Marty Martin Comes Clean

Taken from Zoetrope which was taken from IMDB.com

MartyMartinOnTheLot aka Marty Martin writes:

To everyone out there,

I have purposefully chosen not to respond to anything on these forums. I hate getting mixed into this kind of stuff, but at this point I have to say a thing or two.

First off thank you for everyone who has supported me. Secondly, for those who literally HATE me, get a life and realize this was a reality TV show and not everyone on the show was represented acurately. I am an outspoken guy and came across like a jerk, but this is TV guys. I am not THAT guy and you can choose to believe it or not. But the kind of hate I see in these forums is just sad. You are tearing apart real people who have real lives, families, etc... based on certain things that may or may not be true about them. I really hoped that I had had the opportunity to stay on the show longer to show the real me; a nice and humble family man with a lovely daughter and wife who has been struggling to make it for the past couple of years. I unfortunately didn't get the chance to get that message across.

Aside from that, I will tackle another little criticism I keep seeing around. I didn't follow the rules by making a trailer....? Every piece of work we produced from home and submitted for the show had to obviously be approved by the show before it could air. If I actually hadn't chosen to follow the rules, do you think they would have allowed me to show my short/trailer on national TV? I just chose to take a completely different angle on the 1 minute short concept. I actually wrote an entire treatment for the Big Bad Heist before I broke it down into a 1 minute trailer, and filmed in 12 locations with a large number of actors. No simple task. I was hoping I would stand out as the guy who really took a big risk, and it went the other way around. Oh well, that's life. But being criticized for not following the rules? No way. I'm not stupid, I followed the rules. I just wanted to try something different. Still not sure why Carrie had said I didn't follow them because that wasn't the case. I am sure that if she hadn't had said that, people watching the show wouldn't have thought I violated any rules. But who knows?

As for not being able to take criticism... For those who know me, this is one thing I actually take very well. I came to Hollywood with my first short film 4 years ago and wanted criticism from real producers who were making films. And I got it. And this is how I got better. The only way I can improve on my work is by comparing it to high standards and taking in criticism and learning from it. My issue with Carrie Fisher was blown out of proportion, and being on TV in front of so many people didn't help my judgement all that much. But you know what? I learned from it. If anything, the people who know me know me as a super confident guy, but also one who is humble. And if I came across anything but humble on TV, I can blame some of it on editing, but I also have to take responsibility for stuff I did LIVE on TV. So maybe I got a bit carried away, but no one is perfect, you mistakes, you fall down, then you pick yourself back up and brush yourself off and start again.

I just want to set the record straight on this stuff once, then you guys can continue to tear me apart and I'll leave it at that. The show was a great experience for me in a lot of ways. I've taken a lot from it. Ultimately though what I got out of it was a bunch of great friends. Believe it or not, we were ALL fantastic friends on the show and still are. Which is a pretty rare thing to find in life. So many of these guys are so talented, and it is awesome to be able to stay in contact with them, hang out with them, share ideas, etc...

So it's easy to judge.... To type expletives about contestants and how they are bad, stupid, great, mean, idiots, etc... But it's also kind of sad you need to spend your free time tearing apart people you don't really know. On one hand we all signed up knowing this could happen, and I don't think any of us really take it to heart, but we all do feel it is so over the top. However, thanks for caring enough about the show to get so involved. It's cool to know that you were really following everything so closely. Stay tuned for who wins next week! We can't wait to find out as well!

Marty Martin
Director/Producer/Editor
www.imagenfilms.com
www.marty-martin.com

---

So I guess Marty Martin really wasn't the asshole we all thought he was, right? I don't know. Reality TV can make people seem meaner than they are, but no one who wasn't even a little bit arrogant would get on stage and disrespect the judges as many times Marty did.

But, that's the nature of things, right?

Congratulations Will

On winning the cool $1 million development deal with DreamWorks. How far does a million go, anyway?

We're under the firm belief that Zach Lee got snapped up long ago.

Can we make an American Hoe?

K here.

I know I said we were going to boycott "On the Lot" but something drew me back. Was it to see how Zach Lee fared, or was it to see the obvious train wreck the show has become?

The films this week were supposed to be "romantic comedy". Zach disappointed me, not because he's not a great director, but because his film just lack story. The guest judge this week told him they needed to hook him up with a good writer. Fair enough. Will Bigham's "Unplugged", about two desk lamps that withstand impossible obstacles to fall in love was the best for me. The rest? Forgettable.

And I say "Forgettable" not because I want to be mean, or because my work is a thousand times better---but it's making me a little mad that there doesn't seem to Adbe much evolution going on, here. None at all. They have it easy--all the perks of working with TALENTED actors, a budget, and professional equiptment, yet they can't sit down and create a short film that actually says something?

*sigh*

I want them to succeed---I really do. But at the same time, I'm worried that another group of good ol' boys are going to march into Hollywood as if they own it, while women, and people of color are going to have to work a thousand times harder to break the barrier. Shalini Kantayya has beautiful vision---and even though she's been On The Lot, she'll probably never have it as easy as that Brit who got kicked off the first episode...

Adriana Costa was the same--short dress, bland lines, although her comment to the boys of "You all look sharp, I must say." followed by a halfway stifled laugh was a new low.

I've got to give it up to Spielburg and Burnett, though. About halfway through the show, Adriana goes up into the control booth. There, she says something along the lines of, "We just wanted to show America how much work it takes to make a live show." Ha! Well played.

And just so this post won't end up negative:

Steven Spielburg
Duel (1971)
The Sugarland Express (1974)
Jaws (1975)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
1941 (1979) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
The Color Purple (1985)
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Hook (1991)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Schindler's List (1993)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Amistad (1997)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
Minority Report (2002)
Catch Me If You Can (2002)
The Terminal (2004)
War of the Worlds (2005)
Munich (2005)
Indiana Jones 4 (2008)

Mark Burnett
Survivor
The Apprentice
The Restaurant
The Casino
Rock Star
Combat Missions
The Contender
Martha Stewart
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?
Pirate Master

WHAT? No On The Lot?

K here.

"On The Lot" got bumped to next week due to sagging ratings the Allstar Game.

Not that it matters to me, anyway. Can somebody say "Boycott"??

Expect updates soon.

Can We Make a Community With You?

K here.

We've been hearing a lot of rumors about the "On The Lot" community/forums, not just from KarmaCritic, but from other writers and filmmakers as well.

It seems that if you use certain words, or talk negatively about the show, your post is censored, the offending words *bleeped* out.

According to this Aint It Cool article:

"Even to this day, if anybody, no matter how established or respected, posts the words "karmacritic" over there... the words first turn automatically into "BLEEP". Within 5 minutes the post is deleted, within 10 minutes the user's account is banned, and in 15 minutes his whole IP is banned (so he wont make new accounts). Then all the posts that person EVER made, go byebye too. OTL uses drupal, like you do in aintitcool.com, like I do in karmacritic.com, so you know all these things are possible with Watchdog triggers. They do it."

Hmm...I wonder...?

Expect an update soon.

KarmaCritic, Fox and Screenwriters

K here.

This showed up in the comments section of "On The Lot" Members Move Out.

From KarmaCritic:

"Just discovered your blog. I'm glad I did! I'm surprised you picked up on our contest after just one day of publishing the promo, but that's why the blogosphere has its reputation :)

I concede the comment about the mystery judge was cheesy... hollywood types dont like a lot of risk, and this trend seems to go up proportionally with how high they are in the totem pole. Its a "if it flops, no one knew I was in it, if it succeeds, I'll come out and jump the bandwagon" kind of thing.

And screenwriters -are- filmmakers! We take anybody who has ever worked above or below the line in any production, studio or indie. If there's no film to enter in the application, any reference to anywhere film that credits you is enough. Thanks for this post, I'm enjoying the rest of your blog, we agree a lot about On The Lot, obviously. Did you know the VP of FOX Branded Media was engaged with us in hand-to-hand combat in Wikipedia?

It was fun: http://www.karmacritic.com/node/276"

Hmm. More updates later when I read and review what happened...

UPDATES!!!

Going through all the information, it seems rather cowardly that those affiliated with FOX would try to censor wikipedia. I mean, it's a free encyclopedia, for Chrissakes, calm down, Fox. You've got an entire station to manipulate.

Regardless of whether or not On The Lot lied about how it does business is one thing, but to repeatedly erase truthful posts on wikipedia simply because you're pissed that your show isn't as hot as you thought it would be is seriously crossing the line.

And House is such a good show, too.

"On The Lot" a crock of bull

K here.

It has come to my attention, late though I may be, that "On The Lot" isn't really what Steven Spielburg and Mark Burnett say it is.

I've been under the impression that the videos screened each week were done in one week, with materials, money and actors given to the directors from the show. After this one week, they sent the films back to The Lot, where they were screened for the first time in front of a live audience. Sounds about right, right?

WRONG.

According to Rich Copely during an interview with "Ghetta Room" Jason Epperson, the three minute shorts weren't made after the final cut widdled the contestants down to 18. In fact, they weren't even made at any time during the course of the show. From Epperson's own words, here's how it actually went down:

Rich: Tell us about the process of getting on the show in the first place.

Jason: It all started back at the very first of the year. My mother-in-law told me about this competition. I did the search for it and found some information about it.

The crazy thing is, like I told you before, the main thing I do is music videos down in Nashville for some pretty good-sized artists. That’s where I was making the money and feeding my family and paying for bills and all this stuff. I didn’t have a lot of time to do these short films.

So when I first heard about the competition, I took a chance and just put a music video in the competition. There was a music category. But I knew it was not specifically devoted to music video.

I’m the kind of guy who doesn’t want to say “What if?” down the road. So I put it in, because it actually best showcased my work, my talents.

Rich: Which video did you put in?

Jason: The band is called War Within, it’s my brother’s heavy metal band down in Nashville. The song was called Bombs Away.

You see music videos that have a story to them anyway? The beginning of the video is a classroom full of kids, and one kid’s a rebel and the whole classroom starts loving this kid and ripping the classroom apart. It was a fun video. I always heard the hardest thing to direct is kids and animals, and so I thought maybe this would be my best chance to get in, to show I could direct a big room of kids.

I got a phone call after that, to go through an interview process. I had to go down to Atlanta, did an interview, and then I had an assignment to come back home and do another short film in a week. And they pretty much told us that depending on who did the best on this project would get the chance to come out here and be part of the Top 50.

So I did this three-minute short film in a week, submitted it, and two weeks later, they gave me the phone call and said, “Do you want to come to L.A.?”

There you have it. Despite what Spielburg and Burnett have been telling us, this isn't really a "competition" at all. It's a showcase of previously made films with moderate to little funding and without "the best resources the industry has to offer".

What a load of bull. How hard was it to make a reality tv show about filmmaking? Apparantly too hard for Spielburg and Burnett. Honestly, I think they're out of touch, and trying to become relevant through this shady idea really isn't gaining them any new fans.

Marty Martin Goes Home, Hell Freezes Over

K here.


It seems America didn't like Marty Martin last week, voting him off The Lot in a surprise move that I'm sure has Carry Fisher doing brain cartwheels. In fact, after what happened during last week's episode, I wouldn't be surprised if she went crying to Spielburg himself.

Adrianna Costa, whose dress would have gotten her kicked out of most any Catholic school, didn't even wait until the end of the show to announce his departure, and, being the brilliant host she is, said so. What happened to Chelsea Handler, the smarter, prettier, overall better host? Wasn't screwing a producer, you say?

The shorts improved drastically this week. Underwhelming resident Daddy Will Bingham's short about a man who loses his glass eye was pretty standard with some good funny moments, while Jason Epperson's short "Blood Born" shows you why it's not a good idea to waste your life.

Obvious standout Zach Lee, wowed the judges with "Sunshine Girl" a cute little short about a girl who steals the sun. The not-so-lucky "it's my journey" Jessica Brillhart didn't fare well with her confusing "horror" short shot from a tree's perspective.

With the departure of Marty Martin, I wonder how the show will go? I'm hoping the bland days of uninspired contestant/judge banter goes as well. (Along with Hilary.)

In other, not quite irrelevent news, Vote for the Worst has pegged Kenny Luby as their lucky pick, followed by the heading "Hey no one else is watching this show. Might as well try while we wait for Canadian Idol to start, right?"

"On the Lot" continues to Piss Me Off

K here.

Hilary Graham, the woman whose short last week got canned by Michael "we call that a groaner" Bay, was voted to continue on toward the million dollar deal, while one of the best in show, Trever James, got the boot.

Go to the On The Lot website and you'll see Tever's face staring back at you from the "We Say Farewell to..." page. It's supposed to be a homage of sorts, and he even gets his own little exit interview, but between Carrie Fisher's scandalous "Your films are terrible, but you're cute" reference to Kenny Luby, and dead-in-the-eyes Adriana Costa's skimpy, low-end outfits, I just don't know anymore.

The Episode itself was blasé. Kenny embarrassed himself (again) with a film even more wacked out than "Wack Alley Cab". Shira-Lee Shalit pleased the judges with her short "Beeline", while David May wasn't so lucky with his uninspiring "Love at First Shot".

The best (or worst) part of the show was when the unfortunately named Marty Martin scrapped with Princess Leia Carrie Fisher after he premiered his trying-too-hard short "Dance With the Devil".

"Well it certainly seems you're in love with yourself." Fisher quipped, after Martin said he made "Spielburg-size films."

Speilburg-size films? There's a certain level of cockiness that comes along with being a filmmaker, epsecially when you do it in Hollywood. But he doesn't have the charm of Zach Lee, the style of Shalini Kantayya, or the boobs of Adriana Costa.

All he has is a red beard and a penchant for being a douche.

If there's anything I've learned from watching "On the Lot" so far, it's that there are a lot of people in Steven Spielburg's debt. Either that, or Hollywood must really enjoy bad reality tv.

Welcome to Hollywood, Son!

M. here!

It's official: Zach Lipovsky has made it to the Big Time, when celebrity judge Garry Marshall gleefully proclaimed "Change you name, son, you're gonna be BIG in Hollywood!"

After resident wax-figurine, I mean, On The Lot Hostess, Adrianna Costa, asked Garry which name would be best suited for the goofy, wide-eyed 23-year-old, Garry laughed "Lee! Zach Lee!".

We here at CMMY totally agree!

Our support is totally behind this young kid who seems to not just have the heart to be a filmmaker, but the vision and style as well. His youth is his charm and his eagerness to create and perform is his ticket to that golden office at Dreamworks.

But it's also much more that that. This kid has a humor about him. As we screened the entry films from the 50 semi-finalists, we were disappointed one after the other until Zach Lee (!!) brought us comedy and humor with his entry. We liked Zach even more after seeing his second short with those lovely special affects. But what made him a solid winner in our books was his 1-minute short entitled Danger Zone (Check it out here). Shot continuously it is a hilarious ride through what is (supposedly) the safest place on earth!

Zach Lee is truly an inspiration, and it the one person we think is going to make it to the big time!

Good Luck, kid!

On The Lot? Maybe not.

M here.

The First true On The Lot screening episode happened tonight. Some films were pretty great (see above post for "Zach Lee" fandom), the commentary was a little fun but all-in-all this episode left something to be desired. What a complete turn around from the first episodes!

The host, who's name I cannot remember replaced a funnier, livelier Chelsea Handler to create a knock-off American Idol reality show, where the only reality is the fact that it might not last through the summer.

And believe this, these two bloggers want On The Lot to stay On The Air. Seriously, this is the greatest concept ever, but the producers are letting the ball drop. We as an audience are left high and dry many times during this show. We didn't even get to see what the heck happened to the rest of the semi-finalists (evidently they got kicked off in a Round Two that no one besides the producers of the show knew existed). We didn't have the slightest idea how the filmmakers made these lovely gems, only that they somehow got sent back to their hometowns where they were given a crew to work with for a 1-minute comedy script. And we're given this new hostess that dryer than the Sahara in the summer. (Seriously though guys...where the hell did she come from?!)

What a way to leave your audience out of the process, guys!

We love this show, but we'd like to feel more included. We don't want to see American Idol's younger, less attractive sister, we want to see a well thought-out progran that will attract us each and every week without leaving us feeling cheated. So come on! Man up!

Here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Please, please, please get rid of the hostess! We had a cringe-fest when she bounced on stage after the judges crucified Kenny Luby's sporatic cabbie flick with her plastic smile and Scarlette Johansson-esque voice: "Well, we've heard what the kjudges have to say, but let's just see if we can get American voting for you!"

"Seacrest, out!"

2. We don't want to hear the directors talk. Unless they're talking while shooting their film and explaning their film. Please, more shots of them doing...not sitting on a stage reminding everyone that one or all of the producers were obsessed with American Idol!

3. Get a mean judge. There's nothing better than hearing the truth from someone who is either too old or too jaded to be nice.

4. Focus on some drama. We all love drama. That's what Hollywood is about! If you want people to get interested, keep it lively. You were hitting gold when you touched on the tension between Jessica and Kenny over their infantile short.

On The Lot has a great deal of potential...but we as an audience can't see that if we're spoon-fed this regurgitated reality tv nonsense.