May 28, 2009
A: Yes and no.
It hurts to have people see your newborn baby for the first time and tell you it’s ugly, but there are ways of preparing your screening audience for what you need before they open their mouths, and you can actually end up getting helpful criticism from them as a result.
First, let’s establish some “rough-cut categories” so we know what we’re talking about. I simplify this a bit in my book, but this should help.
ROUGH ASSEMBLY
Rough sound, rough picture, temp score, story isn’t even comprehensive, scenes don’t quite work yet.
Audience:
Anyone who can keep their mouth shut, who you won’t want feedback from later. At this point you’re just watching to see if you’ve got everything, and if there WILL BE enough to pull the story together. You don’t want feedback at this stage, but you probably want to watch it with someone to see what NOT to lose.
You need to tell your “audience” upfront, “I DON’T WANT FEEDBACK, IT’S POINTLESS. SHUT THE HELL UP, I HAVE 50,000 THINGS TO DO STILL.”
They won’t listen to you and will still give you idiotic comments like “That scene isn’t necessary,” or “That doesn’t work for the story.” Don’t listen. They didn’t listen to you either when you told them you didn’t need any feedback.
ROUGH CUT
Rough sound, rough picture, temp score, story is coming together a bit more, scenes are in place.
Audience:
People who have edited films before are good here, and I mean A LOT of films. People who have only edited a few won’t really have great input about shaping scenes. But anyone who understands the genre you’re working in can give you some idea of tension or comedy in each scene, and if they’re playing well yet.
At this point you want feedback about scene structure and cuts NOT ABOUT STORY. And you will tell this to your audience and they still won’t listen… so you don’t need to listen to them either. If their comments aren’t “I didn’t understand what was happening in that scene,” or “Where did that character go in the middle of that scene?” or “The joke doesn’t quite play right in that scene,” then DON’T LISTEN.
SEMI-ROUGH CUT
Rough sound, rough picture, temp score, story is in place, and scenes should be in place.
Audience:
Might be good to invite your writer friends over for this one, and people who generally like the genre you’re working in. If you’re making a movie with the same tone as “The Office” or “Parks and Recreation” and the writer you’ve invited can’t stand those shows, guess what? Yep, they really won’t know how to help you.
You can tell people you want feedback “for reals” here. But be aware, the things they have problems with usually aren’t the actual problem… It’s what is leading up to what they consider the problem to be that is the actual problem (The scenes prior, that were supposed to set up the things they’re having issues with. Make sense?)
It’s ok to listen to them, unless they say, “Picture looks like hell, or the music is terrible, or I couldn’t hear what they were saying.” Duh.
ALMOST DONE ROUGH CUT
Picture “lock”, sound close to done, permanent music, story is all there, scenes are working, but you want to find last minute details to fix.
Audience:
Everyone who hasn’t seen the film yet. Can be both industry people and non-industry. Can be people who both like and dislike the genre. Listen to EVERYTHING that everyone says, doesn’t mean you’re going to use it, but it’s ALL helpful.
These days you can linger in this stage for a very long time as HD has made it so you don’t have to technically EVER lock picture with any major trouble. I have it even easier than most, as my husband is Joe Kraemer, film composer extraordinaire, and he also worked in post sound for 10 years and does all my sound. Ok, he’s crabby when I ask him to do it 20x, but he still does it for me.
Here you’ll want to really make sure things are working to their best potential. This is usually right before you send out screeners to festivals.
And you still have time to do some tweaking before you actually screen at a festival, so don’t stress out.
“LEAKED” ROUGH CUT
Locked picture, great sound, great music, everything should be working as best as you can get it.
Audience:
Industry and friends who can help you gets jobs, reps, press, or festivals.
This is a screening where you tell everyone “It’s not done yet, but we’re letting a couple people see it for last minute issues.” No, you don’t really want any feedback, but it can never hurt, who knows if someone will have a great little fix that will really make something that much better. If they’re telling you story issues at this point, or casting problems, which they will, don’t listen.
Also, this is really just a screening for people who can help you. Could be cast and crew who will get excited about it and tell their reps about it. Could be your agents and managers and your reps. Could be people who are connected to other jobs, producers, or press.
FAKE ROUGH CUT
Everything is done and you’re not going to change anything, but you have some issues you can’t fix, and you want to lower people’s expectations.
Audience:
The planet.
I’ve seen people label their film a rough cut to do this for festivals, doesn’t always work, but hey, people do it. I’ve also seen people allude to this in their intro to the film before screening at major festivals. I don’t advise this, but hey, if you’re desperate and you hate your film, what are you gonna do but try and give it the best shot possible, I guess.
FINAL NOTE:
Be sure you stagger the smart people you know throughout your rough cut process. Save people for stages where they can be the most helpful, and don’t take any of it personally, you know, unless they say, “I hate you and your film.”
