QC
Posted on December 12, 2008
My wife, Lori, generously donated 105 minutes of her precious time to watch the recent cut with me. I was under the delusion that it was the second to last cut, no more editing, graphics or sweetening required. Foolish.
This is the most crucial phase before release. Some call it audience/market testing, analysis, research. Others call it quality control.
Quality control. That means actuality observing, testing the product. It’s awful under controlled circumstances. But the best environment is in chaos. Watch it in front of a virgin audience. That’s agony.
Like Douglas Adams’ Ford said,”It’s like being drunk.” “What’s so bad about that?”, Arthur replied. “Ask a glass of water,” Ford responded.
I’ve never stood naked on the freeway in rush-hour traffic before. But, having an audience consume my work, is what I assume is a roughly analogous sensation.
Sequences, transitions, motifs, subtitles, dialogue, gags… There were so many moments I spent so much effort to construct. So many of them fell flat. I thought I was capable of more objective observation. I thought I knew the aesthetic and technical elements of media communication well and was a mastered artisan of the craft. How could I make so many rudimentary, amateur mistakes?
I know I’m being hard on myself. All of these slipped gears and popped clutch moments are easily fixed with a slower transition or an extra shot, removing a shot, choosing a different take, l-cut, audio drop, any one of a myriad of options.
I’ve got my panties all twisted up for two reasons. One: It’s just that there are several dozen of them. It will take me about eight hours between ten projects to correct, export, import, sync and remaster. The endurance needed for such mental calisthenics and contortions is not beyond me. I just want to spend it on other endeavors. Reason the second: so many were a direct result of my conscious, intended, direct, planned effort . For the result to be the exact opposite of my intentions… I thought I had already passed those tests.
Is this is what happens when you do it all, yourself?
I’ll fix it all this weekend.
That doesn’t mean that the film, the story, performances, editing, cinematography… the whole joie de vivre that the film inspires wasn’t translated and communicated. Oh, it kicked so much ass.
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