Take Five: Indie Films

Independent films, also known as indie films, are basically the complete opposite of blockbuster films. These films are not made through big major film studios and most of them do not have a huge film budget. They are produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies. Most independent films have a limited release meaning that they play in very few theaters whereas other films will premiere worldwide. However, before these films are released they are often screened at local, national or international film festivals.

The content and production in indie films often differ to mainstream films as well. The stories in these types of film, for example, tend to be less dramatic. Indie films tend to stray away from being driven by famous actors or extravagant special effects. Most of these films strive for daring subject matter. Directors tend to experiment more with camera movements making it more of an art rather then the typical structures of filming or editing. Indie films sometimes have distinctive styles of camera editing and narrative structures.

Many indie films are actually produced and distributed through subsidiaries of major film studios. Subsidiaries are a daughter company to a huge successful company. Fox Searchlight Pictures, Miramax, New Line Cinema to name a few. Fox Searchlight is, surprise surprise, the daughter company of 20^th Century Fox. Miramax is the daughter company of the Walt Disney Company. And New Line Cinema is the daughter of Warner Brothers.

Pulp Fiction (1994) is one of the most successful and known indie films of all time. Many people usually think that this film was a blockbuster because it is so culturally popular. This film also has other factors that I shall soon mention that make it seem as a non-indie film. Directed by Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction, is a crime film. Now despite that I mentioned that some indie film characteristics involve the use of non-famous actors, Pulp Fiction used several well-known names. John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis and Harvey Keitel all had roles in this film. Many distributors did not want to distribute this film because the film displayed strong usage of heroin and they saw this as bad and risky for a film. Another issue was that the budget might be too low to produce a type of film like this. In the end however the newly daughter company of Disney, Miramax finally decided to distribute the film. The film had an $8 million budget. With production done the film was finally released on October 14, 1994. It had earned a domestic total gross of $107,928,762. Despite that indie films usually are only released in a limited amount of theaters Pulp Fiction opened worldwide. Indeed this was a very successful film that many indie filmmakers use as inspiration. It is often criticized, however, if Pulp Fiction is an independent film or not. But because this film had such distinct film editing and production Pulp Fiction is acknowledged as an independent film.

I’ve grown into a big Quentin Tarantino fan so Pulp Fiction is definitely one of my most admired films. Want to know something awesome? If you want to see Pulp Fiction in the big screen you might have a chance. On December 6th certain theaters will be playing it once again. Go to http://www.miramax.com/tarantinoxx and see if it’s playing in a theater near you!

Uma Thurman & John Travolta in Pulp Fiction

Recommended indie films:

• Reservoir Dogs (1992)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• Eternal Sunshine Of A Spotless Mind (2004)
• Juno (2007)
• Wendy And Lucy (2008)