DELRAY BEACH – iPossessed viewers are offering ideas for minor tweaks to Carl Rimi’s “iPossessed” movie, but overall the film has been exceptionally well received during its current string of test screenings.
Rimi held the fourth of six such screenings on Tuesday at the Movies of Delray with the purpose of refining the look, sound and storyline prior to the final edit of iPossessed.
“It’s very cool seeing people you know on screen – and seeing them act is just crazy,” local comic Steve Lamm said. “It’s something I could never do, so I’m envious of the people who do it.”
Author, co-producer and star of iPossessed, Rimi, co-star and co-producer Tami Boothby, and co-writer Javier Mayol introduced the movie to approximately 100 new viewers on Tuesday. Prior to rolling the projector, Rimi told the audience the original screenplay called for a comedy/horror hybrid.
Shortly before filming Rimi, a stand-up comic, took the advice of director Jerry Sommer and refined the script to be more of a straight forward suspense/horror flick.
Still, some comedic elements remained.
“They pushed more for the horror, but I liked how they kept some of the comedic elements of it,” South Florida comic Zach Bugarin said. “It really lightened up the mood.”
Rimi said each of the first four test audiences received the film differently. The Delray audience found more humor in the film than the first three audiences did.
“More people laughed at weirder spots in this one,” Rimi said.
Feedback gathered from the first three screenings have already prompted direct changes in the film.
“We’ve actually been editing as we’ve been getting feedback, so it’s actually been a really big help,” Rimi said.
Changes include a quick splash of video previously not included, and in another spot additional dialogue. Both additions aided the in introduction of characters.
Editors also trimmed one of the opening scenes, removing a portion of video that several audience members found muddied the storyline.
“People were like, ‘I don’t understand that scene and it confused me,’” Rimi said. “Now we chopped it and it made more sense.”
Rimi heard some feedback on Tuesday night, and expects to gather more in the coming days after audience members take some time to think about what they saw.
“It’s hard to give a quick reaction in that moment,” Rimi said.
iPossessed returns to the Movies of Delray on June 21 for another test screening. Doors open at 6 p.m. The final test screening is scheduled for June 31 in Wesley Chapel, near Tampa.
Following that screening Rimi and his crew will proceed to the final movie edits. Those will include additional refinements to the audio tracks and a conversion from stereo to surround sound.
The goal is to have a completed work by September – in time to submit the film to some of what Rimi calls the “Top Tier” film festivals, including Sundance, South by Southwest (SXSW) and Tribeca.
