Screenwriting Quote of the Day #63 (Kevin Smith part 3)

Orson Welles? Sunset Boulevard? Diablo Cody? None of those posts have done what quoting Kevin Smith has done–basically double my number of views. Maybe there are other factors at play but I’m staying on the Kevin Smith gravy train for a couple more days. I should point the way to Stephen Lowenstein’s book My First Movie; 20 Directors Talk about Their First Film as the source of the quotes I’ve pulled from Smith.

So far Kevin Smith’s magic formula starting out is:

1) Watch Slacker and decide to make movie
2) Write a script

There are basically just three major pieces of the puzzle left. Fundraising, production & editing, and distribution. So how did Smith raise the money to make Clerks? First he did a little research and learned Robert Rodriguez had done medical experimentations to raise funds for El Mariachi, and that Sam Raimi went to dentists and doctors to raise money for The Evil Dead, and that Robert Townsend had made Hollywood Shuffle using credit cards.

Smith went the credit card route and sold his comic book collection for $2,000. in credit which he in turn sold the credit to a friend which helped to make the minimum payments on his credit  cards. He also had a little cash from FEMA after a flood destroyed some old beat-up Volkeswagons he had. He was living with his parents and did have jobs at a convenience store and a video store.

“The option was to continue working at the convenience store for the rest of my life, until I got fired. And if not that convenience store, some other convenience store. And I was just no good at labour. I was just a very lazy, lazy person, and still am to a large degree. But when it came to this, I never felt lazy because it didn’t feel like work. It’s my passion; it’s what I want to do. So I guess it was a gamble and when I told my parents, I think they figured, this’ll get it out of his system. Now he’ll settle down and get a good job like his bothers. But they were very supportive.”
Kevin Smith
My First Movie
page 78

Now it’s worth pointing out that probably 99.9% of all filmmakers who make a film using credit cards never see a return on their investment and at best take years to pay it off and at worse end up filing for bankruptcy. We only hear about those who succeed going the Robert Townsend way because it makes for good press. But I imagine one could make a compelling documentary about failed movie makers who leveraged credit cards to make a movie.

Smith made Clerks in 1993 shooting film on an Arri SR camera which ended up being a large percentage of budget. Certainly these days you can find people with a digital camera, lights, an audio package and a Final Cut Pro editing system that will join you on your quest to make a film and spare you the risk of leveraging your personal credit.

The key thing to learn from Smith is it was not his credit cards that made the film it was his passion. His passion is what made him write the script. His passion is what allowed him to make a film using unpaid actors and an unpaid crew. His passion is what kept everyone going when shooting at 2 in the morning. His passion is what made him work his day jobs and edit his film at night.

Passion–that stuff is contagious.

Speaking of passion…check out a video I did a couple years ago on an aerosol artist who spray painted his version of the Sistine Chapel on a ceiling here in Iowa. This video ended up making front page news on Yahoo back in 2006. Watch the video at pacorosic.com.

And keep in mind when Paco came to America about ten years ago he was an 18-year old Bosnian who had no money and didn’t even speak English yet. Today he owns a restaurant, sells his artwork around the country, has appeared on the TV program Rachel Ray, and has a 60 piece showing coming up at an art gallery in St. Louis.

Scott W. Smith