Filmmaking Reality TV competition, ALA On The Lot...

Argh, my website, www.silverkottage.com.au has reached it's max bandwidth, so can't blog there..... but xanga might be better for this type of post, since it will be time stamped (hopefully) on the xanga server, which I can't fiddle with.

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On the Lot...

Last night was the first time I actually sat through an entire episode of American Idol. Watching that show, it reminded me of why On the Lot wasn't as popular. Actually, I never really enjoyed watching On the Lot, but I would watch it because, well, if you didn't know, I'm an aspiring Director.

But the reason I didn't enjoy On the Lot that much was because of the format of the competition. From what I remember, that show was a weekly series, instead of a daily one like Idol. Though, that doesn't really matter.

The actual competition required each contestant to write and direct a 2 minute short film with a professional crew and working actors. Some of the actors I saw on On the Lot, I see in ads on TV now. Some of the shorts were good, but to me, 2 minutes is not long enough to be a short film. And it's too long to be a tv commercial. Instead, I feel that it's more like a skit.

All the directors had to do was think of an event and put characters in it then place a comedic or dramatic twist in the end. 2 minutes is not enough to have character development, so the audience wouldn't really feel for the characters on screen. Instead, most of the popular shorts of the show were the comedic ones.

I remember that most of the show's competition theme were comedy. Which I feel was silly. Not everyone has comedic lives to draw from. I enjoyed how they also had Action and Horror as the themes. Horror though, would be hard for most people to show within 2 minutes... and the Horror shorts that actually were crowd favourites were more Horror Comedy.

In the end, I found out that the winner was Will Bigham the guy that made shorts which were mostly light hearted comedy sketches. I have no doubt that he'd be able to Direct a $1 Mill picture from Dreamworks, but if he has to write it himself? I'm not too sure about that....

Anyways, the point of this post is really what I think the next season, or if there's another TV show on a Film making competition should be.

The show should be short and long film format. Short films should be mini challenges during the weeks, whereas the long film would be shown further on in the competition.

2 minutes is not long enough to show a Director's true skill. Instead, they should opt for the main film for the competition to be at least 10-15 minutes long.

Not all Directors can write. Mainly, the job of a Director in pre production is to choose the right scrīpt, and change it according to their style. Hence, the competition should include aspiring and professional writers whom the competing Directors can choose scrīpts from. The Directors can choose to work with the writer weekly, or they can rotate partners.

The weekly challenges should be testing the Director's creative and technical skill. Such as one week, each Director must include a certain item in the 2 minute short. Or they can choose to recreate a scene from their favourite movies (subject to budget). Or they have to film the same scrīpt their own way. Or combine the previous 2 options, like they get to choose from a pool of classic scenes from the competition to recreate.

How cool would it be to see another Director's rendition of the I am your father scene?

Voting for the contestants would be weekly. Similar to Dancing with the Stars (not that I really watch that), the voting system would be the average between audience votes and judges vote. Contestants are ranked weekly, but they will not get kicked off the show. They can redeem themselves by stepping up their game the next week with the short challenges. The short challenges only account for 50% of the final score.

The other 50% will be from the votes of their long film near the end of the competition. So during the whole competition, they are refining their art, and use it for their main film.

While they are working on the small challenges, the show will also be a documentary. Following each Director and their crew on the film making process.

That's all I've thought of so far... Maybe I should copyright this idea? I guess posting it online, this post would be timestamped, hence, proof that I wrote it on this day and time. I should try and get in contact with an actual producer, or Dreamworks to sell this idea... actually, I don't even care if I get money for it, I just want to see a better competition.

Nothing is original in this world, so I won't be surprised if what I have written might have already been thought of. I'm going to google up and see if there is already a competition like this, if so, I'm surprised it isn't popular. Otherwise, maybe I can push for a competition like this. I think I can be a producer.... though, my goal is to be a Director.

Reading through what I have wrote, this really is just the same format I was taught at film school. But unlike going to University, the individual with the highest score gets a film deal.