Abstract—Stuart Hall’s Reception Study Theory explains that the reader / viewer interpret the meaning of the text based on their individual cultural background and life experiences. In essence, the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and the reader/ viewer. The purpose of the current research is to find out the perceptions of Intramuros based Audiences on Indie films. A total of 152 Communication students were selected through a non-probability, purposive sampling. A two part survey questionnaire was used to measure the knowledge, attitude and practices of Communication students towards independent films. Pearson Correlation and comparison of means, cross-tabulations, and frequency tables were used. Frequency distributions were used to compute their response. Readiness of the respondents to embrace this new industry has been shown in this research study. Index Terms—Communication students, indie films, intramuros, perception. I. INTRODUCTION Film, often called movie or motion picture, by its general definition is a series of still images shown simultaneously to simulate the illusion of movement. Its early beginnings as said by Brian Manley [1] “cannot be credited to one individual as an oversimplification of any history tries to do.” Defending the fact, claiming that its origins are combination of the efforts of different inventions accumulated throughout the years. Throughout the years, film has diversified into two major classifications, the mainstream and the independent. Mainstream films are such movies that are big budgeted, produced by major production companies and widely released in cinemas such as the Lucas‟ and the Spielberg films and the like. Such films are released in cinemas for a short period of time and are tailored to attract customers at a global scale. Whereas independent films are the opposite, being produced outside a major studio and often tackles topics that the mainstream people do not usually take. It is known to be the “mirror to reality” as it endeavors such plots about societal issues and culture, going against the usual Hollywood-esque type of filming as it focuses on a rather uncanny approach in its production. Today, despite of several problems from the distinction of mainstream from Independent cinema, it continues to grow Manuscript received October 7, 2013; revised December 3, 2013. This work was supported in part by the professors of the Institute of Communication of the Colegio de San Juan de Letran. Gil Gerald N. Fuentes, Dwight Roussel Glenn M. Labilles, and Rowena Capulong Reyes are with the Colegio de San Juan de Letran – Manila (e-mail: gilgerald.fuentes@gmail.com). and make a mark of its own. According to Xu Yaping‟s [3], independent cinema serves as the realistic aesthetics emphasizing the filming subject‟s relation with objectivity. It is the genre wherein we could show the artsy, classy and the surreal reality of one‟s society. II. AUDIENCE‟S OVERVIEW ON INDIE FILMS The study was conducted specifically on the Communication Students (or at least students within a communication related course) of Intramuros. A quick tabulation showed that 52% of the respondents were female, 39% were male and a small 9% were people who did not fill up the contact details. TABLE I: COMMUNICATION STUDENTS‟ RESPONES ON INDIE FILMS 152 Respondents # Who Like Watching Films # Who Watch Movies in Movie Houses # Who‟ve Watched a Film Recently # Who are Aware of Indie Films # Who‟ve Watched an Indie Film Before Yes 95.40% 71.71% 100% 84.9% 78.3% No 4.60% 28.29% 15.1% 21.7% As shown in Table I, Almost all of the respondents like watching films in general, with 100% of the respondents having watched at least one film recently. In fact 95.4% answered yes and 71.7% of those prefer watching films inside theaters rather than at home. To further the reason behind their preference, is the accumulative thought of watching films within the cinema provides a much deeper, broader, and a relatively more exciting experience. And according to the data gathered from the respondents, this is due to: 1) the different atmosphere theaters provide. 2) the surround sound. 3) and the bigger screens that cinemas have. However, the number of „Yes‟ answers dwindled to one hundred and twenty nine (129) when asked if aware of Indie Films in general. And numbers lessened further to one hundred and nineteen (119) when asked if they‟ve watched indie films before. This data lead one to concur that even if almost the whole sample group like watching films in general (mainstream), there are still some who have little to no awareness of the independent film industry. „Indie‟ is a retired word when it comes to the current movement in Philippine cinema, as the independents slowly The Perception on Indie Films of Selected Intramuros Based Audiences Gil Gerald N. Fuentes, Dwight Roussel Glenn M. Labilles, and Rowena Capulong Reyes 145 International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 5, No. 1, January 2015 DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2015.V5.442 appear to be taking over the establishment . [3]