{"id":12,"date":"2005-04-06T23:26:14","date_gmt":"2005-04-07T07:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegerber.wpengine.com\/?p=12"},"modified":"2005-04-06T23:26:14","modified_gmt":"2005-04-07T07:26:14","slug":"greenlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/?p=12","title":{"rendered":"Project Dimbulb"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do any of you watch Project Greenlight<\/em> on Bravo (Thursday, 10pm e\/p) ?<\/p>\n

Here’s the premise: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon sponsor an Internet contest in which writers submit screenplays and directors submit sample reels. Affleck, Damon, producer Chris Moore, and, this season, horror director Wes Craven pick one from Column A and one from Column B. The lucky director and writer get to make a movie for a studio. The TV series documents the making of the film.<\/p>\n

But is the real objective to make a movie…or to stage a “reality” show?<\/p>\n

For the second year in a row, they’ve matched up a script and a director who should never have been allowed in the same room with each other. This time around, they’ve gone one step further and chosen a script that couldn’t possibly be filmed for the alloted budget.<\/p>\n

Okay, I know Hollywood executives can be that stupid. I’ve even seen it close up. But two years in a row? On national television? And they’re not even a *little* embarrassed?<\/p>\n

No. And I think I know why.<\/p>\n

Also for the second year in a row, the documentary series is devoted to making the novice director look like a hapless, indecisive dork. The poor schlub and his moviemaking dreams are reduced to objects of ridicule, while the sharp, savvy producers struggle mightily to keep him from “self-destructing” and taking the film with him.<\/p>\n

And that, I think, is the real purpose of this series: to glorify the sage, efficient, highly professional, highly polished producers at the expense of the contest winners.<\/p>\n

It’s the ultimate Hollywood concept. We’re supposed to stand in awe of these commanding, visonary yet hard-nosed, pragmatic figures who make the movies and entertain the world. We’re supposed to understand that they’re a different breed from those of us outside the biz — smarter, quicker, hipper, worthy of adulation.<\/p>\n

We’re *not* supposed to think about which dipwad *hired* the director.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do any of you watch Project Greenlight on Bravo (Thursday, 10pm e\/p) ? Here’s the premise: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon sponsor an Internet contest in which writers submit screenplays and directors submit sample reels. Affleck, Damon, producer Chris Moore, and, this season, horror director Wes Craven pick one from Column A and one from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/stevegerber.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}