2009-87B – Kunal Boppana

2009-113B – Vineet Kanabar

 What it originally meant –
A film produced outside the domain of the
eight major studios in America - Paramount
Pictures, MGM, Twentieth Century Fox,
Warner Bros., RKO, Universal Pictures,
United Artists, and Columbia Pictures
 Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas
Fairbanks & D. W. Griffith
 Disenchantment with control in the hands of
the studios
 Founded United Artists – 1919
 UA - one of the Little Three ‘Major’ Studios,
and considered outside the indie scene.
The Big Five Majors The Little Three Majors Poverty Row

MGM United Artist Republic Pictures

20th Century Fox Columbia Pictures Monogram Pictures

Paramount Universal Studios Grand National

Warner Bros. Producers Releasing

Corporation (PRC)

RKO
 In contemporary times –
 Part of the independent content scenario
alongside music, news etc.
 Advances in technology
 Support from smaller studios – Lionsgate,
Warner Independent Pictures The
Weinstein Company/Dimension Films
 “While it’s true that, in the best of all possible
worlds, independent films are genuinely
alternative, genuinely original visions, there’s no
such thing as an absolutely independent film.
There’s still an economy at work: The movie has
to go into the marketplace, and people have to
want to see it.”
— Christine Vachon, acclaimed American
independent film producer (Poison, 1991; Boys
Don’t Cry, 1999; I’m Not There, 2007)
Production Distribution Consumption
 On the upside,
 Financing film budgets
 Added certain degree of bankability
 Well established distribution and integration network
 On the downside,
 No creative liberty to artists
 Low payout
 Cartelization of the studios
 Director Major Indie Film Major Studio-Backed
Films
Steven Soderbergh sex, lies and videotape The Ocean’s Trilogy, Traffic,
Erin Brokovich
Kevin Smith Clerks Dogma, Jersey Girl
Judd Apatow The 40 Year Old Virgin Knocked Up
Quentin Tarantino Reservoir Dogs Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill Vol. 1&2
Robert Rodriguez El Mariachi Desperado, Once Upon A
Time In Mexico, Sin City
Martin Scorsese Mean Streets Taxi Driver, Goodfellas,
Raging Bull, The Departed
Darren Aronofsky Pi Requiem For A Dream
 Bankable distribution and marketing
channels – Orion Pictures’ Dances With
Wolves & Platoon
 Money spent on production <<<<<< money
spent on marketing and distribution
 Technological innovation
 20th Century
Independent Films
El Mariachi - $7,000
Clerks - $27,575
Eraserhead - $20,000
The Blair Witch Project - $14,000
21st Century ‘Indie’
Juno - $6.5 million
District 9 - $30 million
Moon - $5 million
Two Lovers - $12 million

Pi - $68,000 I’m Not There - $20 million

In 2005, about 15% of the U.S. domestic box office

revenue was from independent studios.
 Is an independently shot, yet studio
distributed movie still indie?
 Budgets?
 Stars?
 Content?