Working Title And Warp Films Culture Show Notes

The Culture Show - October 2009

Mike Goodridge
He said that Hollywood Studios depend on big budget action movies with many special effects, these are known as "Tent Pole Films". This means that middle range budget films will suffer because audiences are more focussed on who's in a film rather than what is in it.
Tim Bevan
He works for Working Title Films. He says that it is easier to sell a comedy or scary film than it is to sell a drama or thriller. This is because people want to go to the cinema to relax rather than have to really focus on a film, which is called "escapism". He talks about having a "bullseye" which means that the more risk's you take, the smaller the bullseye. This has resulted in risk taking going down because directors aim for a larger bullseye.
Lord Puttnam
He says that if you have a film involving well known, established actors e.g. Brad Pitt then it will help a film to sell. This is the reason that he stopped making films as he wanted people to watch a film because they were interested in what was in it rather than who was in it when the audience watched a film for the opposite.
Sandra Hebrun
She says that more films need to be created that are intelligent and make people think.

Actors may need to lower their budgets in the future but this will most likely only happen if they are actually interested with the film and are willing to be a "coventurer".
An institution is always about the budget and how that will affect the audience that is seeing the film.



Shane Meadows
Meadows works for the independant film company, Warp Films. He said that for making a film you can have alot of money and big names involved in it but it doesn't mean that it will necessarily be a good film. In films that are made by Warp Films, he says that the scripts often change during filming e.g. half a page of script can become 10 pages of script. He mentioned that the relationship with the actors is very important which will make it a more flexible production. By cutting costs e.g. using normal room lights to light a room, and for example in one of Meadow's biggest films, This Is England, he says how they bought all of the cars in the film from eBay. Also in this film he directed it on a set that was already there, on an estate in Nottingham which he felt fitted the film. By cutting costs he lowers the risks to take during filming.