"On the Lot" -- The Final Four

And then there were four. The final four contestants on "On the Lot" were announced this evening before they each showed new films. The most recent director voted out was a bit of a surprise -- early favorite Zach (the special effects guy) was voted out after two weaker efforts. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I think he will be hired by someone, perhaps as a special effects guy, though my guess is that he will be given a job as an assistant director on a special effects-laden film. Eventually, I expect to see his name as a feature director, though.

But on to the final four. Each of the films was solid, but one was truly excellent and one was notably weaker than the rest. Based on this, my hunch is that Sam will be voted off because his film seemed like a poor man's 9 to 5.

Otherwise, the film's were inventive, technically strong, and funny. Will (who I think now is the favorite) had his best moment of the competition with his film, a screwball comedy about office politics. Afterwards, all of the judges praised him effusively. But Garry Marshall went farther and gave him a compliment I don't think he'll ever forget -- telling him that when one person in a film is funny, it's because he's funny, but when several people are funny, it's because of the director. You could see in his eyes how much he was struck by the judge's positive compliments.

But the real surprise of the evening was Adam, whose film "Army Man" was inventive, zany, and had a better ending than most studio films. In fact, given that each of the films was about a man who wakes up in a dress, Adam's last line reminded me of Some Like It Hot, which as one of the greatest last lines in movie history.

Anyway, it was another exciting episode. It has been fun and educational to see these young directors develop over the summer. They've been given access to Hollywood level actors and technical people, and their films have gotten more sophisticated as they've learned to use these tools. And, watching the decisions they have to make, makes it easier to appreciate how much skill directors of bad movies must have (I know that I've seen movies that I thought could have been directed by random people on the "behind the scenes" studio tours).