The Differences Between A Mainstream And Independent Film

Production

Independent films tend to have unknown actors and unknown directors with the locations being in a small town or city. The films are mostly produced outside of a major film studio. In addition to having it be produced by an independent company, these independent films are often produced or distributed by various, other, major studios. Independent films are set apart from mainstream films mostly because of their style or by their content, and the way in which the maker of the films, personal vision is realized. Special effects and lighting would be kept to a minimum and it wouldn’t any big CGI moments or big lighting as the budget for the film is usually smaller then a mainstream film. However, because of this, the plot would be different and would make the film interesting, it would set it apart from a mainstream film and be very different to an average plot from a mainstream film. What would make a mainstream film popular would be the a-list actors that would be in it or the popular genre at the time and could reflect the mood of the moment. The plot could be an adaptation from a novel, but this can have consequences as it could be made differently to how it is told in the novel, and people turning away from it. A mainstream film would have big special effects, and the director would spend a lot of the money on special effects, as they would have a bigger budget then an independent film would. This would make the film more entertaining for viewers to watch.

Marketing

The marketing of an independent film can is usually word of mouth and would usually be limitedly realised to reach a small specific audience based on the films genre. Their marketing can be very different, as they are advertised in different ways. Mainstream films here their trailers advertised all over the Internet and on TV. It can also be advertised on billboards and posters (these posters can be on buses or just around cities or towns.)

Independent films are advertised a little differently. A big way it is advertised is through film festivals such as the London Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. These festivals can generate publicity for the films and awards can come out of them, which would make the film more popular and make the films gross, a lot bigger. Some cinemas are independent film only cinemas, so the films that are shown there, can be advertised through the cinema company.

A month or so, after the films are released, DVD and TV releases will be advertised for the mainstream film and would gross in more money from the DVD sales. Independent films will realise their films through DVD and TV sales, but wouldn’t have as much publicity then a mainstream would, for the certain attributes that the mainstream film had, such as an award winning director or popular actor.

Distribution

Big companies such as Warner Bros. Sony, and Buena Vista would distribute mainstream films and would realise the film for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download or Television.) This could also be a theatrical release and this would usually happen when the distributor works with the theatrical exhibitor to make it happen. The distributor must also ensure that a full line of film advertising material is available on each film that’s been distributed. This will help the exhibitor attract a big audience for the film.

Independent Films would have film distributors as well, but the film distributor companies would be small and underrated.  Examples of these companies are Republic Pictures, Monogram Pictures and Grand National.

Exhibition

On my findings and comments on the different listings at the cinemas, I found that they would show certain films according to times that they would put them out. For example in the summer, the cinemas institutions would distribute more family and children’s films. They would put them out at this time as children would be taking there annual summer holidays, so more families would come to watch these films, at around these times and they would gross in more money. However, more horror films were shown at night. This is a sensible idea as most family films are shown during the day, and it wouldn’t be a good idea to show horror movies during the day. Plus, showing horror films during the day would be strange as it couldn’t capture the moment and the emotion that you could with showing them in the evening.

Neo-Noir Explanation

Neo-Noir is a modern version of film noir. Film Noir had its own distinctive features, such as characters being anti-heroes, and being trapped in a difficult situation and having to make a big decision. Neo-Noir genre didn’t start to make its move in the film industry until 1960 but it wasn’t until 1970 that people decided to make neo-noir a separate genre from film noir.  Film Noir films the audience is usually led to understand the protagonist and form a ‘relationship’ with the character. Things like lightning intended to be high density, and the colours used in films were mostly de-saturated and sepia effects were mostly used. As for plots, most neo-noir film plots included identity crises, memory issues and social ramifications. They have quite a lot of fiction stories in them.

Most film noir films were mostly in black and white, and the lighting was quite low contrast. Where as Neo-Noir tends to have more colours in their films but the lighting is more high density, sharp, and edgy.

Unlike Film Noir, Neo-noir doesn’t have a lot of movement with the camera and a lot of changes with the camera angles, and changes in camera angles. Most of the shots are mostly medium, close and long shots, and they tend, just to do long takes in production. If rare, there is an establishment shot, to open up the film and to show the location of where the film is going to be. Most of the themes that are common in Neo-Noir films are crime, murder and brutality, which are some of the similar themes that can be seen in Film Noir.

Sin City Opening Scene Analysis

Before we even see anything on the screen we are greeted by the Diegetic sounds in the background and the music already kicks in. Here, the audience expectation is that the scene is going to tell us how the film begins, but the Jazz music already being played before we see any visuals, shows that the director wants the audience to already feel a sinister emotion, before the scene happens. The scene transitions with a fade in from black to the first opening scene.

In this shot everything is in a black and white contrast except for the woman’s dress. The woman is a femme fatal and her dress being the colour red represents seduction. The male emerging from the darkness could suggest that he is an evil character as darkness relates to evil. The Backlight/High contrast could show that there are no good guys at this point or in this scene and that the Femme Fatal is quite trapped. Leading from this the camera shot is a high angle shot which shows that the woman is isolated or vulnerable. Before the scene even starts up. You can hear the non-diegetic sounds of Jazz music, which is a theme of crime in the 1930s. You can also hear the Diegetic sounds of sirens of police cars, traffic and the wind to set the location and the isolation of the city. During this scene, a non-diegetic voiceover is heard; the voice of the person talking is quite sinister and dark and uses a lot of poetic language. This ties in with the sinister lights, angles and sound to give this scene a dark atmosphere.

In this shot, we see a change in camera angles and a close up shot of the femme fatals face. Her away from the black and white colours, her eyes are green this is a emphasis on when the man says to her “your eyes” and explains what he likes about her eyes just after he lights her a cigarette.

In this shot, we have another camera angle change and it’s an over the shoulder shot of the man to the femme fatal. At this point in the film, the setting is quite mysterious and sinister with the high lighting contrasts of the buildings in the background.

In this shot, the camera zooms out of the usual close up shot to a medium long shot. The whole picture changes as an effect is used called Chiarascuro; Chiarascuro is contrast of light and dark and features a lot of bold contrasts affecting the whole composition. Here, we can see that the all of the mise en scene in her, changes to a white bold colour, with the rain still beaming in, in the background.

In this shot, the man has embraced the woman and proceeded to shoot the woman. When the shot was fired, there was a quick and big white flash on the face of the woman to emphasise the gunshot. Here the camera does a close up of the man with the woman slowly dying on his shoulder, with the gun that was used to kill the woman. The light shines on the face of the man to show his reaction to what he has done. At this point the rain gets a lot faster. The rain represents the sadness and the sorrow of the death of the girl and even the character feels this emotion when he realises that he has killed her.

In this last shot of the opening scene, while the man holds the dead woman in his arms as she falls slowly to the floor. There’s a top angle shot looking down on the pair, as if what it would be like if god was looking down. To add to this the man is looking up to the sky, looking up at god. This represents the drama and the evil at this point in the film as he is looking up at god to show what he has done and to show that he has committed a murder. After this, the camera then zooms out of the pair, in a spiral, and we see the skyscrapers and large buildings of New York City. This then transcends into darkness and the credits for sin city begin.

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Costume And Setting

The settings used in Film Noir, are low-key lightning and a lot of classic films are associated with stark light/dark contrasts and dramatic shadow patterning. Quite a common theme is when Venetian Blinds are used in some scenes. This is a good visual as when the shadows are cast upon an actor or on the set, it can give a good visual of the scene and add certain elements to it such a sinister or dark. These settings tend to be used and represent the visual places on screens, such as real cities and the moderness (of its time). Faces may be partially or mostly obscured by darkness, this is common in a lot of Hollywood movies. Film Noir is also known for its use of low-angle, wide-angle and skewed angle shots.

Costume would also take a big part in Film Noir, as it would give characters their own identity. In most films, women would wear variety of costumes, depending on the character. In some, if the woman were a working character, she would wear work clothes. This would be typical for her look, as it would represent her social rise of the protagonist (leading character) from middle class to upper class. Other costumes may be dressed in usual black clothes as they correspond to the usual fashion that was around in the 40’s. Men’s clothes however, are slightly different, as they would tend to wear suits, to represent the job they were in or as a standard upper class figure.

1.     http://webpages.csus.edu/~abuckman/filmnoir.htm

2.     http://www.filmnoirstudies.com/home.asp

3.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir

4.     http://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/

5.     http://www.scribd.com/doc/37006770/Film-Noir-Y11S20910

Media Questionnaire

My Name is Jamil Khan. My GCSE results are a C in Geography, A C in Drama, a C in I.T, a C in Sociology, A B in Religious Studies, a D in Technology, a C in English, an D in English Literature, a C in Science and a C in Additional Science.

My hobbies are listening to music, making videos for my Youtube channel. Playing the drums, and spending time with my friends.

The newspapers I read are The Sun, The Guardian and The Times.

I read the sun because it has all genres of news in it, such as Showbiz, TV and sport. I read The Guardian and The Times, because it focuses more on politics and the government where as The Sun doesn’t really focus on that.

I prefer to read the news online then buying a newspaper because on the Internet it’s easier to find news and lot easier for me then going to a shop and paying for a newspaper I will just look at and then never read again.

The Radio I listen to is Radio 1, I listen to this because it has a varies news and entertainment where as stations like Kiss for example I feel only reach out to one generic audience.

My favourite genres of music are Electronic, Dubstep and indie rock music.

I access music on the internet and I feel that illegally downloading music off the internet isn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be, infact now’er days lots of people do it more, are you going to be able to capture every single person that downloads music? If your downloading a certain bands album, your downloading it because you want to listen to it and you like what music they play. And isn’t that what it is mostly about? Not money, but the love of music? Technically by the law you are stealing, but it doesn’t cause any great harm then other crimes. It’s the record company’s that get angry about it most, because they are the ones who are selling it and want to get money from the albums. Whereas an artist concern is that people are taking interest in they’re music and people starting to like it, having more fans perhaps? You may in the future go and buy there album because you like they’re music. But most of that money goes to corporations (record companies).

I think the music industry has an affect and influences a lot of people, I think how people dress, relates to what music people listen to as music can sometimes be a ‘lifestyle’ and people want to be a certain stereotype.  Personally it doesn’t affect the way I dress massively, but it does have a small affect.

My favourite games are the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. I like this game as I like music a lot, and it can be fun to play instruments., even if it is pressing a few buttons… Sometimes video games can have negative attitudes towards certain conflicts and situations such as violent video games. This has been a controversial issue as people think that the games can make people violent mentally, especially small children. But I believe that as young children it is up to the parents to teach children about what to do in conflicts and situations and what the ‘right or ‘wrong’ thing to do is.

I think that new technology has helped industry and people widely to be able to do more things easier and better. Like sending an email portably without going to a computer and doing it. Also being able to communicate with people has become much easier now especially having long distant conversation with people. Also being able to watch films, television programmes and listen to music has become a lot easier to do with technology such as mp3 players, iphones and ipods.

My favourite TV channels are Sky Sports channels, Channel 4, and the BBC channels. I like these channels as they have programming on it that appeals to me and that I like to watch. My favourite TV genre is Adventure, I like this because it never becomes stale, and its never the same old stuff you can predict all the time. Television programmes I would consider memorable would be, Lost and House.

I would say Lost as it was very unpredictable and it through surprises at you a lot of the time and could be quite confusing at times, but it kept you at the edge of your seat. I would say House as it very emotional, and had a lot of twist and turns in the programme.

My favourite film genre is drama as they are good in the series plot driven presentations that they have and how you can relate to plots, as they may be real life situations and realistic characters that are based on regular people. 3 films that I think are outstanding are the blind side, 500 days of summer, and The shawshank redemption. The blind side is an outstanding film as it is based on real events and comes a cross as an emotional piece of film. It has a great plot, good actors and good dramatization. The director shows the story in a unique way. 500 days of summer is another good film as the story itself is different and original. Its not your average film love story, it shows a relationship in a real way, it’s a story people can relate to. It’s honest. As it is original, the soundtrack that comes with it is common music that usual people like the characters in the film would be able to relate to. The director has used various clever techniques like split screen to not make the film to boring and give it some light and originality. The shawshank redemption. The writer of this film is very good, and has told a story very different to any story. The emotion the actors send across to the audience is perfect and the scenes in the film are great. It’s a good film that was made because of the message it conveys. It is one of eternal hope. The film has a different feel to it as the main character never gives up his quest to become a free man out of prison as he is in there for a crime he did not commit. Stephen is an incredibly good writer, but his adaption’s are always done by the best directors., and he achieves this. It is that good of a movie that one that will be appreciated in years to come.

I like to consume films on television and watching them in the cinema. I would prefer to watch them on television. I occasionally watch movies at the cinema if it is a film I am desperate to see.

My favourite cinema in Norwich is probably Vue. I prefer Vue because as I think the seating arrangement is better compared to others as it benefits me for how well I can see the screen. The seats are comfy compared to Odeon as they have pull down seats that annoy me easily.  Plus Vue is in the city centre so therefore it is nearer to me.

I would prefer to watch films on my own because if I were to watch them in a group, people in that group could keep asking questions about the film and that would be annoying if I was trying to watch the film.

When it comes to media production I am a producer myself as I have an online youtube show, which is a wrestling league. I have been doing that for about 2 years now and it is a big hobby of mine. I was first interested in doing something like that, when I saw people in American do it and I was watching there videos and thought that that could be a lot of fun, and I could have my own view on it and my own ideas for a show.

A media text that has interested me is Slumdog Millionaire. This is a story where most of the ideas that are in the film are from real life situations and events. The production of the film has had a lot research gone into the slums in India and the good message that it send across of that ‘you can win. Plus the film is brutally honest, all the social evils and practises that really happen in a country like that. No director really has ever been bold or brave to portray Mumbai for what it really is (especially for me who comes from a nationality like that.). The plot of an underdog rising through all kinds of ranks to win the game show was something, which left a good taste in everyone’s mouth. And now to see the massively global it has become it can make people think about how places are perceived and if it’s telling the truth or not.

I chose media studies because I like the practical and academic side to it. The practical side of things gives us the opportunity to express our ideas and ourselves and to take them and put it all together. I like the academic side of it as we can dig deeper into media texts and see not what’s just on the screen but why for example a director has used different pieces of lighting for a scene or why he chose to use a camera angel for a certain shot.