EDIT: I just wanted to thank Jacques and the Mark Twain House once more for having us at their event! We all had a great time and it was a big help towards making this a better film!
After getting just under 3 hours of sleep the night before, it seemed like a rough cut of the first 20 minutes of the film was just about ready last Saturday for a screening at The Mark Twain House and Museum.
I woke up with a few quick tweaks that still needed to be done, but of course that ended up taking juuuusssst long enough to be running late for the 2:30 tour we intended to go on. But that was ok, the actual event itself didn’t start until 4! Plenty of time. I made a few more tweaks and then set the project to render and compress for DVD. Mike was the one who pointed out my computer was telling me it would take 6 HOURS for the process to finish!
In a panic we brainstormed solutions, everything from exporting a data file and bringing a laptop to just bringing my whole computer there. Ultimately, we ended up exporting a standard def quicktime which we threw on a flashdrive and also burned onto a DVD. The DVD was plan A, but as burned discs can often be glitchy we brought the flashdrive and Joe’s laptop as plan B.
We got to the the event a little late, but they were having A/V problems of their own so they were running late too. When we arrived, authors Don Borchert and Joe R. Lansdale were still speaking for the panel. We tested playing the movie and quickly found the DVD would not work.
When it came time for the screening, it was Joe who saved the day with his laptop (the one that was already hooked up to the projector had no way of playing Quicktime files). We plugged it in and got the film to play!
Screening it in front of an audience was nerve-wracking. Mike and I hid in the back of the auditorium, paying close attention to every reaction the audience had. Overall I was pleasantly surprised! There was more laughing at our jokes than I had hoped for, including laughs at parts I didn’t expect. On the flipside, there was also dead silence at some parts that were supposed to be funny — apparently jokes about pedophilia don’t really fly… who knew?
I really appreciate everyone who came out to show their support — you guys rock! And big thanks to Rob Young for taking these pics! As nervous as I was, I think it went really well for a test screening and I’m looking forward to having more audience tests as the film comes together. In the meantime, I’ll be finishing the rough cut!
We also previewed a rough trailer, which went over really well. It will soon be finalized and released to the world!
Oh and we got a quick mention on WTNH News! I thought that was pretty cool… it starts at 2:20