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Most films rely on a script developed in pre-production. Yet beginning in the 1950s and continuing through the recent mumblecore movement, key independent filmmakers have broken with the traditional screenplay. Instead, they have turned to new approaches to scripting that allow for more complex characterization and shift the emphasis from the page to performance.In Rewriting Indie Cinema, J. J. Murphy explores these alternative forms of scripting and how they have shaped American film from the 1950s to the present. He traces a strain of indie cinema that used improvisation and psychodrama, a therapeutic form of improvised acting based on a performer's own life experiences. Murphy begins in the 1950s and 1960s with John Cassavetes, Shirley Clarke, Barbara Loden, Andy Warhol, Norman Mailer, William Greaves, and other independent directors who sought to create a new type of narrative cinema. In the twenty-first century, filmmakers such as Gus Van Sant, the Safdie brothers, Joe Swanberg, and Sean Baker developed similar strategies, sometimes benefitting from the freedom of digital technology. In reading key films and analyzing their techniques, Rewriting Indie Cinema demonstrates how divergence from the script has blurred the divide between fiction and nonfiction. Showing the ways in which filmmakers have striven to capture the subtleties of everyday behavior, Murphy provides a new history of American indie filmmaking and how it challenges Hollywood industrial practices.

Independent films --- Motion picture plays, American --- Indie films --- Motion pictures --- History and criticism.

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Elusive, subtle and atmospheric, Lost in Translation was one of the indie hits of 2004, earning widespread critical praise, awards and success at the box office. But what was the basis of its appeal and how exactly is the film marked as a distinctly independent work? This book, by a leading authority on contemporary American indie cinema, provides an in-depth analysis of the balance of more and less mainstream qualities offered by the film at all levels, from industrial factors such as funding, marketing and release strategy to formal qualities such as its low-key narrative structure and the impressionistic use of imagery and music. Other issues examined in detail include the role of stardom, particularly the role of Bill Murray, the distinctive 'auteur' contribution made by writer-director Sofia Coppola and the film's ambiguous relationship with the romantic comedy genre. Textual and industrial analysis is also supplemented by consideration of online responses to the film that offer insights into the various ways in which it was either appreciated or rejected by viewers. Key Features * A unique attempt to pin down the precise nature of the film and its appeal to viewers * A major contribution to our understanding of the contemporary American indie film landscape * Written by a leading authority on American indie film

Independent films --- Motion pictures, American. --- American motion pictures --- Moving-pictures, American --- Foreign films --- Indie films --- Motion pictures --- Lost in translation (Motion picture) --- PERFORMING ARTS / Film & Video / General.

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Examines crisis, transition and metamorphosis in American independent cinema. By examining six films, all of which conform to the notion of 'indiewood' (King 2005) from a formal perspective, this book argues that American 'indie' cinema is not one merely in crisis, but also of crisis. As a cinema that draws upon an American cinematic heritage that explores various rites of passage (the teen movie, the road movie, the western), these films deal in images of crisis, transition and metamorphosis. This cinema of crisis offers surprisingly subversive and critical images that both engage with and undermine modes of cliched representation and thought by exploring notions of ambiguity and opacity.Key Features: Case studies include: The Virgin Suicides , Elephant , Dead Man , Last Days , Somewhere and Broken Flowers * Engages with and develops on recent scholarship on American independent film from a formal perspective * Situates analysis of indie film within the context of American generic cinematic (and historical) traditions

Film --- United States --- Independent films --- Music, Dance, Drama & Film --- Indie films --- Motion pictures --- History and criticism --- History and criticism. --- United States of America

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Discussing a variety of independent and experimental Italian films, this book gives voice to a critcically neglected form of Italian cinema and explores the character of independent films and their related practices within the Italian historical, cultural and cinematic landscape.

Experimental films --- Independent films --- Motion pictures --- Indie films --- Avant-garde films --- Experimental videos --- Personal films --- Underground films --- Video art --- History and criticism.

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Despite more than a passing nod to such crowdpleasing classics as Hitchcock's North by Northwest, playwright-turned-independent filmmaker David Mamet's The Spanish Prisoner is a particularly idiosyncratic film that betrays its origin outside the Hollywood mainstream. Featuring a convoluted narrative, an excessive, often anti-classical, visual style, and belonging to the generic category of the 'con game film' which often challenges the spectator's cognitive skills, The Spanish Prisoner is a film that bridges genre filmmaking with personal visual style, independent film production with niche distribution,and mainstream subject matter with unconventional filmic techniques. This book discusses The Spanish Prisoner as an example of contemporary American independent cinema while also using the film as a vehicle to explore several key ideas in film studies, especially in terms of aesthetics, narrative, style, spectatorship, genre and industry. Key Features oDistinguishes between independent and 'indie' cinema through anexamination of the 'classics divisions,' especially Sony Pictures Classics oAssesses the position of David Mamet within American cinema oIntroduces the genre categories of the 'con artist' and the 'con game' filmand discusses The Spanish Prisoner as a key example of the latter oExamines the ways in which narrative, narration and visual style deviate from the mainstream/classical aesthetic

Independent films --- Independent filmmakers --- Independent moviemakers --- Motion picture producers and directors --- Indie films --- Motion pictures --- History and criticism. --- Mamet, David --- Weisz, Richard --- מאמט, דיוויד. ששקו, לאה. מק׳קרדי, מייקל --- Criticism and interpretation. --- Spanish prisoner (Motion picture)