Blue Ruin - the indie feature

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Just watched ‘Blue Ruin’ this week.

Firstly, fantastic job, not only for only for a low budget film, and not only for the directorial debut, but it is just flat out a good film!

This film has previously been discussed in the camera forums:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?322978-Indie-film-shot-on-C300

I took on an interesting experiment, as my friend found a copy of the script and sent it to me, i decided to read the script prior to viewing the film. After reading the script, i spent some time that night and the following day dreaming up how i would have done it, had the director hired me to shoot it for him. I have to admit, it is rare i see films this way, but it is always enlightening and humbling. A film lives in the execution, doesn’t matter the planning or the script if the execution isn’t there, and this film is one of those that delivers.

In some ways, it is shocking to see how much more talent we have in the film making industry, i have been to film fests where first time film makers are just hitting it out of the park with their first features. The bar is high! It is amazing to see!

The director of ‘Blue Ruin’ has since been able to make ‘Green Room’ and has recently directed on HBO’s ‘True Detective’.

Did any of you guys see this film?

If anyone wants to read the script:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7e7TDCE8AvOb2JwdFUwLUFMclJFQmlPbEUyVkVIQTZ4OGFV/view?usp=drivesdk
 
Mestizo Devon said:
Yes, this is a great one
Click to expand...

Yeah, totally!


I forgot to ask the question that i began to imply in the title:

What is it about a film like this that works.

And

What makes a good indie feature?

And

What the questions you ask yourself when embarking on a feature script?
 
Yeah, I saw it awhile ago, so my memory of it is not crystal sharp. I remember liking it quite a lot, although I thought it stretched the plausibility of events and the nature of the main character just a bit further than I found comfortable. But James makes a brilliant observation - reading the script FIRST and then seeing the film is super educational. Now, that brings to bear which script - because sometimes what you find as a "script" is essentially a version of the final film. But scripts are not like that - they have a history. Version 1 is the one that attracted attention, was bought by the producer or whover, Versions2-X are all versions of how the script was re-written before the director started shooting and of course it's not very rare for scripts to continue to undergo re-writes as the filming is ongoing. Then you end up with the shooting done, and before editing starts. This is important, because sometimes very substantial changes occur in the editing room. So what the director did with the material in the script is a very tricky thing to assess. I mean, look at how Jaws was shot - there were story conferences and writing ongoing with daily meetings between the screenwriter and Spielberg right to almost the very end - oh, what I'd give to be a fly on the wall of those discussions! How super educational must have those discussions been - between technical limitations and trying to create a film that resonates and works on a dramatic level, all must be taken into consideration. It would have been a royal feast to be a witness to that writing/shooting process - btw. there's a book about the film process by the screenwriter of Jaws, very interesting. So, James, good on ya for going that route, it is indeed a fascinating journey.
 
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