http://www.thelot.com/

"ON THE LOT" SEMI-FINALISTS ANNOUNCED

After receiving a record-setting 12,000 video submissions at TheLot.com from aspiring filmmakers around the globe, 50 semi-finalists have been selected for the new filmmaking competition series ON THE LOT from Mark Burnett, Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Television. In the two "audition round" episodes airing Tuesday, May 22 9/8c and Thursday, May 24 9:30/8:30c on FOX, these semi-finalists will discover the magic of moviemaking when they are brought to Los Angeles to visit a real-life film set for the first time and must endure a rigorous "Hollywood Boot Camp."

5/22/2007 2:27:45 PM

Quote :

"endure a rigorous "Hollywood Boot Camp." "

5/22/2007 3:54:19 PM

This show has an 85% chance of sucking.

[Edited on May 22, 2007 at 4:08 PM. Reason : Mainly because of Burnett.]

5/22/2007 4:07:54 PM

^huh? I agree the show will likely be terrible, but not because of Burnett. As far as compelling reality television he has as a good a track record as anyone. Survivor is consistently one of the most watchable shows on tv. The Restaurant was great despite it's failure to catch on. Even the Apprentice was pretty good for awhile. And although I don't watch it, I know people with generally good taste in tv who stand being the Contender. Burnett's shows may be stupid and lack any artistic merit, but that doesn't mean they aren't good.

5/22/2007 4:14:35 PM

Quote :

"Burnett's shows may be stupid and lack any artistic merit"

my point exactly

[Edited on May 22, 2007 at 4:17 PM. Reason : not everyone loves reality TV, either]

5/22/2007 4:16:34 PM

^Okay. Then I'd say this show's chances of sucking is much closer to 100% for you. Are you able to enjoy things that are "stupid" and/or "lack artistic merit?"

5/22/2007 4:27:04 PM

Sure I can. The 15% is mainly due to the topic of the show.

5/22/2007 4:30:20 PM

I don't really see how the show would work (guess I'd have to watch it to see, but that's not going to happen….)
Point being, "directing" is, by definition, so much behind the scenes that most people, or at least most people that they want to watch this show (i.e. the American Idol viewers) won't know or realize what the actual influence of a Director vs. the actors, editors, cameramen, plot, etc. Obviously the director has the biggest single-person influence over all these processes, but it seems to me like people watching these short films or whatever they're making will be more influenced by plot and storyline and acting ability.

5/22/2007 4:50:01 PM

i would have so tried out for this show, but i'd probably lose in the screenwriting portion if there was one. i can't write stories for shit.

5/22/2007 4:55:05 PM

wow, this was a really bad first show. The biggest problem is that we are given way too many contestants. And after the first episode it was only narrowed down to 36. ughhh. We were also not shown any of the short films they that won them a spot on the show (we saw 2 or 3 short clips of a couple of them). This show would have been much better if they could have given us the best 5 or 6 contestants, let's see their shorts, and show us some of the work that they are all doing to make their next film.

5/24/2007 2:27:23 AM

but then they can't make the show last as long. also it decreases the chances that people start acting likes cunts toward one another. i didn't think it was that bad, at least more interesting than Survivor or any other of that guy's shows.

5/24/2007 2:48:32 AM

i think once they narrow it down a little more we will see more of the films they made

5/24/2007 2:49:06 AM

^yeah, I agree. I actually thought it was pretty good. I think it'd be pointless to start with 5 or 6 finalists. The excitement comes when someone gets voted off each week. They're not going to have a show that only lasts 5 weeks. These types of shows always start really big, and they never get really good until they've whittled some down. I think this show has promise.

5/24/2007 8:38:12 AM

I dont think we should even be voting off anyone. Give us the best five and lets see them go through five weeks of letting us see them becoming new to this process and experiencing the big time. Then they can narrow it down to 2 or 3.

5/24/2007 11:04:56 AM

I thought this thread was about drumline stuff.

5/24/2007 12:10:31 PM

Okay, yeah, that episode was way too rushed. We should've at least gotten to see both elimination rounds

5/24/2007 10:01:53 PM

those special effects dorks just clowned EVERYONE

5/24/2007 10:03:08 PM

^ yeah, no doubt

5/24/2007 10:34:15 PM

for the people who are talking shit about the way the show works and the ammount of people, there is one more elimination, and then the format is changing.

i'm enjoying the show.

did anyone else notice that Carl Winslow is one of the actors the directors are given to work with?

5/24/2007 11:05:33 PM

^^^that film just got that special effects guy a job no matter the outcome of the show

5/24/2007 11:37:17 PM

They got rid of the Raleigh, NC girl already.

Though the show is pretty enjoyable. It is interesting to see the shots come together for the film shorts.

Should be interesting to see them direct with a real film crew.

5/25/2007 10:47:13 AM

Quote :

"for the people who are talking shit about the way the show works and the ammount of people, there is one more elimination, and then the format is changing. i'm enjoying the show."

I am enjoying it as well. Sucks for the Raleigh, NC girl. Was hoping that she would do better. Also, the look on the faces of the other directors when the special effects group's video was shown was priceless.

Quote :

"did anyone else notice that Carl Winslow is one of the actors the directors are given to work with?"

Saw this too. Pretty cool/funny to see him working with all of them on these shots. Should be interesting to see what they can do with only 30 mins of prep time and one hour of shot time for a short movie. Could be interesting.

5/25/2007 12:42:57 PM

wow, overall, these shorts are pretty bad.

Does anyone besides me think that Carrie Fisher is an awful judge? I don't think she has put together one full coherent sentence. Everything is "um, uh, stutter, uh".... She qualifies EVERYTHING with, "I know you're a great talent." If it sucks, just say so.

I'm not going to be able to stick with this show if every episode is this boring

5/28/2007 9:13:45 PM

^i was thinking the exact same thing. She is a horrible judge. all she gets out is "Congratulations". actually say something.


and the short "get a room" i found hilarious even if it was bad the dude was a retard

5/28/2007 9:41:45 PM

thank god for dvr, i started watching it live, but i could not stand to hear that host bitch repeat the same thing over, and over, and over, and over again. it just seems to move really slow and is way too repetative. but on dvr it is better, and i like watching the shorts. i liked the trailer a lot, even though he didnt exactly do the assignment, i also liked get a rhoom, and the SFX guys.

5/28/2007 9:53:21 PM

^ yeah, I thought the "get a room" was good also... the judges were way too over-sensitive about it

5/28/2007 10:00:46 PM

i predict that Kenny, and 2 of the girls will be going home, but not the last girl.

5/28/2007 10:18:51 PM

Between Carrie Fisher pre-empting everything with "Well, you are such a great talent.." and the old man commenting how he wonderful he thinks it is to have women directors I had to start skipping the judging.

It sort of sucks, because the shorts are cool to watch and the concept of the show is cool, but goddamn is it the most horribly executed show on TV right now. The host chick sucks and the judges are awful.

Luckily I have DVR so I turned a 2 hour premier episode into about an hour of watching shorts. My fav was getta rhoom as well.

5/31/2007 1:45:05 PM

I don't know why they decided to change formats but this audience has to go. There's more applause in the one hour result show than in the entire Oscar telecast. They also changed hosts for some reason. She's hot but just plain annoying. I just hate they American Idolized this show. I'll still watch though cause I like watching these shorts even if some of them are trainwrecks.

5/31/2007 2:00:11 PM

^^ and ^ exactly

good idea. horribly executed. too much yakkity yak. they should spend the time actually shooowing us their directing instead.

and the only decent judges on there are the guest ones. carrie fisher is painful to watch.

5/31/2007 5:24:41 PM

the results show was the same thing over and over... I didn't watch the show the entire time, but I'd say I watched 70-80% of it and the only movie clip I saw was the get a room one

5/31/2007 6:40:31 PM

Again, thank god for DVR. It would be entirely unwatchable otherwise.

5/31/2007 9:49:09 PM

i cant believe they got rid of the british dude.

tonights episode was alright, the bakery musical and the the toilet one i thought were pretty good.

6/6/2007 2:27:51 AM

^ question: My digital cable guide said that these were the videos that got the finalists accepted for the show in the first place. Is this correct? If so, how the hell did the kinky-haired chick and the dude who did the british guy on a date movie get on the show? Also, I hated the Indian woman's movie. Carrie was actually correct when she said it felt like watching one of the blurbs about the contestants. And come on-- "Just be yourself." CLICHE! I think the judges were just being PC by praising it.

6/6/2007 9:12:10 AM

no, i dont think these were the ones that got them accepted to the show. they said they had 5 days to shoot these ones.

6/6/2007 12:25:57 PM

Actually, I just read at entertainment weekly (see blurb below and link) that they were the submission films. Fox just tried to make it sound like they weren't. That makes the show even more lame. These are the movies that got people on the show, and they are also the movies that will get people voted off?!?!? WTF? Also, isn't it somewhat forced that the judges have to be critical of movies that were deemed best of the best?

FROM EW: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20040769_20040772_20041498,00.html

The show's fallen far, fast. Last night we looked on as it tried to pass off five contestants' submission films as new, original content. (The show kept stressing that the shorts were written, shot, and edited in five days, as if to suggest that they were written, shot, and edited in the last five days, although behind the scenes, Fox has identified the movies as ''personal submission films'' in a PR release.) No doubt this saves production costs at the same time that it gives Fox time to figure out what it's gonna do about the show's Dumpster-diving ratings. Meanwhile, submission films? Three-minute movies that are good enough to get you on the show might be good enough to get you on the show, but that doesn't make them ready for prime time. At least last week's mini-comedies were born out of the creative pressure of a time limit. They had, you know, urgency. Last night's movies had the opposite; they took us backward.

6/6/2007 12:45:28 PM

ahaha

I was very impressed that the bakery musical was done in 5 days. I was amazed that he wrote the lyrics, music, got the actors, sets ready, filmed, edit, etc. in that amount of time and still had a decent short. But anyways, this show is such a mess. They are making this up as they go along now. And how do they choose who goes up against who each week. Is it random? The producers could have the best directors all face each other one week and be forced to get rid of someone who has potential too early.

6/6/2007 1:04:30 PM

Michael Bay was the only good part of that show.

6/6/2007 1:42:25 PM

^ That says volumes.

6/6/2007 1:47:29 PM

has the girl from raleigh who was on the show been eliminated yet?

6/6/2007 2:41:57 PM

read the thread and you'll find your answer

6/6/2007 3:00:36 PM

I forgot all about Michael Bay. He actually was the only judge they've had that apparently knows what he is talking about and gave good advice. I wish the producers would keep him and get rid of Carrie and Garry.

[Edited on June 6, 2007 at 3:29 PM. Reason : hgdjjhj]

6/6/2007 3:03:32 PM

last night episode was horrible.

the first 2 shows were money and i was pretty excited to watch this last night

i was very very disappointed

6/6/2007 3:11:07 PM

that lady has to be the worst tv hostess i've ever seen. stuttering all the time, sounding completely ungenuine and just cornball. and none of the movies they've shown so far have done anything for me.

6/6/2007 3:14:12 PM

I'm not sure if I'm remembering it right but Garry liked one of the films because the director wasn't Italian and was cheap. I'm only watching this show now to hear his awful criticism.

7/10/2007 1:50:32 AM

Yeah, same here... the show is so awful on every imaginable level, but at this point I've watched too much of the season to throw in the towel. The only thing I like is that they announce who lost from the week before at the VERY beginning of the show rather than dragging it out unnecessarily like other similar shows

7/10/2007 8:51:53 AM

^^he was making a joke that he didnt think the director was italian because of how he looked (red hair and what not), and then he said producers would like him because he didnt have a bunch of extras and shit running around in the background

7/11/2007 2:35:26 AM

^^ I agree I like that they announce the cuts in the beginning rather than drag it out.

I think Zach is going to go far even if he doesn't win it. Out of the shows I've seen, his short films were the best ones by far. They told a story, creative, and well directed.

7/11/2007 11:38:08 AM

zach's have been pretty good, but i thought his was pretty weak this week

7/11/2007 3:35:27 PM

Time has not been kind to Carrie Fisher

7/23/2007 10:57:43 PM