So after Kevin Smith was inspired by seeing Slacker, he wrote the script Clerks. After he wrote a the script he basically shot the film with a few friends who he could not afford to pay and covered the hard costs of production using basically personal credit cards.
In Smith’s mind if he was going to spend around $25,000. he wanted a feature film for his efforts rather than a film degree. (And many film schools are much more expensive than $25,000—and no feature film to show.) Smith was swinging for the fences.
After the film was shot and edited he took the film to the Independent Feature Film Market (IFFM) because he read that’s how Richard Linklater got a distribution deal for Slacker. He knew he had made a profanity-laced film that perhaps his mother wouldn’t appreciate but was hoping to find a distributor who would help it find an audience. (His mother actually told him after seeing the film, “You spent twenty-seven thousand dollars on that piece of garbage?”)
Only about ten people showed up at IFFM Clerks screening and most of them were from the crew that worked on the film. Smith went home depressed. But one of the people at the screening was Bob Hawk of Independent Consultation for Independents who enjoyed the film and whose word of mouth created great buzz for the film early on. But still nobody wanted the film.
Clerks made it to Sundance and only one company made an offer so Smith made a deal with Miramax. And that is what launched his career. (And paid off the credit cards.) But Smith will point out that he did not do this all on his own. One key person that he needed on his journey was producer Scott Mosier who Smith met in his brief time in film school. So even if you don’t care for his films listen to these words of wisdom:
“Maybe other cats know different, but without Mosier, I don’t think I could have done it or would have ever taken the first step. I would have dropped out of film school and gone back to the convenience store, maybe written a script that would sit on the shelf. It is finding that other person who gets you completely and knows where you are going, and knows how to make this happen with you and for you, and is on your side as you are on his.”
Kevin Smith
My First Movie
20 Directors Talk About Their Film
Edited by Stephen Lowenstein
page 103
[…] So after Kevin Smith was inspired by seeing Slacker, he wrote the script Clerks. After he wrote a the script he basically shot the film with a few friends who he could not afford to pay and covered the hard cost of production using basically personal credit cards. In Smith’s mind if he was going to […] Original Source… […]
You have a lot of spelling mistakes in these Kevin Smith articles.
Sorry John. I try to clean them up as I go. Blogging daily is a pain without a copy editor. (And if they’re just limited to the Kevin Smith articles that would be a miracle.)
It’s kind of like an independent film…you can try to get it done perfectly (and not finish) or you can just get it done.
Until this thing makes it to book form it will always have a some imperfections.
Thanks for reading in spite of them.
[…] to my surprise, the movie, which inspired Kevin Smith to pen Clerks, can be seen in it’s entirety on the youtubes here: […]