Project Greenlight

Network: Bravo; Genre: Documentary, reality; Content Rating: TV-14 (for language); Available: on DVD; Classification: Contemporary (star range: 1 - 4);

Season Reviewed: Season 3 ("Feast")

After an internet contest where aspiring writers and directors submit their work, producers Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris Moore choose from this well of untapped talent to give someone their big break in the film business. Real documentary cameras follow the making of the movie from pre-production and scraping of finances to dealing with tight schedules and difficult actors in production to the post-production editing and screenings. The thrills and the monotony. "Project Greenlight" is back. The movie this season: "Feast", a self-referential monster movie which the enthusiastically wound-up half of the scriptwriting team, Marcus Dunstan, frighteningly describes as "Evil Dead meets Die Hard".

A lot has changed for season 3. With the "Greenlight" movies not making any money it has shifted into survival mode this time choosing to make a marketable crowd-pleaser people might actually see. For this entry Miramax has moved the show from HBO to basic cable's Bravo where the obscenities are blanked out and a wider audience can see it. The most compelling element in this "Greenlight" is that it puts our novice filmmakers in the studio system where we watch them deal with all the concessions they must make to please the studio executives.

It is healthy to be suspect of any "reality" show, but once you get past the set-up (clearly set in place here to give them an uphill battle and stir up some drama), "Greenlight" feels like the real deal. Serious, classy and seemingly authentic. It floored me how much access we are given to the inner workings of Dimension and Miramax (on the verge of a divorce with it's parent company Disney, which by the way should give the anti-Disney fanatics out there something less to complain about). Bob Weinstein doesn't make an appearance but we hear a lot about him and the office politics of the studio - much of it not exactly flattering. That Miramax was actually allowing themselves and their movies to be opened up and shown like this is refreshing. It requires a real trust in the intelligence of their audience you never see on TV.

Example. The boldest and most memorable moment comes when first-time director John Gulager, completely disillusioned at that point, pronounces that the entire movie is just a paycheck to him until he can make something he really wants too. The show then leaves us on that note until the next episode. Now that is a high-wire risk. Coming from a studio that ultimately wants people to still see this movie, to allow us to think "Feast" is garbage, that its director doesn't even believe in, for a full week is gutsy beyond words.

While screenwriter Marcus, basking in their Hollywood experience, is endlessly fun to watch, the star of this season is Gulager. The season revolves around his arc beginning as a stammering oddball who just wants people to quite asking questions and let him "make his movie" and ends with him becoming a strong, confident, apparently talented director. It is a roller-coaster, but "Greenlight" has us firmly at every emotional bank. We cringe at Gulager's inability to communicate and laugh at a rabid pursuit to get his family (including his "girlfriend of 20 years") cast in the lead roles. We feel for his desire to pull off this life-long dream, prove he isn't just a contest winner. But we also see the side of producers Michael Leahy and Joel Soisson (both of whom become great informal narrators) who fear John may ruin the picture. We feel the stress baring down on them and the release when things go well.

"Project Greenlight" is a pure product of the medium. Only a TV show can, and would, rip the curtain back from in front of our escapist entertainment like this. Like "American Idol", "Making the Band" and "Movie Magic", "Greenlight" is a reality show that is forged out of an undisputed specialty for television - clearing out the smoke and letting us behind the scenes of industries built on fantasy, imagination and a little bit of complacent denial on all of our parts to believe in "the magic of film-making". People accept that movies and music just happen and demand it be good. Ben, Matt and Moore's goal with "Greenlight" is also, no doubt, to give the audience an idea of how mammothly complex it is to get a movie together and how slapped together it often is. The show is vastly informative to a point and careful to keep most of the actual film hidden so our entire suspension of disbelief doesn't collapse. Where would be the fun in that? We get morsels here and there to bait or interest.

Who knows how "Feast" will ultimately come out, but "Project Greenlight 3" is addictive. Not only is it a voyeuristic wet-dream for movie fans, but it retains focus on the human elements and doesn't get bogged down in mechanics. Season 3 ultimately becomes a rewarding cheer-the-underdogs TV ride featuring a director nobody believes in, a script few understood, a genre critics look down on and a collection of people with their own conflicts coming together to make something bigger than themselves (and entertain the public). It captures the drive and atmosphere that causes people to become filmmakers authentically, something that would be depicted smarmy and sarcastically on most scripted shows. The thought of a horror movie being made instead of their pretentious coming-of-age drama may make the art-house snobs out there curl up at the bottom of the bathtub and wait for death, but this season is a completely different experience than the show has had before. I can't ask for anything more in a reality series.

* * * ½ / 4

Watching this one-disaster-after-another reality show, I can't help but wonder if Pete Jones realizes just how lucky he is and how much scrutiny he's under. I mean, he's been pushy, demanding and silly on the set. He's not following a shot schedule or taking advice from anyone, particularly Chris Moore (who comes off in this show as a sort of wiseass, common-sense-spouting hero).

Incidentally, did you count how many drinks Ben Affleck had in the first episode? No wonder they sent him to rehab.

"Stolen Summer," which had a script that Matt Damon said sounded too much like an afterschool special, looks like it's going to be painful to sit through, but this show makes me want to suffer through it.

Project Greenlight is the brainchild of actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and Producer Chris Moore, the trio that brought `Good Will Hunting' to the screen. The show is based on a competition during which wannabe directors submit their scripts to Live Planet, the trio's production company, with the winner getting the opportunity to turn their script into a film, courtesy of Miramax. The series follows the exploits of the contest winner, Pete Jones, as he directs his feature, `Stolen Summer.'

Having worked on film sets before, I know that movie shoots that go well can be pretty boring places to be. The hours are long and the work is hard, but basically you set up, you shoot, you have lunch, you shoot some more, then you go home. It seems to me that the P.G. creators and producers stacked the deck against Jones to wring out as much `drama' as they could. First they give Jones, who has never directed a film before, less money and less time than would be optimal for the movie he is making. Logic would suggest you would want to give a neophyte more time and cash to make mistakes, do things over, etc. Logic would also suggest you would surround the newbie with the best people you could get to provide support and guidance. Instead, Jones is hooked up with a first-time Producer (Jeff Balis) and a Line Producer (Pat Peach) and cinematographer (Pete Biagi) who seem more interested in furthering their own personal agendas than making the best film for Jones. All through the series the question of `Who's in charge?' hangs in the air, with Executive Producer Chris Moore coming by the set to yell at people and threaten Balis with firing (as opposed to, say, providing genuine leadership and guidance to the production) and studio suit Michelle Sy occasionally dropping in to `represent the interests of Miramax,' whatever that means.

The series shows all the major screw-ups on the production – Jones shoots under a noisy train platform that renders sound recording impossible, the big baseball scene is rained out and the crew does not have an alternative location, the scene of the two main characters swimming is hindered by the fact that the child actors are terrible swimmers. The crew gets worn down but soldiers on through the confusion, taking note of such basic directing/producing mistakes as not having a daily shot list. The series is very good at depicting just how chaotic movie making can be, especially when the people calling the shots do not really know what they are doing. Unfortunately, the series did not show anything that went well on the set. Despite the numerous gaffs depicted in the show, a movie apparently did get made. It would have been nice to see how the crew went about crafting and shooting a normal, regular scene, without all the conflict that went on behind the camera.

The last episode of the series showed Stolen Summer's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. It seemed the reactions of the audience to the film were upbeat, but not overwhelming. I hope the film is good – I'll probably check it out when it goes into wide release. I also hope the mistakes depicted in the series do not hurt Jones's chances of directing again. All in all the idea of Project Greenlight is an admirable one. Any opportunity for fresh talent to break into the insulated world of major films can't be bad. If Affleck and Damon decide to do this again, however, I hope they forget the whole reality series angle and just give the contest winner the money and people he or she needs to make the best film they can.

Ok, maybe not so glamorous - but then that's a useful thing to learn, no?. This multi-part docudrama takes a fascinating look at making movies by following the making of a movie by a first-time director.

I only hope they put this on DVD so others can learn from their mistakes. ;-)

What a great show! Last summer my friends and I would watch this show ritually. The two directors were such complete opposites and so unexperienced. As horrible as it is, it was wonderful to see them learn through their many mistakes. Additionally, the writer was incredibly annoying...someone needs to inform her that her job was writing the script, not directing the movie. Anyway, this series was wonderful and a great behind-the-scenes look at making a movie. Unfortunately, The Battle of Shaker Heights wasn't the greatest movie and failed at the box office, most likely directly contributing to the show not being renewed. Still, I highly recommend this season!