Newspaper Article

Screen: Straight off the shelf: For his book, My First Movie, Stephen Lowenstein asked leading filmmakers to reminisce about their debut movies. In our first extract, Kevin Smith reveals how he made Clerks while working in a convenience store

Lowenstein, Stephen

2000

Overview

I hadn't stayed long enough to learn any technical knowledge at Vancouver. Thankfully [Scott Mosier] and [David Klein] had, so David handled the camera and Scott operated the sound. Periodically David would set up the frame and ask, 'What do you think of this?' And I'd look through the lens and go, 'It looks wonderful.' Originally, I had wanted to shoot in colour, but Scott told me that we would have to rent an entire light package. If we shot in black and white we could use the store's fluorescent lights. Scott and I worked in the convenience store and the video store during the entire shoot. I would work the six till 11am shift. From 11 to five we were either sleeping or preparing for the next night's shooting. From five or six till 10.30 at night I was working again. Then from 10.30 till six in the morning we would shoot the movie. And then the day would begin again. Sometimes we would end a little earlier than 6am and we would go and sleep next door in the video store. We had pillows and some blankets and went and slept on the floor in the video store. We brought an editing unit into the video store so we could film and edit simultaneously. Scott would edit while I worked in the convenience store and vice versa. We had four successful screenings. It was the first time we saw the movie with a full audience and to hear the cacophonous laughter, the roaring, was a deeply satisfying feeling. But still no distributors were interested in buying the film. Then Harvey Weinstein saw it and loved it. [John Pierson] arranged a meeting with Harvey. He said, 'You made a fucking funny movie. I'll take it and put it on a bunch of fucking screens, show it to the right fucking people, put a fucking soundtrack in there' Scott and I were impressed. He was our kind of guy: very blunt and very frank. So he made us an offer. The sum was very low, only $227,000. Twenty-seven grand would cover the hard cost of the movie, not the interest on the credit cards. And then we were left with a $100,000 to split between us and all the people on the cast. John said: 'We could really push for more cash but is this how you want to enter into a relationship with these people? This way we go in low. If the movie breaks out they will love you for the rest of your lives.' The movie eventually made about $8 million worldwide and we have stayed with Miramax ever since.

• Publisher: Guardian News & Media Limited
• Subject: Klein, David / Lowenstein, Stephen / Mosier, Scott / Pierson, John / Smith, Kevin