Enamored by indie flicks, IU students pursue their own filmmaking success

It is often said that Hollywood ran out of creative ideas years ago. Judging from a lineup for this winter that includes "Jackass: The Movie," "The Santa Clause 2" and "Friday After Next," there's little evidence to discredit that statement. Who wouldn't want to pay $7 and give up two hours of their life to see rehashed jokes from Tim Allen in a fat suit?\nIn light of the slow death of Hollywood creativity, the film world has seen a resurgence of independent filmmaking in recent years. With new developments in movie-production technology, such as relatively inexpensive digital film, the realm of feature filmmaking is no longer reserved for the wealthy elite.\n"I foresee a new golden era of film coming out, when all of these independents are going to get noticed," says Laurence Rodman, a senior.\nRodman is one of the many student-filmmakers who have taken advantage of the developments of digital film, courses focused on film production and the encouragement a university atmosphere offers.\n"In a college town, it's really wonderful," Rodman says. "You have such an opportunity to get a hold of the equipment and be able to use it." \nA communication and culture major from Chicago with a telecom production minor, Rodman is currently enrolled in a 16mm film class that allows him to create and showcase film shorts.\nRodman, along with filmmaking partner Adam Zadikoff, has worked on a couple of short films, which, due to the time and money that professional filming demands, have been kept brief. Their latest clocks in at two minutes and forty seconds, though Rodman says editing will cut the piece considerably.\nRodman recently worked on an eight-minute short film in Chicago at Columbia College, using equipment from the school. \n"We had a full set (with) hundreds of thousands of dollars there," Rodman says. "We probably had 25-30 people on the crew and the cast, but nobody was paid. It was all very low-budget."\nCommercial independent film is often seen as a contradictory phrase, but Kyle Kelley, a sophomore, has found a way to show his films to an audience without restricting his artistic vision. Kelley works on the video team for a company called Symptom Clothing, producing short films for a rollerskate team.\n"Two or three years ago I got my first video camera," Kelley says. "I rollerblade, too, so I was going to make rollerblade films. It became what I wanted to do."\nKelley says he feels that film holds certain advantages over other forms of visual art. \n"The whole shot has to be in frame and in line instead of just that one shot in photography," Kelley says. "The shot's way harder to get."\nKelley's team videos have been shown at rollerblade contests, with an online premiere forthcoming at an undisclosed date. \n"You have set dates that you want something to come out," Kelley says, "but it never happens because something's always pushing it back."\nKelley feels that being an independent filmmaker gives him a large amount of creative control. "People who make (independent films) still have their own ideas," Kelley says. "They're not being held back by the industry."\nBoth Kelley and Rodman are preceded in Bloomington by former student Dan Dixon, who has worked on two major short films in his time at IU. Dixon worked as producer on the films "Boy in the Making" and "Three Animals, One Stuffed," with director and former IU student Scott Schirmer. "Boy in the Making" is a 45-minute piece focusing on the culture of boys that leads to a fictional school shooting inspired by the events at Columbine. "Three Animals, One Stuffed," filmed in a dorm room at Collins Living-Learning Center, is a 30-minute piece about the complexity of one-night stands.\nDixon had a clever method of getting his film projects off the ground. He and Schirmer started the organization Student Filmmakers at IU for the sole purpose of taking advantage of organizational perks, such as being able to book rooms for filming.\nSchirmer has since moved to Los Angeles, but Dixon still lives in Bloomington, though his group is inactive. \n"I hope to put something together in the next six to nine months," Dixon says. "The movie-making itch is beginning to take hold."\nBoth Kelley and Rodman aspire to the lofty goals already reached by Dixon. \n"I would like, someday, to be able to make my own film, whether writing, directing or shooting," Rodman says. "It's a long road to get there, but I'd like to believe that it's a possibility one day."\nKelley says it's possible to maintain the indie approach but also dabble in Hollywood.\n"I don't really want to get big, but if I do that I won't reject that at all," he says. "(Tim) Burton was an indie filmmaker and he did 'Batman.'"\nRodman sees the film industry as a representative art form in addition to a visual spectacle. \n"(Film) is a good outlet for all the problems you have with the world. It's a good way to adjust to all of the issues you have," he says. "By using film, we're able to say things that you wouldn't normally discuss out in the open. It's a little more visual and a little more cerebral, and you're definitely able to get some of those things out there that a lot of people are thinking about."\nIn both Dixon's docudramas about aspects of American lifestyle and Rodman and Kelley's short pieces, it is obvious that film is a very accessible art form with a growing popularity.\n"(Films are) able to make larger encompassing statements about our society," Rodman says. "Right now is a great time for independent films. Anyone can make a film nowadays"