Successful Rough Cut Screening, Part 1

This two-part guide will explain how to conduct a successful rough cut screening with your nerves intact.

Who to Invite

There are three types of people you should show your rough cut to:  1) experts on the topic who serve as your advisors; 2) seasoned documentary professionals, and 3) people representative of your film’s target audience.

Each audience should be handled differently.  This guide is geared more toward showing your film to a group of everyday people who will likely want to see your film when it’s released.  But let me first say a word about the first two groups. Experts on your subject matter, including any advisors, should watch your documentary mid-post production with an eye out for accuracy and balance.  If you need to do some key fact checking, or if your essay-style doc depends on an argument that one of your advisors deems invalid, you’ll want to handle these problems now–before heading into the fine cut.

As for documentary professionals, including filmmakers, editors and story editors (consultants), this group of peers should watch your rough cut electronically (alone) or at their own special screening, so they don’t have to dumb down terms like “protagonist”, “story arc”, etc.  For your third group, roughly a dozen people who are representative of your documentary’s intended audience, your approach will require special care outlined in this article.

Where to Hold the Screening

For everyday people who will see your film, it’s fine to hold a screening in the living room of a friend who has agreed to host for you. In fact, a host is advisable, given that you will likely be a bundle of nerves.  Your job will be to listen (more on that later) so don’t burden yourself with the traditional tasks of hosting: taking coats, offering refreshments, clean up.

Questionnaire

Before your screening, write up a 1-2 page questionnaire that you will hand out to your guests directly after the screening.  An anonymous questionnaire will solicit people’s truest feelings; and they won’t have to worry about hurting your feelings. 

Begin the questionnaire with an open-ended question such as “What did you think of the film?”  For the second question, I like to ask, “What did you like about this film?” or “What’s working well in the film?”  Since people tend to focus on giving criticism and forget that you need to know what’s working well, it’s important to include this. 

And it’s also helpful for the filmmaker’s delicate ego to have positive feedback near the top of the questionnaire.  Ask how the film could be improved, and then ask about anything you are specifically concerned with, for example, “Do you like the music?”  “What did you think of the old man character?” “Did the film take too long to get going?”

Introducing the Film

First, thank your guests and let them know how valuable their feedback is. Explain that you need to know what’s working in the film as well as what’s not working. You want to know what they like about the film. Explain that you specifically want to know if there was anything in the cut that was confusing.

If there are any significant materials missing from the rough cut, let your audience know. For example, “We’re using temporary music and narration, not the final.” Or, “We’re going to shoot one more interview with an expert which doesn’t appear in this cut.” Explain that you haven’t finessed the edits or music.

Then stop. Many filmmakers over-apologize for the condition of their rough cut, and test audiences don’t want to hear it. They want to get on with the show!

Finally, tell your audience how long the cut is and inform them that immediately after the screening you will be handing out anonymous questionnaires. The questionnaires are designed to solicit their honest, first-impact impressions. They should use this quiet time to reflect, write and share their feedback on what worked and didn’t work. Ask them if there are any questions and then press play!

Stay tuned for Part 2, on how to cull and process audience feedback!