Hollywoods Indies

Download or read book Hollywood's Indies written by Yannis Tzioumakis and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-07 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For almost three decades the big Hollywood studios have operated classics divisions or specialty labels, subsidiaries that originally focused on the foreign art house film market, while more recently (and controversially) moving on to the American 'indie' film market. This is the first book to offer an in depth examination of the phenomenon of the classics divisions by tracing its history since the establishment the first specialty label in 1980, United Artists Classics, to more contemporary outfits like Focus Features, Warner Independent and Picturehouse.This detailed account of all classics divisions examines their business practices, their position within the often labyrinthine structure of contemporary entertainment conglomerates and their relationship to their parent companies. Yannis Tzioumakis examines the impact of those companies on American 'indie' cinema and argues that it was companies such as Fox Searchlight and Paramount Classics (now Paramount Vantage) that turned independent filmmaking to an industrial category endorsed by the Hollywood majors as opposed to a mode of filmmaking practised outside the conglomerated major players and posed as a sustained alternative to mainstream Hollywood cinema. A number of case studies are provided, including such celebrated films as Mystery Train, The Brothers McMullen, Broken Flowers, Before Sunset and many others.

Download or read book Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens, and TV Heroines written by Susanne Kord and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens, and TV Heroines offers an entertaining and critical look at the representation of women in recent movies. Written in a refreshingly accessible style, the book analyzes over thirty box-office hits. The authors explore the screen personae of top stars such as Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Meg Ryan, and Renée Zellweger, as well as independent movie queens like Parker Posey and TV heroines like Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A must-read book for all film buffs who are tired of the mixed gender messages of mainstream culture.

Download or read book Hollywood and the Invention of England written by Jonathan Stubbs and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2019-02-21 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on new archival research into Hollywood production history and detailed analysis of individual films, Hollywood and the Invention of England examines the surprising affinity for the English past in Hollywood cinema. Stubbs asks why Hollywood filmmakers have so frequently drawn on images and narratives depicting English history, and why films of this type have resonated with audiences in America. Beginning with an overview of the cultural interaction between American film and English historical culture, the book proceeds to chart the major filmmaking cycles which characterise Hollywood's engagement with the English past from the 1930s to the present, assessing the value of English-themed films in the American film industry while also placing them in a broader historical context.

Download or read book Indie written by Michael Z. Newman and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By locating the American indie in the historical context of the Sundance-Miramax era, the author considers indie cinema as an alternative American film culture.

Download or read book Indie, Inc. written by Alisa Perren and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2012-05-15 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the 1990s, films such as sex, lies, and videotape, The Crying Game, Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, and Shakespeare in Love earned substantial sums at the box office along with extensive critical acclaim. A disproportionate number of these hits came from one company: Miramax. Indie, Inc. surveys Miramax’s evolution from independent producer-distributor to studio subsidiary, chronicling how one company transformed not just the independent film world but the film and media industries more broadly. As Alisa Perren illustrates, Miramax’s activities had an impact on everything from film festival practices to marketing strategies, talent development to awards campaigning. Case studies of key films, including The Piano, Kids, Scream, The English Patient, and Life Is Beautiful, reveal how Miramax went beyond influencing Hollywood business practices and motion picture aesthetics to shaping popular and critical discourses about cinema during the 1990s. Indie, Inc. does what other books about contemporary low-budget cinema have not—it transcends discussions of “American indies” to look at the range of Miramax-released genre films, foreign-language films, and English-language imports released over the course of the decade. The book illustrates that what both the press and scholars have typically represented as the “rise of the American independent” was in fact part of a larger reconfiguration of the media industries toward niche-oriented products.

Download or read book Not Hollywood written by Sherry B. Ortner and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-27 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The pioneering anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner combines her trademark ethnographic expertise with critical film interpretation to explore the independent film scene in New York and Los Angeles since the late 1980s. Not Hollywood is both a study of the lived experience of that scene and a critical examination of America as seen through the lenses of independent filmmakers. Based on interviews with scores of directors and producers, Ortner reveals the culture and practices of indie filmmaking, including the conviction of those involved that their films, unlike Hollywood movies, are "telling the truth" about American life. These films often illuminate the dark side of American society through narratives about the family, the economy, and politics in today's neoliberal era. Offering insightful interpretations of many of these films, Ortner argues that during the past three decades independent American cinema has functioned as a vital form of cultural critique.

Download or read book A Companion to American Indie Film written by Geoff King and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Companion to American Indie Film features a comprehensive collection of newly commissioned essays that represent a state-of-the-art resource for understanding key aspects of the field of indie films produced in the United States. Takes a comprehensive and fresh new look at the topic of American indie film Features newly commissioned essays from top film experts and emerging scholars that represent the state-of-the-art reference to the indie film field Topics covered include: indie film culture; key historical moments and movements in indie film history; relationships between indie film and other indie media; and issues including class, gender, regional identity and stardom in in the indie field Includes studies of many types of indie films and film genres, along with various filmmakers and performers that have come to define the field