By Christian Baekkelund
One of the ways an artist can best facilitate a fan community is
to provide an open and direct source of information from them to their
fans via the Internet, as well as surround that source with the ability
for the fans to not only write back to the artist, but to write to
one another. Unfortunately, many media entities still have yet to
learn this basic tenet of fandom and the Internet. Kevin Smith is
an exception, and the website of his production company, View Askew,
does exactly what it should to help create and further the fan following
of his works.
ViewAskew.com is an amazingly large amount of information updated
at a startlingly rapid rate about the past, present, and future productions
of Kevin Smith and View Askew. Featured at the site is background
information on Smith's films, ways to purchase related merchandise,
images from the sets of the films, interviews with the various members
of View Askew, links to press articles about View Askew Productions,
information about the View Askew offices, and most importantly, some
web-boards featuring posts by both visitors to the site and Kevin
Smith himself. Where as other motion picture studios are extremely
guarded with regards to information about upcoming motion pictures,
Smith is surprisingly candid about the production of his films on
the site's boards. While a film is in production, Smith regularly
posts quite candid updates about the progress of the production including
images and even the actual scripts to the film.
The level of direct interaction that fans are able to have with Smith
via ViewAskew.com is quite remarkable and un-like that which fans
of most other directors are able to have their idols via the Internet.
It is not uncommon for a fan to post a question to the web-boards
and receive a public reply on the board from Smith himself; such an
activity would be unheard of for other directors of Smith's fame.
The public web-boards also foster a large and active community of
fans that also write to one another quite a bit. In fact, Smith and
this community have become so closely knit that Smith regularly hosts
a yearly "Vulgarthon" in which regularly active members
of the ViewAskew.com community are invited to a private showing of
a number of Smith's films followed by periods of question and answer
with Smith and the other stars of the films.
In times when motion picture companies seem to be becoming ever more
reserved in the information they release regarding films in production
and directors seem to be ever more distanced from their fans, ViewAskew.com
offers a refreshingly direct, frank, and active information source
and fan-site for the Kevin Smith's "Askewniverse".