Yesterday, I screened Volcano Girl in a really comfortable, home-y environment for one of our Supporters and her son’s graduation party. So there were about 25 people watching it in a living room.
And I was more nervous for that screening than I was for the 350 person screening on the USC campus.
Here’s why…
1. My 13 minute movie was competing with 3 of the cutest children who apparently all needed their mommy right when the movie started.
2. The tv screening ratio did not show the whole screen (why??) so about a 5th of the movie was cut off. (don’t worry, we clicked through the ratio options while the movie was still playing…ugh)
3. “Turn it up” was yelled a few times.
4. They didn’t laugh at all of the jokes.
5. Someone’s phone rang and she picked it up…
6. It was a bright room, so you could barely see the screen.
7. I saw people looking at each other, looking around, grabbing for their drinks and food — all normal things you would do at a party, and now they were forced to stare at a screen.
8. An entire conversation was had during the last 30 seconds of the movie, and I don’t know how anyone could hear what was going on…
There you have it — talk about a filmmaker’s worst nightmare!! But somehow people got the movie and came up to me after so excited to talk about it!
All I could think was, “Really? You got what we were trying to do??” Neat!
I was a mess with nerves while watching the movie, and it’s because I could literally see the audiences’ reactions. No filmmaker should ever have to sit through that… Give me a dark room and a huge screen any day. That’s the environment I love!
There are 2 comments on this post
HAHA! So awesome! My mom used to make me do monologues in front of parties with screaming children. I totally understand how you feel! Movies should be shown on dark quiet rooms so they can fullyapppreciate what you've done!
Feeling your pain! Loving the blog. Keep at it, my friend.
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