on the lot

Chris Knight's avatar

I’m not watching Fox’s On The Lot anymore, even though I made a film to enter into the competition. It’s not out of “sour grapes” or anything: when the show premiered I was eager and excited about its potential, and I was glad for whoever it was that made it all the way to the Hollywood round even when I didn’t.

And then the show… failed to meet my expectations. Worse than that: it became readily apparent in the first episode that the art and skill of film-making would not be what this show would be about. Before the first installment was up, I was already wondering how much of a chance my entry had, considering that the attitude I conveyed in my intro video wasn’t the combative/aggressive that the On The Lot producers seemed intent on having from the show’s cast. More time and effort was spent on ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

So Lisa and I watched On The Lot, now about four months after we saw that promo back in January and her telling me that I should have a go at it. So with only a month before deadline I went and made Schrodinger’s Bedroom. Obviously the entry round was as far as I got (nope, not so much as a callback for an interview), but it was a fun lil’ film to make and I’m glad for the opportunity.

Now, as for what we finally saw on television last night…

Where this show is weak is that it, like most other “reality television” series, already seems to be built around combativeness among the contestants. In that regard I have to wonder how much of a “talent” competition this really is. I do believe that where my own entry failed was the 45-second intro: I definitely wanted to ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

On The Lot, the new reality show from Mark Burnett (Survivor and a few other programs) and Steven Spielberg (some movie guy) premieres on Fox tonight at 9 p.m. EST, right after American Idol. This is that “American Idol for filmmakers” show, where aspiring filmmakers have to make one movie a week and in Idol fashion, they get judged by a celebrity panel of judges before going to the American public to be voted on. The last one standing at the end of the summer gets a $1 million contract to work at DreamWorks.

Here are the 50 semi-finalists that came out of a field of over 12,000 entrants. I will not be one of those on the show tonight, although my entry Schrodinger’s Bedroom seems to have been enjoyed by quite a lot of people (it had over ten thousand views before a website snafu ...

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