Mainstream films normally have big budgets that allow them to hire major actors like George Clooney. Gravity is given as an example of a mainstream film starring Clooney and Sandra Bullock. It was produced and directed by Alfonso Cuaron and tells the story of astronauts stranded in space after their shuttle is destroyed. Over 80% of the film consisted of visual effects created over three years by the UK company Framestore. Independent films are lower budget productions made outside the major studio system and allow for a personal artistic vision from the filmmaker. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is given as an example, shot for only $140,000 it has an unnerving cinema verite style that captured the eerie atmosphere but

1. Case studies

2. Mainstream
• Gravity is an example of a mainstream film including big names such as George Clooney
• Gravity is a 2013 British-American science fiction adventure film co-written, co-edited, produced and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It
stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts who are stranded in space after the mid-orbit destruction of their space shuttle, and
their subsequent attempt to return to Earth. Cuarón wrote the screenplay with his son Jonás and attempted to develop the film at Universal
Pictures. The rights were sold to Warner Bros. Pictures, where the project eventually found traction. David Heyman, who previously worked
with Cuarón on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), produced the film with him. Gravity was produced entirely in the United
Kingdom, where the British visual effects company Framestore spent more than three years creating most of the film's visual effects, which
make up over 80 of its 91 minutes.
• Mainstream films normally either make you laugh or cry and also is associated with commercial success for example George Clooney in
,gravity’ this is due to big budgets and the ability to hire actors such as these just like in titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio

3. Independent
• An independent film or indie film is a feature film that is produced outside of the major film studio system,
in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment agencies.
• Independent films are sometimes distinguishable by their content and style and the way in which the
filmmakers' personal artistic vision is realized. Usually, but not always, independent films are made with
considerably lower budgets than major studio movies
• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), d. Tobe Hooper
With its air of eerie verisimilitude, Tobe Hooper's chilling horror stands light years apart from the other film based on the
gory exploits of the real-life serial killer, Ed Gein. Shot for around $140,000, with money allegedly re-routed from the
success of runaway porn hit, Deep Throat, it's Chainsaw's dead-eyed, almost cinema verite approach that truly unnerves.
The dinner scene, where Marilyn Burns comes dangerously close to having her head smashed in with a hammer, is the
most memorable example of Hooper's edgy approach - something he would never capture again in a career that has since
gone spectacularly off the rails.