Rough cut

The film's first full assembly, ugly on purpose: structure visible, polish absent. Judged for story, and only for story.

The rough cut is the film meeting itself: every scene in order for the first time, long, unmixed, temp-scored, visually indifferent. It exists to answer structural questions, does the story stand, where does it sag, what is missing, while surgery is still cheap.

Watching one requires trained mercy: newcomers see the roughness, editors see through it. The classic warning holds, a rough cut shown to the wrong audience generates polish notes for scenes that should be deleted. Our drafts across disciplines follow the same law: judge the skeleton before dressing it, and never dress a skeleton that cannot walk.