Just got home from the premier screening for the Santa Rosa 48 hour film project, where our latest short film screened with 12 other teams to a sold out audience. It really reminded me just how important seeing your work with an audience is.
This film is a really strange one. Our stuff tends to lean towards the absurd, but this time we got the "fantasy" genre so it pushed us into the surreal. I really didn't know how it would go over with the audience at all, especially not after editing it - I was just too close to it.
The audience loved it though, and laughed throughout - I think we got the best crowd reaction of the night. The thing was about halfway through I realized I was laughing too - at stuff that I knew was coming, had seen a hundred times, and that just a few days earlier had seemed like it maybe wasn't working like I'd hoped. It's amazing how much being in the middle of an audience like that can change your perception of what you're watching - even if it's your own work. It's also raises some interesting thoughts about the fact that we make the majority of the creative decisions on our films in isolation, or at least well outside of the context the audience will experience them in, as even screening for just a few people isn't the same as 200 people in a darkened theater.
It was also a reminder of what I like about the 48HFP. One week ago this film didn't exist, not even in concept. Tonight we premiered it for an appreciative audience in a sold-out theater. Where else can you get that kind of immediate unfiltered feedback on your work?
This film is a really strange one. Our stuff tends to lean towards the absurd, but this time we got the "fantasy" genre so it pushed us into the surreal. I really didn't know how it would go over with the audience at all, especially not after editing it - I was just too close to it.
The audience loved it though, and laughed throughout - I think we got the best crowd reaction of the night. The thing was about halfway through I realized I was laughing too - at stuff that I knew was coming, had seen a hundred times, and that just a few days earlier had seemed like it maybe wasn't working like I'd hoped. It's amazing how much being in the middle of an audience like that can change your perception of what you're watching - even if it's your own work. It's also raises some interesting thoughts about the fact that we make the majority of the creative decisions on our films in isolation, or at least well outside of the context the audience will experience them in, as even screening for just a few people isn't the same as 200 people in a darkened theater.
It was also a reminder of what I like about the 48HFP. One week ago this film didn't exist, not even in concept. Tonight we premiered it for an appreciative audience in a sold-out theater. Where else can you get that kind of immediate unfiltered feedback on your work?
