On a Scale Of One To Seven

Down by the river, right on the bank, east of my place is a movie theater the name of which I don't know.


Producer Sergey Livnev, Marius and I piled into a car and went over there at about 3:30 for a 4pm test screening. The lobby was filled with the chosen demographic (18-25). Marius and I took seats in the back until everyone was let in. Once everyone was settled, the head of the research company took the stage and told the assembly that they would be seeing a cut of a new movie still in post production, without visual effects, with temporary score, etc., etc. And that they would be asked to fill out cards after the screening.


The lights went down. The movie played. People laughed. Interestingly, the girls seemed to be enjoying it more than the guys. I only say that because the movie is so silly and often slapsticky, which is often thought of as being more of a dude's domain. So we're not sure what to make of it.



After the lights came back up, the research group hurredly passed out the questionairres and pencils. But not those short little stubby pencils we use in the states. What's the deal with those?

Sergey, Marius and I retreated to the cafe' adjacent to the theater to await the first wave of cards.


Joined by the head of the research group, the mood was good. As I said, people laughed. And of course it always happens with comedies that some of the jokes you thought were dead locks go nowhere and some of the ones you never expected land with such concussive force that it rocks the theater. It's always a surprise.

The other thing you know about comedies is that if you lose the audience for five minutes it takes another ten to get them back. Comedies are unique that way. It's not about fast or slow; it's about the rhythm.


So we sat there as the research group guy read off the numbers. One, you hate it. Seven, it's the greatest thing since sliced butabrata. We got consistent sixes. Yes there were a couple of sevens. And even one or two ones. The ones said it was disgusting to make a comedy on the back of such patently tragic events. Charlie Chaplin and Mel Brooks would disagree. But it doesn't matter because when analyzing the comments you always throw out the sevens and the ones anyway. The extremes are of no use in marketing.



The general consensus is that we're good through the first act. There's a rhythm change in the middle of the 2nd act that we need to fix. And the 3rd act is right on track. So overall we're in great shape. On April 17 we'll open wide on 500 screens across Russia.