Author Archives: admin

The Sessions and indie ingredients

Posted on May 30, 2013 by admin

I liked The Sessions but when you step back at look at it, like so many indie films, it seems comprised of a number of components rather familiar to the territory. First, it offers us something marked as distinctly ‘uncomfortable’, in … Continue reading →

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Quality Hollywood, and beyond

Posted on March 15, 2013 by admin

My current project is a book on the notion of the ‘quality’ film in contemporary Hollywood, for which I now have a contract, titled Quality Hollywood: Markers of Distinction in Contemporary Studio Production. I’ve posted some thoughts on issues relating to … Continue reading →

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Zero reference to The Colonial Present

Posted on February 24, 2013 by admin

Been meaning to post something about Zero Dark Thirty for some time and Oscar-eve seems as good an excuse as any. Even if it’s not an indie film, it has some characteristics of the ‘quality’ or Indiewood end of the spectrum, … Continue reading →

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Silver Linings Cop Out?

Posted on February 24, 2013 by admin

No great surprise that Silver Linings Playbook was the big winner at the Independent Spirit Awards, just ahead of the Oscars, taking best feature, best director and screenplay for David O. Russell and best actress for Jennifer Lawrence. I liked … Continue reading →

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Rachel Lister on indie narrative and the short story

Posted on December 1, 2012 by admin

Very interesting piece by Rachel Lister in the new issue of Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies on links between indie narrative and the short story. In ‘The Feature Film as Short Story: The “Little Disturbances” of Nicole Holofcener’, … Continue reading →

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Cultural hierarchies and Game of Thrones

Posted on October 21, 2012 by admin

I’m very interested at the moment in cultural hierarchies – the ways in which cultural products are differently valued, in prevailing systems of taste judgement – and have been thinking about this in various ways, including how it applies to … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Indie 2.0 cover design

Posted on October 2, 2012 by admin

Now got a cover design for my new book, Indie 2.0: Change and Continuity in Contemporary American Indie Film, due out early next year:

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‘How to fake being an indie auteur’: indie and the notion of the contrived

Posted on September 26, 2012 by admin

I like this tongue-in cheek article from Suzanne Ballantyne, head of programming of the Raindance Film Festival: How to Fake Being An Indie Auteur part one and part two. It’s a witty satire of a number of indie cliches, but painfully close … Continue reading →

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Indie strategies: Cheesecake Casserole

Posted on September 14, 2012 by admin

Always interesting to read accounts of particular strategies that have enabled indie films to get made and out into distribution, particularly in these difficult times. See for example co-writer and producer Jamie Stein’s account of the production and distribution of … Continue reading →

Posted in Films, Industry practice | 2 Comments

New move towards equity in crowdfunding

Posted on August 24, 2012 by admin

Attempts by the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to enable funders to gain an equity stake in projects to which they contribute have taken a step forward in an announcement by its co-found Danae Ringelmann that it might introduce such a possibility … Continue reading →

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