ABSTRACT
The producer contracted a firm to recruit a test audience to attend a quiet test screening on a studio lot. Many producers would have been sharpening the razor and drawing the warm bath water by this time, but the veteran producer of this picture had been here before. The test screening firm recruited the wrong audience by telling them that the picture was a country-western version of Raiders of the Lost Ark--and so the wrong audience came to view the film. All through the post-editorial process of Escape from New York, Debra Hill and John Carpenter had not test screened the picture for an objective test audience. The producer calls in the supervising sound editor and reviews the list of needs. Temp dubs are a good-news/bad-news thing. Temp dubs can suck the creative lifeblood right out of a crew.
