Hollywood v Independent

The difference between Hollywood and Independent films is vast. I will be highlighting these differences and using examples from ‘Tropic Thunder’ & ‘Hot Fuzz. Before I begin contrasting I feel that it is appropriate to deliver a little background on both of the films.

Tropic Thunder (Hollywood)
Main Producer: DreamWorks
Film Budget: $100-150 million
Plot: A parody of war films. After certain events, the war film becomes slightly more realistic than expected.

Hot Fuzz (Independent)
Main Producer: Big Talk Productions
Film Budget: $8 million
Plot: A successful London cop (Simon Pegg) is transferred to a police department in a small country town. There turns out to be a lot more crime than meets the eye.



















Actors
The first contrast between the films start even before the film has begun being produced. The casting of the two films causes this difference; due to ‘Tropic Thunders’ Hollywood institution they can increase the films profile by molding the film into a star vehicle by employing well known as well as expensive actors. Actors in this instance include; Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Tom Cruise etc. All of these wouldn’t have been cheap to employ. However, Big Talk Productions did not have millions to invest into the film, resulting in a less known cast such as; Simon Pegg, Nick Frost etc. Therefore, before the films have even begun shooting it is clear that the DreamWorks production will appeal to a wider audience due to the audience’s previous positive conception of the actors.

Characters
Hollywood films aim towards the main stream audience, where as Independent productions aim towards a smaller audience. Consequently, Independent films are more likely to produce characters that are more controversial or more specific to a culture where as Hollywood stick to conventional and acceptable characters. For example, as the actors are playing actors in the film, the actors are presented as unintelligent which creates a comical aspect to the film as well as allowing people to relate to it. Furthermore, the film is a parody of war films; therefore it is demoting violence as well as presenting it. This technique widens the audience as both people who despise or enjoy watching violence will enjoy the production, increasing the audience. However, Hot Fuzz is a film where it is clear that the characters will only be understood by certain people. For example, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost play the heroes in the film yet neither of then are overly attractive or sensuous. Therefore, (due to the production company’s low budget in comparison to DreamWorks) not all the characters look how they should and stereotypes are not always used in Independent films. What’s more, as the film is set in a small town, strong country accents are presented in the film. Unlike, Tropic Thunder the accents in the production therefore will be difficult to understand by some people.

Dialogue
Hollywood productions are able to use better writers, whereas Independent productions are most realistic. In ‘Tropic Thunder’ the dialogue is used to extent the narrative, for example towards the initial stages of the film the ‘director’ states “Let go and make the best war movie, ever!” just before stepping on a landmine. This will foreshadow the plot of the film to the audience and suggest that things will go wrong and leaves you waiting for more. Yet, in contrast to Hollywood productions, Independent films seem to use simpler dialogue and seem to make the storyline more real. “Want anything from the shop?”.

Music
Purchasing songs in order to use them in films differs from how well known the artist is. Hollywood productions often either produce the music specifically for the film or copyright music that will appeal to their audience as it is well known. However, independent films often just copyright less-known yet appropriate songs. This is clear with my examples as in ‘Hot Fuzz’ the most well known track is ‘Blockbuster – The Sweets’ which was released in 1989. However, it is clear that the music in ‘Tropic Thunder’ adds to the storyline due to its upbeat nature and recognized profile, for example, ‘U Can't Touch This" – M.C. Hammer.

Camerawork
Camera angles are vital to telling the story of a film, and this is where the difference between Hollywood and independent becomes most apparent. DreamWorks huge budget allows them to heighten the ‘action movie’ affect that ‘Hot Fuzz’ fails to do. With the opening 30 seconds of the movie being films entirely in helicopter shots. It is this quality that ‘Hot Fuzz’ lacks, which is once again down to the institution on the movies. The lack of money for ‘Hot Fuzz’ results in a large amount of long takes in comparison to the multiple cuts of ‘Tropic Thunder’ due to the cost of the film.

Editing
It is the variety of editing that is the difference between Hollywood and independent. As well as Hollywood productions being cleaner cut in regards to framing. For example, the idea of invisible editing is much clearer with ‘Tropic Thunder’ as the cuts are barely noticeable making the production easier to understand. Furthermore, it is clear that any footage with like then perfect audio has been dubbed in order to give a clear sound to the dialogue. However, this is not the case with ‘Hot Fuzz’ where the audio is acceptable but not as perfect as in the DreamWorks production. This is once again down to the institution, DreamWorks want to portray a ‘dream like’ atmosphere so that the film is easier and simple to watch as well as understand. Whereas, Big Talk Productions look to go for the more realistic feel, where slight glitches are seen as acceptable.

Mise-en-scene
There are many differences in regards to props, locations and graphic between Hollywood and independent and I feel that ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Tropic Thunder’ highlight all of these. Firstly is the location of the filming. The end-less pit of money resulted in ‘Tropic Thunder’ being filmed in three different countries as well as some scene being shot in a studio, where the setting was created. This meant that the location was perfect for the director want to produce, again making it a lot easier to understand as the location looks exactly how it supposed to. However, ‘Hot Fuzz’ as filmed in ‘found locations’ which were all in England and easily accessed. Therefore, once again giving the film a more real and imperfect feel. The next contrast between Hollywood and Independent is the props used. ‘Tropic Thunder’s props and costumes are really clear in order to represent the characters perfectly in order to make it easier to for the audience to get what character is being portrayed, for example the complex American army attire. However, in ‘Hot Fuzz’ the only specific costume used in the film is the police costume, which would not have been expensive to get. The last comment in regards to mise-en-scene is in terms of graphics. In ‘Tropic Thunder’ there are multiple explosions, all of which were possibly physically created one way or another. However, in one of the two explosions in ‘Hot Fuzz’ it is clear to see that technology was used to create it. This gives the movie again a less effective edge to it in regards to the Hollywood production.

In conclusion, both Hollywood and Independent production companies have the ability to produce great films. Yet there style of production is completely different and this is mainly down to the institutions of the films. Although they are small factors, they mould together to give each style its little characteristics.