sundance and beyond

with the sundance cut out the door, we watched the rough cut all the way through with a small-ish audience, to get a fresh view of it.

man, what a disappointment.

some of it was good. some of it mediocre. some of it was agonizingly slow. so i immediately sent an email to several people to whom i had sent dvd's of the rough cut, apologizing in advance for the slow sections. which was silly. one of the actors, who is also a good friend, called and told me not to apologize in advance. he's right, of course, but i was worried people would think i thought this was a great cut. this is a very neurotic point of view, i admit.

so i immediately made a page of notes, and Editor did as well. made me feel better knowing i was doing something to rectify the film's failings.

but i was also thinking, 'dang, blew my chances at sundance by sending them a crap cut.'

but then other people who had seen the rough cut called and emailed me to tell me that it was good, and funny. not perfect, obviously. but not bad. so i'm feeling better.

we made some major cuts on a few areas that needed work. and now we need to watch the thing all the way through and see if those changes 'worked.'

i really have no sense of how well it's working. on the funny stuff, i laugh in anticipation or have ceased to laugh altogether because i've seen it so often that it's just not spontaneously funny anymore. the editor has shown it repeatedly to friends, and has consistently gotten good reports and lots of laughs. so i feel better about that, and about the reactions of other people who have weighed in.

but we have deadlines coming up for other festivals this month, and i really want to send out the best rough cut i can send.

i have no pithy way to end this post.