Clerks II director Kevin Smith has this handy advice for improving your next low-budget flick.

Shoot from more than one angle. Get as many shots as you can from as many directions as possible. This is called coverage, and it makes your film more visually interesting.

Use music as a band-aid. You can’t cut your unintelligible mother-in-law out of a birthday party scene by saying, “The running time is a bit long.” Instead, dub music over her. Set anyone to the right song and they come off looking pimp.

Remember that, as with most things, content is king. No one wants to watch a two-hour video of your vacation. But you can dazzle viewers with five Michael Bay, cut-heavy, chopped-up minutes.

If you’re starring in home porn, keep your ass off camera, particularly if it looks like mine.

Stay well lit. Indoor shoots have big problems with backlighting and shadows, so film outside as much as possible.

You’re not making a real documentary, so don’t be afraid to tell people what to do. If someone stutters or slurs, ask them to say it again. This is especially helpful with kids.

Good sound is important; your built-in mike just won’t cut it. Get an external microphone – a nice shotgun model that you can mount on the camcorder. That way, you won’t have to rely so much on music.

Since Clerks was essentially about what it felt like for Smith in his 20’s, he wanted Clerks II to be what it felt like to be in his 30’s. “I tried to do that with Jersey Girl, and to some extent succeeded, but at the same time, it is sort of a conventional mainstream film. I wanted to tell the story about what it felt like to be in my 30’s, and do it down and dirty, and closer to the edge of reality. So, I was thinking about new characters and new situations, and how I was going to get that thought across, and then I was like, ‘Wait a second, I can use Dante and Randal again, as a way into that story.’ Suddenly, it all just clicked.”