New York--Let's say you're a big-time movie director who loves collecting DVDs. Most of your movies are out on disc, but on different labels--a frustrating situation which guarantees you'll never get your own box set, ala Hitchcock or Planet of the Apes. If this was you, you'd be indie auteur Kevin Smith, writer/director of Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy --a trio of films that comprise his "New Jersey Trilogy" (which has actually expanded to a total of five films). Now, thanks to eBay, good timing, and machinery used to make funeral urns, Smith is finally getting his own box set.

Besides running own production company, View Askew, Smith also owns a retail store, Jay & Silent Bob's Secret Stash, in Red Bank, NJ. Ostensibly a comic book shop, it does brisk business selling exclusive memorabilia like T-shirts, bumper stickers, trading cards and other items related to his films. When Smith's website, www.viewaskew.com, developed a strong following, visits to the store became virtual pilgrimages for his legion of fans, many of whom expressed disappointment that they couldn't purchase a box set of their hero's films.

Taking a break from pre-production on his next movie, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, Smith recalled how the box came into existence. "We had been thinking internally about making a box set of our own for quite some time. The movies are split up between different distributors--Clerks and Chasing Amy are Buena Vista Home Video and Mallrats is Universal, so we knew those guys would never agree. Although I just saw recently that the Ed Burns box set has three movies from two different distributors; I was wondering how that worked, but I didn't look into it that deeply. In any event, I'd much rather make the box myself and have control over it. So we had been thinking about it for a while, but we didn't know what kind of box it would be, and then Paul's box came along."

The "Paul" in question is the namesake of Design Paul Champagne, Inc. (DPC), based in Corpus Christi, TX. Champagne, who designs and manufactures funeral urns and flag cases, is a big movie fan--an interest that led to building DVD cases as a hobby.

Champagne created his first case a year ago to house his favorite Humphrey Bogart movies. Together with his wife Linda, he designed and crafted the case, using anodized aluminum and ABS resin with a mirror metallic surface. The frames--essentially open boxes--were created first, using sheets of gold anodized aluminum, cut by following a series of jigs that were designed and built in-house. A high-resolution CO2 laser engraver was used to cut designs on to sheets of gold ABS; the resulting engraved box sides were then "skinned" on to the frame. Finally, the whole unit was hand-trimmed, sanded and polished.

"I thought the result was quite pleasing," said Champagne, "and since Bogart stuff seemed to generate a lot of interest on eBay, I decided to offer the case on auction. I received a lot of bids and a few requests for special engravings." Soon, he started making cases for other actors. Occasionally, Champagne even created cases to replace existing DVD box set packages that fans felt the studios hadn't handled properly. "I just finished an Alien case," he reported. "I received a lot of requests for a better quality case that would hold all four movies and the elusive fifth disk."

Soon, he was offering boxes for Clint Eastwood westerns and the oveures of directors like Kurosawa and John Woo. "For some reason, the director-themed cases have all been more popular than the actor-themed cases," he mused, noting that he's produced nearly 400 cases to date. The cases are also sold via his website (http://designpaulchampagne.com).

After a Kevin Smith fan requested a case to house the New Jersey Trilogy, Champagne put two samples of the box up for auction on eBay. The first auction generated more than 900 hits and closed at $71.00--"an obscene level," said Champagne. "I received tons of e-mails about them, including one from someone claiming to be Kevin. I contacted Brad Plevyak at www.newsaskew.com [a fan site dedicated to Smith's films] to check if that was indeed the right e-mail and, well, it was."

Smith had heard about the case and had to see one for himself. "He sent me the box," Smith recalled, "and I said, 'The box is gorgeous, man; do you want to quit selling it on eBay, and make it under our aegis? We'll spruce it up a bit more, do some other things with it and sell it as an official product.'"

Champagne jumped at the chance to re-work the box's design. ""Kevin and I hit it off right away," he said. "The birth of this thing was a lot of fun. Kevin's a very open-minded individual and he likes the creative process, so both our creative juices started flowing. I didn't mind doing a complete redesign, since I had access to a lot of original material. Kevin only had a few details he insisted on, mainly to do with copyrights and stuff. The case ended up having only one panel in common with the original."

Ironically, the one panel that remained from the original contained the coprighted logos to the various films--graphic elements that View Askew didn't actually own. "No, I don't own those," Smith admitted, "but then again, we're pretty friendly with the companies that put them out, and we're not talking about mass-market here, you know. It's not like they're going to be in Wal-Mart or even Sam Goody or Suncoast or something; it's just something we're selling over the Web for the fans only."

The redesign went through various stages, eventually leading to specially commissioned artwork for the case. Smith explained, "We had gone through, 'Do we use real pictures, what do we do?' and finally opted to go with a cartoon image. We got one of the guys who worked on the ill-fated Clerks cartoon TV show, Steve Silver, to draw characters who we had never drawn for the show. They were from the other movies, like Banky, Alyssa and Holden from Chasing Amy, and Brodie and William from Mallrats, and we already had Dante, Randall and Jay and Silent Bob from the show, so we threw a few more characters into a complete View Askew picture. That way, some characters from every film would be represented."

Smith's initial order was for 1,000 boxes, which he expects to sell at the store and the View Askew website for an anticipated price of $30. While there are also plans to sell the case filled with discs, Smith readily admits, "I think most of the people buying the box will already have the movies on DVD."

While Champagne's hobby has turned into a sizable sideline for DPC, he is hesitant to farm out the manufacturing. Instead he and his wife continue to handcraft each box themselves, having recently purchased a second laser engraver to keep up with the demand. Production was also briefly hindered by materials that were used on the early prototypes for the box. Smith explained, "We had a slight glitch in production in as much as some of the material he was using was picking up severe fingerprints and whatnot when it was touched, so he found out that he had some of the wrong material. It wasn't something that he was used to working with, but he's gotten the proper material now, so we're moving forward. It's a cool box; I mean, heavy props to Paul. He's quite a craftsman."

This success may well spur yet more work for DPC--at press time, Champagne was finalizing an agreement to produce cases under license for a number of AnimEigo's anime collections, and he hinted there might be a second View Askew-related box in the future.

Meanwhile, for Smith, creating the box was an opportunity to please his fans and also have a bit of control over the packaging of his movies--something most directors don't have. "Most guys don't give a s--- either," he added, laughing. "Most directors really don't care; me, I do. I guess that if most people decided to make a box, sure, it would be kind of a marketing thing and 'How do we bilk the fans out of a bunch of money.' For us, it's just like, 'F--- it, man; look at this cool ass box; don't you want one?' And apparently they have been wanting a box and we just found a good one for them."