Improv in Kevin Smith Films

Kevin Smith is known for telling his actors to “stick to the script.” Watch the making of Clerks documentary The Snowball Effect and you’ll learn that this goes all the way back to his high school days.

And so, it was very interesting to me to hear, way back when, that Kevin had cast Seth Rogen as the lead in his next film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, the same Seth Rogen whose “You know how I know you’re gay” improvisational bits on the 40 Year Old Virgin DVD had me roaring with laughter. How was that going to work?

In an MTV Movies Blog article I found through News Askew, Rogen explains exactly how it worked:

I made it really clear before I went anywhere near committing to the movie that I needed to be loose… I feel like [improv] is the way people expect comedy to be like now. In its time, the very-scripted kind of conversation was really new and revolutionary, but I feel like audiences have moved on from that, and expect more of a conversational, naturalistic kind of improvisational feel… I told [Smith] I’m not going to change everything, but if everyone just knows they can change things, I find that it makes all the actors seem more real, like it’s actually a conversation that’s happening

I think Rogen definitely has a point, but I think I would go even further. I think the “very-scripted kind of conversation” that he references was at its best when it felt conversational and naturalistic (despite the language maybe being a bit elevated). I think that’s why there are moments in every Kevin Smith film that have felt like actual conversations I’ve had with my friends and other moments where I am painfully reminded that I am watching actors reciting lines from a script. My hope for Zack and Miri is that, by allowing Rogen to become more of a collaborator than he has ever allowed one of his actors to be, Kevin Smith will rediscover the most authentic parts of his own voice.

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The Ins and Outs of Shooting Smut

News Askew has scored scans of an Empire Magazine feature on Zack and Miri Make a Porno that is chock full of interesting info on the upcoming flick. The sub-headline reads, “Kevin Smith explains the ins and outs of shooting smut,” and its his comments on the first sex scene they shot that were most amusing to me:

...Smith was eased into his first sex scene with a little help from a seasoned veteran and the director’s best buddy.

“I got really lucky, as the first two people we shot were Katie Morgan, who is an adult film star in her day job, and (Jason) Mewes, who was actually born to play this role.

“You’ll never find two people who are less inhibited than those two. Katie was like, ‘Anything we do here is gonna be tame compared to what I normally do,’ and Mewes is just a guy who spends most of his days air-fucking anyway. If I had two serious actors I’m sure it would have been uncomfortable, but with these two it was just like, ‘Okay, can you do this in this position?’ and they’re like, ‘Alright.’ And boy, did they make it seem believable.”

Mewes gets to have (simulated) sex with an actual porn star? Is this something that Kev promised Mewes (in addition to Clerks II) when he was trying to get the boy to kick his heroin habit? Because, if so: brilliant move, sir.

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Zack and Miri Fighting An NC-17

According to News Askew, Zack and Miri Make a Porno may be fighting an NC-17 rating. Their sources include “Zack” himself, Mr. Seth Rogen.

Personally, while I understand that an NC-17 equals marketing death, I’m not all that worried or upset. If Zack and Miri earns an NC-17, that just means far fewer annoying kids in the theater. And, seriously, self-absorbed teenagers talking on their Godforsaken cellphones throughout the entire show have been responsible for ruining about 90% of the movies I’ve seen in the last few years. So, fuck ‘em. Give me an NC-17 rated movie and let the thing find its audience on home video, which is where all Kevin Smith films eventually find their audience anyway.

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Worth Your Consideration 001 - A GF5 Linkdump

“Other sites have linkdumps, so why not Geek Force Five?”

Well, that’s a good question, Laddie. And I don’t have a good answer. So, here you go:

• The teaser for Kevin Smith’s next film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno (previously mentioned here), has been pulled off of the Internet by the MPAA. Apparently, Kevin’s production company forgot to follow some “important guidelines” or something. Have I mentioned how much I love the MPAA lately?
• The lack of ‘Mac’ branding on certain posters spotted at the Moscone Center in San Francisco (where Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference will begin on Monday) has made the natives restless. Mac Rumors’s Page 2 is wondering if this signals the arrival of OS X for PCs. I, for one, hope it does. I’m sick of seeing poor John Hodgman so mopey all of the time in those Mac vs PC commercials. If he were running OS X, he’d be much happier, right? Isn’t that the idea?
• Apple retailers in Australia have received packages they’re not supposed to open until after the WWDC keynote. This is exciting only because it means some Australian dude is going to be sued by Apple for opening a box ahead of time and leaking photos of the new iPhone onto the Interweb. And we all love a lawsuit, don’t we?

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Auditions for Zack and Miri’s Porno

As if last night’s amazing season finale of Lost weren’t enough of an end-of-the-week gift for the Geek Force Five (more on that soon), here comes Kevin Smith with the first teaser for his next film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Kevin insists that we call this a “teaser” and not a trailer because there is no actual footage from the film in it, but, regardless of what we call it, I have to say that it seems to set up a definitive feel for the film. That “feel” seems to be somewhere between an old school Kevin Smith flick and a (relatively) new school Seth Rogen/Frat-Pack flick. And I think that’s probably a very good thing for everyone involved.

So, Geek Force, go check out the teaser and then report back here with your analysis. Be wary, though: this is absotively, posolutely not safe for work (or for your mom). After all, just imagine what kind of questions get asked at an audition for a porno, and then ask yourself if you want to be having a conversation over spaghetti and meatballs about manscaping and penis size.

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