Comment by thebradbain | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thebradbain | Hacker News Reader

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As someone who lives in Los Angeles and is mostly surrounded by people in film/tv, the indie film industry is a LOT bigger than many people outside of the know realize. And I’m so thankful for that, because that’s where the “things that don’t scale, … original ideas that are difficult to translate to movies, etc” flourish. In a way, the indie movie scene is in better shape than it ever has been— with well-known big name actors even hopping in now and then.

You could argue the indie scene is similar to the startup scene in SV. You have investors/producers pretty much funding these films based on team/talent and a pitch alone, with the festival circuit (could be considered an analog to SV demo-days or investor powows) essentially serving as a way to get bought by big studios for potential wide release, limited-release runs (which can still make a lot of money for those involved), or teams hired/screenplays bought and adapted by other studios. You can even make it big right out of college (or in college) [1] with little-to-no connections, though of course even more-so than SV a name and pedigree gets you further faster.

There’s so much in LA (and NYC) that gets released in theaters only locally, and the city is better for it. It’s the wide-release that, almost by definition, must serve lowest common denominator in order to make its 8/9-figure budget back in a span of months (tech companies get years!!). It’s sad that SF and LA, so close geographically, have industries so socially polarized to each other in every way, since there’s really a lot of overlap when you get down to it (and each industry could definitely learn things from the other)

[1] https://variety.com/2022/film/news/apple-cha-cha-real-smooth...

Is there much in the way of indie action/adventure movies? What I miss most are movies oriented around action that aren't just derivative blockbusters. Compare something like Jackie Chan's Chinese movies or The Matrix to today's generic shaky cam fight scenes.

Even movies like Big Trouble in Little Chinatown or Predator, while not necessarily having plots worthy of the next Great American Novel, at least had interesting memorable ideas.

Quite a bit; just it's mostly living in the direct to video bin, as it were. There's a whole world of pretty decent action flicks out there[1]. Scott Adkins, who's mentioned in that article, makes just about anything he's in worth watching and directors like Jesse V. Johnson, John Hyams, and Isaac Florentine[2] are solid. Oh, and there's a whole cache of good French action movies on Netflix -- Lost Bullet is a good place to start.

As a discovery mechanism, I'd recommend following Vyce Victus[3], who writes reasonably well about action movies.

  [1] https://letterboxd.com/journal/direct-action-scott-adkins-dtv-film-evolution/
  [2] https://www.rogerebert.com/features/the-real-vulgar-auteurs-three-great-directors-of-direct-to-video-films
  [3] https://letterboxd.com/vycevictus/

Have you seen this year's "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once"? If not, I highly recommend it, it's amazing and bonkers and moving and clever. Just an utterly fantastic movie all around. The budget was $25 million—which is not small—but it still feels a lot more indie than most other movies.

i think a lot of the indie action has gone to the YouTube vfx studios

> There’s so much in LA (and NYC) that gets released in theaters only locally, and the city is better for it.

There are arthouse movie theaters throughout that play the same movies that you think are only locally shown in LA/NYC. You just need the right context (near a university, for example).

Yes! Exactly. You can find glimpses of the indie scene in many places, if you know where to look for it. But they’re not as pervasive/all-encompassing outside those two cities. Chicago/Austin have scenes, but they’re smaller; Georgia sort of does, too, but it’s more corporate/extensions of big Hollywood studios than an independent community.

What I'd really personally like to see is space opera with better storytelling. But the impression I've got is that the sorts of films that do best as indies are ones where the props are cheap. So in other words, mostly contemporary or maybe historical settings. There are a handful of exceptions I'm aware of, but only a handful.

Am I wrong about this? Anything I'm missing?

Seriously watch Andor. Best sci fi show I’ve seen in years, SW or not.

Does one need to be up to date on the recent Star Wars movies?

No, in fact nothing in particular relates it to any other SW content.

It’s just a sci fi show set in that universe, that’s the way I see it. Takes the universe seriously, sets down rules for how it could work and it operates within that space.

But it’s better written, acted and art directed than most TV I’ve ever seen.

Id rank it as high or higher than Chernobyl. I’d say it’s must see TV.

I’m enjoying it! Thanks for the recommendation!

The Expanse

Unfortunately this one seems polarizing. I loved it from the first scene, but there seem to be more than a few people who find it slow and boring to start, and don't come around to it.

To be fair, it is a little slow and boring to start :) I still liked it, but it’s not representative of where the show goes later on

What's disappeared isn't the small independent super-low budget movie... as you said, that market is more active than ever. It's the >$10 million movie that everyone in the country can enjoy, has a name brand actor or two, but isn't just some recycled comic book tripe. Forrest Gump. The Big Sleep. Kramer vs. Kramer. Three Men and a Baby. Four Weddings and a Funeral. Terms of Endearment. etc.

Indie movies can range anywhere from $100k-$15M+, it’s a big range.

But I understand your point— mid-budget studio movies (romcoms especially) have been hit the hardest by the pivot to Marvel mania and cinematic universes. Unfortunately that’s as much because of audience preference as it is studios.

Maybe I'm naive, but what stops indie studios from creating cinematic universes? The props, sets, visual effects, etc. are primarily what's expensive, not the size of the (in-your-head) universe. If anything, I would expect indie universes to be more consistent and to have more meaningful/powerful plots, because these things tend to be labors of love rather than the more cookie cutter process we see in the big films.

I think the big thing is the financial risk of committing to a series, but it seems like if you take the films one at a time, you get to see how the last one is doing before you get too far along making the next one. Can't be that much worse than making everything a one-off.

They do! The largest one right now (which is also receiving a wide release, even) would be X (March 2022), then the prequel Pearl (September 2022), and the soon-to-be-sequel in 2023.

They spent probably less than $5M total on the 3 movies (and filmed all at once), and the first two have already brought in $25M at the box office. A pretty good indie success story.

The casual audience isnt stupid. Just lacking patience. New, Solid and well written themes are hard work to follow. Aint nobody got time for that.

But then theres also the insidious observation. My generation are now senior writers and also the majority of the audience and between us is as much creativity as a fart.

…Good Will Hunting. At the time that movie (and the ones you listed) came out, they were the talk of the country. They were THE zeitgeist.

Are there any streaming services that distribute these? It would be a shame if they were lost to locality.

They're definitely available for those who are interested-- Criterion is probably the most well known. But a lot of successful indie movies also get picked up by regular streaming services, too. They're just usually not heavily promoted (usually little to no marketing budget).

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