The following comes from /Film's on location staff reporter Amber Hathaway. You can read her full report of Kevin Smith's Vulgarthon Film Festival here.
Next was Clerks 2, and there were more than a few giddy giggles when it was announced. I'll try to be as helpful as possible for those of you dying to find out something/anything about it. It begins in black and white, but thanks to a neat shot, we get transitioned to color almost immediately.
As you know from the trailers, Dante and Randal no longer work at the Quick Stop/RST Video, but rather at a Mooby's restaurant. While the movie does contain plenty of the same variety Dante-and-Randal antics/conversations that made Clerks so quotable, there is a sort of division that works extremely well: Randal spends almost all of his time and energy being horrible to the young fry cook, Elias (Trevor Fehrman), while Dante spends much of his time with their manager, Becky (Rosario Dawson).
This split works wonders for the comic elements, the plot development, and the clear difference in how Dante and Randal each intend to spend their time. The movie begins sort of slow, much as Clerks didn't really get going until Dante had to choose between women, definitely didn't sleep with one of them in the bathroom, and Randal knocked over a casket.
Jay and Silent Bob play just as trivial but goofy roles in the sequel as they did in the first movie, which I think works really well. There was a 30- or 40-minute sequence towards the end in which I barely had time to catch my breath before something even more ridiculous and unfortunate happened to our favorite clerks; trust me, even 10 years later, just as much horrible shit catches up with Dante as ever.
While Randal's second-banana role in this movie matches his original place in Clerks, Jeff Anderson gives a surprisingly fantastic performance of genuine drama (you know, as opposed to "no time for love, Dr. Jones") in the movie, and manages to outshine everyone else in what Kevin Smith revealed was a very trying scene.
The Q&A after the movie was great, though there were a few notable groans (one gentleman asked why a certain goofy Randal vs. Elias conflict was put in there, and the correct answer is "STFU", and another gentleman insisted on explaining his question with "and I'm like, what the fuck is the internet?", to which we all booed/sighed), but mostly it was cool.
Jennifer Schwalbach (aka Mrs. Smith), Kevin Smith, Brian O'Halloran, and Jason Mewes were all there to field our questions, though Jason Mewes spent most of his time impatiently wandering around by the front stairs and giving short answers.
Some notable pieces of info include:
Kevin wants the movie to be shown on about 1000 screens because it's "not for everyone", while the powers that be want it on twice that many.
There is still a plan in the works to offer a downloadable podcast commentary for the movie so you can listen to the commentary in the theater. I recommend NOT doing this for the first viewing, even if you plan to see it multiple times. Give it one viewing before you mess with it.
The pickle-related hazing mentioned in the movie (which features Jason Lee's only scene) is actually from Kevin Smith's high school, though apparently it was just a rumor and no one actually had to go through with it.
The prominently featured "Goodbye Horses" by Q. Lazarus (the Silence of the Lambs "yeah, I'd fuck me" song) was apparently a favorite of Kevin Smith's and Jason Mewes', to the point where they'd have it on repeat a great deal for weeks on end. Kevin admitted that they often get "stuck on" certain songs, and this happened to be one of them.
The rest of the questions were mainly about casting, and how they never thought they'd get Rosario Dawson and how it was difficult to make Trevor Fehrman a greasy-looking nerd because he's a "handsome guy".
That's about all I'm willing to broadcast about that movie. I'd be more than happy to answer specific questions that people have about the movie or the Q&A stuff if any of my knowledge will help you sleep better at night, but seriously, reading a lengthy description of all the scenes would be not nearly as funny as seeing it and then the movie would be terribly boring when it finally comes out.