The head of Metro Pictures at the time (which would become MGM, which, fittingly, would later acquire UA) responded: “The inmates are taking over the asylum.” This is reminiscent of Bob Iger lamenting the “unrealistic” demands of the SAG-AFTRA union (historically, the easiest way to avoid your comeuppance is to accuse everyone of being crazy-it works!). Griffith formed one of the first independent production and distribution companies, United Artists, in which they each owned 20 percent of the company (the remaining 20 percent went to a lawyer). In 1919, silent film stars Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. This studio system also became too powerful, controlling all the cash but also the creativity, so a bunch of filmmakers struck out on their own again. Over time, the monopoly from Jersey was simply replaced by an oligopoly in California, out of which Classical Hollywood emerged. How do you break out of a cycle in which the way out is also the way back?īasically, the studio system started out around 1908 as a New Jersey cartel hoarding literal film, out of which the independents-who for various reasons weren’t admitted into the family-were born and forced to move to Hollywood, which wasn’t really Hollywood yet. But is that even possible on a wider scale? Historically, independent filmmaking has served as a path back to the studio system, bolstering the very exclusion that produced it. Unofficial or not, it was a collective.Īnd it seems increasingly that a collective is what is needed these days, in which everyone owns a chunk, and all successes and failures are shared. Then this large group of filmmakers and actors created a kind of commune in which they bolstered each other-when one was doing well, they put the others in their film and vice versa. And he did that by using his ample producing powers to push their projects through the system. Who the hell is going to see it? Like, what’s the point if it amounts to a home movie? On Conan O’Brien’s podcast earlier this year, Jason Segel described how after Freaks and Geeks was canceled, executive producer Judd Apatow seemed to channel his anger by making everyone on that show famous. When I was 22 and making my first movie, we didn’t have anything.” OK, man, but it’s not 1979. What the fuck, right? This is why it’s incredibly frustrating when you get famous filmmakers like Béla Tarr saying: “The thing is, you don’t need money. That’s half as much as Lonergan’s film two decades ago, on a small fraction of the budget with no stars and an unknown filmmaker. Yet You Hurt My Feelings only made $5.6 million, about a fourth of its budget, at the box office. It also has a veteran director (Holofcener had directed six features) and a big star (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). The film had its world premiere at Sundance before being released (in theaters) in May. That was made by the indie production company Likely Story, reportedly for around $25 million (co-produced by the bigger FilmNation), and distributed by an indie outfit we all know very well by now, A24. One recent example is Nicole Holofcener’s couple dramedy You Hurt My Feelings. First, let’s make something clear: an independent film is produced outside the studio (or streaming) system-though it can be distributed by major companies-and it often has a limited marketing campaign and release. You Can Count on Me ended up being nominated for two Oscars.īut that was a very different time. It was reportedly made for a mere $1.2 million but earned nine times that amount at the box office, thanks to a boost from Sundance where it tied for the Grand Jury Prize and won a screenwriting award. Ruffalo took off after appearing 23 years ago in first-time filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan’s sibling drama You Can Count on Me. He is known for making millions playing the Hulk, but that’s not where he came from. When Mark Ruffalo suggested everyone “ jump into indies now,” following SAG-AFTRA’s announcement they would be approving certain independent productions outside the studio system to start up again mid-strike, it made sense.
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