clerks

Kevin Smith on his films-

"It’s all about the script. It has so very little to do with anything else. You know, if my career has done anything, it proves you don’t need a visual style to work in film (which is ironic because it’s a visual medium), as long as you have something worthwhile to say."

Look at the script for the opening of Clerks here -
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/clerks.html

Very little dialogue in this sequence which is very much in contrast with the rest of the film. The dialogue makes use of offscreen presence of boss – from then on...
This has the feel of a silent movie routine with the non diegetic music supporting the narrative– guitar driven/ percussion heavy fast rock with lyics including “…I guess I’m living day to day …”.
Diegetic sound in shop sequence is mainly comprised of the scatological exclamation and the sound effect of the coin
This is a morning ritual many of the target audience of shop / Macjob workers might recognise – mundane tasks in a set sequence done almost sub consciously ( sub humanly?)
Nothing ever goes smoothly due to external factors ( often the bosses but here the lock has been jammed by vandals – later called “savages” by Randall – sets up an us vs them conflict, ie shop staff vs customers)
Dante is never quite in control although he seems to be pleased with himself at the minor triumph of getting the coin from the newspaper stand he tosses it high – possibly the highlight of his day.
Forced to improvise he comes up with a notice he writes on a sheet with boot polish, the smell of which will linger throughout the day becoming a running gag.
Everything set for the long hours of menial work ahead, we see him framed by the service hatch ( imprisoned behind it? ) ready for the day ahead; he then puts his head on the counter in a gesture of exhaustion from night before or, perhaps a more poignant suggestion : despair - this is his life.

Desperate stuff. However, the film does have the attraction of escapism for the Generation X / Slacker ( underpaid and over educated) audience as outlined here -

Clerks offers all service industry employees the possibility of biting back at the customer without fear of retribution (although not in the original screenplay where Dante gets shot by an irate customer, an ending which was removed after poor testing at test previews). These examples re-order society in a way that only an ‘escapist’ media could get away with. But it is the mere existence of these alternative possibilities that allows the audience to be diverted.

Source - Andy Scowcroft, MediaMagazine 8, April 2004

Student research - analysis

As part of your research for your production work, each student needs to complete an analysis of a film opening. Make sure your analysis comments on most if not all of the following:

Title graphics -
What? (company names? stars? director?)
When? (timings)
How? (style)
Why? (effects)

and then similarly for sound, camera, mise en scene, characters, genre, narrative, editing, target audience,overall effects

Sequence Summaries

You need to base your film opening on one of the following categories

Teen Horror (slasher/supernatural) with a strong female lead (eg The Faculty; Twilight; Scream; Severance)

Teen comedy/Teen Romantic Comedy (eg Juno; Heathers; Mean Girls; Clerks)

British Social Realist (eg This is England;Bullet Boy; Kidulthood; My Summer of Love)

Crime Drama (eg Lock Stock; Sexy Beast)

Teen thriller/suspense (eg Spy Kids; Brick; Donnie Darko; Stand By Me)

Mean Machine

Ten Things I hate about you

Shrooms

Mean Girls