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Shoot It!: Hollywood Inc. and the Rising of Independent Film
Shoot It! is a revealing history of how Hollywood, with its eye on the bottom line, arguably lost its ability to support the work of creative filmmakers; it is also a passionate portrait of the American independents, and others inside the international film scene, who have risen up to fill the void.
The book examines the Hollywood studio system over several decades, from the period when moguls like Harry and Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer produced quality yet commercially viable films, to today, when studios seem only interested in surefire sequels and comic-book adaptations aimed at a global audience. By the same token, Shoot It! also celebrates today's great movies produced outside of the studio system, chronicling the international independent film movement in seven countries (the United States, Canada, Mexico, Britain, France, Romania, and South Korea), from its roots (French New Wave, British kitchen sink, the New York scene) to the revolutionary impact of digital technology. It also features new interviews from indie film notables such as Gus Van Sant, Mike Leigh, Claire Denis, Atom Egoyan, Catherine Breillat, Sally Potter, John Sayles, and Ken Loach.
While the studios envisage a generic universe, repressing local film cultures along the way, talented independents continue to tell local stories with universal appeal. This book is a celebration of those determined filmmakers who, despite it all, overcome every obstacle and just shoot it.
David Spaner is a film critic and freelance journalist in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The book examines the Hollywood studio system over several decades, from the period when moguls like Harry and Jack Warner and Louis B. Mayer produced quality yet commercially viable films, to today, when studios seem only interested in surefire sequels and comic-book adaptations aimed at a global audience. By the same token, Shoot It! also celebrates today's great movies produced outside of the studio system, chronicling the international independent film movement in seven countries (the United States, Canada, Mexico, Britain, France, Romania, and South Korea), from its roots (French New Wave, British kitchen sink, the New York scene) to the revolutionary impact of digital technology. It also features new interviews from indie film notables such as Gus Van Sant, Mike Leigh, Claire Denis, Atom Egoyan, Catherine Breillat, Sally Potter, John Sayles, and Ken Loach.
While the studios envisage a generic universe, repressing local film cultures along the way, talented independents continue to tell local stories with universal appeal. This book is a celebration of those determined filmmakers who, despite it all, overcome every obstacle and just shoot it.
David Spaner is a film critic and freelance journalist in Vancouver, British Columbia.
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 13, 2011
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April 26, 2012
Interesting book. The biggest flaw is that it spends most of it's time name dropping paragraphs worth of independent filmmakers and films they've made.
When any decision is made by profit margins the creative integrity of film suffers. The only way to have your vision is to subject yourself to the bare bones budgets and do it all yourself. The really disheartening chapters mention directors who work on films for five years only to have it in theaters for two weeks before being pulled to make way for the next wannabe blockbuster.
When any decision is made by profit margins the creative integrity of film suffers. The only way to have your vision is to subject yourself to the bare bones budgets and do it all yourself. The really disheartening chapters mention directors who work on films for five years only to have it in theaters for two weeks before being pulled to make way for the next wannabe blockbuster.
Displaying 1 of 1 review