I’ve watched the first three seasons and am now caught up on the reboot.
My main reaction is: thank GOD Damon and Affleck actually learned something from the first three seasons.
In those earlier seasons (especially the first two), it seemed they were unclear whether they were about creating the best film, creating the most commercial film, and creating the most drama-filled TV show about filmmaking.
Until season 3, they didn’t even pick the best director of the one’s they’d seen.
And then throughout the seasons they hamstrung the director with idiotic and artificial casting decisions, unbelievably stupid and irritating producers (Jeff Balis and Chris Moore, anyone?) who didn’t help educate the director at all, tiresome and meddling studio execs and so on.
This season, Effie is incredibly annoying and only moderately competent. Overall, however, with a fantastic choice of director and a reasonable view of his requests on the part of HBO (finally the appropriate choice of studio), the production is at a far, far higher level than we’ve ever seen before.
This is what Project Greenlight should always have striven to be: a way for true talent to show itself. I’m optimistic about the final product.
The director can’t make a decision to save his ass. If he’d either not demanded his own script, or done a complete re-write, or wasted so much time in choosing a location, he’d have a much easier time. He’s a goddamn fussbucket, who is so incredibly passive-aggressive when he doesn’t get his way it puts up roadblocks. He’s coming from a situation where he controlled EVERYTHING, so he doesnt’ understand when other people tell him know.
Effie is someone I would LOVE to have as a part of any team. She knows what she’s doing, she knows how to get things done, and she’s incredibly direct about it. If he’d just listen to her, things would be a LOT better.
He’s a frickin’ primadonna, making another arty movie that will tank.
I should have mentioned that. I agree that I think you have it backwards. Effie is trying to work with others and the Director (Jason?) is just focused on his “vision”.
I’ve been wanting to start this thread. I don’t subscribe to HBO but our cable channel had a free weekend, so I binged on the six episodes that were available on-demand.
Jason (or “The Vampire” as they’re calling him at AV Club) is socially inept, wanting his own way and unable to listen to why digital might be better, why two extra days are a great gift, why he needs to make some decisions and communicate them with others. However, he seems to be doing well actually directing the filming, save doing a bunch of needless retakes.
From what I’ve seen of the scenes, I can’t catch what’s “comedic” about this comedy that he’s creating. The movie looks like it’ll be pretty high-brow and very dry, even in spite of the penis on the face thing.
On the other hand, Effie bugs the hell out of me. She communicates worse than Jason does, the ultimate passive-aggressive manipulator. Why can’t she help Jason understand WHY he has to make decisions? Instead she let the whole location-choosing go on so long that it’s bound to be a disaster when they don’t have enough time to get the nighttime shooting permits, screwing up his script. It’s like she’s working against Jason, in spite of how highly she thinks of herself as a team player.
…because when you are an adult and in the real world: you have to sometimes shut up and do what you are told. And this is especially true when you have hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line. This says it best:
Yeah but this article was poorly argued and had a purely political agenda. Jason is “getting away” with his requests? How about: he argues for them and gets them because that’s what good directors do. Good directors aren’t content to accept random compromises because that makes their producer’s job easier.
In the hierarchy, producers are BELOW the director and are supposed to help the director fulfill his vision, not be passive-aggressive and bitchy.
She is not treated poorly. In fact, she is allowed to throw temper tantrums and alienate important friends of the movie like the Farrelly Brothers without any consequences whatsoever. In the world outside of reality TV, offending important friends of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck would get her fired.
She doesn’t think creatively; she is a bad communicator; she throws a ton of attitude out of insecurity; she pushes her political causes aggressively; and she doesn’t have practical foresight where she really needs it – e.g. she should have explained the permit thing about locations to Jason well before deadline (“If you don’t get the location by X date, we may not be able to get the permits…”)
This article clearly just has a hard-on for Effie because she is an emblem for social justice or some nonsense.
If you hadn’t noticed: the film industry has a massive problem with representation in both gender and race, both in front of the camera and behind it, and Project Greenlight is putting the spotlight on exactly what the problem is. The statistics for the industry are appalling. The shit that women and minorities have to put up with is just absolutely disgusting.
Effie is an emblem for “social justice”: and she is a much needed one. If someone doesn’t stand up and say “the only black person in the movie is the chauffeur, are you freaking kidding me?” then nothing will ever change.
And no: the director does not get to call all the shots. And a director with no track record who won a competition for a reality series is not ranked higher in the hierarchy than the person’s whose job it is to keep the movie in check.
HBO is showing the movie. I can’t wait to watch it. I’ll be as objective as I can… but from the scenes I’ve seen, its a bit too high-concept british farce for me.