Adam's Foundation Portfolio

Working title films was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1982, it is seen as a conglomerate institution as they are partnered with Universal studios that have a 67 % share, they also fund the money required for the film and therefore work with a rather large budget. Warp films are an independent institution and have to work with a lower budget as they don’t have a partner to help with funds, having said this Warp films focus more on a middle budget clientele, so focus on a more mature and intelligent audience, so the genre would most likely be a thriller or a drama, having said this the risk is higher by choosing to shoot a film with these two genres as viewers seem to be more interested in actions and comedies. The ownerships budget can depict the end product of a film, for example Working Title film have a big budget so can produce a film accordingly to their budget .They focus on a four quadrant scheme, where they can aim their movie at a wide audience, so is therefore more mainstream, whereas Warp films have to, metaphorically, aim at a smaller target as they have a smaller budget to work with.
Working title have produced such films as ‘Nanny Mcphee’, ‘A Serious Man’ and ‘Paul’, whereas Warp Films have produced ‘This is England’ ‘Rubber Jonny’ and ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’. The budget for ‘This Is England’ – a Shane Meadows film- was 1,500,000. Compare this to ‘Nanny McPhee’ 34,000,000 and we can clearly see a stark contrast between the two film companies. Now if you compare these to a Hollywood blockbuster such as The Dark Knight at 185,000,000, you can see that a conglomerate company – in Dark Knight’s case, Warner Brothers – have a comparative fortune at their disposal.
Working Title films get their funding through Universal, whilst Warp Films get their funding from NESTA – the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. Warp films minimise costs as much as possible: they do not have much to plough into films and therefore have to cut costs to cut risks. For example, the film This Is England utilises actual housing estates rather than a purpose-built set. Lack of money means that they tend to make realistic films of the social realism genre, such as Dead Man’ Shoes, because it is far easier to make something realistic as it is common and exists, rather than trying to create a set, props or costumes of imaginary ideas. Warp Films tend to avoid action films as although they have a bigger target to aim at the investment is staggeringly more than a drama or thriller, however by choosing one of these genres the target becomes a lot smaller as the film industry tells us that there is a smaller audience and demand for these type of films.
More expensive films tend to promote escapism from reality – cheaper films promote realism. This draws a more mature audience that are capable of coping with serious, controversial issues. The smaller audience for this genre of film lies in the fact that the realism varies throughout the world – for example, you can make a social realism film of working class 80’s England but this is unlikely to attract viewers from other countries, as the main appeal is the fact that the audience can relate to the material. Warp Films definitely focuses on working class England as they are based in Sheffield and this still retains a reputation for decadence and poverty within England. Working title Films work on a four quadrant scheme – this means they have four main target audiences which gives them a wider range of people to aim at. This means they create films from a variety of genres, such as comedy (Hot Fuzz) thriller (The Interpreter) and Romcoms (Love Actually). This displays how diverse they are as an institution.