Week 7 – Fargo What makes Fargo an Independent Film? Bill: So violence in Tarantino’s films makes a good transition to the second film this week, which is Fargo, which obviously also includes a lot of violence. But, backtracking just a bit, like Reservoir Dogs, Fargo was kind of an example of independent American cinema of a kind. Can you talk about what makes Fargo an “independent film” at least in its time, 96? Jon: Well, even less than Reservoir Dogs, Fargo is not an independent film. Bill: It’s not an independent film. We shouldn’t even say that. Jon: I mean, Tarantino made Reservoir Dogs for a company called Live Entertainment, which actually went out of business pretty soon, basically over a murder – the guy who ran Live was killed by his children and eventually Live went out of business. So it really was kind of an independent film, I suppose. Tarantino’s later films certainly were not; they were made for Miramax that was, at the time, owned by Disney. The Cohen Brothers, really, since the very earliest haven’t been “independent filmmakers” in that they do have their films distributed by studios, but there’s an independent spirit to them. They’re films that aren’t about robots and superheroes and hobbits. Nothing against hobbits, but yeah. What makes an “Independent Film” Independent? Bill: So it’s not financial independence at all, it’s not distribution independence, it’s maybe just some sort of s- , I don’t like the word s- Jon: And even the independent companies are boutique companies. Focus, which is an “independent company” is owned by Universal. Bill: All these independent companies are really subsidiaries. I guess; is that the word? Jon: I guess Lionsgate is still sort of an independent company, but it’s all sort of relative. You know, the real independent “independent cinemas” that kind of stuff that’s like Un Pimino – Bill: Jon Jost, you should look up Jon Jost – one man crew. Jon: Well, those are kind of thought of as “experimentals” because they’re so far out of the main stream. And certainly true independence is, again, you know, one of my students with five of his friends going out, shooting a video and then putting it on Vimeo or putting it on YouTube or something. That’s closer to independence. So, that said, we tend to look at the Cohen Brothers as independent filmmakers because they seem to be making a kind of movie that the studios don’t make anymore. And there are a handful of directors that fall in to this. I mean, you inevitably hear Tarantino brought in here, but, again, it’s kind of hard to argue that he is. Someone like Steven Soderbergh, Gus Van Sant who’s film, Elephant, which really is a kind of independent film, or certainly is an independent film which we’ll see later. So the term is used awfully loosely and it’s probably just used for, well, it’s not a blockbuster, it’s not trying to be a blockbuster, it’s actually trying to tell a story. Bill: It probably tells us a lot about the current climate of studio filmmaking, which is more money and fewer films, but if there’s a film that isn’t aspiring to make $100 million dollars or more… Jon: They’re very hard to make. There’s a lot of dynamics in contemporary – well, we’re doing this conversation in 2013 – in American Cinema. Now it’s HBO and Showtime that are shooting those kinds of things. You know, they’re shooting relationship stories, they’re shooting films that are about people. I’m getting to the point, I’ve been teaching American Cinema for a long time and, obviously, I’ve been seeing films for almost 60 years, I actually am kind of weary of films that are so dependent on special effects. I could be happy never seeing another film with a robot… Bill: Or avatar. Jon: You don’t like those hobbits, do you. Bill: Avatar, not hobbits! Not hobbits. Jon: Oh. Yeah. So I now tend to gravitate to seeing movies about people, but I’m very much in the minority, obviously. And I think one of the things we see in independent film is that there are actually people in it who have problems that people have. I’m not worries about, about, I don’t know, a ring that’s going to lead to disaster in my universe. I’m worried about how do I pay for my kid’s college – more banal issues. I think the Cohen Brothers are scaling things down in a lot of ways; they’re not making things about big issues, but really making things about – well, in their case, in a lot of cases – Bill: Human drama. Jon: Human drama, yeah, exactly. And maybe that’s what we think of as independent film. And also they’re financed at a slightly lower budget, but definitely at a level that certainly sustains that kind of filmmaking. Bill: So I have another indie film checklist, and some of these I’ve been sort of marking off as we’ve covered them, but the Holy Grail… Jon: Well, the holy grail of all American filmmakers is independence, but it just means something different to everyone. I thought it was really interesting when I was doing research on Coppola and, you know, he’s had a long standing relationship with George Lucas, who is such a different character, such a different kind of filmmaker, and such a different player in the new Hollywood. And both of them say the same things when they’re young, you know, “Hollywood makes terrible movies! I want out of Hollywood!” And they both, in a way, found a way out. Lucas founded Lucas Film and Industrial Light Magic and he stations them in Northern California so he’s away from Hollywood, physically away from Hollywood. Coppola tries to create Zoetrope Studios in the early 80’s, an actual studio in Hollywood, he sort of tries to fight the system in various ways. Spielberg has talked about being an “independent filmmaker” and no one things – God, Spielberg is about the least independent. But what he wants is independence. So I do think that independence is sort of the Holy Grail. It’s what filmmakers through the studio system and now through the post-studio era really want. “You Take the Money, You Lose Control” Bill: But you want your film to be seen too, so it’s a catch-22. This quote has probably been explained in the process of this, but, “You take the money, you lose control.” Jon: Yeah, I think there’s this misnomer that independent filmmakers – well, I don’t know if it’s misnomered, but this idea that if you’re an independent filmmaker and you’ve got a couple of rich investors, you generally don’t have to answer to much of anyone. If you’re working for the studio, the studio is doing all this market research, they’re doing test screenings. You know, you may like your ending, but if a bunch of people in some mall Peoria, Illinois don’t, guess what ending is going to be in your movie? So this thing about “You take the money, you lose control” the more money that’s at stake, the less likely you’re going to have the final cut. Bill: You’d better cast the actor or actress that they want you to cast if they’re fronting you the money. Jon: See, all these kinds of things. And the less money that’s at stake… and that’s why you see some directors and even some actors do that. You know, Steven Soderbergh is very famous for shooting films like the Oceans 11 series – big, blockbusters, lots of stars, very expensive, obviously studio-researched, market tested. Bill: And a remake on top of that. Jon: Yeah, he made two, right? The Oceans 13, and then Erin Brockovich was obviously a very much mainstream film, and then he shoots Traffic, which is downright experimental, or even more, something like Full Frontal, or… Bill: He did that Sasha Grey porn-style movie. Jon: Yeah, what was that… Bill: The Girlfriend Experience. Jon: Girlfriend Experience. Which he shot himself on a digital camera. So he’s one of those guys that takes the money sometimes. Gus Van Sant, who we’ll see next week, you know, he’ll shoot something like Goodwill Hunting, which is a pretty – it’s a feel-good, mainstream movie, and then he’ll make something like Elephant, the film we’ll see, or Paranoid Park, shot with a handheld camera. A handheld camera you could buy retail at Costco, nobody who is a professional actor on the streets of Portland at the skate park on Burnside; because he can control that film. Or Elephant because he can make the film exactly the way he wants because the budget is so insignificant and the box office goals are sort of humble. Platforming Bill: Can you tell us what platforming is? Jon: Yeah, it’s one of the things that helps us define the difference between a mainstream and independent film. Platforming is literally building a platform under a film. So, how do you release the film? Most studio films today are given what’s called the “saturation release” and that’s exactly what it sounds like; you saturate the marketplace. The average studio blockbuster is released to between 3,500 and 4,000 screens all at once, right away.