Kaleen brought a couple of her friends over and we had a mini-test screening. Here are some comments and thoughts, and afterthoughts:

They loved Kitsy. That's a huge sigh of relief. Maybe audiences will be smart enough to get him. These girls did seem surprisingly well versed in storytelling theory, so they might not be a great representation of the masses. Still, Sami I'm relying on YOU to bring in the female audience.

They weren't totally into the Professors demise, which is something Ron called out several months ago. By this time it's too late the reshoot anything, but I'm realizing that a better option might have been for the professor to turn good. But that could be just one option. The girls also said they wished the Prof could have gotten himself a nice little girl at the end. I doubt the male audience would respond this way; they probably will like that the prof gets his the hard way. I made a choice, I'm sticking by it, but I realize that there might have been a more graceful way for the prof to be humbled. The worst feeling is knowing I never had a strong conviction one way or the other. That means his demise was never inspired, it was just a good enough way to bring closure. Ouch. Never again.

Ron, ya know how I told you we were shooting a scene last week? I was telling the truth! We reshot the professors Nazi scene for a third time, and got what we wanted. Now I can safely say production on the movie has been completed.

One of the girls read Tony as being gay, and that's why he and Kate never connected. I never thought of it this way. She thought his character arch was this: he was a gay football player trying to front by shunning that lifestyle and approaching a girl. When he leaves to return to football, he is coming out of the closet in a sense. That interpretation is available in the movie I guess, but wow that was from left field. That's why the audience are the final decision makers.

I'm sticking with the title 'Entertaining Angels'. I was entertaining other ideas, and thought the name Kitsy would work well in a title. Kitsy's Goal, Kitsy's Mission, Kitsy's (Something), just playing around with ideas. But Entertaining Angels works on three fronts, it's clever, catchy and I'm sticking to it.

One of the girls loved the psychologist scene, which was a HUGE surprise. No other scene in the movie has been as close to being axed for a variety of reasons, but she said something that nearly nails the coffin shut: that scene defines the relationship between Jack and Kitsy, and establishes the rules they play by. That scene's gonna make it's way to the final cut.

The Reser stadium scene is going to get chipped down the most I imagine, Tony specifically. Same with the restaurant scene with Kate and Tony. Not cut, just trimmed. There are several other scenes that will get trimmed. One scene on the verge of getting axed altogether is the scene where the prof is giving his depressing monologue and it cuts to Jack. Thematically this is a great way to paralell the characters and show Jack's descent, but it's so dramatic in such a crazy movie that it's hard to take it seriously. Also one of the girls thought they were in the same room and Prof was taking Jack into hell with him, making Prof a satan figure. This interpretation is also available and I've thought about it before.

Overall, it was a positive test screening. They enjoyed it and took it seriously.