In Hindsight: On The Lot – Episode 6

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It’s week three of the elimination rounds, as five more finalists show their films. Adrianna “Costa” is here, and I’m pretty sure that she wants you to look at her boobs. The judges are, as always, Carrie Fisher and Gary Marshall, and the guest judge is David Frankel, director of The Devil Wears Prada and Band of Brothers.

Let’s find out who’s safe. The first three: Adam, Shalini and Sam. We’ll find out which of Trevor and Hillary goes home at the end of the show.

Now, let’s get to the films

First up is Andrew Hunt, whose short is entitled Polished, about a custodian who is taken for granted. He manages to film this during his wedding preparations. I think it works, in that Andrew gets you to sympathize with the janitor, and you revel in his revenge.

Carrie – Vengeance is for people who haven’t the patience for karma. I thought it was good.
David – I thought it was slow in the beginning, I look forward to your future work.
Gary – Revenge works. Polished was quite polished.

Competitor number two is David May, and his film is Love at First Shot, about a first date. A geek enlists the help of Cupid on his date. It’s cute, but it’s nothing that wowed me, and I didn’t feel that the movie would hit the target demo for a romantic comedy.

Carrie – I felt I’d seen it before. If you’re going to be derivative, you should be more original.
David – Everything did not come out all right this time. Ambiguity is the enemy of all filmmaking.
Gary – It’s accessible, but you’ve got to have a pace – David wrote a couple of pilots during that.

Third competitor is Shira-Lee Shalit, showing Beeline, a story that stars her son. The son knows that his mom has had sex since his parents’ divorce, but the mom goes around town telling those people to pretend that they don’t know her. And the payoff? The kid gets cookies and a Playstation 3. I don’t get it.

Carrie – I thought you also could’ve called it Slut Mom. To be a woman in this industry you have to be great and I thought this was very good.
David – You made me laugh, and it’s very sweet. I really enjoyed the film.
Gary – Good one for the girls.

Marty Martin is next, and his movie is Dance With the Devil. Once again, the movie feels more like a trailer than a short film. I can’t deny that it’s very slick and well filmed, but once again, I think that Marty misses the point of the show.

Carrie – It’s a victory of style over content. I think you’re a really good craftsman, but the style that you do is very distracting.
David – I admire your arrogance. I think it played more like a trailer and I liked your previous trailer more.
Gary – Worked for me. But go deeper into the characters. Stay unique.

The final competitor this week is Kenny Luby, and he’s showing Edge on the End. It’s about a kid who just lost his father to alcohol. It’s very dark, but it feels more like a music video than a film, and I suppose that the main problem is that I don’t really get a true sense of story here.

Carrie – This made me long for the days of whacked-out camp. It’s more like a rock video stylistically.
David – I think it is hard to judge as a film but I think it shows a lot of talent.
Gary – Stay unique and stay crazy.

Now let’s see who is eliminated. Between Trevor and Hillary, it’s… Trevor. I have to say I’m surprised there.

Now, the judges tell us their favourite film of the night:
Carrie – Andrew
David – Shira
Gary – Shira

Kevin’s favourite: Andrew, with honourable mention to Kenny.

Eliminated: Marty

Sir Linksalot: On The Lot

Kevin has been an Insider since 2003, writing on a variety of topics ranging from The Amazing Race to Mixed Martial Arts. His current hobbies include Fantasy Football, Sporcle, travelling, making liberal use of his DVR and wondering what the heck he's gonna do when his two daughters are old enough to date. You can follow Kevin on Twitter (@starvenger).