Image credits – Pixabay
Distributing independent movies is much more difficult than studio films. Marketability of the latter comes easy by virtue of studios owning distribution companies or having tie-ups with them. Also, movies featuring big stars or directors practically sell themselves and are screened in abundance. The directors of indie films though often face many hindrances in their distribution. More often than not, they have to resort to simply submitting their films to film-festivals in the hope of being screened and then picked up by major distributors. However, with the advent of plenty of media today, independent films are finding more ways of being screened and are garnering more success than ever before.
Indie Movies Versus Studio Films
Image credits – Pixabay
As may be inferred from the very term ‘Independent film’, these movies are often released unofficially and without the financial resources available to big studios. Indie films differ from studio movies in several ways:
Budget
Indies are often funded by their directors, private investors, pre-sales agreements, equities, and sometimes even by subsidiaries of major film-studios. Governments rarely finance these projects. Speculation tends to cause many financial deals to fall through in respect of these movies. Also, by virtue of low budgets, it is not commonplace to see an established or famous cast appear in them. They provide a good platform for unrecognised budding actors and directors.
Production
Studio films have access to international locations for shooting, numerous editing professionals, relatively better equipment, props, et cetera. The production of independent films requires the employment of unorthodox techniques and hacks to make up for what they cannot afford. Usually, indie movies use simple locations for shooting and without much use of digital effects. The directors of indie films get more freedom to experiment in comparison to those of studio films. There are certain ideas that directors of studio movies cannot even dare to implement in production due to fear of wasting the resources provided to them and their movie resulting in a flop. The scope of studio films is restricted because of this risk-minimisation – they often stick to the use of set templates in production. One of the reasons they are not doing as well as indie movies today is this. Indie directors can get as creative with their shots as they like as they have little to lose and everything to gain. The very approach to independent films is different. They allow for the portrayal of a different perspective.
Distribution
Image credits – Pixabay
Distributing independent movies is much more difficult than studio films. Marketability of the latter comes easy by virtue of studios owning distribution companies or having tie-ups with them. Also, movies featuring big stars or directors practically sell themselves and are screened in abundance. The directors of indie films though often face many hindrances in their distribution. More often than not, they have to resort to simply submitting their films to film-festivals in the hope of being screened and then picked up by major distributors. However, with the advent of plenty of media today, independent films are finding more ways of being screened and are garnering more success than ever before.
Image credits – Pixabay
Distributing independent movies is much more difficult than studio films. Marketability of the latter comes easy by virtue of studios owning distribution companies or having tie-ups with them. Also, movies featuring big stars or directors practically sell themselves and are screened in abundance. The directors of indie films though often face many hindrances in their distribution. More often than not, they have to resort to simply submitting their films to film-festivals in the hope of being screened and then picked up by major distributors. However, with the advent of plenty of media today, independent films are finding more ways of being screened and are garnering more success than ever before.
