Kevin Smith got lucky 22 years ago. Seriously. He got real lucky. Smith managed to get a major movie studio to take a look at his small film Clerks. That studio, Miramax, took a chance on a guy who’d directed jack squat prior to putting himself into major debt financing a passion project about two losers working in a convenience.
Stuff like that just doesn’t happen anymore. But it did and Smith is obviously incredibly appreciative of the chance.
Yesterday, the filmmaker and podcaster posted a photo on Facebook of the original budget for the film. Along with the budget, Smith included a short bio about the guy behind the twisted comedy. The bio might be as funny as the film.
Kevin Smith has a really bad name, but it didn’t stop him from writing and directing Clerks. He signed his name more times this year than he has in his entire life, mostly on credit transactions that were used to make the film. His experience with filmmaking is limited to an early tenure acting as the Varsity basketball cameraman at his high school. For this service he received a varsity letter — perhaps one of the only varsity letters given to a person who never spent energy beyond pressing buttons marked “record” and “pause.”
Not long after posting the budget, Smith commented on his own post saying that he hoped it would inspire other young filmmakers to just go after their dream because anyone could make a movie for “WAY less” these days.
[via Complex]