Group Work: Warp Vs Working Title Presentation

The two films me and Jake are comparing are Four lions and Green Zone both from different production companies below i will list the questions with the appropriate analysis.

Four Lions

Four Lions DVD Cover

2010 FilmFour Lions is a British dark comedy film. It is the feature film debut of director Chris Morris, written by Morris, Sam Bain, and Jesse Armstrong.

WikipediaRelease date: January 23, 2010 (initial release)

Director: Chris Morris

Production company: Warp Films

Awards: BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer

Screenplay: Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Simon Blackwell, Chris Morris

Green Zone

Green Zone DVD Cover

2010 FilmGreen Zone is a 2010 British-French-American war thriller film directed by Paul Greengrass. The storyline was conceived from a screenplay

Written by: Brian Helgeland, based on a 2006 non-fiction book WikipediaRelease date: February 26, 2010 (initial release)

Director: Paul Greengrass

DVD release date: June 22, 2010

Screenplay: Brian Helgeland
Story by: Rajiv Chandrasekaran

1.Budgets

Four lions budget: £2.5m
A small budget compared to the working title kind of budgets. Never-the-less the biggest budget that Warp have ever had, the film made alot of money and profited greatly, making abit of money in america and £600,000 in the british box office, making the real money on DVD release. it was a very controversial topic to risk the largest Warp budget ever, however a risk that payed off.

Green zone budget: $100m
A large budget by any standards even by the big 6 standards. Working titles biggest ever budget. Using the director of the bourne films, as what you would call a safe bet using a big A-list star also. However this film was a major flop US box office.

2.Distribution+Marketing

Green zone Distributors:
DVD: Universal home entertainment
Theatre:Universal pictures

A prime example of vertical integration as universal own the production side that is working titleas WT is a subsidiary, they then do the box office part of it as they get the film into cinema.They also can advertise these films by using things like universal studios in orlando, make rdes etc. universalis such a big company that there is such a variety of marketing that can be used for exampleon their other films they advertised green zone in the adverts before thefilm


Four lions distributors:

Optimum Releasing (2010) (UK) (theatrical)
Optimum releasing was the main distributor for four lions and has an ident at the beginning of the film, it isn't a big company compared to universal standards as Warp don't have the vertical integration advantage that Green Zone had. Film four payed for the rights to this film and advertised it as well.


3.Critical Reception:

Four lions ratings:
Rotton tomatoes 'tomatometer'-81%
IMDB rating:7.3

Doesnt get a bad rating, a risky subject yet the risk payed off and made warp alot of money

Green zone ratings:
Rotten tomatoes 'tomatometer'-53%
IMDB rating:6.9
Regarded as a massive 'flop' Working titles biggest budget and maybe the biggest failure.


4.Box Office + other expeditional figures

Four lions:
£2,686,096 (UK) (13 June 2010)

Weekend gross:
£608,608 (UK) (9 May 2010) (115 Screens)

USA box office:
$301,527 (USA) (13 February 2011)

Green zone:

UK box office:
£5,429,903 (UK) (4 April 2010)

USA box office:
$35,024,475 (USA) (2 May 2010)


6. Media Language (A) Genre + Audience:

Four Lions:
The film makes comedy out of terrorism - a social issue, which is typical of a British comedy especially in particular because of the production company, Warp, who mainly produce social realist films which is the genre that Four lions falls into.

The target audience for Four Lions would be for an older audience as a result of the mature humor exploited. However, the audience doesn't have to be too old to understand the humor  Giving the director, Chris Morris is known for his controversial comedy, a liberal audience i needed as he does mock terrorism, which some people may find offensive as it could be interpreted as stereotypical. Therefore the target audience for Four Lions would be 18-25 and 26 on wards.

Green Zone:
The film is an action, thriller, war film, drama. These can be good genre films, while Green Zone is not—and the reasons for its failure are political and Working title has seemed to stray away from political interpretations in their other movies such as Bridget Jones Diary. Its Warp who concentrate on using political references as apparent in Four Lions. Its not necessarily used a lot in Working title films anymore. However The Daily Mail called it "a preachy political thriller disguised as an action flick" and  gave its reasoning for failure as "the air of being aimed at ignorant american teenagers" and this is the area they are trying to sell to - America. Which they have basically snubbed in this movie.
The target audience for this film is teenagers as a result of the action and the war image it portrays. 15+ and for adults.

7. Media Language (B) 'British'?

Language plays a key role in Four Lions. It’s true that the film is not formally experimental or imitative – it adopts the kind of furtive handheld camera style that seems to be the default setting for this kind of quasi-neo-realist thing these days.
This is usually what we would find in Warp films, as this is a social realist comedy almost its not surprising that a film like this has come from the same production company that produced films such as This Is England and Dead Mans Shoes

8. A typical Working Title/Warp film?:

It is arguable whether the two films i have analysed are typical movies according to their production companies. One could argue that Four Lions is a typical film for Warp as it is a social realist film and does contain political interest. It is also a relatively low budget film compared to films in the big 6 (However, it was the highest budgeted film Warp had produced at £2.5m) so this isn't unusuall that its a low budget movie. In addition to this, it doesn't feature any stars in the movie which is also typical for Warp productions.
Green Zone on the other hand is not a typical Working Title film this is based on the account with comparing it to previous films such as Bridgets Jones Diary and Notting Hill the media language used is completely different as its a much more realistic film and contains political content which Working Title previously strayed away from as they expanded. However, The budget for Green Zone (£100m) was the highest budget they have ever had although its not surprising that the film contains an A list star (Matt Damon) which is most likely the reason as to why the budget was so high.

9. Summary
I think that Working Title should leave Warp to making realistic movies and including political content as Green Zone for Working Title was an absolute flop. Therefore, Working Title should stick to making Hybrid movies as they have done so in the past, they should stick to what they are good at in the future continuing to make there money this way. Also, warp should continue making the movies they do to keep British cinema alive.


 10. Bibliography
http://mayadykes.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/genre-codes-and-conventions-target-audience-for-four-lions/
http://www.cineaste.com/articles/webtakesemgreen-zoneem
http://drnorth.wordpress.com/2010/05/17/four-lions-war-goes-bang/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Zone_(film)
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt0947810%2F&ei=jMM9UYrLJsmN7AbciYDwCQ&usg=AFQjCNHN84HoHHTQZQmoddFgribuEQgeww&sig2=ALfc4NMIzNmOWzQc2dOK9w
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/four_lions/