On The Lot

[Carencey]

Anyone else watching this? The first few episodes were pretty rough, what with an excessive numbers of directors having to 'pitch' ideas, and a painful-to-watch group directing task. Now that they've gotten to the actual movies rather than reality-show-standard squabbling, it's actually been fun to watch.

Last week their task was to direct a one minute comedy. I've lost my notes for reviewing all 18 of them, but my personal top three were "Dance Man" by Adam Stein, "Spaced Out" by Andrew Hunt, and "Danger Zone", by Zach Lipovsky. My least favorites were "Getta Rhoom" by Jason Epperson (and I agreed with the judges that his "nerd" seemed mentally challenged instead), "To Screw in a Light Bulb" by Jessica Brillhart, and "Wack Alley Cab" by Kenny Luby, easily the worst of the night. You can view all 18 at www.thelot.com.
The actual results had Will Bigham's "Lucky Penny", "Danger Zone", and "Getta Rhoom" in the top 3--guess other voters thought the judges were unfair to Jason, I didn't. The 3 sent home included none of my bottom 3--tossed were Claudia LaBianca for "Blind Date", Phil Hawkins for "Please Hold", and Carolina Zorrilla de San Martin for "Deliver Me".

The next task was to go home, and over 5 days, complete a 3-minute film--I assume they were told a comedy, since that's what all the ones they've done tonight seem to be. Five films were shown tonight, which means this round is probably going to take 3 weeks.

Tonight's films--again, I won't summarize, because I assume they can be viewed online.
three minutes long
made in 5 days time

Sam Friedlander (Last week's movie: "Replication Theory" )
"Broken Pipe Dreams"

Really enjoyed it. Second judge did have a point with the middle section (hands tied) running a bit too long, but it didn't detract too much.

Trevor James (Last week: "Golf Story")
"Teri"
Liked it, but it didn't seem terribly fresh or original.

Hilary Graham (Last week: "Bus #1")
"The First Time I Met the Finkelsteins"
Not too fond of it...played all the way through stereotypes and offensively right out the other side. Strangely though, her most offensive line was also her funniest (the straddling a brisket line).

Adam Stein (Last week: "Dance Man")
"Dough: the Musical"
Loved it! nicely written, great cast and use of the lyrics and staging.

Shalini Kantayya (Last week: "Love in the Year 2007")
"Laughing Out Loud: A Comic Journey"
Her choice to do it as a documentary about someone who's funny was probably a good one, since last week she seemed to have no comedy chops. I didn't think her subject was all THAT funny, but the film seemed well made. The key there was whether they were assigned to do a comedy, or whether that's just what everyone chose for their short, or whether they put all of the 'comedies' together.

My rankings:
1 (tie) "Dough: The Musical" (Adam) and "Broken Pipe Dreams" (Sam)
3. "Laughing Out Loud: A Comic Journey" (Shalini)
4. "Teri" (Trevor)
5. "The First Time I Met the Finkelsteins" (Hilary)

The judges each chose a different favorite, the contestants picked Shalini's movie as their favorite and Hilary's as their least favorite.

[fenwayfan]

i heard this was really bad and they were thinking of canceling. dont think ill be tuning in.

[Carencey]

Might want to give it a try now that they are on to the movies. After the first two episodes, I wouldn't have watched again had there been anything else at all that I wanted to see at the same time, but I was actually glad I did watch.

Fox sort of has a formula for their reality shows, and it seems to involve selecting people for a preliminary round, wherein you meet a few of the many contestants, they do some sort of quick task that involves lots of people getting sent home, and some group task that involves lots of whining, some of the people you met don't make it, some that you never met do. It was NOT a good idea for them to stick to that format for this show, not at all.

[Carencey]

Quick summary of tonight--

I would have ranked them as follows:
1. Shira Lee -- "Beeline" (aka the Slut Mom movie)--amusing, and I agreed that her pacing was far superior to any of the others
2. Andrew -- "Polished" funny, but rather slow, and I couldn't help thinking that the end was a total lawsuit. lol
3. David -- "Love at First Shot" also a little bit slow, but I'd want to strike a blow in favor of cute nerddom rather than the movie that got voted for a few weeks ago.
4. Marty -- "Dance with the Devil" meh. nice to have one that wasn't a comedy, but everything about it was cliched.
5. Kenny -- "Edge on the End" well, yay, Kenny can make a music video. It's probably fair to note that at this point they are being asked to be both writer AND director, but even just the look of his movies gives me a headache. Please vote Kenny off? Please?


Last week's eliminations: Trevor and Hilary were the bottom two, Trevor was eliminated.