American+Independent+Cinema+of+the+1980s

American Independent Cinema of the 1980s

What is Independent Cinema?[[image:51QxSDzwKiL._SL500_AA300_.jpg align="right" link="http://youtu.be/TfmbvIR_QtA"]]
===1. Represents a challenge to Pro that has also been embraced by the commercial mainstream (see Miramax/Disney and New Line/Time Warner, for example). ===

===2. How Independence is defined can vary in both form and degree, but definitions typically are organized around three main points of orientation: The position of individual films, or filmmakers, in terms of ===

 a) their industrial location: A degree of distance, industrially, from the Hollywood studio system often appears to be a necessary condition for substantial formal or socio-political departure from the dominant norms. Lower budgets and less marketing-driven filmmaking generally permit greater license (but can be relative).

 b) the kinds of formal/aesthetic strategies they adopt: some lean toward an "artistic" form and content, merging at one end with works usually defined as "experimental" or avant-garde. Formal experiment and departure from dominant conventions is, potentially, a major resource for the deconstruction of dominant ideologies. Others take up the inheritance of lower-budet "exploitation cinema" or seek to carve a niche through tthe creation of "quality," stylish, cultish, or offbeat films meant to entertain and generate profits.

 c) their relationship to the broader social, cultural, political or ideological landscape: Some films, for example, are more political or polemical in intent.

(Some may operate at a distance from the mainstream in all three respects (produced in an ultra-low-budget world; adopt formal strategies that disrupt or abandon the smoothly flowing conventions associated with the mainstream Hollywood style; they offer challenging perspectives on social issues)

(Others may exist in a closer, sometimes symbiotic relationship with the Hollywood behemoth, offering a distinctive touch within more conventional frameworks. In between are many shades of difference)



1. 1890s-1910s: Producers operating in the shadow of top three companies: Edison, Biograph, Vitegraph
a) Shifted the center of gravity to California?

b) Initiated the star system?



2. 1915-1950s (when patent company declared an illegal restraint of trade): Hollywood Studio System
a) Vertically integrated operation in which the five major studios dominated production, distribution, and exhibition

b) Independent activity either inside or outside the orbit of the majors

 1) Inside the pull of studios, independent production at both upper and lower ends:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> -- Low budget indie outfits such as Republic and Monogram served demand for "B" movies <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> -- Independent high end producers, David Selznick and Sam Goldwyn produced "A" features such as //Gone with the Wind// (1939)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;"> 2) Earlier launch of A-list to independence was United Artists (Mary Pickford, Charles Chaplin, Doulas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith)



===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">3. Studio production-line system gave way to the package system (one-off basis) in 1950s, so technically independent productions include Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) and Basic Instinct, produced by the independent Carolco in alliance with Tristar Pictures. See also Castle Rock and Morgan's Creek pictures in the 1990s. ===



<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">4. Independent productions outside Hollywood:
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">a) Early indies in rural America (gold camps)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">b) Provided technological innovations such as widescreen processes and 3-D in the 1950s.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">c) Low-budget independent black-oriented filmmaking catered to black audiences from silent era to WW II.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">d) Hollywood failed to cater to youth after WWII, as well: American Independent Pictures (AIP) provided low-budget horror, hot-rod. biker, and beach-blanket movies.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">e) American New WAve--more artistic films in 1960s, such as John Cassvetes' Shadows.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">f) Avant-garde: Maya Deren and Stan Brakhage and underground films of Andy Warhol.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">g) Box-office horror hits: Night of the Living Dead (1968) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) encouraged Hollywood to distribute AIP projects, such as Easy Rider (1969)

===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">5. Hollywood embraces some Indie exploitation elements: The Exorcist (1973) and Jaws (1975), for example. Stole some of Indie's ground with horror films (see Halloween (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980). ===



===<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">4. From 1980s, the more arty/quirky, sometime politically inflected, brand of independent cinema began to gain a higher profile: Hollywood mainstream inhospitable to indies in 1980s and 90s: Indie films defined by industrial factors coupled with aesthetic strategies and relationship to broader ideological landscape. ===