Autonomy and Dependency in Two Successful UK Film and Television Companies: An Analysis of RED Production Company and Warp Films

Andrew Spicer,Steve Presence

doi:10.7227/fs.14.0002

Abstract

This article analyses the production cultures of two film and television companies in the United Kingdom – RED Production and Warp Films – by discussing the companies formation and identity, aims and ethos, internal structures and their networks of external relationships. The article argues that although managing directors and senior personnel exercise considerable power within the companies themselves, the companies depend on the extent to which they are able to engage with other industry agents, in particular the large-scale institutions that dominate the film and television industries. By situating analysis of these negotiated dependencies within shifting macroeconomic, historical and cultural contexts, the article argues that the increasing power of multinational conglomerates and the cultural convergence between film and high-end television drama marks a threshold moment for both companies which will alter their production cultures significantly.

Highlights

Existing studies of media companies have tended to focus on large-scale corporations.[1]
Production cultures and has demonstrated that RED and Warp are very different, emerging from distinct cultural formations, they have certain essential similarities. In both cases it is the founders and managing directors, Nichola Shindler and Mark Herbert, who have been crucially important in constructing their identity and mode of production
It was through their personal preferences that the companies have strong regional identities that distance them from the London-centricity of the UK media industries and is part of their distinctiveness

Summary

Introduction

Existing studies of media companies have tended to focus on large-scale corporations.[1]. In differing degrees, has been prepared to take creative risks and afford those who work for them, writers and directors, a high degree of autonomy or individual agency Sharing these fundamental similarities, each has significant differences that afford valuable insights into the divergences between the film and television industries, which have distinct traditions, business models and modes of production. In practice it is often difficult to distinguish between espoused beliefs and values and underlying assumptions, Schien’s schema provides a useful framework through which to analyse a company’s culture His injunction to uncover an organisation’s basic assumptions – the ‘why not the what’ (xi) – is valuable in encouraging analysis rather than description, not so much what an organisation does as the underlying reasons for those actions. As we will demonstrate, is important for both RED and Warp, which are both regional companies in industries dominated by London and the Southeast of England

RED Production Company

External Adaptation

Warp Films

Findings

Conclusion