When a movie usually finishes principal photography, there’s a big party for the cast and crew and they all go their separate ways while the director and an editor hunker down to piece together all the filmed bits into a cohesive whole. But not on director Kevin Smith’s films. This past week, Kevin Smith wrapped production on his political horror film Red State and rather make his cast and crew wait he screened a rough cut of the movie they just finished.
How was Smith able to pull off such a feat? While the cast and crew would relax after each day’s filming, Smith took the footage, all shot on video, and edited it into rough cuts of the scenes they worked on. It is a habit that he first started on while filming Clerks 2 and allows Smith to see if reshoots are needed and can work them into the regular schedule rather than having to reassemble his crew and the necessary cast members months later.
So when will the rest of us get to see the film? That remains up in the air. Red State currently has no distributor. Smith is hoping to take the film to the Sundance Film Festival next year, which will hopefully generate a few offers. But as a Smith fan, I know that we’ll get to see the film at some point because it has been made. And getting it made was the biggest hurtle that Smith had to clear.
