Custom «American Independent Films» Essay Paper Sample

A film is a movie or a motion picture, and is a series of moving objects. It is produced by recording photographic images using animation techniques or visual effects. Films are an important art form and a way of educating citizens. They always target the day to day lives of individuals.

Much of the film industry today centers on Hollywood, but other regional centers exist in many parts of the world like the Indian Bollywood. To achieve affordable film making techniques, there has been a rise in the number of the Indepedent Films in the industry. These use a number of affordable equipment in the filming, and they are flourishing. This paper places these films against the classical Hollywood films that are common in the United States.

According to Tzioumakis, 2006, 1, American Independent film making consists of low-budget films that the young filmmakers who want to have some influence in the film industry make. Most of the times, they will have an off-the-beat subject matter that expresses the filmmakers personal vision. The vacuum created by Hollywood abandoning the mid-budget and the socially relevant features left the way for the, new, young, voices to explore their hand in filming. These films are perhaps famous for what they have not fulfilled as compared to their Hollywood counterparts. American films are poor in the context of character traits of the people in it, the stylistic devices that are in the story, also the editing of the entire film.

Considering the film, Manhattan, by Woody Allen, an American Independent Film, and with its showcasing, one can see the various flaws that are a common occurrence in most films that made outside Hollywood. This is a comical movie that has the main character as Isaac; the director of the movie himself, Woody Allen is the main actor. As a successful writer, Allen Incorporated personal experiences of intellect and knowledge into Isaac. His acceptance of professionalism and yearn for physical beauty are also some of his personal traits. He managed to incorporate all of these into the romantic comedy that he created. In the comedy, he is a twice divorced 42 year old who is dating Tracy, a 17 year old school girl. Isaac has the best friend Yale, married to Emily, but has an affair with Mary, who Isaac is interested in too. There is also Isaac’s ex-wife Jill who is apparently writing a confessional book about their marriage.

Yale breaks up with Mary feeling that he could not risk his marriage with the continued affair. He suggests that Isaac asks her out, and he does so considering he had always felt that Tracy was too young for him. Mary and Isaac then move in together. There is a turn of events and Yale splits up with Emily reuniting with Mary. Isaac, heartbroken, tells Emily of Yale’s extramarital affairs, but she does not listen to him because she thinks that it was Isaac who introduced Mary to Yale. Heartbroken, Isaac decides to seek after Tracy who they meet just in front of her house as she is on her way to London as Isaac had always advised her to pursue something educational in London.

This is ideally the plot of this American independent. One thing that we can see is the haphazard character development. The film does not portray in such a position that we can clearly see why they acted the way they did. For Yale, for instance, we are not clearly shown why he decides to have an affair. As a character, he does not develop to the extent where we could see that he justifies doing what he did. Isaac as a character is also not consistent; at one time; he is with Tracy and the next he feels that he wants to be with Mary. This is despite the fact that he has divorced twice, at this time, he should be settled and maybe seriously trying to figure out why his relationships are not working. We see Isaac getting into other relationships that he is not even sure of. He is also not so comfortable with Tracy who he feels she is too young for him. At first when he met Mary, he did not like her. This does not happen in the Hollywood films, where the characters are in development, and we can even almost predict what they may be doing next. This is the aspect of consistency. The Hollywood films most at times have the consistency that films require, with the characters well defined and developed.

Another aspect that has to be well developed in a film is the thematic concern. In this film, Manhattan, the main concerns are aspects of love and betrayal. These are the two things that are evident throughout the film with no any other themes coming up. This is a slight misgiving for a whole movie to have only one subject matter (Girgus, 2002, 64). Most Hollywood films have a varied number of themes that are well developed and diverse. They also have a wider cast, featuring many people in a film. It is not the same case with the American Independent Films that have few casts, and this may be due to the financial constraints involved in the making of the film.

The focal point in any film is the climax; this is the time when the action heightens or maybe the villain unmasked. The Hollywood classical narratives always have a very catchy climax that is always at the end or near its end. In this film, the climax may be the time when Emily parted ways with Yale and Isaac tried to unmask all of Yale’s extra marital affairs, this was the closest to a climax, but still it was not heightened to the degree to make it extremely interesting. The causal effect factors have to be well placed in a film for it to qualify as a classical Hollywood film. There has to be a lively and significance evidence of an action, and how it occurred, this is another area where the other films produced outside Hollywood are lacking. The Hollywood film assembles a tight cause and effect cause of action. There may be more than one line of action moving along with the plot, but at the end of the film, the plot reaches a closure with all conflicts and lines of action having resolves.

Continuity is another aspect that gave the classical Hollywood narratives their complete power. This is the point whereby the viewer should not notice when the cameras move or when the scenes change. The Hollywood movies have perfected this art with the change in scenes being almost impossible to notice. What follows is the aspect whereby some parts that were there during the filming have to be removed for it to remain relevant and enchanting, with no unnecessary scenes being there in the final production (Maltby, 2003, 341). In the same line, with this is the issue of the lighting, most American Independent Filmmakers always get it wrong with there being too much or less light when the shooting of scenes is ongoing. It is the same aspect when the lighting is dim it should be considerably moderate. Coupled up with this is the idea of consistency in the lighting during the whole casting.

These are some of the main issues that make the Hollywood films different from the other films, and there has been the claim that states that there will always be the Hollywood films and the other films. These always try to match up with the Hollywood films, but they have not quite reached the mark, with most of them having very many limitations.