Differences from Hollywood
The films are often made for far less money than Hollywood films [9] [10] (some films like Robert Townsend's 1987 satire Hollywood Shuffle , Richard Linklater's 1991 countercultural piece Slacker and Kevin Smith's 1994 Gen X comedy Clerks were funded by using credit cards [11] [12] ) and each aspect of the filmmaking process has to undergo less scrutiny by committees. Additionally, within the Indiewood approach the filmmaker can take as long as they need in the post-production phase of their film - whereas in Hollywood they are contracted to finish the film in a specific period of time (usually 10 weeks). In Hollywood, the film then goes on to show in focus group screenings on the studio lot. In Indiewood, the filmmakers can determine the next steps of the film. They also bear striking similarities to as well as were influenced by the "proto-indies" of the 1960s such as Robert Downey Sr's still image film Chafed Elbows (1966), John Cassavetes's Academy Award-nominated Faces and Brian de Palma's Greetings (each from 1968) which in turn were influenced by the culture of the Beat Generation. [13] [14]
Many indie films were made by small companies that were created daily in the 80s and 90s to the point where most of them went bankrupt. [15]
Most Indiewood films are first shown at film festivals with the hopes of further distribution by being picked up (or purchased) by a larger film company or distributor in order to find broader audiences alongside awards consideration [16] [17] (e.g. 2009's A Single Man ). [18]
Background
The American independent film, prior to the 1980s and first half of the 1990s, [19] [20] [11] was previously associated with race films, [21] Poverty Row b movies (e.g. Republic Pictures [22] [23] ), exploitation films, avant-garde underground cinema (when it was known as the New American Cinema [24] [25] ), social and political documentaries, experimental animated shorts (since the mid-1930s featuring works by pioneer animators Mary Ellen Bute and Oskar Fischinger) and social realist dramas. [26] [27] [28] [14] [29] [30] [31]
Many post-WWII period independent filmmakers, like Francis Thompson, believed that cinema is an art form and a forum for discussing social issues. [32]
A notable scholar of indie cinema is Ray Carney, known for championing the works of Cassavetes and Mark Rappaport. [33]
Throughout the middle of the 1990s, the word "Indiewood" (a.k.a. "indie boom" or "indie film movement") [34] [35] [4] was invented to describe a component of the spectrum of American films in which distinctions exist, it seemed as if Hollywood and the independent sector had become blurred. [36] [37] [38] [39] [40] [4]
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