Talking pictures : how they are made, how to appreciate them (c. 1937)

Editing the Film What is called the "first preview cut" is purposely overlength so that bv restlessness and rattling of programs the audience in the theatre selected for the preview may show the producer where they think the picture is dull and where it drags. The first preview, or experimental showing, is usually called a "sneak." In order to assure a nonprofessional audience, the picture is taken with secrecy to a theatre usually well outside the Los Angeles area. Neither the press nor players are invited because the picture is purposely imperfect. Only the producer, his secretary, the film editor, and the audience attend. The audience of the theatre is in effect a collection of guinea pigs in a semiscientific experiment. They aid the film makers by showing their pleasure or displeasure through physical actions or vocal remarks, and in their criticisms written on postal cards provided by the studio. Producers are strongly guided in their future editing by what they hear and see while a picture is being unreeled at a preview, but supplementary to this direct eye and ear testimony come the critical postal cards. Many of them are inconsequential, but there are always 20 per cent or more which show fine logic and a true sense of dramatic essentials. From such cards the producers gain important leads in the matter of further cuts, shifts, or possible additions. Other by-products sometimes develop from this source. One preview attendant was so thrilled by a certain picture that he described its effect on his emotions in one truly inspired sentence. He was sought out and paid for that expression, and it became the cen [223]