In the old days, a TV sync was perceived as not so cool or whittling away at your indie cred. Now it's seen as much more of an opportunity than a sellout, as a way to find fans who wouldn't have ordinarily come across their genre of music.
Every sea-captain who sailed to the West Indies was expected to bring home a turtle on the return voyage for a feast to his expectant friends.
'Mr. Robot,' in particular, signals the rise of a fresh post-Occupy portrayal of the wealth gap. No longer is the story of income inequity delivered via a well-meaning, crushingly earnest indie film by John Sayles or in a single laugh line on 'Roseanne.'
During the '90s, a lot of us in the indie film world were not making our money off our movies. We were screenwriters doing scripts for hire for studios.
Before 'Last Man Standing,' I did a lot of indies, which were raw and controversial and much darker. That is where I feel most secure as a storyteller. That is what I am drawn to the most.
Ultimately it's just music - whether I'm catering to the Bollywood audience or the indie audience. I just approach every type of music the way I am, and how my personality is.
I met someone in the West Indies who was not able to walk. I put my hands on him and he was able to get up. I know the tabloids will get excited by this so I try to play it down.
A lot of those early indie movies - 'Smoke Signals,' 'Eat Drink Man Woman,' 'Boyz n the Hood' - there was a different aesthetic; everyone was telling stories that were like, 'This is new and different. Let's do it.'
I've always wanted to get into indie film.
It seems like the studios are either making giant blockbusters, or really super-small indies. And the mid-level films I grew up on, like 'Back to the Future' and all those John Hughes movies, the studios aren't doing. It's hard to get them on their feet.
