Indie Success Story

In class when we were talking about Paul Thomas Anderson and dropping out of school and financing our own film with tuition, I was reminded of a filmmaker who did just that. The film Clerks by Kevin Smith is an example of this. While Kevin Smith is not known for being the most sophisticated or talented filmmaker (most people will say he has only two good films - if that), he has made productions in Hollywood which is something most of us are aiming for. Once we get there, I'm sure most of us will want to create very different work than Kevin Smith, but we do have get there first. Mr. Smith went to film school in Toronto for half a year before dropping out at age 22. He felt he had learned all that he needed to know. With the remainder of his tuition and the selling of his extensive comic book collection, Smith began to buy equipment to create his first film. He had written a script about what he knew - working in the local convenience store with his best friends - and used the actual store after-hours as his location. He used black and white film because it was cheaper as well as local actors, family and friends as talent and crew members. The film was edited on basic equipment in the storage room of the convenience store. In total, his budget came out to be $27,000. When he finished he sent it to a film forum at the Angelika Theater in New York. Though it didn't do well at the screening, a man in the audience named Bob Hawk happened to be on the board for the Advisory Selection Committee of the Sundance Film Festival. He snatched the movie up, brought it to Sundance where it was immediately snatched up by Miramax who distributed Clerks and financed his following film. Thus, his film career begun. I thought that this was an interesting story to share about a low-budget independent film paving the way for a Hollywood director. Since many of us would love to get a chance to have a major Hollywood studio finance our films, I thought it was an interesting alternative to graduating from school and beginning with an entry level job.