American New Wave Research 6

Easy Riders Raging Bulls Documentary

• 
  Dennis Hopper who directed Easy Rider didn't like what was being done in most Hollywood films at the time
• by the early 60s the studio system was falling apart and by 63 several studio lots had been knocked down ad many studios were in fear of being bought out and nobody knew what to do.
• When the one of the 20th century fox studio lots had been taken down a lot of the sets of western towns and stages were still up but had been abandoned making it look like a ghost town.

• "Television annihilated the habit audience for movies." - Peter Bart
• As Américain films became less relatable and more uninteresting, foreign films were becoming increasingly popular and more art theatres where foreign films were played started popping ups.
• As a consequence of Foreign films gaining popularity, the majority of new wave directors were brought up on French and other European directors more so then American which was a big inspiration for their own films.
• by the mid 60s, producer and director Roger Corman and American international pictures had made a thriving business off of making low budget b pictures which big studios felt like beneath their dignity, and because he had been so successful he started looking for young directors who couldn't get into filming and directing through studios.
• Peter Fonder a new wave actor believes that Roger wasn't very talented himself but he was vey good at recognising other peoples talents.
• The early 60s had saw Hollywoods first film buffs who saw film making as an art form rather than a way to make money.
• Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda had seen the success of biker movies and saw that there was an audience that they could tap into so Bert Schneider said he would give them the money to make Easy Rider if they could shoot a bit of the film with 50mm lenses and if he liked it he would give them the rest of the money to shoot the entire film. So Dennis got 6 of his friends who wanted to be directors and shot for 4 days at a festival in New Orleans.