Antony: Who’s responsible for the cataloguing of the footage, and for physically putting those tapes into the computer so Kevin and Scott can edit?
Phil Benson: I’m the guy who loads the BetaCam SP tapes the footage comes on into the AVID. The person who establishes the relationship between each frame of film and the video that gets loaded is the guy who actually transfers the film to video. There’s a machine that not only converts the film into video, but actually reads the number on the edge, and transfers those numbers to a data file that we receive. Every day, I receive BetaCam tapes of the previous day’s shoot, and I also receive a floppy diskette that tells the AVID exactly which scenes and takes are on that tape.
Antony: What has been your best moment?
Phil Benson: I was just talking with Scott [Mosier] about this. On JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK, the first time we had to do an audience preview, we got crushed with our time and we had to quickly mix everything together for an audience preview. Then we had some technical problems, and our mix was going late, and we had to be on a plane to San Diego for our first test screening. We ended up mixing all through the night with no sleep, and then Scott and Monica and I went straight from the mixing stage to the airport, went straight to San Diego, got off the plane, and did a run-through. The test screening went fantastically. We hadn’t slept for days. I remember thinking at the time that the kind of euphoria that comes from working non-stop for days, and then finally having a great test screening with all the Miramax people there, and Kevin being totally ecstatic, made it all worth it. It was probably one of the best moments of my career.

Break-up does not dampen outlook for J.Lo film
By Theresa Katalinas
PAULSBORO — Tasha Frisby has crossed her fingers for the upcoming release of “Jersey Girl,” which was filmed in large part in her hometown.
Unlike other borough residents, Frisby has different hopes for the film which stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Instead of merely wishing for box office success with its planned March 19 release, Frisby longs to share the spotlight with Affleck, her favorite actor.

“I hope they pick me,” Frisby, 26, said excitedly of her role as an extra in the movie.
Despite the rumored break-up of Affleck and Lopez just days ago, Mayor John Burzichelli, a co-owner of Hill Studio on Broad Street, said he doesn’t think Paulsboro will lose its 15 minutes of red carpet fame.
“In the motion picture industry, any publicity is good publicity,” Burzichelli said. “If they don’t stay together it probably helps. It certainly doesn’t hurt.”
Matthew Hiltzik, Miramax spokesman, said “Time will tell” if the movie has what it takes to withstand the alleged break-up.
“We feel very strongly about the quality of ‘Jersey Girl,’ ” Hiltzik said. “There’s a great story here and a great performance by Ben. We’re hopeful that the film will speak for itself.”
Hiltzik said the movie was set to hit the silver screen in the third quarter of this year, but the third installment of the “The Matrix” and the December release of another Affleck film pushed back the “Jersey Girl” debut to March 19.
Romeo and Emily Dixon, owners of Romeo’s Records on North Delaware Street, said they doubted that curiosity about the movie would fade because the couple split up.
“People could care less,” Romeo Dixon said. “It’s Hollywood.”
Emily Dixon added that Christmas music thought to be featured in “Jersey Girl” prompted a holiday harmony buying spree when a rush of people flocked to the two-square-mile town during filming. She said a display window featuring “nothing but Jennifer Lopez” helped J.Lo’s albums fly off the shelves.
“Everybody wants to see the movie,” Emily Dixon said. “People who know Paulsboro were like, ‘I was there.’ ”
Despite the flop earlier this summer of “Gigli,” a film which also stars Affleck and Lopez, Judy MacKenzie, Paulsboro Chamber of Commerce member, said the release of the highly anticipated “Jersey Girl” will cause a local frenzy. She said the following for Director Kevin Smith will bring masses of people to see the buildings, streets, and Tinicum Lighthouse used as movie backdrops.
“I really think there’ll be the ‘Kevin Smith Jersey Girl tour,’ ” MacKenzie said. “That’ll bring hundreds of people to this town … All of that is just a positive for us.”

Page 6, panel 2
Manjula: Apu, have you ever seen “Clerks” before?
Apu: Seen it? I was the creative consultant!
(Onscreen is a rendering of Dante, hair seemingly patterned after the TAS version, saying, “Thank you, come again!”)
Panel 3:
Apu: The director liked me so much, he based a later film on me. The studio made a few changes in the final cut.
(Apu brandishes a “Chasing Apu” poster that features a close up of him, a la Joey Adams.)

Maxim: What the toughest thing about playing a doofus all the time?

Seann: It’s hard to do a comedy and play an intelligent guy. It’s always about some guy who’s not too bright and has to get himself out of a big mess. But I really don’t think my characters in Old School or Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back were doofuses. They were more like eccentric weirdos.

We may be moving the Stash Bash by another week to October 12th. More info soon.
We’re still working through all the essays. Results announced next week, probably.
I’m shooting another Panasonic commercial this week, Thursday and Friday, this time for the Panasonic DVD Recorder. The difference this time out is that I’m not only directing the spot, I’m in it too. I’ll throw it up here as soon as it’s done.
For those in L.A. – looks like we’ll be doing another midnight screening/Q&A at the NuArt in November. The Cannes cut of “Dogma” will screen the Friday after Thanksgiving.
You’ve seen the Dixie Cup Brodie figure already. Pretty cool. For the youngster who asked about doing the interchangeable hands: good idea. Wish I’d thought of it. Sadly, all the Brodie figs holding the comic were done months back (cast, painted, carded) and are on their way back from China as we speak, and the Con exclusive. In order to include a Dixie Cup hand with each, we’d have to send all the figs back, trash all the packaging, alter each figure by hand to make the appendages interchangeable, re-card and package the figs, and send them back here for distribution – all of which would be cost-prohibitive unless we double the price of the figure (not to mention defeat the purpose of the “Inaction” figure). I wish we’d thought of doing the Dixie Cup from the get-go, but we weren’t that clever, apparently. In fact, it wasn’t until Brad and Chris started lobbying for the Dixie Cup Brodie that it occurred to me that THAT would’ve been the ideal Brodie figure. Happily, the Dallas Wizard Con came up, which afforded us the opportunity to do a small run of Dixie Cup variants to at least somewhat rectify our error (besides – it felt too early to roll out the Golgothan, the original choice for the Con exclusive).
Anyway, don’t know why I’m over-explaining this. But when I read the kid’s post, I was like “Yeah – why didn’t we do that?” So I guess this post is more me thinking aloud than anything else. Sorry.
[On the Dogma Inaction Figures]: “As for when they’ll be released, we’re doing two waves a year. So six months from the “Rats” figs release, the “Dogma” Inaction figs will come out. “