English II Honors
Mrs. Corby
Ever since the first picture show was shown in 1895 in Paris’ Grand Café’ the world has been curios about making films of all different taste, length and subjects. With the invention of the motion picture naturally came filmmakers who shot there own stories and documented life at its highs and lows. These first filmmakers began a new generation artists, and were in fact the very first Independent Filmmakers. While the Lumiere Brothers 1minute film The Train was the hottest film for 1895, One Hundred years later independent film still continues to survive despite mainstream assassination attempts.
Independent Films continue to strive through the success of younger more open- minded directors and older weathered filmmakers who have been doing it their way from the beginning. Some of these filmmakers include Rodger Corman, Lloyd Kaufman, George Romero, John Waters, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and of Course Kevin Smith, one of the most well known filmmakers in the world today. He has been doing things independently for almost ten years. He is one of the founders of View Askew Productions and the director of Clerks, One of the most widely and financially successful independent films of all time and the first film in Smith’s world famous New Jersey series. Clerks is the Story of two slackers Dante and Randal. Dante works in a Grocery store and Randal in a video store located across the street from each other in Leonardo New Jersey. The film shows their personal life and is mostly about the Problems faced by Dante, a whiney, confused college aged kid trying to figure out weather to stay with his current girl friend or to go back to his cheating lying High School ex. The story also has many memorable characters such as Jay and Silent Bob (The trademark characters of the NJ series), and Willum Black. Randal, Dante’s Best friend often steals the show with his constant customer abuse. The Film has such moments as Hockey on the roof, the Egg man and the Funeral. The Film played to very Specific audience at first, 15-30 year olds. Now with the video, Laser Disk and DVD releases the audience has widened to 15-45. Clerks has become a modern classic.
The Film was first released at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in the south of France on November 9, 1994. As a quick note of artistic fine-tuning if one had attended the 1994 Cannes film festival you would have noticed that the ending of Clerks was a little different. Originally Dante was supposed to be shot and killed by a robber. This ending although the perfect ending to such a “bad day” movie. However after Mallrats producer Jim Jacks saw the film and became friends with Kevin Smith he suggested that the ending be removed. Clerks had a budget of $27,000, which came from various credit cards that Smith and his Producer Scott Moisier had. After being picked up by Miramax the budget sky- rocketed. First a sound track was put to the movie, costing $27,000, which was more then the $22,000 production costs, a first in film history. A production cost is everything that goes into the actual filmmaking process such as shooting, sound recording, actors, props f/x etc. Budget is everything in the end including production cost, editing, music rights, advertisements, blow-ups, processing and prints. After Miramax fixed up the film, blew it up from 16mm to 35mm film and did a few other minor clean ups, the films total cost was around $300,000. Theatrically Clerks grossed $3.1 million dollars in its initial release. Since then the film has made more money through Video releases, DVD, Laser Discs, Published copies of the Script, Merchandising, sound tracks, TV showings, Comic Book Adaptations and A short lived cartoon series. The commercial success of Clerks has made Kevin Smith one of the hottest young Directors of modern filmmaking.
With Clerks Kevin Smith won awards such as The Young Cinema Award at Cannes, The Audience Award at the Deauvile Festival and The Filmmaker Trophy at Sundance. Kevin Smith went on to Direct other Films Like Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma. Although he has now worked with major studios like Universal, and Miramax, he still works at his Company, View Askew Productions in Redbank New Jersey.
Troma studios was founded in 1974 by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, and is today the oldest Independent Studio in existence. Troma has made its mark on film history with films Like Tromeo and Juliet, The Toxic Avenger and Terror Firmer. The company is fully independent and operates out of a four-story apartment building in Hells Kitchen New
Lloyd Kaufman is a native New Yorker who has been making alternative films of a wacky, raunchy nature and of questionable taste for over 30 years. Lloyd Kaufman started out as a college student, who came to love film through two college roommates; “…My love had been Broadway musicals not film… then came Eric and Robert the twin avatars of my destruction” remembers Kaufman. Soon he began working on his own films. He made his Directorial Debut with a small film called the Girl who returned, which made $377. Then he made another film called the Battle of Loves return several years latter, “an urban gothic tale of a looser who lives constantly on the periphery of society trying to jump in” as described by reporter Bonnie Marranca.
It was not until 1979’s raunchy comedy Squeeze play was released that Lloyd Kaufman had a Full Commercial Success. By this time He along with fellow Yale Graduate Michael Herz, had founded Troma Studios. Squeeze play was one of the first (the first according to Kaufman) films to deal with sex in a comedic way. This captured the attentions of audiences and filmmakers alike. For the next few years Troma made and distributed films similar in nature to Squeeze play like Waitress and Ocean Drive weekend with minimal success.
In 1985 Commercial Success was not the word to describe Kaufman’s environmental superhero film The Toxic Avenger. The film got such critical acclaim as “Hilariously tasteless… jaw-dropping violence…. We watch it again in a minute” and “… a genuine satiric vision of America…” The toxic avenger has grossed hundreds of millions of dollars through it’s four films, a cartoon series, toys, shirts, merchandising, foreign sales and much, much, much more.
Lloyd Kaufman’s Next film Class of nuke Em High helped kick off the big video craze of the 80’s. This low budget cult classic sold over on 100,000 videos at about $100 a video.
In 1988 Troma’s War came out. Troma’s War was a film, which was picked apart by the MPAA for its content, mostly cartoonish violence and sexual content.
In the 90’s Kaufman has Had Success with Tromeo and Juliet, an award winning film based on the classic Shakespearian tale Romeo and Juliet. Recently Lloyd Kaufman released Terror Firmer based on his popular filmmaking Book called All I Need To Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger. The Book Details Kaufman’s life experiences and details his trade filmmaking secrets. Lloyd Kaufman is a supporter of many independent film organizations and has crusaded against many mainstream organizations including and especially the MPAA. He's known for his political views and anti-mainstream writings on the Internet and in books and magazines.
Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz have given an audience to many of today most talented filmmakers and actors alike. People Like Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dario Argento, Kevin Costner, Brian Depalmer, and Robert DeNiro began their careers at Troma. Troma will distribute any one’s films and ideas as long as they are valid and creative. In 1999 Troma created the worlds first no-entry-fee film festival in Park City Utah, called Tromadance where they showcase new young talent.
Sam Rammi is another Filmmakers have largely continued the success of Independent filmmaking. He is the creative Genius behind the Evil Dead Trilogy and the Darkman Series.
Evil Dead was a film shot in the early eighties about “Necrenamican Ex Mortus” Or The Book Of the Dead. The story follows lead character Ash from being a vacationer in a cabin in the woods to a demon-battling hero. In Army of Darkness the now classic and final sequel to the Evil Dead series, Ash finds him self trapped in the past where he must conquer and destroy the evil. Rammi shows what an independent filmmaker can make if he puts his mind to it. Year latter he had similar success with the film Drakman.
George Romero is the Director Responsible for Night of the Living Dead, the definitive zombie film. This was, for its time, one of the most frightening films. The success of the move lead to an entire series of “Dead” Movies. Movies like Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead have become classics in their own right, and have made George Romero the foremost Zombie moviemaker. The film series also became a comic book series in the late 90’s, had a reissue into theatrical Revenues, was sequelised, had a big budgeted Remake, and several video, DVD, and Laser disk editions.
The Blair Witch Project is the most successful independent film ever made. With a micro budget of $35,000 the film grossed in America alone 140 million dollars. In the summer of 2000 a sequel called Book of Shadows was made and in the summer of 2001 a third Blair Witch film is going to be shot.
One last filmmaker who needs to be noted is John Waters. Waters has been making schlocky, tasteless films for nearly 4 decades. His beginnings were with super 8 films such as “Hag in Black leather Jacket.” It was not until Pink Flamingos that John Water created a real fan base. Pink Flamingos, probably his most infamous work of art, is a tasteless, disgusting vision of trailer trash America. Other films of his like Female Troubles, Polyester and Serial Mom, showed the same tastelessness of American Society and helped inspired a whole new class of filmmaking.
Mainstream America is trying to kill off the Freethinking filmmakers and it very apparent in many ways.
The MPAA can be described as one of the top enemies of the independent filmmaker. They have been known to rate films on their own opinions and taste not on the content of the Film. In Director Lloyd Kaufman’s book he describes an Incident in which a Reviewer for the MPAA actually said that his film, Troma’s War was horrible and that they would never get an R rating. A lot of the time the MPAA does this to hurt the Independent community. Most theaters still, even in the new century, will not admit a film with out at least an R rating. Many times the only thing an independent filmmaker can do is to appeal the rating like Kevin Smith did with clerks when they were given an NC-17 or to send the movie out as unrated Like Troma has been doing for many years. Lloyd Kaufman has also told in his book about a few incidents when he had his films rated and then sent the unrated versions out to the theaters.
The Largest Enemy of independent film is Hollywood. Hollywood controls most of the industry because it controls most of the Actors, Directors, and Writers and of Course has the most Money. For many decades antitrust laws held back Hollywood from completely monopolizing the entire industry. This was back in the Time of great directors like Romero, Corman, Warhol and Ed Wood. Mom and pop theaters were all you could go to. There were no multiplexes with only the big Hollywood films, but in the 1980’s during the Presidency of Ronald Regan these laws were changed. Large companies such as Warner Bros., Universal, and Paramount began to buy up EVERYTHING. Theaters were bought up, ripped down, rebuilt and made into 40 screen Cinema Odeon Palaces. Today there are very few Mom and Pop theaters. On an interesting note Dunellen has one of those theaters, and only gets its films through larger subdistribution from corporate owned Theaters. Recently and article on the Internet told of how these larger theaters are going under. United Artists one of the larger chains recently filed for bankruptcy. One can stipulate that this is only because of Hollywood’s decaying entertainment value in their films.
Besides theaters large companies own, Radio stations (Warner, Disney), Them Parks (Disney, Universal, Paramount) TV Stations (Universal, Disney) publishing Companies (Disney) and many other large money making venues. These are all ways of selling movies. T.V. and radio stations are free advertising on a company owned station for the newest big film from a studio. This hurts the independent film industry because smaller companies can’t afford to own a T.V. station or even pay to advertise on one.
John Water, while being interviewed, once said jokingly “If you think about it the only true independent film left is porno.” But as one can see from these text that is not the case. The Major success of Independent films today is the rebellious and freethinking spirit that is with in them. Hollywood and the rest of mainstream America will always take it’s shot at Assassinating the free thinkers, but Lloyd Kaufman once said “Were living in a time of war, a war fought by those who pledge their allegiances to the corporations, against the independent thinkers who pledge their allegiances to something a little more substantial. Whether it be humanity, art knowledge or god.” In the end no one will ever win Lloyd Kaufman’s war however, and the reason is simple. From the gathered information one can see that independent films are still profitable, and that audiences like to have alternatives to Hollywood thoughts and ideas. However in the same respect you can see that Hollywood is still powerful and is in control of the money and the industry. So the war will rage on and Independent filmmakers will continue to dodge the mainstream bullet.
Works Sited List
1) Kaufman, Lloyd. All I Kneed To Know About Filmmaking I Learned From The Toxic Avenger, The Shocking True Story of Troma Studios. 200 Madison ave., New York, NY 10016, The Berkly Publishing Group, 1998.
2) Independent Focus, Elvis Mitchell and John Waters, Independent Focus/John Waters, Independent Film Channel, IFC.
3) Yo! Villain! Into the Blender!, Maeder, Jay, New York Daily News, 1985
4) Rosenbaum, Ron, Mademoiselle Magazine, 1985