On The Lot - Season One Thread (2 Viewers)

[Parker Clack]

I don't see him caught in that rut. I think he has enough going for him where the sfx is part of the story, not the whole story, as is the case in many a .cgi infested "blockbuster" today. I liked his cinematography, the way he places his cameras, the performances he gets out of his actors and his way of telling a story without having to explain it all to the audience over and over.

The bottom line is that I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next. I am the same way when I go to see a film by a particular director that I like. I go to see what he/she has come up with this time.

 

[Jason Adams]

Agreed.

 

[Scott-S]

I don't understand people.

 

[Citizen87645]

I think what you really mean is there is no accounting for taste.

 

[Brent M]

Time for a MAJOR RANT!!! Just got done watching tonight's results show and all I can say is thank goodness I DVR'd it because I don't think there's any way I could have sat through the entire episode w/o the benefit of fast forward. That was an absolute train wreck and I can't believe Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg would allow their name to be associated with such a poorly thrown together television show. Say what you want about Survivor or The Apprentice, but their production values are the best of any reality TV shows out there. This results show looked like it was produced by a bunch of chimpanzee monkeys. In all actuality, tonight's episode could've been cut down to about 8 minutes as the rest was a complete waste of time. And as hot as Adrianna Costa is, she definitely shouldn't be hosting a live TV show. She seemed completely out of her element tonight and I don't know why they didn't hire someone with professional hosting ability for this show. As much as I enjoyed last night's 2 hour episode, tonight was almost bad enough to make me quit watching the show. OK, end of rant.

All of that doesn't even begin to tell the story of how disappointed I am with some of the choices as to who stayed and who had to leave. The fact that the "Wack Alley Cab" and "Screw in a Lighbulb" directors are still around makes me question what the hell people who voted are thinking. The first girl who got axed(Carolina) definitely got screwed as her film was quite good IMHO and she certainly didn't deserve to get voted off.

 

[Derek Miner]

I agree with a lot of comments already posted. Fox seriously botched the two introductory episodes. Perhaps they had such a limited time from when all the filmmakers got to LA or whatever, but I only give them a slight benefit of the doubt on that one. Incidentally, check out the bottom of the right-hand column on this page:

http://www.thelot.com/episodes/reviews/

In case you missed it or it's been corrected, the most important industry publication is not named "Varity"...

And that Variety "review" was nothing more than a drawn out summary. What the hell? I've read film reviews from Variety for years, and they usually describe the production values and commercial potential.

I also don't share the distaste for Brett Ratner. I think some of his work is too flashy, but I really liked "Red Dragon." And I don't blame him for the problems with "X-Men 3" either (I still enjoyed the movie). He seems somewhat genuine as well.

Some reactions during the first "Film Screening" episode:

- My friend Tony got sick of hearing Carrie Fisher talk about things having "a beginning a middle and an end." Similarly, Gary Marshall seemed way too excited about women directors.
- I wanted Garry Marshall to call something "cheap and peppy."
- We were unimpressed with "Deliver Me" as we saw a much better look at the overuse of cell phones in a short film called "Talk Me To Death" that was submitted to a film festival we run.
- My friend was turned off by the NYU grad, Jess, but I was sympathetic toward her because of her treatment at the hands of Kenny. Needless to say, I was happy when Kenny's short was not only bad but incomprehensible. I was also disappointed at Jess' short, which fulfilled the "film school" stereotypes my friend was complaining about...
- I thought the judges were much too hard on "Getta Rhoom" and to a lesser degree, "A Golf Story." I thought "Golf Story" had a great heart and punchline. I could have cared less about the lack of a "mini-golf" sight gag.''

I was not able to vote. I tried two different email addresses, but their system told me "invalid email address" while I was in the process of casting extra votes. Twice. And then the window closed.

Responses to the "Box Office" show:
- Not surprised that "Getta Rhoom" and "Danger Zone" made the top three. I would have thought "Dance Man" had a better shot at Top 3 over "Lucky Penny," though.
- Didn't notice on Monday's show that the posters around the theater were for each of the contestants' films. Effin awesome!! That's an uber cool keepsake of the competition, and I'm super impressed they could get something like that together in time.
- Kenny AND Jess get to stay?! WTF? I seldom get this emotional, but Kenny completely rubs me the wrong way. His inability to tactfully handle collaborators, his lack of ability to communicate in a way understandable to people he must work with (watch the outtakes of his 1-hour shoot), and then to have his film display no discernable story sense whatsoever, it's all too much. I like strange. I like surreal. I like non-sequitur. Kenny needs to learn a bit more from one of his favorite directors, Spike Jonze, who can actually tell a compelling story with incredibly strange elements. I guess there's something to be said about being the worst - by far - that will make you a special cause in some sector of the audience.
- Although I wasn't overly impressed with Carolina's film ("Deliver Me"), I certianly wish she had gotten to stay. I think she could definitely have learned something from the first week and made a much better second film.
- I was also sad to see Phil go, because even though I thought his film was a misfire as a comedy, I really liked his style. In a different genre, that last shot of the empty room with the broken piggy bank would be a home run.
- I worry about Zach getting so much praise and attention so early. I was recently thinking about the fact that I told someone they should watch "Freaks & Geeks" because I think it's one of the best television shows ever. In retrospect, that's a hard thing to live up to, regardless of its real merit. The moral: you can sometimes oversell something so much, it starts to look bad.

I hope someone got the "cheap and peppy" reference.

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

I watched all the films again tonight with some friends who also had already seen them. The second time around the only three films that made me genuinely laugh were Spaced Out, Dance Man and Replication Theory. The bad ones were only worse, but ones like Lucky Penny, Danger Zone that I liked before just didn't really work as well. I do still think Zach is going to fall hard in an upcoming week.

As for the result show, I agree with those above, DVR is the only way to get through it. Horrible, and made worse by the host. I laughed out loud at Gary Marshall's comment at the end "We thank your dress, and we thank our filmmakers." That is pretty much all she is there for, eyecandy.

I also can't believe the ones that went home. I won't miss any of them, but based on their films they weren't the worse. I would put them all in the bottom 6-8 though.

Now we get to see what kind of trainwrecks Kenny and Jess have instore for us next week.

Derek, to your spoiler, I saw that too and emailed thelot.com. Haven't heard back and it still isn't changed. How embarrassing.

Oh and still thumbs down to no HD even though they say it is on their website, plus always go to letterboxed widescreen for showing past segments and interviews.

 

[Derek Miner]

But there are HD commercials!

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

lol, even better, the promo and logo for The Lot is in HD as well!

It is funny reading the forums at thelot.com. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a group of people with pitchforks and torches outside the theatre to get Adrianna Costa off The Lot.

 

[Sean*O]

Tonight's lesson: America thinks people being struck by motor vehicles is comedy gold.

I was surprised 'Spaced Out' was not int the top 3. I think that guy or the VFX kid wins it all.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Adrianna Costa has got to go! What an utter annoyance that
woman is. Did anyone notice that she was completely drowned
out by applause at the start of the show?

I don't understand why this show needs an hour to eliminate
3 contestants. Thank God for the DVR or I'd be holding a razor
to my wrist.

I don't have any problems with who got voted off tonight, though
I think I'm voting on the personality factor at this point as
much as the film itself. For example, I'm happy the cute girl, Jess,
is staying (though her short film about the light bulb sucked!). I didn't
care much for the Italian girl so I am happy she is going.

I was rather surprised that Getta Room made it to the top
three, but in all, I found it entertaining and not a bit offensive.

Looking forward to next week.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Generally, I would not have signed up to the ON THE LOT
message board, but I figured that perhaps the Producers of
the show were paying close attention to what was being posted.

It's very clear that most everyone there is agreeing on the same
issues as far as what can be improved upon.

Here is my submission....

Agree with many of the posts here.

You know, I really feel that ON THE LOT is far more upscaled than the
teeny-bopper reality show fare out there. However, when you bring in
an inept host and an over-climatic concept, the show is reduced to a
level far below its worth.

For starters, Adrianna Costa is an atrocious host! Read the negative
comments on this forum. It is so blatantly apparent that viewers do
not like her. If you want to do the hosting duties correctly, you need
to approach it in a more dignified manner. I would much rather see a
person, preferably male, who is a respected celebrity, talk to the
audience as if they were intelligent. There is no need to shout or
over dramatize everything that gets said. This is all about film, and
as a artistic craft, should be treated with a little more respect
than Adrianna Costa brings to the table.

Let's just bring the energy level down a notch and start catering to
the intelligence of the viewer.

Secondly, the hour elimination show needs to be cut down to 30 minutes.
If not for the fact I had a DVR to scan through all the unnecessary BS,
I would have been completely bored.

The problem with ON THE LOT is that it's attempting to be too much like
AMERICAN IDOL without realizing its audience who is clearly on a different
level. The presentation of film shorts and voting process is perfect. What
We don't need is over-dramatic hosts or a 1-hour elimination show littered
with filler material.

Looking at some of the other great comments posted on previous pages, I
agree that not enough emphasis is put on showing the process of how the
short was made. This was lightly touched upon in the first week episodes,
but was completely forgotten this past week. Viewers want to go "behind
the scenes" to see how the movie magic was done and any problems that may
have been associated with the production. There's far more to this process
than just than watching the end product every week.

It also looks as if so much material was thrown out to the point that
the entire process of bringing us to the final 18 was hurried.

...and where is the assignment for next week? It was never announced.

The production values of this show leave so much to be desired. Clearly,
such a wonderful concept has been dumbed down to what the Producers felt
would cater to the lowest common denominator. Let's give this show the
respect its talented contestants deserve.


I really enjoy this show. In fact, Parker and I talked in length about ON THE
LOT and felt that it had the potential of being such a terrific show for the type
of individuals that come to this forum, that we would promote it on HTF. Any
complaints expressed are being done in desire of making it better.

 

[Jason_V]

Please gag me now. I'm so ticked off I don't know where to start.

I can mentally block out Adrianna Costa or the applause drowning her out or the commercials, even. I can deal with the padding and seeing the top three films again.

But good god, people, at least vote correctly. There is no way Phil, Claudia and Carolina made the worst movies of the bunch. Something struck me after the show was over: IIRC, there are only two "foreign" directors left--Zach and Shira-Lee. Phil (UK), Claudia (Italy) and Carolina (Spain) all got booted the same night. Coincidence?

One other typo on the website in the Contestants part: I'm sure Shira-Lee is from New York, not Ney York.

 

[Josh Dial]

Anytime a bad movie gets enough votes to keep the director safe for another week, just remember this is the same movie-going public who goes to see such gems as "White Chicks" and "Blades of Glory" yet stays home or walks out on "The Fountain" and "2001" (yes, I've see people walk out on 2001 during the anniversary screening years back).

However, I think it was a mistake choosing comedy as the first task, as it's one of the hardest and most divisive genres. I would have much rathered a task where the genre was dramatic, or even a director's choice, as this would allow the directors to shine early on and gain a following. Also, if you tank in your preferred genre, then it was most likely not going to happen anyway.

cheers!

Josh

 

[Jon Martin]

Let's be fair to Adrianna. She only got the job recently. She was a last minute replacement for Chelsea Handler. Yes, she was rough at the beginning last night, but she got better.

FOX seemed to be having a lot of glitches. At least on the East Coast, the show had a three minute delay. It didn't start until 8:03, with Fox frantically playing promos to fill time. Then, the show began, and Adrianna's mike was out.

So, with all that going on behind the scenes, it is a wonder the show was completed at all.

As I wrote, she basically just took from Seacrest 101, stole his entire schtick.

 

[Jason_V]

Yup, noticed that too. How many different promos did we have before the show started for all sorts of different programs? There had to be four, at least.

I can't understand why this would have had any issues production wise. Does Idol? Whatever Fox learned from putting that show on, apply it here. At least one shot of the final two in reach row showed the wrong people. Adrianna was constantly looking off screen at something; she looked at the wrong cameras every once in a while.

Sure, it's live and with a lot of people, but it can't be that hard to produce.

 

[Brent M]

EXACTLY!!! Like I said before, Mark Burnett is responsible for two shows with the best production values of any reality series out there(Survivor and The Apprentice) so how the hell can this thing come off looking so poorly done? It can't be that hard to do a live show as it's done successfully all the time, but for some reason On the Lot makes it look extremely difficult for some reason. I really want to like this show, but they're making it very frustrating when you have to sit through crap like that results show last night.

 

[Derek Miner]

That's not really fair in this week's case, Josh. It's not like "Wack Alley Cab" is like a "Blades of Glory," and it's in fact more like "The Fountain" in that they are the product of directors with a dynamic, unique (and uncompromising?) style. But I can't fathom anyone being able to cull some meaning or sense from "Wack Alley Cab."

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Aaaaaaaaargh. . .I think someone needs to organize reality-show audiences to throw tomatoes whenever a host utters the words "we'll find out. . .right after the break!" I'm pretty sure that was the worst case of drawing out the announcements I've ever seen. If it weren't for that red dress, I don't know if I could have sat through it all. (And before y'all jump on Ms. Costa's performance too much, think about whether she's writing her own lines.) Where does it end? Are they going to keep stretching these shows out until it takes two episodes to announce the elimination of one contestant?

I watched a bunch of the shorts, but not all of them. The choices weren't all that bad, especially considering it's the first week. I mean, do you really expect that the worst pieces are going to get voted off every time? Look at Idol!

As for "Ghetta Rhoom" being offensive. . .I do think the actor played it badly, and the director should have gotten him to try something different. He said that he wanted the character to be nerdy, but he came across as mentally challenged. Making fun of a nerd can be funny, but making fun of someone with Down Syndrome is just cheap and mean-spirited (this has nothing to do with political correctness). In fact, I wonder whether the producers didn't suggest something to the actor, just to see how the director would react.

Think of it this way -- picking on the NY Yankees for sucking is fun. Picking on the KC Royals for sucking is just cruel.

PS 14.5 games, baby!!!

 

[Derek Miner]

Great comment from the "On the Lot" board: