Posted by phone monkey at 2cust167.tnt2.minneapolis3.mn.da.uu.net on March 08, 2002 at 10:55:55:
In Reply to: What I like about Kevin Smith films posted by DVDTown.com on March 08, 2002 at 04:52:38:
I was not too impressed with Dogma, but the others I liked very much. JaSBSB is one of the funniest movies ever!
: What I think makes Kevin's films work is that I think he understands that the most important thing to have, when making a movie, is a good script. So many $100 mill.+ movies are being made in Hollywood that are mindless and stupid, allmost to the point of being offensive to the viewer.
: I live in Denmark where some Danish director's have come up with a Dogma pact (no nothing to do with Kevin's Dogma film :). If a director whants to make a Dogma film, he must agree to not use any artificial ligthing, sound, effects ect. Thereby putting complete focus on the carecters and the story. I think Kevin would be ideal for making a Dogma film (actually Clerks was almost a Dogma film ;).
since they discuss use of sets vs in vivo filming on the technical commentary (not the actor's commentary - the other one).
I think you might get a sense of his opinion of this type of filmmaking from that.
The conversation on making the film is often very pragmatic. Lack of funds, time, schedule constraints are all factors in the finished product, and even affected the storyline at some points.
Contrast the discussion of the use of the train with how they talk about the ending at the church.
I expect that this type of filmmaking is an interesting intellectual exercise, but I wonder if someone who is goal-oriented would not find it too constraining? For example, in Dogma, Kevin Smith had some messages about religion he wanted to communicate. It's true that the focus is on characters and dialogue, however, other aspects of the film can support that.
Having made a dogma film myself (called our car trip to Omaha), I think it can be useful as an experiment to see what can work in film. I doubt that it would be a useful end product.
Loved the link you put up. It reminds me very much of the films I used to watch in college.