This is a presentation comparing and contrasting a mainstream and independent film. I focused on Star Wars the Force Awakens and Clerks which is a Independent film made by Kevin Smith.

1. Louie Johns
INDEPENDENT VS
MAINSTREAM

2. Independent – Clerks.
 Clerks themes are tailored to a
specific niche audience and
made all from one directors
ideas. There was no backing
from a major studio who had
specific needs to be followed.
 Some themes seen throughout
Clerk are Sex, Drugs,
Necrophilia, Relationships,
Smoking and the failing of the
education system.
 These themes are not normally
seen in mainstream films
because there is certain criteria
they have to meet.
Mainstream – Star Wars
Force Awakens.
 The Force Awakens is a more
family friendly film and isn’t
as vulgar as Clerks.
 Some themes seen
throughout Star Wars are
War, Death and Love.
 Even though these read as
adult themes they are
presented in a soft way that
Disney has developed. Its
soft to the eye and suitable
for a large audience unlike
Clerks. This means the film
is appropriate to most ages.
THEMES

3. Independent – Clerks.
 The mise en scene in Clerks is very
simple but has had a lot of thought
put into it. Such as the small signs
like the one on the till saying “If
you plan on shoplifting please tell
us”. These are very simple but
make the audience laugh.
 The costumes in Clerks show they
are working class people. You see
this from the backwards baseball
caps and the non designer shirts.
 There film is built up from long
takes with static camera angles.
the lighting is also very simple and
seems to be just using sunlight
coming into the store and the lights
in the store itself.
Mainstream – Star Wars
Force Awakens.
 The mise en scene in Star Wars is a
lot more complex. There is a mix of
short quick clips and also long
takes to build more tension. Unlike
Clerks there is various angles such
as aerial shots and tracking shots.
 The scenes are very complex as
well in Star Wars and everything is
designed to precise detail.
 The lighting and colour of a film is
very important as it is used to
create mood and atmosphere. The
positioning of the lighting creates
different effects. Most of the trailer
is filmed in natural lighting, as it is
in the daytime in most of the shots.
However it is also filmed in dark
lighting as there are shots of
space.
MISE-EN-SCENE

5. Independent – Clerks.
 Kevin uses a lot of long
takes in Clerks. An example
of this is when Dante is
stood behind the till having
conversations with
customers. This makes the
conversation feel more
natural and realistic.
 The cuts are very basic and
there is no complex editing
techniques involved unlike
in Star Wars.
Mainstream – Star Wars
Force Awakens.
 Editing tells us about how
it changes the pace of
the narrative, and the
editing narrative used
tells us about where the
narrative is. Most of the
techniques consist of:
straight cuts, fades,
dissolves, wipes, jump
cuts, etc. There is a lot of
fading included in order
for it to move onto the
next key scene rather
than straight cutting
through it.
EDITING

6. Independent – Clerks.
 The Clerks sound is very basic
and mainly consists of just the
characters voices. This is also
heard along side basic sounds
that objects in the scene our
making for example the till
opening, store door opening and
the bashing of hockey sticks
during the hockey game.
 There are basic sound effects in
the film including a drum roll
when Dante is head to head with
his opponent and when the ball
rolls down the drain in the hockey
scene.
Mainstream – Star Wars
Force Awakens.
 The sound in Force Awakens
is very complex. There is a
lot to take into consideration
during each and every scene.
 An example of this is in the
fighting scenes where
blasters and light sabers are
going of and you hear people
shouting and screaming.
 There is a soundtrack that
was made just for the Star
Wars franchise and is
noticeable to many.
SOUND

7. Independent – Clerks.
 Clerks was filmed on 16mm
B&W film to save money. It was
also shot all in 21 days.
 Clerks cinematography is very
basic and the shots are mainly
static shots normally mid or
long shots. There is a lack of
large scale professional looking
shots like in Star Wars because
they didn’t have access to the
equipment to get these shots.
 The hockey scene is the scene
where the cinematography is
most experimental. There is
faster cuts and closer angles
shots to show the fast pace and
the tension between the who
teams.
Mainstream – Star Wars
Force Awakens.
 The Force Awakens is filmed from many
different angles, heights, distances and
movements. An example of this is when it
starts off from a low horizontal height, and
then switches to a high height with an
overhead angle, far from the subject.
 Many of the shots of the characters are
filmed as close-mid shots, and their faces
are frequently zoomed in, in order to show
the audience who the main characters are.
 Because there are so many action shots of
the spaceships its filmed from so many
different angles, as it shows the explosions
and movement of the spaceships .
 When there is more action seen in the film
there is a larger variety of angles and shots
used to create more of an effect through the
scene. There is also a lot of panning and
tilting the create more of a dramatic effect
during the action scenes.
 The Force Awakens was shown in Imax
cinemas meaning it was filmed at 4K quality.
Technology has developed since Clerks was
made and allows recording to be done on a
larger and cheaper scale.
CINEMATOGRAPHY

8.  Opening
Scenes
1
2
3

9.  Budget - $27,575
 Kevin Smith (Director) had to
source all this money from his
own back. He didn’t have a
budget given to him by a
leading company.
 He did this by maxing out 8-10
credit cards at $2,000 limits
and selling a large portion of
his extensive comic book
collection.
 He also used money that he
been put aside for college
education and even used money
he had claimed from car
insurance.
Mainstream – Star Wars
Force Awakens.
 Budget - $245,000,000
 The Force Awakes was a Disney
film so financial backing wasn't
an issue here. Because the Star
Wars franchise has been so
successful and is so popular
Disney would have no doubt
investing so much money into
the film.
 The budget is so much larger for
this film compared to Clerks
because they needed to pay for
the well known cast,
professional equipment,
marketing schemes and
distribution.
BUDGET
Independent – Clerks.

10. Independent – Clerks.
 Clerks director Kevin Smith used
what was around him to market his
film. He was always busy and
interacting with people. Weather that
was in the video store or at a college
gig. This meant he could tell people
about the film and it would travel by
word of mouth.
 Clerks started to be viewed when it
was viewed by Bob Hawk at IFFM and
he decided to show it at Sundance
where it was picked up by Miramax
Films.
 It was very low key advertising
including posters and signs around at
the time. Because it was only shown
in a small number of cinemas.
Mainstream – Star Wars
Force Awakens.
 The trailers that they used were
what’s called peering trailers. They
got people very interested in the
movie but they did not disclose
much of the content and the
storyline, so they were very
creative in generating these teaser
trailers that got people to the
movie theatres.
 Unlike Clerks Disney had the
budget the promote the film a few
years in advanced and build up a
large audience before the films
even been made.
 Disney also produce a lot of
merchandise for the films including
links with Lego and even making a
board game.
MARKETING

11.  Clerks Poster.  Star Wars Poster.

12. AUDIENCE TARGETING
Independent – Clerks.
 For films such as Clerks which are
independently produced the target
audience tends to be a niche audience.
 To find Clerks appealing and enjoyable to
watch you have to have a sense of humor
and understand the types of humor they
are using.
 The target audience for Clerks is primarily
people in there late teen/early 20s who
work minimum wage jobs such as the one
seen in the film. Especially the types of
jobs which students live of during there
times of study’s. It’s a relatable film for
those who work in a similar work place or
for the older generation looking back on
how there work used to be. Clerks makes
fun out of the customer service and
education systems so its easy for people
to relate too.
Mainstream – Star Wars
Force Awakens.
 The Force Awakens was aimed to
be more family friendly and to suit
a much wider audience than Clerks
to increase maximum income.
 It was seen that in the first week of
viewing it was mainly men age from
18-49 who bought tickets to see
the film with a average of 35 years
old.
 The Force Awakens wasn’t aimed at
one direct audience it was
produced to be appealing to a lot
more people. There was animation
to reach out to children and the
action scenes to interest adult
males. But its seen that Disney
hasn’t tried to aim this film
towards adult women at all.

13.  Brian O'Halloran – Dante Hicks
 Jeff Anderson – Randal Graves
 Silent Bob – Kevin Smith
 Marilyn Ghigliotti – Veronica
These are all small scale actors that dont have a popular name
in the industry and this is there first proper peice of work
they’ve appeared on. They would have been payed a minimal
amount of money and some even done the acting vollenterally
because the budget was just too small.
STARDOM
 Independent – Clerks.

14.  Harrison Ford – Han Solo
 Carrie Fisher – Princess Leia
 Mark Hamill – Luke Skywalker
 Daisy Ridley – Rey
 John Boyega – Finn
This is a cast built up from well known famous actors and
actress that would have cost millions to get together. Without
these key stars, especially the first three in the list the film
would’nt have worked and not been as popular as it was.
STARDOM
 Mainstream – Star Wars
Force Awakens.

15. STARDOM
 Mainstream – Star Wars
Force Awakens.
 Budget spent on cast members -
 Harrison Ford – Han Solo - $25,000,000
 Carrie Fisher – Princess Leia - $2,000,000+
 Mark Hamill – Luke Skywalker -$2,000,000+
 Daisy Ridley – Rey -$200-300K
 John Boyega – Finn -$200-300K
 Harrison Ford was paid over 50X the amount as some of his Star
Wars co stars. This is because of the name he had made for
himself and how great he was in the previous Star Wars films.

16. Louie Johns
INDEPENDENT VS
MAINSTREAM