What does Independent Film mean?

What is an Independent film? Is it budget? Is it actually Independent of MAJOR studios? What? Would Lucas Films be considered independent? If not why? The are not associated with any major studio, and they do not put out a movie every year. Granted, their movies break the bank, but they are free of studio influence. Please help me on this one.

Since most independent film companies are now owned by the big studios, it's pretty meaningless. But it used to mean movies made outside the studio system, without audience test screenings, without marketing strategies. Personal films, stories that Hollywood wouldn't ever make, movies that take chances. (Jim Jarmusch is pretty much the last true independent filmmaker in America, I think. ) As for George Lucas being an independent filmmaker...don't make me sick! His newest flicks are the worst kind of audience pandering sh*t, with millions of tie-ins and toys to sell along with them.

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Not to mention Lucas is in bed with Fox.

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A film can be independent if it's made by an independent film producer with no outside involvement. In one sense I do think you could call George Lucas an independent filmmaker if it's true that he has total control over his work. David O. Selznick was one of the first independent producers and he produced "Gone With the Wind" and other crowd pleasing films. United Artists too.

Then a film can be independent "in spirit". The films of Ang Lee for example are pretty originally made (even though they are somewhat populistic too) but are they really independent? It's somewhere in between really. Then there are guys like Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola that have made big names as independent filmmakers and that (I presume) don't have to struggle that much to scrape up the cash needed for a bigbudget, but still daring, production.

Then there are true independent filmmakers that would no way in hell be able to raise $100 million for a film but refuse to let anyone intrude on their artistic integrity. Jim Jarmusch, Larry Clark, Hal Hartley, Lars von Trier.... the list is long. That's what I think is real independent filmmaking.

Some great "true" indies:

• "Slacker" - Richard Linklater
• "Gummo" - Harmony Korine
• "KIds" - Larry Clark
• "The Celebration" - Thomas Vinterberg
• "No Such Thing" - Hal Hartley
• "Reservoir Dogs" - Quentin Tarantino

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

I ask this question, because of the publicity "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is getting for passing the $200 million mark, as the highest grossing Indy film ever.

I just thought it was wierd that getting so much pub, while Lucas, under definition of Independent, doesn't get any recognition. I'm not even going to debate whether his new movies are good or not. It's irrelevant to the question. He gets no outside money to make his movies.

Somebody mentioned he's in bed with Fox. Well, they don't fund him, they distribute him. If distribution contracts with major studios eliminates you from be Independent, then NO film is Independent. MBFGW had people associated with it from major studios (Dreamworks). SO would that not eliminate from being Independent in the same way Lucas was in an eariler post.

Just curious.

A good question for debate.

If you want to see an independent film, then go to a film festival. Indie films are usually the blood sweat and tears of filmmakers, projects that they have been working on for sometimes YEARS. Projects that are sometimes self funded by a minimum wage job, shot on the weekends, with a sometimes all volunteer cast and crew.

These are the real filmmakers. Filmmakers that risk their relationships to put out a film. With credit cards maxed to the limit, they take out loans, then they beg family members to lend them some money, like some sort of drug addict, all for the project that only THEY believe in.

If they are in real trouble, they take on an executive producer, sometimes in this case a doctor, or real estate agent, PROMISING them to double their investments.

Think of the mental toll this leaves on people.

Then when everything is finished, they scramble for contracts, and rights ie song rights etc. Then the time comes for them to hope the world likes it, so they send it to dozens of festival's (hopefully making it into a well known one).

Then they get accepted, and they go to the festivals, winning awards, getting contacts etc, and finally, if they are really lucky, a distibuter will notice it, or a production company will see a talent in you, offering you a contract for your next film.

These are the TRUE indie films. A road travelled by many of todays big filmmakers - Linklater, Smith, Nolan, Tarantino, Raimi, Rodriguez, P.T Anderson, Aronofsky, Wes Anderson... They all went through this horrible lifestyle, don't think that they were just "discovered" on the street.

A good book to read is "Rebel Without A Crew" by Robert Rodriguez. It's a great story.

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WORD!!!

Good lord Travis. Did it really have to be that preachy? I mean, the question was asking more for a definition of "independent film," as it's a term thrown around pretty loosely nowadays. As such, I'm not sure that indie films are only those that went through the process you've described.

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What I've mentioned is a TRUE indie film, the first rung on the indie ladder.
Everything else is a substitute.

Making a film for $8 million in my opinion is not an indie film. It's just a cheap version of an expensive film.

When a bunch of guys/girls with no money or support get together and make a film - - that's indie.

Though if you want to be "proper" - an indie film is categorized these days as being not produced by a major studio.

Preachy? No. Peachy? Yes.

If you look at the independent companies in the 30's and 40's it has really nothing to do with money. David O Selznick went independent and produced "Gone With the Wind". And that was not a low-buget production. But Selznick International Pictures and other companies are what you could call the real independents.

Nowadays "indie" has as much to do with style and unwillingness to compromise as to what company that produce the picture. Like Spike Lee. Most of his films are produced by so called majors but nobody would call him a sell-out or deny that he's a true artist (well, not because of what production company he's working with anyway). His films may be produced by majors but he will alwasy be an independent filmmaker in my book. The awesome thing about it is that all of his films are economically disappointments for the companies but still they let him release a film a year. There is hope after all.....

These days you have independent films and then you have my-wife-left-me-and-then-my-house-burnt-down-my-credit-cards-are-maxed-my-dog-is-dead-and-I-have-sold-my-body-for-the-means-to-shoot-on-16mm films.

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