Independent Growth

A detailed Summary of Independent Growth

Independent film is generally associated with creativity and originality, the auteur theory (the concept of the director as author), and lower budgets. However, these characteristics are not inherently founded in American cinema. The writers of the French film journal Cahiers du Cinema, many of whom are credited with leading the French New Wave, actually pioneered the filmmaking methods that would dominate The American Independents from the 1960's on. In his book Celluloid Mavericks, Greg Merritt points out the effect the French New Wave had on American cinema. "The French New Wave impacted American independent films through such techniques as improved dialogue, handheld camerawork, and deliberately rough editing, but its more important legacy was to put into practice the philosophy of "Do your own thing"" (Merritt, 155). This freedom in filmmaking is what directors to this day strive for; it is the fundamental reason that cinema continues to evolve so that new stories can be told in different ways.

Among the writers for Cahiers du Cinema were Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Goddard, Eric Rohmer, and Andre Bazin. Throughout the sixties the Cahiers writers redefined film theory. They attacked traditi

Independent cinema is not restricted to art house productions and no name directors and actors. Actually the truth is quite the opposite. Throughout the history of film individuals have established themselves through independents. In 1963 Francis Ford Coppola wrote, directed, and produced Dementia 13 with a budget totaling $40,000. The film, Coppola's second, was a simple horror flick shot in under two weeks. By the next decade Coppola would make such classics as The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), and Apocalypse Now (1979). Coppola is just one of the many notable directors who began making independent films, but went on to leave their mark within the studio system.

The late sixties and early seventies America experienced a state of turbulence. War raged in Vietnam while students protested back home, both sex and drugs found a new niche among the youth, and Watergate put everyone's opinion of what is really going on in check. Consequentially American independent film both captured and followed the revolution. Merritt recognizes the shortcomings of the studio system during this period. "While Hollywood stayed on the sidelines and waited for something to be popular, nonstudio cinema plugged right in" (Merritt, 194). The revolutionary period broke down previously established unwritten rules in filmmaking. The extreme

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Approximate Word count = 912
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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