Don’t know if this is necessarily a message for this or the riders’ board, but Vinnie “shutupleavemealone” Pereira, Ka-razy Krafty Neil Epstein, Kevin “I played a Grip but really am the prop guy” Crimmins and I took razor to film tonight and edited our first scene.

That’s right, after decades of sound-syncing, we actually slapped something together (okay, so Vinnie did the physical slapping…what do you want, I’m new to the editing biz and nobody’s better at slapping than Vinnie) and what can I say? Vin did something all crazy-like at the end that MADE the scene. He’s a genius at the Steenbeck, ladies and gentlemen, no bullshit.

While I’m at it, allow me to thank Kevin and Scott; without them, Vin, Neil, Crimmins and I would be sitting in a corner with no film to edit.

And Kim for all her hard work…and she knew Michael Ian Black to boot!

And EVERYONE in the VA Office.

And everyone who worked on the film for free.

And the actors. All nine billion of them.

And the academy.

That’s all. If you could be a tree, what tree would you be?

The poop was gone, and in its place was a five dollar bill.

Brian

A Showcase for Works by Fledgling Directors
By PETER M. NICHOLS
NEW YORK — Four years ago, director Kevin Smith was just another hungry young filmmaker vying for attention at the Independent Feature Film Market, the giant downtown screening frenzy and talent hunt for the next Kevin Smiths of the independent film world.
Under his arm was a movie called “Clerks”. Though it got a 10 a.m. Sunday screening attended by exactly 11 people, 10 of them members of his own film crew, it did alert the one scout in the audience, whose solitary word of mouth started “Clerks” on its way to the New Directors/New Films series at the Museum of Modern Art and the Sundance International Film Festival.
“All it takes is one person,” said Smith, 27, of Red Bank, N.J., who briefly studied at the Vancouver Film School in British Columbia before heading home to make “Clerks.” “That’s what IFFM is all about.”
Last week, with his third film, “Chasing Amy”, having cleared $11 million at the box office, he was back at the market as the co-producer of “A Better Place”, f by Vincent Pereira, 24, a filmmaker from Leonardo, N.J., who is as unknown as Smith was four years ago.
“It wasn’t until Vinnie got into the market that people started making calls about his movie,” Smith said. “It’s a nice running start.”
Late last night, the 19th annual market, called IFFM by the thousands of movie people of every description who crowded into lower Manhattan, concluded a packed week of seminars, parties and screenings of 400 movies, or parts of movies, at the Angelika Film Center on Houston Street. Starting Monday, many of them will follow up on films and talent that impressed them.
Deals may result, but despite its name, deal-making is not the object of the market. It is run by the Independent Feature Project, an alliance of 3,500 filmmakers, production and distribution companies, talent agencies, broadcasters, film schools, music companies, law firms, publications and other organizations with an interest in independent film. The business side of that membership certainly suggests buying and selling, and this year, several films appear to be close to a sale as a result of screenings.
More typically, movie deals are made at studios, festivals and chic restaurants. To actually sell movies at this market in a way defiles the spirit of the enterprise. “The focus is to get the industry to look at the films and help push them along,” said Michelle Byrd, executive director of Independent Feature Project.
To be sure, Michael Moore screened his 1989 documentary “Roger and Me” at the market, and this year, he showed his new film, “The Big One”, the chronicle of a three-month cross-country road trip. Quentin Tarantino took “Reservoir Dogs” to the market. Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust” began there, as did Richard Linklater’s “Slacker” and Todd Solondz’s “Welcome to the Dollhouse.” All of these films attracted notice, but were sold elsewhere.
Nevertheless, considering the market’s fast-growing track record, films like “A Better Place,” about an obsessive and deadly teen-age friendship, are drawing close attention from bigger players like Miramax and Fine Line. Pereira, who never attended film school, became interested in filmmaking as an assistant to Smith. He said he doubted that his movie would be spoken for at the market. But, he added, “any positive vibes from the screening can help with the festivals,” which is the next logical step for many films at the market.
Unlike festivals, IFFM offers no formal competition, although it may bestow a prize or two, almost apologetically. Nor are there reviews. Or discussion of paltry budgets. For the filmmaker, the idea is to meet people, watch responses to the movie (an important part of the learning process) and gain insights at seminars with names like “Evaluating the Worth of Your Script,” “Do It Yourself: Financing Through Distribution,” “Aiming Smart: Strategies for Filmmaking Campaigns” and “Revealing Your Rough Cut.”
Six categories of film are shown: features (161 were screened this year), documentaries, works in progress, shorts, scripts and work from film schools, which this year included New York University; the University of Southern California; the University of California at Los Angeles; the School of Visual Arts, in New York; Columbia and Syracuse. The market also includes work from abroad.

Miramax Home Entertainment’s Chasing Amy is one of several rental titles in Buena Vista Home Video’s “Winter Blitz” promotion, which launches Dec. 9 with Con Air.

On December 23rd comes the Miramax romantic comedy Chasing Amy, which made 11.6 million.

So one of the people who e-mailed over the past few days wanting the script was someone who wanted to pass it on to Roger Ebert. He gave me Mr. Ebert’s address, so I figured I’d e-mail him to get his toughts on both the script, and my methods for distributing it. Without telling me his thoughts on the script, I got this e-mail this morning :

—–Begin Message—–
I am happy to be able to read the script, but I believe that a script in development has much the same legal status as a commercial or trade secret, and distributing it is about as legal as posting Ford’s patents for a new fuel pump on the Web. In other words, I think that legally you had no right to do it, and that WB would have won in a walk if they had sued you. Thedesire of others to read it, Kevin Smith’s reputation, etc., are all irrelevant: This is pretty much an open-and-shut case of copyright infringement. My own advice to you is to have nothing to do with the further public or private distribution of the script, or you may actually find yourself in court, as an example to others.

I give this advice because I know you acted sincerely and with good intentions, and I would just as soon save you a lot of grief.

Very best,
RE
—–End Message—–

So I’m back, and I’ve gone through this entire always passive-aggressive board (and some were exTREMEly aggressive, mind you). I’ve read your comments on the Supes script and the Howard Stern appearance. My take on both? I, too, find the Supes script weak in parts (though largely better than most would do with it, character-wise), and agree that Jay and I weren’t really up to snuff on the Stern show (although we served the purpose we were there for; and who cares in the end - we got to meet Howard and the gang).

The tour went well - the movie was uniformly embraced by the French and British press, not to mention the French and British audiences we watched it with (interesting tid-bit: the French aud was the largest we ever screened for at once, clocking in at close to fifteen hundred people).

And now it’s time for serious writing work, as I immerse myself completely in the novel and comics scripts. I’ll only be surfacing daily to sign merchandise at the office and post here (as always).

Hope all went well in my absence (nice to see some new folks have joined in the mix - good and bad), and I hope to see a bunch of you at the Rutgers screening in Camden (for the record, there may be another one in New Brunswick next month - more on that when I get more info).

“I believe Criterion is holding release until two weeks after the vid release, which may now be in January”

Vincent : “I think (but am not certain) that Criterion will try and make the disc available day and date with the tape, which would mean a mid-December release. This is also contigent on Kevin and Scott getting all of the suplementary material (such as the thrity or so minutes of cut footage) together soon. The picture transfer for the disc is done, by the way - David Klein actually supervised that months ago (before Criterion even became involved with the project), so it’ll mainly be a matter of recording the comentary and getting the cut-scenes and trailers together, and getting all the elements to the folks at Criterion for the making of the disc.”