Part I, 1.) WARNING: This scene description contains adult language and content and is suitable for mature audiences only. If you are offended by such material or are under the age of eighteen please leave this website immediately. Dr. Bach, if you are offended, read this anyway as I need you to grade it.
View Askew Productions
Director Kevin Smith
Scene 3: Jay and Silent Bob (2 minutes 40 seconds) - Shot 1:
INT. QWIK STOP CONVENIENCE STORE - 7 AM: FULL GROUP SHOT The camera peers over the shoulders (EYE-LEVEL)of an informal assembly of Qwik Stop customers arranged in a semicircle looking at the focal point of the shot, an as-yet unidentified MAN on a proverbial soapbox speech. He is easily distinguished by his highly animated affect and the fact that he is in a white shirt while everyone else is dressed in a dark colored jacket. He is standing on the customer side of the counter with his back towards the clerk. The scene is shot in HIGH KEY lighting. There is no music.
You're spending what, twenty maybe thirty dollars a week on your cigarettes?
CUSTOMERS
(murmuring) Yeah...forty...fifty-three!
MAN
Fifty-three dollars a week on cigarettes, come on! Would you give somebody that much money each week to kill you?
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 2:
Camera pans backs of customers to a hole in the semicircle to get MED SHOT of MAN
Well that's what you're doing now-- by paying for this so-called privilege to smoke!
CUSTOMERS
(murmuring) Take it easy....Hey man, we gotta croak sometime!
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 3:
Camera zooms out to original FULL EYE-LEVEL SHOT of customers' shoulders framing the MAN
It's that kind of mentality that allows the cancer producing industry to thrive. Of course we're gonna die someday. Do we have to pay for it?
CUSTOMERS
No, no.
MAN
Do we have to actually throw hard-earned dollars down on the counter and say, please Mr. Merchant of Death, sir, please sell me something that will stink up my breath, and my clothes, and fry my lungs.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 4:
EXT. QWIK STOP: FULL TWO SHOT SILENT BOB (right) is smoking a cigarette and leaning against the wall of the QWIK STOP. SILENT BOB lights a cigarette for JAY (left), his drug dealing colleague. There is a continuation of the conversation occurring inside the Qwik Stop.
Now wait a second.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 5:
MED SHOT of MAN
Now here comes the speech about how he's just doing his job by following orders. Friends, let me tell you about another group of hate-mongers that were just following orders.
(unseen) CUSTOMER
Who's that?
MAN
They were called Nazis!
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 6:
Camera zooms out and pans to end in a FULL SHOT of DANTE, the MAN and the backs of the CUSTOMERS.
(murmuring) Nazis...yeah, that's right...fucking Nazis.
MAN
Yeah, (shouting) and they practically wiped an entire nation of people off the earth just like your cigarettes are doing now!
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 7:
EXT. QWIK STOP: FULL TWO SHOT JAY (left) and SILENT BOB (right) are still smoking. Jay notices something OFF SCREEN to the right and runs away to the left. SILENT BOB remains smoking as he was. The dialogue from inside continues.
I think you ought to leave now.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 8:
INT QWIK STOP: MED TWO SHOT of DANTE (left) and MAN (right).
You want me to leave. Why? 'Cause somebody's telling it like it is?
CUSTOMERS
(in unison) Yeah!
MAN
[Because] somebody's giving these fine people a wake-up call?
CUSTOMERS
Yeah!
DANTE
No...You're loitering and causing a disturbance.
MAN
I'm a disturbance? You're a disturbance pal! You know, here!
MAN throws a dollar at DANTE and picks up a pack of gum from the rack on the counter.
Now I am a customer. I'm gonna buy some Chewley's gum. All right. I'm a customer...engaged in a discussion with the other customers.
CUSTOMERS
(mumbling) Yeah...That's right...Shut up, jerk off...Smoke my big fat cock.
MAN
Yeah, see. And he's scared now. 'Cause he sees the threat we present. He smells the changes coming.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 9:
MED SHOT of VERONICA entering through the door of the Qwik Stop.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 10:
MED TWO SHOT of DANTE (left) and MAN (right).
You definitely are the source in this area and we're gonna shut you down for good.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 11:
FULL SHOT in DANTE'S POINT-OF-VIEW of MAN with CUSTOMERS behind him.
(chanting in unison) For good, cancer merchant, cancer merchant, cancer merchant...
CUSTOMERS throw their cigarettes at DANTE (OFF SCREEN in direction of camera).
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 12:
MED SHOT of Dante looking scared directly at the camera.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 13:
FULL SHOT in DANTE'S POINT-OF-VIEW of CUSTOMERS throwing cigarettes at him.
Cancer merchant, cancer merchant...
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 14:
FULL SHOT of the CUSTOMERS and MAN from behind the action. Spray sound and mist comes from OFF SCREEN (left-center). All turn to look.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 15:
LOW ANGLE, CLOSELY FRAMED shot of VERONICA standing on a table, beginning with her feet and moving up her body. She is holding a fire extinguisher spraying down and a few metadiagetic heavy metal guitar chords are sounded, the first and only music of the scene.
Who's leading this mob?
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 16:
MED GROUP SHOT of CUSTOMERS coughing and wiping fire extinguisher foam from their bodies.
He is...that guy.
CUSTOMER points OFF SCREEN to left.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 17:
MED SHOT MAN'S back as he walks toward the door, attempting to sneak out.
Freeze!
MAN stops and turns around.
CUT TO
Scene 3- Shot 18:
MED SHOT VERONICA, closely framed is followed by the camera as she leaps from the table, fire extinguisher in hand and walks toward the MAN, pointing the fire extinguisher OFF SCREEN at him.
Let's see some credentials.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 19:
MED TWO SHOT of VERONICA (left) and MAN (right). MAN reaches in his bag.
Slowly!
MAN pulls out a business card and Veronica takes it from him and studies it.
You're a Chewley's Gum representative?
MAN nods.
And you're stirring up all this antismoking sentiment to what? Sell more gum?
MAN nods.
Get out of here. And you people (to customers) don't you have jobs to go to? Get out of here! Go commute.
MAN and CUSTOMERS start to file out the door as VERONICA continues.
You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Bunch of easily led automatons. Try thinking for yourselves before you pelt an innocent man with cigarettes.
CUT TO
Scene 3 - Shot 20:
MED TWO SHOT of DANTE (right) at register with CUSTOMER (left) coughing, his back to the camera. Customer puts money on the counter and coughs again.
Uh...pack of cigarettes.
DANTE slams the cigarettes on the counter, puts the money in the register, slams the register drawer and walks OFF SCREEN to the right.
CUT TO
Scene 4
Dante looking mad.
Veronica after spraying customers.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?Clerks+(1994)
http://www.viewaskew.com/clerks/
http://www.nd.edu/~jfox1/Ryan/clerks/
Part I, 2.)
I felt that this scene from Clerks was a good one to choose as we have been studying fallacies for the past couple of weeks. The Chewley's Gum representative's argument contains a fallacy in almost every sentence. The reason the scene is so pertinent is that the movie mocks people who can be easily swayed, "easily led automatons," while giving us a perfectly believable, if exaggerated, example of how people can be swayed by an emotional and fallacious argument.
The scene primarily relies on sharply delivered dialogue rather than cinematic expertise to achieve its poignancy but does employ a number of cinematic tools to aid the effect. First the lack of music throughout the argument, until it is broken up by Veronica, implores that the viewer focus on the dialogue. The imperative to listen to what the Chewley's representative is saying is further emphasized by his white shirt and animated affect, dramatically separating him from the darkly clad groggy customers and the blocking which arranges the customers in a semicircle around him.
The two cuts to the outside of the Qwik Stop where Jay and Silent Bob, oblivious to the gathering inside are smoking, are especially important. During the scene the viewer laughs at the two drug dealers because they are missing the point of the discussion and are smoking the same cigarettes that are being condemned inside. Reflecting, however, we should realize that they are the smart ones all along since they had no part in the ludicrous argument which swayed the customers inside through the full gamut of stances- from skepticism, to agreement, to angry fundamentalism, and then back to regular mindless smoking customers.
The first major instance of serious cinematography that we see in the scene is when Veronica is shown on the table spraying the customers. The low angle shot both parodies her short height and bitchy personality, while showing the customers that she is the voice of reason and that the argument has just ended. The angle makes her out to be Dante's "knight in shining stonewashed jeans" and lets the audience make a quick judgment of her character as she soon reveals her place as Dante's girlfriend.
Clerks is one of my favorite movies because it holds such a misanthropic attitude toward the public - a view which I find to be astonishingly similar to my own. This scene epitomizes that attitude.
Part II, 1.)
The advertisement I chose is an ad for a Southwest Airlines promotion of buy one ticket, get one free and uses a reenactment of the Noah's Arc story to make the argument. The argument reads:
"It's an idea that's been around a long time. (landscape)
Friends Fly Free on Southwest Airlines (Noah's arc loading with pairs of animals)
But all good things it doesn't last long (Unicorns shown grazing, being left behind)
So buy yours before December 9."
2.) The major fallacies are visual:
Appeal to tradition: although the Noah's Arc story may or may not be true "friends fly free" can not be an argument that is very traditional as air travel is a recent innovation.
Scare tactics: you don't want to be left behind to drown like the unicorn so you had better find a friend and go somewhere on Southwest Airlines, buying your ticket before December 9, of course.
Also, euphemism: "friends fly free," instead of the more traditional and relevant buy one get one free. The offer doesn't apply exclusively to friends. It is a euphemism.
persuasive comparison: comparing the benign act of flying with two tickets to the biblical story of Noah's arc and comparing not buying to drowning like the unicorns
3.) Verbally, the argument isn't too bad. The key point is that If you fly somewhere on Southwest Airlines and purchase your ticket before December 9 you can get a second ticket free. This is a good promotion which one shouldn't need to be persuaded to buy. The visual analogy of the Noah's Arc story, while cute and memorable, is irrelevant and makes a simple and sound statement full of fallacies. While I might be persuaded either way, in terms of logic the argument would definitely be stronger if it were straightforward. The ad would likely not be as memorable, however, and it seems that this was more their point.