First showing

I had the first showing just before Christmas, for my flatmate Sophie and our neighbour, Isabella
The verdict? It was very encouraging. They felt there was a film there.
Clearly the edit is still a mess. There is too much, too many shots. What I wanted to achieve was clear and then there was no development, just repetition.
Why is this encouraging? That I just needed to reveal the film there. It was matter of whittling away what is not and finding what is.
Discouraging? Sometimes they had difficulty understanding some of the simplest things, confusing the sister Natalie with the best friend Sophie, even though they look nothing alike. Here I have probably gone too close to the edge of the minimal with the narrative. This may be my biggest gap, something I may have to solve with some pickups or even some new scenes.
At this point I have not had to make any painful decisions. For the most part it has been about revealing what is there, not about choosing between this option or that option. That will happen soon I am sure.
Still, one question that both JC, Sophie and Isabella brought up: that we really don't know any of the other characters, that is the boyfriends Paul, Nick, the sister Natalie, or the friend Sophie. Now what do they mean? The other night I watched Bresson's Mouchette and there was a comment that we watched for 90 minutes and still didn't know anything about Mouchette. Now what they mean is in the conventional sense of character, actually meaning characteristics, that she likes oranges but not apples, wants to be a nurse when she grows up, etc. The character of Mouchette is revealed in action, and there was plenty of her action. Now I never wanted to show characteristics, I wanted to show action. So what does mean for my film? Is there enough of these people in action to reveal them? If not...?
I have since been busy, made some minor adjustments to the cuts in the first part, conflated some events in the second part, and done two or three reedits of the third segment. The edit I showed last week was 110 minutes. The latest edit is 96 minutes. I feel this is a lot stronger and clearer with a lot less. Now I have to find some new victims.