brainee

Anyone watch episode 2?

As if there was any doubt that the movie for a series called Project Greenlight would get greenlit

It sounds like a move for the best to get away from the "Not Another Pretty Woman" script. That never sounded particularly good to me, not to mention being completely outside the style of the director they picked. He's getting to make to his own script now. Maybe time to stop the crying about having to shoot digitally.

Double_Oh_7

I'm just not feeling it this season. I know the drama has always been contrived, but this season it is so obvious they set up this guy to fail.

mdc3000

^Really? I'm getting pissed off at how much they are catering to his every whim to get him to succeed.

brainee

Yeah, letting him do his own script was a huge concession which goes against what the established rules of this season were supposed to be.

mphtrilogy

ive been enjoying this, happy to have it back

JeffTheAlpaca

Does anyone think Elfie is kind of annoying?

mphtrilogy

I did get his point, why not fight for his chance to shoot on film? He seemed so bent on that , if you throw him that bone, maybe he yields elsewhere, now it could be a battle for her ...

Jadzia

Pete Jones came off as so incompetent during the first season. I'm not surprised the winner of this season wanted someone else on his project.

DJariya

I just watched this tonight and I found that really annoying. For an unknown director, he's being a pretty big pain in the ass.

The only thing that they seem firm on is shooting the film in digital vs. film due to the budget constraints.


One of the big rules for the contest is to stay on budget. They are only giving him $3M and they would blow most of it on film. It would be ridiculous for HBO to make a concession to him and give him more money because he thinks it would be better creatively. He needs to suck it up and realize this is essentially a low budget made for TV movie.

mphtrilogy

I wonder if he shot his shorts on film?

DWilson

Of course, the director ought to then wonder how he's being portrayed, since I find myself pleased when they tell him "no".

Decker

I get that he's a perfectionist, but still he's awful hard to root for considering how ungrateful he seems with this opportunity. I kept waiting for somebody at HBO to go full rant on Jason and yell "You're making a fucking TV movie. Nobody's made a TV movie on film since Roots. We shoot fucking Game of Thrones on three continents on Digital! If digital is good enough for David Nutter, Rian Johnson and Michelle MacLaren, it's good enough for whoever the fuck you are!".
Was pretty surprised everyone was okay with switching the script at the last minute. That other one must have really sucked.

Cellar Door

Jason's script sounds kind of like The Brothers Bloom.

Cellar Door

Apparently Peter Farrelly does.

I was mostly on Effie's side--she's just trying to keep everything in line while dealing with a stubborn, inexperienced director and several bigwigs trying to get their say. Having them undermine her work has got to be frustrating. On the other hand, she did seem to be spoiling for a fight before that call from Farrelly.

The editing of the show seemed to lean toward portraying her as being difficult, which makes me wonder if she'll leave or be replaced. However, it won't surprise me if next week everyone puts on fake smiles and makes up and moves forward.

How many episodes are there going to be?

Breakfast with Girls

I'm rewatching season one right now. Pete wasn't thinking he would get a lot of A listers. He acknowledged several times that Sean Penn was a "Hail Mary" long shot, but didn't think it would hurt to try.

He also didn't come across as incompetent (to me, at least), just inexperienced and unsure of his authority to wrangle producers, for good reason. They made Jeff Bailey (co-producer working for Chris Moore) seem like much more of a fuckup than anyone else. Obviously they play up the bad moments for drama, because a smooth shoot is not interesting television for most people.

Decker

I've gotta say, Effie sure looked like she was ready for a fight the minute Peter called her. Bummer too because Peter was pretty entertaining and the third-biggest name involved with this production.
Watching the Inside The Episode bit at the end it sure looks like Peter left and didn't come back. That Executive Producer seemed pretty sore at Effie to this day.

Also wasn't terribly surprised that Effie, spokesperson for diversity hired a nearly all-African American crew for Jason to work with. Probably all the same people who worked with her on Dear White People. I'm fine with that, she has the ability to hire people she's worked with before. I just don't know why she wanted to do this show. She seems to hate every minute of working with Jason.

Clearly she knows what she's doing. You may not be aware of this, but she's made over seventeen movies.

brainee

I hope this is just blown-out-of-proportion reality tv drama, and Peter is coaxed back. I can't really blame Jason for wanting to talk to Peter about this (even after Effie said no). Peter's role was supposed to be his mentor. To Jason, Effie is a line producer who's main job is to keep the movie on time and on budget. Peter is a creative writer/director with over 20 years in the business of making comedies. Who's creative opinion do you think is going to hold more weight to Jason?

BTW, have any of you had to deal with people who, like Effie, constantly use "polite" phrases so dripping with sarcasm that it comes across as being more insulting than someone just saying "fuck you" to your face? Drives me friggin' nuts ... fully sympathize with Peter here. Especially since he doesn't have any reason to have to put up with this shit.

Yeah, as soon as I saw all the crew I was immediately thinking "Effie got her diversity in the end"

I don't think I've heard this mentioned on the show. But it's an important fact and needs to be repeated every week!

Double_Oh_7

Name one off the top of your head. The Farrellys have been much more successful and she needs to remember that. They clearly know what they are doing as well.

RichC2

Effie Brown has a lot of credits but when your most famous work is still a rather small indie (Dear White People) you don't really have the privileged to be an egomaniac.

Thrush

The Farrely's definitely know what they are doing. But when it comes to producing micro budget films I would say she probably has more experience than they do. Thats probably why she was hired.

I think their interactions started to go sour when Farrelly remarked on the phone that finding a location isnt a big deal and it should be simple. She obviously took offense to that and the relationship went downhill from there.

mphtrilogy

17 you don't say

I didn't mind Effie.. Until this week, wow that was a harsh edit or she is a harsh person..

I mean Farrell's seemed like a nice guy who was doing his job, he caught her on the wrong day for sure, but he was doing them a favor by calling, he didn't have to do that... She is way out of whack...

I can't blame him for getting out ASAP.


Great show again!

Spiderbite

Are you sure of that number? I don't think I heard how many. Maybe she will say it again next week so we can all be sure.

And I just glanced over her filmography on the imdb. Only thing I have ever heard of and have seen is "But I'm A Cheerleader" which was one of her earliest films. I recognized nothing else in between that and "Dear White People."

brainee

"In the Cut" looks to be her most high profile movie (that's the Jane Campion movie with Meg Ryan against type). Though that was over 10 years ago. Most of the filmography are this series of shorts with a woman's name as the title.

RichC2

Yeah those are all those "Web Series" that Fox made (watchwigs)

Decker

Nope, I said OVER seventeen. Could be thirty, could be fifty.
Probably is eighteen.