Kevin Smith's 'Clerks', released in 1994 and now considered a modern-day classic, started off as an idea while Smith was an employee at the Quick Stop convenience store and RST Video in his native New Jersey. Inspired by Richard Linklater's 'Slacker', the 'Divine Comedy' by Dante Algihieri and Smith's own experience of working in the convenience store, it was an inspired piece of film making about the malaise facing people in their early 20s, as viewed through the eyes of two convenience store clerks, Dante Hicks and Randall Graves.
The film was shot at the actual convenience store Smith was working at, and it would ultimately go on to win several awards, kick-starting a Hollywood career for Smith and proving that hard work and dedication can, in film-making, make up for a lack of big budget and experience.
The film itself was shot in black-and white over a course of 21 days using a 16mm Arri SR-2 camera and used Kodak Plus-X film, which added a sense of realism to the film; almost making it seem like viewers were seeing CCTV footage of what went on inside the heads of the protagonists working dead-end jobs.
In order to avoid disrupting the business of the convenience store, Smith was only allowed to film inside the shop while it was closed, meaning all the interior shots were done between 10:30pm and 5:30 am. To accommodate for the lack of sunlight Smith incorporated a plot device that someone had jammed chewing gum into the steel shutters, thus forcing them to be shut during opening hours. Between working in the store during the day and shooting at night, Smith slept no more than one hour a day and by the end of the shoot was falling asleep during the filming of some of the most dramatic scenes in the film.
In order to finance the making of the film, Kevin Smith maxed out between eight and ten credit cards each with $2000 limits, sold a sizeable amount of his extensive comic book collection, which he would later be able to buy back, and dipped into a portion of funds set aside for his college education. All in all the film cost US$27,575 - barely anything in the film industry.
After making the rounds at film festivals, 'Clerks' came to the attention of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein at the Sundance Film Festival, who gave the film a quick overhaul and decided to distribute it through Miramax Films. The film received a major label soundtrack, the rights of which cost US$27,000 to acquire, meaning the soundtrack was more expensive than the production budget, a first in cinematic history.
The film became a surprising success at the cinema, making over $3,151,000 gross in the United States alone. It also received international popularity and acclaim, winning the Award of the Youth and the Mercedes-Benz Award at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. In the decade since its release, 'Clerks' has become a cult classic, and is regularly ranked as one of the best films of the 90s. In 2006, British film magazine Empire listed 'Clerks' as the 4th greatest independent film of all time.
After 'Clerks', Smith would go on to write and direct critically acclaimed and financially successful films like 'Mallrats', 'Chasing Amy', 'Dogma' and most recently 'Clerks II', but it all started with 'Clerks', showing how passion and a DIY work ethic turned an average Joe into a Hollywood director.
Andrew Regan is an online, freelance author from Scotland. He is a keen rugby player and enjoys travelling.
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