January 25th

1. According to Davis, "Van Santized Shakespeare" consists of mixing Elizabethan dress with recent fashion and taking Shakespeare's dialogue and adapting it to fit the world of the Portland hustlers. Dialogue changes were made to suit the tone of the film. For example, Shakespeare's Henry IV reads, "How long is 't ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee?" and Van Sant's adaptation reads, "How long has it been, Bob, since you could see your own dick?"

2. Chimes at Midnight's influence comes in that Van Sant's film tells the story of a "knight lowering himself", most clearly represented by Bob. However, Davis says that both Bob (as the knight) and Mike (as Scott's companion) are Van Sant's depictions of Falstaff.

3. Van Sant claims to have used Shakespeare to outline the "timeless" nature of the story. The main difference is that there isn't much "lowering" for Bob to do, since from the beginning of the film, he is already a hustler. Davis says that Scott's rejection is more cruel than Hal's because of the way modern politics work. Being a politician's son does not guarantee Scott as a future elected official, unlike in Shakespeare's time when power was inherited and a person's past would not effect their chances of ruling. Davis argues that Scott is doomed to fail in politics if he maintains his hustler companions. It can be seen that Van Sant certainly aligns himself with Falstaff through his storytelling. The movie focuses on Mike's character and his journey. It is much more sympathetic to Mike than to Scott, who leaves the film when he separates from the hustlers.

4. Scott is shown to be insincere because he leaves his friend and his mentor in pursuit of a political career. He leaves Mike, the protagonist of the film, which immediately takes much audience sympathy away from him and his actions.

5. Independent film and music is given its name by an audience's perception that the film or artist they consider to be "indie" stand apart from the mainstream. This is because it is nearly impossible to define what independent filmmaking, as a genre, really is. The tension is the filmmakers wanting to create something that goes against the mainstream, made with authenticity and a distinct voice expressing something real instead of a marketing ploy while at the same time creating this undercurrent of "independent film" as a marketable genre.

6. Youthful, hip, offbeat, character-centered, noncomformity, and independence are some examples of the meanings associated with "indie." The VW commercial he describes caters to the youthful audience, even making it seem like having no life was a positive thing ("It fits your life. Or complete lack thereof."). There is an obvious attempt to stray from mainstream American consumerist sensibility by a seemingly apathetic way of selling product. Indie filmmaking has created standards of separation from Hollywood, and those formulas of presenting fresh visual and thematic affronts to the mainstream are to expected. Financial success, in some cases, is even looked down upon.

7. Television. Indie bands expose themselves to wide audiences through advertising on mainstream networks. This is not seen as "selling out", but an overtaking of the mainstream.

8. "Indie is at once oppositional and privileged; it asserts its privilege by opposing itself
to the mainstream. It is antiestablishment like the avant-garde at the same time that it
is bourgeois, serving a prime social function of maintaining status." Independent film and music is marketed to the social elite with supposed higher taste that the average American consumer.

9. Happiness attracted much critical attention in the festival circuit, meaning its indie cred was already established, but the film's difficult subject matter was hard for mainstream studios to directly be involved with. The black comedy aspect was marketed for audience appeal.

10. Newman claims that the indie wave is simply another aspect of what is mainstream. It caters to its own audience and narrowly defines itself as something apart from the ordinary. The irony is that this is said while in their world, there is almost a formula for being authentic. The two cannot exist exclusively, since one needs the mainstream to act against it.