S04.E08: Hug & Release

[radishcake]

Filming is wrapped in the Season 4 finale, but Ben suggests that Jason show his director's cut to a test audience, and though Jason's irked by some of the feedback, he works overtime with the editor to have the final cut ready for the red-carpet premiere at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles.

[terrymct]

To the bitter end, Jason showed his inexperience. Again and again, he was told there are problems with the STORY and he was fixated on minutiae. Who cares if one shot is slightly over exposed if the story doesn't make sense. I also wonder if an exposure issue could have been correct to a reasonable degree if, you know, the film had been shot on video rather than film.

Jason Mann is a petulant, myopic child. At best.

[PetuniaP]

My god, I don't think I've hated a reality TV villain in a LONG time like I hate Jason. What a horrible human he is. Completely unable to listen, take feedback, work in a collaborative environment, show a speck of appreciation or gratitude, or admit to being wrong under any circumstances. If this is what Hollywood directors are like, then thank baby Jesus that I don't work in Hollywood because I would not have the fortitude or forbearance to deal with it. Even his editor, a man that worked with Spielberg (!), started losing his shit while working with Jason. 

 

A few points:

• Nothing could make me happier than seeing Effie's opinion validated and reinforced by the screening audience and then by Len. She made a graceful and sensible exit once she realized that she was beating her head against a brick wall while still having done an excellent job. A role model for us all. 
• Joubert is also rather loathesome. It was fun seeing him nearly panic at the idea of actually doing any producing work on Jason's movie in Effie's absence.
• I'm glad to see that my long time love for Ben Affleck and disinterest in Matt Damon were both incredibly well placed
• Jason should be grateful that he seems to have indulgent and wealthy parents who can support him while he makes short films that hew to his exact vision that no one will ever see. I'm quite confident that after this, no one will hire him to direct anything for them again. 

Edited November 2, 2015 by PetuniaP

[calliope1975]

The editor's meltdown was a thing of beauty. That poor guy. 

 

Jason only hears what he wants to hear. It must be nice to live in such rarefied air. I'm just glad the HBO guy was able to recognize Jason's faults because I was fearing all of this would be put off on Effie. I also love Affleck throwing subtle shade at Jason, even while trying to sound supportive. 

[Stinamaia]

Oh my god! When Jason started going on about the money Effie saved for the reshoot could have gone into the car wreck, I actually yelled, "You idiot!" at the tv.

Even if he had THREE cars doing cartwheels, it would not have fixed the hole in the story about Fiona that seemed to be the big problem with the story in many people's minds.

When the HBO guy who seems like a very reasonable patient guy was telling Jason what he needed Fiona to say, Jason sat there with arms crossed not even looking at him. He looked like a kid listening to unwanted parental advice. And the way he kep saying he was beholdened to HBO! It's more than beholdened, you knucklehead. They are financing you. That makes HBO your boss if you have a realistic view of the world.

Jason looked like an even bigger ass without Effie around.

Also I'm going on Twitter just to tell Effie I love her.

[Julia]

The beholdened thing is a line from the Philadelphia Story. I have no idea what if anything that means.

[Quilt Fairy]

It seems like everyone secretly knows that The Leisure Class is a piece of crap. But everyone, and I mean everyone, is dancing around and kissing Jason's butt and telling him what a great movie it is. An artistic high bar? Really, Matt Damon, REALLY? Even the worst thing that was said about it - Ben Affleck's "It's not to my taste" - was leavened with remarks implying that it's some kind of masterwork of dark comedy.  I had to laugh when Len, the president of HBO films is helping to edit the movie - something I rather doubt he does on a regular basis - and he says "Let's pick it up right before the defecation". You can hear the disgust and sarcasm in his voice.

[lidarose9]

There were so many gratifying moments in this episode. Let's make a list, shall we?

 

- Effie's feedback on the woman character: Jason read it as more of Effie obsessing over "diversity" or more of Effie not being supportive of his creative vision.... Jason later gets that exact feedback from multiple other sources, not the least of which is Len. 

 

- Marc Joubert actually having to pretend to work. Deer in headlights.

 

- Len with Jason, gets the manic prima donna treatment full blast. Oh man. I was literally yelling at the tv saying: "That's right Jason, keeping telling him about how the shot was overexposed! Yes, he will really be supportive of reshooting that!" And then there was a long prolonged bullshit explanation from Jason about how there was this other minor problem that could be fixed if they reshot that scene.... and Len totally called him on it. I just wanted to kiss Len a few times tonight. 

 

- The editor losing his shit. I absolutely fucking loved the way they put together those scenes for maximum comic effect. I could totally feel his pain. 

 

- That whole auditorium of people bored stiff, Jason looking thoughtful. Absolutely unable to process. 

 

- Jason's various facial expressions and poses. I would love to see a gif of that, I mean we had arms crossed scowls, we had red-faced pressed lips frowns, we had squinty-eyed grimaces like he's smelling a dirty diaper... I really was waiting for a full-on tantrum. 

 

- The absolutely unbelievable moment when Effie told him he got his reshoots and he heard Effie confess to trying to sabotage his movie. UNBELIEVABLE! His grip on reality is seriously questionable.  

 

I could go on and on. It was one great moment after another, until the end when they all started acting like this was going to be a great big hit movie. I guess they have to do that. Glad that's not my job.  

Edited November 2, 2015 by lidarose9

[lanter]

I have no doubt if there had not been money for reshoots, Marc Joubert's bitch ass would have said something like "most producers make sure there is money set aside in case it is needed at the end of a shoot. I guess Effie chose not to do that...for whatever reason."

 

By the end of this season the only people I didn't feel like slapping were Effie, Len Amato, and (surprising to me) Ben Affleck.

[FastLou]

This asshole really has no concept of budget. If he'd known he had money he'd have blown it on the stupid stunt? That's why your professional line producer hid it from you - you cannot be trusted to make good decisions!

The conversation regarding the pick-up day was even worse. Effie never said she had money to do whatever you needed. She said there was money for a pick-up day. You're still limited to what is physically possible to accomplish in a day, moron.

At least I can rest comfortably that he's managed to close a lot of potential future doors. One simply does not work with / talk to a senior exec at HBO that way. I'd like to think he'll never make a real movie again, but at least I can be confidant he made no friends in this process.

[FastLou]

Even his editor, a man that worked with Spielberg (!), started losing his shit while working with Jason.

I don't think I've ever been more frustrated than working w/ people who argue about moving a cut a couple frames or go back and forth between takes forever. Makes me want the scream, "It doesn't fucking matter! No one will notice! They're both just fine - pick one." Sometimes it does matter, but not very often. Edited November 2, 2015 by FastLou

[LADreamr]

Ugh, Jason is a condescending twat. That is all.

OK, not totally all. I'm leaving the screening of this egotistical, self-fellating piece of... sorry, I meant timeless classic, 8th wonder of the world, work of art (thank dog there was film!) to you brave souls. I eagerly await your reviews.

What a disappointment. I was so excited for this reboot.

Edited November 2, 2015 by LADreamr

[Latverian Diplomat]

So, I'm guessing that people who shoot digital can check for things like overexposure in the moment, and people who shoot on film, have to wait a day, which on an aggressive shooting schedule means never really checking beyond "it's not unusable". So, this is another subtle way that Jason's film fixation created problems for him.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Latverian Diplomat

[mandigirl]

 

Oh my god! When Jason started going on about the money Effie saved for the reshoot could have gone into the car wreck, I actually yelled, "You idiot!" at the tv.

Let's just say I yelled something much, much less... "G-rated" at the screen.

 

So Craig Hayes is  acceptable to Jason because he had worked on some 'legitimate' movies in the past. Is this guy for real? Jason is a film student and this is his FIRST FILM.  He should be thrilled that someone like Craig even deigned to work on what basically amounts to a well-funded film school project. 

 

I actually enjoyed this season of PGL quite a bit. It was very illuminating. I came away with a positive impression of Effie, Len Amato, and, surprisingly enough, Ben Affleck. The most disappointing thing about this season was that they gave this whole amazing Project Greenlight experience to someone who barely registered any gratitude for it and instead saw it as a compromise of himself as an 'artist'. I can't help thinking there were far more deserving filmmakers out there. 

[Hootis]

Jason's an ass, no question. But if I ever had any dealings with Effie, I would always drill down into her vague hand-waving descriptions. "We have money." Oh yeah? How much? How much does it cost to do this, this, and this? There were some serious points of contention during this whole thing that adult communication could have avoided.

Edit: Proven winners can be asses. Jason is gonna head right back into obscurity, since apparently the movie sucks.

Edited November 2, 2015 by Hootis

[sinbahF]

Jason really gets my blood boiling so I have to come out from the woodwork to comment. Been lurking at TV forums for nearly 10 years counting back at my TWOP days, never did I imagine I'd register an account just to comment on Project Greenlight. He really achieved something here.

 

The fact that he focus on the stupidest minor flaws makes him not suitable to work in the entertainment industry. In my former life, I produce TV ad, and I worked with someone sort of like Jason, not only he blew all my budget but all my save away money. I am 100% on Effie's side for the budget issue. Of course Effie save up some money, making a movie is not just about production, it's also about post production, and we all know Jason can easily burn through that post production budget. Plus, allocating certain amount of money to one thing doesn't mean that you spend exactly the amount you budgeted. I guess Jason never had to worry about budget because rich daddy. Blame Effie all he want, even if they give him 10 mil, he will still have producers say no on his endless request,

 

Also want to point out, editors by nature are extremely patient people because they need to sort out lots of footage to piece the movie together. If your editor is on the verge of a breakdown you know what you're doing is definitely not working and they're talking about just a few frames in and out of one shot, that's some stupid power play right there. I once had an client who know nothing about sound editing, insisted on moving a background sound 1 frame, and he insisted it made a world of difference. As a director, if all you see are a few frames, a shot is over exposed, but ignore the general comment of a weak story, you're doing your job wrong. 

 

I hope nobody ever hire Jason again.

 

The thing frustrate me most is that they give this cool 3 mil to this ignorant know it all long thin turd. I am sure there're other directors in the pool who can work well in this format but I guess if I am producing reality TV, drama, and an obvious villain trumps everything.

[ApathyMonger]

I wish we'd gotten to see Affleck tell Jason he didn't like the movie. I wanted a scene like the Quinto/Shane one from The Chair, where Quinto just unloaded on the guy.

[jenrising]

Bwaaaahaaaahahaa. That was an amazing end to Project Entitled Asshole. I appreciated that they only bothered to spend five minutes pretending this movie is any good. I'm torn about whether I'm willing to try and watch tonight just to enjoy the beauty of film grain.

 

For a minute during Jason's lobby tantrum, I thought he had to be trolling. Like, you can't really be this much of a bratty child. Effie saved enough money for one day of clearly necessary reshoots. Instead of being happy, you pout. She says to make a list of everything you want to try and cover. And then there's a meeting where you add to that list and she explains they money won't cover all of them. This is the ultimate betrayal somehow. No, moron. That's how budgets work. There is nothing more logical than that. In the world. Ugh.

 

But then I remembered this is Jason and that's just how he rolls. Like a toddler.

 

Someone please do produce some gifs of his faces. There's "confused everyone isn't doing what I want" face. And "I don't  understand why you don't think everything I do is perfect" face. And of course, the actual tantrum in the editing room where I really thought he was going to actually throw himself down on the floor kicking and screaming for his woobie and some juice. Bless Len Amato for not murdering him through the skype chat. 

 

But my favorite moment by far was Marc Joubert practically choking on the words, "Effie was right." Dick. 

[terrymct]

The very best part of this episode was watching Jason's apologists have to admit in their own way that Jason's a problem and/or that the movie sucks.   Ben Affleck's comment about the movie not being to his taste and that he wouldn't make something like that was particularly hilarious.  He's had at least his share of bad movies.  Len Amato was trying to save this turkey.  I wonder why Peter Farrelly wasn't mentoring/advising Jason more here at the end.  Did one of the men behind Dumb and Dumber know it was time to abandon ship?

[SFoster21]

The very best part of this episode was watching Jason's apologists have to admit in their own way that Jason's a problem and/or that the movie sucks. Ben Affleck's comment about the movie not being to his taste and that he wouldn't make something like that was particularly hilarious. He's had at least his share of bad movies. Len Amato was trying to save this turkey. I wonder why Peter Farrelly wasn't mentoring/advising Jason more here at the end. Did one of the men behind Dumb and Dumber know it was time to abandon ship?

Well, he said the genre was something he wouldn't make; he is an accomplished director. I didn't hear him say he had never been involved with a poor movie.

But Jason is the absolute best subject for reality television. Does he know, I wonder, how awful he comes off?

Edited November 2, 2015 by SFoster21

[RemoteControlFreak]

Again in this espisode we see Effie's problematic over-use of first-person singular pronouns, as in this scene:

 

" I was able to save money during production ... I got money.  Do you know what I mean? I have the money in my hot little hands."

 

Would Jason have reacted less petulantly if she had just said:

 

"We've got some extra money that was set aside for reshoots and picks-ups."

 

Possibly.  When Effie makes everything personal, it feeds into Jason's idea that Effie is out to personally sabotage him.

Edited November 2, 2015 by RemoteControlFreak

[Julia]

But Jason is the absolute best subject for reality television. Does he know, I wonder, how awful he comes off?

 

I can answer that. No, he does not.

 

The story he's telling about the house search, how he's not responsible for the delays? He says they found a house, and everyone (he specifically mentions Effie here) loved that house, and wanted it, and they tried to get it. But unfortunately, there was a family wedding scheduled to take place in that house on one of the shooting days, and the family (I know, control your astonishment) didn't want to reschedule or move an event with, probably, a fair number of people invited to it which they were most likely invested in, it being a family wedding and all,

 

But Jason really wanted that house, because that house was his vision, and he stopped looking for other alternatives while negotiations went on. So when the family (I can only assume desperate to get him to go away) offered him his chosen location-including-wedding-day for $1 million, Jason was gobsmacked to discover that he wasn't allowed to spend that on a location and was forced by circumstances beyond his control to choose a second-rate option, where (unlike in most rich folks' houses) you aren't allowed to bust the objets d'art.

 

No shit, Jason told that story to the Washington Post because he thought it made him look better. He really is that delusional.

[Maire]

The most disappointing thing about this season was that they gave this whole amazing Project Greenlight experience to someone who barely registered any gratitude for it and instead saw it as a compromise of himself as an 'artist'. I can't help thinking there were far more deserving filmmakers out there.

 

 

Bingo! The beauty of PG was the thrill  of the director/writer at being given this opportunity. Jason could not have cared less.

I did love Effie and there must have been discussion we didn't see. In the conversation we saw she was being sort of opaque; we have money, we can do the re-shoots. It makes sense that there was a more specific meeting where Jason got himself in to a twist. More to spend on the crash? What a selfish doofus.

[ApathyMonger]

There's a good interview with Effie at Buzzfeed: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarettwieselman/effie-brown-project-greenlight-interview#.hgjyyG3QWE

[terrymct]

Well, he said the genre was something he wouldn't make; he is an accomplished director. I didn't hear him say he had never been involved with a poor movie.

But Jason is the absolute best subject for reality television. Does he know, I wonder, how awful he comes off?

 

Affleck said that the movie wasn't to his taste and that he wouldn't make something in that genre.  He didn't mention the poor movies he made.  I did because it struck me funny that not even someone known for working in/on movies that range from great to profoundly horrible and across a fairly wide range of genres would find this movie "to his taste".

 

Someone must have told Jason he looks like a horse's butt in these episodes.  He's has given a series of interviews lately where he's insisting that he's getting a bad edit to be cast as a villain.  Sure, that can certainly happen, but his behavior has been fairly consistent across all the episodes.  If the producers are trying to give him the villain edit, they didn't have to work very hard at it.

Edited November 2, 2015 by terrymct

[STOPSHOUTING]

The seething editor blowing up at having to go over this stupid stuff again and again, while being ignored by all involved is priceless. Star of the series right there. I would have loved to be his friend/spouse, because I bet he has some stories.

[QuinnM]

Would Jason have reacted less petulantly if she had just said:

Jason reacted petulantly to Len and Mark so I can't see that anything anyone said to him that wasn't what he wanted to hear would have changed.  What Effie needed to say was Sir, yes sir.  If she had just never said no then everything would have been fine.

[RemoteControlFreak]

Jason reacted petulantly to Len and Mark so I can't see that anything anyone said to him that wasn't what he wanted to hear would have changed.  What Effie needed to say was Sir, yes sir.  If she had just never said no then everything would have been fine.

You're joking?

[Julia]

There's a good interview with Effie at Buzzfeed: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarettwieselman/effie-brown-project-greenlight-interview#.hgjyyG3QWE

 

And Jason, that inutterable douche, actually gave an interview to Kodak where he announced that there was $200k left over at the end of the film, not the end of the shoot, and that Effie withheld that money from him. Not Effie saved my pasty ass by shaving enough off the budget to give me the reshoots every single producer and the test audience insisted I needed because my characters were made of cardboard and my film sucked. Effie hid the money just to fuck with him.

 

Just, I just wrapped a project where someone insisted on redesigning a huge piece until the wee small hours of Saturday when the printer should have had it by Thursday afternoon, so it's entirely possible I'm projecting here, but I strongly suspect I really hate Jason. 

 

The seething editor blowing up at having to go over this stupid stuff again and again, while being ignored by all involved is priceless. Star of the series right there. I would have loved to be his friend/spouse, because I bet he has some stories.

 

Testify. And Joubert, who all of a sudden has no sympathy at all for Jason's precious artistic pretensions because he at least realizes that Effie right there on camera saved their little movie, and Jason was still holding his breath until he turned blue over in the corner and trying to blow the reshoot. And Effie wasn't there to take the hit. And good for her.

 

And I think I may hate Joubert only slightly less than Jason in the light of that for the way he made Effie look throughout this trainwreck.

[MerryMary]

Effie was really smart by not going to the shoot the day of pick-ups.  Let everyone else deal with Jason's petulant ass.  As we say on the farm, that boy ain't right.  Did you hear Ben distancing himself from the movie?  "It's not my kind of movie..." or something like that.  I really wish the Beanie Brothers movie was made instead. 

[radishcake]

You're joking?

I'm pretty sure that sarcasm was meant. The only way to get an UN-petulant Jason is to just say Sir yes sir. We need a sarcasm font like YESTERDAY.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

"I outweigh the kid by 70 pounds and I’m from Jersey and I have 43 years of rage in me." - Brown in the Buzzfeed interview, and I may have to get that tattooed on my back in a wing shape.

[Primetimer]

Looking back at Project Greenlight's flawed, fascinating fourth season.

Read the story

[OptimisticCynic]

Let's just say I yelled something much, much less... "G-rated" at the screen.

So Craig Hayes is acceptable to Jason because he had worked on some 'legitimate' movies in the past. Is this guy for real? Jason is a film student and this is his FIRST FILM. He should be thrilled that someone like Craig even deigned to work on what basically amounts to a well-funded film school project.

I actually enjoyed this season of PGL quite a bit. It was very illuminating. I came away with a positive impression of Effie, Len Amato, and, surprisingly enough, Ben Affleck. The most disappointing thing about this season was that they gave this whole amazing Project Greenlight experience to someone who barely registered any gratitude for it and instead saw it as a compromise of himself as an 'artist'. I can't help thinking there were far more deserving filmmakers out there.

His whole "I edit all my own stuff, but I guess Craig will do" was so ludicrous. So on his list of qualifications we can add: director, cinematographer, sound technician, and editor. The hubris on that guy.

Most telling was his comment that you know you have a success based on how you feel about it. No, the measure of success of a film is if you can effectively communicate your vision to an audience, to engage them in some way. Which he failed at.

Also agree about Len, Effie, and Ben.

Edited November 2, 2015 by OptimisticCynic

[represent]

I've been watching this show, and waited till the end to comment. Finally, I'm team Effie. She has flaws in the way she handled some things, she did show a bit of a chip on her shoulder but that doesn't mean her points were wrong, maybe her approach at times could have used some work. Bottom line, she looks like she knows what she's doing and did her job.  Yep, team Effie. 

 

I always liked Affleck more than Damon.

 

The editing scene with Mark sitting there, and then making fun of Jason's near hyperventilation on the verge of  a tantrum,  I could not stop laughing.

 

And yes I agree with those who say, Mark didn't do shit did he? He just flipped whose side he was on from week to week. 

 

Is it safe to say that we won't ever see Jason again? What do you think?

 

I don't know a damn thing about this business, but my goodness, he just did not get it. Random viewers were telling him that there were issues with character development, yet he was still stuck on the car crash and that Effie "hid" all this money because she wanted to sabotage his vision.

 

It makes sense though, he's a spoiled, privileged white boy who hasn't had to care about money/budgets. So every time Effie would say there was enough money to do something, but then change that fact after a meeting revealed otherwise, he just could not understand that.  

 

It was simple to me. It went like this:

 

We have this extra money.

Let's meet and see what needs to still be done.  

Oh, this list of things to be done is a lot longer than we expected.

So it will take more money than we thought, to cover it all.

Therefore, now, post-meeting, I'm not sure that we have enough to do everything. 

But we can still do some of things.

Translation Jason, prioritize. 

 

But for his privileged ass he's never had to do that, so....

 

Unless I'm misunderstanding, someone correct me if I'm wrong please.

Edited November 2, 2015 by represent

[terrymct]

I don't know a damn thing about this business, but my goodness, he just did not get it. Random viewers were telling him that there were issues with character development, yet he was still stuck on the car crash and that Effie "hid" all this money because she wanted to sabotage his vision.

 

It makes sense though, he's a spoiled, privileged white boy who hasn't had to care about money/budgets. So every time Effie would say there was enough money to do something, but then change that fact after a meeting revealed otherwise, he just could not understand that.  

 

 

I think he flat out doesn't care about what other people think about his films.  He's the ultimate arbiter of value in film making, at least in his own mind.

[Julia]

And too, Jason's perception of how human beings behave is clearly very, very limited. He clearly thought what he was watching was realistic human beings behaving in an amusing and witty fashion. I guess that the other producers thought he was winding up for some incredibly stylized version of what he filmed which would make some kind of point? But I'm pretty sure that in Jason's mind, the glaring flaw in that movie is that Jason wasn't allowed to flip a car.

[blixie]

 

Jason wasn't allowed to flip a car.

It was foundational to the architecture of his story!

[sanford]

I am curious if more seasoned directors routinely are given (or request) a detailed budget breakdown or is that normally restricted to the producers? I was surprised that Jason seemed so surprised by the leftover amount. Don't they have meetings about the budget? I would think that would be the case, especially with such a small budget to begin with.

 

Every time Jason hugged someone, I wanted to crawl out of my skin. Was that just me?

Edited November 2, 2015 by sanford

[Surrealist]

I wish we'd gotten to see Affleck tell Jason he didn't like the movie. I wanted a scene like the Quinto/Shane one from The Chair, where Quinto just unloaded on the guy.

 

I wish he had done the same. He was throwing shade at Jason, but was nice about it. Ben was complimentary, but was trying to steer him in a better direction. I felt as if Jason was only really willing to listen to Ben and Matt. Maybe Pete.

[Muffyn]

I enjoyed watching Ben try to slide away from the steaming pile of crap I suspect the final product is. Jason was an exhausting, petulant , entitled jackass from beginning to end. And yeah, watching him hug people creeped me out. Then again, the thought of touching him creeps me out.

[film noire]

There's a good interview with Effie at Buzzfeed: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarettwieselman/effie-brown-project-greenlight-interview#.hgjyyG3QWE

 

What a fantastic, honest, taking-inventory interview. She is a gift to this too-often worthless business.  (And even now, the difference between Mann and Brown is so, so stark. There's Effie, deeply self aware -- publicly calling her own shit as well as the shit in the business and in this show in particular -- and then there's Mann in his interviews, without an ounce of self examination, just one moment after another spent justifying, blaming, and whining.) 

Edited November 3, 2015 by film noire

[Julia]

What a fantastic, honest, taking-inventory interview. She is a gift to this too-often worthless business.  (And even now, the difference between Mann and Brown is so, so stark. There's Effie, deeply self aware -- publicly calling her own shit as well as the shit in the business and in this show in particular -- and then there's Mann in his interviews, without an ounce of self examination, just one moment after another spent justifying, blaming, and whining.)

It's not just that. It's the way he did everything he could to hurt her professionally until it became clear that the overwhelming majority of the public response was on her side, and then started giving interviews about how friendly they are.

[scrb]

Who was the editor mad at, Jason for resisting Len's suggestion or at Len?

It was telling that Jason said it should be a personal art form.

But it could be that he signed a contract where it was spelled out that HBO has final cut.

Of course directors with any kind of clout wouldn't have to skype with an executive while editing and having to accept their cuts.

[Clanstarling]

I enjoyed watching Ben try to slide away from the steaming pile of crap I suspect the final product is. Jason was an exhausting, petulant , entitled jackass from beginning to end. And yeah, watching him hug people creeped me out. Then again, the thought of touching him creeps me out.

I'll say, up front, that I'm not a hugger except for close friends and family. But watching people who seem to pretty clearly despise each other hug one another really bugged. They should return to air kisses. So much less committed and no physical contact.

[Will Holston]

Next season, I'd like to have a better understanding of what Marc Joubert's job actually IS, because I still have no idea what his role on the movie was. He didn't seem to be doing anything except be frustrated in confessionals about people who were actually doing something.

[itainttippithebird]

 

It was telling that Jason said it should be a personal art form.

 

This to me is such an interesting theme that I wish could have been explored so much more deeply - ok, let it be known I loathe Jason, lest my comments be taken as otherwise, because YECH, I shudder to think anyone interpret me that way! But I'm ALMOST symapthetic to his argument that no one else's taste should trump your own when it comes to producing art - EXCEPT that filmmaking (especially commercial filmmaking) is such a complicated art form given its collaborative nature. Yes, we tend to give directors the most credit in terms of questions of who is the ARTISTE (eye roll) - and yet, everyone involved in filmmaking is contributing creatively - the actors, the cinematographers, the producers, the editors. It's not just about your own artistic vision, JASON, it's about the whole team of people who are bringing creative skills to the table. But then that makes for such an interestingly twisty discussion about the art - whose vision is it? Whose taste matters? What voices and choices get heard? Etc. I'd love to see more of that in the next season.

 

Somewhat relatedly - this show always puts me in a weird position of siding with The Suits, because the directors end up being such total jerks with such narrow, autocratic visions of the project that I find myself praying that the money making interests win out (which privilege audience over auteurs, even if for cynical reasons)!

Edited November 3, 2015 by itainttippithebird

[Glade]

Too bad this show isn't actually about the process of film-making, but a stupid highly edited reality show that zooms in on every possible disagreement or awkward moment and endlessly invites shame on a first-time director for not being more then a first time director.  Personally, I do like Jason and think he's interesting, but then I don't give a damn about what most people find appealing either.  You can be very intelligent and talented without having a winning personality that reaches the masses.  I don't really need to know if two people had constant passive aggressive arguments on a film set (or actually not constant, but often enough that it can look like every day was a fight.)

[Julia]

The problem with Jason as the auteur is that if Jason is the artist, his budget and schedule and his crew are his tools, and he's chosen not to learn to use them. He's unwilling to fall anywhere short of his vision (being respectful there, because they seem to.me more like whims), but he's not able to communicate effectively what he needs, he has no realistic idea of what he needs to do to get it, and he's utterly unwilling to learn from the hundreds of years of cumulative experience standing around him willing to answer questions. He's a bad employee, a bad collaborator and a bad boss, none of which is going to inspire anyone to give him total creative control with their money.

[scrb]

Directors who get final cut power are those who have proven they can deliver acclaimed, successful films.

 

Jason won a contest, he can't seriously think HBO was going to let him do whatever he wanted.