Fox’s filmmaking reality competition On the Lot<\/i> is in trouble. Its ratings haven’t been great, prompting the network to retool the show and knock it down from two nights a week to one. The problem is, the retooling has only made things worse, at least as far as the quality of the show. Now rather than being a task-oriented filmmaking show, it’s an American Idol-style exhibition show. After the first week, we haven’t seen any of the behind the scenes stuff, just the short films with very little introduction or explanation, we hardly know the people we’re asked to vote for or any of the parameters of the films they’re making.<\/p>\n
Cinematical<\/a> has a bunch of really good suggestions on how to fix the problems–go back to the task-oriented style, asking them to do different things and test their versatility and abilities; make us care about the contestants by showing us the obstacles they overcame in shooting their films; get guest judges who care about being there, or are at least less abrasive than Michael Bay was last week (I made the exact same comment Tuesday night that they did regarding Bay’s comment on film length); get a host who isn’t a moron; don’t lie to us like they did last week…those were their submission films, not films they did while on the show! The thing that’s strange to me is that the show was much more like this before they retooled. Does that suggest that nobody cares about seeing a filmmaking show? I find that highly unlikely given the popularity of DVD making-of special features and that sort of thing–but maybe I run in circles especially interested in how films are made. That’s quite possible.<\/p>\n Another frustration I have with the show is partially directed at the voting public, but also at the judges. These filmmakers are trying to be directors, right? I mean, the one that wins gets a deal to direct a movie for DreamWorks. And while I understand that writing and directing are closely linked, it seems that they’re being judged far more on their ability to write than on their ability to direct. The judges are constantly jumping on the writing or the story or the concept of the films, rather than the camerawork, the cinematography, the blocking, the set-up, etc.<\/p>\n The three filmmakers that got sent home two weeks ago certainly had problems with their films. Claudia’s film ended up terribly, with a blind date in a bathroom and fart jokes. But watch it<\/a> and look at the cinematography and use of color in the first half and tell me she doesn’t have a great eye. I would have kept her around just for that. Similarly, the judges thought Phil’s film<\/a> was derivative in its plot device, but the framing of the shots and use of contrasting lighting was excellent, as was the sense of comic timing. On the flip side, this film<\/a> was voted one of the top three of the night, and while I thought it was rather inappropriately funny, there’s not much interesting in the directing, except some of the acting cues. Now, directing actors is important, I’ll give him that, but if you want to go that direction, he should have made a little more clear that his character is a nerd, not mentally handicapped. Here are two of the films I think should have gotten their makers eliminated: To Screw in a Lightbulb<\/a> and Wack Alley Cab<\/a>. The first one has basically two or three static camera angles, none of which is terribly interesting, and a bunch of actors cavorting chaotically in front of the camera. There’s no cohesion to either the direction or the scenario. The second one was just whack. Really. I have no idea what anything was or what it was doing there. But both these filmmakers are still here.<\/p>\n So, based on that frustration, I have another suggestion for On the Lot<\/i>, which goes along with Cinematical’s #2, wherein they suggest showing what the filmmaking terms mean. Use the judging segments you have and the behind-the-scenes segments you’ve apparently given up to teach us what good directing is all about. Don’t conflate directing with writing–they’re related, but they’re not the same thing. Don’t tell me that someone who has written a good scenario with good dialogue is therefore a good director, or that a filmmaker who uses the camera, set, and actors brilliantly but doesn’t have the greatest story idea can’t be a good director. Help us as an audience learn, so we can vote appropriately. Because we can’t do it now, apparently, and some of the most interesting and talented people are going to get left behind because we’d rather vote for crazy people in a cab than good cinematography and mise-en-scene (i.e., the arrangements of actors and set properties within the shot).<\/p>\n Go ahead. Call me a film snob.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fox’s filmmaking reality competition On the Lot is in trouble. Its ratings haven’t been great, prompting the network to retool the show and knock it down from two nights a week to one. The problem is, the retooling has only made things worse, at least as far as the quality of the show. Now rather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,8],"tags":[503],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":239,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/02\/academy-awards-for-2006-spoilers\/","url_meta":{"origin":456,"position":0},"title":"Academy Awards for 2006 (spoilers)","author":"Jandy","date":"February 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay. I was going to live-blog the Oscars last night, but then I decided not to. It was going by pretty quickly, and it was pretty much all my friends and I could do to recover from each unfathomable choice in time for the next one. Okay, to be fair,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1801,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/new-release-review-australia\/","url_meta":{"origin":456,"position":1},"title":"New Release Review: Australia","author":"Jandy","date":"January 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"directed by Baz Lurhmann starring: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman Australia\/USA 2008; screened 29 November 2008 at AMC Theatres I admit that I haven't read many reviews of Australia in toto, but the snippets I have read and the general critical feeling indicates that most critics didn't think it was very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"australiapic8","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/australiapic8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35017,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/02\/american-movie-critics-pare-lorenz\/","url_meta":{"origin":456,"position":2},"title":"American Movie Critics: Pare Lorenz","author":"Jandy","date":"February 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"[Ryan McNeil of The Matinee and I are reading through the American Movie Critics anthology and discussing each chapter as we go, crossposting on each of our blogs.] Several of the critics in the American Movie Critics anthology have multiple pieces (or excerpts) included, but I don't think we've come\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Movie Critics"","block_context":{"text":"American Movie Critics","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/american-movie-critics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/amc-feat-parelorentz.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34866,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2015\/01\/completing-the-filmography-five-graves-to-cairo\/","url_meta":{"origin":456,"position":3},"title":"Completing the Filmography: Five Graves to Cairo","author":"Jandy","date":"January 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This year instead of doing Blind Spots or other list-based viewing, I'm focusing in on completing filmographies of certain directors - some of which I'm only a few films away from completing and will probably do so pretty quickly, while others may be in progress for quite a while. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/ctf-fivegraves-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":40,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2006\/06\/48-hour-film-festival-cont\/","url_meta":{"origin":456,"position":4},"title":"48 Hour Film Festival, cont.","author":"Jandy","date":"June 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"That was another great theatre-going experience to mark down in my book. The Tivoli was PACKED OUT. I got there just before seven (when the show was supposed to start, but it didn't get started until 7:15), and there were people lined up outside, not able to get in because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33408,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/the-story-of-film-on-tcm-chapter-12\/","url_meta":{"origin":456,"position":5},"title":"The Story of Film on TCM: Chapter 12","author":"Jandy","date":"November 26, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In the 1980s, greed is good. Conservative idealogues tell false stories about life and love. Innovative filmmakers spoke back to them - speaking truth to power. This is one of the most politically-charged episodes in The Story of Film, as Cousins positions the innovative filmmaking in the 1980s as political\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/SoF-The_Story_of_Film.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}