In the early 1920s in the US, five major american film studios - Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, MGM, RKO and Warner Brothers came together to take control of the production, distribution, and exhibition of films that were produced outside of Hollywood, and that was how the concept of independent film or indie film came into being. So Independent film is essentially a film that is produced outside the Hollywood studios but are controlled by the above five biggies.
Indie films have come a long way since its commencement. Today, they are generally considered as american films whose finance and distribution is being taken care by these big studios and their subsidiaries. Major part of the independent film industry is in New York City. There, some studios which are subsidiaries of larger studios - for example, Sony Pictures Classics is designed to develop less commercial, more character driven films, is owned by Sony Pictures. Similarly Fox Searchlight is a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox.
In addition to these higher profile independent studios, other smaller productions companies produce independent films every year. These smaller companies try for releasing their films regionally to the theatres or for additional financing and resources to distribute, advertise and exhibit their project on a national scale. However, due to the advanced technology, high quality digital film equipments available at the consumer level, independent filmmakers are no longer dependent on major studios to provide them with the tools they need to produce a film. Even with the help of non-linear editing and other software available post production has also been simplified.
One major obstacle in the way of independent film makers is advertising of their films. There is the option of newspaper advertisement or other print media, but due to budget constraint, one has to really see the pros and cons of the mode of advertisement he is investing on to promote his movie. For instance, instead of investing on large advertisement in newspaper, small eye catching advertisements can be published at regular intervals of time to catch the fancy of the readers. That would be less costly and purpose of popularizing your film would also be fulfilled. Of course, the internet has emerged as a savior in this problem.
Today, internet has made the world much smaller. Hence, big production houses such as FOX and DREAWORKS have realized the market potential of broadband internet. They have started investing in broadband video streaming and hosting of independent film over internet as that would allow them to show their films on web pages and to reach a broader audience on a worldwide level. These days independent film is not restricted to its normal 90minutes time. Much smaller movies are being made according to the choice and demand of audience all over the world. Especially movies which are hosted over internet are of short duration of about 15-20minutes and they are getting popular. Several movie hosting sites have become very popular by showcasing these independent movies. One prominent name is YouTube.
So in a nutshell, independent film has come a long way since its creation time and has managed to survive by adapting the changes with time and technology. Today Indie films have a huge audience to watch those movies and that proves its popularity.
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