Project Greenlight (Complete Series Plus Film Stolen Summer)

There are times after I have seen a movie, I say to myself "I wonder how could they have made this film?", "Who the producer who took a risk on this script?", "Why didn't they get such and such an actor for that role?" or "Why did they have such a down ending?". After viewing the first season of HBO's Project Greenlight on four dvds, I have a better concept of filmmaking nad the process involved behind the scenes.

I have read Jerry Lewis's theThe Total Film-Maker.and understand the basic concepts of how the film starts from the script to final production. If you find a copy, read it!

Here in this documentary DVD set is director Pete Jones's filmmaking odyssey from being a novice screen writer (selected from an on line script contest) to selection of his script Stolen Summer (with producers Ben Affleck, Chris Moore & Matt Damon) greenlighted by Miramax. Then Jones had to make a budget and rewriting his script to fit his budget and not lose his cinematic vision. After that, there was the process of locations, casting actors, filming, to editing his final print. Jones's film education is well documented in this mini series.

To see it on DVD, you have a better chance to digest this series and Jones's filmmaking expierences...because you are with him for the journey as camera is on him personally and his cinematic vision. It is not always a positive or happy expierence. Sometimes you see the deals and the compromises you make, when making a movie

There are guests along the way like Jay Leno, Kevin Smith, Harvey Weinstein, and many others filling the twelve week series.

Included in this four disk DVD package is Pete Jones's final released cut of his film Stolen Summer with his audio commentary.

This DVD set shows what it takes to make films. since this is a small budget film, you can picture the bigger hassles that the large multi million dollar epic must go through...What an eduction this DVD series really is.

This is worth viewing for the filmmaker, the film student, the film buff and those people who like to understand better the process of filmmaking. However, it is also amazing journey for those who like reality television.

To watch the process is something that we all should view and this is a first rate showcase. This DVD set shows the real HOLLYWOOD from the hype that it usually shows

The extra features of the fourth disk shows the producers can poke fun at themselves and well as educate, So watch and learn

Bennet Pomerantz AUDIOWORLD

After the first two seasons I formed a conspiracy theory about project greenlight which I no longer support. For some time I believed digital cameras and video editing software might be seen as a threat to the film industry and that Project Greenlight was a propaganda tool devised by the Hollywood community to be used to discourage competition. This sounds absurd now but really the show does look like that. I remember reading scripts during the contest and every single one of the scripts I reviewed were better than the ones that made it to the finals. I couldn't understand how Stolen Summer was picked as the winner of the contest. But that's okay because the show itself is the movie, as far as I'm concerned. I hate the movie Stolen Summer but I LOVE the series. I've watched this entire series 4 times since I bought it but only suffered through the actual movie once and then I watched it with the commentary track so it would be worth my time. I think Pete Jones and the others are better characters than any he wrote for the film. Pete kind of reminded me of a character like Barney from the Andy Griffith show. He seemed like someone who thought he was cooler and more important than he really was. Great set, just skip the bad movie.

This was an amateur film competition which produced one of the most offensive films ever made. Let's go over the list.
Ben Affleck, a Catholic from Boston. Pete Jones, a Catholic from Chicago, whose older brother is a Catholic priest working in Catholic-Jewish relations for the Vatican.
What's the subject of Pete's script?
A young Catholic boy decides he has to help a non-Catholic get into heaven, so he announces a plan to go to a synagogue, find a poor Jewish boy who isn't going to heaven, and allow him the good fortune of converting to Catholicism.
That's a great plan - if you're Catholic and don't understand much outside of your own narrow framework of the universe.
If you're Jewish... all you want to do is pretend this film never happened.

This is a worthy series for aspiring movie directors/screenwriters, it shows the in and outs of the business and how much sway some have (Affleck, Damon) and others do not (all involved w/o recognizable faces). It is a crude business and I suppose you have to be crude to play the game, but I found myself often peeved at the winner, Pete, because he was so instantly cocky and self-assured, and maybe he did have to fight to make his "vision" (which ultimately bombed), and I'm thrilled that they would even give the opportunity to someone, but in the end, I wished it wasn't this gentleman who had won such an amazing opportunity.

I saw season two before I saw this one.The movie "Stolen Summer" is actually a superior film to that of "The Battle of Shaker Heights",but the reality series detailing the filmmaking process is strangely lacking.I still would recommend this dvd package for any aspiring filmmakers who want to understand the process of filmmaking, I just thought the second season made better viewing.