I have decided to make my film in the style of 'American Indie' films. Such films as 'Little Miss Sunshine', 'Juno', '(500) Days of Summer', 'Igby Goes Down', 'Dan in Real Life' and 'Lars and the Real Girl' fall into this category and I aim to replicate some of the technical style used when creating these films in my own film: 'Being Xara'.
The idea of independent cinema came about in the 1980's with a great change in filmic styles. Around this time directors such as Spielberg and Scorsese came on the scene, and although they are not making films that follow the ideas of independent cinema, such as low-budgets, character driven plots, they brought with them new styles of filming. Many of the directors of this time had studied at Film schools, building up their skills in a newer way to the previous directors of the 50's and 60's. However these directors have produced films that have been mass released across the whole of the U.S.A and Britain, whereas generally Independent films are released through the means of platform, where the film is released in a few cinemas in the country to see how well it does before being released in more cinemas. This is due to the fact that they are made with a low-budget, and the better way of earning the money back that was spent, is to release it on a lower scale than the Hollywood Block-busters. For example the British independent film 'Submarine' was released in a select few cinemas across Britain, before, after a week or so after is first release, being released in the cinema in Hull.
This film is similar to a lot of American independent films as it is character driven, by the protagonist Oliver Tate. We are given a great insight into his personality, his life and his thought-process through Richard Ayoade's use of Cinematography, Mise-en-scene as well as his screenplay. However despite these basic similarities between the British Independent film 'Submarine' and American Independent films, there are also differences.
As I am doing the opening sequence of my film, I have looked at the opening sequences of various American Independent films such as 'Little Miss Sunshine', 'Igby Goes Down' and '(500) days of Summer'. The opening to 'Little Miss Sunshine' has 40 shots in it, during these shots we are introduced to each character and we are also told through filmic aspects, the characters traits and parts of their lives and interests, as well as a link to the rest of the narrative, mainly through the daughter, the father and the Grandfather. During these 40 shots there is also very little dialogue, this links with my opening sequence as i aim to use very little dialogue in my sequence, but use mise-en-scene and other features to show the narrative and thoroughly introduce the protagonist.
The number of shots differs in 'Igby Goes Down' from 'Little Miss Sunshine' quite substantially as it only has 25 shots. what also differs is that the opening to 'Igby Goes Down' does not particularly introduce the characters personalities as much, but rather introduces the two brothers relationship with their mother more, as well as showing the audience a bit of Igby's lifestyle, past or present is unknown at this point. This how helps the narrative as it shows the stark contrast of Igby's life in the past to how he is living by the end of the film.
With '(500) Days of Summer' there are 18 shots in the opening sequence. In these we are introduced to both of the leading characters as well as a brief history of their past and character traits and also a bit about their present and where they came from. However this differs from the previous two as this is driven through the voiceover used. There is however a link with 'Igby Goes down' as part of the opening sequence in both is from an event that happens later in the film, and both subvert your expectations of various things, relationships or occurrences.
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