On The Lot - Season One Thread (1 Viewer)

http://www.thelot.com/

Who else is looking forward to this?

I see one of the judges will be Carrie Fisher. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this goes Tuesday.

Project Greenlight redux?

I will definately be watching this. Since it's open to Canadians, it's being advertised a ton, especially during LOST.

YEP! I'm 100% onboard with this show!
Can't wait!

I am really keen on this new show, which is a standard reality competition, in this case the competition being filmmaking.

But. . .did they REALLY have to schedule the premiere episode against the FINALE of Dancing With the Stars? I mean, really -- what am I going to do; skip the first episode of a show I'm interested in seeing, or skip the championship episode of a show that I've already been watching for months?

And don't talk to me about DVR!

Anyway. . .what do people think of the entry films that have been posted online? Do they look promising?

It is just the 'audition' episode so don't feel too bad if you miss it. There are two episodes of that so you can catch at least one.

I submitted for it, but didn't get in. Although I did submit on the very last day so they probably didn't even view it.

I have a friend that was asked to send in another piece, but it doesn't look like he is in the top 50 which is really surprising.

It is going to be interesting to see how this show plays out.

I think this show will make me sad. 17 years ago I made a 15 minute movie that cost me over $30,000 and with today's technology I could do it for a couple hundred.

ok if not a dvr why not 2 seperate tivos or vcrs.

either way i'd go with the finale.
you can still catch up on the Lot after one episode

I'm hoping the sweet time slot right after Idol will give this show a chance to succeed.

I set my TiVo to record this.

I hope it is good.

I'm giving this a shot as well. I always enjoyed Project Greenlight and this sounds like it could be interesting.

> I think this show will make me sad. 17 years ago I made a 15 minute movie that cost me over $30,000 and with today's technology I could do it for a couple hundred.

So why not make more really cheap films and sell them for big bucks? A lot of us think it's a positive thing that the cost of the tools has come way down.


What are the odds Spielberg will actually appear on this show? They keep dropping his name.

I am also looking forward to this. It will be interesting to see what comes out of it. It sure beats watching people convulse to music (dance).

You obviously haven't seen some of the convulsers.

I'm wondering the same thing. I think it would have been great to have him as a judge!

I'm guessing most of Spielberg's interaction on the show will be pretaped video comments if he participates at all.

I'm betting there will be a lot of Spielberg film names being dropped by the contestants left and right.

Know that what I am about to say is from the perspective of working in the entertainment industry. I have produced. I am primarily a film composer. A short I produced was on the "short list" for the Academy Award Oscar in 2005 and has won a bunch of awards including Best Comedy at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. I have have two feature films that I have scored that will be released theatrically in the next year or so. While I do this full time...I still feel like I am breaking in. But, I have learned a lot along the way. So...

Let me make a prediction about the filmmakers that will be shown on "The Lot" and hope that my prediciton is wrong. A problem with most young "dying to break into the indutry" directors and filmmakers today is that they have not learned that making a movie is not "about them." I have a feeling most of the young people on this show will fall into this category. But...like I said, hopefully I am wrong.

Filmmakers who micro-manage every department from beginning to end will ultimately fail. Don't get me wrong...I am not saying that people should not fret about the details. Sometimes the details are everything and you need to worry about the details and work endlessly to put out an entertaining product and a quality product. But, successful filmmaking is a collaborative process among many people.

There is a reason you hire talented people to do the various jobs on your film/show. You make them the "director" of those departments. Who you hire to do what is the most important decision you will make as a director or producer. A good director surrounds themselves with great talented people and this will help ensure they will be on the track to success as a director.

They let the cinematographer bring his artistic vision to it. They let the composer write his original music without trying to rip off some overused temp score they fell in love with while writing their script. They let the editor try out different things and perhaps collaborate with the screenwriter on structure. (American Beauty was not written the way it was edited together. It was the editor who shifted around the structure making it completely different than the screenplay....but ultimately better).

Directors should be fostering the environment for all of the creative talents to shine and let them all have input in their areas of expertise. And in the end, that director will have a much better film if they just let everyone be an expert and creative collaborator in their various areas, than they would if they had micromanaged everything. Good directors keep the ship going in the right general direction...but are flexible in exactly how it gets there.

Many of the young filmmakers today have creativity and talent, but also have arrogance in that they feel they are entitled to some level of success because they can do a better job than {insert successful hollywood director here} or make a better film than {insert Hollywood flop here}. Hence, young directors tend to feel that they know better than a lot of those who are successfully working in the industry. And, the competition for attention is fierce. Young directors also come from an environment where they are use to doing everything themselves due to lack of funds. They write their own screenplays, they do their own editing on a MAC with Final Cut Pro. They do their own camera work on some DV cam...they write their own music with Apple's soundtrack and garage band, etc... So...in the "real world" of movie making, there are many people you have to collaborate with in these various areas and a big key to success is knowing how to work with and collaborate with all of the various departments with the various talents (who all have their own issues and ajendas).

As I watch "The Lot", I will be looking for the young directors who seem to get it. I can teach anyone a cool technique or a different way of looking at things...but you almost can't teach someone how to communicate with others effectively and how to inspire others to want to work for you and to do their best. You can't teach personality and that will go a long way in this biz. It is why certain people in this biz makes it and others who are equally "talented" do not. You have to be a good person to work with. People have to want to work for you. You have to have that certain something that makes peope say "he's the real deal." You have to understand that it is a business and that to a studio, it is all about the money and marketability. You have to know which battles to fight and which ones to let go...because like a chess game you can see 10 moves down the road that there is a bigger battle you ultimately need to win. The studios could care less about your "artistic vision" or the statement you are trying to make.

So...you have to know how to "play the game" as some like to say. If I can see in any of these filmmakers that they get these things...I will hope that they ultimately win. And for the winner...$1 Million is not really that much money for a movie any more. So...it is not like they will be able to make anything huge with that anyway. Anything under $40 is now considered low budget by the musician's union.

How is this show NOT in HD?!?!?

standard reality show non HD.

I like that Alan Hunt. I think he's the guy who was interviewed after getting off the bus. I picked him right then.

As it turns out, he had a great pitch... he's going to win.

I guess I was expecting more with Fox doing Idol in HD for the past few years.

I reallly liked the show. But I have to wonder how much mass appeal it will have. We'll see.