ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

this is an absolutely AMAZING show. it also has large potential for created wagering markets, or to do pools and props within the forum.

i encourage everyone to get up to speed now. try and find the episode aired tonight @ 8-10p on fox

http://www.thelot.com/

honestly, this show is a winner!!

http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/u/director.gifhttp://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/u/director.gif

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

Almost through the first hour here in the west coast. So far two stand out for me:

"Spaced Out" - Andrew
"Lucky Penny" - Will

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

I missed most of last week, but tuned in tonight for the 18 directors and their one-minute comedy shorts.

My favs: Dance Man, Spaced Out, Lucky Penny, Danger Zone (awesome), Replication Theory,

Honorable Mention: Getta Rhoom

Hated: Wack Alley Cab, Bus #1, …To Screw In A Light Bulb

THE LOT
You can watch the films here (I found the ones tonight under the "vote" tab.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

This show makes me want to quit my job.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

I dunno Granny I was a huge fan of Project Greenlight and I love movies, but so far this show isn't that great IMO. 2 hours of watching mostly lame short films gets pretty dull. Also, the host and the judges are awful. Maybe future shows will be better as there are less contestants.

Anyway so far the ones I like are "Lucky Penny" and "Danger Zone". Wasn't getting the love for the puking aliens. I guess puppets + puke = great comedy.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

I think we are missing our Simon Cowell.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the judges pretty much agree every single time?
And, someone please tie down Carrie Fischer's arms.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

I didn't realize before tonight that we get to screen and vote on the films. This show has taken a turn for the awesome.

Edit: Early prediction: The final 3 will be Andrew ("Spaced Out"), Sam ("Replication Theory"), and Shira-Lee ("Check Out"). The special-effects guy will turn out to be all flash and little substance.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

Someone had to do it. My rankings and comments from worst to best, with ratings from 1 (bad) to 10 (good).

Kenny - "Whack Alley Cab" 1
Easily the worst of the night. Bad idea. Bad directing. Bad acting.

Hilary - "Bus #1" 2
This was also bad. The idea could have been okay if she had found some tasteful ways to do this. It wasn't funny at all either.

Jess - "To Screw In A Lightbulb" 2
Simple idea but over used joke. Too many actors running around made everything too complicated to get was was happening. Unable to express her idea well.

Shalini - "Love In The Year 2007" 2
I didn't like it. I think she is just a serious person and isn't really suited for comedy. She would probably do okay with a documentary or something.

Jason - "Getta Room" 3
The judges were right this time too. I also thought it looked like the character was "special". That means he did a poor job of expressing his idea. People could easily have taken this wrong.

Carolina - "Deliver Me" 3
I thought this was dumb. I don't know. Maybe females liked it? It wasn't funny.

Marty - "The Big Bad Heist" 3
His movie didn't fit the theme. It also wasn't funny at all. Seems like he will do better with an action movie.

Trevor - "A Golf Story" 4
I don't really have much good or bad to say about this one. I guess I thought it was just boring.

Phil - "Please Hold" 4
A decent idea but the shooting was way to dark for a comedy. The ending was also a little confusing.

Mateen - "Soft" 5
One colored contestant and he uses all colored actors and does a mugging scene. I wonder if most of his movies will be this way. Movie/idea was okay with a nice twist at the end but have to agree with judges in that they were ALL soft.

David - "File Size" 5
It was just average for me. I think it was a decent idea and he could have potential later on.

Adam - "Dance Man" 6
I think the actor did a good job and made this one seem better than it actually was. This one would not have done well without the introduction and him telling us the guy could not speak and used dance to express himself. Without that we would all just be scratching our heads with this one. Creative though.

Claudia - "Blind Date" 7
I thought the judges were tough on her. It was a simple idea that she probably took a little too far with the toilet scene. Without those details it would have been pretty good but it was very predictable. Will have to see how she does next week.

Sam - "Replication Story" - 8
A real life uncomfortable situation shown in about 4 different ways. This was good but I feel he may have gotten lucky with this one.

Zach - "Danger Zone" 9
There wasn't much of a story but he did a good job with it. It made want to keep watching to see what would happen next.

Shira-Lee - "Check Out" 9
The judges were correct with this one too. It was sexy and funny. It was something everyone could relate to. Again, it was very simple and easy to follow.

Will - "Lucky Penny" 10
Again, another simple idea that was easy to follow. I liked the closeup of the pulley and also the penny as it rolled away to the old lady.

Andrew - "Spaced Out" 10
I will say this again. It was very simple and easy to follow. Some of the other movies were just to complicated and needed introductions to figure out what was happening. This one had just one actor and a couple puppets.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
I didn't realize before tonight that we get to screen and vote on the films. This show has taken a turn for the awesome.

Edit: Early prediction: The final 3 will be Andrew ("Spaced Out"), Sam ("Replication Theory"), and Shira-Lee ("Check Out"). The special-effects guy will turn out to be all flash and little substance, so he'll blake his way to the finals .

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
I guess puppets + puke = great comedy.


[/ QUOTE ]

imo, it gets no better!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/n/puke.gifhttp://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/n/pukeface.gifhttp://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/n/smiliechicken.gifhttp://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/q/justsad.gif

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
Kenny - "Whack Alley Cab" 1
Easily the worst of the night. Bad idea. Bad directing. Bad acting.


[/ QUOTE ]

i hated this guy from the earlier elimination. now i see why they painted him as a villian.. he SUX.

that was an uncomfortable short to watch.

thx for the ranking NoChance

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

I mostly agree with your ratings NoChance, except that I think Will and Zach may be somewhat overrated. We shall see how it unfolds in future weeks, I'm sure they're safe for awhile.

Looking forward to the results show (I guess it's already over for you East Coasters), but sheesh, an hour long? I think they're borrowing a little too much from AI.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

Ya, the hostess chickie is no Ryan Seacrest. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
Carrie Fischer is already more annoying than Paula Abdul will ever be.
I thought there were a few surprises among the results...but don't want to spoil it for the Westies [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

Shrug,
I think the general rule during AI has been that us Westies enter these threads at our own risk. Perhaps we can get a ruling from GM. At any rate, I think I want to be surprised this time so I'm going to avoid this thread til after the show.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

I just expect the results to be posted. I know better than to come here until the show is over. For AI, the threads were longer each night. I would scroll down (paying attention to post time) only as far as I had seen so far so I could pretend the comments were in real time but I would never look ahead.

EDIT: I only ask that people keep the results out of the subject lines. Note that it was never a problem during the entire AI season. Everyone who posts here has been very good about that.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

On that note, I am not sure how Kenny made it another week. The rest were certainly not shocking. I just wish Claudia and Kenny had swapped.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

"Ghetta Rhoom" one of the top 3? Wow, just wow. Other than that, no huge surprises.

This hostess makes me think there's a lot of skill to what Seacrest does. Hopefully she'll get better with experience, because boy did she look awkward and unprepared tonight.

This show is a winner! It almost makes up for the fact that there's no Rock Star:x to look forward to.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

WTF how are people giving Spaced Out any love? It was just a cop pulling over aliens and the puked on him, what was funny about that? I thought that was one of the stupidest things I have ever seen and a trained monkey with a camera obscura could make a better film. Seriously, this is supposed to be the cream of the crop in young and upcoming filmmakers? No thanks. Check Out and Danger Zone were WAY better in my opinion, and I also liked Dance Man and Replication Story (although Dance Man was a little easy, the guy did a good job with the music and the actor was great).

I didn't watch today, I didn't like the show that much. The judges sucked, all they did was remind everyone how wonderful they are even when ripping their films.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
This show is a winner! It almost makes up for the fact that there's no Rock Star:x to look forward to.

[/ QUOTE ]

I still think this show is about 1000x duller than it needs to be, based on its interesting premise. I expected more from Mark Burnett. Project Greenlight was much more entertaining. On the Lot needs Chris Moore telling the directors their movie is a clusterf**ck. He was hilarious.

And from what I've read the ratings so far are in the toilet. I wouldn't be surprised to see this end up the season as an online-only show if the ratings stay this bad.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

The fact that "Whack Alley Cab" and "..To Screw in Light Bulb" made it through astounds me. I thought they were awful.

As for "Getta Room", I am divided on this. I think his choice portrayal of the lead character was unfortunate as he did come across as someone with special needs. But, if you look at it from Jason's "intended" POV as it being a nerd, then I think the short holds up. I thought it told a complete story in the 1-minute time frame, and was overall pretty clever.

"Spaced Out" was cute and funny...but went absolutely nowhere. After the 1st pukage, the story went nowhere..and that is where it failed for me.

It s painful to me that all the judge's come from the "Paula Abdul" school in that no matter what you think.....sugar coat it. Perhaps they all think they need to nurture this new talent, but in reality, some of them just need the brutal truth told to them. Quit coddling the ones that submit crappy films...just tell them that they stunk up the joint and they better get their sh*t together.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

I agree with everything Shrug said. The wacky cab and the lightbulb were easily the worst two. Just offensively bad.

I also really liked the British guy's movie that got him sent home. He's a good visual stylist, and the actress's expression when the 911 voice said "you are... being burgled" was one of the few LOL moments I had during the show.

The host Adriana Costa is terrible. I hate her voice, and her readings of the results are so stupid and derivative. Why did Goffin & Burnett try to make this show so much like Idol? I did like DJ Caruso as a guest judge.

These results shows are going to be painful so I expect to always fast forward to just see the ultimate eliminations; none of the suspense crap or recapping the judges' comments.

It's getting really bad ratings but Mike Darnell (FOX) is committed to running the whole season no matter how poorly it does.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
These results shows are going to be painful

[/ QUOTE ]

it was BRUTAL. they obviously were emulating idol, but at least idol never went 60 minutes of contestant by contestant.


hate to say it, but the show needed filler.

zzzzzz

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

Looks like they've changed the show's format. Only one show a week now. It must really be tanking in the ratings.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

FOX TRIMS 'ON THE LOT' TO ONE WEEKLY AIRING
By Brian Ford Sullivan (TFC)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LOS ANGELES (thefutoncritic.com) -- After another week of sagging ratings, FOX has dropped its Monday edition of "On the Lot."

The series will now condense its competition and results shows into one weekly one-hour program, airing Tuesdays at 8:00/7:00c starting June 5.

Said schedule will continue until its two-night finale airs on Monday, August 13 and Tuesday, August 14 (both at 8:00/7:00c). (The series will also have a special Monday, 8:00/7:00c airing on July 9 due to the network's coverage of the MLB All-Star Game on July 10.)

In its place on Mondays at 8:00/7:00c, FOX will run repeats of "House" and "Hell's Kitchen" on June 4 and June 11, respectively, while a mix of "The Simpsons," "American Dad" and "Family Guy" encores will fill the hour for the rest of the summer.

As a result of the change, FOX will shift "The Loop's" previously announced Tuesday airings (June 5 and June 12) to Sundays at 7:30/6:30c on June 24 and July 1. The news means that "The Loop" will air at 7:30/6:30c, 8:30/7:30c and 9:30/8:30c on said nights. (Regular 7:30/6:30c occupant "King of the Hill" then will move to 7:00/6:00c on those two nights.)


Link

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

i HATED the "meet the focker's" ripoff and the blind date one.

i LOVED shalini's film on the indian gay comic. the other 2 were meh.

i think the blind date one (trever) should be gone.

remember that all films can be viewed @ the website. format was different tonight. they did only 5 films.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

michael bay was actually pretty good as a judge. very blunt and matter of fact

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
michael bay was actually pretty good as a judge. very blunt and matter of fact

[/ QUOTE ]

I generally can't stand his movies, but I liked the way he expressed himself. Also, for some odd reason he reminded me of Rick Ocasek when he spoke, but it was kind of cool.

I was very impressed by how Shalini's movie had such a professional look and feel, especially when the rest of them looked like student films. I still think Sam has a lot of potential though, using the dog for reaction shots was great.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

I liked Michael Bay also, unlike the regular judges he wasn't afraid to give some constructive criticism.

That movie with the obnoxious Jewish parents was completely unwatchable and borderline offensive. It was like a Jewish version of a minstrel show IMO.

And what's up with that host? She's horrible. What happened to the hot blond host from the first episode? She just disappeared with no explanation.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

Michael Bay reminds me of

http://www.nndb.com/people/073/00010...ter-horton.jpg

Laughing Out Loud - The only non-comedy of the night which made it stand out. Was the only film that had a "visual appeal" to it through the use of different lighting. I really enjoyed it although my hubby didn't "get it" [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Broken Pipe Dreams - I liked this one. I think he could have done a better job indicating the beginning of the flashback as it took me a second to realize what was happening there...plus I would have made the lead a lot younger in the flashback, as that guy seemed a bit old to be freaking out over having the fish flushed.
I thought the fish coming out after the ring was awesome, but to tie it in better with the mishaps earlier, I think it would have been fitting for the the fish to perhaps slide out of his hand and into the dog's mouth. (ok..maybe that would have made it end on a downer [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img])
I do feel that it could have been tightened up a hair by deleting some of the repitition.

Dough - Cute concept and I like the lyrics. Thought there was no chemistry between the characters.

Blind Date - Had promise and some funny moments. At first I was put off by trying to figure out if the first few imagined dates were all the same person, just made up differently.

Finkelsteins - The laughs came from the shock value of what was coming out of the father's mouth. The one thing that I am still puzzled about was the lead's insistence that his fiancee not be alone with his mother...yet we still don't know why. What could she have said that was worse than what was happening already?
The film had a promising premise, but disappointed.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
The film had a promising premise, but disappointed

[/ QUOTE ]

that promising premise HAS BEEN DONE! that's my point.

it was an offensive parody of meet the fockers. jay roach should be suing.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
Michael Bay reminds me of

http://www.nndb.com/people/073/00010...ter-horton.jpg

Laughing Out Loud - The only non-comedy of the night which made it stand out. Was the only film that had a "visual appeal" to it through the use of different lighting. I really enjoyed it although my hubby didn't "get it" [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Broken Pipe Dreams - I liked this one. I think he could have done a better job indicating the beginning of the flashback as it took me a second to realize what was happening there...plus I would have made the lead a lot younger in the flashback, as that guy seemed a bit old to be freaking out over having the fish flushed.
I thought the fish coming out after the ring was awesome, but to tie it in better with the mishaps earlier, I think it would have been fitting for the the fish to perhaps slide out of his hand and into the dog's mouth. (ok..maybe that would have made it end on a downer [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img])
I do feel that it could have been tightened up a hair by deleting some of the repitition.

Dough - Cute concept and I like the lyrics. Thought there was no chemistry between the characters.

Blind Date - Had promise and some funny moments. At first I was put off by trying to figure out if the first few imagined dates were all the same person, just made up differently.

Finkelsteins - The laughs came from the shock value of what was coming out of the father's mouth. The one thing that I am still puzzled about was the lead's insistence that his fiancee not be alone with his mother...yet we still don't know why. What could she have said that was worse than what was happening already?
The film had a promising premise, but disappointed.

[/ QUOTE ]

They were al pretty bad considering this is like the top 10 of thousands of people throughout the world.

The gay comic one gets credit because it was stylish and about something although it has been done a million times and wasn't very original. The dialogue in it was pretty godawful.

The musical gets credit because the guy actually attempted to do a musical and the writing was "cute". It lacked visuals like MB said and you figure he would have done some special effects.

Blind Date- horrible
Wedding ring- pretty lame though it showed some skill..but overall it was contrived and dumb
Dinner with parents--awful awful awful.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Michael Bay reminds me of

http://www.nndb.com/people/073/00010...ter-horton.jpg

Laughing Out Loud - The only non-comedy of the night which made it stand out. Was the only film that had a "visual appeal" to it through the use of different lighting. I really enjoyed it although my hubby didn't "get it" [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Broken Pipe Dreams - I liked this one. I think he could have done a better job indicating the beginning of the flashback as it took me a second to realize what was happening there...plus I would have made the lead a lot younger in the flashback, as that guy seemed a bit old to be freaking out over having the fish flushed.
I thought the fish coming out after the ring was awesome, but to tie it in better with the mishaps earlier, I think it would have been fitting for the the fish to perhaps slide out of his hand and into the dog's mouth. (ok..maybe that would have made it end on a downer [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img])
I do feel that it could have been tightened up a hair by deleting some of the repitition.

Dough - Cute concept and I like the lyrics. Thought there was no chemistry between the characters.

Blind Date - Had promise and some funny moments. At first I was put off by trying to figure out if the first few imagined dates were all the same person, just made up differently.

Finkelsteins - The laughs came from the shock value of what was coming out of the father's mouth. The one thing that I am still puzzled about was the lead's insistence that his fiancee not be alone with his mother...yet we still don't know why. What could she have said that was worse than what was happening already?
The film had a promising premise, but disappointed.

[/ QUOTE ]

They were al pretty bad considering this is like the top 10 of thousands of people throughout the world.

The gay comic one gets credit because it was stylish and about something although it has been done a million times and wasn't very original. The dialogue in it was pretty godawful.

The musical gets credit because the guy actually attempted to do a musical and the writing was "cute". It lacked visuals like MB said and you figure he would have done some special effects.

Blind Date- horrible
Wedding ring- pretty lame though it showed some skill..but overall it was contrived and dumb
Dinner with parents--awful awful awful.

[/ QUOTE ]

these were no notice, do it yourself, 5 day productions.

i agree that 3 of them were awful, but i wonder what spielberg could have done at that age, in 5 days, with zero budget?

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

they werent no notice..all the contestants knew they were entering a short film competition months ahead of time.

You figure anyone with a brain would have been prepared for all these scenarios

and 5 days is an eternity.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
and 5 days is an eternity.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm guessing you've never been on a film set.

Another thing I liked about Sam's film was spoofing the film cliche of cutting the blue/red wire by using the blue/red threads.

It really sucks that we have to wait a week now for results.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

Yea...the waiting a week sucks...but is still preferable to the eternal hell that was their godawful results show.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
they werent no notice..all the contestants knew they were entering a short film competition months ahead of time.

[/ QUOTE ]

why would you make that assumption?? every other task has been handed out AFTER the last task, and the filmmakers have not known it what was coming.

[ QUOTE ]
and 5 days is an eternity.

[/ QUOTE ]

are you a nut?? it would be near impossible to make a 'masterpiece' worthy to be debuted before of 10 million viewers. i think these shorts were crappy because they had to fit everything in 5 days, editing included. i expect that there are few directors that could pull this off, and that this task was intended exactly to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
they werent no notice..all the contestants knew they were entering a short film competition months ahead of time.

[/ QUOTE ]

why would you make that assumption?? every other task has been handed out AFTER the last task, and the filmmakers have not known it what was coming.

[ QUOTE ]
and 5 days is an eternity.

[/ QUOTE ]

are you a nut?? it would be near impossible to make a 'masterpiece' worthy to be debuted before of 10 million viewers. i think these shorts were crappy because they had to fit everything in 5 days, editing included. i expect that there are few directors that could pull this off, and that this task was intended exactly to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

[/ QUOTE ]

uh no I'm not nuts

This is a short film competition--they had a general idea of what was in store for them early on when they entered to be one of the contestants--the form detailed that they would be making several films in different genres over the contest.

You would figure that even a somewhat bright film school student would realize...hmm maybe i should think up and write out 10-15 short films..maybe even go so far as to work on shot selection/storyboard etc and then once they got to the competition and they were like.."guess what...your making a comedy this week blah blah blah" they would have something ready to go and then could just deal with set design, casting,location, etc.

5 days is plenty for a 3 minute short if u are somewhat prepared..none of these contestants are which is really shocking.

Many major short workshops for people, some who WHO HAVE NEVER written or shot anything take place over a weekend...3 days...and I've seen plenty of shorts that came out amazing. Most sucked but there were some gems in there.

It is not like these contestants submitted there stuff then in the middle of the night Mark Burnett grabbed them from their beds and dragged them onto the FOX lot telling them to do this and that. They were notified they won and that they would begin the contest on specific date..sign release forms...blah blah blah

plenty of time to prepare.
The very first scene with the pitch fest was pretty eye-opening. Contestants seemed shocked that they would have to come up with an idea overnight and pitch it.
You have to do that in any basic Screenwriting 101 class, and it is usually 3-5 ideas not 1, let alone on a show your pre selected for and may win a studio deal lol.

And yes i've been on a movie set before.
El Mariachi was shot for $7000 in 14 days...thats a feature length film...for 3 minutes and at least a month of prep... 5 days is a lifetime

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

*some* points taken.

how do you have such experience? can you generically share?

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

el mariachi might have been shot in 14 days, but how long did it take to write it, cast it, scout locations, rehearse, shoot, edit, and other post-production etc.? I'm guessing it was many months from start to finish.

Re: ON THE LOT **official thread**
 

[ QUOTE ]
el mariachi might have been shot in 14 days, but how long did it take to write it, cast it, scout locations, rehearse, shoot, edit, and other post-production etc.? I'm guessing it was many months from start to finish.

[/ QUOTE ]

Went to film school, have shot my own sutff, went to one of the 3 day bootcamps, have worked as a PA on other film students projects/studio projects, worked for a indep film producer and currently work for a producer with deal at a studio.

I'd recommend his book "Rebel without a Crew"...but the gist of my idea is with some planning anyone can shoot a 3 minute short in 1-2 day let alone 5 days. Someone with talent should be able to shoot a very good one in 5 days.

The problem is none of these(besides the special effects guy...cuz it seems odd he would choose to shoot a musical out of the blue) people seem to have put any thought into planning ahead of time...which is kind of a huge part about being a director.

Thats why much of their stuff doesn't look good and is kind of generic and lame.