On the Lot

Did anyone else bother to watch the premiere last night?

That was one very dull hour. I know there's a ton, many tons, of budding filmmakers out there, and maybe they found the mechanics of the plot pitch interesting, but for the average viewer, it was people gathered in hotel conference rooms -- not singing or being mocked by some British guy.

The key to this thing was the films. I know the shorts the contestants recorded were available online, but most people didn't bother to watch them (I only sat through a handful). The clips they showed in promos for the show - the skinny guy blowing up the alien starship is the one I remember - were pretty good. But we saw almost none of that last night. Instead, we got geeky film geeks talking amongst themselves.

Geeky, but not geeky enough to be interesting.

In the unlikely event that this show is going to find an audience, it needs to show us the goods, rather than focusing on the usual behind-the-scenes reality show schtick. These short films the contestants had to shoot in a single day had better be front and center next week, or audiences are going to yawn and head to the multiplex.