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Buzz-Smith

The Dogma director looks for a little Net religion

By Dalton Ross

Alanis Morissette is God. Linda Fiorentino is a descendant of Jesus who works in an abortion clinic. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon? They're angels who take to gunning down innocent churchgoers. Sure, wilder rumors have sprouted on the Internet, but in these cases, the hearsay may actually be true.

The object of speculation is Dogma, the contentious new film from Kevin Smith that follows a pair of fallen angels scamming a passage to heaven. As the Catholic League vigorously attacked the film and Disney subsequently backed out as its distributor, the Net buzzed with gossip.

Throughout this tumult, you'll find Smith where few of his peers dare to go: online with his fans. The director, via his company's site, View Askew productions, keeps up an online dialogue. Inviting visitors to the Chasing Amy premiere or asking them to be extras in Dogma are just two instances of Smith's relatively intimate rapport with his fan community. "The main interest for me as a filmmaker is com munication," says Smith. "Rather than just making a movie for people to watch, I can actually talk to them about the process of making it."

So when the Dogma controversy started to simmer, fans swarmed to Dogma Rumor Control. Now, "people are so anxious to see this [film] because of the anticipation levels out there," says the site's cofounder, Brad Plevyak. "For a guy like Kevin, who has only been around for a few years, the amount of traffic we're seeing is pretty astounding."

With the film due for release mid-month, the momentum at Dogma Rumor Control, the Kevin Smith newsgroup, and Smith's official Dogma site is building to Blair Witch Project proportions. And that doesn't surprise Smith: "Word-of-mouth pictures thrive on the Internet. That's all it is out there anyway—word of mouth."

The Interview - By Dalton Ross

Y-LIFE: Tell me why you decided to start up Viewaskew.com.
SMITH: I had gone online one day — and I had never been online before — because people told me there were all these homemade Clerks sites, and I was like, "Sites? What's that." So I went online and checked it out and people had made these homemade Clerks sites, which was kind of flattering. I emailed the guy who made the best one I'd seen, this guy Ming Chen, and asked if he'd have any interest in building one for my production company. He said he was into it so we started putting it together, and the idea was that if people were going to do these things, I might as well do one. The main interest for me as a filmmaker is that whole communication thing. It was just a way for me to get out there and be even closer to the fans. Rather than just making a movie for people to watch, I can actually talk to them about the process of making it. Just to be candid and what not.

Y-LIFE: For a director, you have a really large Internet fan base. Why do you think that is?
SMITH: It's accessibility. It's the fact that I'm out there and you can pretty much talk to me most days during the week. It's that I'll post and throw up stuff that you don't normally see. I try and give people access to not just me and the production company, but also try to close that mysterious gap that some filmmakers like to leave between them and the audience. That and giving them access to stuff that people don't normally get to see. Me and Jason Mewes, the guy who plays Jay, got to go to this big fashion show/AIDS benefit just loaded with stars, so we were like f—- it, let's bring a camera.

Y-LIFE: Yeah, nice tux.
SMITH: (Laughs) Thanks. So we took all these shots. Things like that are just fun for me, because I know that if I were on the other side of the terminal that would be the kind of stuff I would want to see. Never mind all the studio PR fluff stuff and stills from movies. I'd rather see kind of inside stuff that I have never seen before or don't really have the opportunity to get to see.

Y-LIFE: When all the controversy with Dogma started, how worried were you about keeping up a buzz as you tried to firm up distribution for the film?
SMITH: Not really, 'cause I just assumed it would carry itself because of the cast. If it was one of those low budget efforts that we're used to doing with no cast to it, then I'd kind of be worried, but you got Ben [Affleck], Matt [Damon], Chris Rock and Salma [Hayek]. I mean, it's kinda hard to be anonymous with that flick, or be forgotten.

Y-LIFE: How much of a help have fan sites like News Askew and Dogma Rumor Control been in terms of both keeping fans informed of the progress, as well as keeping the film in the public eye?
SMITH: What's great about something like News Askew, for me personally, is they keep tabs on anything that's somewhat related to us. Sometimes I get so bogged down by the day to day, that I lose track of stuff. I don't get to scan newsgroups and the Internet everyday for news on us, so it's helpful to stay abreast of your own life and your own production company and even your own friends, the actors that are going off to work on other stuff. The great thing about Dogma Rumor Control is that those guys were able to talk about stuff, print stuff and keep stuff going when we weren't really allowed to at View Askew 'cause Miramax placed of a gag order on us during production. I got to post updates on their Web site while we were shooting on what we did from day to day. Those guys were able to track all the articles in relation to it and then later on gathered all those posts that I did so there's kind of like an on-the-set diary. It's really nice.

Y-LIFE: It seems like you keep in pretty close contact with those guys. Didn't you get them in the new film somehow?
SMITH: Yeah, Brad and Chris [from News Askew/Dogma Rumor Control] actually came out and are in one of the sequences in the movie—when Ben and Matt are in an airport talking about people coming off a plane. So they got some decent screen time. We do that with our Web site in general. For Dogma, rather than just call locals as extras in the Pittsburgh area where we were shooting, I put on the board that if anybody wanted to make the trip and come out and be an extra, they could. So we got a lot of people to be extras that way and it was kind of mutually gratifying. We got the people we needed, and they got to hang around be in a movie, see the set, and watch the process. Everyone wins.

Y-LIFE: How valuable a marketing tool is the Internet becoming for movies?
SMITH: I mean, if you look at something like The Blair Witch Project, it's immeasurable. In the case of something like The Blair Witch Project, clearly there was a cult built on the Internet based on rumors and things that people had heard. That was a real word of mouth picture and word of mouth pictures thrive on the Internet, because that's all it is out there anyway--word of mouth.

Y-LIFE: What other kind of sites do you check out while on the Net?
SMITH: I always go to USA Today, and see what's going on in the world. I always go to Ain't it Cool News, 'cause they always have really good inside stuff that even I'm like, "Really, that's true?" That's what I've been looking at lately. I have yet to go to eBay. Everyone threatens that if I go to eBay, I'll never get anything done.

Y-LIFE: It's dangerous and totally addictive. I found myself with a closet full of Mr. T and Rodney Dangerfield board games. And you think it's cool when you first get them, but then you're like, okay, what do I do with these now?
SMITH: (Laughs) Yeah, you're like, "Well, that's accomplished. That chapter of my life is now closed." I don't know. It's one of those things where I think if I get on, forget it—it's all over. I'll get lost and you won't hear from me ever again. I'm sure some people would think that might be a good thing.

Y-LIFE: The Catholic League, perhaps?
SMITH: Exactly.

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