CLERKS
Budget: $27,000 (before additional post production work)
A god amongst film geeks, beloved filmmaker and comic book writer Kevin Smith has amassed an arsenal of 6 movies to fit into his View Askewniverse, and that world begins and ends with Clerks. Though many people have an almost instinctive adverse reaction to black-and-white cinema nowadays, Clerks proves that when it comes to comedy, a strong focus on dialogue is almost always the primary route to success. And with the film taking place almost entirely within a convenience store where Kevin Smith worked at the time, the concentration staying on dialogue above anything else allowed for the young filmmaker to keep the budget as minimal as possible. That’s not to say paying for the movie was an easy task. According to Wikipedia, in order to acquire the funds for the film, Smith sold a large proportion of his extensive comic book collection, maxed out eight to ten credit cards with $2000 limits, dipped into a portion of funds set aside for his college education and spent insurance money awarded for a car he and Jason Mewes lost in a flood.
Since the film had to be shot at night when the store was closed, Smith needed to come up with a way to explain why the steel shutters were closed, and in turn led to a great scene in the film where Dante discovers somebody put gum in the locks and has to put up a big sign written in shoe polish that says, “I Assure You, We’re Open.” Situations like these just go to show how being forced to think outside the box can actually lead to much more rewarding outcomes.
The entire list is made up of what we’d call pretty much must-see movies, so we highly recommend you check it out and pick up some of the titles as your schedule allows. Our kudos to the authors of this piece for a fantastic list.
The site uses “Clerks” as an example and takes a color square to represent a characters speaking part, and symbols to indicate profane dialogue. We’re not sure we get the experiment, either, but it’s definitely the first time we’ve seen anything like it.
August 2, 1991. The day of my 21st birthday. Most folks elect to cut loose and enjoy the freedom that turning 21 affords. I, however — being a total loser — opted, instead, to take the 50-mile drive up the Jersey Turnpike with my friend Vincent Pereira so we could peep a film reviewed, quite favorably, by J. Hoberman in the Village Voice. It was unheard of in my neck of the woods to drive that far to see a movie (let alone a movie with zero movie stars in it), but the promise of a scene centered on a Madonna pap smear of questionable authenticity was bait enough to lure us from the Jersey ‘burbs into the wilds of Manhattan-after-dark.
After overpaying for both parking and popcorn, we settled into what seats we could find together in the packed theater of a midnight screening. And once the trailer for Hal Hartley’s Trust concluded, the Orion Classics logo lit up the screen and introduced me to my future. For the next 100 minutes or so, I was agog. My jaw literally hung open as this shaggy paean to those who follow the road not taken unspooled, offering me a glimpse into a free-associative world of ideas instead of plot, people instead of characters, and Nowheresville, Texas, instead of the usual California or New York settings most movies elected to feature (that “Nowheresville” was really Austin speaks volumes on how culturally bereft I was at the time). That night, director Richard Linklater and his film not only captured my imagination, he (and it) captured my heart — not to mention kick-started my ambition. On the hour-long drive home from the theater that night, I realized what I wanted to do with my life: I wanted to be a filmmaker. That’s the power of Slacker: if you let it, it’ll change your life. It certainly changed mine.
So if you hate me and my films, blame Richard Linklater’s Slacker. And if you love me and my films, thank Richard Linklater for Slacker. Either way, do yourself a favor and watch Richard Linklater’s Slacker here on Hulu. Right now.
Check it out, and then, if you’re in a Hulu-approved region, check out the movie for free, right now. Long live Hulu!
If you wanna take your mind off it, “Quarantine” may be a good bet in theaters this weekend — If the film is anywhere near as scary as the Spanish original it’s based on (“[Rec]”, which we checked out and dug a couple months ago), it’ll be a creepy time in the dark while you wait just three shorts weeks for Zack And Miri!
Missed the intro? Never fear – Today’s update also introduced an archive page which will have every episode in order, in case you missed one. The front page at QSE will always be the home of the latest edition. There’s no word on how many episodes are in the can at this point, but Zak did mention the plan was to run a new one daily up until the film’s release, so we’re expecting somewhere from 20 to 30 clips as the month rolls on. Stay tuned to News Askew as well as the front page of Quick Stop Entertainment for the latest “Money Shots”.
Producers are also working on a four-episode story arc that takes some of the cast members to Hollywood, where they’ll hook up with two long-time DeGrassi fanatics, director/actor Kevin Smith and sidekick Jason Mewes (who’ve previously appeared on the series).
Stefan Brogren, who played Snake in the series’ previous incarnation, DeGrassi High, and has since returned to the series as a regular, teacher Mr. Simpson, has been charged with the task of writing and directing the quartet of episodes.
Much of the advance work on the Hollywood segments has already been shot at various locations around Toronto, Brogren said.
“We doubled Toronto for Hollywood for a lot of it. It’s amazing what a couple of palm trees can do,” Brogren said, with a laugh.
But it still means a four-day “guerrilla” shoot in Los Angeles to capture images of those places that are “so iconically Hollywood,” he said.
In the first segment, Kevin Smith and Seth Rogen introduce us to the series, along with some creative edits of what’s to come and stock footage. You can already tell that Rogen’s deadpan delivery is going to be a perfect fit for the series, and that he and Kevin will continue to amuse as things progress.
Keep in mind, these are totally separate from that documentary we’ll see on the DVD, though the footage shot for these as well as for the doc will likely be the one central well all that material is drawn from.
Head on over to Quick Stop Entertainment, the exclusive home of “Money Shots”, for your first look, with much more to come this week.
Kevin Smith at Oaks for screening of ‘Porno’
Kevin Smith made “Zack & Miri Make a Porno” in the Pittsburgh area, and he’s coming back for its first screening here. The filmmaker will answer questions at the film’s debut Oct. 25 at The Oaks Theater in Oakmont.
The Pittsburgh Film Office is host to the 7 p.m. event (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) at 310 Allegheny River Blvd. Tickets are $50 — they include the film, an introduction by Smith and a Q&A afterward, with an after-party at the Alto Lounge, Shadyside — and are available at www.pghfilm.org or by calling the Pittsburgh Film Office at 412-261-2744.
A reminder: The R rating for the adult romantic comedy is to be taken seriously.
For more on the movie, read PG movie editor Barbara Vancheri’s story, “Monroeville-filmed ‘Zack and Miri’ gets warm reception in Toronto.”
Kevin was at the festival to present “Zack And Miri Make a Porno” in a special screening, as well as to accept the honor of this great award. Between all 3 parts, the speech runs around 15 minutes and change. As always, NSFW, so tread carefully.
Click above for some shots from Jason’s panel and autograph session.
So, you’re wondering where that leaves us with the “Money Shots” web shorts, right? Well, word has it that there’s some new MPAA laws out there, and much like that very first promotional video that went out for the film, the MPAA needs to take a look at all webisodes for the film before they can hit the web. And, as you can imagine, due to not thinking there were boundaries at the same, some of those will now need to be re-edited and one will not come up at all. The current plan is, once they have all been re-edited and cleared, to roll them out at a quick pace, perhaps even once a day, leading up to the movie. Nothing has yet been finalized, but that’s what we’re hearing right now.
Once these are available, we’ll be sure to let you know here at News Askew — They will be a Quick Stop Entertainment exclusive product. And, rest assured – ALL webisodes will be presented uncut in their original form on the DVD when it hits in 2009. Count on it.
