Ten Years On: Robot Overlords Test Screening

Long time readers of this blog will know that I’ve been looking back at my diaries from ten years ago, during the filming of Robot Overlords. Some of the diary entries you’ll see are the ones featured in the back of the film’s novelisation (and if you want a signed and dedicated copy of the paperback, then please step this way and click here). 

You can’t be a film fan and screenwriter and not have heard a few horror stories about test screenings, so I was naturally nervous when it came to popping my test screening cherry. If you don’t know, test screenings are where films are shown to unwitting members of the public. They often have no clue what they’re about to see, the film is usually lacking finished visual effects and score, and the audience is asked to complete a survey scoring various aspects of the film with room to leave comments. Careers have been launched/destroyed by these things…

Monday 25th November – First test screening

This evening saw a screening of Robots for children. There were about 30+ of then and alarm bells began ringing when we saw how young some of them were. Jon asked who was youngest during his introduction: 8 years old. A bit too young, maybe.

So it wasn’t a complete surprise when one poor traumatised girl asked to leave during the Morse Code Martin deep scan scene (referred to by many afterwards as ‘the torture scene’).

But, that aside, it was a hit. Considering how few completed VFX we have, and the temp score, dialogue and sound effects, it scored very highly, with boys between 9-14 really liking it. Not a massive surprise, but that’s exactly who we designed it for (though Jon said he was impressed by a couple of 8-year-old girls who loved it and asked some very intelligent questions in his Q&A).

We split them into age groups for the Q&A. Chris Clarke and I got the +12s. The 12 year-old boys loved it. The older girls thought their younger brothers would love it too. The older boys – 16,17 – liked it with reservations. A bit too young for them, clearly.

Apparently, Natascha Wharton (one of the BFI producers) got an earful from one of the teachers who was angry that some of the kids were too young for the material. Not Natascha’s fault at all, but I guess they needed to vent at someone. Hopefully there won’t be any bad fallout from that.

Reading the cards afterwards was great fun. Lots of effusive praise, apart from the girl who walked out who WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THE FILM TO ANYONE! But then she listed her favourite film as Babe, so she’s not our target market. From the comments made by the adults it was clear that dads like it, but some mums don’t. Some of the younger boys noted that they liked it, but their parents probably wouldn’t take them to see it. Poor kids.

This kind of testing is always a blunt instrument, and I’m uncomfortable with lumping genders and age groups together – as if we’re all alike and the same – but it does give you some kind of steer, and so far it’s working in our favour. I’ll surely complain when we get negative feedback!

Looking back it’s not difficult to see signs of some of the things that helped/stymied the film’s release and marketing. The fact that so many kids loved it, but instinctively knew that their mums would not approve of it was a bit of a red flag. Kids might know what they want, but it’s the parents who have the purse strings. Ultimately, if you want to generate the kind of ‘pester power’ that gets children to convince their parents to go and see a movie then you’ll need to spend millions to reach what is a very competitive market: the minds of children between ten and fourteen.

However, all that is to come. In the meantime, we had to collate our notes and see how we might tweak the film in the edit suite. Stay tuned for the next instalment coming soon…