Oops, think you meant "repost." No biggie. *nt*

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: : This is something I'd like reposted on every board for the next few months, so if someone would : : oblige me when the boards turn over, I'd be appreciative. : : It was brought to my attention that a thank you which is supposed to be in the end credits somehow : : didn't make it. This thank you was to be as follows... : : "Vincent - Without whom, I'd still be watching movies instead of making them." : : You all know Vincent Pereira here. He's a very crucial lynchpin in our operation. Indeed, it was : : Vincent who first presented film to me as something not just to be viewed. Vincent introduced the : : possibility of MAKING films to me (so if you hate my shit, blame him). : : We were working at Quick Stop at the time. Vincent was, as some may have gathered from the : : 'Clerks Christmas Special' comic, the mop-boy. He'd come in at nine every night to mop the floors : : and stock the milk, but he really aspired to run the video store (granted, he aspired to much more than : : just that, but as he was in high school, the video store would have to suffice for the time being). We : : didn't really speak for the first few months I worked at the Stop (he preceded me there by a bit), but : : when we finally struck up a conversation, it was over movies and t.v. - particularly 'Twin Peaks', : : which was on at the time. : : Vincent was then, as he is now, a HUGE film buff. I loved movies, but I merely loved watching them. : : Vincent LIVED movies - not just seeing them, but the technical aspect of film as well; the art. The : : man knew how movies were made, knew his aspect rations down to the digit, knew the craft inside : : and out. In fact, it was Vincent who first introduced me to letterboxing and laserdiscs (I remember : : arguing with him that a letterboxed disc wasn't as good as a cropped VHS tape because so much of : : the image was left off the disc; what can I say - I was then, as I am now, a virtual idiot when it comes : : to the language of cinema). Anything I know about film-making I pretty much owe to Vincent (writing : : I owe to God). : : In fact, it was with Vincent that I first trekked into the big, scary city that is New York to see 'Slacker' : : - the movie that would kick my ass into gear. We'd go to Manhattan after work on Fridays or : : Saturdays to devour flicks at the Angelika midnight shows, and lived by the Village Voice movie : : time-table (funny story: Vincent and I went to see 'Bad Lieutenant' once, and I put my bag - the thing : : that I carried money, bills, checks and a notebook in - in his trunk, as well as a scrapbook I was : : working on for a friend; when we came out of the theatre at two in the morning and headed for the : : car, we saw a box on top of Vincent's car that looked like the box I had the scrapbook in; in fact, it : : WAS the box - the car had been broken into, and the thief took everything, but left the scrapbook; : : the irony is that the notebook in the bag had my earliest rumblings of 'Clerks' in it, back when it was : : called 'InConvenience'; I can already hear the detractors saying "That must have been the GOOD : : version of the script.") Driving home from those weekend viewings, we'd talk about flicks we'd like to : : make, dreaming of a career in the field we loved (though, admittedly, he loved it more). : : Vincent was the first person to read the scenes that would become 'Clerks'. He encouraged me to : : finish the script and shoot it. In fact, Vincent's responsible for the title. He came up with a list of : : possible titles based on the pages he'd read (which I still have somewhere). Some of them were : : esoteric ('The Man Behind the Counter' - a variation on 'The Man Behind the Sun', a fave flick of his : : at the time), and some of them were a little on the nose ('Stupid Customers'). One spoke to me a bit : : more than the others ('Rude Clerks'); the rest is history. : : Point is, I probably wouldn't be doing what I'm doing, were it not for meeting Vincent. He was the : : first person I'd ever met who aspired to something that most people thought improbable (most of the : : cats I knew then lived in the moment; Vincent lived in the future, and dared to imagine for himself a life : : in a field most people don't have a chance in). I've long considered the man our official Historian at : : View Askew. I've long considered the man a far more gifted director than myself. I've long : : considered the man a trusted confidant and advisor. : : And I've long considered the man one of my best friends. : : Which is why I feel like such an asshole that the intended thank you is not up there on the screen at : : the end of 'Dogma'. : : My deepest, deepest apologies, Vincent, for what was a mistake that I should've been on top of. I : : should've re-read that thank you list one more time before we shot the credits. I'm a bonehead. My : : bad. : : But know that you're the guy who started it all. You're the guy who I look to for the deciding take : : sometimes (for any who question this, ask Mosier; our editing room mantra on every cut was "What's : : Vincent think?") And while Vincent does have a technical credit on the back end of the flick, he : : deserves so much more. Next time, you go first (after God, of course). Promise. : : I love you, Vincent, and, again - I'm really, really sorry about the fuck-up. I owe you one. : : You know, now that I think about it, 'Stupid Customers' wouldn't have been so bad a title.

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