The Telegraph UK: My Week - 'Who really calls the shots in Hollywood?'

[derevko_child]

My Week: Who really calls the shots in Hollywood?
By Olivia Williams
12:15PM BST 25 Jun 2013

In her monthly column, Olivia Williams discovers a powerful force at work in Hollywood: the test audience.

Comments

[ms_geekette]

So does this mean that Olivia's lake wrassling with Arnold is going to be cut from that movie? XD

And I knew about test audiences, but it's pretty lame if they only do testing in one location. I think the good folks of Glendale have been falling down on their test audience job, b/c a lot of what's coming out of Hollywood these days is pretty mediocre. Of course, I think most of those projects are fairly doomed before they even get to the filming portion, so maybe I'm being too harsh on the test audience peeps.

[derevko_child]

Well, I hope not because that would suck.

Glendale probably has all the demographics they're looking for? lol.

[ms_geekette]

Nah, I was joking, they'll probably leave that in, especially if it's a big Ahhhhnold action scene, but cut parts with Olivia's character, b/c action movies seem to like to rob women of their agency. :-|

I've never been to Glendale, but I will take a wild guess and say that it is probably not really the melting pot of the US, since apparently few women and people of color make up these movie test panels, if what results from them is any indication. (I know there are a healthy amount of people of Latin and Asian descent in California, though, so the movie testing overlords should really step up their game!)

I will try to focus on Olivia's expanded pig farmer/witch role, which I'm sure will be delightful.

[derevko_child]

Maybe the target audience for Ten/Breacher/Sabotage wanted more Ahnuld, but the target audience for The Seventh Son wanted more of her? IDK lol

[darling_ashes]

Olivia Williams is spectacular!

[derevko_child]

She totally is. *nods head*

[entwashian]

LOL

I LOVE BEING A TEST AUDIENCE MEMBER

But to be fair, it's true, peope who aren't me are dumb.

[derevko_child]

LMAO

[entwashian]

I actually got to be a test audience member for the ~very first~ test screening of a movie once. It was pretty cool. They made us go to the mall, and bussed us to an "undisclosed location" in Hollywood. And then they picked my friend and I to be in the focus group after... which, it was for a sci-fi movie, so there was only one other girl in the focus group, and my friend and I got to LOUDLY veto her when she started to say like, "I think more women would go see the movie if there was a romance between Dude X and Lady Y"

Like, seriously? EW.

[derevko_child]

Oh lol. Did you watch the movie again during regular screening (and did they include the ~romance~ between Dude X and Lady Y)