March 7 - Producer Notes

So we had a screening this past weekend. Things went well I guess. But it was with people that are very close to the film... the producers, writer and myself. So no BIG revelations. That'll probably come next week for the first screening for 'industry professionals'. When screening for them, there are no excuses. The general audience doesn't care how a shot took to set up, or why the sound is poor. The audience just wants to be entertained.... no excuses.

Back to the weekend screening. I received their notes today. Some are fixable issues, some not. Some I agree with, others I don't. Even if I do disagree with a note or comment, it's worth examining as if there is one person with that feeling, there will be many. And often, the note is about something else... depending on the writer of the notes.

So I will incorporate those comments as best I can... even if I disagree at the time. It's worth trying to do ALL the notes, as you never know what else it may trigger. In todays digital editing world, it's so easy to put it back the way it was, so why not experiment. Also, it's interesting to see the different things that people take notice of; producer notes are generally different from writer notes for example. I noticed the producer commenting 'copyright' issues, and the witer notices every change in the dialogue. It's just their focus is different from each other... and me. But each view is valid.

As they say, a film is written three times; once by the writer before shooting, once by the directors and actors whilst in production, and finally in editing.