1st Edition

Indie TV Industry, Aesthetics and Medium Specificity

Edited By James Lyons, Yannis Tzioumakis Copyright 2023
392 Pages 35 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

392 Pages 35 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

392 Pages 35 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

This edited collection is the first book to offer a wide-ranging examination of the interface between American independent film and a converged television landscape that consists of terrestrial broadcasters, cable networks and streaming providers, in which independent film and television intersect in complex, multifaceted and creative ways. The book covers the long history of continuities and... Read more

Introduction James Lyons and Yannis Tzioumakis

Prologue Hollywood and Television before Media Convergence - Tino Balio 

Part 1 - Indie Film and Television: Historical Relationships 

Chapter 1 Indie (Film on) TV: A Tale of two very Close Friends - Yannis Tzioumakis

Chapter 2 Same Word, Different Medium: The Evolution of Indie TV since the 2000s’ Alisa Perren

Part 2 - Indie Film and Television: Industrial Continuities 

Chapter 3 (Re-)Branding Sundance: Entering the Indie TV Market - Sarah E.S. Sinwell

Chapter 4  Packaging the 'Purest' form of Indie TV: Michael Sugar, Talent Management and Indie-Auteur Clients’ - Andrew Stubbs

Chapter 5 ‘The Things That Keep Us Up at Night’: Blumhouse Television and Indie Horror’s Small Screen Dispersal - Tom Fallows

Part 3 - Filmmakers Migration from Indie Film to TV (and back)

Chapter 6 From Brick to Breaking Bad: ‘Quality’ Television Style, Authorship and ‘Cinematic’ Status - Geoff King

Chapter 7 Mumblecore’s Second Act: Millennial Indie Moviemaking’s Migration to Television - Maria San Filippo

Chapter 8 Apocalyptic Visions and Commercial Constraints: Gregg Araki’s Negotiation of Emerging Modes of Indie TV Auteurship - Anthony P. McIntyre

Part 4 - Indie TV: Aesthetic and Institutional Trajectories

Chapter 9 Prestige TV, Comedy, and the Indie Aesthetic - Michael Z. Newman

Chapter 10 Netflix, Race and Cinephilia: Master of None and Indie TV - Meenasarani Murugan

Chapter 11 'It may Be Where the Future of Independent Production Is Happening': Netflix and Indie Aesthetics in GLOW - Cat Mahoney

Chapter 12 Affect, Tabloid Reality TV and Indie Cinema - Justin Wyatt

Part 5 - Indie TV and Regional Sensibilities

Chapter 13 Fargo (2014-2020): Indie Cinema, Midwest Mobsters, and Indie TV - Cynthia Baron

Chapter 14 Gender, Family, and Therapeutic Regionalism in One Mississippi - Julia Leyda and Diane Negra

Part 6 - Indie TV and Alternative Practices 

Chapter 15 Indie TV in the Streaming Era – A.J. Christian

Chapter 16 Web Series as Indie TV: Intersectional Identities and Intersecting Media - Elana Levine

Chapter 17 ‘A Decade of Distinction’: A&E IndieFilms and the Channelling of Documentary - James Lyons

Biography

James Lyons is Associate Professor in Screen Studies at the University of Exeter. He is the author or co-editor of six books, including Documentary, Performance and Risk (2020), Miami Vice (2010) and Quality Popular Television (2003).

Yannis Tzioumakis is Reader in Film and Media Industries at the University of Liverpool. He is the author and editor of eleven books, most recently United Artists (2020). He also co-edits the Routledge Hollywood Centenary and the Cinema and Youth Cultures book series.

"Indie TV is a fascinating and wide-ranging exploration of the interrelationships between media industries. Lyons and Tzioumakis have assembled a formidable group of scholars to make the powerful collective argument that cinema and television are, and always have been, inseparable. The many layers of indie TV revealed within will inspire film and TV historians, as well as those analyzing contemporary digital media and production cultures."

Jennifer Holt, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

"When I praised this book to a non-academic friend, he readily and enthusiastically rattled off titles of multi-season and limited-episode series that immediately came to mind as cutting-edge examples of 'indie TV' and its cultural reach and resonance. Clearly, 'indie TV' has public purchase, and this far-ranging anthology, strong equally in conceptualization and industrial and aesthetic analysis, pinpoints why. The volume offers rich examples, sharp and smart insight, and welcome attention to diversity, on-screen and behind, around gender, race, ethnicity."

Dana Polan, Cinema Studies, NYU, USA