Kevin Smith Film Style Analysis

The hardest thing to try and do in this situation is to label Kevin Smith with a directing style, considering his style has been self-described as “having no style .” But I do believe over time he has developed his own way of making films, considering he dropped out of the Vancouver Film School after only four months, he has had industry experience to help him grow into his own way of creating movies.

Smith`s composition is very similar in all three films. There is a lot of lighting going on, whether we are seeing natural or set lighting to illuminate the actors in the frame; Smith brings natural light in all the exterior day shots, and set lighting in the interior shots and set shots. There is a very low key and high contrast style in Clerks,

Smith shows next to no physical camera movements in scenes and just maintains long takes that talk about any action that could be shown. The use of two-shots, sometimes three shots, over the shoulder interactions and a shot reverse shot are the cornerstone in 95% scenes of a Kevin Smith movie. We can also always expect a montage of establishing shots depending upon where the scene is taking place right at the beginning of the film, almost as a Smith calling card. The only instances we get to see a handheld or a tracking shot is when it bears tremendous weight to the story. There is an ideal representation of this in the second act of Chasing Amy when Holden admits his love for Alyssa and she exits the car into the rain. While she is walking down the street and Holden is chasing after her, the camera is a handheld medium shot of the characters interaction4. Possibly one of the most heated and interesting interactions in the entire movie is accented with feeling right alongside the two characters discovering their feelings for each other. Even in Chasing Amy, the introduction to Alyssa has a tilt shot from toes to head to establish her entrance, and the introduction to the big central player. The simple style Smith brings does draw a lot of rightful hate, but his use of shots are picked well

From Clerks, the budget was spent more on assembling the soundtrack than the production for the film. We get songs from Bad Religion to Alice in Chains to Love Among Freaks. In Mallrats the selection ranges from Weezer to Sublime, and in Chasing Amy we get Public Enemy and Faithless. All songs that appear have a connection to Smith and his general taste in music. The songs are used effectively in the way to highlight when something obscene is happening. We get the screaming after the casket is tipped over in Clerks, in Mallrats we get the heavy guitar solo when someone is swinging from a wire around the mall, and in a very grungy bar that appears to be dripping in dirt and sweat, we get a very throaty high pace tone in Chasing Amy. There is the appearance of slower songs used as well, and usually seen in the situation of the girl and guy finally reuniting to a rock anthem of love. Jay and Silent Bob shows the titular characters always rocking out to some level of heavier rock as if that is all they do when off-screen. Dogma even uses a variety of heavier rock to illustrate the hate and maniacal nature of the angels as they are killing humans off. The music is used effectively to set an almost younger tone to the film. Each song and its pacing is sung in a way that still channels a lot of youth and it matches up with the characters struggles and in their