Is this the face of an independent filmmaker?
It’s 2013 and the lines between mainstream independent films and studio films is as blurred as can be. We’re not talking so much about the films that get made by the thousands of truly amateur filmmakers around the world but those deemed independent by not only the media but us viewers. Sony Pictures Classics, Focus Features, Warner Independent – can the films of these companies and others like them be called “independent” at all with a straight face? And what of the directing stars who have made so much and have so much cachet that they can do as they please?
This deep discussion is handled with the grace and dignity that you’ve hopefully come to expect from FILM DON’T HURT, as Kai and Dylan (sans crickets!) dive deep to get to the heart of the matter. Or something like that. ENJOY!!!
A couple notes:
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I miss the crickets.
Yeah, I can see where the confusion comes in: Independent films have *traditionally* been small time, small budget operations. But at the end of the day, I think an “indie” film is any film that hasn’t gone through a major studio’s systems and cinematic autotuning (test audiences, focus groups, etc).
Don’t lose track of the fact that financing = control. Sure, the studios give the likes of Woody Allen and the Coens a lot of leeway, but if Woody Allen announced that his next project would cost $200M to make? Fat chance.
In that context, it seems a bit perverse but yeah, the likes of James Cameron and George Lucas are independent filmmakers — they’re outside of the studio system, and they’re going to make what they want to make, the way they want to make it .