This is my presentation comparing Mainstream and Independent films. I have compared 'Captain America The Winter Solider' and 'Clerks'

1. Mainstream
VS
Independent
By Eddie Manning

2. THEMES
INDEPENDENT -
CLERKS
 Clerks is for a very Niche Audience.
 There are many themes with in this film including:
 Corporate lobbying and image crafting -- The best
example of this is the bubble gum salesman who
incites an anti-cigarette mob so as to sell more bubble
gum. Also, Dante's comment "Ever notice how all of the
prices end in 9?"
 A failing education system -- The guidance counselor
who sits on the floor for hours looking for a perfect
carton of eggs.
 General misalignment of incentives -- Dante is
constantly taking blame for other's actions and they
even discuss how in the Return of the Jedi, the Rebels
probably killed a lot of innocent contractors and
laborers by destroying the under-construction Death
Star.
 Cultural norms and societal expectations -- Don't let
society force you into a life you don't want.
 Dante and the life he loves – Dante Is torn between
the life which while unglamorous allows him to be with
the people he cares about, and the life he thinks he
should have (settling down and getting a good job).
 “It's not the destination, but the trip". -- You could
say that the movie is saying life isn't about achieving
goal its about living a life that makes you happy. And a
life with friends will make the journey better.
MAINSTREAM – CAPTAIN
AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER
 Captain America is also for a very Niche audience of
those who love Marvel and Superhero fans.
 There are many obvious themes running throughout
this film including:
 Battle – There are many battles throughout the film.
Including the battle at the end of the as Captain
America attempts to save the city.
 Assassin – The main evil character.
 Love – Captain Americas love for his friend who sadly
passed away. This theme is also portrayed by Captain
Americas undecided mind whether to let his colleague
‘set him up’ or not.
 There are also many more important themes which
support the story and create the film.
 Moral dilemmas -- The events of The Winter
Soldier will have him questioning everything he
believed. Captain America faces a lot of challenges
throughout
 Politics -- Since Cap has the ethics of someone raised
in the ’40s; they looked to ‘70s political thrillers for
inspiration to make Captain America as a character
very out of date. With him not really knowing right and
wrong.
 Distrust -- Marvel Studios President of Production,
pointed out that in the comics; Cap dealt with
Watergate and the Reagan era, a time in which many
people became distrustful of the government. In this
film ‘Shield’ takes the role of the government and no
character trusts or believes in them.

3. MISE-EN-SCENE
 The Mise en scene of a shot can tell the viewer a
great deal of information ranging from a
characters class to their emotional attachment to
other characters in the scene.
 The Russo brothers (Anthony and Joe Russo)
put their film making knowledge to good use
when directing the action packed, Marvel movie
Captain America. They managed to make sure
every single shot was important and jam packed
full of information using Mise en scene.
At a first glance it is clear that the characters are in
some kind of hygiene facility such as a hospital due to
the simplicity in the decoration and lack of colour. As a
result of the lack of colour in the background the
characters in this shot stand out a lot and some more
than others to show importance. The character Black
Widow played by Scarlet Johansson stands out from
the others significantly with her bold, green jacket on
which could mean that she is a key character in this
scene and one that the directors want the viewer to
focus their attention on. The other actors are wearing
quite dull blue clothing which complements the idea
again that Black Widow is one of the most important
other than the man deceased in the bed, Nick Fury,
whose importance is shown through the use of
blocking and distance of the actors from the camera.
The lighting is also a strong indicator as to who the
eye should focus on due to the fact that because of it
one can see Black Widows expression very clearly
indicating just how strong her emotions were for Nick
Fury.
MAINSTREAM – CAPTAIN AMERICA
WINTER SOLDIER
The audience can see the strength of Bucky as he is
slowing himself down to a stop by digging his bare, metal
hand into the concrete in order to stop himself. The power
of this character is complemented by the car travelling in
the background as it shows just how fast he is travelling
and how hard he must brace in order to slow his whole
body down.

4.  The Mise en scene with in
Clerks is very simple with its
static camera angels, black
and white lighting and simple
props and scenery.
 There are many scenes in Clerks and
the majority of them involve long
conversations with static camera
angles. This is so we see all the action
in the shot and to represent how the
‘Clerks 'are bored of their jobs. This is
evident in these scenes.
MISE-EN-SCENE
INDEPENDENT – CLERKS

5.  Fight scenes are the highlights of this film and
they are edited in a very clever way. There is
contrast of pace through out these scenes to
add suspense for the audience and to make
them feel on edge. In one scene especially in a
fight between Cap, Bucky and Black Widow,
Bucky is walking slowly around the cars in
search of Black Widow. There is very little
movement and the camera movements are also
very slow.
 The pace of the scene then quickly changes
when Black Widow jumps on Bucky. The
camera movements are quick and there are
various jump cuts. With in 2 seconds of Black
Widow jumping on Bucky there are 4 different
camera angles all edited together using jump
cuts this adds pace and drama contrasting to
the early moments of the scene.
EDITINGMAINSTREAM – CAPTAIN
AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER

6.  Kevin Smith has many long takes in
Clerks especially in scenes when
Dante is stood behind the counter.
These long takes make the
conversations feel more natural, like
the viewer is actually there observing
and listening to the conversations.
 Another example of long takes is when
Dante and Randal are talking about
‘Return of the Jedi’. Whilst they are
discussing the camera only cuts away
from them twice showing a customer
overhearing their conversation. Other
than these two cuts the scene is static
making it feel like a natural
conversation.
 Kevin Smith has separated the movie
into acts. He has done this as ‘Clerks’
takes place over the span of one day
and a lot of time passes between
certain scenes. These acts separate
these scenes into different parts of
Dante’s day as we start with the act
‘Dante’ and end with ‘Denouement’
 Quick cuts are also used throughout
the film. These quick cuts are used to
show the customers that Dante and
Randal are talking about as well as
showing Jay shoplifting.
EDITINGINDEPENDENT – CLERKS

7.  The Winter Soldier had a soundtrack produced by
Henry Jackman in June 2013. After spending around six
months writing music for the film, Jackman recorded the
album at Air Studio in London. In an article supported by
Wikipedia Jackman said, “It's produced with all the tricks
I’ve learnt from spending years in the record industry but
then it’s also got the kind of injection of symphonic,
thematic, heroic music that all kind of merges into one
musical, and hopefully coherent piece".
 The track list for the soundtrack is as follows with all the
song title names.
 Every piece of music involved in the film
links with the scene to portray the emotion
and to add to the tension and suspense
with in the fight senses and scenes of
sadness. Although music is heavily used
sound effects are also used to enhance
the anger and make the fighting seem
more painful when a character gets hit. In
the elevator scene when they all try and
kill Captain America there is deep bass
drums playing throughout and then loud
sound effects over the top. The sound
effects strengthen the scene and make it
more realistic adding drama and anguish
to see if Captain America will win the fight.
SOUNDMAINSTREAM – CAPTAIN
AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER

8.  Kevin Smith hasn't incorporated a lot of
sound as there are no emotional and
upbeat scenes in the film.
 However in one scene there is music and
sound effects used. This is the hockey
scene when they play on the roof of the
store.
 There are drum roles when Dante is head
to head with his opponent to add
anticipation of who will win.
 The sound effects are then heard as they
add the comedy to the scene. When the
opponent hits the ball it goes souring
through the air and there is a comical
whistle representing it flying for miles.
 Another comical sound effect is used
when the ball goes into the drain as there
is a down sliding trumpet sound and the
camera quickly cuts to reveal the sad
expressions of the hockey players.
SOUNDINDEPENDENT – CLERKS
Drum Role
Comical Whistle Ball
Down sliding trumpet

9.  Trent Opaloch was the cinematographer for
Winter Soilder and he used incredible
equipment to produce a high quality film.
 The film has a gritty cinematography with its
“authentic” history channel look. The movie
opens with Cap and Falcon’s morning runs.
It’s a very interesting opening shot, very low
key for a superhero movie. They opened
the film in this way as it allows the film to
build up as if it had opened with the
Lemurian Star mission, straight into
combat, the film would have no were to go
and would feel engery less throughout the
rest of it.
 There is a sweeping shot of the Lemurian Star
above, showing us the entire ship. It could
have easily jumped from Cap landing in the
water directly to him climbing aboard the ship,
but Trent Opaloch didn’t do that. Instead, they
show the audience the entire ship in a shot
giving a visual focus on what Cap and his
team are about to fight on. It is also to make it
more visually engaging for the audience.
 Frequently throughout the movie, the camera
is shaky and placed behind objects. This
conveys a sense of being in the world with the
characters, maybe even that the viewers are
unseen spies looking in on this world of spies.
Y
MAINSTREAM – CAPTAIN
AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER

10.  The Cinematographer of Clerks had
to focus on the budget meaning that
nearly every shot was handheld with
occasionally a pan shot to keep the
film interesting. In one scene in
particular there are many jump cuts
when ‘Dante’ is making coffee.
 There is a pan shot with Randall as he
walks into the newsagents. They decided
to use a pan effect here to add to the
comedy as Randall is also dancing whilst
entering the shop so the pan makes us feel
more involved in the shot as we follow him
whilst dancing.
Y
INDEPENDENT – CLERKS

11.  As Clerks is an independent film it
had a very tight budget of:
 $230,000
 The director of Clerks, ‘Kevin Smith’
couldn’t afford any more money to be
put on the film and this is the reason
there are no special effects or breath
taking scenes as there are in
Mainstream Films.
 The film grossed:
 $3,151,130
 This budget includes:
 Stock
 Equipment Rentals
 Processing
 Editing
 Mixing
 Print
 Captain America had a very expensive
budget of:
 $170 Million
 The Production Company of this film
was ‘Marvel’. Marvel make on Average
$716 million each film meaning that
they can incorporate incredible scenes
which are the highlights of the film
were as Independent Films cannot
compete with this.
 The film grossed:
 $259,766,572
 This film broke Box Office records in
2014.
INDEPENDENT -
CLERK
BUDGET
MAINSTREAM – CAPTAIN
AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER

12.  The marketing team behind Captain America
Winter Soldier created many posters to tease
the audience and to show each character in
detail. They produced a poster for each
character to give a visual representation of
what they look like and to give them information
about the character before watching.
 They also created an official Winter Soldier game which is
available on App Store, Google Play and Windows Phones.
Empire magazine wrote a review which was released on the
28th March 2014 praising the film attracting more viewers
into the cinemas. The teaser trailer was released onto
YouTube on May 31st 2013 which is months before its
release in cinemas meaning that Marvel will pull in a wider
audience. The trailer shows every character in action and the
weapons being used. This shows the unique selling point
which is the superheroes and the weapons are a fan favorite
especially Captain Americas Shield.
MARKETING
MAINSTREAM – CAPTAIN
AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER

13.  Clerks Kevin Smith used various marketing
strategies to promote his film.
 He created a Clerks fan site and Smith became a
constant presence on its message board. As a
result of what Kevin gives, the fans give it right
back and today Smith has a web empire with his
board having over 3,000 posts. He made an “in-
theater” audio commentary to entice iPod-toting
fans of his question and answer sessions about
Clerks and you can also listen to various scenes
from Clerks.
 Smith created a MySpace page which now has
50,000 friends.
 A poster was created which captioned the films
main slogan and main characters. Another poster
was also made with just the characters involved
with their names pointing down to them making
the characters recognisable already before the
audience sit down and watch the film.
 Clerks official trailer was then made showing all
the comedy elements with in the film with various
puns included. The trailer also shows every
character and the setting of the film giving the
audience the significant visuals that are mostly
seen in the film.
MARKETINGINDEPENDENT -
CLERK

14.  The target audience for Clerks is basically
those in their early 20s who work minimum-
wage for example, customer-service jobs.
Those jobs that essentially serve as our one
meagre means of income during our college
years. Having first watched this during
college and while working at a grocery store, I
could relate to various aspects of this movie a
bit too well. As anyone who's worked a day in
customer service of any kind will tell you,
some customers are very abrupt.
And Clerks pokes fun at this very fact in some
outrageous, yet totally human ways.
 The main target audience of this film is
for people who enjoy a lot of combat
and gun fighting scenes. This film has
a lot of violence as well throughout the
film. This film mainly targets males
from the ages of 15 upwards because
they are the ones who are most
interested in this type of film. Also this
film is for those who have read the
Marvel Comics of Captain America
and enjoyed it.
AUDIENCE
TARGETINGINDEPENDENT -
CLERK
MAINSTREAM – CAPTAIN
AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER

15.  There are many actors
involved with Clerks but as
Clerks is an independent film
the entire cast is unknown and
doesn’t have any famous
names which would attract the
audience to the film.
 Kevin Smith could only afford
to employ this cast as his
budget wouldn’t even be able
to pay for an actor from
Captain America.
 All three of these un-famous
actors are an example of who
Kevin Smith used and each of
them only have recognition for
performing in this film.
STARDOMINDEPENDENT -
CLERK
Brian O'Halloran
Played Dante
Hicks
Jeff Anderson
Played Randal
Lisa Spoonhauer
Played Caitlin

16.  The actors involved in Captain America
are extremely famous which draws the
audience in creating a bigger intake of
money and target audience.
 Each actor was paid a lot of money to
perform in the film for example:
 Chris Evans was paid $6.2 million.
 Scarlett Johansson was paid $20
million.
 There is also bigger names in the film
including:
 Samuel L. Jackson, Sebastian Stan and
Anthony Mackie.
 All these actors helped the film to get
$259,766,572 in profit as with the famous
actors Marvel chose made the fans of
these actors, even if not a fan of Marvel,
watched the film to support the actor.
MAINSTREAM – CAPTAIN
AMERICA WINTER SOLDIER
STARDOM
Chris Evans
Played Captain
America
Samuel L.
Jackson
Played
Nick Fury
Scarlett
Johansson
Played
Black Widow