Hollywood Deep

Andrew Hunt was voted off On The Lot, last week, in Comedy Romance week. He was a really nice guy who has a bright future as a filmmaker. I didn’t get to work with him but what I observed was that he was a tireless worker, and covered all the bases in preparation for his films. His shorts were always good but not great, and he just ran out of time against the remaining talented contestants. I think Andy has a great commercial eye, I feel like he could jump into commercial directing right away. I believe Andy will make a living as a director, either commercially right away, or TV/ Film down the road a bit. We were all sorry to see him go, but the field has really tightened up. The remaining contestants are all talented, so it will come down to who has the best movies week to week. Andy’s superhero movie just wasn’t as good as the others last week.
The movie’s for ROAD week premiered, all the shorts films revolved around vehicles somehow. I worked with Jason Epperson on his film, “The Move”. Gary Ross was the guest judge and Penny Marshall sat in for Gary Marshall, who was out of town. The judges were pretty hard on Jason’s film, and were very critical of the story. The production value was solid and we achieved some really nice process trailer camera car shots. It is difficult in film production, to make driving shots interesting. The use of a process trailer, we load the picture vehicle onto a flat bed trailer that is towed by a camera car, allows us to move the camera around the vehicle while driving on the road, and also light the scene properly. It’s hard for the AD, because setting up multiple shots on the trailer is time consuming, and with everything having to be rigged portable different elements are bound to malfunction along the way. Also taking this big trailer out onto real world streets and in traffic is tricky, we had to work very closely with California Highway Patrol officers.
I am kind of sorry that the judges never mention the production value of the films. They will always dwell on how the story works for them and how the movies fit into the genre presented. They never recognize the film making, and the production value of the films are routinely overlooked. I wish the show was more about the film making and not the flashy studio show they put on every week.
We also worked with actor Jerry O’Connell, who was Jason’s prize for having the most votes last week. I loved working with Jason, he is my favorite person on the show. This contest is all about someone like Jason, giving a guy from Kentucky a shot at the big time. Jerry was cool to work with on this one, a real pro. The movie was only mediocre, a one joke story, but I feel like the acting, the production value and selection of shots was outstanding. Jason should be fine getting into the final 4 with this film.

Jason Epperson’s film, “The Move”

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