On The Lot

[rothko]

katy, you forgot the nerve endings one and, yeah, there is zach's film and then the others.

the concept was terrible for the caveman one.

also, how does a stuntcar driver have a wreck in those conditions?

[CharlieDontSurf]

Zach is simply on completly different level than all the other directors. His camera work and coverage was really really good on his short...concept very smart...acting/set design/sound effects/music perfect.

the really just need to end the contest and give him the deal.

the schmucky guy who always makes weird faces when the camera is on him needs to realize that there is a thing called dialogue and stop making silent films

[polkaface]

I watched it last night as well, and have seen every episode. I agree with pretty much everyone's takes so far.

Zach was clearly the best. Doctor in law was clearly 2nd best and then there were the rest.

[Duke]

Ok, I have a minute to comment on last night's show.

Zach: Ok, he's the best one there by far. I'd pay $20 to go see his movies in a theater, as he's more talented than most directors in Hollywood today.

Silent Dude: We have TALKIES now. I see him as the second most talented contestant, but he needs to do something with dialog.

Father in Law: When I first saw it, I thought that it was pretty stupid. I also appreciated how that one judge kept referring to them as being/speaking Korean. He even said something like: "Why didn't YYY say XXX in Korean?" The best answer: "Because he's Chinese."

Car one: This guy knows something about product placement. As a car commercial, that could work with a little touching up and some actual humor. The closest thing to a decent joke in it was the "SHOTGUN" that a caveman yelled.

Baby Making: Pretty much dumb across the board. It's one of those (like the car one) where you might want to giggle because you're embarrassed that the director tried to pull something off that just fell flat on its face, and you might even want to make a god comment about it. It's not worthy of the good comments, but wasn't as bad as the Sperm Bank.

Sperm Bank: Terrible on every level. I think the judges just wanted to say something nice to her before she got voted off.

Carrie Fisher probably shouldn't be a judge. Though she's apparently been in a bunch of movies, there's a reason why they have to toggle between "Star Wars" and "When Harry Met Sally" for the info-line about her when they show her name. I suppose she could be seen as the "voice of America," and I guess she was hot in Return of the Jedi, but she's becoming a bit annoying at times. I'd take Mark Hamill over her.

One thing that annoys me about this show is when people decide to get snippy with the judges to show that they're some sort of a tough guy. "I'm in 14 gangs and we only commit hate crimes! I can do what I want, whateva." Perhaps if they learned to shut the [censored] up and listen to criticism they wouldn't make such [censored] movies. I could see something like: "You think so? I was thinking XYZ but I guess I was either wrong or didn't handle it properly. Thanks!" But oh no. "I know who I am as a director, so [censored] all y'all for not liking my movie. The world thinks that it's boring and sucks but they're wrong and I'm right. FU LEIA."

I think that the best path for the show would be to just take Zach out of it, and see who of the rest rises to the top. He's definitely in a league of his own. Get him started on a real movie ASAP. Anyone amongst them who doesn't realize that they're fighting for second place is an idiot.

An alternate option would be to put serous constraints on Zach, but let him show a film every single week. Like, not have him really be in competition, but just there as a sort of draw for the show. Showing his stuff last is definitely the right move. And by constraints, I mean stuff like every shot being an overhead shot, or a shot from foot level, or the movie has to be silent, or it has to be all audio with single-color frames that can alternate but show nothing other than a full screen of blue, or black, or the whole movie has to be shot from inside a coffin.

I almost see Zach as an experiment in that we could find out some amazing things about the medium by constraining him and then seeing what he does with what's left.

[rothko]

so, how close to the end will zach get robbed?

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
so, how close to the end will zach get robbed?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think he can get robbed. Even if they drop him next week, he'll be able to pitch whatever he wants to whomever he wants and get a movie deal. His name and work is out there for everyone to view, and it's speaking very well of him.

I actually just watched Sunshine Girl and some other ones he did earlier in the show (I just started watching last week), and they're all better than anything I saw any of the rest do so far.

[dlk9s]

My wife and I couldn't believe the judges complemented Sperm Bank (or whatever the actual title was). It really, really sucked.

My takes:

1) Zach - yeah, it's all been said. He's great. I have to give props to the actors, too.

2) Sperm Bank - the concept could have worked. The execution was bad. If she could have done something like make it look as if it was a real bank robbery and then drop the sperm bank bomb at the end, that would've been funnier (and during the movie, have the dialogue apply to both a real bank and sperm bank so that the audience can think back and laugh about it). Also, the end was awful. I particularly liked how when the women tripped, we didn't see what they tripped on and the young woman's mask was on in one frame, off the next.

Nerve Endings -- I thought it was relatively entertaining, but not really laugh out loud funny. Yeah, dude needs his actors to talk out loud. I did like the end when Reginald VelJohnson (love him) made the patient slap the intern.

How to Make a Girl -- again, decent concept, but the director turned it into one running joke that went on too long. If he would've had the people keep whipping out things from their lists of how to create a girl/boy to sort of trump each other, that would've been funnier. A naked Tatiana Ali would have been an improvement, too.

Cavemen -- holy [censored], this wasn't funny. The "shotgun" part was the only thing that got a slight chuckle out of me. I didn't even really understand the point of the movie.

Father-in-law: Funny. Nothing wrong with it at all, just not as good as Zach's.

[Popinjay]

[ QUOTE ]
The Bad: The rock music w/ lyrics = music video, the lighting and camera work..to dark/doesn't look like it is in focus which doesn't really add anything to scene. The subtitles..show don't tell...and if your going to tell at least use dialogue. there isnt much of a story/characters etc.

The Good: you actually went out and made something..you can only learn by actually doing it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I should've mentioned this earlier but I couldn't have any dialogue hence the subtitles (originally meant to be voice-overs but subtitles work imo).

Thanks everyone for replying to my work. Like I said I've just begun doing this stuff and have already learned a ton since I made this movie. I'm making another much bigger/higher prod. value movie next yr at school, a short I think I could make good enough to win some awards at festivals/get myself On The Lot.

Saw most of this week's ep as well. I still think it is old white guy with goatee (brain movie this week) and Andy are the faves to win it. Actually missed Andy's movie so gonna check it out on the site. Hilary needs to go.

[Popinjay]

[ QUOTE ]
just finished. zach was by far the best. all of the rest missed the mark.

caveman one sucked. why'd you ask specifically about it?

also, why has nobody shot the host in the face, yet?

[/ QUOTE ]

are you kidding me she is smoking hot? I can only assume you mean shot in the face in a different manner.

[rothko]

[ QUOTE ]
I can only assume you mean shot in the face in a different manner.

[/ QUOTE ]

good lord, no. with a real gun.