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On the Lot Debuts May 16

Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett's new Fox reality show will debut May 16, they announced today. The deadline for submissions was February 16; 16 filmmakers will be selected to contend for a $1-million development deal with Spielberg's studio, DreamWorks.

Still to come: announcements of various judges to appear on the show. The producers are hiring two permanent judges from the motion-picture industry, a series of guest judges and a real-life moviegoer to critique the films each week. But the Fox viewers will do the voting on which movies make the cut.

Word is the On the Lot producers are considering everyone from the likes of Carrie Fisher to name directors with charisma such as Bob Zemeckis, Brett Ratner, the Farrelly brothers and Ron Howard. It will be a question of who isn't working, who doesn't consider it a comedown, who's friends with Spielberg (who's bound to favor his own agency CAA's clients) and who's telegenic and fun on TV. I'd vote for the candidly entertaining actor-director Quentin Tarantino myself. Or the witty Hugh Grant. Or the sharp-as-nails Jodie Foster. People who aren't afraid to gauge talent and say what they think. Or maybe this would be a good way for Mel Gibson to endear himself with the world again.

Errol Morris's Last Oscar Movie

Check out the last Errol Morris Oscar movie, from 2002. He does a new one this year in which he interviews 130 Oscar nominees in four minutes. Ouch.

AFI Shorts Online

Shorts International today released 16 vintage short films by graduates of the AFI Conservatory for purchase and download at iTunes. They include:

MY MOTHER DREAMS THE SATAN'S DISCIPLES IN NEW YORK Directed by Barbara Schock Winner of the 1999 Academy Award - Best Live Action Short Film. A widowed housewife travels to the Big City for the first time to visit her daughter. Once there, she becomes obsessed with the Hell's Angels-ish bikers' club across the street. A great story. Features Mickey Jones (HOME IMPROVEMENT).

FAMILY ATTRACTION
Directed by Brian Hecker
The "Nuclear Family" exhibit at The National Zoo attracts crowds to observe this dying phenomenon. But can this endangered species survive the confines of captivity? Stars the late Chris Penn and Martin Sheen.

UGLY
Directed by Moon Unit Zappa
Moon Unit Zappa's directorial debut. Gwen is a lonely single mother with an unusual passion for knitting. When photography student Kirk asks if he can photograph Gwen in her home, what will she do? A charming story of love, loss and true happiness. Music by Matchbox Twenty's Paul Doucette.

iklipz: new talent and exclusive content

Former Paramount marketing chief Arthur Cohen went live with the new indie film hub Iklipz.com last week (see HR's story). David Dinerstein, former president of Paramount Classics, serves as an Iklipz programming consultant with Susan Wrubel, Par Classics' former head of acquisitions and co-productions.

Among the exclusive content enticements is MovieCityNews founder David Poland's video blog, the first installment of which went up on Friday (link). I asked Poland why he doesn't just produce his own vlog on his own site:

In terms of making the choice to do this at all, being “talent” and allowing iklipz to produce and promote the package makes it much more viable as part of my insane schedule. The onanism of a daily column and blog is one thing, but to shoot oneself on video and post it as though someone might care is a bit much. When I had the radio show, I liked working inside of someone else’s boundaries and flexing my muscles within that structure. And I hope this experience will be like that. Another medium, another experience.

Meanwhile producer Cathy Schulman and director John Cameron Mitchell have just joined iklipz's advisory board. They're in good company. Board member sign-ups so far include Magnolia Pictures' Eamonn Bowles, ThinkFilm's Mark Urman, IFP's Michelle Byrd, Future Shorts Program U.K.'s Fabien Riggall, First Look's Ruth Vitale, indie film publicist Fredell Pogodin, the Gersh Agency's Arianna Bocco, UTA's Stuart Manashil and the Hamptons Film Festival's Raj Roy, as well as filmmakers Jon Landau, Julian Schnabel and Ed Burns.

No matter who's on the board, flash-based video browsers are weak. Let me scrub, replay and FF through clips more elegantly, prease. Go for the QT...

[posted by Sheigh]

More YouTube

The London Times explains the exploding phenomenon that is YouTube. [Via 2 Blowhards.] In yesterday's digital special section in the WSJ, Bill Gates explains why big companies can't do what YouTube does.

(Also in the WSJ Digital Special, Bob Iger and Barry Sonenfeld)

Spacey Returns with TriggerStreet.com

Three days until the Superman Returns premiere in Westwood, ten days until the movie opens wide (nope, no comic book geeks counting down the days here).

In between, Kevin Spacey — the actor who plays Lex Luthor, the movie's villain — is launching a revamped version of triggerstreet.com, his online showcase for filmmakers and screenwriters.

In celebration of the spruced up site, Spacey threw a bash at Social Hollywood on Thursday night. The get-together involved a filmmaker dinner and post-party, where FOS (friends of Spacey and some friends of Superman) — like Bryan Singer (Superman's director), Curtis Hanson, Shirley MacLaine, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams — mixed it up with Hollywood comers such as Nikki Reed, Mischa Barton, Kristen Bell and Sam Huntington. (Huntington plays Jimmy Olsen in "Superman," and stars with Bell in Fanboys, produced by Spacey and his TriggerStreet Productions.)

"I discovered that after I started doing well, this wall came up," said Spacey, recounting the origins of the site. "Lawyers said, 'You can't accept that script in a coffee shop. Don't touch it.' Well, why not? The best stuff I ever read… first-time directors, first-time writers, what if they hadn’t been able to get that material to me because those walls were up?"

So Spacey and his producing partner Dana Brunetti (pictured left with Spacey) came up with the site, which thanks to online user agreements, helps prevent legal misunderstandings while providing direct contact with Spacey's production company.

"There are a lot of people who will never meet me in a coffee shop," Spacey said. "There are a lot of people who will never meet anyone in a coffee shop. But this is a place to have their work seen."

The new Triggerstreet site, which goes live on Friday, will also begin accepting novels, plays and short stories. Even unregistered users will have much more access to the site and the information on it than they had previously.

Spacey has also secured corporate backing: Budweiser Select is sponsoring a "Make Your Own Commercial" competition, where site users, and a panel of judges, will determine the winner and then a director/filmmaker from the site will actually produce the commercial. The winning team collects a $15,000 prize. 

And then there's the looming question we all want to know: Is “Superman Returns” any good? Spacey said he had not yet seen the final cut of the movie but will see it unspool for the first time at Wednesday’s premiere. Until then... check out Anne's preview.

[posted by Borys Kit]

Soderbergh to BitTorrent Short

Although numerous stories have been written about the Tribeca Film Festival panel that Steven Soderbergh was on earlier this week, the following is the first item I've seen to extract the fact that the director plans to soon release a new short film via BitTorrent.

If Soderbergh goes through with it, an official (and momentarily exclusive) release through the file-sharing site should be a nice boon for Bram Cohen, BitTorrent's creator, who is looking to woo Hollywood. Then again, and to state the obvious, it probably would have been released the same day on BitTorrent anyway. Link

[posted by Sheigh]

via: Digg, pictured: Bram Cohen

"Flight" Wings Into "Hedge" Screenings

DreamWorks Animation said Wednesday that prior to "Over the Hedge," the studio will be showing its latest animated short film, "First Flight."

The seven-minute short centers on a harried cube farmer whose priorities are rearranged by a twee bird. The computer-animated cartoon is directed by studio veterans Cameron Hood and Kyle Jefferson.

The two showed their short to DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg a few months ago. After viewing it, Katzenberg came back 20 minutes later to tell the directors he wanted it to open in front of "Hedge." Link

Earlier: Cartoon Brew caught a sneak peek of "First Flight" in March. Link

[posted by Sheigh]

Girl's FX Skillz Rock Webcam World

Who cares about your lame boyfriend, what kind of awesome video effects are you using?!

That's the overwhelming response to a video confessional posted by a "17" year-old girl who decided to have some fun with the effects software that came packaged with her webcam.

Posted on YouTube, "Breakup," is a pretty standard fare 75-second 'I got dumped' video clip. Even it's narrator, "Bowiechick," appears slightly bored by the story. But perhaps any storytelling device will do as a template to demo some new desktop effects gags.

During the course of her clip Bowiechick appears to be wearing Clark Kent glasses, a gas mask, a cat nose and Beatles glasses. The video has gotten 202,612 hits, inspired a report on News.com, and generated over 900 comments and growing, most of them asking 'How'd you do that?'

Turns out Bowiechick used a tracking feature in her Logitech Quickcam Orbit MP that enables users to apply various animated avatars that they can download from the Logitech site. If the sweetest revenge after being dumped is becoming a viral video star, mission accomplished. In her recently updated personal profile, Bowiechick offers this message to her many new admirers:  "And for my fans: You guys are awesome. Unexpected but awesome."

[posted by Sheigh]

You Tube Threatens Status Quo

"Right now, there are two kinds of people in the entertainment industry," says Rob Long on KCRW-FM's Martini Shot. "Those who've heard of You Tube, and those who haven't. Which is to say that some of us are a little worried, and some of us aren't." And here's LAFishbowl's You Tube take. ADD: And the NYT's.

Brit Cops Pawn Security Vid of Nude Shoot

Talk about a burgeoning secondary market for other digital stuff.

Two British police officers were found selling surveillence footage in local pubs of naked "human sculptures" recorded during a Spencer Tunick photo shoot.

Close-up surveillance camera images of some of the naked participants have been offered for sale to drinkers in Tyneside pubs and Northumbria Police have begun an investigation into "possible misuse of CCTV footage".

The cops are now working to restore public confidence in government organized security camera monitoring. In the meantime, look for copies of exploited art enthusiasts on a small screen near you.

Link

[posted by Sheigh]

Chutzpah Hip-Hops to Aspen

Chutzpah, This Is? has been accepted as an official selection in “Shorts 3” at HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. The 35-minute documentary tracks the Jewish hip-hop group Chutpzah, which has been described as a cross between Eminem and Woody Allen, as they complete their first CD and video, Chanukah's Da Bomb. Four rappers—Dr. Dreck, MC Meshuggenah, Master Tav and Jewdah—perform such songs as “Tsuris,” “Mishpuchah,” “Yiddish,” “SuperJew,” “In the Shtetl,” “Old School Jew,” “Ask the Rabbi” and “Da Lost Tribe."

Short Film Sites

Nice round-up of cool sites featuring shorts.