How has Working Title adapted its films and marketing for different audiences?
Working Title well known for its iconic British films was first founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983, with Eric Fellner as co-owner. In 1983 Working Title released its first film, ‘my beautiful Laundrette’, a comedy-drama set in London; the iconic London scenery was used a lot through many other Working Title projects and the comedy-drama genre has also been used in a variety of ways. With the departure of Radclyffe, Eric Feller came on board; Working Title began making a variety of films for Polygram Filmed Entertainment, this became a major competitor in Hollywood and finally in 1999, Polygram merged with MCA Music Entertainment forming Universal Studios. Between the period of 2000 and 2004 Studio Canal and Working Title were owned by the same company, Studio Canal financed many of there films including; Bully and Bridget Jones’s Diary. With Working Title films being watched in North America, this allowed a whole new range of audience; films were now being adapted to please different niche markets.
Films were becoming ironically British with setting, actors and history to please the American market. In 2003, ‘Love Actually’, a comedy-drama was released; Working Title used classic British settings, the main one being London to pull audiences in, comedy-drama as mentioned before was the genre of ‘My beautiful Laundrette’ was used again as it appeals to a wide audience. All actors were British in ‘Love Actually’ examples being; Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant and Keira Knightley, all these actors have appeared in at least two other Working Title productions.
The trailer for ‘Love Actually’ has been done to appeal to all audiences, a voice over has been used, this is used through a lot of American advertising, there are snippets of each actor, this can appeal to fans of theirs and snippets of other films by Working Title are shown at the beginning (Nottinghill), this can make others watch those productions or if they enjoyed ‘Nottinghill’, it may make them want to watch ‘Love Actually’.
Another example being ‘Atonement’ released in 2007, Keira Knightley also starred along with James McAvoy(British), the film of drama, war and romance is very different to the usual comedy-drama, this brings in a whole new range of audience. War films are likely to being in the older audience both British and American, romance can appeal to all people, this is what resulted in a large box office. British locations were also used in this film, mainly in London, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.
A final example is ‘Bean’ released in 1997; this took on a completely different approach, a family comedy based genre which was filmed in the United Kingdom as well as the United States, this was done a few years before the merge between Polygram and Universal Studios and so I believe producers were testing out what brought in a wider audience.
Niche markets, this is a film made that is aimed at a specific audience, an example of this can be Anna Karenina, adapted from the novel by Leo Tolstoy, a historical drama which is aimed at the older generation and the American audience. Set in the late 19th century in Russia, American audiences will enjoy the period look, clothing, seeing as it was first a novel; there is already a large fan base. Keira Knightley stars in yet another Working Title film, taking on the role of the aristocrat with co-stars Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Jude Law has acted in a lot of high earning films, this has resulted in him being well known and many people watching his films, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is much younger and so that brings in a much different audience. This film has adapted to appeal to many audiences.
Through Universal, Working Title has now been able to reach many more people across the world, resulting in a much larger audience. From some of the examples I mentioned above you can see that although they have some of the same features in there films; actors and setting, they have covered most genres which allows them to access a larger audience.
The iconic British style of Working Titles films has now become well known and is what audiences love and crave.
