@suresure123 no need to pat your own back. You still haven't contributed and meaningful information. Can you be more specific about which Korean directors/films you are referring to? It would be nice to know since this is what this thread is about. Otherwise I'll go back to posting "unwatchable" films.

I and truthfully everyone else... have posted films you would see, if for example , you were studying cinematography at ucla.

Maybe those programs are outdated, with old professors who are stuck in their ways. I once got into "Criterion Collection Masters of Cinema" DVDs. Many were great, but many of them I thought were crap. Quite frankly, I don't want to be told what to watch by pompous snobby old men on some obscure committees. Who decides what a masterpiece is and isn't? I just watched The Three Stooges. It got shit reviews, but it makes me laugh my ass off, even after several viewings, so I consider it a masterpiece.

Another point is that I'm surprised there is so little mention of indie films on this forum. How are indie films ever supposed to gain in popularity? If other indie filmmakers are remotely interested in them, are the masses supposed to be interested? Maybe you should start learning to appreciate other indie films that are not "masters of cinema", or no one will appreciate your film. Also, these are your direct competitors, not Hollywood, because these are films that are being made with the same low budgets and equipment you have access to. So you can learn what's possible with your dinky little DSLR.

Another point is short films. Why so little interest in short films? These are more feasible to make on low budgets than full-length feature films and also easier to break down and analyze. I would recommend www.shortoftheweek.com if I was teaching filmmaking.

And when learning about films, it might be more practical to work backwards. Decide what kind of film you'd like to make. Horror? Ok, then watch as many horror films as you can, including the bad ones. Watching many films of the same genre side by side will allow you to see what separates the good ones from the bad ones, which techniques are over-used, etc...

@Mirrorman I didn't suggest any specific Korean movies cause I wasn't trying to, in fact I was trying to not lead people to the obvious ones that have broken in the West like Oldboy and Chaser etc. I said people should look at Korean movies (generally) cause of the high standard on many levels and different dynamic in terms of story telling.

Here let me guide your little shaky hands.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=korean+movies

Oh and if you still think I didn't contribute I'll say it again, this thread was started in 2012 and had about 5 posts of obscure unwatchable docs and art installations. The offenders feel all sore cause I suggested we post more relevant work......but the fact is this thread has some decent content now since I posted so I will give myself a light pack on the back if you don't mind. You're welcome...

@kurth, check out The Little Death, ozzy too and blasting funny semi-unconfortable relation-shit.
Lets add to our list the uncontornables Walkabout, Where the Green Ants Dream and The Tracker
Say hello to the pigeon 4 me -)
 
@matthere Korine's last, Spring Breakers has a colour "squeme" (and grade) that alone's worth the watch... and I cannot stand the flatulence of James Franco ,-)
 
@GeoffreyKenner haven't seen Kar Wai Ashes, neither Days of Being Wild which it is highly praised, but loved Chunking Express {or sweat your love out :P} and specially Fallen Angels, 'cause of the energy and marvelous Leung and Kaneshiro. In the Mood for Love it's to me eyes a compendium of faddish, warm, slow passionate burning motherfucking good cinema, OST helps.
 
@MirrorMan Lang context, absolutely!!! One thing I find interesting of watching a classic is to see if stands the passing of time... I do ask myself "can I watch this and enjoy it and be surprised by it or {for whatever reason} I've got to make an anthropological document out of it"; to my surprise (I'm crazy about Welles work) the other day we projected a Wells' flick and... well didn't quite make it, same with a bunch of noir flicks... who knows maybe some stereotypes have been just abused to death, anyway this is very subjective evaluation and wasn't one of the "main" Welles' films. Ritaaaa!!!! Cheers mate =)
 
@jleo good ones brother, keep the patched badass granpas coming {don't FORget forD}. I'll be surely checking them out :P
 
With Steve De Jarnatt's Cherry 2000 I have another one of those affectionate relationships. Miracle Mille was his second long feature. I really wish this guy never went to burry himself on tv and kept doing flicks... I wonder...
Anyway nuclear fear needs no condoms; so romantic and dated that is good again, just the colours and hair style, the charcters and the fact that they allowed itself to be borderline funny while tragedy unfolds... cataclismic blast coming from hollywood!! Loved all the scenarios and locations and the cherish for smaller details (like the cop's plate or the counter-countdown of elevator's buttons), sometimes it's like I'm watching a completely different movie. Great intro titles with some kind of basic animation and Tangerine Dream!!! The 80's at its best, a classic!!
BTW to be able to see an actress with crooked teeth (which I actually find sexy, same with gaps) is... so good, ja ja ja
 
click here for Huge grabsheet
 
ANd cherry on top of the pie, gorgeous artwork for poster

First time director William Richert directed the cult classic Winter Kills ( based on Manchurian Candidate author Richard Condon's novel. In interviews, he says he hired veteran cast and crew so he could learn from them. Richert assembled a star-studded cast including Jeff Bridges, John Huston, Eli Wallach, Richard Boone, Toshiro Mifune and hired cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond ( Close Encounters of The Third Kind) , production designer Robert Boyle ( who worked on many Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, composer Maurice Jarre ( Lawrence Arabia). Quite a lineup for a indie film/novice director with no studio backing !

Trailer:

full film streaming ( downloadable as mp4 file )

http://www.imovies.ge/movies/25353

Making of Winter Kills (spoilers!) from the 2 DVD Set

The burning palm tree in Miracle Mile reminds me of another apocalyptic Los Angeles based movie, the ABC mini-series Wild Palms, by Bruce Wagner and Oliver Stone, directed by Kathryn Bigelow ( Hurt Locker ), Keith Gordon, Peter Hewitt and Phil Joanou.

Wild Palms is a five-hour mini-series... The sci-fi drama, announced as an "event series", deals with the dangers of politically motivated abuse of mass media technology, virtual realities in particular.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Palms

Trailer:

Full Episodes 1-6

Go with Rod. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2egs2j_science-fiction-treasures-the-howling-man-1960-twighlight-zone-rod-serling_shortfilms

As this thread is now becoming a name dropping exercise can someone please post some truly recognised great movies not cult movies from the 70's...

I'll help you all out and just post this.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150720-the-100-greatest-american-films

My personal list off the top of my head in no particular order and prone to change regularly might be:

1. 2001
2. Fight Club
3. Se7en
4. The Godfather
5. Inception
6. Dark Knight Returns
7. Goodfellas
8. American History X
9. The Shining
10. Cinema Paradiso

I could go till 100 no problem but these won't disappoint anyone who loves Cinema. And yes they are not exactly unpredictable but I don't feel the need to look cultured and pretentious right now. These movies ARE ART.

yeah....this was so painful I watched it twice on the same day. Maybe it was because I loved tilda gliding thru the casbah....or just plain love tangier , which in the 60's, along with katmandu were the two coolest cities on the planet !

...but there's a certain truth to jarmusch's learning curve ...no one's perfect. For example I didn't appreciate night on earth or broken flowers .....but you've got to admire the fact...he does what he wants, not what the money demands. I recently read only 2% of indie films even make their investment back. Why would anyone look at making films as a career choice anyway ?

But @babypanda , I'd clockworkorange the worst jarmusch over and over for infinity...rather than watch that shxt trailer one more time !

...and @jleo....absolute thumbs up to rod ! We couldn't have made it thru the cuban missle crisis or jfk's ass....without TZ ! It was the cuttingfuxing edge !

...and @maxr....as for van zant....drugstore cowboy is his best film imho.

....and @suresure123....all of your list are good films....3 are great films

Documentary on cinematographer Jack Cardiff who shot many classic Powell Pressburger movies like Black Narcissus, Red Shoes, Stairway to Heaven and John Huston's African Queen:

Full Film, low resolution 240p

I recently read only 2% of indie films even make their investment back. Why would anyone look at making films as a career choice anyway ?

what are you doing spending so much time on a filmmaking forum if you have no intention of ever filming anything? you're collecting cameras because you own stocks in panasonic?

i would actually be interested in seeing more statistics related to indie films...

"Yes, there were 95 Sundance movies that got distribution last year, but that was spread out across more than 50 distribution companies. Some you have heard of — IFC, Magnolia, Drafthouse, A24, Netflix, Lionsgate, Music Box, Roadside Attractions, The Weinstein Company, Sony Pictures Classics, Fox Searchlight, Focus — and these companies will be active again this year. But many of the companies that distributed last year’s Sundance films barely appear on the radar, and most only distribute a few films a year in microscopically modest ways. As it was last year, most of the distribution deals in 2015 will be digital-only, and most will be for extremely low numbers: $25,000, $10,000, and in some cases zero — literally zero dollars, with the promise of financial participation based on sales.

Despite the robust number of films made, and dollars invested in them, being an indie filmmaker clearly is not a career choice. Very few people pay the rent this way, and even filmmakers whose movies are well-received often have to wait years before being able to get their next movie made. For the indie film investor, it is a precipitously risky business proposition, given the small chance of recouping an investment unless you can control marketing and distribution yourself, in effect behaving like a mini-studio."

http://www.culturalweekly.com/sundance-infographic-2015-dollars-and-distribution/

@babypanda....my advise...is get a job as a camera assistant making commercials for a sneaker company and shoot weddings on the weekend, or go to a major film school , but you'd make more money with online bingo !

....as for myself, I have no desire for compromising myself with the need for crews, actors, nor an excess of equipment...much less investors, producers, and or giving a shxt if anyone makes money. The one lesson in life I've learned is...the last thing I want is a client !

Even studio made feature films make no money, and that's not all due to creative accounting. Before the tentpole era, the studios made small mid-budget movies ( $500,000 to $80 million) which were moderately profitable or unprofitable, but made up for it with blockbuster revenues. Now they just make mostly blockbusters (over $100 million).

How Hollywood Accounting Can Make a $450 Million Movie 'Unprofitable'

Here is an amazing glimpse into the dark side of the force that is Hollywood economics. The actor who played Darth Vader still has not received residuals from the 1983 film "Return of the Jedi" because the movie, which ranks 15th in U.S. box office history, still has no technical profits to distribute.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/09/how-hollywood-accounting-can-make-a-450-million-movie-unprofitable/245134/

How the Death of Mid-Budget Cinema Left a Generation of Iconic Filmmakers MIA

“The film business has changed. They want you to make it for no money,” (John) Waters has said, by way of explaining his self-imposed hiatus from filmmaking. “Early in my career, it was fine to have no money. Everyone starts out without money. But I have four employees today. I have no desire to be a faux-underground filmmaker at 68 years old. I don’t have any needlepoint pillows with slogans on them, but if I did, it would be ‘Don’t Go Backward.’”

http://flavorwire.com/492985/how-the-death-of-mid-budget-cinema-left-a-generation-of-iconic-filmmakers-mia

https://tribecafilm.com/stories/five-films-that-can-t-get-funding

first of all, i don't want to look at all these grim statistics to talk myself out of it. obviously, making money is ideal, but art is art. so money shouldn't be the only motivating factor for doing it. if you can't make money, just do it in your spare time and don't quit your day job.

and realistically, i'm no spring chicken and i don't expect to make a career in filmmaking anyway. it's a hobby and it will probably remain a hobby for me, but that's ok. i can think of more boring hobbies or loads of people who have nothing to do with their spare time but sit in bars. like rodriguez said, don't make your parents broke to make your film.

and also, i don't see myself filming weddings, but who knows? sometimes you gotta make a buck. but weddings bore me.

and actually, realizing that I may never make much money from a film myself, I am thinking of trying my luck at actually promoting other people's indie films. i have a few vague ideas in my mind, none of which i've researched in terms of start-up costs or potential revenues. if anyone has any advice on how to go about this / how much competition is out there? / is it feasible? / how many indie films are being made every year? / are there a lot of quality films being made? And also, how would I actually get indie filmmakers to give me their films? Would I need to put forth a business plan and a contract which states precisely how I will attempt to promote the films?