Independent Filmmaking

The unprecedented economic growth and immigration that Ireland experienced between 1995 and 2007 did not only challenge national but also ethnic, social, and gender identities. The contributions to this volume explore how films tackle these challenges and help to make sense of Ireland’s altered position in a globalised world. Among the films discussed are some of the most critically acclaimed Irish films of recent years, including Once (2006), Adam & Paul (2004), Garage (2007), and The Secret of Kells (2009), as well as the work of Oscar-winning director and writer Neil Jordan. The volume is completed by an extensive interview with award-winning director Lenny Abrahamson, and his collaborator, screenwriter and actor Mark O’Halloran.

John Sayles is one of America’s most successful independent filmmakers, whose works include Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980), City of Hope (1991), and Lone Star (1996). This article examines Sayles’ portrait of place in Sunshine State (2002), a film set in Plantation Island, Florida, where large-scale corporate development is transforming two communities—one black, the other white—into upscale winter resorts. Sayles’ film probes the place experience of some sixteen vividly drawn characters and illuminates how the same physical place, for different individuals and groups, can evoke a broad spectrum of situations, meanings, and potential futures. One of Sayles’ conclusions is that people cannot escape the place in which they find themselves. They can, however, learn from that place and thereby decide whether and in what ways they will offer that place commitment or not.

Engaging with recent scholarship concerning ethics in practical documentary filmmaking, this research paper explores one filmmaker's navigation of issues of consent and representation in their documentary project. The object of my case study is Bing Liu's MINDING THE GAP (Kartemquin Pictures, 2018).

Following Patricia Aufderheide et al (2009) I discuss ethics in documentary filmmaking as something to be approached situationally, according to the specific context and circumstances of the documentary project.

"There is no code of conduct, no set of ethical standards that governs all documentary filmmaking [...] The true test is in the particulars, and every filmmaking effort and every viewing experience will bring a distinct set of circumstances to bear."
—Bill Nichols, Speaking Truths with Film

Designed for people who want to tell a story their way, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Independent Filmmaking explains everything a budding auteur needs to know— from literary development and financial and organizational pre-production to principal photography production, post-production assembly, exhibition and distribution, and more.

Key features: • Five sections covering creativity and creative documentary and the contemporary creative industries: strategies for developing documentary ideas; the art of documentary narrative; digital production methods; new documentary forms; distribution and financing. • Provides a comprehensive overview of critical thought and techniques in digital documentary filmmaking. • Authors and specialist contributors combine the experience, knowledge and skills of academics and media professionals working in the industry. • Practical case studies support analysis and reflection. • Exercises, checklists, interviews with professionals and further reading materials accompany each chapter. • A historical overview of world documentary. Creative Documentary: Theory and Practice is an essential guide for those engaged in the study and practice of documentary theory and making, as well as key reading for those more broadly interested in video, film and media theory and production. What does i...

The Internet has brought new hope to independent filmmakers - hope of turning filmmaking into a sustainable undertaking. The Hunt for Gollum recreates and extends a blockbuster movie on little financial resources. The Cosmonaut is funded with the help of its audience. 15Malaysia is distributed on the Internet in an attempt to circumvent censorship. All reached millions of people. Meanwhile, the questions what it needs to sustain independent filmmaking and how we may use the Internet to sustain independent filmmaking remain unanswered. This thesis tackles both problems.

The thesis embarks with the purpose of identifying how independent filmmakers can use the Internet to sustain their work. Approaching this problem, I firstly discuss the term 'sustain', trying to establish its meaning. While most debates about sustaining the arts still stress the importance of monetary matters, I reject such simplification. In an attempt to understand why people make films and what they need to do so, I interview seven independent filmmakers and two non-filmmakers, identifying audiences, self-actualisation, equipment, money, collaborators, time, ideas and knowledge as central needs and motivations of independent filmmakers.

As this first research project unveils a rather complex picture, I decided to re-focus my central research question to only one of the identified areas, namely the audience, and ask: How can independent filmmakers use the Internet to build audiences for their work? I approach this question in two ways. I first discuss historical examples of the audience building efforts of independent films as well as basic implications the Internet has had on independent filmmaking. This is followed by an empirical study of the audience building efforts of the three projects mentioned above and three further contemporary independent film projects. Similar to the first, this second primary research project, too, adopts the epistemological assumptions of social constructionism and relies on semi-structured interviews for data collection.

The thesis concludes with the suggestion of twelve principles how independent filmmakers may use the Internet to build an audience in the Internet age. For example, independent filmmakers must approach audience building as an active task and allocate resources to it. They should identify pre-existing audiences with a potential interest in a filmʼs content and access them through opinion leaders, using news value to persuade opinion leaders of the newsworthiness of a film to their audiences. Filmmakers must offer ways for audiences to follow them directly. This also includes an ongoing personal and transparent communication as well as interaction with interested audience members. Eliminating accessibility barriers, collaboration and extending story and product also help the audience building process. Finally, filmmakers should not rely on the Internet only but also build audiences in the offline world.

The thesis is mainly concerned with filmmaking practice. Its value hence lies in the presentation and discussion of how independent filmmakers may use the Internet for audience building purposes. Academically, it lays out a number of areas for further research into how independent filmmaking could be sustained and generally adds to the field of cultural entrepreneurship in the digital age by describing and analysing working processes of cultural entrepreneurs.

The levels of interest in film festivals is growing all the time. Audiences continue to flock to visit festivals, even as numbers at the box offices of most multiplexes continue to fall. New festivals are regularly created, some in capital cities around the world, whilst other festivals are appearing in remote regional areas which have never had a film festival before.

Just as the popularity and number of film festivals has been steadily rising over the past two decades, so too has the academic attention given to film festival studies. For a time, only histories of specific festivals, exposés and festival guides existed. However, in the last decade more serious academic attention has been paid to the subject. Some theorists have chosen to focus on the ‘business’ and ‘audience’ festival types (Peranson, 2008), others have concentrated on the relationships between festivals and their films (De Valck, 2016), whilst other scholars have used festival spaces (Harbord, 2002), festival programming (De Valck, 2012 and Rastegar, 2012), and audiences (Iordanova, 2010 and 2013) as their contexts.

Within a short space of time, there is now a wealth of academic attention relating to the field, yet very little has been written about festivals and their relationships with filmmakers. Whilst for many people, film festivals are primarily about the films being screened, this paper is concerned with the value that film festivals give to filmmakers. By considering contemporary independent filmmakers in the UK, this essay aims to explore and analyse how valuable film festivals can be to specific filmmakers. Using interviews with two independent British filmmakers, alongside interviews with two short film festival programmers, this study will gauge the value of film festivals in the UK.

This paper contends with the relatively unregulated flux of nude/semi-nude bodies in media by exploring, in particular, the ethical concerns involved in the photographing or filming of nudity in the Philippine media industry. The objectives of the paper are (1) to understand the various ethical considerations of or for photographers/filmmakers and subjects/actors when shooting nude bodies for photos or for film; (2) to glean a picture of the problems or difficulties that photographers/filmmakers encounter when shooting nude bodies for photos or for film; and (3) to examine existing laws, codes, or protocols on nude filming/photography in the Philippines — if there is any, if there is enough, or if there is too much.

W książce tej przyglądam się filmowym reprezentacjom płciowych i seksualnych transgresji w amerykańskim filmie niezależnym, choć ogólne wnioski można odnieść także do polskiego kontekstu. Za inspirację posłużyły wyraźne zmiany w przestrzeni społecznej Zachodu oraz liczne, wymierzone w nią głosy krytyczne. Mierzę się z nimi, próbując odnaleźć obraz rzeczywistego stanu. W rozdziale pierwszym kreślę możliwie szeroki kontekst kulturowy, by na jego tle łatwiej wskazać te realizacje, które proponują alternatywne drogi życia bądź subwersywnie reinterpretują model popularny. Drugi rozdział pozwala na nieco bliższe przyjrzenie się samej materii instytucjonalno-formalnej: sposobom produkcji, dystrybucji i pokazów, mechanizmom ułatwiającym bądź utrudniającym stworzenie danego filmu, kłopotliwym związkom z Hollywood oraz produkcjami europejskimi. Ostatni rozdział przeznaczam na analizę konkretnych przykładów filmowych. Wskazuję, jak transgresje manifestują się w konkretnych przypadkach, jakie dyskursy władzy ustanawiają granice, które są przekraczane, jak różnorodną skalę może przyjąć transgresja: od indywidualnej po ogólnoludzką. Na splocie trzech czynników: transgresji w aspekcie kulturowym (rozdział 1), produkcyjnym (rozdział 2) oraz wewnątrztekstowym (rozdział 3), rozrysowuję dynamikę interesującego mnie zagadnienia.

Dulot ng demokratisasyong ginawa ng digital technology sa produksiyon ng pelikula ang pagyabong ng independent cinema sa Pilipinas. Kasama rito ang mataas na pagkilala't pagpapahalaga sa mga pelikulang panrehiyon na sumasalamin sa mga kuwento at danas ng pamumuhay sa probinsiya o sa labas ng Metro Manila. Ang mga pelikulang ito ay ayon sa perspektiba ng mga direktor na nagmula sa probinsiyang kanilang kinakatawan. Subalit sa gitna ng mga diskurso tungkol sa masiglang kultura ng paggawa ng pelikula sa iba't ibang panig ng bansa, kapansin-pansing hindi masyadong napag-uusapan ang mga likha ng mga Bulakenyong direktor sa pelikulang panrehiyon. Nais maipaliwanag ng pag-aaral ang kawalan ng kolektibong turing na "Bulakenyo Cinema" gamit ang mga naratibong nakalap mula sa mga panayam sa apat na Bulakenyong direktor. Pinagnilayan din nila ang kahalagahan ng pagiging malay sa rehiyonal na identidad sa paggawa ng sariling pelikula. Sa bandang huli ay nakapagbigay ang pag-aaral ng mga mungkahi kung paano mapauunlad ang sineng Bulakenyo at masiglang pakikibahagi sa diskurso ng sineng pambansa.

Mga Susing Salita: Bulacan, Bulakenyo Cinema, pelikulang panrehiyon, pelikulang pambansa, kultura

The democratization of digital technology has led to the flourishing of Philippine independent cinema. The recognition of regional cinema, films that reflect stories and experiences from the provinces, is also an important development. These films have allowed filmmakers who are outside of the center to create films based on narratives situated in their places using their perspectives as locals. Beneath the discourses on emerging cinematic cultures in the regions comes the almost absence of the works of Bulakenyo filmmakers in the discussions of regional cinema. This study aims to explain this absence through the narratives gathered from the interviews with four filmmakers who identify as Bulakenyo, who also reflected on the significance of incorporating their regional identities in film practice. This study also offers recommendations on how to develop Bulakenyo cinema, which aims to contribute to the emerging discussions on Philippine national cinema.

This dissertation explores the complicated relationship that exists
between non industrial, local and industrial filmmaking practices in India post the digital turn.Such an exploration of diverse filmmaking practices will enable reflection on a moment of transformation that is currently taking place in India’s explosive media context.

This research is a study and consideration about the most outstanding critics mechanisms of Songs from the Second Floor's poetics, from swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson. We bring forward possible paths of poetics analysis of this movie in two ways. 1) By immersing ourselves into the debate about cinema's ontology from the filmic point of view as a " gesture" that displays and tells a story, proposed by the philosopher Girogio Agamben when making reference to Deleuze's "movement image"; and its implications of conceiving cinema from its political power. 2) Making an analysis of the central critic mechanisms of the movie's poetics - the creation of distance, the estrangement, the gag, the social gestus, the stylization, the deep focus, and the opened end -, mechanisms that mostly come from a brechtian legacy
3
and proposed here as a sociocultural complaint that echos with the concepts of “bare life” and “form-of-life” from Agamben". We postulate that "Canciones del segundo piso" 's gestures, resist in their representation as the agamberian thought resists against the ways of life of the late modernity capitalization crisis, and makes it possible, as a gesture, to bring cinema to a level where it is a mean of culture criticism.

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Esta investigación es un estudio y reflexión sobre los dispositivos críticos más sobresalientes de la poética de Canciones del segundo piso, del cineasta sueco Roy Andersson. Presentamos rutas posibles de análisis a la poética de esta película en dos sentidos. 1) Insertándonos en el debate de la ontología del cine a partir de la visión de lo fílmico como “gesto” que muestra y narra, propuesto por el filósofo Giorgio Agamben al retomar la imagen-movimiento de G. Deleuze; y sus implicaciones en concebir al cine desde su potencia política. 2) Realizando un análisis de los dispositivos críticos centrales de la poética de la película - el distanciamiento, el extrañamiento, el gag, el gestus social, la estilización, la profundidad de campo y el final abierto –, dispositivos provenientes en su mayoría de un legado brechtiano y aquí propuestos como una denuncia sociocultural que resuena en los conceptos de nuda vida y formas-de-vida de Agamben. Postulamos que los gestos de Canciones del segundo piso, resisten en su representación como lo hace el pensamiento agamberiano, ante la crisis de la capitalización de las formas de vida de la modernidad tardía, y posibilitan, como gesto, el potenciar al cine como medio de crítica a la cultura.

This thesis proposes a new model for online platforms for independent films. Today, platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, and YouTube are in the face of major industry challenges: more competitors are entering the market; consumers are demanding more diverse content and higher quality service; and cost of content acquisition keeps increasing. In addition, the independent film industry has a fragmented value chain, which makes it challenging for filmmakers to fund and distribute their films.
By applying the platforms framework proposed by Prof. Annabelle Gawer, as well as the “coring and tipping” strategy outlined by Prof. Gawer and Prof. Cusumano, the analysis in this paper shows that a company can become a platform leader by integrating two sides of the value chain: distribution and funding. This strategy will incentivize filmmakers and distributors to use the platform instead of competitors; and it will solve the problem of industry fragmentation. This model can also give the platform access to new data on its consumers’ preferences; and enable it to acquire films in its early stages at a lower cost.

Jim Jarmusch is an independent American filmmaker who began his career in 1980’s New York. Though his first works were largely low-key, ironic, and “didn’t suggest many surprises or provocative future developments” (Rosenbaum 11), Jarmusch began to experiment with cinematic genres in the 1990’s: Dead Man (1995) and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) are twists on the Western and the Gangster film, respectively. Though at first glance, these films may seem to have little in common, I will argue that they can be viewed as companion pieces which exist in the same universe and which are in fact incredibly similar. Dead Man and Ghost Dog break down stereotypes, shatter dichotomies, and blur the edges between genres, cultures, and time periods, in order to create a uniquely postmodern cinematic vision.

Im Zentrum dieser auf einer Literaturanalyse basierenden Arbeit stehen die systemkritischen US-Filme Native Land (1942) und Salt of the Earth (1954). Sie entstanden in einer Zeit, die gemeinhin als die Goldene Ära Hollywoods bezeichnet wird; diese Periode der amerikanischen Geschichte war aber auch von schweren Missständen in der Gesellschaft – vor allem im Bezug auf die Behandlung der Arbeiterklasse – geprägt. Da Filmen gerade in Krisenzeiten eine wichtige Funktion im Hinblick auf die Aufklärung über diese Ungerechtigkeiten zukommt, und gerade unabhängige Künstler sich dies oftmals zum Ziel gesetzt haben, kann mittels einer Auseinandersetzung mit solchen Produktionen ein gutes Bild der damaligen Gesellschaft gezeichnet werden.
Mittels einer mediensoziologischen Herangehensweise wurden die historischen Gegebenheiten und der filmhistorische Kontext, in den sich die Filme einbetten, untersucht. Des Weiteren wurden der persönliche Hintergrund der Filmemacher und ihre kommunistische Orientierung ebenso wie die spezifischen Produktions- und Distributionsbedingungen erörtert, um in der Folge das systemkritische Gedankengut von Native Land und Salt of the Earth und seine konkrete inhaltliche und filmtechnische Realisierung analysieren zu können. Ein Vergleich des inhaltlichen Fokus, der unterschiedlichen Herangehensweise sowie der veränderten politischen und gesellschaftlichen Situation erklärte die divergierende Rezeption der Filme; gleichzeitig wurde somit ein umfassendes Bild der Umstände gezeichnet, die zur damaligen Zeit Anlass für systemkritisches Filmschaffen gaben, es aber auf der anderen Seite aufgrund seiner oftmals für subversiv verurteilten Haltung auch verhinderten.

O John Waters é um artista relevante para maior compreensão de moda e entretenimento. O cineasta encoraja a utilização do estranho, através do mau gosto e do shock value, para a criação de uma estética exagerada e divertida. O estranho é celebrado por Waters em seus livros, filmes e exposições. Por meio destes, o público underground cria interesse e recebe subsídios para desenvolver teorias individualizadas sobre quaisquer temas abordados. A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar a presença do shock value nos longas-metragens do cineasta para desenvolver uma coleção de moda a partir dos elementos que possam se repetir nesta trajetória. A fim de atingir este objetivo, é necessária a apresentação do cineasta, a observação do shock value na primeira fase cinematográfica de John Waters, a relação da primeira fase com o célebre longa-metragem Hairspray e a análise dos elementos visuais elencados através desta relação; a fim de utilizar a marca própria Flamboyant para o desenvolvimento de uma coleção de moda. O desenvolvimento da coleção se dá através das etapas de planejamento, construção e comunicação. Estes objetivos são realizados por meio de materiais publicados; tais como filmes, documentários, livros, entrevistas, artigos, notícias, roteiros originais e fotogramas.

Palavras-chave: Moda. John Waters. Shock value.



John Waters is na relevant artist to compreehend fashion and entertainment. The filmmaker encourages the utilization of the uncanny, through bad taste and shock value, to create an exaggerated and fun aesthetic. The uncanny is celebrated by Waters in his books, films and exhibitions. As a consequence, the underground community acquire interest and receive aid to develop personal theories about any given subject. This research intents to analyze the shock value’s presence in the director’s films to develop a fashion collection using the elements that might repeat itself in this journey. In order to fulfill this goal, it’s required the introduction of the filmmaker, the observation of the shock value in the first cinematic phase of John Waters, the relationship between the first phase and the renowned film Hairspray and the analysis of the listed visual elements via this relation; embracing the personal label Flamboyant to develop a fashion collection. The development of the collection occurs through the steps of planning, construction and communication. These goals are realized throughout published materials; such as films, documentaries, books, interviews, articles, news, original screenplays and film frames.

Keywords: Fashion. John Waters. Shock value.

'Nations and peoples are largely the stories they feed themselves. If they tell themselves stories that are lies, they will suffer the consequences of those lies. If they tell themselves stories that face their own truths, they will free their histories for future flowerings'. (Okri 1995) What defines the classic narrative is also at the root of its limitations; an epistemology that ties it to a material and psychological paradigm governed by largely explicable laws of cause and effect. Such notions as ‘character motivation’, ‘narrative aims’, ‘obstacles’, ‘climax’ and so on have evolved to become as overwhelmingly dominant in cinema as the dogma of reason which subsequently the industrial age solidified. It is from this that the moving-image medium emerged: empirical evidence of motivations, mechanistic notions of causes and effects and scientifically based – including the pseudosciences of psychology and sociology – that provide justifications for events and actions – all serve to reinforce the dominance of the classic narrative’s role in the storytelling of the developed world. In this article, I shall call for a different perspective on cinematic narrative form; not with a view to discussing what film generally is, but to make some general suggestions of what it could be, particularly from the perspective of a film-maker trying to transcend the limitations of the classic narrative. The motive is to try and understand how, in practice, one may evolve narrative forms in such a way as to deal with experiences not sufficiently touched by the classic form, as it is currently generally practised in cinema. I shall, in particular, look at the relationship between emotions and feelings and their relationship to narrative structure and bring into this examination some notions and ideas from Zen Buddhism to re-evaluate that relationship. The issues I hope to raise are about paradigms and I shall therefore deliberately base my discussion on general assertions and eclectic contextualization.

Eyes and eye lines are one of the key ways in which the perspective on a story is established in figurative narrative fiction cinema. As such, the eyes and the use of eyes by a performer needs as much creative and technical attention as shot composition, sound, production design and editing. Rather than thinking of the eyes of a performer as a subservient aspect of a projected performance, often driven by the dominance of dialogue-action delivery, this paper seeks to examine how, in fictional cinematic expression, eyes can be deployed to enhance an introspective and transcendent narrative perspective on a story. This exploration takes place through practice. In particular, during the creation of my latest feature film, The Raven On The Jetty (Erik Knudsen, UK 2014), in which I sought to explore how to enhance the relationship between eyes, eye lines and narrative perspective on story. In reflecting on these issues, I shall look at what is meant by narrative perspective and relate this not only to the performativity of a fiction film, but also to the relationship of this performativity to emotions and feelings. I shall then look at eyes: first looking at their behavioural importance, then at looking and seeing. I hope to show that we can think of eyes not merely as a part of an actor’s performance, but also as a window through which we can see a world whose presence is untouchable. I aim to argue that looks and eye lines are as effective as any other cinematic tool in establishing actions, re-actions, space, time, intentions and revelations and to illustrate how I have sought to challenge certain understandings and approaches to the use of eyes to add a different perspective on a story. I write this paper primarily from the perspective of a filmmaker, as opposed to a film scholar, and therefore while acknowledging the considerable theoretical work done by film theorists such as Vivian Sobchack (on phenomenological semiotics[1]), Stephen Heath (on narrative space[2]), Edward Branigan (on point of view[3]) and Tom Brown (on breaking the fourth wall[4]), not to speak of the extensive debates taking place on Catherine Grant’s Film Studies for Free Blog[5], this paper is a subjective and reflexive exploration that seeks to reveal a creative thought process in action, in contrast to a scholarly examination of the cultural theory around film language or film form. Finally, I shall very briefly summarise some of my key findings in a conclusion.

The horrible evidence of what Kant variously called the wickedness, corruption and perversity of the human heart is, unfortunately, not encountered only in memory, it is also met with among our current experiences. We are daily obliged to witness fresh atrocities as ethnic and racial hatreds seek to express themselves in the annihilation of their proponents’ enemies. (Copjec, 1996;9)

The above quote effectively demonstrates that debates on evil are not only still suitable for the issues emerging in a post-modern world, but are perhaps more suitable than ever before. The film which I will be discussing, Hotel Rwanda (2004), relates the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a man who sheltered  over a thousand refugees in the hotel he managed during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The film is useful as a focus point for the discussion of evil since the situation surrounding the events that took place during those months are often referred to in terms of evil – not only on the part of the Hutu militia that perpetrated the atrocities, but also of the international community and the UN in particular, which did not intervene to stop the massacre – and it would be useful to analyse a couple of key points in this film more closely.

Section co-authored with Rod Stoneman.

A concise account that supplements topics only briefly mentioned in other contributions to the anthology Other Cinemas, this piece provides a factual overview of the establishment and early context surrounding the fourth British terrestrial television channel, Channel 4 (C4), which started broadcasting in 1982. With its dedicated ‘Independent Film and Video Department’, C4 opened air-time to more diverse content through its alternative model, which, rather than making programmes in-house, operated as a ‘publisher-broadcaster’ by buying-in and commissioning work. Developed following a series of interviews/conversations between Holdsworth and former deputy Commissioning Editor at the Channel, Professor Rod Stoneman (National University of Ireland, Galway) this co-authored overview (1,300 words) observes how the Channel’s initial founding remit stemmed from an ethos towards innovation that owed much to the experimental ‘independent’ and ‘workshop’ artistic film and video sectors that emerged in 1970s Britain.

This section is supplemented by two contributions to the book (a chapter on the IFA and another short section on the Workshop Declaration) as well as a chronology.

https://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/id/eprint/36209/

This article argues that independent TV channels releasing narratives of intersecting identities innovate in the organization and technological dissemination of representations, specifying cultural production in ways that more fully value communities in the United States and at times abroad. Through interviews with founders of ten currently running and defunct independent channels, I show how the value of intersectionality is not simply in branding corporate channels or supplying them with new narratives but also in critiquing and reinventing industrial practices to accommodate communities historically excluded from the system. These indie channels allow scholars to see the work of development itself, chronically understudied despite its rapid expansion through net-neutral web distribution and its legacy as the process from which all TV shows emerge.

Cinema censorship is a relatively unexplored topic in the discipline of surveillance studies. While movies are frequent references throughout the scholarship, such citations tend to be limited to plot and imagery and overlook the ways in which the medium can be subject to state intervention or other forms of censorship and self-censorship. This essay uses the case of the 2015 Hong Kong independent film Ten Years to explore how cinema deserves to be considered alongside other media and communications whose vulnerability to institutional control and monitoring are already widely documented by surveillance studies. The film, which reflects Hong Kong residents' critique of mounting Chinese power, was the object of an aggressive vilification and repression campaign by the mainland Chinese government. It also spawned a grassroots defense in which audiences and filmmakers mobilized around the film as a symbol and site of civic discourse and political critique. Using the concepts of participatory media and online activism and connecting Ten Years with Hong Kong's 2014 " Umbrella " protests against Chinese rule, this essay shows how cinema invites the same interventions and interactivity as social media and other digital or communications technologies. Indeed, because Ten Years' history of populist activism resembles well-known instances of media mobilization such as the Arab Spring and Black Lives Matter, this essay demonstrates not only cinema's multiple dimensions of relevance for surveillance studies but also uncovers new global spaces whose film history will diversify surveillance studies.

EN
The worldwide ICT massive appropriation, one of the consequences of web 2.0 has made millions of people approaching to mobile media production and webapps to produce content, spread by social networks. Scenario that during the twentieth century seemed unlikely . To approach this phenomenon it has been made an empirical- analytical reaching to three specific consequences of this anomaly : The mobile cinema, Web Television, and  Videoloop as a new form of film editing. The first two show the decline in the learning curve of the media production tools and their costs specially mobile "apps", because there are many free options. On Videoloop matters, it’s proposed as a new cinema montage form , thanks to Web 2.0 user’s appropriation, mobility and cloud computing , regardless of the dynamic of audiovisual language creation conducted by traditional mass media during the twentieth century. Finally, it is evident that the overall social mobilization towards a multimedia Internet for everyone, not only affects users but to traditional media, which have had to become into big websites with an important presence in mobile app stores. Opening panorama benefiting prosumers, giving diversity to media offer and inviting non-professional users to participate in media production, meanwhile the role and scope of the mass media of the twentieth century has to be rethought towards the XXI century society.

ES
La apropiación masiva de TIC en el mundo, una de las consecuencias de la web 2.0 ha hecho que millones de personas se acerquen a la producción mediática con herramientas móviles y web para producir su contenido, y difundirlo por redes sociales. Escenario que durante el siglo XX parecía poco probable.  Para acercarse a este fenómeno se ha hecho una aproximación empírico-analítica a tres consecuencias más específicas de este fenómeno de apropiación:  El cine con móviles, la televisión web y el Videoloop como nueva forma de montaje cinematográfico.  Los dos primeros evidencian el descenso de la curva de aprendizaje de las herramientas de producción de medios y el de su costo que en caso de las “apps” móviles, hay muchas opciones gratuitas.  En el caso del Videoloop, se quiere proponer como una  nueva forma de montaje cinematográfico, producto de la apropiación de usuarios de la web 2.0, de la movilidad y de la computación en la nube, al margen de las dinámicas de creación del lenguaje audiovisual llevadas a cabo por los mass media tradicionales durante el siglo XX.  Finalmente, es muy claro que dicha movilización social global hacia la un Internet multimedia para todos, no solo afecta a usuarios sino a los medios de comunicación tradicionales, que han tenido que transformarse en grandes portales web con presencia en almacenes de aplicaciones móviles.  Panorama de apertura que beneficia a prosumidores, que le da diversidad a la oferta mediática, y que invita a usuarios no profesionales a participar de la producción de medios, mientras replantea el papel y alcances de los medios masivos del siglo XX en la sociedad del siglo XXI.

This creative essay was written for "ALL102 - Narrative and Genre", as part of the Bachelor of Arts - Media and Communication course at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, in 2005.

The topic for the creative essay was as follows:
In 'Memento', Christopher Nolan casts doubt on the reliability of written texts, photographs, science, character judgement and memory. Based on your understanding of the film, write a short story from the point of view of a police detective using the following scenario: Leonard Shelby has checked out of the Discount Inn and your job is to develop a reasoned murder theory based on evidence he has left behind, using what you imagine to be a hard-boiled policeman's voice. You could in part use his journal entry, or imagine a report to a court. In your critical appendix, consider how and why Nolan's film prevents the audience from doing likewise.

This introduction clarifies the main aims of this 2019 compilation. The first is to highlight the archives of The Independent Film & Video Monthly, a print publication from 1976-2006 and afterwards an online publication, The Independent at www.independent-magazine.org. The second, and more emphatic intention with this compilation is to draw attention to the important work of female independent filmmakers. In moving toward greater equity, Meek argues that, as scholars, we must de-emphasize “auteur” filmmaking, as traditionally represented by a collection of feature films. Many of the women featured in this compilation have had what one might call “eclectic” film careers spanning genres, lengths, and forms—documentary, narrative, “experimental,” features, shorts, television, and web series—however, these decisions were often the result of industry discrimination, rather than choice. She articulates how female filmmakers, therefore, not only have faced intense discrimination throughout their careers, but they also then continue to meet such obstacles in how their work is received and remembered—even by scholars—and she calls for a conscious change.

This article examines how the story of the making of the independent Spanish feature film The Cosmonaut resembles traditional narrative structures and story elements. It relates the ongoing sharing of the film's production process, and argues that this sharing provided the basis for the film's audience-building. Independent films no longer have to be standalone products that are marketed only after their creation. Related events or products allow the story of the making of a film to transcend the film's temporal boundaries and even the limitations of its medium. The paper concludes that telling the story of a film's making while it happens (a) helps to create communities and audiences, who (b) individually experience the making of a film and (c) view a film merely as an end-product while " watching " takes place over an extended period of time. Such ongoing storytelling allows continuous audience growth that helps the filmmaker to self-distribute.

Gerilla sinemacılık kavramı anarşist olmayı istemekten kaynaklanan bir tanım değil, ana akım içinde bütçe yetersizliğinden kaynaklanan sorunları aşıp çekmek istediğiniz filmi hayata geçirebilmek için bir anlamda mecbur kaldığınız bir film üretim biçimidir. (Ama bu yine de anarşist olmayı istemeyeceğiniz anlamına gelmez.) Yöntemlerini sizin belirlediğiniz ve çoğu zaman size özgü olan bir üretim biçimidir. Şartları oluşturan veya oluşan şartları değerlendirmekle ilgili bir teşebbüstür. Gerilla tarzı film üretimi bağımsız ruhun, sınırları ve imkansızlıkları aşıp 'işte buradayım!' demesinin ayakta alkışlanması gereken tezahürüdür.

While LGBTQIA (queer) characters are appearing in arguably more mainstream Hollywood films, “they’re kept far away from the blockbusters that are relied upon for most of the industry’s income” (Lee 3). However, a small group of writers, producers and directors advocate vocally for more respectful representation of queer people and relationships and who wish to challenge the status quo of Hollywood screen media. From the perspective of production, however, it is much more difficult to get these stories told in Hollywood studio cinema and subsequently many storytellers and filmmakers utilise the independent film production space to produce and distribute their films. While there have been quite a few queer female relationship-themed films released in the independent film arena over the past few years, very few of these queer female feature films were written by, directed by or acted by queer women. This article analyses three films – My Days of Mercy (Tali Shalom-Ezer 2018), Below Her Mouth (April Mullen 2017) and The Carmilla Movie (Spencer Maybee 2017) – as examples of films that provide the representation of queer female relationships currently absent in mainstream cinema but that also reveal, in differing ways, how the lack of queer female involvement in the lead creative roles impacts the authenticity of the films’ representation of queer female love and sex.
View article here: https://refractory-journal.com/intervention-as-activism-advocating-queer-female-representation-through-independent-film-production/

This report seeks to summarise the process and outcomes of a practice based research project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and undertaken during the academic year 2005/2006. The primary outcome of the project is the film Heart of Gold (40 minutes) and the purpose here is to augment and expand this primary outcome. Heart of Gold is a documentary project which took me, the filmmaker, back to my country of birth, Ghana, to explore how traditional story-telling may help shape a new approach to documentary forms. The documentary revolves around the changing relationship local people have to the precious and mystical metal, gold. By exploring this changing relationship, the aim was to discover what kind of stories are told about gold, how these stories are told, and how these stories and their mode of delivery may help the filmmaker create documentary narrative approaches which can encompass both realism and mysticism. The aims and objectives of the project, its process and outcomes, are described here and key answers identified with a view to encourage further exploration and debate.