Audience testing can destroy a movie, but can also make it, writes Clive Hopkins.

June 28, 2007

Audience testing can destroy a movie, but can also make it, writes Clive Hopkins.

There's a true story, as told by a friend of mine who is a film editor and who worked as an assistant on the Keanu Reeves movie Chain Reaction. The editing team spent many months slaving over the footage, making the best possible movie they could from what they had.

Then the film was tested on filmgoers who afterwards were asked to fill in a questionnaire on what they thought about it. One of the questions was: Did you think that the star was on-screen a) too much, b) about the right amount, or c) not enough?

Now, you need to know that this audience was not a random cross-section of the movie-going public. This audience was selected on the basis they had seen and enjoyed all recent films starring Keanu Reeves. Want to take a wild guess at what answer they went for? Yes, it was back to the drawing board for our gallant editing team, to re-edit the film so that the star appeared on screen more often. We'll never know whether this made for a better film, but it certainly makes you wonder about that adage that there's no such thing as a stupid question.

Audience testing of films is almost as old as the movie industry itself and was reputedly invented by the silent movie actor and director Harold Lloyd in 1919. In Australia, though, it's a relative newcomer.

Pete Wilson, the director of the Sydney audience testing consultancy Movie Measure, has been testing films for the Australian market for almost 10 years, and now handles six to eight eight homegrown pictures annually.

Movie Measure offers two distinct testing services for filmmakers: the creative test and the marketing, or big-audience, test. A creative test usually takes place before the visual side of the editing is complete, and when sound elements such as the music may be deliberately temporary.

Wilson explains the process. "Typically, four groups of eight people, who are close demographically to the target audience, are shown the movie, and then we have an open-ended discussion with them about it. We'll ask them a range of questions, about things like character development, music, plot comprehension, pacing - and the ending."

The idea is to have a frank and honest appraisal of what they've seen, and to feed that back to the filmmakers.

In a big-audience test, the film is much closer to being finished. It is shown to an audience of 150 to 200 people, who are asked to fill in a questionnaire. Some questions require a response from a range of provided answers, others require the viewers to write their own response. "We never tell filmmakers what to do with the results," says Wilson. "Of course, if you have a turd to begin with, there's no point in polishing it, but if you can improve a good film by 10 or 15 per cent then you're getting something out of the process."

In Australia big-audience screenings are used primarily for decisions about the marketing of a film, but in Hollywood they have a bad name because test scores can be used by the studios to bludgeon filmmakers into

re-editing and even reshooting films. The prize for doing so, of course, is that the studio will use its financial muscle to open a film on many screens, and promote it heavily. If the filmmakers do not comply, they face the threat of a limited release for their film or that it will go straight to DVD. After going through this testing and reshooting process, Mark Christopher's 1998 movie 54, set in New York's legendary 1970s nightclub Studio 54, is said to be unrecognisable as the film he scripted.

The question that is given the most weight in the testing process is: "Would you recommend this film to your friends and family?" The only responses of interest are the ones marked "definitely". But for some films, even this most innocuous of questions can be loaded.

David Fincher's 1995 film Seven apparently scored badly in this regard, but was nonetheless released unchanged and achieved considerable box office success. Perhaps asking test viewers if they would recommend such a dark and disturbing film was really asking them about their view of themselves, rather than their view on what they had just seen. Luckily, the filmmakers had the confidence to ignore the test results and the film found its audience.

Another problem seems to be testing films on the wrong audience. In Peter Biskind's book Down and Dirty Pictures, on Miramax Pictures and independent film, he recounts a test screening of James Mangold's 1997 film Cop Land. The film features a great performance by Sylvester Stallone, playing brilliantly against type as a slow-witted local cop. The audience, however, apparently marched into the screening chanting "Rocky, Rocky". Unsurprisingly, it didn't test well.

Despite the excesses of the system, it is encouraging that Australian filmmakers are catching on to audience testing. It is a belated admission that films have to be made for an audience beyond the filmmakers' friends and family. And it has been helped by the Film Finance Corporation's decision to set aside funds to allow for testing of films in which it has invested.Ultimately, though, perhaps all audience testing is doomed to failure - because while we might have a strong idea of what we'd like to see, what we really want is something that we never imagined we wanted to see. And no questionnaire is ever going to resolve that conundrum.

As the industrialist Henry Ford is reputed to have said: "If I'd asked the people what they wanted, I would have ended up making faster horses."

Shilpa redefined as international Sita

Shilpa redefined as international Sita
IndiaGlitz [Tuesday, June 19, 2007]

This Bollywood diva is surely working hard on a image makeover ever since she’s got the much needed impetus from the upsurge racial controversy which made her an overnight star in UK.

Now even Hollywood is wooing her, Shilpa has bagged a role opposite Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves where she’s playing Sita in “Hanuman” which is being produced by a US based Gujarathi entrepreneur Uru Patel.

After considering a number of top-notch leading ladies, including Aishwarya Rai, for the part of Sita , Patel has finally zeroed in on Shilpa for the coveted part.

Hollywood star Keanu Reeves was a sure choice for playing Ram because of his angelic face and Shilpa Shetty bagged the role of Sita because of her growing international popularity.

No Watchmen for Keanu, but maybe for Cusack

Actor Keanu Reeves has declined an offered part in the new Watchmen film, but John Cusack would be happy to step into the breach.

According to Club Keanu, Keanu Reeves' manager has confirmed that Keanu Reeves was offered a role in Zack Snyder's "Watchmen," but that he turned it down. Now, however, John Cusack tells MTV he would love to be a part of the film.

"I haven't read the script nor have I ever met Mr. Snyder," said Cusack. "I thought that was a really, really cool comic. I'm into it. But, you know, we have to talk to Zack's representatives. Warner Bros. might want Ashton Kutcher."

Cusack can next be seen in "1408," opening June 22.

"Watchmen," created by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, was released as a 12-issue comic book in 1986 and is one of the most critically acclaimed series in the genre. The comic is a crime-conspiracy story that provided the first realistic look at the behind-the-heroics lives of superhero archetypes.

Ryan Anthony

6/15/2007
Source: SuperHeroHype

Kirstin Pierce ("Studio 60") has joined to Night Watch

Kirstin Pierce ("Studio 60") has joined the cast of Fox Searchlight's crime thriller "Night Watch," starring Forest Whitaker, Keanu Reeves and Jay Mohr. She will play the wife of Jay Mohr's character.

Amaury Nolasco Joins Night Watch

Yet another actor has been tacked onto the cast of Night Watch. According to Variety, Amaury Nolasco will be appearing in the Keanu Reeves cop thriller. The actor also stars on Fox's Prison Break. He will next be seen in Transformers.

Night Watch revolves around a veteran LAPD officer (Reeves), who turned to the bottle after his wife's death. He is framed by his former mentor (Whitaker) in the murder of a fellow officer.

David Ayer, the writer of Training Day, will be directing. Expect the film sometime later this year.

K-Fed Not Cast In Keanu Flick

Kevin Federline has made news this week with stories circulating that the ex-Mr. Britney Spears was due to star in a new movie opposite Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker.

The movie, Night Watch, is being made by Fox Searchlight with a rep telling Usmagazine.com that, “This is not true, Kevin Federline was not cast.”

However, the rep did confirm that he was considered for the small role “but it didn’t work out due to his availability and our shooting schedule, and someone else was cast