The Chair (2014) s01e09 Episode Script

Phil: You produced a movie in pre-pro.
You go into shooting, and it's like hunting and gathering.
You're grabbing as much as you can.
And then when you go into post, that's when you build your movie.
I have to edit it.
My concern is he gets so in the hole and so exhausted and that he's just kind of over it.
Are you gonna change their looks a little bit? When the three of them are right there like that, they look kind of similar.
It is two days after we wrapped the movie.
I'm excited to cut it.
This is really when the movie starts.
It's on page 27.
That's a long time before the movie starts.
Lauren: He's the type of person that literally can't function when he's got like a project hanging over his head.
I'll just usurp you right now 'cause I'm the director.
No, you're not usurping me.
This is a suggestion.
This is going to be one take in the edit.
Chris: You have final cut.
You can do whatever you want.
So when they come see the movie and they think its dog shit, they're gonna ask you, "Why is it dog shit?" I'm happy, but it's not over.
Neal: When shooting finishes on a movie, you have a wrap party with all the people that were involved in the production, and everybody closes up, and you toast and have a beer, and the kids from "Hollidaysburg" turn on a fog machine and have a good time and say, "We did it, guys.
We made the movie.
We shot the movie.
" And it becomes a very lonely process because it's really ideally just a director and an editor in a room quietly together.
So, weirdly, you spent a lot more time in terms of literal time in a room with your editor than you ever do with your director of photography or your costume designer.
It's an investigation.
You're finding out what you got.
'Cause you think you know what you got on the day on your camera and on your sound equipment, et cetera, and then you get in the room and you realize what you're missing which there's always stuff missing sometimes lots of stuff missing what you got too much of and, "Gosh, we're not even gonna use that scene, but we spent two days shooting it," and I think what you're really doing is you're getting in there and trying to craft a story.
Lauren: I mean, I'm ready.
Who's pressing play? - I'll do it.
- Okay.
Jorie: I won't take no for an answer, Scott.
(Lauren laughs) What? Jorie: Isn't it fucked What?! You put that there too? - Jorie: Whoo! - (Shane laughs) I know you want to do me, Scott.
I really don't, and you're really racist.
Oh, my God.
- Ew, God, that's so disgusting.
- Shane: You wanted it.
(indistinct talking onscreen) - Seriously, just poop already! - I'm trying! - Cool, right? - Oh, my God, - how did we even get in here? - I got connections Gonna throw on some of that Japanese fucking music.
(gasps) Holy Zachary Quinto's eyebrows! She's learning! (Shane chuckles) (music playing) (Shane and Lauren cheering) First of all, considering it's been a week, it looks it's, like, amazing.
I mean let's just, like I mean, it looks like a movie.
I'm very excited.
Here's my biggest overall note.
The way it is right now, it's not Scott and Tori's movie.
It's Janie and Joel's movie.
You get that voiceover from her at the top, and we're like, "It's her.
" You don't see her.
We don't hear her.
We have like two or three scenes of Joel and Janie.
How long is it if you go from the top till we get to Scott and Tori? When do you meet them? It's 24 minutes, 24 and a half.
I think I have a way that we can kind of cheat it and fix it, and it's gonna be a big cut, but I just wanted to see it.
You can tell me you hate it.
The gym scene right now, other than it just being funny, the only information that we get from that is that there's a party tonight.
I think if we do a cut just take that scene out I honestly don't even think you're gonna miss it.
I would just like to try.
Can we play around that? - We can try.
- Lauren: We can try it.
Shane: I don't wanna do that right now.
Lauren: Why can't we do it right now? Because I want to go through I want to talk more about the movie.
I don't wanna just jump into taking out a huge scene.
Lauren: But that's, that's like I thought you didn't want to do you wanted do more nitty-gritty later.
Or tomorrow, I mean.
Can we talk more about the movie and like not just about one thing? Well, I think it's I mean, that's my biggest note.
You wanted me to watch this movie as an experience of just watching it and taking it in, and that's honestly what I did.
Like, I think that there's some some of the scenes could be tightened up.
I have some ideas of that sort of stuff which I want to go I'd like to spend the day sort of tomorrow doing that, but it's really I mean, it's great.
It's really good.
This is all positive.
No, I know.
I'm just saying I just disagree.
I think, I think the top I think all I don't even wanna go too far into it.
Lauren: If it doesn't work, it doesn't work.
I'm just asking to try something, which is a super easy simple cut.
I feel like that's why you're here for a couple of days, and I just felt like after we watched it, I'd rather, like, be excited and talk about the movie.
Like, just jumping into it being like, "This is the problem.
" No, but this is Shane, I am really excited.
I can't not say anything.
I'm not gonna sit here and just tell you like, "It's done, it's ready to go.
" Well, no, but what else do you like? I mean, fuck.
- Tell me shit you fucking like.
- It's great! I think it's a real We've been working our asses off on this shit on for a fucking week.
- You're not - And it's awesome.
I think it's really good.
It's really good, and you're not listening to me when I'm telling you it's really good.
No, you're like, "It's really great, it's really great.
Anyways" It's like, "Okay.
Well, what else did you like?" I told you everything.
I told you from the "fuck it list" on, it's really great.
And the whole time I was like, "I don't feel as invested as I'd like to in Scott and Tori, and l and I really think this the reason.
" It's really good.
All right, thank you.
Just fuck, I mean I mean, I believe I said that from the very top.
It was an afterthought.
It's fine.
Oh, my God, it is not an afterthought.
That's the way you hear it.
I'm very excited.
Lauren: You're not hardly talking to me right now.
I mean, can we talk about the movie? Can we talk about it? It's not fine until you talk to me.
It's not fine.
If you're so mad at me, talk to me.
If you're not, then talk to me.
(sighs) I don't know.
Anna: I want Beth to do the assembly and Charlie to do the movie.
And I think that's still a great that's gonna be a great thing for Beth and a great thing for us.
I mean, Beth has never done a feature.
So it would be quite a leap.
I feel like a lot of this process, people have been asking me to take big leaps on people's experience level and stuff.
Should we finagle with the beginning so we feel like we got something done, or should we just watch the whole thing? Victor: I would love to see it to assess it, like to just see where it's at, get a sense of the whole thing.
I recently saw like this is just going to be a little a few more scenes than I saw before, right? The thing I didn't attack yet is cutting down the dialogue on the breakup scene.
Anna: Yeah, that's a big one and that's - Beth: That's a big one, yeah.
- I think it's super overwritten.
I'm not happy with the writing, which was mine, and I am not happy with the performance.
So it was one of those things where I went in not liking the writing, and then the performance just made it worse and worse, and I just couldn't figure it out.
I couldn't figure out how to tell him to do it different.
Victor: I saw plenty of it that was good, though.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's just too long.
Beth: There is less coverage than I'm used to.
Sometimes it's hard to get things to work with just the amount of coverage I had, and I was talking to Josh, the producer.
He was talking about how in film, sometimes it's more important just to find the most emotional take.
Victor: I would focus on scene work rather than just cut on everyone's line, like it's like cut, line, cut, line, cut, line.
I wanna see more listening.
Chris: The editing can be very difficult for people to cut scenes out and to shrink scenes that they love down, and it's the hardest part.
For me, about giving them final cut is that you don't have the ability to force them or to sort of convince them they have to do it.
Here's what's annoying is your note they're gonna roll the tape back.
It's gonna go back to Chris Moore, and it's gonna go back to him saying that the first 25 minutes doesn't work 'cause Tori's not in it enough.
And it's gonna go to me saying, "I think that I want to do it this way.
" And it's gonna go to us filming, then it's gonna go to you, and it's gonna go back to, "Oh, wow, they edited, and the note was what Lauren said, which is the same note that Chris said.
" And then he's gonna say it on Thursday, and that's gonna be the whole thing.
"Well, Shane should have listened to Chris back in the table read.
" I get it.
That's the whole thing.
That's what was frustrating was that was the first note you went into is the one that you knew they were gonna use! No, I don't, Shane, because I'm not fucking thinking about the TV show.
- No, I'm not.
- It's not the TV show.
It's literally the entire experience.
Like, I haven't even thought about that since that day.
Truly have not thought about that, and then that was the one thing that was like and it's not a bad thing.
Ugh, then it's gonna cut to an interview and Chris Moore being like, - "That's what I said.
" - Oh, my God.
And what's the big deal? So you take a note.
Now you look like a director who can take a fucking note and that you can compromise and people will want to work with you.
You are very confused.
You think notes are negative.
You think that's gonna make you look bad, which it does not.
- That's the disconnect right now.
- Yeah, but - It doesn't make you look bad.
- It's annoying.
I know it doesn't make me look bad, but it's annoying because (groans) Like, that moment should have been the moment where it made me - where I look good and we look good! - You did look good! You do.
It does.
You do.
It does.
All right.
It does, and you are you are so wrong if you think it doesn't.
You're just wrong.
You know, it's not just you.
This is a product of my work as well, and I think it's really great.
And I know you think this is all about you and directing, but it's all about me and fucking producing, too, and I think it's fucking great, and I would and I am very cognizant of the fact that this is very much indicative of my work as well.
So don't think this is just you thinking about, like, your movie and your big moment, because it's not just about you.
I know, which is why I'm surprised that you weren't more fucking excited.
Well, you are incorrect 'cause I'm very excited.
Okay.
Lauren: Let's just move on, okay? But then it's like you turn around and make it look like I'm crazy, and I can't take a note and I'm this director that can't take a note when literally it has nothing to do with that.
- Okay.
- It's just that I wanted to talk about how good the movie was with somebody because I haven't been able to talk about it with anybody.
So can we talk about it? Yeah.
Can we can we do that? - Yes.
- Okay.
I just think it's funny and I think that its way more romantic than I was expecting, which I'm happy about.
Well, I think you were nervous, too, about the end being too sappy, and I don't feel that way at all.
I think the end I think the last 30 minutes is incredibly sappy, but I think we have enough big jokes that it's fine.
There's funny moments.
I think it's actually gonna get good reviews.
I think it's really good, way better than I thought it was gonna be.
You think it's better than you thought it was gonna be? I did not like the script originally.
I did not like Dan's version of the script.
I think everybody's aware of that.
I thought that it got to a place where we worked together and I think I think it's really good.
I think there's a story.
There wasn't really a story before.
And I think now there's a huge story.
I can't wait to watch it with an audience.
I think they're gonna freak the fuck out.
I'm gonna shave my head.
It's gonna be good.
We have to win or else I'm gonna look like a delusional, crazy asshole.
I'm on prototype six right now.
I'm really looking forward to when I have actual crushes.
You have four jokes here.
And you only need one.
I know.
I know! So you're gonna have you know, you're gonna kill some darlings.
Victor: There's a lot of work to be done.
Anna: Yeah, and we're gonna have to work really hard.
- Yeah, and very quickly.
- Every day.
That is a very short schedule for post.
Maybe we should just concentrate on her getting the assembly up.
10 scenes we'll fill in today and tomorrow and Saturday.
I just need to leave her alone.
So there's no point in me even being here.
We should go do touristy things and let her do those 10 scenes.
What's kind of nice is that Charlie hasn't seen anything.
- So we're getting a whole - Fresh eyes.
new set of fresh eyes.
- He doesn't know the actors at all.
- No.
- He doesn't know anything.
- He doesn't know anything.
- So he's gonna be it's really - Just the script, yeah.
It's the most amazing thing to have a pair of fresh eyes in an edit where they can they just have opinions that you don't have 'cause you're so close to it.
I kind of thought that this week would be way more to I don't know, I was like having that magical-thinking denial thing where I was like, "No, no, I'm just gonna sleep constantly.
" I have been sleeping I have gotten a lot of sleep in the last two days, but I thought that it would just be like me and Victor holding hands and skipping and going to museums.
(Victor laughs) That's really what I wanted.
- Sounds pretty nice, I gotta say.
- Yeah.
Anna Bueller needs a day off.
Anna Bueller needs a day off! Two round trip, yeah.
Woman: That'll be $10.
Victor: Okay.
Old-timey transpo.
This is great, this is like a check-off of our touristy Totally.
- Oh! - Look at that.
Oh, my God.
We sort of wrapped up in Pittsburgh, and I gotta say, Pittsburgh over-delivered on what I was expecting.
Pittsburgh is really a place where it's beautiful.
It has everything there, and these guys ultimately really got a lot of production value for their movies.
You can't write that into a business plan and say, "Hey, you're gonna get a shot like this.
" It's good people who work hard.
All the people that we met knew what they were doing.
It was way beyond our wildest imaginations.
Those kind of locations don't exist everywhere.
Lauren: Okay.
The screening of the rough cut is today.
We're very excited.
Shane: I think right now the movie's in a really good place.
I think it's really funny and really heartfelt and really different.
Lauren: And I'm really, really anxious.
Because after you know, obviously, he's seen it a million times.
I've seen it now several times, and I wanna get another point of view.
Hi.
Are you going home soon? After this.
It's gonna be very, very weird to go home.
I know.
Going back, and then we have to start working on my other stuff - that I don't wanna be working on.
- Right.
Your whole other thing is, like, what makes you special and unique.
Yeah, I know.
You'll see once we go through this whole mainstream, you know, potential studio route that, like, what you have is already much better, and you can just keep expanding upon it, do something that nobody's done yet.
Chris: So in shocking Shane fashion, he had a rough cut we were able to watch literally two weeks from shooting.
Lauren: All right, can we watch the movie, y'all? - Chris: Wait, there's a movie? - Yeah.
That's really fast to have a cut of a 90-minute movie.
So I went in relatively nervous because you see it that early and it sucks, and then you gotta tell him and then you're already at odds, and post-production's only been going on for two weeks.
I am so nervous right at this moment.
I just wanted to admit it to everybody.
It does not happen to me very often.
Why are you nervous? I'm really rooting for this movie.
I'm very excited.
Shane: Oh, my God, just made me nervous.
(laughter) Lauren: Well, it's it's we're it's a work in progress.
Don't give the speech.
I mean, I'm gonna give the speech now.
Now I gotta give the speech.
Guys, you know this is a work in progress, guys.
Sound effects, everything is temporary, guys.
Lauren: Temp, temp, temp, temp.
Corey: I don't understand like what we're watching it without a sound mix? How am I supposed to understand what I'm seeing? Lauren: Green screen.
Green screen.
- The green screen haven't - We want we want notes.
We want your opinions.
We want everything.
Corey: Thank you for not giving the speech.
Lauren: Yeah.
- (woman squeals) - (laughter) (Shane moaning) It's like the wall's eating my penis! Woo-hoo! Yeah! Yeah! How long has it been since we wrapped this movie? - A week and a half or something? - No, it's two weeks.
- It's two weeks? - Two weeks.
To both of your credit, it's a really solid first cut of the film.
It's usually not this easy to see something this quickly.
So that's really impressive.
Thank you.
I mean my thing I would say is, I wouldn't actually spend a whole lot of time on this cutting, tightening things up right now.
What you'd be better off doing is putting all the energy into all the holes right now, the VFX, the credit sequence.
I was really amazed by the balance.
The balance is really well done.
That was my biggest fear the whole time was like, "Oh, I'm gonna have all these jokes, and I'm gonna be into the characters.
And then he's gonna smack me for caring, and I'm gonna be pissed," you know.
And the balance is really good, and what I worry about is if you pull it apart and start looking at them scene-by-scene right now, somehow you can break apart the magic of what happened.
And it's that sort of first instinct thing, right? It's, like, with your first instinct in the editing room, whatever they were, the three of you guys together, at least from my point of view worked really well.
I'm really proud, I guess is the right word, and happy for you guys.
All you have right now is time.
The question is what are you gonna spend your time on? If you start getting in with the scalpel and you still have this big things that haven't been done yet that you know we're gonna be done we know we're never showing the movie to a real audience with green screen.
We know we're never showing the movie without a credit sequence.
Why don't we spend our time on getting all that shit even? You're at least making a decision this is the movie.
I think a lot of this is also gonna get dictated logistically by what you want to do right now, too, which is you're obviously leaving Pittsburgh today, right? You've been in the editing room after, what, five days of shooting.
You were there, so you've spent a lot of time on this.
So there's value to, I think, stepping away from it a little bit.
Yeah, totally.
Shane: I'm back in L.
A.
You know, I've been reflecting a lot today just about the whole experience, and this sounds really cheesy, but yesterday was the best day of my life, having all the producers sit back and watch my movie and genuinely love it and really laugh.
Like, really laugh and turn to each and say, "Oh, my God, can you believe that?" And at the end really be excited to talk about it and really be excited about it.
And Chris Moore is saying like "I'm so happy that I picked you.
" I am a director.
I'm not just a guy that makes stupid videos on the Internet, talks about Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus and what they're doing.
Everybody thinks that all my comedy is for kids, you know.
And to have a group of 30 to 40-year-olds laughing for two hours was very, very exciting and very, um proof that I know what I'm doing.
Apparently we are having some money problems on the on the show, which I think we should be open about.
I'm sure they'll cut this out if they don't wanna use it.
But, like, I think it's kind of hilarious.
Because the show is as much of an independent project as the films are, and I think that the show, "The Chair," is experiencing the same kind of wacky shit that happens with independent film where you're scrounging for money.
I'm pretty sure I just somehow got lost.
I'm gonna fly out of here back to L.
A.
Spend two weeks on L.
A.
Basically putting myself back together and doing my laundry and repacking all my shit so that I can move to New York for a couple months and edit with our editor, Charlie Porter.
The movie really gets made in the edit.
And I find it very funny that Victor never took down my note cards.
We're running and gunning at such a speed that we didn't get a ton of coverage of any of these scenes.
I have eight weeks to edit the movie starting today.
Just packing for the airport, very last-minute, of course.
Victor: She has a 4:00 flight, and it is 2:05 right now.
I just can't believe that right now this is my job.
It's actually, like this is my job.
It's crazy.
I just feel like I don't make as many jokes as Shane Dawson.
I'm really worried about it.
Not really.
But kind of.
Welcome to my neurotic adventure through JFK.
Some kind of dam burst.
For the last two days, I have been unable to make a video diary because I've just been so stressed out, like, just, like, scared, which is so weird because I have no idea why I wasn't scared when I was shooting the movie.
So this is where we edit.
First couple days were really hard.
I think any time there's a transition in this process, it's pretty hard for me.
I'm really appreciating the history that Charlie and I have in terms of telling stories together.
Victor: The director at work.
Anna: How long would it take for you to put a different track over the Craig base not Craig basement, the Timmy Hardwick party? I have one for you.
Like I don't really want to score my entire teen movie.
I want my teen movie to have songs, you know? And just because the songs aren't known right now it doesn't mean it can't be incredible.
It's been really cool to just pretty much be forced to be in that painful scary place, and it passes, and you come through to the other side and then you're where I'm at right now, which is like just having the time of my life.
What was the hardest part of shooting your movie? Being cold.
And at the end of the day, I'm gonna get this movie done, and it's gonna be a great movie largely because of the people I've surrounded myself with.
If there's one thing I'll toot my horn on, it's that I fucking made some good choices.
And that's editing.
(chuckles) So I was able to shoot my first penis.
- Have we seen the penis? - I have not seen the penis.
We're just trusting you? Shane: I didn't get a look at the penis before I filmed.
We just picked him by his face.
When the camera comes past you, it's already gonna be pressed up against the glass.
So we don't actually have to get the action of taking down the pants, pressing it up or whatever.
It's already there.
We have to do it on the green screen to match the Pittsburg backgrounds.
Push up against the glass.
Yeah, move it kind of that way.
Yeah, that's good.
Okay.
And wiggling, wiggling, wiggling.
Crazy wiggling, crazy wiggling, and press.
Okay, and if you could lift your penis up to the left.
Okay, that's great.
Let's cut.
And then we'll get a safety of that again.
And this time, yeah, get even like crazier with the wiggling.
Yeah, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy, and press.
Cool.
We got it.
The asses was different because I had Corey's ass, who I have known Corey now for, you know, a while, and I never thought I'd see his ass.
Is your butt gonna be in her movie? I feel like we need some crossover.
No, no.
Like, right at the beginning of the movie she opens, it's like "Hollidaysburg.
" (both laugh) Shane: So we're not gonna see, like, asshole.
I don't wanna see asshole.
You would wanna see you don't want your asshole represented by my asshole in this movie, trust me.
So you wanna keep cheeks together and then press.
Corey: Cheeks together.
Lauren: Do not pull your cheeks apart.
No pulling apart.
And it wasn't as bad as I thought it was gonna be.
There was no scabs.
There was no like needle marks.
There was no hair.
It was just a clean butt.
We're gonna roll.
You ready? Is your butt ready? Yeah, I mean, so when I moon, you want me to just pull them down? Shane: No, I'll direct you through it.
All right, so let's do the first one where your butt's up against the glass and you're bending over.
So take your butt out.
All right, bend over more your head.
There we go.
Okay.
Now kind of wiggle around like with your hands like, "Ha-ha-ha, yeah.
" Yeah, yeah, like kind of maybe give two middle fingers.
Like point your middle fingers at us.
(Shane laughs and snorts) Okay, good.
Yeah! Yeah! Check it out! - A-a-a-nd cut.
- I'm sorry.
Sean: Have you guys shown the film to anybody yet and gotten a negative reaction? Josh was suggesting instead of doing the traditional test screening through a company, which would cost a lot of money which is kind of what Chris, I think, wants doing more like sort of a friends and family thing in L.
A.
Where I would go up at the end of it and kind of have a list of questions.
I want your movie to have the opportunity to test with people that, like I want to hear I want to hear the other side of the spectrum reaction.
Shane: I don't know.
Here's the thing.
I want to, you know, do test screenings 'cause I know it's part of the process, but I really don't care.
Like, I think I don't know.
I just don't care.
Like I care because it's like, "Oh, great, notes.
" I respect notes from you guys and people, whatever, but, like, as far as a whole group of people, I don't fucking care.
Oh, we'll see how it goes first.
Ultimately, like, this is a position that you don't have to worry about Like, if we were all like like, "Ooh, I don't know.
Is it a good movie?" Then it makes sense.
But if it's like we all know it's a good movie, the best-case scenario is they agree, worst-case scenario is they disagree, and we're like, "No, it's still a good movie.
" Corey: Totally true.
You know, at the end of the day, you have to judge directors by the work they put out, and making a movie is a big process because you shoot hours and hours and hours of footage but you don't have to be right all the time.
You just have to get it right in these little moments, and that's what editing is.
Editing's going in and finding the best moments and shaping the movie.
Victor: My feeling is, is there might be a nice way to get to understand how why Tori was narrating other people's stories by adding her into the scene where all four of them are there.
Shader: Anna had a team there with her, and Charlie was her editor, and Victor was there as a collaborator, and it was much more of a group process.
Scott leaving his party unmotivated.
Scott going in Tori's house for the first time unmotivated.
There's a lot of things that don't make much sense here.
- Ooh! - Yet.
What the show is showing people is that directing is tough and there's a lot there, and it can be messy and you can fuck up and mess up a lot as long as you ultimately get those little moments that you need.
This is the most outward Yeah.
And this scene is done fantastic.
Honestly, I'm very, very nervous about the documentary coming out.
When I focus on myself, I get really, really scared, and I start obsessing over all of the different things that people could possibly choose to hate about me.
And that is a very terrifying mental road to go down.
When you're really busy hating yourself, there's not a lot of room to, like, love other people because you can't even love yourself.
So you're just, like, this sad little shell walking around.
That's a little bit how it's been, a sad little shell.
I'm like, "Hi, Charlie.
" And I'm just so worried that he's gonna find out that I'm a fraud or something.
I don't know.
I am my own worst enemy.
Shader: After Shane showed us the first cut of his movie in Pittsburgh, we were pleased that the movie fundamentally worked.
It was funny.
We were laughing.
(laughter) One of the things that Chris particularly didn't wanna do was bog him down with notes in that room.
We wanted him to feel good about what he had put together because we sat there and laughed at it, but at the same time, we still felt that the movie needed more work.
Unfortunately, I think what got communicated to Shane was all the positive stuff but not the message that, "Yeah, it was it's good, it's working, but you still have more work to do.
" I don't think there's a scene in this movie that can't be shorter, not one.
In fact, I don't think there's a scene in this movie that can't start a little later and that can't end a little earlier.
That to me is pervasive in this cut.
Every scene starts a little early, ends a little late.
And that's not even talking about what can be cut from the middle of a scene.
You know, Scott in the scene with the dad, I think there's a Pixar joke and there's like a surrealist art exhibit joke, like, back to back.
Like, pick one, cut one of those jokes out, the scene tightens up.
Every scene has something like that where you can come in and just tighten, tighten, tighten, tighten.
And then that has a cumulative effect over the whole movie and in a way that I think that is gonna make it better in your mind, too.
Yeah, I was referring to it as Josh over the past few weeks is what I would call like your run-on jokes, which was essentially what happened when we were shooting things, that the actors on each take started improving a little bit more and a little bit more, and then the end of each scene became its own little thing.
But that original story that you wrote with Dan, the beats that you were trying to hit in each scene, you're covering those earlier than where scenes are ending right now.
The scene around the keg when he's like, "Your hair smells like pussy," it just keeps going on after that and that's what that's what happened that day, I remember, when we were shooting it.
And it's like, there was funny stuff but it's beyond the point of the scene that we really need to keep going.
And I've thought about a lot I've seen the movie in maybe 10 times.
After like the 10th time watching it, I have probably a lot of the same notes that you guys have, and I've already trimmed some things.
You brought up that scene, that's always been my least favorite scene anyways just because that was the first day of shooting.
That was the first scene we shot.
I wasn't into it yet.
So in my head, I have already ended that scene when I say, "I'm a nature photographer.
" And then he looks at me like, "Oh, yeah.
" Like, I've already ended that scene there in my head.
- But why - I haven't cut it yet because that's his, like, only funny moment, and I'm like, "Okay, well, I'm gonna wait," whatever.
But there's a lot of scenes like that which I've already cut in my head.
But every time I show it to an audience, it always gets a laugh.
And I'm like, "Okay, well" That's why a lot of these things I'm waiting 'cause I wanna see this with an actual audience.
Because some of these jokes I'm fine cutting.
I'm not, like, married to anything in this movie except for Shader: I'm thrilled to hear that you're coming to this with the instinct of, "I'm willing to go in and cut things," 'cause I think that's sort of the time we're at right now is the "kill your babies" moment.
But I hope what you're hearing from us is support.
Let's go look at those moments that feel too long.
Let's go look at those moments that don't feel right.
- You are not - Shane: No, listen, I'm happy that you guys like the movie.
And knowing that you guys like the movie, I want your guys' notes.
I'd rather have your guys' notes versus Zachary Quinto, who probably won't like this movie because of this and that.
I would rather have your guys' notes versus somebody who doesn't like the movie at all.
I edit really fast, but I don't just edit really fast and then say, "I'm done.
" Like, I'm still I'm gonna be working on this until the last day.
Okay, that was our hope is that you were willing to go back in there and look at these things and try and so that's great.
Yeah, I want this to be amazing.
I want it to make a billion dollars, and I wanna make more.
Anna: Oh! I'm getting nervous.
- Shader: Are you? - A little bit.
- That's good, yeah, it's a good thing.
- Yeah, happy nerv So this is the rough cut of "Hollidaysburg.
" - (cheering) - Thank you.
Oh, I didn't expect to be getting applause already.
This is great.
This is a rough cut.
I recently rewrote a bunch of the voiceover.
There's voiceover that kind of carries us through the whole thing.
I rewrote it and then I didn't have my actor, so it's my voice, so just try to deal with that, too.
Thank you so much for giving me your morning.
All right, here we go, "Hollidaysburg.
" Tobin: I just couldn't wait to come home from break.
I mean don't get me wrong, California is awesome.
It's literally everything that everybody says.
It's amazing, but I just Chris: The pressure is astronomical to deliver the movie, to say, "Okay, here, this is the story the best way it can be told.
" And so I think that can be very overwhelming to first-time directors, but you have to be ready every time you get behind something.
It's a hard thing to put yourself up for that kind of scrutiny, and that's the hardest part, I think, about the business as a whole.
Anna: Let me do a big thank you to Charlie.
He has affected this movie so much with his talented ways.
Is this a good Yeah, I'd be curious to start there because I'm for you two, I'd love to know what are the things that you still feel like needs work? When you watched it today, when you had to output it for us, that you're like, "Shit, this section doesn't work"? 'Cause I think it's a good place to start.
Anna: I think at a certain point, you get so close to it that, like, I'm just seeing what I've been seeing for the last six weeks.
So to me, everything works, but that's why these these little screenings are so helpful for us.
Tori's voice is tracking extremely well.
That's what Victor said.
Because you have the VO to really assist.
Anna: Yeah, but did you guys how did you feel about the voiceover in general? I guess the question for me like, what is her voiceover? - Is it a diary of her weekend? - Mm-hmm.
Is it her sort of speaking in a slightly omniscient place about herself and all of her friends' experience? Is it just more information for the audience? Like what do you you know what I mean? - Yeah.
- Like what is that voiceover doing? Is it and when is she saying it? What's a little bit confusing is whose movie it is.
Yeah, that's true.
Because you start with Heather and Scott having this moment, and then you hear a female voiceover of a stranger in a bus.
Chris' point is really valid, which is why is Tori the one who gets to tell the voiceover? Just 'cause she's got a pretty shot at the end where she's on a bus? You know what I mean? 'Cause it is just as much Scott's story.
Totally.
I just worry that you're actually belittling the other stories by seemingly signaling that this is the most important one.
What I would argue, if you're gonna ask me and it could be gender, it could be just whatever it is.
Scott's story was bigger, right, to me, partly because Tori was so well-adjusted.
She comes in and has the good family, has the thing, and what she found was a new boyfriend, which is awesome, and I'm happy for that.
Zachary: Scott and Heather in this very intimate moment, and then you cut to the voiceover in the bus, whereas maybe it's as simple as like the beginning of the movie is just her on the bus looking out the window with no voiceover, so you introduce her first.
Neal: There's a couple spots where the music feels a little moody.
Not like and not moody in a bad way but moody in that it's sort of a little, pace-wise, sleepy.
Chris: One of the funniest parts of this process of watching two directors sort of go through the same thing at the same time is that there is this desire at different times in the process for the team around each director or the directors themselves to be protected from something that's gonna somehow hurt them.
In Anna's case, Josh and Julie and their team really try to protect Anna from trying to worry about anything else but the creative and thought that she would lose her confidence or something would happen.
Weirdly in post-production, they're way more open, and Anna's happy to show cuts and we've had real conversations about the movie.
And Shane decided to build the bubble in post-production.
He decided that in the editing room, that's his bubble.
He can go in there by himself and nobody is allowed to fuck with him.
And you can't hire another editor and you can't do anything else.
And this is Shane's bubble, and Lauren's not there.
Josh is not in there.
It's just Shane and the machine.
- Thanks.
- Bye, Anna.
- Bye, Chris Moore.
- Bye.
To start the conversation, this movie that we just watched today, I would take people to see it, I would pay to see it.
This is something that I would go see.
When we watched Shane's movie yesterday, I was depressed for a couple of hours at least.
I found it deeply offensive.
I'm angry, actually.
I'm angry.
The fact that $850,000 got put into making something that was so egregiously offensive.
And not only the material, but actually the fact that $850,000 was put into making that.
It made me angry, and it's not something in any version or by any stretch of my imagination that I could ever put my name on or be associated with.
The amount of time that I spent watching Shane's film, I will never get back in my life, and I am resentful of that.
- I just feel like - Hold on, hold on.
- You're saying you're resentful for it.
- You said you're offended, too.
I'm curious to know why.
Like.
I get it, it's not your taste.
This kid had $850,000, and all he managed to do was make, like, smut.
Tasteless.
So here's part of what we need to address right now.
From his point of view, right, his film is not these things.
His film is not smut for smut's sake.
It's not just racist to be racist.
He has reasons why he made the specific choices that he made.
Whether or not they resonate with us is one thing.
We got a significantly better movie in there, and I know he does.
What we just saw from Anna, it was seeing a really nice first cut for us to look at.
What we saw from Shane was an assembly that he was like, "This is a cut.
" Well, I'll also say, being the person who gave him that $850,000, this was never designed to be this grand experiment where I'm gonna put two people who can't do it and we're just gonna create two fucking train wrecks and we're just gonna show the two train wrecks and see what happens.
I think both filmmakers would sit here and tell you that they achieved their goal and that they both made movies that they are proud of.
- So is that true for Shane? - Absolutely, he's proud of his movie, and he believes that his audience will like the movie.
What I see as a complete success is the notion of two filmmakers who have two totally different points of view Totally agree.
On the same piece of material can create two completely different movies.
What would your reaction be if more people goes to Shane's movie - or Shane wins the check - I wouldn't be surprised.
you know what I mean? I think what does that say to you? Maybe it's maybe it's a kind of righteous indignation about the fact that I really wouldn't be fucking surprised.
Zachary: I cannot associate myself in name to that kind of content.
I just can't do it.
It just clarified for me the kinds of things that I wanna be a part of, and that's important for me personally.
Zach has decided to take his name off of Shane's film and not participate in the promotion of that.
I believe I'm going to do the same thing.
To be fair, we also weren't able to be there and be involved in that.
I know that the people that were worked very hard and tried to help him make the best movie that he could.
I believe that Shane approached this project seeking legitimacy and seeking a way into the Hollywood system.
The answer that I've heard and seen from him directly was often, "I know my fan base, and I know what they want, and I'm giving that to them.
" (woman grunts) - (woman screams) - (laughter) Shane: Tori the Whorey is back, bitch! First of all, she never existed.
One of the other tools in the arsenal of finishing up a movie is to have a test screening.
The concept of the test screening is you get, "A," enough people that they're not all friends with everybody, and, "B," that people are comfortable to say stuff and the audience will react because they don't think they're being watched.
Now there's an official way to do a test screening, where you recruit an audience and you bring them in.
It's pretty much all strangers.
In Shane's case, he didn't really wanna do a full test screening.
Partly it had to do with he'd shaved his head, and he didn't want people to know he shaved his head, partly it had to do with, I think, he didn't really want to listen to what they had to say.
All of his friends that had come and there was a lot more percentage-wise of what you normally would have in a test screening.
To some extent that's this test screening was a little bit biased in the sense that it wasn't really a test screening.
- That's it, guys! Yay! - (cheers and applause) I'm glad you didn't hate it.
So Lauren's gonna be passing out cards.
Just fill them out.
Don't write your names.
Be brutally honest.
Also a quick thing, you guys can totally tweet or tell your friends or whatever about the movie if you liked it or hated it.
Just don't give out details and don't talk about the head shaving 'cause I don't want anybody to know.
And I've been wearing a wig in all of my videos to keep it secret, so not lying.
So thank you guys for coming, and I love you guys.
(cheering) Lauren: Are there any moments, like, anything that you guys like? I'm just gonna throw one out like shit eating? You like that? You don't like that? Great.
Now what did you guys think of the glory hole scene as a whole? You like that? Did you buy that they could have been in a relationship before? I'm so glad that you liked it.
Thank you guys for laughing.
Sorry to bother you.
You're gonna come back in to talk, right? I think you should.
No.
You don't wanna hear what people say? - No.
- Okay.
Shane: I don't wanna hear, like, specifics.
She's such a cartoon.
I just I'm never gonna buy any version that he cares that she's gone.
So my only question for you is does it even matter? Because honestly, I'll like him more for not caring so much about a girl who's so ridiculous.
Lauren: Perhaps, except for the fact that he then goes to find her.
You know the movie better than I do, but why is it he need to go find her? Lauren: He's gotta get hit by a car.
So you really won't come in there and listen? I'm sorry, I gotta do a little work.
You really won't come in there and listen? - No.
- Why? That's the point of it.
No, the point is we'll read the cards.
I'll hear the consensus from Lauren.
You really what do you think's gonna happen if you go in? I don't need to.
- Scott, is that Shane's character? - Uh-huh.
It was very odd to me in terms of the way she talks about him as being this, like, horrible, selfish, self-obsessed person.
And he seems like almost maybe the nicest person in the movie.
Like, he's so sweet to everyone, like, she's constantly horrible to him, and he's forgiving her, and I feel like they're describing a guy who doesn't exist in the movie.
I don't need to hear the pick-aparty stuff.
All that's fine.
- What do you think's gonna be - I'll hear about it from Lauren.
But to actually hear it, like, I don't need to.
(chuckles) Okay.
Do you mind if we listen in? Of course.
Yeah, no, go.
Okay.
Well, congratulations, if I don't see you.
- You're gonna leave, right? - No, I'm here.
You're just gonna wait while the thing happens? Okay.
Did Chris try to get him in? Yeah, he didn't wanna hear what people had to say.
The question is, "What was your reaction to the movie overall? It's excellent, good, fair and poor.
" And so I've got fair, excellent, good.
- Excellent.
- Good, excellent.
- Excellent.
- Excellent.
- Good.
- Excellent.
- Excellent.
- Fair.
Fair.
- Fair.
- Good.
Even the more intense criticism, there were still things they were responding to positively.
- Absolutely.
- There's still things they liked.
- No.
- And there were still notes that they were giving that can make the things they didn't like better.
It's a work in progress.
And this is definitely skewing on the positive side, that people like it but they see that there are a few things that would make it just a much better thing for them.
The big note is still the note that we gave a couple of weeks ago, - which is less is more.
- Yeah.
There's just too much air in everything.
There's too many jokes taking you out of the scenes.
We can get someone to spend three days in the editing room making some tweaks, and he just has to watch it.
- Mm-hmm.
- My point to Shane would be you already got your fans.
So the question is, do you want more? Do you want to have a cut that's gonna go beyond that, or it's just about pleasing your fans? 'Cause if it's just about pleasing your fans, stop.
And I think that is the challenge to him, is can he take it one step further? And if he's not willing to sit in the editing room and try and try some of these more unconventional things, is he willing to watch someone else's cut that he doesn't have to use? I'm getting out an invitation to the test screening that I demanded Chris Moore give me, and now I'm (chuckles) Wondering if that was a good idea or if I just set myself up for, like, brutal failure that I wouldn't normally have to ever contend with? But I think it's the right thing to do because I, at the end of the day, really wanna learn from this process and really wanna make the best movie I can make and have it reach the largest amount of people.
Woman: First of all, I wanna thank you very much for coming tonight to this very special screening of "Hollidaysburg.
" You're one of the first audiences to see the film, and it's great to have you here.
Thank you very much for your patience as you were coming into the theater.
What you'll seeing tonight is what we call a work print.
That means it's an unfinished version of the film.
The color is not perfect.
The sound is not perfect.
And at the end of the night, the lights will come up as they are now.
We ask that you please stay in your seats.
Please don't go to the exits.
We have some information to hand out to you.
And enjoy the movie.
Thank you.
(applause) (indistinct talking onscreen) Chris: Test screenings, traditionally you hire a company that comes in, and they have a person who leads the focus group, and then who asks the questions and leads the audience.
And you sort of want them to be able to get the audience to respond, but you also want to ask specific questions about that specific movie, right? It can all be generic.
"Did you like it?" is one thing.
But if you're like, "So, if you didn't like it, what didn't you like? Do you like this or like that?" My name is Pauline.
I have nothing to do with the making of the film or the marketing of the film.
I've just been invited here to run this discussion and find out what you think of the movie you just saw.
There's a woman whose name was Pauline who was actually the woman who did the first test screening on "Good Will Hunting.
" And so I've known her for a long, long time.
And I think Pauline I don't know if it's her accent.
I don't know if it's just she's an incredibly smart lady.
I don't know if she's been doing it for a while, but she's excellent.
She really knows how to draw stuff out.
Pauline: So if you could raise your hands for a moment, please, how many of you rated this movie excellent? Could you raise your hands for me, please? Okay.
And how many of you said very good? Anyone say fair or poor? What did you like about it? Regardless of how you rate, what did you like about this film? One thing I really liked about it was how realistic it is for a comedy.
I feel like a lot of modern comedies, there's the characters, they make them funny by having them really weird or quirky or zany, but everyone here was a very realistic person, and that's what made them funny.
Pauline: So I'm just curious, if you didn't rate the movie excellent, what are some of the things that held you back from rating it higher? Woman: I wish I would have seen the relationships more developed.
Like, in the beginning, I think I was a bit confused because I don't really see how attached Scott may have been with Heather.
Woman: I'm confused about Tori.
We're seeing them two and their relationship, and then she's this random girl on the bus talking.
I'm like, "Who are you?" So I was confused by that.
Pauline: You weren't sure who was who? Man: I mean, I thought Tori and Heather were the same person until they saw each other in the grocery store.
- (laughter) - They looked too similar.
Pauline: Did anyone else feel like they were the same person, too? Oh, that's interesting.
Man: If it wasn't for Heather's hoodie that she wore like almost every scene, I wouldn't have known that she wasn't Tori.
- Pauline: Did that matter? - I was gonna say Pauline: No? You wanna add to that? Man: The amount of comedy in the film like I had those same concerns in the back of my mind when I was watching it.
But the comedy that was there kept me from caring.
Pauline: What is the one thing that's stopping you going out there and telling everybody to go see this film? - Yeah.
- Woman: The ending.
'Cause I feel like, like they said, with the questions not being answered.
Pauline: Too many unanswered questions at the ending? How many feel like that's the reason you're not definitely recommending too many unanswered questions at the ending? How many feel like this is more of a mainstream film? How many feel this is more indie-film-buff style film? All right, guys, I think we're done.
Thank you very, very much for staying behind.
Get home safely.
Don't forget to take off your name tag.
- Thank you so much.
- (laughter) Pauline: Thank you.
Went great.
All the teenagers are like loved it, which is great, 'cause that's what we're going for.
Are you excited to read these? I don't think I'm going to.
I'm gonna let you guys give a general.
So you want us to give you an overview of the Q&A and of the cards? Yeah.
- It was real honestly - It was constructive.
It was very, very helpful and, like, definitely skewed very positively.
Like, there's a lot of great stuff.
There's some really interesting critique and stuff like that that I think would be really, really helpful.
Well, the broader headlines were it feels too long to people, and then what we kept hearing from a lot of people was individual scenes felt like they wanted to end earlier.
Everybody just felt like, "Pick the funniest joke at the end, and then just move on.
" I would like more specifics because I already did that.
I will tell you right now, every literally all hands raised.
Everybody thinks there's too much of the mom.
- Aunt Hilda.
- Aunt Hilda.
People love Gil.
Lauren: Love, oh my God, literally that was the character that I really felt encompassed what the tone - Wait, which character? - Ryan's.
Well here's a funny thing about that, too, 'cause I love Ryan.
I think he's a genius.
He the laughs for his stuff were smaller than the laughs for the driver and the laughs for the mom.
I mean, I listened to every laugh, and I think Ryan's the best part of this movie.
But as a general, big, the whole audience, not just 20 people, the driver got more bigger laughs.
Mom got bigger laughs.
So, for me, that's why these things are always kind of like grain of salt.
'Cause I'm like, "Mmm.
" Literally, I was sitting here listening to every single laugh.
I can tell you the level from one to ten of each joke - Were there any that didn't play? - Not really.
The things that I was nervous about worked.
The barf thing got a laugh.
The blowjob scene got, like, big laughs.
The last half of the movie got way more laughs than I thought.
Even the head-shaving scene, every time I cut to the mom, that got like a really good, like you need it to break that up because that was such an emotional scene.
I don't know.
I was happy.
Lauren: I'm, if nothing else, kind of sad because as it seems right now, Shane's not really interested in hearing the notes, and that makes me really sad.
I think it's a missed and wasted opportunity.
Chris: Sitting in the theater, the audience seemed to really like it.
That's what's hard about these test screenings is the numbers always come back, you know, a little bit worse than what happened in the room because people are harsher, I think, when you let them write something down anonymously than when you're sitting there.
Man: One of the things that we have to keep in mind is we heard 20 people in the audience.
We didn't hear the other 180 people.
And that's really what the cards are all about.
You have a lot of people in that good and probably recommend.
Okay.
You don't have an audience of rejecters and haters.
You're not even close to that.
No, they like it, but I think there was an element where they were saying, "We liked it, but we wanted to like it more.
We wanted to know a little bit more about these characters.
We wanted more clarity at the beginning.
" For me, the biggest thing that came out of the group, they get confused with the characters.
Not knowing who's who is a problem.
Shader: After the test screening for "Hollidaysburg," there was a real concern that came out.
People were confused between Heather and Tori.
They didn't know that they weren't the same person, you know, and this was not something that we were particularly expecting.
People don't confuse Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore.
You know what I mean? Like, they just don't.
So just knowing this female facial blindness issue that is going on here, I'm trying to figure out how we're gonna solve this moving forward, and I just wanna know how big a problem it actually is.
You're trying to tell quite personal stories, and I think it's really important that they know that they can identify and connect with those individuals as quickly as possible.
So I think it's it is quite a problem.
I think here, if they were connecting more with the characters and their journey then you would see higher numbers.
Chris: We also talked about it, though, after the producer's screening.
You start with the sex scene everybody likes, but then the voiceover's Tori, and so just that alone is just a sort of moment where you're like That's asking a lot of the audience.
How did this numbers stack against anything of similar ilk with a cast that is unknown? I mean what you see in here is an independent norm.
So that's the average of all the movies that we test in this kind of independent space, and that includes films with a lesser-known talent as well as films with more well-known talent.
So I'd say the males, you're very close to where these movies test.
The females are a little bit below it.
Corey: They're not saying probably not.
They're not saying definitely not.
- They're just not saying definitely.
- That's right.
They like these characters.
They wanna know these characters.
There's information that they didn't get from these characters that held them back from connecting with them a little bit more.
Chris: For me, it was an awesome experience to be able to actually do a real professional test screening and let Anna and Phil and Victor and everybody really hear, you know, this is what people are saying about your movie.
And this is the reaction they're having.
Anna: Holy shit, this is now the second person who said that they did not know that there were two separate actresses.
They thought Tori and Heather were the same girl.
(laughs) Isn't that insane? - That is weird.
- Yeah, those girls do not look alike.
What, did they think it was like a ghost movie or something? They don't look alike at all.
Corey: The negative aspects of what those test screenings entail were just something that the two of them had a really difficult time dealing with.
They treated it really differently.
Anna faced it head on and dealt with it.
Neal: It's not done.
It's not perfect.
She's gonna continue to work on it until we wrestle it out of her hands on the date when she has to stop.
Corey: Shane needed more handholding in that category and need a little bit more help to deal with it and to answer some harder questions for himself.
Lauren: And if something is not working for a large group of people, I think it is worth exploring.
Chris: The whole point of this test screening is to see what an average fucking asshole thinks about this.
Neal: Everybody wants the same thing.
They all want those movies to be really good.
So if someone is giving you a note, it's not because they're trying to push their vision on you.
It's because they want what you want.
I think right now the movie is good.
I think the movie could use work.
And I personally think it deserves the attention that could make it great.
(music playing)