INDEPENDENT VS MAINSTREAMBy Jordan Murphy

Choice of Films• In this presentation I will be comparing Clerks, A small independent film

released in 1994 directed and written by Kevin Smith to the hugely successful mainstream film Deadpool released in 2016.

Finance - Clerks• Clerks is an independently financed film.• Clerks film budget was $27,575• The film was backed only by Kevin Smith who invested his money into the film

from selling comic book collections, maxing out 8 credit cards at $2000 each as well as spending his personal college education and claiming money from car insurance.

• The film ended up grossing $3,151,130 at the worldwide box office.

Finance – Deadpool• Deadpool is a superhero film financed by 20th Century Fox directed by Tim

Miller. Because it had the backing by a major studio, this allowed the movie to be highly successful as there was a lot of freedom in what scenes could be shot for the film as they had the money to do so.

• The deadpool film budget was $58 million• The amount of money Deadpool had over Clerks had a massive impact of the

final product of each films as Deadpool was backed by a studio and was given a lot of freedom where as Clerks was only backed by Kevin Smith who had to invest his own money into the film.

• Deadpool ended up grossing $771.2 million making deadpool a hugely successful film.

Visuals• Clerks is filmed in black and white with basic equipment.• Clerks has a low budget feel to the film, with very few sets throughout the

entire film with them sets being very simple and unrefined e.g. the convenience store.

• Deadpool uses a variety of locations throughout the film with bright colours used compared to the dull matte appearance of clerks.

• We can tell that deadpool is a high budget film due to some of the massive scenes with huge explosions unlike Clerks which has very little action.

Sound• Clerk's sound is very basic and mainly just focuses on the characters voices.

When we do hear other sounds they are very basic such as the till or door opening.

• The sound effects are also very simple, an example of this would be the hockey scene where we see Dante goes head to head against the opposition and when the hockey goes down the drain.

• The sound In Deadpool is much more complex than Clerks, every scene is shot carefully where they have to take everything into consideration.

• An example of this would be the highway scene where we hear the fighting taking place inside of the car as well as the car's and motorbike's also chasing behind shooting at the car.

Cast • Another comparison between the two films are the cast where deadpool is

able to attract a huge star such as Ryan Reynolds.• Clerk's main set of cast are mainly unknown who were in some way connected

to Kevin Smith at the time.• This shows the small budget of clerks as Kevin Smith wasn't able to bring in

big Hollywood stars like deadpool was able to and therefore had to use friends and family to cut down the costs.

Marketing - Clerks• Kevin Smith used a variety of marketing techniques to promote his film.• He decided to create a fan site and was on the message board himself often.

Kevin Smith's board now has over 3000 posts.• Kevin also made an 'in theater' audio commentary to attract fans for his

question and answer videos about Clerks.• A poster was also created which captioned the main characters as well as the

slogan. They also created another poster with the main characters names pointing to who they are so when the audience watch the film, they already know some of the characters.

• A trailer was also made for clerks showing several comedic elements within the film to try and attract more viewers into watching. We also see all of the main characters as well as the setting's which take place in the film.

Marketing - Deadpool• The marketing team behind Deadpool decided to make several short clips

which featured deadpool himself as they tried to promote their film to a wide variety with comedic elements as they made videos which ranged from Deadpool dreaming about Wayne Rooney to mocking Australians for Australia day.

• They also created a variety of posters to try and tease the audience. All of the posters produced featured Deadpool in different formats to show again that there's a comedic element to the film and not just any normal superhero movie

Target Audience• For small independent films such as clerks, the target audience is often

niche.• Clerks is aimed towards those in their early 20's who work on minimum

wage just like we see in the film. It is a relatable film for those who currently work in the workplace we see in the film or in fact some of the older generation looking back at what they used to do. Clerk uses the customer service with a comedic element as the Main characters makes fun of the customer service as well as the educational system.

Target Audience -Deadpool• The target audience for Deadpool is from young adults to adults as it

contains a lot of violence and taboo throughout the film making the film too much for kids.

• The film is aiming it towards those who enjoy superhero movies as well as those who enjoy comedy as they decided to make a unique movie which is different compared to the rest of superhero movies.

• It is also aiming towards fans of the comic book which meant they already had a base of audience who would be immediately interested in the film just because it is Deadpool.