Author Archives: admin

BBC news report on crowdfunding films

Posted on June 7, 2012 by admin

BBC news has an interesting, if quite brief, report on crowdfunding of low-budget indies from the Tribeca Film Festival, one I missed at the time in April. It’s certainly the case that crowdfunding is starting to have more impact and … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry practice | Leave a comment

Moonrise Kingdom to achieve cross-over?

Posted on June 6, 2012 by admin

Be interesting to see how far Moonrise Kingdom goes at the box-office after its per-screen record breaking start, which was followed up by a strong second week at the US box office (it’s also filling art-house screens in the UK as … Continue reading →

Posted in Films | Leave a comment

Indie Inc & Hollywood’s Indies: book reviews

Posted on June 3, 2012 by admin

A major boost to research on the indie-oriented Hollywood speciality divisions comes in the shape of two new books on the subject that I’ve now had the chance to read: Indie Inc: Miramax and the Transformation of Hollywood in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Future, mini-review

Posted on June 2, 2012 by admin

Recently caught up with Miranda July’s much-awaited second feature, The Future, which offers an interesting example of the mix of qualities that typifies many indie films – and further demonstrates the continued presence of such films, despite various rhetorical claims about … Continue reading →

Posted in Films | Leave a comment

Indie 2.0, last read-through

Posted on May 31, 2012 by admin

I’m having the slightly weird experience of doing a really final read-through of my forthcoming book Indie 2.0: Change and Continuity in Contemporary American Indie Film – quite some months after originally delivering the ‘completed’ manuscript. It turned out recently that the … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | Leave a comment

Moonrise update

Posted on May 27, 2012 by admin

That straight-from-Cannes strategy seems to have worked with Moonrise Kingdom, then. Scott Macaulay of Filmmaker magazine tweets: ‘Wow! Half a million dollars on only 4 screens. “Moonrise Kingdom,” our print issue cover, is biggest limited release debut of all time.’

Posted in Industry practice | Leave a comment

‘indie’ blockbuster franchise??

Posted on May 26, 2012 by admin

‘Indie blockbuster franchise’ is not an oxymoron, argues Kristen Thompson in a detailed blog entry about The Lord of the Rings films, the Twilight series and The Hunger Games. It’s a useful piece about the industrial provenance of these titles. But I wouldn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry practice | Leave a comment

Straight out of the Cannes

Posted on May 26, 2012 by admin

Notable that two high-profile films premiered at Cannes in the last two weeks are opening almost immediately in the US and/or UK. Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is already showing in both countries while Ken Loach’s The Angels’ Share opens in the UK on … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry practice | 1 Comment

Culture and Society – still very relevant today!

Posted on May 22, 2012 by admin

I’m revisiting Raymond Williams’ classic text Culture and Society, first published in 1958, as part of background research for my next project. It’s a very useful source on the context in which our contemporary notions of ‘art’, ‘creativity’, ‘genius’ and … Continue reading →

Posted in Books | 2 Comments

Free online screenings lead to sales

Posted on May 22, 2012 by admin

Nice example of how free screenings online can be used as part of an indie campaign leading to successful sales on DVD (and in this case recipe books!) in case of the documentary Hungry for Change, a critique of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry practice | Leave a comment