I don't care if it is an orgy of death, there's still such a thing as a napkin.

Willow ,'Lies My Parents Told Me'


Buffista Movies 5: Development Hell  

A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.


§ ita § - Apr 25, 2006 12:44:20 pm PDT #1515 of 10001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

And Jessica cuts right to the heart of the issue.


Sean K - Apr 25, 2006 1:08:11 pm PDT #1516 of 10001
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

I'm not saying they're not very pretty.... I can appreciate that much about the show.

And it gave RDA something to wash the MacGuyver mullett out of everybody's brains.


Strega - Apr 25, 2006 1:48:22 pm PDT #1517 of 10001

I can't think of a single instance that I've heard of and know some of the details about where a test audience brought about an improved product.

That's not usually the goal, though.

I will bet money that lots of bad movies would be even worse without test audiences. But nobody cares, because even improved, they're still bad movies. That kind of process is going to tend to make bad things better, and good things worse.


Matt the Bruins fan - Apr 25, 2006 2:14:01 pm PDT #1518 of 10001
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand

Do Uwe Boll movies have test audiences? Because if there are movies out there that are worse than the versions of his movies that make it to the theaters, we should all Be Very Afraid.


Strega - Apr 25, 2006 3:35:11 pm PDT #1519 of 10001

Oh, oh! Yes, they do, and I hope those poor people got paid. Because originally Alone in the Dark had a different ending, and somehow that led to them adding captions or something that completely contradicted the visuals. And they added that extraordinarily long crawl at the beginning because when they tested it the first time, nobody understood what the hell was going on.

I don't think the crawl helped, really. But it did make the movie even funnier, so that's kind of an improvement.


Cashmere - Apr 25, 2006 3:43:33 pm PDT #1520 of 10001
Now tagless for your comfort.

I'm still holding a grudge against the test audience members who audibly gasped at Ralph Fiennes nude scenes at the end of Red Dragon. It was them that got some of the scenes...um...snipped.


Jessica - Apr 25, 2006 5:36:38 pm PDT #1521 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

Eh...I tend to assume that any reports of "we had to cut this scene because X's penis is too frighteningly large" are urban legends, until someone produces pictures to prove me wrong.

.

.

.

I'm waiting...


DavidS - Apr 25, 2006 6:35:32 pm PDT #1522 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

But I believe test audiences prefered getting the rich guy in the end.

I heard that Molly Ringwald pushed for the non-Ducky ending. I'm sure I read that in an interview when it came out.

Or, once again, I could be making shit up.


Sue - Apr 25, 2006 6:56:53 pm PDT #1523 of 10001
hip deep in pie

I heard that Molly Ringwald pushed for the non-Ducky ending. I'm sure I read that in an interview when it came out.

No, I heard the same thing. And that Some Kind of Wonderful was made to essentially right the PiP ending.


DawnK - Apr 25, 2006 7:42:36 pm PDT #1524 of 10001
giraffe mode

In some PiP kismet, it's the movie that Lorelai showed at April's birthday party on tonight's Gilmore Girls. Huh.