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Project Greenlight in the Media

David T. Cole

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Julia

Julia

This may help explain why they chose someone who really wasn't the best director, based on the shorts. 

 

The new producers of the show reportedly announced the day before the decision was announced that win or lose, all the contestants had to sign restrictive contracts - which they weren't allowed to show to their lawyers or agents - if they wanted to be considered for the job. 

 

It's not as if Jason was going to be hired to do anything in another eighteen months.

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radishcake

radishcake

That really makes me sad that according to the interview, Effie's relationships with Joubert and Damon were ruined by this.

I thought so too and she seemed sad about it. Honestly though, that reflects poorly on them. I was already tired of Matt's "mansplaining" attitude and Joubert "doesn't like conflict" well, get out of the movie business.
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blixie

blixie

That sucks about Joubert, he definitely seemed to side with Pete Farrelly in Ep 3, which I thought was shitty since he had listened to (though obviously not HEARD) Effie venting about that relationship/situation like a day before, and seemed to agree with her that Pete was overstepping unhelpful suggestions like doing the shoot in Atlanta, because he wasn't there day to day. Joubert fretted way more about Matt and Ben than he did HBO when Len Amato seems like he always had absolute confidence in Effie, and it sounds like Affleck did too, so it's just Matt and Marc wanting to kiss Matt's ass? Okay. Sadly I think I know who will suffer the most from whatever the show portrays.

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STOPSHOUTING

STOPSHOUTING

I don't think she's the devil that many in those comments do, and I only just go through episode three, but I'm not sure that interview did her any favors, nor has her portrayal on the show. But, jeezbus, wow, she did it for FREE and points on the "film" ... WTF? She's definitely not new. She had to have done SOME research on Greenlight and known the films are NEVER good. Why would any human being on Earth agree to that, unless she secretly did want to become "reality show famous" versus "just" a line producer.

 

I can't see how it makes sense any other way. Which is just ... confounding.

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radishcake

radishcake

I don't think she knew she would be the central conflict/face of the show. If she did it, like I assume most do, as a favor for minimal money, even if she looked at the other seasons there was no way to know that they would decide to put her so front and center. 

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Julia

Julia

I don't think she's the devil that many in those comments do, and I only just go through episode three, but I'm not sure that interview did her any favors, nor has her portrayal on the show. But, jeezbus, wow, she did it for FREE and points on the "film" ... WTF? She's definitely not new. She had to have done SOME research on Greenlight and known the films are NEVER good. Why would any human being on Earth agree to that, unless she secretly did want to become "reality show famous" versus "just" a line producer.

 

I can't see how it makes sense any other way. Which is just ... confounding.

 

I get the impression that it's really important for her that people see melanin-positive faces on the people doing those jobs.

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biakbiak

biakbiak

I don't think she's the devil that many in those comments do, and I only just go through episode three, but I'm not sure that interview did her any favors, nor has her portrayal on the show. But, jeezbus, wow, she did it for FREE and points on the "film" ... WTF? She's definitely not new. She had to have done SOME research on Greenlight and known the films are NEVER good. Why would any human being on Earth agree to that, unless she secretly did want to become "reality show famous" versus "just" a line producer.
 
I can't see how it makes sense any other way. Which is just ... confounding.


It also says she got her producer fee for the film the SAG day rate and points were for her participating in the show.
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STOPSHOUTING

STOPSHOUTING

biakbiak, on 15 Oct 2015 - 12:02 AM, said:
I don't think she's the devil that many in those comments do, and I only just go through episode three, but I'm not sure that interview did her any favors, nor has her portrayal on the show. But, jeezbus, wow, she did it for FREE and points on the "film" ... WTF? She's definitely not new. She had to have done SOME research on Greenlight and known the films are NEVER good. Why would any human being on Earth agree to that, unless she secretly did want to become "reality show famous" versus "just" a line producer.

 

I can't see how it makes sense any other way. Which is just ... confounding.

It also says she got her producer fee for the film the SAG day rate and points were for her participating in the show.

 

It says she only got paid SAG for ONE DAY of shooting. Considering she's in almost as many, if not more, scenes that Jason Mann, that's wildly unfair. It's not as if the movie is gonna be a hit, so those points mean nothing. And she herself says she, "did it for free."

 

We watched ep 4 last night and I just don't know how this could have helped her once seemingly thriving career to have made so many enemies, and done so, so publicly. Line producers are worker bees. They frequently have to take stupid crap, say no diplomatically and deal with wildly unreasonable requests. It's actually part of the job. They're the realists in a room full of "artistes" ... I wanna love her, but she just didn't seem to handle that well.

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Irlandesa

Irlandesa

It says she only got paid SAG for ONE DAY of shooting. Considering she's in almost as many, if not more, scenes that Jason Mann, that's wildly unfair. It's not as if the movie is gonna be a hit, so those points mean nothing. And she herself says she, "did it for free."

She did Project Greenlight the TV show essentially for free.  She got paid a producer's fee for Leisure Class in addition to percentage points.  (Which yea, are likely nothing.)

 

So she probably thought she was going to be a rather behind-the-scenes type and not Jason's great obstacle on the show.

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Julia

Julia

Flavorwire asks the very good question (JMO): wtf does Marc Joubert do on this movie, other than refuse to address the problems?

 

Because again, I have to side eye a bit when the guy whose primary responsibility is to make the dramatic! reality! series! is privy to all the miscommunications, and comments on them to the camera, and never seems to take it on himself to communicate that information to the people who don't have it. And also, his choice of quotes from Matt Damon to be used in this particular episode? Hot prep school mess, asshole.

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Julia

Julia

An interesting sidelight to the question of how much the production company for Project Greenlight promoted controversy for the sake of ratings and publicity: According to Effie, she actually flagged the Damonsplaining scene for them and told them it wasn't going to go over well. 

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Jesse

Jesse

(edited)

I think it's the Hollywood Reporter interview where Effie says something about the crew "looking like America," which I kind of wish she would stop. It looks (or the leadership, at least) looks much blacker than America. In a good way! I mean, those roles are usually much whiter and more male than America, right? I just feel like the phrase gives racists ammunition. 

Edited by Jesse
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STOPSHOUTING

STOPSHOUTING

The Hollywood Reporter has a review of The Leisure Class up. Not pretty.

 

Oh my, thanks for posting. I thought this line summed it up, especially nicely: "across-the-board rancid."

 

Spoler Alert: The reviewer did not seem impressed by the edgy grain of film.

 

And, less of a spoiler, HBO didn't seem impressed with the finished product either. If they were, it would have received the post-Greenlight Sunday night spot, which is HBO's prime real estate these days. 10 PM on a Monday night isn't actually "night at the movies" type fare.

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scrb

scrb

They're airing this late at night.  So $3.3 million is rather generous for a film they air late at night.  I think the budget of an episode of Game of Thrones might be around that but HBO knows GoT is going to get huge ratings, get a lot of people to subscribe.

 

Then there is the budget for the PGL show itself.  Ben and Matt referred to their fees.  Beyond the first episode, they really don't do much work but they certainly get paid a lot.

 

It's hard to see them renewing PGL unless it got boffo ratings and/or some other studio promised to underwrite the actual budget of the film, rather than HBO paying for both the film and the show.

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radishcake

radishcake

It's hard to see them renewing PGL unless it got boffo ratings and/or some other studio promised to underwrite the actual budget of the film, rather than HBO paying for both the film and the show.

Honestly I think they're over the moon about the return since it gave them such a huge reality TV hit. I'd be surprised if they don't renew it unless Damon & Affleck decide that they are over it. I think even with the shit show reality TV aspect it was really watchable. It was annoying as HELL and I have a lot of problem with content but a lot of folks were talking about it. 

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scrb

scrb

If Jason was the best film maker according to Matt Damon, I'd hate to think what the other contestants would have produced.

 

In reality, there was probably a good chance one of the others would have produced no worse a film, but dial way back on the drama and diva behavior.

 

Then it wouldn't make for good TV.

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Milburn Stone

Milburn Stone

Honestly I think they're over the moon about the return since it gave them such a huge reality TV hit. I'd be surprised if they don't renew it unless Damon & Affleck decide that they are over it. I think even with the shit show reality TV aspect it was really watchable. It was annoying as HELL and I have a lot of problem with content but a lot of folks were talking about it. 

 

My guess as to why a lot of people were talking about it: For all the ways it probably distorted some stuff in the quest for a "narrative," it presented a picture that a lot of people were able to recognize. 

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STOPSHOUTING

STOPSHOUTING

(edited)

Jason doesn't like the way he was "portrayed" during filming according to this Washington Post story, where he continues to sound exactly like the incredibly pretentious jackass he was "portrayed" as on Project Greenlight, with gems such as: "The interests of the show are not to have an appreciation for the art form of cinema." Because your execrably reviewed movie about poop and dick shows IS about "the art form of cinema"?

 

A few more gems, edited, I'm sure, to make Mann look bad ...

 

Where he still insists Effie tried to "ruin" his movie, by not giving him the things he needed: "In order to create the dynamic that they want, it is understandably stronger to make my character really, really dictatorial or something as a stronger dramatic play against Effie, who is telling my character I can’t have things we need to make the movie."

 

Where he, well, just ... Ugh. Because, again, rim-job jokes are high art? "I don’t really have a commerce-driven sense of making films. I really believe in them as pieces of art."

 

On FILM, to which I believe Tara's tweet is the most appropriate response: "I absolutely stand behind shooting on film and I will continue to shoot film as long as it is available in the world and feasible. I wish that we could have done more photochemically. I wish we could have finished the coloring photochemically, but HBO was not going to allow that."

 

... And it just gets more pretentious and obnoxious as he goes. My eyes kind of glazed over at one point, though he swears he "loves" the final, by all accounts terrible, movie.

 

To his credit, he does offer a plausible explanation about the location that does significantly alter the perceptions, if it went down like he says here.

Edited by STOPSHOUTING
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STOPSHOUTING

STOPSHOUTING

Also, another terrible review with this ringing endorsement: "Seen objectively as just another made-for-HBO movie, “The Leisure Class” is bad enough that the network would probably be too embarrassed to air it in any other context but this one."

 

And, Slate argues that Project Greenlight is a cut above most reality shows. Which, considering I don't watch any other reality shows at this point, I guess I'd agree with.

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Julia

Julia

Oh, my god. From the Post:

 

Obviously it created some kind of buzz, especially that first episode. It seems like it caused this whole thing. It’s so strange, especially for Matt, who is the kindest person and most inclusive person imaginable I would think to be thrown into the mix of someone who’s getting painted, I think, unfairly in this sort of debacle.

You see him as the most inclusive person imaginable?

That’s not to say he’s more inclusive than other people who are also inclusive, but he is an incredibly magnanimous person and a very intelligent person who — I think his comments were taken a bit out of context.

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QuinnM

QuinnM

Another OMG from the post:

 

But obviously what Effie’s side of it brings up, this notion that of course the system is not actually fair, and statistically in the industry we have an imbalance that’s not representative of the world, so it would just make sense for the next season of “Project Greenlight” to be only for female directors and people of color.

 

Yes of course that's what 'Effie's side' is saying.  Since obviously on a level playing field no one of not his gender or not his color would ever win the competition when measured against a white male.  It's just coincidence that in all the seasons of Project Greenlight that the most inclusive person in the world always chooses a white male.

 

Jason needs to sit down and stop talking because opening his mouth is making him look like a douche.

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Julia

Julia

Another OMG from the post:

 

Yes of course that's what 'Effie's side' is saying.  Since obviously on a level playing field no one of not his gender or not his color would ever win the competition when measured against a white male.  It's just coincidence that in all the seasons of Project Greenlight that the most inclusive person in the world always chooses a white male.

 

Jason needs to sit down and stop talking because opening his mouth is making him look like a douche.

Well, obviously the process is inclusive, since Matt Damon included him, and he's a different white guy than Matt is.

 

Sorry, I just hear Jason's voice in frequent italics.

 

Enjoy the Post review, As expected, Jason Mann's precious movie stinks

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Julia

Julia

(edited)

In other news, Effie Brown has now produced 18 films.

 

[snort]

 

Although, if anything, I feel as if Effie's the only person who has a shot at coming out of this having learned something about how she interacts with people. Jason's take on events made me wonder if he's on the spectrum. 

 

ETA: And yeah, Jason's learned nothing.

 

If the apparatus of making this particular film weren’t the way that it was, everything would have gone so smoothly. If someone had just handed me and my producer friends the budget of this film and said, “Go off and make a movie,” it would have been the smoothest thing imaginable.
Edited by Julia
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tvsoothesthespirit

tvsoothesthespirit

In regards to the Washington Post article, it looks like the guy who doesn't take responsibility for anything continues in the same vein.  Even the responsibility for his own personality.

 

I thought it was funny when he said he was portrayed as "cold," that's not the feeling I got. I thought he worked really well with everyone who didn't have to deny him anything. Honestly, if Project Greenlight manufactured the tension and issues between Mann and Effie; Mann owes them a huge thank you. If he couldn't blame everything on Effie's inability to get him exactly what he wanted, he might be forced to admit he made a bad movie.

 

He wants money to make films but doesn't see it as a commercial endeavor. That's generally not the way things work in our country. People see that money that they give you as an investment.  Usually, people who are not your mom and dad like to get paid back for their investments. I guess he could try to create some sort of non-profit and ask for tax deductible donations.

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Broken Ox

Broken Ox

it is understandably stronger to make my character really, really dictatorial or something as a stronger dramatic play against Effie,

 

This reminds me of a quote from the Big Bang Theory, when Howard refers to Sheldon as a dictator.

 

Raj: "I thought you were going to go easy on him."

Howard: "That's why I added the 'tator'.

 

Interesting how in the article Jason was completely a product of editing but Effie faithfully represented as trying to sabotage him.

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scrb

scrb

That Slate column said the hook of PGL is the conflict between Jason and Effie.

 

Of course the whole Damonsplaining thing took off beyond the show as well.

 

If there is to be another season, will they have Effie or another outspoken producer who would have friction against Damon and Affleck or against whoever they choose to be director?

 

BTW, there wasn't much diversity in the cast was there?

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Julia

Julia

If there is to be another season, will they have Effie or another outspoken producer who would have friction against Damon and Affleck or against whoever they choose to be director?

 

If there is to be another season, I'd like to see Jennifer Garner as the EP.

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