Is real life as bad as Project Greenlight?

Question

This show does not make the filmmaking process appealing. If I wanted to spend my days trying to manipulate coworkers, suck up to backstabbers, and have my talent and dignity maligned at every turn, I'd ... um ... stay in my current job. :-)
Is PGL deliberately trying to make Hollywood appear sad and pathetic to

thin the herd of wannabes?
Lois <
It's amazing movies are ever fi

Usenet · Accepted Answer

This show does not make the filmmaking process appealing. If I wanted to spend my days trying to manipulate coworkers, suck up to backstabbers, and have my talent and dignity maligned at every turn, I'd ... um ... stay in my current job. :-)
Is PGL deliberately trying to make Hollywood appear sad and pathetic to

thin the herd of wannabes?
Lois <
It's amazing movies are ever finished. When you consider how many of them are directed by and star raging egomaniacs who take out all of their frustrations and neuroses on those around them, I'm shocked no one has ever committed murder on set.
And then there are all the execs and agents who 'll do everything in their power to *** the other guy before they get ***, well, yeah, it's a great business.

Usenet · Answer

No. The TV show is edited to show only the problems...

Not that there aren't all kinds of problems making a movie, but they get solved. It's part of anything to have problems and get them solved.
And I'll be you *do* have to manipulate co-workers and kiss your boss' *** and have your actual work abilities underappreciated and maligned by coworkers (who want to divert attention from themselves). That's every job I've ever had!
- Bill

Usenet · Answer

I've been on several sets and none were remotely like PGL.

There's the reality-TV version of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle at work here: the act of observation changes that which is observed. The cameras change things. People behave differently in when they know that everything they do will show up on national television.

Furthermore, I think it's obvious that they're editing for drama. They're focusing on the stuff where there are potential train wrecks: casting and money. If those things were going smoothly, they wouldn't show them and instead they'd show something else because while there's undoubtably a market for a documentary about the process of making a movie when it's going well, where you get inside the creative process and see how it all works that market is a tiny fraction of the size of the market for the s*** hitting the fan.

-Ron

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]This show does not make the filmmaking process appealing. If I wanted to spend my days trying to manipulate coworkers, ... current job. :-) Is PGL deliberately trying to make Hollywood appear sad and patheticto thin the herd of wannabes? Lois[/nq]
Everyone on camera is being manipulated. The story producers have meetings about the "storylines" and they pass out "hot sheets" every morning to the other story producers, and field producers telling the camera crews what to look out for.
Ive never seen PGL, maybe its different, but I doubt it.

Hot Sheets recap what happened yesterday/previous evening.

Example:
-Ricky got mad at Lucy for not doing laundry.
-Ricky thinks the neighbors are jerks.
-Lucy wanted to set Ricky on fire last night.
And so on and so on.
So Camera Team (A) (producer, camera op, sound mixer, AC, and PA) wait in the laundry room. While another team (B) waits in Ricky's bedroom for him to wake up. Then the (B) producer kindly nudges Ricky to the laundry room. All the while everyone is on headset/walkie talkie listening to the Multi-cam Director yell, "Ricky is up, all cameras rolling. Team (C) stay in the hallway, he's almost to the Laundry room, Team (D) get a close up of the ****. Team (E) keep the cowboy frame, now punch in, Team F go wide. Team F isnt up, WHY THE DONT I SEE CAMERA F on the monitor!!"
Furthermore, The art department has been busy making the laundry basket look overflowing. And the field producers/talent coordinators/execs/camera ops/ACs/PAs/Cooks/Paramedics have been prompting the subjects to go to war over the laundry basket for the past 2 days.
Oh thats right, TEAM (F) is in the neighbors apartment, getting the neighbors reaction to hearing Ricky scream, but their RF transmitter is out of reach of the wireless TV receiver/monitor and the multi-cam director can't see it live! but he is re-assured its been captured to tape like David Lean would do it!...
Then: Lunch. Story producers meet and discuss more "storyline"

Then: Field Producer say's "would you guys mind cuttting lunch short, there is really important scene we need to get when Lucy finds that phone number in Ricky's pocket, and thats gonna happen 20 minutes from now. Please, I owe you guys one"
Oranse

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]This show does not make the filmmaking process appealing. If I wanted to spend my days trying to manipulate coworkers, ... job. :-) Is PGL deliberately trying to make Hollywood appear sad and pathetic to thin the herd of wannabes? Lois[/nq]
..and what - leave show business?
The process can be smooth and efficient, but rarely easy. I, having spent little time in the offices, but much on the set, have seen the real problems come when the director doesn't do their homework, or gets side-tracked in an issue that has little to do with the project at large - like spending four hours working a shot that doesn't move the story forward, and might end up on the floor. It's expensive time, and stopping the process for those kinds of discussions can pork the budget, making the conversations stressful.
As an aside, I think any collaborative creative endeavor is going to have its share of perceived manipulation and backstabbing - and most conversations are about getting to "yes". Having worked for years in commercial production I can tell you that it also has its share of obsessive-compulsive megalomaniacs. And it takes a fairly high level of emotional maturity and thick skin to keep one's eye on the ball.

As others have said here, doubtless the program is manipulated and edited for the best "conflict value".

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I've been on several sets and none were remotely like PGL. There's the reality-TV version of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle ... cameras change things. People behave differently in when they know that everything they do will show up on national television.[/nq]
You can see that annoying casting director playing for the camera, it's the most annoying thing about "reality" t.v., the long pauses while people think about how what they will say is going to play, or camera awareness that distracts, etc.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]This show does not make the filmmaking process appealing. If I wanted to spend my days trying to manipulate coworkers, ... current job. :-) Is PGL deliberately trying to make Hollywood appear sad and patheticto thin the herd of wannabes? Lois[/nq]
Well, you have to realize that Project Greenlight consists of two completely different entities.
One is creating a low budget feature film that will hopefully get released and make some money.
The other is to create a thirteen-episode series that will likewise be successful and make some money.
The trouble is what will accomplish the former will not necessarily be good for the latter.
Like for instance, hiring a director who has a lot of experience, if not in features, then at least in working with budgets and schedules and casting and with effects and working with clients so that you know he's going to be somebody who will likely bring your movie in on time and on budget and be able to deliver a releasable movie.

But then you're not going to get somebody who's going to get into a lot of arguments with people and have snit fits and not know what he's doing. Things will go smoothly. He will not make idiotic demands that will never be met because he'll know what will be reasonable and possible based on dollars and days.
And that's not going to make for a very exciting or dramatic thirteen episodes. And if you think that that who do we pick as director that will give us not merely a good movie - but a good series wasn't part of the discussion that we never heard, then you're kidding yourself.

The point is neither of the movies that they've made have made money - yet here they are making a third year of Project Greenlight the Series.
That's because irrespective of whether the movies make money the series clearly is and the money that the series makes clearly justifies continuing to do it, even though the movies haven't.

Obviously, it would be nice, from their point of view, if both the series and the movies were successful and that's why they've decided to make a low-budget horror movie but that's also why they've decided not to spend a lot of money on it because they figure if they have another loser that ends up going, basically straight to video so what they'll still make their money from the series.

And having a directly like John Gulager makes for a more successful series by virtue of the fact that he rubs so many people the wrong way and makes so many (from their perspective) outrageous demands than a director who would be more reasonable but much less interesting to watch.
NMS

Is real life as bad as Project Greenlight?

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