A Review that blows "Juno's" indie credentials out of the water!

Here's an interesting take on "Juno" that questions just how uncoventional and "indie-minded" the film actually is. Do you agree or disagree with any part of the review?

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/feb2008/juno-f04.shtml

FilmMaker's interview with Jason Reitman, the director of "Juno"

FilmMaker's interview with the Jason Reitman, the director of "Juno".  It's really useful for understanding the film as an "indie" film from the other side of the big pond!

http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/webexclusives/2008/11/my-super-sweet-16-by-lisa-y-garibay.php

An Art-House Film - "American Beauty" Concept Map on Production Issues

Click on the image to enlarge.
Web links in the image that cannot be clicked from the JPEG.

Useful for comparing art-house "indie" films with films like "Once" made on shoe-string budgets.

Production Notes

Dreamworks's Production Noteshttp://thora.org/magazines/drmwrksinfo.html

An Art -House Film - "American Beauty" Concept Map on Distribution

Click on the image to enlargeWeblinks that cannot be clicked from the JPEG.

Useful for a studio-based comparison with "indie" films made on shoe-string budgets, such as "ONCE".
The Trailer
http://www.allsubs.org/search-trailer/American%20Beauty/
The film's official website
http://www.dreamworks.com/ab/
Reviews ( mainly an exhibition issue but they also generated "buzz" and "word of mouth")
The British broadsheet press (who focus on art-house films)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2000/jan/28/4
The public had its say, too in the same newspaper:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/81856/american.beauty/review

An Art-House Film - "American Beauty" Concept Map on Exhibition

Useful for studio art-house films to compare with a shoe-string "indie" films in FS6, Section B .

Click on the concept map to enlarge.

The following are weblinks that will not click in the JPEG.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/movieconnectionsPublic reviews from Amazon UKhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Beauty-Kevin-Spacey/dp/B0000558PIUK Press reviewhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2000/jan/28/4Amazon UK reviews of the music CDhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/review/product/B00003XACV/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt/276-8899745-1583721?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1Thomas Newman's distinctive score ( some examples)http://www.last.fm/music/Thomas+Newman/_/Dead+Already

Concept Map for film, Juno

Click on this concept map to make it bigger.

The links that cannot be clicked from the JPEG for further research, etc.
Production
http://madeinatlantis.com/movies_central/2007/juno_production_details.htm


Distribution and marketing
website
http://www.foxsearchlight.com/juno/ (Also has the updated poster)
Trailer
http://www.mtv.co.uk/overdrive/id/99644
Poster
http://www.impawards.com/2007/juno_ver2_xlg.html

Exhibition
Reviews
The US critic Roger Ebert thought the film was the best of its year!
British critics
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/feb/08/comedy.drama
From the public
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Juno-Ellen-Page/dp/B0015VI334/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1232617714&sr=1-1

Opening Credits
http://www.shadowplaystudio.com/juno/


The British Box office and opening number of screens from IMBD.

£213,504 (UK) (16 March 2008) (188 Screens)
£445,999 (UK) (9 March 2008) (340 Screens)
£690,686 (UK) (2 March 2008) (373 Screens)
£1,073,852 (UK) (24 February 2008) (368 Screens)
£1,344,284 (UK) (17 February 2008) (366 Screens)
£2,002,120 (UK) (10 February 2008) (363 Screens)

"Juno - the 'Indy' film that defeated Hollywood"

A interesting post from a great-looking blogsite with lots of relevant material for AS and A2 students of film. Looks as if they agree with many of my own ideas on "Juno" as good choice for examining the "demarcation lines" between Hollywood studio films and non Hollywood independent films.

http://itpworld.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/juno---the-indy-that-defeated-hollywood/htt

Juno - FS6 case study information for a studio "indie" film

The studio film, "Juno" produced by Mr Mudd Pictures is a great choice for comparing studio indie films with independent films with micro budgets like "ONCE". FOX Searchlight distributed both films but finance for "Juno" was much more assured compared with "ONCE". The importance of each film's soundtrack is another very useful point for comparison. Both films also won acclaim a film festivals: "ONCE" found its main distributors at "Sundance" and "Juno" won its early acclaim at the Toronto Film Festival. Aim firstly at art-house audiences, "Juno" crossed over to the mainstream without losing its "indie" cache.

When you write your essays comparing "genuinely independent films" with "indies" produced and distributed by the "boutique arms" of major studios you could do worse than comparing "ONCE" with "Juno".


The link below contains useful analysis on the marketing campaign with discussion on the teaser and theatrical poster as well as the trailers. I also like the analysis of how the campaign trod a fine line between art-house and mainstream audiences. FOX Searchlight were literally having their cake and eating it!

http://www.moviemarketingmadness.com/blog/2007/12/05/movie-marketing-madness-juno/


Production issues - Ellen Page's choice of music determined many songs on film's soundtrack.

http://www.slashfilm.com/2007/09/11/juno-movie-sountrack/

A Scottish TV interview with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova on "ONCE"

This 14 minute interview with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova was made during the pairs promotion of the film as they helped ICON Films market "ONCE" when it was released in mid October, 2007. It's useful for understanding the origins of the film and for Glen's comments on how "ONCE" compares with mainstream Hollywood films released during the same period.

An interview by FILMdetail's Ambrose Heron with John Carney, director of "ONCE"

Film students studying "ONCE" as an independent film for FS6 would do well to well to listen to this audio interview of Ambrose Heron with ONCE director John Carney.
Interesting topics are:

• Carney's ideas on how music can be used in films
• acting and naturalism
• the story on how the film found its main distributor, FOX Searchlight.

Bear with the brief advert halfway through this interview. Scroll down on the web page for the audio link.

http://www.filmdetail.com/archives/2007/10/21/john-carney-on-once/

Early UK Box Office Statistics for "The Lives of Others"

For students researching "The Lives of Other" as an "indie" these are helpful stats for studying the theatrical release of the film in the UK. Notice how many cinema (sites) it opened in and how this changed in subsequent weeks. Of course, these "sites" would have an art-house following. There is a running figure for the rise and fall of "the weekly gross" on the left with a running total for "the box offfice to date" on the right of the chart.
http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/12435

Track the film into the following month(s) to see its fortunes and where the box office trail peters out.

Why and how the line between Hollywood and Independent films is becoming blurred

http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=4502

Here's another link to a really useful Wikipedia article on this issue. Scroll down for the relevant parts, particularly the discussion on Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider", the first film recognised as and "independent" film.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_films

Scroll down to read the second article by John Lewis on Independent Films and how major Hollywood studios muscled in on "Indies" by trying to "corner the market in "independent films. It's well worth reading to get an overview of how Hollywood has tried to blur the differences in audiences' minds between themselves and real indepent films.

http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Independent-Film-Road-Movies/Independent-Film-INDEPENDENCE-IN-CONTEMPORARY-HOLLYWOOD.html

What is indie cinema?

This is an important article to read for understanding the current meaning of what is meant by the term "independent films", or "indie films". After reading it scroll down and read some of the messages as some of those are very informative, tool
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2008/nov/04/what-is-indie-cinema

Film Director, Robert Davi's definition of Independent Films

indieWIRE INTERVIEW "The Dukes" Director Robert Davi
"What is your definition of "independent film," and has that changed at all since you first started working?
For me, an independent film is under five million dollars. It is independently funded from outside sources. There are no "wink-wink" side deals made with an existing studio. There is no negative pick up deal made with a producer who comes on board and has an output deal with the studio. The idea of independent film is absolutely no ties to agencies, studios - a film made truly outside the system. I have seen what is considered an independent film change over the years, from films that were made outside the studio system that were considered independent to what we have today - which to a large degree are films being called independent, but are really in fact not. This is not to say there are not those young Cassavetes out there who are still maintaining the purity and spirit of maverick filmmakers."

For the rest of the interview see:
http://www.indiewire.com/people/2008/11/indiewire_inter_197.html

The Credit Crunch Has Made Life Tough For Independent Film-makers

Independent Filmmakers Hock Houses, Face Longer Odds Amid Cuts
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a8OIgw2aEC2A&refer=us

Why FOX Searchlight acquired the rights to "ONCE"

This is an important article for anyone doing a case study on ONCE for FS6: Independent Films and their Audience. This link refers to a press release by FOX Searchlight. It is worth noting that major distributors like FOX have specialised subsidiary arms, in this instance FOX Searchlight, that acquire the rights to independent (specialist films) and then distribute them in that manner, obviously in art house cinemas or in limited regional or selected cinemas releases.
http://www.comingsoon.net/blog/2007/02/fox_searchlight_picks_up_once.php This brief post in Cinematical also has useful info. on the deal with FOX Searchlight.
http://www.cinematical.com/2007/02/04/fox-searchlight-buys-american-rights-to-once/

A film review on "ONCE"
http://jacksonfilmreviews.blogspot.com/2007/07/once-fox-searchlight-2006.html
Amazon would be another good site for critical reception. Of course, read Roger Ebert, too, along with other reviewers. Their links are on the right hand side of this blog.

A discussion on distribution - "the holy grail" of independent film making

Another good article for understanding the importance of distribution for independent film makers. The example used is The Sundance Film Festival. Note the three main criteria that distributors are looking for before they will attempt to distribute a film:

"STAR POWER … participation by recognized industry creatives
FESTIVAL FEVER … selection in a key festival
GREAT REVIEWS … recognition by film critics"

http://www.cinemaminima.com/index.php/2008/02/16/4/discussing-distribution/

Financial Crisis Puts Squeeze on Hollywood

An article which cuts to the current financial state of the film industry.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1842122,00.html

Independent Film and its Audiences - Florian Von Donnersmarck's advice for indie film makers

FS6 Independent Film and its Audience - "The Lives Of Others" - resources

Watch the interview with the director of "The Lives of Others", Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck.

For Independent Film and its Audience make notes on on Von Donnersmarck's ideas about:

- the film's look and style
- realism and attention to detail
- casting
- the importance and significance of the film's music ( in what ways is music signficant in independent film, compare with John Carney's "Once")
- how other films enabled the audience's reception (in Germany and elsewhere) of this film
- anything else that you you consider to be an issue for Indendent Film and its Audience (Section B of FS6)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m39BJ7HIN7DAGI