with the camera giving us an close up of the guys face, his eyes are already open when we see the shot of him in his bed, this shows us that he hasn't been sleeping. The shot is also a slow outwards after we have the close up, the slow zoom tells me that he is tired or it would have been a fast paced camera shot that would have shown that he was feeling more active.
also in this scene we can hear church bells, this might suggest that the character has either been woken up by the bells or that the bells hold some symbolic meaning to him.
We then get to see the bedspread that he's lying under, it has a naked man and women on it, this could suggest that the character is a very bold person and doesn't really care what other people think, and it doesn't look like a bedspread that his parents would by for him so he probably bought it himself, this also shows independence. The other thing that I could infer from the sheet , is that he is lying in the middle of the two naked people in the sheet this could suggest that he is bi-sexual. This links back to the church bells and it could suggest that he is awake because of a quarrel with his sexuality and his faith.
Then then get a shot of his room as the camera comes out, we can see that he is a very tidy person.
We also see in the corner of his room a supermarket packing trolley, you could only acquire one of those by stealing it, this tells us that he isn't a goody two shoes kid and to be able to get the trolley into his room must have made a lot of noise, surely his parents might have noticed unless from this we could tell that is parents don't really care about him or what he does.

Wednesday, 10 November 2010

Representation Of Ethnicity In Hotel Babylon clip.



Find more videos like this on Beauchamp College Media




The first ethnicity we see in the scene is black people,the first character that we are introduced to is Benjamin, he looks very smart in his suit and tie and seems to be helpful and slightly reserved when he spots someone from his past, instantly we he seems to spot him he tries to walk away but fears it's to late and he has spotted him, this makes me think that Benjamin didn't want to be spotted by the other character.  From the dialogue we hear that Benjamin is very anxious and wants to split of from the conversation as he Say's that he must get back to the desk, the other character looks very informal as he is only wearing swimming shorts and has his hair in dreadlocks and stereotypical hairstyle for black people. The language that the other character uses is very much more relaxed and has lots of slang in it, in this instant we can see that the two black character's are binary opposites, though we can pick up that Benjamin used to be more like the other character but he has seemed to grow up and get a good job, unlike the other black character who still seems to think that Benjamin hasn't changed in 7 years. Benjamin is very on edge when he is with the other character like he isn't really proud of what he did in the past but doesn't want to be seen as weak to the other character because he still cares what he thinks, and he still wants to be respected by him. The music in the background has a very light beat which is very audible and makes the confrontation with Benjamin seem a bit more tense.


In the next scene we see two ethnicity portrayed, Japanese and European  people. 
We see two maids going into a customer's bedroom, the older of the two women seems to have done a striptease for the old Japanese man before as see explains how Mr Matsui pays more when there are more people stripping for him.
The cleaning staff  being European and female is also a stereotype, saying that because they chose to come to Britain the qualifications mean less so they have to except the more menial jobs.
As the camera enters the room we can see the Japanese man sitting on his bed ready for the maids, he doesn't talk at all except for saying "ho" we seems to say because he is Japanese he English isn't very good, the scene also works well as it plays off the stereotype that Japanese men are perverts. 
Mr Matsui is a overweight old Japanese man that wears glasses ,this is also a very stereotypical view of a Japanese man and if we look carefully in the shot we can see that his room is very tidy and the money is in two very neat piles this plays off another stereotype that Japanese people are very clean this isn't a bad stereotype but it's a stereotype non the less.
We can see by now that the two maids are being paid to strip for the man, this scene becomes more intense as the music comes on, a funky song with a very strong bass line for dancing to, by this time one of the maids has taken off her uniform and we can see that she is very lingerie specific for the task as it isn't your everyday underwear, it gives us another stereotype that because the women are in low paid jobs that they would do anything for money.


In the next scene we can see an Asian assistant, she enters the room quite cautiously, she is very polite and cooperative with the demands of 'Mr Taylor'. Mr Taylor is portrayed as a very angry and rude man, this is a age old stereotype of Old British men, not very nice to others and not being considerate enough to thank the person who just helped them.
The assistant in the scene doesn't like Mr Taylor as she comments on how may time that he has ran out of toilet paper, she knows that see has to be civil to the man but doesn't think that he deserves the respect that he is given.


In the final scene we are introduced to the cooking staff, we are told be for that the Italian chief has been working his way round all the kitchen staff and has slept with a co workers wife and made her leave him and move in with the Italian chief.
When we first see both chief's together we can see that they are wearing completely binary colours , black and white, this can be interpreted in a variety of ways like Th Italian chief is evil because he is wearing black and he has wronged the chief in white, it can also be seen as yin and yang how we need both for balance.
There are many stereotypes in this scene, like the Italian chief is portrayed as sneaky and a womaniser, and thinks more of himself because he is Italian. The English man is very large and fat, he also has a red face this is a stereotype of English males that the series uses to show us why the English chiefs wife had left him for a Italian guy. in the scene the Italian chief acts like everything is alright between him and the English chief but when the management staff leave we see there true colours and see another stereotype of how both Italian and English people can be very hot headed and willing to fight.


the characters to racist because it plays off our already present prejudices to enforce there story lines .

Monday, 1 November 2010

How does Calvin Klein represent Eva Mendes in the advert below?


Just by looking at the stance of Eva Mendes we can already tell that she is being powerful and dominating, the wider stance of her legs suggest her being ready to be pushed away, this tells me that she has adopted this stance as a sign of her strong will and determination. She is also wearing high heels this gives her extra height this suggests that being taller makes you look more intimidating and less likely to be pushed around, the shoes are also being used so that it draws our attention to her legs, they also make her legs look slimmer.
It we then go higher we focus on her hands and we realise that she is not wearing a ring, this is a subtle way of suggesting that she is an independent woman. Her hands are also situated on her hips this makes her look like she is adopting a more aggressive stance, it tells me that Eva is a very capable woman and doesn't need looking after. 
If we look a her head we can see that she isn't looking at the camera this creates a more 'not really bothered' attitude that us men seem to like, plus the look is mysterious and alluring but it's also a useful device which makes the person viewing the poster look at the underwear and that's essentially what the poster is trying to promote.
In the picture Eva's hair is wet I think that it shows her as a busy person who has just got out of the shower because they are attending at event where they want to look there best, I think that it suggests that Calvin Klein represents females as being very much different from the age old stereotypes of how the woman's place is the home and she needs to cook and look after the kids, she seems to break of the shackles of sexually repression and developed into a new breed of woman in the 21st century who are sexually empowered and who's mentality has completely changed to  cope with the new ideology of the 21st century. Her teeth are also slightly apart this makes her take on a more feral dangerous beast look which shows Eva being very capable of defending herself, women would also aspire to her look because it would make them feel more empowered and less weak or defenseless. 
The low angle shot that is used in the poster makes Eva seem very powerful and commanding this promotes that the woman who wants to seem more powerful and controlling would want to buy the underwear because it shows that they to like the image of Eva being empowered as a woman. It also makes it seem that she is looking down on us and we are not worthy to be in her presence, it makes you feel that she is so much better than you just by being slightly more elevated giving her a sense of more power being the larger presence.
The colour also works in her favour as black is usually thought o a more serious colour that contrasts with the white background really well. Black is also a more mature and sexy colour that both men and woman like, though it's black in the poster to promote that Calvin Klein's underwear isn't just for any occasion. It also makes Eva look more natural with her pose compared to page 3 girls who's positioning seems very fake and immature(not that I would know).
Also note the suspenders that she's wearing, there not only stylish but they also draw your attention to the legs and general pants area. Also the Calvin Klein logo is positioned just to the right of her legs i think that this has been strategically placed so we are drawn to the leg area without even realising.




Monday, 25 October 2010

Stereotypes of Age in Tv Drama's





New Tricks title screen.png


New Tricks is a BBC television drama series which follows the work of the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS). Led by Detective Chief Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to re investigate unsolved crimes. The series title is taken from the popular expression "You can't teach an old dog new tricks". The "old dogs" are successful in adapting their skills and experience to modern policing, with their knowledge of past cases proving especially useful. Series 7 premiered on the 10 September 2010.


In New tricks the four main characters are all older than the average policeman, this is because the UCOS squad needs experienced cops, and one stereotype is that with age comes wisdom.
Many stereotypes are also portrayed in this drama as I have viewed many clips where one of the main characters would be in chase with a suspect and they would start to run and they wouldn't be able to keep up with the younger person, this is a another stereotype that old people are not very fit.


The theme song to the TV drama has the lyrics "It's alright, it's OK, doesn't really matter if you're old and grey".



"It's alright, it's OK, listen to what I say."
"It's alright, doing fine, doesn't really matter if the sun don't shine.
"It's alright, it's OK, make it the end of the day." this insinuates that because they are old they might not be able to make to the end of the day, but the program also breaks stereotypes as all the main characters are not defenseless as they always seem to solve the case and get the bad guy in the end.
Though in the drama the police men use the fact that there older and more experienced to help themselves, because people seem to trust them more as they are seemed as harmless and they also have old friends ad informant s that can help them get the edge over the younger investigator's on the force.

Saturday, 23 October 2010

Marjorie Ferguson(1980's)

Ferguson identified 4 types of facial expressions on the front cover of British Women Magazines

Chocolate Box

  • Half/full smile
  • Lips together/slightly parted
  • Teeth barely visible
  • full/three-quarters of face to the camera






Invitational
  • Emphasis on the eyes
  • mouth shut with hint of smile
  • head to one side or looking back to the camera
















Super smiler
  • full face
  • wide open, toothy smile
  • head thrust forwards or chin thrown back
  • hair often wind blown
















Romantic/sexual
  • includes male/female two-somes
  • dreamy
  • heavy lidded 
  • overtly sensual/sexual


















Trevor Mullen (1990's)

seductive
  • similar to cool/ level
  • eyes less wide
  • expression is less reserved but still self-confident
  • milder












Carefree
  • Nymph like
  • active
  • healthy
  • vibrant
  • outdoor girl
  • often smiling/grinning

















Practical
  • concentrating
  • engaged in business at hand
  • mouth closed
  • eyes sometimes directed
  • sometimes slight frown
  • hair often tied back or short style













Comic
  • Deliberately ridiculous 
  • exaggerated
  • acting the fool
  • pulling faces











Catalogue
  • A neutral look as of a dummy, artificial , wax like
  • features may be in any position- but most likely to be with eyes open wide and a smile.
  • looks remain vacant and empty with personality removed.

Male Gaze

The male gaze usually portrays a man 'having a look'.
Woman normally Passive.


  • Gaze three area's
  • how men look at women 
  • how women look at there selves
  • how woman look at other woman
film audiences have to view character from the perspective of a heterosexual male.
The male gaze doesn't take into account the reverse of the male gaze.
A woman's reaction would also be presented by a male action.

It relegates women to the status of objects, the female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily by identification with males.

In this lesson we were also instructed to watch a music video from the band 'Scouting for girls'


This was a test to see if we paid attention to the colors of certain objects instead of looking at other things in the video.
some theorists also have noted that sexualising of  the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised is a way of grabbing people's attention and interests.

Leon Festinger



Leon Festinger (pronounced Feh-sting-er) (New York City, May 8, 1919 – New York City, February 11, 1989), was an American social psychologist, responsible for the development of the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Social comparison theory, and the discovery of the role of propinquity in the formation of social ties as well as other contributions to the study of social networks.



Cognitive Dissonance
Stereotypes shape public opinion, They are narrative Shortcuts which orientate the audiences expectations.
some people argue that stereotypes are fixed and changing.
Festinger believes we resist changing our opinions unless faced with overwhelming evidence against what we believe.  Cognitive dissonance is when our 'brain' encounters new idea's and rejects them because they don't match our expectations- reflective two way flow.

Working Title

The Company Working Title Films logo.png


http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/apr/16/business.hayfilmfestival2005


Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in LondonUK. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions. Eric Fellner and Bevan are now the co-owners of the company.



Working Title Films was co-founded by producers Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. In 1992, PolyGram became the company's corporate backer. Radclyffe left Working Title, and Eric Fellner, a fellow independent film producer, joined the company. The company produced a variety of films for PolyGram's London-based production company Poly gram Filmed Entertainment. An Anglo-Dutch film comp, PolyGram Films became a major Hollywood competitor. In 1999, PolyGram was sold to Seagram and merged with MCA Music Entertainment, to form Universal Music Group. PolyGram Films was merged and sold to Universal Studios in 1999.
Although contractually allowed to produce any film with a budget of up to $25 million, on a practical basis, Bevan and Fellner consult with studio executive at Working Title's parent company NBC Universal. Working Title is located in Oxford StreetLondon, and is known for having a limited number of employees. The company also has other offices located in Los Angeles, and Ireland.

In 1999, Bevan and Fellner launched a subsidiary company named Working Title 2 Productions, commonly known as WT2. The company is an independent film production arm run by Natascha Wharton, and has produced films that include Billy ElliotShaun of the Dead and The Calcium Kid.



  • Six academy awards, 26 Bafta awards , 4 Oscars.
  • Working titles films span a large genre to get a larger audience.
  • working title have a formidable record of launching fresh talent, such as directors skehar Kapur and stephen frears.
  • Working title also works closely with prestige austerest productions such as the coen Brothers, who did such films as 'O brother where art thou?' and 'Fargo'
  • Commercially the most successful films they produce are romantic comedies, 'The Treasure' not only does it have the british actor Hugh Grant , but also the screen writer is star Richard Curtis.


Being bought by Polygram which in in itself has been taken over by Universal in 1999 has been liberating, now much less tome is spent trying to find money to fund a project now more time is spent developing decent scripts.
Working titles 2 films are currently distributed by Universal pictures, which also owns a 67% structure in the company. Studio Canal Co-produced.
The remaining shares are owned by the company's founder, BBC films and private investors.
Universal's involvement will vary widely from project to project, Tim Bevan gives two contrasting examples- 'Pride and Prejudice ' starring Keira Knightly $ 20 million budget and the 'Interpreter' $ 80 million pound budget. The Interpreter was a big movie so investors were more involved.
They were more clever and tactical about film projects in 2004

Working title has to make 1 big blockbuster a year to get there money back and then they could still do three or four smaller more discreet films as well. That leaves working title to still do the independent films.




Working title also have there own website, it has many features like video blogs (pictured above 'Paul').






Here is a list of all the films Working tile have produced.





  About a Boy (film)  
  Ali G Indahouse
  Atonement (film)
  Bean (film)
  The Big Lebowski
  Billy Elliot
  Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy
  The Boat That Rocked
  Bob Roberts
  The Borrowers (1997 film)
  Bridget Jones's Diary (film)
  Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (film)
  Burn After Reading
  The Calcium Kid
  Captain Corelli's Mandolin (film)
  Catch a Fire (film)
  Chicago Joe and the Showgirl
  The Comic Strip
  Dead Man Walking (film)
  Definitely, Maybe
  Drop Dead Fred
  Edward II (film)
  Elizabeth (film)
  Elizabeth: The Golden Age
  Fargo (film)
  For Queen and Country
  40 Days and 40 Nights
  Four Weddings and a Funeral
  French Kiss (film)
  Frost/Nixon (film)
  Gone (film)
  Green Zone (film)
  The Guru (2002 film)
  The Hi-Lo Country
  Hippie Hippie Shake
  Hot Fuzz
  The Hudsucker Proxy
  Inside I'm Dancing
  The Interpreter
  Johnny English
  Johnny English Reborn
  Loch Ness (film)
  London Kills Me
  Long Time Dead
  Love Actually
  The Man Who Cried
  The Man Who Wasn't There
  Map of the Human Heart
  Mickybo and Me
  Moonlight and Valentino
  Mr. Bean's Holiday
  My Beautiful Laundrette
  My Little Eye
  Nanny McPhee
  Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang
  Ned Kelly (2003 film)
  Notting Hill (film)
  O Brother, Where Art Thou?
  Panther (film)
  Paperhouse (film)
  Paul (film)
  Plunkett & Macleane
  Posse (1993 film)
  Pride & Prejudice (2005 film)
  The Return of the Borrowers
  Robin Hood (1991 film)
  Romeo Is Bleeding
  Rubin and Ed
  Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
  A Serious Man
  The Shape of Things
  Shaun of the Dead
  Sixty Six (film)
  Smokin' Aces
  Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball
  The Soloist
  State of Play (film)
  The Tall Guy
  Thirteen (film)
  Thunderbirds (film)
  United 93 (film)
  Wild Child (2008 film)
  Wimbledon (film)
  Wish You Were Here (1987 film)
  A World Apart (film)
  The Young Americans (film)