If you live in the U.S., maybe you've been watching the Fox series, "On the Lot." It's a reality show backed by Steven Speilberg and designed to discover a new and brilliant director. As in many reality shows, there is an elimination process, first via a panel of judges, then by audience vote. The winner gets a million dollars with which to make a film.
For anybody interested in film-making, it's an interesting premise, which is why it's shocking how boring they have managed to make it. Here are a few questions that I wish had come up in their planning meetings:
1. Why not have it hosted by someone who has some connection with films instead of an all-purpose pretty woman? (For example, Carrie Fisher is on the panel, and she would have made a much better presenter.)
2. Why not acknowledge that some of the best directors don't write their own material instead of structuring this so all the contestants have to write their own scripts?
3. Why not add some interest by having short interviews with top directors about how they ply their craft, maybe explaining how they directed a scene from a well-known film?
4. Why not forget about trying to create bogus suspence by having the host do lots of the "you'll find out who is going home...but first, these endless messages, then another tease, then some other stuff, and eventually we'll tell you?"
The dismal ratings suggest that a lot of other people wish they'd asked these questions, too. Shame, it was a good idea...done better by "Project Greenlight."
