Category: on the lot

Welcome to the On The Lot Episode 5 recap. Tonight’s episode is the first in the series since Fox television trimmed the shows schedule down to a single 1-hour episode every Tuesday night. So, with that being said, hear’s hoping Fox has found a way to breathe life into what has quickly become a dieing series.

Now let’s get down to business and see what happened in episode 5 of Fox’s On The Lot.

SE01EP05 – June 5, 2007

Episode 5 of On The Lot kicks off with a brief recap of episode four where Phil, Claudia and Carolina got the axe and were cut from the show.

Tonight, only five directors get to show their movies, while the remaining ten kick back in the audience and watch. The judges, Carrie Fisher and Garry Marshall, are joined tonight by Transformers the movie director Michael Bay as guest judge.

Tonight’s five featured directors and films are:

Broken Pipe Dreams by Sam Friedlander

Description: A guy loses his wedding ring down the toilet and has to retreive it, despite having a previous bad experience with toilets. Apparently his fish was flushed down the toilet in the past.
My Thoughts: Dumb idea, poor execution, but a clever and funny ending.
Judges Thoughts: Carrie really liked it, a lot. Guest director Michael Bay of Transformers the movie cared more about the fish than the guy, thought it was too long and repetative. Garry thought he made a toilet a character, excellent film making.

Teri by Trever James

Description: A short film about a guys blind date experience with a girl named Teri.
My Thoughts: Stupid and pointless, only mildly funny.
Judges Thoughts: Carrie thought it was cute, though the acting was over done. Michael Bay thought he’s confident in his directing, but he needs to work on his photography and style. Garry said he liked his comedy short film about golf more than this short.

The First Time I Met The Finkelsteins by Hilary Weisman Graham

Description: A son introduces his new girlfriend to his jewish parents.
My Thoughts: A funny idea, but incredibly poorly executed and terribly filmed.
Judges Thoughts: Carrie likes her writing, doesn’t like her directing. Michael calls it a groaner, says it was uncomfortable and just didn’t work for him. Garry says the filming was way to tight, the writing was good, but she has a lot to learn.

Dough: The Musical by Adam Stein

Description: A romantic comedy about two people who are destin to meet.
My Thoughts: Um, interesting. Some shaky filming, but an interesting idea, definitely original.
Judges Thoughts: Carrie calls it incredibly original and entertaining. Michael says it was a very good job for 5-days work, but he could use a bit more work in the photography department. Garry thought it worked out very well but he needed to work on the chemistry between his actors a bit more.

Laughing Out Loud: A Comic Journey by Shalini Kantayya

Description: The story of a gay south asian comedian finding and accepting himself for who he is.
My Thoughts: A great idea for a short film that was written, directed and filmed fantastically. The message and story was positive and inspiring and, without a doubt, this was my favorite film of the night.
Judges Thoughts: Carrie thought it was very well made, but the advice was crappy. Michael Bay got a chill, said she did a really, really great job and she has the most digital style of anyoneon stage. Garry doesn’t say much of anything, other than not all films need to be linear. Not sure what that has to do with anything.

Judges picks:
Carrie Fisher – Broken Dreams by Sam Friedlander
Michael Bay – Laughing Out Loud: A Comic Journey by Shalini Kantayya
Garry Marshall – Dough: The Musical by Adam Stein

Other Contestants Pick:
Laughing Out Loud: A Comic Journey by Shalini Kantayya

My pick:
Laughing Out Loud: A Comic Journey by Shalini Kantayya

Of all the night’s short films I thought Shalini’s was the only one that was not only filmed very well, but also written and directed very well. The story was both touching and inspiring, the method in which it was conveyed was fantastic and the entire film came together very well.

Overall, the show wasn’t fantastic. It wasn’t as bad as episode 4 was, not by a long stretch, but it wasn’t fantastic either, though I definitely like format a great deal better then the American Idol style they were following before. Who knows, maybe Fox has managed to find a way to prevent this, what could be a fantastic television show, from imminent doom – here’s hoping!

Join me again on Tuesday, June 12th for On The Lot episode 6 when we will find out which of tonight’s five contestants will be sent packing and which five will be next on the chopping block!

Watch On The Lot Online!

I don’t recall ever before having watched and loved the first two episodes of a reality TV show as much as I did with On The Lot, and on the same token, I don’t think I’ve ever lost interest in a reality TV show so quickly. It almost hurts me to say it because the first two episodes of the show were fantastic and the show has such promise and potential to be absolutely fantastic.

After watching episode 3 of On The Lot, I still enjoyed the show, but had the feeling it was heading the way of an American Idol show and that had me worried. Being away all last week due to a family emergency, I didn’t get to watch episode 4 until I returned home yesterday and, sure enough, my fears were affirmed. They turned the show into a damn American Idol knock-off! The elimination show was far too long, incredibly bloated and simply dragged out beyond belief. It pains me to say I am disappointed in the television show almost as much as it pained me to watch episode 3. American Idol has had huge success with its format and, because of that success, no other show should or can use the same format and ever hope to have the same success, it just isn’t going to happen.

Luckily the people at Fox television are quick to react when they notice things are going down the drain. Fox has acknowledged the ratings flop that On The Lot has become and is fighting to breathe life back into the TV show.

Fox has retooled the entire season’s schedule and the show will no longer have a 2-hour screening episode on Monday night and a 1-hour elimination show on Tuesday night. Instead, both episodes will be crammed into a single 1-hour episode that will air Tuesdays at 8/7c.

Hopefully cutting the show back to a single 1-hour episode every week will breathe much needed life back into the series and save it from what could be a very early demise. I do love the idea behind the show and I truly believe it could be fantastic if the producers can tear themselves away from the terrible American Idol format. Condensing the television series into a single 1-hour episode every week will force the producers to scale things back drastically and cut out a ton of the bloated content that is dragging it under. I have high hopes and believe me, my fingers are crossed.

Watch On The Lot Online!

Zach Lipovsky is one of the 18 finalists on Fox’s new hit reality television series On The Lot and it just so happens that we have something in common, Zach, like me, is a Vancouver boy! Zach is a highly respected special effects guru and is considered by many to be one of, if not the best, in the city of Vancouver.

On The Lot has provided 18 people with the opportunity of a lifetime. Not only will each contestant have their work made known to millions of people all over the world, one lucky contestant (hopefully Zach), will win the ultimate filmmakers prize, a coveted job at DreamWorks studios! Even better still, the winner of the reality TV series will get to work with the master director himself, Steven Spielberg.

Though only 22 years old, Zach Lipovsky is far from new to the filmmaking industry and has in fact had his hands in a number of films and animated shorts; he is even a part/founder (though I’m not 100% sure on that) of Zeeworks Media. One of his most recent projects is titled Paradise Redrawn.

Paradise Redrawn is a live action/animated short film about a girl (Sophie) in Catholic School who is bored with her classes and begins to draw and doodle in her notebook. As she doodles, her drawings come to life and peel off the pages, eventually evolving into two separate nations that go to war with one another. Sophie, being the creator of both nations and essentially god, has to come to terms and deal with the events.

Paradise Redrawn Featurette by Zach Lipovsky

On The Lot episode 3 aired last night, giving Zach another opportunity to have his work featured, and by all accounts his 1-minute comedy short film was a hit. I am rooting for him to win, but not just because he is a fellow Vancouverite. From what I have seen of his work so far, it is beautiful, and I think he could bring a great deal of creativity and innovation to the filmmaking industry.

For a better idea of why I’ve been raving about Zach’s work, watch his Paradise Redrawn Featurette (above) and his incredibly inventive audition video (below), or watch the short film he and two partners came up with in only 24-hours in episode 2 of On The Lot, entitled “Time Out“.

Zach Lipovsky On The Lot Audition Video

I must have missed something here. I thought I had seen every episode of On The Lot that had aired thus far, but I guess I must have missed one. From what I remember at the end of episode 2, the TV show was down to 24 contestants, waiting to cut things down even further to the final 18 contestants in episode 3, yet when episode 3 started up tonight, the list of contestants had already been worked down to 18 finalists. Maybe I’m just confused, but I swear six contestants just vanished without explanations.

With that being said, tonight was the first 1-hour “film premiere” episode of the reality television show’s regular schedule and all 18 contestants screened their 1-minute comedy shorts for the judges. Some of the short films were loved by the judges, some were misunderstood, but oddly, none were completely hated. Though the judges didn’t really care for a few of the short films, they almost shied away from criticizing them. It may be the fact that I’m used to the two soft judges and one hard-ass judge style of American Idol, but it seemed fairly obvious to me that the On The Lot judges were big fans of the positive-negative-positive style of giving feedback. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the blood-thirsty sadistic drama-monger in me wants to see one of the judges tear apart a contestant’s work.

The most notable films of On The Lot episode 3 were by far that of Andrew, Zach, Adam and Shira-Lee. Andrew did a great short film on a cop pulling over a UFO full of drunken aliens. Zach did an awesome short all in one take on safety in an incredibly unsafe lab. Adam’s short featured a man that communicated only through interpretive dance and Shira-Lee offered a sexy take on security screening at the airport. All in all, the night’s films were great! At this point, my pick to win it all is Zach Lipovsky, a special effects guru and hometown boy from Vancouver, Canada.

On a side note: Fox Television has seriously screwed up with On The Lot! They have one contestant from Spain, one from the U.K. and even a local boy from Vancouver, BC Canada, yet voting is only open to residents of the Unites States. What exactly is the point of promoting the fact that the contestants come from all over the world, and even taking contestants from all over the world, when people outside the United States can’t even support their contestants? Being from Vancouver, a big fan of On The Lot and a fan of Zach Lipovsky‘s work, I’m rather pissed that I can’t show my support and vote for my favorite contestant, or any contestant, for that matter. Seriously guys, reality television shows broadcast to countries all over the world and, when you use that fact as a way to draw in viewers’, you should at the very least support those viewers votes. I’m very disappointed in Fox TV for this one.

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical about the entire premise of the newest reality television show to hit Fox, On The Lot. Luckily, and after watching only two episodes I may add, the show has officially won me over. As a matter of fact, I believe On The Lot may just be one of the most promising new reality TV shows of the season.

The idea behind the show is fantastic, the challenges have, thus far, been entertaining and, more importantly, incredibly challening, and I think the series has the potential for greatness. Chalk another one up to the reality TV world’s most noted executive producer, Mark Burnett. But not all the credit can be given to Burnett alone, after all, the legendary director/producer behind such films as Letters From Iwo Jima, Munich, Memoirs of a Geisha, Saving Private Ryan, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, ET and Jaws, Mr. Steven Spielberg himself, stepped up to help mold the show.

In case you haven’t seen the show yet, On The Lot will pit 18 aspiring filmmakers from all over the world against one another, all in the hopes of scoring a lucrative $1-million development deal with DreamWorks. One The Lot features four very well known and highly respected judges: Carrie Fisher, better known as Princess Leia of the Star Wars series; Jon Avnet, director and producer of over 50 feature films; Brett Ratner, director of X-Men 3 and the Rush Hour series; and legendary actor and funnyman, Garry Marshall.

With episode 1 and 2 having already airied, the list of contestants has already been trimmed down to 24 hopefuls and, come Monday, May 29, the show will lose yet another 12, leaving only 18 lucky contestants to wage cinematic warfare. Miss episodes 1 and 2? Watch On The Lot Online, and get caught up!

On The Lot airs on Fox Television every Monday and Tuesday, with a one-hour “Film Premiere” episode, followed Tuesdays by a half-hour “Box Office” results show. Check your local listings for dates and times. And don’t forget the popcorn!