ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the unique blend of quantitative/qualitative processes and strategies for teasing out an audience's reaction to a film's soundtrack. It provides the impact of this audience feedback specifically in relation to soundtrack production. The chapter examines commercially available 'Director's Cuts' of specific case studies and also provides further contextual analysis highlighting important aspects of the collaborative and creative process that have not been explored in existing research. It details interviews with two senior marketing executives, two music editors, and several composers. The chapter shows that methodological challenges that do not necessarily allay the questions of secrecy and rumor. It explores important and little-understood aspect of the Hollywood commercial filmmaking process. The majority of movies produced by a major Hollywood studio undergo the process of audience previews, or Recruited-Audience Screenings. Preview screenings usually take place outside of Hollywood in a rented commercial, suburban cinema.
