Bearded, wearing glasses and a perennial long wool coat on top of shorts and a shirt, Kevin Smith became the idol of aspiring filmmakers everywhere when his independent feature "Clerks" (1994)--made for $27,575--won art prizes and a contract with the Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Raised in New Jersey, Smith had dropped out of The New School for Social Research's creative writing program when the school administration called his parents to complain their son was throwing water balloons from his dorm window. Seeing an ad in the Village Voice for the Vancouver Film School, he matriculated for