Kevin Smith emerged in the ’90s as a part of the wave of independent, no-film school cinephiles, including Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Robert Rodriguez, and more. Actually, Linklater’s movie Slacker is what inspired him to pursue filmmaking. Linklater shooting and setting the film in Austin, Texas rather than filming it on a soundstage with a major city setting, impressed Smith, leading him to want to become a filmmaker and to set films in his own community.
He decided to leave Vancouver Film School after four months, believing he had learned enough and wanting to save money for his first film. He moved back to New Jersey and got his old job back at a convenience store where he decided to set his film, Clerks, borrowing the a-day-in-the-life structure from the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing. That structure was a new perspective on slice-of-life cinema. The genre was explored by filmmakers back from the Italian Neo-Realism to contemporary Anime series, where the genre is very popular now.
Kevin Smith was a part of the revolution in the ’90s that introduced young filmmakers with their fresh perspectives, independent spirit, and personal stories. One huge part of it was the tech evolution introducing camcorders and smaller portable equipment in general. Old small 16mm cameras also became cheaper and more accessible. That opened the world of filmmaking for a lot more artists and film nerds.
To fund his film, Smith maxed out multiple credit cards and sold his comic book collection (we will get back to this), ultimately raising $27,575. The film was a critical and box office success, earning $3.1 million. Robert Rodriguez and Richard Linklater did a similar thing when it comes to funding and box office success.
Among other things like using friends and family for cast and crew, technological advancement was crucial for making those movies. We see today a similar, but bigger thing happening with blockchain and NFTs. All kinds of artists have a way to distribute their art and connect with collectors in a way they couldn’t before. Fine art was a lot more exclusive before NFTs.
Ending of the Slacker, the movie that inspired Smith, perfectly catches the spirit of that time and young emerging filmmakers.
Needless to say, Kevin Smith made cult classics like Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and the mentioned Clerks (3 of them) in which he created one of the most famous duos in cinema - Jay and Silent Bob. They got their spin-off titled Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back in 2001, and in 2022 Kevin Smith released his first NFT collection in the honor of the duo titled Jay & Silent Bob Reboot Smokin’ Token.
As we mentioned, Kevin Smith is a collector of comic books. Also, he collects funko pop and other figures so he understands the passion for collecting. It makes sense he found that part of NFTs appealing.
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Smokin’ Tokens are exactly that, collectible items. They are 3D revolving tokens with an illustration of Jay and Silent Bob on them, with different colored backgrounds. They launched on the Phantasma chain and came in four colors: Weed Green, Indica Orange, Bluntman Purple, and Mooby Yellow.
There is also a limited, fifth color, the Platinum Smokin’ Token, which granted the owner a cameo in Clerks III. The rest of them have no utility. One extra NFT was a preview of one of the first feature NFT films, titled Killroy Was Here, directed by Kevin Smith, which we’ll cover in the last story of the series.
They have different supplies that seem kind of random, and the tokens are listed on ghostmarket.io with the last sale 6 months ago. The interesting part is the cameo in Clerks III. There are only 5 platinum tokens that grant holders a cameo, but on top of that, there’s a celebrity cameo.
Ladies and gentleman, it’s Bitboy Crypto nonetheless. He plays one of the members of the Crypto Church Club…
Clerks III has an NFT subplot, in a way. The main plot is about Randal filming his movie about working in the convenience store, which is an obvious reference to Kevin Smith’s real-life story about the first iteration of Clerks. There are two supporting characters in the NFT subplot, one of them being a guy named Blockchain. To be completely honest, they are pretty lame, but that’s not important rn. The subplot was supposed to be about funding Randal’s movie with an NFT collection, but that plot just gets forgotten and dropped, until the end of the movie when the collection blows up without any explanation, just to serve as a solution to a problem which I will not spoil in case you want to watch it. However, both are examples of lazy writing, and the whole NFT story is just unflattering, to say the least. In my opinion, the movie is underwhelming just as is the collection.
Jay and Silent Bob Smokin’ Tokens is technically a success. The collection did sell out and some of the buyers did make a profit but that was back then when markets were on fire. Sure, there’s value in this collection. Kevin Smith is an important filmmaker and historically relevant. He has a cult following and I’m sure there are fans that would love to hold a piece of Jay and Silent Bob. Personally, I’m not a fan of this example of an established filmmaker getting into NFTs. Not that I have anything against it, I love collectibles, but I see NFTs as a new art medium, not just as a distribution platform.
0xA
