Independent Movies
Independent movies are known for offering a high-quality product to filmgoers craving complex stories and challenging performances. While the major studios assault viewers with an endless barrage of 3-D and animation designed to pull in the youth market--and therefore their parents--indie movies focus on a more sophisticated viewing audience. Simply put, the indie system provides intelligent films for intelligent people.
Independent Movies vs. Hollywood Movies
The line between independent movies and Hollywood movies has become blurred in recent years, as many major studios have created their own subsidiaries to produce indie films. However, this single maxim remains true: If a film receives less than half of its funding from a major studio, then it can be said to be independent.
Here are a few other tips for spotting independent films:
The subject matter of the film is geared for a select audience as opposed to the family-friendly fare of Hollywood.
While many Hollywood movies tend to have tidy resolutions and happy endings, indie films often offer resolutions that are ambiguous or downright dark. In other words, independent movies are similar to foreign films in this way.
Produced by an independent production company, even though it might be a subsidiary of a major studio.
Hollywood films tend to have large budgets, while indie movies are just the opposite. This might translate to a budget of $10 million, or it could be as low as just a few thousand dollars (“El Mariachi” and “Paranormal Activity,” for example). In the case of true independent films, the filmmaker may raise the money by maxing out credit cards (“Clerks” and “Hollywood Shuffle”) or selling off personal possessions.
Films from major studios will open across the country on thousands of screens, while an independent picture will often be shown in limited release on a few hundred (or less) screens.
Independent Movie Studios
In today’s Hollywood, the six most powerful film studios rule the roost. Not only do they release the most films per year, but their movies play on the greatest number of screens around the globe. The Big Six, as they are called, are comprised of the following studios:
- Warner Bros.
- 20th Century Fox
- Paramount Pictures
- Columbia Pictures
- Walt Disney Pictures
- Universal Studios
Then there are the independent movie studios. Each releases a certain number of films per year, and they also help get foreign-language pictures distributed in the United States. The following list contains the names of some the most successful independent movie studios. Keep in mind, however, that this list can change often, and many independent studios have been sold or forced to file for bankruptcy over the years.
- First Look Studios
- IFC Films
- Image Entertainment
- Lions Gate Films
- Magnolia Pictures
- Newmarket Films
- Overture Films
- Palm Pictures
- Samuel Goldwyn Films
- Summit Entertainment
- ThinkFilm
- Troma Entertainment
- The Weinstein Company/Dimension Films
Besides the more successful indie studios, there are thousands of smaller ones currently in operation. These include the direct-to-video market and studios that release their films on a regional basis.
A Brief History of Independent Films
Ever since the creation of the studio system in Hollywood in the early 1900s, filmmakers have been looking for more artistic control. In 1919, United Artists became the first American independent film studio when D.W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks--all major players in the era of silent movies--joined forces. Upon the announcement of their venture, one established studio head was quoted as saying, “The inmates are taking over the asylum.”
From 1928 until 1949--a period commonly known as the Golden Age of Hollywood--eight major studios dominated the landscape. The five largest, known as the Big Five, owned their own theater chains, production studio, distribution division, and kept performers and filmmakers under multi-picture contracts. The Big Five were RKO, Loew’s/MGM, Fox, Paramount, and Warner Bros. The other three film studios, known as the “major-minors,” were United Artists, Columbia, and Universal.
During the Golden Age, the eight majors had a stranglehold on the industry. While smaller studios were forced to fight it out for a meager 5% of the marketplace, the majors controlled a whopping 95%. And since the majors owned most of the film theaters, they could determine whose motion pictures were shown…and whose weren’t.
In 1941, a number of artists (including Orson Welles, Walt Disney, Charlie Chaplin and Samuel Goldwyn) formed the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers (aka SIMPP), an organization dedicated to protecting the right of indie producers and fighting against the studio monopoly. SIMPP filed an antitrust lawsuit in 1942, and this culminated in a 1948 Supreme Court decision requiring Hollywood studios to sell their theater chains and cease business practices deemed anti-competitive. This ruling effectively marked the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood.
Independent filmmaking received a major boost following World War II, as portable movie cameras now provided anyone with the opportunity to shoot their own features. In 1953, Ray Abrashkin’s Little Fugitive became the first indie nominated for an Oscar (Best Original Screenplay).
Low Budget Movies
Low-budget filmmaking enjoyed a boost in popularity beginning in the late 1950s, as low budget movies could see significant returns at the box office. Roger Corman was one of the leaders of the low-budget movement, and many of his films throughout the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s are now regarded as classics (“Death Race 2000” and “House of Usher”). Legendary for his fast shooting and frugal nature, Corman would often turn out seven films per year, something once thought to be impossible.
These low-budget movies also helped to soften the restrictions placed on the content of films. While movies from major studios were stifled by the rigid production code, indie films could show whatever they chose to. Nudity, violence, and drug use were often used as selling points, and Hollywood would eventually pick up on this when the production code was dropped and the MPAA was instituted in 1968.
It was around this time that independent movies truly came into their own, as Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider” became the first indie of the New Hollywood movement. This was followed by Midnight Cowboy, the only X-rated film to ever win an Oscar, and Francis Ford Coppola’s debut movie, The Rain People. A few years later, George Lucas would burst onto the scene with THX 1138.
But Hollywood was paying attention, and they realized that they were better off discovering new talent and grooming them for the future (much like the MLB minor leagues). Movies such as “Taxi Driver” and “The Last Picture Show” were made with studio money, even though they looked exactly like indie films. From that point on, the notion of a true independent production became increasingly rare, and the classic studio system was on the rise again. With the success of films like “Star Wars” and “Jaws,” Hollywood adopted more of a blockbuster mentality, and independent filmmakers struggled to make their artistic visions a reality.
While indie legends such as David Lynch and John Waters made their mark in the 1980s, the independent movement wouldn’t experience a massive resurgence until the beginning of the 1990s. This was due in large part to the appearance of the Sundance Film Festival, and it’s recognition and promotion of filmmakers including Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jim Jarmusch, and Steven Soderbergh. By 2005, 15% of the domestic box office revenue in the United States came from independent film studios.
The trend continues as of this writing, and the rise of affordable digital equipment (and non-linear editing software for the PC) has made quality filmmaking even more accessible to the masses. While many of the major studios from the Golden Age still reign supreme in Hollywood, they’re being joined by more and more small studios eager to share their unique motion pictures with the world. One only has to look at the critical and commercial success of “Little Miss Sunshine” (2006), “Juno” (2007), and “The Hurt Locker” (2009) to see that independent movies are alive and well.