As I said I did two test screenings. The first was with very close to me creative partners and friends with whom I watched the film at our home and the other was organized with the help of Plamena Gerginova who at that time was working for the film department in NATIONAL PALACE OF CULTURE. She was very close to the project from its very beginning and she unfortunately wasn't able to help us during the production process bu she was very enthusiastic and eager to give us a hand and to invite us to make our official premier in the biggest cinema hall in the Balkans, the hall Number 1 in the NATIONAL PALACE OF CULTURE.
We managed to organize a really impressive test screening of the film, we invited around 100 people from all fields of life and with all kinds of years and interests. Very random group of people.
It is extremely tricky to do a test screening because it is very easy to slip and fall and totally lose the creative control and focus over the film as a whole. That's why during the test screenings for us it was very important to select the right questions for which answers we would use later to tweak here and there the film and to cut out some stuff or to add other details. However, we never asked detailed questions, we asked general questions in a printed questionnaire which was given to the audience after the screening. Questions like for example did the beginning of the film was interesting and engaging enough? Did the end of the film come at the right time with the right emotional and intellectual satisfaction? Did the chosen temporary music work for the film? About the dialogue, whether they found it authentic or on the nose, fake and pretentious or spontaneous and natural?
I have to clarify that in general Bulgarian audiences don't like Bulgarian films, they don't watch Bulgarian films and always the Bulgarians are mocking the Bulgarian films for their very bad acting, lack of story and especially about their extremely fake dialogues and even worse sound. There are many reasons why in general the Bulgarian public have lost their love and interest about the national films, but the main reason of course is the very weak and impotent Bulgarian film industry. We are joking that the Bulgarian film industry is the smartest mafia in the world, because they are getting big amount of money from the public fund, but for this budget they produce extremely bad and unwatchable films, most of which even don't get to the cinema or they have been shown once or twice here and there. A world class mafia and money launderers.
We did the screening, we got the filled questionnaires and we did a small cocktail party with the audience after all of the work was done.
My emotional experience was let's say in the comfort zone. I knew that this is not the final cut and that we were showing a work in progress material and not the finished film, so I was comfortable to show the film and to expose myself for the first time in front of the audience. Actually I have presented my short films in front of audiences before and it wasn't a brand new feeling but still it was very exciting to show my work of art finally in front of random people and to watch how they will react and interact with the story and the way it was narrated.
This screening happen in the beginning of the summer 2015. When I got home I sort of worked out the information and I made an excel table with all of the questions and I managed to select the most similar answers by counting them and by bringing them together and summarizing them too. I finally got a quite thorough table with the most common and identical answers. Which answers I took for consideration and later on I did some editing changes regarding and having in mind the answers from the test screening. Like for example most of the people found out that the final was dragging. However, here I was going in a very dangerous place, because first of all they were not watching the final film, but they watched, let's say 65-70 % of the film. Even I would put only 50 % because our original sound design and sound scape and music actually are a very important part of the film. Nevertheless I did the correction and cut some stuff here and there changed the final sequence, some other issues which were common also I tried to fix after the screening.
Another very interesting thing about the test screening was that there were totally opposite answers and opinions and suggestion about for example the same topic. Some people totally didn't like the temp music, others totally loved it, some people disliked our leading actress but others fell in love with her performance. Some hated the editing style of the film, however other loved only the editing of the film. That's why probably is very true the statement that the only important audience's opinion is the opinion of the filmmaker who is making the film.
I locked the final cut and the final version of the film editing at the end of July 2015. So after more than 11 months of working I got the film edited. However, what was missing actually was the sound and the music and the color correction. Parts which were crucial for NoOne.
Read Chapter 27
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