#cosjournal

NKTLDK/FILM ENTRY #5

So “Nozomi Killed the Last Divine Kibou” is done. Post-production work is complete. The only thing thing left is some papers that need to be signed for liability and right to use image yaddy yaddy yadda ireallyneedtogetsomeoneelsetodothepaperworkformeeventually-type things that I dread but it’s part of the game so I’m gonna game it but something I’ve been experimenting with is the use of test audience to gauge reactions.

The hardest thing for me is to view the project objectively. I know every single nuance designed into the film. I know the story inside out, from character motivation to their often unsaid backstory, there is literally no one who knows this movie better than I do and thats simply cause the majority of the design of the project was by me. I won’t say entirety though, each actor brings their own interpretation of their role and the story and their acting is the end result of that. They’ll ask you what you think of a take and I look at it objectively and simply judge whether it works or not. They may feel like they could’ve done better but that’s simply the nature of art. There’s a lot of things about this one I feel could’ve been done better but oh well. Some of the actors and crew members have viewed the final project*. Even though I value their opinions of the short film, I don’t rely on them in the entirety because like me, they simply know too much so that’s where the test audiences come from.

Once again I called on a wide variety of people of people to view it. Some are the type that’d call themselves cinephiles, others think Avengers is the best movie ever and everyone in between. My goal was to create a project that has some artistic basis but at the same time wide reach. Someone who has mastered that is Christopher Nolan. His movies are very approachable and creative but it’s not obsessed with being so artistic that it loses viewers. It’s probably why he is one of the few directors today whose name alone will sell movie tickets, it’s why he’s able to get such massive funding for his original projects when every other studio is trying to play it safe with sequels and remakes that already have a following. I wanted to do just that. It’s a samurai/ninja type action movie and honestly who doesn’t like that?!

It is artsy. It’s black and white. I’m pretty sure I revealed it in a previous post but it’s a product of technical error than a creative decision which is actually the most common thing people who don’t do art don’t know about art. I’m ok with it. The story is a lot more vague than I wanted it to be. This is due to certain scenes not running as long as I hoped and cutting down lines. A lot of expository lines were cut and my biggest worry was that it may have been too much. I don’t want people to watch it and think “ok…” in a legit way, I hope that is arouses question and thought but about the themes and messages involved, not the entirety of the movie itself. I don’t want it to be another nonsensical art movie and I just label it “abstract”. Lines were cut, some were forgotten and I overviewed it. Filming is over so I have to work with what I got. It’s not exactly the project I imagined when I was writing the script and designing the process but it’s close enough. That’s just the process but does it stay true to what it was about. I ramble sometimes (everyone who reads this blog knows) and my ADD mind makes it hard to follow, I don’t want this movie to be a visual rambling. Once again the test audience is the only way I know if it’s successful.

The idea is that they give me honest feedback and if enough complaints were made about a certain aspect of the movie, than that aspect is a weakness. I then determine if I can fix it or not. What I showed was the most polished version of the movie. The actor and crew feedback definitely had some common points of criticism and there were small changes made here and there and suggestions were implemented. What we’ll call the control group saw was what I felt was ready to be pushed out as a final product. Asking whether it’s good or not is a terrible question in my opinion. Number one even if you put out the worst thing, people will say it’s good not to crush your feeling. Which is good cause it just means people aren’t that terrible but as a way to systematically try to evaluate the project it’s awful. The most important pieces of information to me was the specific feedback.

Firstly I asked everyone “Did they get it?” and the answers were interesting. Some people got the gist of the story but were lost in the specifics. Others implemented their own assumptions to fill in those lost spaces. Others didn’t even care for the specifics and just understood it for the bigger picture. Everyone seems to get the general idea of the movie which is a relief because I really tried to create something that was little on expositions and more on a mood. Of course the story has to be understood to attain the right mood I was going for so the fact that as minimalistic the movie is at times, it worked in that aspect.

Because a lot of the plot based elements of the story didn’t have proper exposition, I didn’t know if the non-linear storytelling method would be confusing. I tried to ante up on visual storytelling with this one but I’m still very unexperienced when it comes to proper cinematic storytelling. I work hard and study it because it’s what I love to do but it’s all theory until you give it form. This is where things got kind of weird. It seems that some people got certain key story elements and others didn’t but it’s not consistent in what they got and what they didn’t get. Like the first half of the movie was confusing to some but to others the last half. Both parties were right on their assumptions when I asked them so I know the information was there but it seemed like there is a lot of ambiguity in the story where no one is able to catch all of it. I don’t think anyone understood all the elements. Even weirder is that it doesn’t seem to matter somehow? In my personal understanding of the project, I thought that all of what I construed as the basic points of the movie would have to be understood for it to be enjoyable and feel like a coherent story but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The basic idea/message/theme is well understood and any ambiguity doesn’t seem like a let down as far as the control group perceived but just another mystery in an already rather vague story. Which is unexpected.

There were changes made to the short due to the control group’s feedback which kind of gives me a bit more confidence in the group and myself as a filmmaker. There wasn’t any common point of criticism or trend that warranted anymore change so that’s that. It’s done. This week I really need to get the paperwork done and that’s the biggest hassle. Some people might get mad that they got they got filmed but have zero screen time.. but it is what it is. They got compensated. The next project has started but it might happen slow or quick, I don’t know.