I am interested in American Honey because of some similarities of this film and the film we are making ourselves. At 2.7 million pounds budget it was not expensive to make, it featured almost unknowns except Shia LaBeouf. It is promoted as defining our generation according to the website.
I first saw this film at the BFI. I learnt that American Honey counted as a British film as it had a British director, Andrea Arnold. and cast and the key organisations involved. It is an example of a BFI funding model. The director also made the film Fishtank which was funded at a cost of 1.3 million pounds in 2009, (compare this to Star Wars, which was 230 million pounds). American Honey's key themes involve young people and their lifestyle, and how they live in the moment in a carefree way, which are themes and issues rarely shown in mainstream cinema. In addition there were no expensive sets as it was shot in location, as the same for our films. Part of the social realism was created by its camera work: the film was hand held, exploring the urban youth, which gives the cinema verite.
There are similarities between the film I will be making and American Honey, because ours will be low budget, with unknowns and taken on locations.
