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Toronto, ON August 13, 2012
The entertainment industry is being shaken to it's core. It was only a few years ago that the music industry was turned on it's head, and following suit is now the film business. There is a new wave of film makers out there who are producing extremely high quality content, feature films specifically, and doing so on budgets that are far less than typical in the Hollywood studio system. Amongst those film makers is writer/director Noam Kroll, who is currently in production on his second feature film, "Split". His first feature, titled "Footsteps" is a multiple award winning film focusing on a young war veteran's attempt to reintegrate into society after undergoing an unbearable two year mission in the middle east.
When "Footsteps" first hit the festival circuit it was immediately well received. At it's first public screening (at MIFF 2012), it stole the show, taking home Best Picture and Best Lead Actor.This was only the tip of the iceberg for the young film maker.
What is equally significant to the acclaim the film has received, is the way in which this film was created. Watching the film, you might swear you were watching a movie produced inside the studio system. The acting is superb, the sets are gorgeous and the cinematography absolutely stunning, not to mention the powerful direction behind it all. WIth the exception of not having any A-list actors in this film, this piece of cinema could rival some of the most well known war themed films of all time.
So how did he do it? How did Kroll take a relatively small budget and turn it into a product that could have cost fifty times that if it were produced in a different system? According to Kroll himself, it was a mixture of techniques, both old and new that are allowing him to tell great stories with high production value. "I like to look at the old Hollywood system for inspiration", says Kroll in a recent interview. He adds "A hundred years ago it was the Director, Cinematographer and Sound Recordist on set, and sometimes that was it. Except of course for the actors. That allowed the films to be made more spontaneously, the messages didn't get watered down, and things happened more organically."
While this is all very true, what has limited likeminded filmmakers up until this point has been the lack of accessible equipment. Since the advent of digital camera technology, many independent films have suffered as a result of not being able to shoot on cinema quality cameras. That is no longer the case, according to Noam Kroll - "I would argue that things have changed more in the last five years than in the previous fifty before that. We now have access to digital cinema cameras that cost less than high end camcorders of just a few years ago. These are the same cameras the studios are using to produce digital features. The playing field has been levelled.".
So what does it really come down to? Now that technology has thrown a wrench in the studio system. "Story." says Kroll. "It all comes down to a great story. If you have an amazing story and strong actors to play your part, you can make an Oscar winning film", he adds. Kroll finishes by stating "Hollywood is taking fewer risks every year, and movie goers are starting to get fed up".
There is a lot of truth to that. Many of this years studio films are either re-makes, sequels, prequels, or simply adaptations of work that already have a pre-existing fan base. It isn't that Hollywood is running out of ideas, it's simply that they can't afford to take risks any more. Studio heads don't want to take a risk on an idea that hasn't been done before when they could just as easily make another sequel and play it safe. But what they aren't accounting for is the audience.
Film goers want to see fresh, original content. They want to be entertained. They want to walk out of theatre laughing or crying and wanting more. It doesn't matter how the movie was made, all that matters is what is on the screen. Over the next few years we will see more and more independent films creeping their way into the main stream theatres, as we already have in the past few years. This is quite obviously attributed to film makers just like Noam Kroll.
Kroll also runs a production company called Creative Rebellion - http://www.creativerebellion.com. Footsteps information can be found at http://www.footstepsthemovie.com.
