During the filming of Mallrats, Film Threat journalist Malcolm Ingram and pal Matt Gissing met up with Kevin Smith, and thus, in the break between ‘Rats and Chasing Amy, the duo were able to nab some financing and actors from Smith’s troupe. The gang went up to Canada, and thus, “Drawing Flies” is the result. “Flies” was filmed on a shoestring budget.The film follows Donner (played by Jason Lee) and four of his jobless, penniless friends/roommates as he leads them on a journey through the woods to settle in at a cabin that belongs to his uncle. As you might expect, things don’t go exactly as planned, and before you know it, we’re in the middle of a quest for Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, and even run into a bunch of guys wearing diapers. Sound weird? Interesting? A little bit of both? Welcome to the world of the independent film, folks.

Don’t expect a brilliant picture here, as Flies was filmed on 16 millimeter black and white and the transfer has not been touched up for the DVD release. This was always meant as a fairly low key release, thus not a great deal of time or money was spent to clean up the picture or audio. There’s a lot of nice extras on this disc though, which more than make up for this. Don’t get me wrong, though, the video quality isn’t by any means unwatchable. In this age of crystal clear DVD releases, it’s just tough switching back to something rougher when your digital satellite TV and DVDs have taken over those old VHS cassettes that are now collecting dust in a box somewhere. This is how Drawing Flies looked when I saw it projected at Vulgarthon (Kevin Smith’s annual film festival in Red Bank, NJ), and it’s never been something that bothered me that much. Just go in expecting the video quality of a low budget, independent flick that’s several years old and you won’t be disappointed. I’m just happy to be able to have this as part of my View Askew DVD collection.

Yet again, the audio also hasn’t been touched up — They unfortunately didn’t have the bucks to take this one to Skywalker for a cleanup or a remix, so the sound you’ll hear here is basically the audio that’s run with the film for years. There are a few cases of audio dropout where some dialogue gets lost. I’d hoped that they might have looped some of that dialogue back into the film using some ADR techniques, but sadly that’s been lost. It’s nothing too integral to the film, though, and the dropouts are very brief. The audio itself is presented in Dolby Digital Surround 2.0, though the bulk of it is directed to the center and front channels. Drawing Flies is a dialogue-heavy film, so this is appropriate. Again, it would have been cool to see some surround effects used, but the budget for the disc was limited and they didn’t have a chance to retouch the track extensively.

Menus & Packaging

The jacket art for Drawing Flies is quite eye-catching and creative, using a tabloid-like feel. Inside, an enclosed card with chapter titles, stops, and cast list also simulates a tabloid page, showcasing some of the actors and actresses in the film. It’s a sharp little card, and much more creative than the standard fare you’ll find in most discs.





Menus are slightly animated but quickly, and very simple to navigate. A front page allows the film to be started (with introduction), and there’s also jumps to a chapter selection page and the special features section of the disc. Chapter selection is straight-forward, with 4 titles per page (including screen grabs). The special features area includes links to start the Director’s Cut of the film (with extra scenes and no Smith/Mosier intro), Lost Scenes, each of the commentary track, and a promotional materials area for IndieDVD, the disc’s producers. I found getting around on the disc to be very easy and logical. Nicely done.

Video Introduction

It’s always something to look forward to on these View Askew produced DVDs – Like they did on “A Better Place”, producers Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier turn on the camera and record an off-the-cuff introduction to “Drawing Flies” where they attempt to explain the film’s title, among other things. As usual, they start with the best intentions but get way off target (on the topic of circumcision, of all things). It’s an amusing start to things, and sets a fun tone for the film. I appreciate the way these guys stand behind all their films, and lend their support and time to all of their flicks on DVD.

The Commentary Tracks

This is where the real fun of the DVD is. Two all new commentary tracks were recorded for this DVD release, one where they assemble a Mallrats-like crowd to talk about the film, joke, and generally have fun with it; another where the two directors talk more candidly about the film experience.



The impressive cast of the first commentary are: Kevin Smith, Scott Mosier, Jason Lee, Carmen Lee, Jason Mewes, Renee Humphrey, and directors Gissing and Ingram. This has to be a record for the most folks on one commentary track at a time, especially for a View Askew DVD. And they’ve got a LOT to say. So much, in fact, that at times things get totally sidetracked, and way too many folks are talking at once. The commentary was recorded in stereo, so some voices are more localized to the left or right speakers, which is kinda neat, but the large crowd created kind of an echo, as they all had to share microphones. I didn’t have any problems following along, though.


If you want to learn about the film, try the second track, but if you want to hear some fun stories, and the View Askew gang just hanging and messing around like they did in the now classic Mallrats and Chasing Amy tracks, definitely spin this one up. Amidst the sidetracked conversations, some interesting material is interjected, including Malcolm going into detail regarding the living conditions during the film (they basically lived in the warehouse the rented for filming in), the bad checks they wrote to finance (and Gissing’s going underground afterwards because of it), some Mallrats references (Jeremy London isn’t even safe), and a lot of fun joking around. For those of you that missed the inclusion of a full cast commentary on the Jay & Silent Bob DVD, you’ll get your fill of that good stuff here. All in all, this is a fun and recommended listen. It’s worth buying the disc alone to have this track, especially if you’re a View Askew fan.


A second, less lively technical commentary is also available here, similar to the Dogma DVD, where just directors Ingram and Gissing sit and watch the film. It’s a lot less confusing, and elaborates on a lot of the smaller points from the other track. At times, they get off on some long tangents and miss large pieces of the film, but I was still interested in what these guys had to say. It’s fascinating hearing their thoughts on takes that they loved, hated, and lost. Some of the sound dropouts are also explained. I appreciated their honesty in talking about their feelings about people and experiences involved with the film; you’ll soon notice that these guys aren’t afraid to speak their minds! A lot of this track focuses on budget, and what they had to go through due to the lack of it. Still, most fans will want to listen to this track after checking the other one out first. Personally, I thought it was great to hear Ingram and Gissing together chatting about the film, as it seems it’s been a while since they sat down to watch it together.


By the way, I appreciated the fact that I was able to use the audio button to switch between commentary tracks and the feature track while the film was playing. So many DVDs these days do NOT allow the audio track to change without totally restarting the film or using menus. This was great, and another plus for the commentary tracks.

Lost Scenes (Deleted Stuff & Outtakes)

Around 11 minutes of deleted material is included on the DVD, including the previously mentioned seamless branching to the extra scenes (you can watch them here, seperately as well, which is nice). The scenes do explain a couple of abrupt transitions in the film, by the way, especially the party scene, which transitions better to the scene with Donner watching TV, and gives further explanation for the sudden camping trip. There’s some other fun stuff here as well, including an alternate take of a pivotal Lee scene from the film, the directors attempting to get Mewes to act, and more. Ingram and Gissing even appear in two takes of a deleted scene with Mewes harassing them as they attempt to check out the CD collection in the party scene, definitely one of the gems of this bunch.


All the scenes are strung together without introduction, though I found you can skip to the next and previous scenes by using the chapter skip buttons on your DVD remote. There is also sadly no commentary with these scenes, thus no explanation of what their significance was. This would have been nice at least for the additional scenes. Still, I’m impressed that they were able to assemble this and appreciate their inclusion.

Easter Eggs?

The crew at IndieDVD had some fun with this disc, and hid some interesting eggs throughout. There’s a variety of ways to locate them, but thanks to some very creative folk with much more time on their hands than this reviewer, we’ve got a full list of all of ’em. You can check this list out in our DVD Easter Eggs section. Most of these eggs consist of extra filmed bits of Kevin, Scott and Malcolm chatting about the film. You can get to them by pressing keys on your remote during the Bigfoot animation on the special features screen, or by using the DVD player’s title function.

Drawing Flies has been a very mythical film since it was first produced. The film has been rarely seen, only accessible at film festivals and Kevin Smith’s Vulgarthon gatherings previously. It’s nice for View Askew fans to have a copy of this film to add to the DVD library, and we’re sure that the appearances of many Askewniverse personalities will please the fans out there. While this film may be tough for the uninitiated to enjoy, even occasional fans of View Askew should own a copy of this disc, as it’s a big part of the production company’s history. I’m pleased with this disc, because it’s obvious that a great deal of time went into this project. For a film that had such a small budget, they’ve added a lot to it with the new commentaries, deleted material, and more. The transfer may be a bit on the soft side, but the Drawing Flies DVD is certainly a welcome addition to my DVD library. The budget of the film hinders things, but Drawing Flies certainly has some memorable moments and should not be overlooked. This is an important piece of View Askew history, and recommended viewing for any fan. Now if Big Helium Dog and Vulgar can just see a home video/DVD release, we’ll be all set.