On the Lot

The show was self-described as a worldwide search to discover new filmmaking talent.[9] The official On The Lot site gathers 12,000 submissions from all over the world[10] and the submission deadline was February 16, 2007.[11] These 12,000 submissions yielded 50 semi-finalists. Of them, 48 resided in the United States (21 of them in Los Angeles, CA) and 40 already worked professionally in the film industry. The oldest contestant was 41 years old and the youngest was 21.[10]

The eighteen TV show finalists, selected after the initial audition rounds, were:

The online competition had nine finalist rounds from which the winner was chosen by judges and popular vote. The online competition winner after all the rounds was Justin Gullett

• Justin Gullett, 26, film director, originally from Memphis, Tennessee, living in Los Angeles, California; graduated from University of Memphis in Film, Video, and Photography. Gullett won the On the Lot online Movie Making Challenge in 2007. [13]

The following contestants were chosen as finalists. Placements are listed in elimination order, and alphabetically by last name until eliminated. Boxes are colored to indicate weekly groupings:[14][15]

The judges for the audition rounds were Carrie Fisher, Brett Ratner, and Garry Marshall.[16]

In round one, the 50 semi-finalists were each given one of five loglines, and had approximately twelve hours to expand the idea into a full story and pitch the idea to the judges. After all of the pitches were delivered, 14 contestants were eliminated.

In round two of the auditions, Jon Avnet filled in for judge Garry Marshall. The remaining contestants were given 24 hours to write, shoot, and edit a two-and-a-half-minute short film based on the theme "out of time". The contestants were asked to divide themselves into groups of three, and each of the group members was responsible for directing one of the three scenes of the film at one of the three filming locations. Each contestant was judged individually based on his or her movie scene. After this round, 12 contestants were eliminated.[10] In round three, each of the 24 remaining contestants was given one hour with a professional set and film crew to shoot a given page of script. Almost none of this final challenge was aired on the televised episode, but short selections of the task and judgment footage were included in several outtake clips on the show's official site. After the announcement of the show's winner, all of these clips were posted on the website. The one-page shorts were categorized into four different scenarios: the rotunda, the law library, the cop bar and the bedroom. The eliminations went unaired, as the finalists had been chosen by the time the next episode aired live.

The first challenge for the 18 finalists was to create one-minute comedy shorts. The Film Premiere episode aired each contestant's full short, as well as a short interview/bio shot during the filming of the short. The Box Office show will result in the three directors with the lowest vote totals being eliminated. The judges for week 1 of the finals were Garry Marshall, Carrie Fisher, and D. J. Caruso.

On the Lot was reduced to one episode per week beginning June 5, only appearing on Tuesdays. This move has been said to "cut production costs."[17]

For weeks 2–4, five of the remaining 15 contestants were selected to screen a short no longer than three minutes, filmed in five days; however, it has been disputed whether or not this is in fact true, as these films were the "personal submission films" from the auditions (which were passed off as new films without comment). The one of the five with the least audience votes was eliminated. The results were shown on the next week's episode, while the next set of five films were screened.

In week three, three of the five contestants from who showed films in week two were declared safe. Trever James and Hilary Graham had to wait until the end of the show to see who would be eliminated. In week four, the five contestants who showed films in week three were told, at the start of the show, who had been eliminated.

Joining regular judges Carrie Fisher and Garry Marshall, were Shia LaBeouf and Michael Bay for week two,[18] David Frankel for week three, and Wes Craven for week four.

In weeks five and six, the contestants were split into two groups of six. The first group was tasked with making two-minute comedy shorts in five days, while the second group's shorts were of the horror genre.

In contrast to the previous screenings, clips from the production of these films were aired showing fellow contestants visiting each set, thus ensuring that the films were in fact produced during the show period.

Mark Waters was the guest judge for week five, and Eli Roth was the guest judge for week six.

In weeks seven and eight, the contestants remained in the same groups as the previous weeks. The first group of five was tasked with making shorts based on the theme, "when two worlds collide". The second group's shorts were action films. Two contestants would be eliminated each of these two weeks.

Luke Greenfield was the guest judge for week seven and Antoine Fuqua was the guest judge for week eight.

In week nine, the final six contestants were tasked with making romantic comedies. Brad Silberling was the guest judge for week nine.

In week ten, the final five contestants were tasked with making films featuring automobiles for "Road Night." Jerry O'Connell was a special guest star, and Gary Ross was the guest judge. Penny Marshall filled in for regular judge Garry Marshall.

In week eleven, four remaining contestants were tasked with making films inspired by the contest-winning logline: "A man wakes up, rolls out of bed and finds himself in a dress...but can't remember what happened the night before." This week's guest judge was F. Gary Gray.

In the first half of the season finale, the three remaining contestants were each asked to choose two of their films to show (after the show had announced the week before that there would be new finale films). Jason Epperson showed Eternal Waters and Sweet. Will Bigham showed Glass Eye and The Yes Men. Adam Stein showed Dough: The Musical and Army Guy.

A week later, in the second half of the finale, all fifteen eliminated contestants returned and the three finalists each chose their favorite film by an eliminated contestant. Adam chose Die Hardly Working by Zach Lipovsky. Will chose Under the Gun by Hilary Graham. Jason chose Catch by Mateen Kemet. At one point, the host announced the crash of the voting website, which meant that only phoned-in votes would count. Then, Adam was eliminated. Host Adrianna Costa asked the judges who they thought should win the competition and Carrie Fisher chose Will, and Garry Marshall chose Jason. Will became the winner. The last minutes of the show showed Will arriving at the gates of DreamWorks and being met there by Steven Spielberg himself. Spielberg praised a few of Will's films and it ended with them walking through the gates of DreamWorks together.