2 - Authorship
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
Summary
Independent cinema is often identified as a realm of production in which directors can have (near to) full control over their own material. In practical terms, this may involve taking on several different roles which, on a big-budget film, would be divided up amongst a team of contributors: writing the script, directing, acting, editing, composing the soundtrack. (On the independent horror film Paranormal Activity (2007), for instance, Oren Peli served as the film's writer, director, producer, editor and cinematographer, and used his own house as the main shooting location.) Along with the smaller crew working on any independent film, the director can arguably steer his or her creative vision more successfully when they have a hand in multiple aspects of the production. This can lead to an understanding of independent cinema as a field dominated by the singular visions of multi-tasking mavericks. As Geoff Andrew writes, for instance,
The history of the American cinema is littered with free spirits who, rather than merely conform to the escapist ideals fostered by mainstream Hollywood, strove to bring a personal vision to the screen and, in so doing, created lasting works of art that transcend the narrow definition of film as entertainment, pure and simple.
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- Information
- Far from Heaven , pp. 40 - 64Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2011