Test Screening
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Test Screening
A test screening is a preview screening of a movie or television show before its general release to gauge audience reaction. Preview audiences are selected from a cross-section of the population and are usually asked to complete a questionnaire or provide feedback in some form. Harold Lloyd is credited with inventing the concept, having used it as early as 1928. Test screenings have been recommended for starting filmmakers "even if a film festival is fast approaching". Notable examples and outcomes of test screenings In 2004, Roger Ebert, the late reviewer for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', wrote that test screenings by filmmakers are "valid" to get an idea of an audience response to a rough cut. But "too often, however, studio executives use preview screenings as a weapon to enforce their views on directors, and countless movies have had stupid happy endings tacked on after such screenings." Ebert writes that Billy Wilder dropped the first reel from ''Sunset Boulevard'' after a t ...
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Film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere through the use of moving images. These images are generally accompanied by sound and, more rarely, other sensory stimulations. The word "cinema", short for cinematography, is often used to refer to filmmaking and the film industry, and to the art form that is the result of it. Recording and transmission of film The moving images of a film are created by photography, photographing actual scenes with a movie camera, motion-picture camera, by photographing drawings or miniature models using traditional animation techniques, by means of computer-generated imagery, CGI and computer animation, or by a combination of some or all of these techniques, and other visual effects. Before the introduction of digital production, series of still imag ...
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Taschen
Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Taschen Comics, publishing Benedikt's comic collection. Taschen focuses on making lesser-seen art available to mainstream bookstores, including fetishistic imagery, queer art, historical erotica, pornography, and adult magazines (including multiple books with ''Playboy'' magazine). The firm has brought potentially controversial art into broader public view, publishing it alongside its more mainstream books of comics reprints, art photography, painting, design, fashion, advertising history, film, and architecture.Degen Pener''Taschen Books Chief Reveals New Projects, Talks 'Fifty Shades' and $12M Books'' published in The Hollywood Reporter, 25 November 2014 Taschen publications are available in a various sizes, from oversized tomes to small pocket-sized ...
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John Carpenter
John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He is generally recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the French Directors' Guild gave him the Golden Coach Award, lauding him as "a creative genius of raw, fantastic, and spectacular emotions". Carpenter's early films included box office and critical successes like '' Halloween'' (1978), ''The Fog'' (1980), ''Escape from New York'' (1981), and ''Starman'' (1984). His other productions from the 1970s and the 1980s only later came to be considered cult classics, and he has been acknowledged as an influential filmmaker. These include '' Dark Star'' (1974), '' Assault on Precinct 13'' (1976), '' The Thing'' (1982), ''Christine'' (1983), ''Big Trouble in Little China'' (1986), '' Prince o ...
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The Mighty Quinn (film)
''The Mighty Quinn'' is a 1989 American mystery comedy thriller film starring Denzel Washington in the title role, alongside Robert Townsend, James Fox, Mimi Rogers, M. Emmet Walsh, and Sheryl Lee Ralph. The screenplay by Hampton Fancher is based on A. H. Z. Carr's 1971 novel '' Finding Maubee''. In the film, Washington plays Xavier Quinn, a police chief who tries to help his childhood friend Maubee (Townsend) after he becomes a murder suspect. The film takes its name from the Bob Dylan song of the same name, and a reggae cover version performed by Michael Rose, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Cedella Marley and Sharon Marley Prendergast which appears on the soundtrack. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film an overwhelmingly positive review, calling it one of the best films of 1989. He described the film as "a spy thriller, a buddy movie, a musical, a comedy and a picture that is wise about human nature." Plot Xavier Quinn is the chief of police in Jamaica. When Donald Pater, the million ...
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Mimi Rogers
Miriam Rogers (née Spickler; born January 27, 1956) is an American actress. Her notable film roles are ''Gung Ho'' (1986), '' Someone to Watch Over Me'' (1987), ''Desperate Hours'' (1990), and '' Full Body Massage'' (1995). She garnered the greatest acclaim of her career for her role in the religious drama '' The Rapture'' (1991), with critic Robin Wood declaring that she "gave one of the greatest performances in the history of the Hollywood cinema." Rogers has since appeared in ''Reflections on a Crime'' (1994), ''The Mirror Has Two Faces'' (1996), '' Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery'' (1997), ''Lost in Space'' (1998), ''Ginger Snaps'' (2000), ''The Door in the Floor'' (2004), and '' For a Good Time, Call...'' (2012). Her extensive work in television includes ''Paper Dolls'' (1984), ''Weapons of Mass Distraction'' (1997), '' The Loop'' (2006–2007), and recurring roles on ''The X-Files'' (1998–1999), ''Two and a Half Men'' (2011–2015), '' Wilfred'' (2014), ''Mad ...
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The Pelican Brief (film)
''The Pelican Brief'' is a 1993 American legal thriller film based on the 1992 novel by John Grisham. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, the film stars Julia Roberts in the role of young law student Darby Shaw and Denzel Washington as ''Washington Herald'' reporter Gray Grantham. The film, which features music composed by James Horner, was the last film that featured Pakula as both writer and director before his death. Plot After an assassin named Khamel kills two Supreme Court justices, Jensen and Rosenberg, Tulane University law student Darby Shaw writes a legal brief detailing her theory on why they were killed. She gives the brief to her law professor and lover Thomas Callahan, a former clerk of Rosenberg's, who in turn gives a copy to his good friend Gavin Verheek, special counsel to the Director of the FBI. Soon after, a car bomb kills Callahan, but Darby avoids the same fate, because the drunk Callahan refused to let Darby drive his car. Now realizing that her brief was accurate ...
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Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an American actress. Known for her leading roles in films encompassing a variety of genres, she has received multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, and three Golden Globe Awards. The films in which she has starred have collectively grossed over $3.9 billion globally, making her one of Hollywood's most bankable stars. After an early breakthrough with appearances in '' Mystic Pizza'' (1988) and '' Steel Magnolias'' (1989), Roberts established herself as a leading actress when she headlined the romantic comedy '' Pretty Woman'' (1990), which grossed $464million worldwide. She starred in numerous commercially successful films throughout the 1990s, including the cult romantic comedies ''My Best Friend's Wedding'' (1997), ''Notting Hill'' (1999) and '' Runaway Bride'' (1999), before winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the biographical drama ''Erin Brockovich'' (200 ...
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Denzel Washington
Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington has received numerous accolades, including a Tony Award, two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and two Silver Bears. In 2016, he received the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2020, ''The New York Times'' named him the greatest actor of the 21st century. In 2022, Washington received the Presidential Medal of Freedom bestowed upon him by President Joe Biden. Washington started his acting career in theatre, acting in performances off-Broadway, including William Shakespeare's ''Coriolanus'' in 1979. He first came to prominence in the medical drama '' St. Elsewhere'' (1982–1988). Washington's early film roles included Norman Jewison's '' A Soldier's Story'' (1984) and Richard Attenborough's ''Cry Freedom'' (1987 ...
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Pretty In Pink
''Pretty in Pink'' is a 1986 American teen romantic comedy-drama film about love and social cliques in American high schools in the 1980s. A cult classic, it is commonly identified as a "Brat Pack" film. It was directed by Howard Deutch, produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, and written by John Hughes, who also served as co-executive producer. The film was named after a song by the Psychedelic Furs, and the film's soundtrack, which has been acclaimed as "among the most brilliant in modern cinema", features a re-recorded version of the song. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's " If You Leave" became an international hit and charted at #4 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in May 1986. Plot High school senior Andie Walsh lives with her underemployed working-class father, Jack, in a Chicago suburb. Andie's best friend, the outsider Phil "Duckie" Dale is in love with her, but is afraid to tell her how he truly feels. In school, Duckie and Andie, along with their friends, are harassed and ...
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Titanic (1997 Film)
''Titanic'' is a 1997 American epic film, epic romance film, romance and disaster film directed, written, produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. Incorporating both historical and fictionalized aspects, it is based on accounts of the Sinking of the RMS Titanic, sinking of the Titanic, RMS ''Titanic'' and stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ship during its ill-fated maiden voyage. Also starring are Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Gloria Stuart, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Victor Garber, and Bill Paxton. Cameron's inspiration for the film came from his fascination with shipwrecks; he felt a love story interspersed with the human loss would be essential to convey the emotional impact of the disaster. Production began on September 1, 1995, when Cameron shot footage of the actual Wreck of the Titanic, ''Titanic'' wreck. The modern scenes on the research vessel'' ''were shot on board the ''Akademik Ms ...
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I Am Legend (film)
''I Am Legend'' is a 2007 American post-apocalyptic action thriller film loosely based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Richard Matheson. Directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman and Mark Protosevich, the film stars Will Smith as US Army virologist Robert Neville. It is set in New York City after a virus, which was originally created to cure cancer, has wiped out most of mankind, leaving Neville as the last human in New York, other than nocturnal mutants. Neville is immune to the virus, and he works to develop a cure while defending himself against the hostile mutants. It is the third feature-film adaptation of Matheson's novel following 1964's '' The Last Man on Earth'' and 1971's ''The Omega Man''. Warner Bros. began developing ''I Am Legend'' in 1994 and various actors and directors were attached to the project, though production was delayed due to budgetary concerns related to the script. Production began in 2006 in New York City, filming ma ...
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Deep Blue Sea (1999 Film)
''Deep Blue Sea'' is a 1999 American science fiction horror film directed by Renny Harlin. It stars Saffron Burrows, Thomas Jane, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rapaport, and LL Cool J. Set in an isolated underwater facility, the film follows a team of scientists and their research on mako sharks to help fight Alzheimer's disease. The situation plunges into chaos when multiple genetically engineered sharks go on a rampage and flood the facility. ''Deep Blue Sea'' had a production budget of $60–82 million and represented a test for Harlin, who had not made a commercially successful film since ''Cliffhanger'' in 1993. The film was primarily shot at Fox Baja Studios in Rosarito, Mexico, where the production team constructed sets above the large water tanks that had been built for James Cameron's 1997 film ''Titanic''. Although ''Deep Blue Sea'' features some shots of real sharks, most of the sharks used in the film were either animatronic or computer generated. Trevor Rabin compose ...
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