How has Working Title adapted its films and marketing for different audiences?

Working Title was founded in 1984 by Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe and in 1992 went looking for a corporate backer. Polygram was the chosen lucky one, and this is when Fellner came on board, Radclyffe having left. Working Title was joined with Polygram from 1991-1999 and in 2000 Working Title was bought by Universal Studios (2000-present). During research I had taken on Working Title I found a quote from Bevan himself explaining the struggle they had finding a corporate backer:
''Before that we had been independent producers, but it was very hand to mouth. We develop a script, that would take about 5% of our time; we'd find a director, that'd take 5% of the time and then we'd spend 90% of the time trying to juggle together deals from different sources to finance those films. The films were suffering because there was no real structure, and speaking for myself, my company was always virtually bankrupt.''

Working Title is a British film production company, based in London (although also having locations in Ireland and L.A.). It produces feature films and several television productions. Having started off as a small company, Working Title's choice to be bought by Universal gave them a huge advantage in marketing opportunities for different audiences, seeing as Universal has its own distribution and therefore can offer more. During this transaction a number of changes were made to the way the company reacted. As the film industry hit a polarization, the industry went two ways. The first: high budget, action packed, thrillers, mainly used for a global audience and the second: low budget, quite simple filming however complex script/story line, aimed at more of a European market than global. The path that Working Title chose to take was the low budget.

With the income of $75 million being made in the past with films that have what we call 'niche' markets, a big budget can be allowed due to the fact that box office is guaranteed a good feedback. Examples of movies that show this would be: Harry Potter, Twilight, James Bond etc. and these are usually for a global market. However, nowadays $30 million is being made instead, explaining why such low budgets are being used so that more can be made in the box office and ultimately a profit made. Working Title (as established in the paragraph above) is a low budget marketing/production (with the odd exception such as Atonement) and is funded by Studio Canal heading towards a European market. 

Although some may see a lower budget as a hinder to the movie, Working Title played it to their advantage. They achieved this by focusing more on the script and the way in which the movie is directed than the special effects, and over americanised characteristics which most films seem to be displaying nowadays. This creates a more focused target audience, however with the expertise of marketing, and with enough publicity before and after the movie has been released, a lot of money can be made.

Examples of low budget movies that have stirred enough attention for any feathers to be ruffled, we have: Billy Elliot, About a Boy, Bridget Jones' Diary and Notting Hill. These are all quite famous movies, that required a low budget. These movies are all quite stereotypically British, using British: actors, landscapes, costume, stereotypical British attitudes, etc. This is not only appealing to the British market, it is also very popular for the American market. Americans are fascinated by the British and therefore being publicised there brings in a lot of income for Working Title. A very famous movie that is low budget however worked for a global market is Mr Bean. This was distributed around the world and was very successful because of the well known main character, stupidly British and bluntly humorous so that different countries can easily understand the comedy of the scene without having to know the language of the film.

Analysis of Submarine trailer: 'What are they selling?'

Our first impressions of the trailer is that the genre of the film is one of: coming of age and comedy type of movie. This comes through thick as the story line is revealed as a: teenage boy (the stereotypical type with a few differences here and there) goes through his life wishing that he was noticed more. He finds a girlfriend, they break up, and here we have his life. Still on first impressions and going from the raw story line that we can gather instantly, the movie could be said to be compared to 'Diary of a wimpy kid' (a well known blockbuster) however with more of a narcotic twist to it. We can take our target audience from this, ranging from mid teens (16+) to late twenties early thirties? It's hard to tell exactly the ages it will appeal to due to personal preferences, but with the evidence from the clip we can see that late teenagers can understand the humour, as they've been through it not long ago. For the late twenties/older thirties, they also can watch the movie and reminisce how their teenage years fared and although not in the same way as the teenagers, can somehow relate to the movie themselves.

Instantly we can see this is an independent film as there are no special effects, nearly all of the shots we see are on location, and the feel of the movie is very raw. This idea of an independent movie is then reassured when we see the opening credits publishing the companies behind the movie being: The Weinstein Company, Film 4, and the national lottery.

Not only is this trailer selling us: a target audience, comedy/coming of age genre, and a fabulous 80's lifestyle, we also get a projection of love interests. Although not stereotypically shown as we see nowadays in romcoms, it's still present due to nearly all of the trailer devoted to Oliver expressing his undying love for a girl. However, the feelings are not reciprocated, selling the audience a love that no doubt they've experienced. This concept of someone that we love so much, and they don't feel the same is so easily related to, complimenting the coming of age genre quite nicely. 




At the start of the trailer, the soundtrack doesn't start until the companies are shown. Instead, we are introduced by the sound of type writing, an occurring theme throughout the trailer. This gives the movie an 'old school' touch, as type writers were commonly used years ago when computers weren't invented. This helps us with the time period, and therefore is selling to the audience the 80's lifestyle.
On the left are the examples of the type writing effect used within the trailer, to help create the 80's feel:

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Introduction

Hello, my name is Sophie and this is my media blog.