What Happens At The First Cut Review
The first cut is the first time an ad film is seen whole. The rushes have been chosen, the story assembled, the music is often temporary and the colour untouched. It is the most fragile version of the film, and it is usually shown to a room full of people with strong views and little experience of looking at unfinished work.
What happens in that room shapes the film more than most people expect.
What a first cut is for
Structure. Does the story make sense, does it land in the time, is the product where it needs to be, does the ending pay off. Those are the questions a first cut can answer.
It is not for judging the grade, the final music or the sound mix, all of which will change, and an experienced reviewer learns to look past them.
A rough cut reviewed as a finished film gets fixed in the wrong places.
How the review usually runs
The editor and director show the cut, often with a short explanation of choices. The agency gives notes first, then the client, sometimes in the same session. The danger is the pile-up: notes from many people, some contradictory, all delivered as if equally important.
A good agency producer consolidates those before they reach the editor, deciding which are about the story and which are about taste.
What protects the film
Agreeing what the review is for before anyone presses play, and having one person responsible for the final list of changes.
Films rarely get worse because of a single bad note. They get worse because thirty reasonable ones were all applied.
It also helps to watch the cut more than once before anyone speaks. First reactions in a review are usually about surprise, and a second viewing separates what is genuinely wrong from what is simply unfamiliar.
More from Creative Room.