# Test the film idea before the shoot

Digital respondents score your script or storyboard in minutes — while the production budget is still unspent.

## Why test a film before production

Video production is the largest line in a campaign budget, and reshooting a film that did not land is almost never an option. A classic video pretest evaluates footage that has already been shot — at the point where changing anything is late and painful.

Testing a film idea on synthetic respondents works at the script and storyboard stage: the audience judges the story, the message and the characters before a shoot day is booked. The weak spots show up while fixing them costs a copywriter's afternoon rather than a reshoot.

## What you can test

- The script — the story written out
- A storyboard or animatic (JPG, PNG, PDF, GIF — up to 8 files per idea)
- Story alternatives: different endings, characters, tone
- Up to four film ideas in a single test

## How a test runs

1. **Pick the Video idea test type** — A ready-made questionnaire built for video ideas.
2. **Enter up to 4 ideas** — The script as text, the storyboard as files, or both.
3. **Define the audience segment** — The people the campaign targets: demographics, cities, income, behaviour.
4. **Read the report** — A ranking of the ideas, scaled scores and detailed impressions.

## What we ask respondents

The questionnaire follows the classic video pretest methodology:

- **Message** — What is this film actually saying? — an open question that checks whether the audience reads what you wrote in.
- **Comprehension** — Is the logic of the story clear?
- **Likability** — Do people like the idea?
- **Relevance** — Is this ad for me, with characters and a situation close to home?
- **Distinctiveness** — Does it stand apart from what other brands are running?
- **Purchase intent** — Any desire to try the product after watching?

Scaled questions come back as 1–5 scores and Top-2-Box figures. Open questions come back grouped, with quotes: what hooked people, what jarred, where the story loses the viewer.

## Frequently asked questions

**We only have a written script, no storyboard. Is that enough?**

Yes. Describe the story the way you would pitch it to a client: setup, characters, key scenes, ending, endline. A storyboard adds precision on the visual side, but the idea tests fine from text.

**Can I test a film that has already been shot?**

The test is built for the idea stage, where the result can still change something. For finished material, creative testing on key frames is the closer fit — but the real answer is to come back with the next script before the shoot.

**Can you compare our film against a competitor's?**

Yes — enter both as variants in one test and you get a comparison on identical metrics with the same audience.

**How much faster is this than a classic pretest?**

Minutes versus two to six weeks of fieldwork. It fits inside a production schedule, even between the pitch and the signed estimate.

## Related

- [Creative testing](https://feedback-engine.ai/en/creative-testing) — Static executions for the same campaign
- [Concept testing](https://feedback-engine.ai/en/concept-testing) — Check the campaign idea first
- [Methodology](https://feedback-engine.ai/en/methodology) — Where the method is strong and where it is not

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Start a test: https://my.feedback-engine.ai/auth?mode=register&lang=en