OTL - JASON'S FILMS

On The Lot (OTL) is going into its final episode (Fox, Tuesday 8/21, 8:00), The Finale!

There are three finalists, Adam Stein, Will Bigham, and Jason Epperson, one of whom is going to be the grand prize winner of a $Million dollar development deal at DreamWorks.

Each of the contestants made a series of films. I'm posting my reviews of several films of the three finalists, and, later perhaps, some other directors as well, notably Zach Lipovsky who was the #5 finalist, and may have been the most gifted, proficient, and original director of them all.

Here are reviews of the films of Jason Epperson. As of now, when this post is posted, these films can be seen by going to On The Lot, looking at the tab marked CONTESTANTS and selecting Jason.

AUG 7, 2007

Oh, Boy
Starring: Todd Waring, Patrick Kerr, Oscar "Big O" Dillon

I found this to be a mean spirited revenge film that was not very interesting. I don't know why people call Jason's films "sweet" or "kind." I don't like practical jokes. It's just one kind of bullying. When the explosives (which looked like wooden blocks from a kid's toy box) blew up, and sent a pillar of fire higher than the house, it would kill anyone but a cartoon character. Similarly, a punch that sends the guy clumsily flying twenty feet is cartoon stuff. That would be a whole change of genre not justified by the rest of the film. So I think this was a mixed up, nasty and uninteresting film.


JULY 31, 2007

The Move
Starring: Jerry O'Connell, Rich Pierrelouis, Randall Park

Mean spirited. Doesn't make sense. The dialog neither explains, nor is even really consistent with the "payoff". Mean spirited has payed off for Jason before; his Getta Rhoom was a vote getter. His strange ending also worked -- he survived -- in Blood Born. I think he deserves to lose, but the voters may not agree.


JULY 24, 2007

Old Home Boyz
Starring: Allan Wasserman, William Stanford Davis, Lin Shaye, Anthony Vatsula

This film was not good looking -- it was too dark, with an ugly color palette. It was a pretty good story. Jason did fine as an actor. The story was a nice one.


JULY 17, 2007

Sweet
Starring: Kirk Zipfel, Erin Cahill

A sweet film. Nice ending. Yeah... could've been a better bouquet. Not much action.

(But check out Zach's submission film, "Crazy Late," http://films.thelot.com/films/595 for a much more inventive and technically difficult -- as well as earlier -- version of almost the exact same story.)


JULY 3, 2007

Eternal Waters

I wasn't quite sure of the story when I saw this on TV. Watching it online, my first impression seemed to be correct: the dead boy's ghost, leaking water out of the photograph, trips up the slasher. But I still have reservations. I would have liked to see blood showing the stabber actually fell on his knife, or have the ghost more explicitly tell his mother she is safe. I have other reservations. There is no explanation for the slasher coming (just the exposition of a fragment of news). The mother is never really threatened much by the slasher. (Granted, it's hard to put in much buildup in such a short-short film, of course.) On the other hand, despite the judge's comments, I have no problem with the costuming or appearance of the mother, although she does not add much value to the story. Give this 1 fright mask and 1 bonus horror book for a complex story.


JUNE 19, 2007

Blood Born

This is a very interesting film. It does not really make sense to me what is happening, or why the shots look the way they do, but it still feels as if the director understands. So the film almost works.


24 HOUR FILMS

Wilted

http://www.thelot.com/episodes/?ep=2&vd=25
Jarrett Conaway, Jason Epperson, Tamila D Amico


HORROR LIGHT - He is coming for you.

The script has good and bad moments. The first scene starts out great and looks great. The film kind of goes a bit downhill from there, and some of the acting is a bit off. The music works.


SUBMISSION

BOMB’S AWAY
http://films.thelot.com/films/1619


Student gets up in school to give a talk… there is a music video.

This is an inventive film. Very high energy. However it doesn’t make much sense. Unless the title is a contraction of Bomb is Away, or it’s about the away that belongs to the bomb, the title is a grammatical error – perhaps on purpose. Jason’s intro is essentially, “Pick me because I’m from Kentucky and not LA or NY like everybody else. "