Low & Micro Budget Film
How can a small personal, independent film compete with the big studios? Hollywood producers enjoy huge budgets that put the best talents or the world at their fingertips. But those huge budgets also tie their hands. Commercial films are above all, products. All the money that goes into them has to come back as profit. The movie business keeps and eye on sales as they conceive a film, write it's script and cast it's characters. This is the reverse of what we are taught is the artistic process. Because they are so expensive, major movies must be broadly accepted to recoup investment. These realities compel the film business to model their products after the tastes and expectations of as many people as possible. They follow current trends, rather than lead. Great filmmakers try to make good films that also sell, but it astonishes me how vacuous and cliche major films so often are. All that money and talent, squandered on stupid worn out ideas. The auteur filmmakers I know have a privilege very few Hollywood directors have. They can make the movie they want, and no one can interfere. Independents can ignore marketing. If their art and ideas are fresh, they can lead the collective consciousness and reveal that which has not been broadly discovered. These are inspiring possibilities. When it comes down to a script, a director and an actor, together in a room, it's a level playing field. Until this decade, if the average person wanted to fund their own feature film, the bare expense of film and processing, even in 16 mm, would cost them about two year's gross income. Digital filmmaking has created a game-changing revolution. Today, people everywhere are funding features out of their paychecks, and they can still pay the rent. This has caused an explosion in the number of films being made. With this glut of small budget films, how does one movie rise above the rest? An indi movie can only stand out by virtue of it's content; the story and the acting, the art. With no name celebrities, or big special effects to rely on, they simply have to be good. Originality is at a premium. This accessibility has put independent films in the same game as novels. It's all about the auteur, crafting a story. |
Movies at Their Best
Some popular directors pride themselves on their ability to take the viewer on a roller coaster ride. For an hour or two, you escape reality and are thrown through adventure after adventure with larger than life personalities. Everything is fed to you with an art of precise storytelling where every instance is timed for the rise and fall of your emotion. This is the essence of the entertainment industry. This roller coster ride is passive. You are locked in your car and have no choice except to look where directed and feel what the music dictates. Audiences expect to be fed an exact level of predictability. The pace of the plot leaves little time for understanding something original and new so the characters, the settings, the conflicts must be recognized rather than discovered. I can occasionally enjoy a commercial movie, but it tends to evaporate as soon as I leave the theatre, and I remain unchanged. Only a portion of my day is gone. Reality comes back to me and I am no better for it. The potential of a movie is so much more than entertainment. I really love movies I can explore. These movies avoid manipulation, so there is leeway for me to find my own perspective and truths. It is not an escape from the real world, rather an examination of reality. These are stories I can use. They are populated with real people and all the confusing clutter of truth. Movies I love have unexpected stories and original characters. They redefine the world to me. I re-think these movies long afterwards, slowly shifting my paradigm every time I go over it. I become different because of it. When movies are spawned from the study of other movies they can only be derivative. When they are made from real life, they can be highly original, because life is much more varied than a handful of genres. I believe that big understandings are usually reached after a journey. A good story is a journey. It will eventually bring you to a moment you can only understand because you took each step that preceded it. So stories are the perfect vehicles for exploration. I remember fondly, those reeling moments when great filmmakers challenged me to understand. There is a distinct discomfort, a stepping back and reassessment. It was like visiting an exotic country that is much more than superficially, different from my own. |
Some of my favorite films and why
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Phillip Kaufman
The most interesting thing about this movie is the relationship between Tomáš and Sabrina. They find their own path outside of social norms.
The Lovers "Les Amants" (French) by Louis Malle
Early French New Wave film that highlights the difference between conventional and actual morality. Some of the best visual symbolism I have ever seen in a film.
Heading South (french) by Laurent Cantet
Anglo women vacationing in Haiti. Their flings with a local haitian man borders on prostitution. They are out of touch with his desperate existence. The premiss is real but uncomfortable, therefore challenging.
Tender Mercies by Bruce Beresford
A gentle, subtle performance and story, in a small real setting.
The Remains of the Day by James Ivory
The devastating power of perfect and subtle performance. The Antony Hopkins character struggles with his reluctance to allow himself the joys of living.
Mademoiselle Chambon (French) by Stéphane Brizé
This film demonstrates almost complete non-minipulation of the viewer. The camera quietly witnesses the characters evolving story.
The Age of Beauty "Le Belle Epoque" (Spanish) by Fernando Trueba
Trueba said he wanted to make a film that does not punish it's characters for the free expression of love, in defiance of what movies were expected to do.
Two Lovers by James Gray
Leonard's ability to love others is linked to his ability to love himself. The story takes a turn for the real, rather than for what plot formula dictates.
Warsaw Bridge (spanish) by Pere Portabella
This lavish new-narrative blends magic realism with profound themes. You can't watch this movie the way you watch others.
Blood Wedding (Spanish) by Carlos Saura
A 20 minute dance film that transcends the medium, bringing a modern flamenco narrative to life.
Babel by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Multiple stories show how profoundly different circumstances can be from one part of the world to another. In every case, compassion is the deciding factor.
Three (Dri German title) by by Tom Tykwer
Cultured (and very german) characters struggle intelligently with their passions and the paradigm sifts that struggle creates.
Cloud 9 "Wolke Neun" (German) by Andreas Dresen
A micro-budget actors film, (badly shot) that depicts a passionate love affair among the elderly. It is a compassionate, beautifully simple haiku of a story.
Take This Waltz by Sarah Polley (Canadian)
A quirky woman discovers herself with her choices and mistakes. The not very neat ending feels honest.
Elegy by Isabel Coixet
Romantic experience becomes the catalyst of self discovery and growth.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Phillip Kaufman
The most interesting thing about this movie is the relationship between Tomáš and Sabrina. They find their own path outside of social norms.
The Lovers "Les Amants" (French) by Louis Malle
Early French New Wave film that highlights the difference between conventional and actual morality. Some of the best visual symbolism I have ever seen in a film.
Heading South (french) by Laurent Cantet
Anglo women vacationing in Haiti. Their flings with a local haitian man borders on prostitution. They are out of touch with his desperate existence. The premiss is real but uncomfortable, therefore challenging.
Tender Mercies by Bruce Beresford
A gentle, subtle performance and story, in a small real setting.
The Remains of the Day by James Ivory
The devastating power of perfect and subtle performance. The Antony Hopkins character struggles with his reluctance to allow himself the joys of living.
Mademoiselle Chambon (French) by Stéphane Brizé
This film demonstrates almost complete non-minipulation of the viewer. The camera quietly witnesses the characters evolving story.
The Age of Beauty "Le Belle Epoque" (Spanish) by Fernando Trueba
Trueba said he wanted to make a film that does not punish it's characters for the free expression of love, in defiance of what movies were expected to do.
Two Lovers by James Gray
Leonard's ability to love others is linked to his ability to love himself. The story takes a turn for the real, rather than for what plot formula dictates.
Warsaw Bridge (spanish) by Pere Portabella
This lavish new-narrative blends magic realism with profound themes. You can't watch this movie the way you watch others.
Blood Wedding (Spanish) by Carlos Saura
A 20 minute dance film that transcends the medium, bringing a modern flamenco narrative to life.
Babel by Alejandro González Iñárritu
Multiple stories show how profoundly different circumstances can be from one part of the world to another. In every case, compassion is the deciding factor.
Three (Dri German title) by by Tom Tykwer
Cultured (and very german) characters struggle intelligently with their passions and the paradigm sifts that struggle creates.
Cloud 9 "Wolke Neun" (German) by Andreas Dresen
A micro-budget actors film, (badly shot) that depicts a passionate love affair among the elderly. It is a compassionate, beautifully simple haiku of a story.
Take This Waltz by Sarah Polley (Canadian)
A quirky woman discovers herself with her choices and mistakes. The not very neat ending feels honest.
Elegy by Isabel Coixet
Romantic experience becomes the catalyst of self discovery and growth.