Review By Vincent Pereira

Having sat through the test screening last night, I think I can SOMEWHAT appreciate the purpose of test audiences - I don't think it's so much to SPECIFICALLY dictate what stays and goes from a film, but rather to get a feel for how the film plays overall to an audience. In the end, you are making a work of art that is to be seen by an audience - it's not going to be locked up in some museum only to be seen by few. It is in essense POP ART, and after spending 5-6 months cutting the film in a digital format and watching it on low-resolution videotape by yourself or with maybe a few associates and co-workers, it kind of becomes hard to be objective. Having watched the film myself several times, scenes that seemed to go TOO QUICKLY on video played entirely different up on a big screen on film in front of an audience - in several places, I didn't neccessarily see lines or scenes that needed to be cut, but I did notice many cuts between SHOTS that could be trimmed - that is, the specific edits connecting the shots themselves could be tightened up. I think this type of editing alone will help clear up many of the 'pacing' issues brought up in those AICN reviews, without losing actual content. I think that's the real value of test audiences - not listening to individual people telling you how best to make it the perfect film for them SPECIFICALLY, but seeing how the film actually plays on film in front of an audience.