Our private preview screening of White Knuckles organized by Larry Strauss in conjunction with the Old Pro’s acting troupe went extremely well!  There were a lot of people that stayed for the Q & A, asking & interacting with the filmmakers, Larry, Martie & myself.  We also got to look at the film on the screen from a technical standpoint, and although the color was great, there are some small adjustments that will need to happen with the mix.  Such is the usefulness of a private preview screening: first reactions, and technical massage.  It didn’t help much that the projectionist was also running his own real time “mix” – i.e. riding the levels as the movie was playing – which is not recommended for any film, ever.  This being said, the story and the film was still intact and not compromised – and I was very happy about the audience reaction.  There was a lot of affirmations that the film is heading in the right direction.

The questions at the Q & A ranged from “are the tears in Larry’s eyes real in the emotional scenes” to “what inspired you to write this story” to “what does the ending mean to you?”   Larry responded to the tear question with a description of how, “at this age, you’ve seen and felt it all – an it’s not hard to get yourself to that place anymore.”  With response to the ending questions, we discussed the possibilities of what an ending of a film like this could mean for the future of the characters. Though there is closure, not everything is completely answered or handed over on a spoon – rather there is something left for the audience to consider, and more importantly “interpret.”

One particularly engaged audience member chimed in, “I love the ending the way it is because it can be showed to 20,000 people and  they’ll walk away from it with 20,000 personal interpretations.”  There was also a little debate about “what happened” after the last shot of the film, to which people had their own thoughts and feelings.  Truth is, I think that the audience is right in whatever they believe happened, as long as they venture to continue thinking about the film days after they complete seeing it.

On a related note, I received a “I’d like to join the White Knuckles mailing list” post-card from someone at the screening that wrote “I loved your film.  Below are some pictures from the introduction to the film, as well as the Q & A afterwards.  Guests of honor in attendance: my parents.  See below for pictures that Larry sent to me today:

Kevin K. Shah fields some questions from the audience

Larry, Martie and Kevin in Laguna Woods, CA

larry and kevin set-up the experience.

Laguna Q & A for the private preview screening.