Hot Set (SyFy Tuesdays)

[Arielflies]

This show featuring challenges for production designers premiers Tuesday, 9-18-2012, at 10 PM.

For those who watch Face Off, this should be an equally fascinating look behind the scenes at Hollywood back stage creativity.

The web page:

About | Hot Set | Syfy

[pikachu]

I've been looking forward to this show. Sounds like it will be great! Sheesh, there's so much on tonight, I might have to watch some shows online tomorrow, or see if they're re-aired later tonight.

[Arielflies]

I'm having the same problem at the moment. My dual line DVR recording is used to the max most nights. Luckily, I don't have any conflict that would bump this show tonight.

[pikachu]

I thought the show would have all of the contestants competing each week, with one being let go at the end of every episode until a winner was chosen, like Face Off. However, it's more like 24 Hour Catwalk, where each week a few different contestants are pitted against each other with one being declared the winner at the end of the show. That's fine, just not what I had been expecting.

The first match-up was between production designers Abra and Craig to create an alien landscape for their hero, an astronaut, to land on. It was to be a daytime scene with a background, middle ground, and foreground. Abra made a reddish landscape with bare trees, rock carved to look like bone, and skeletal remains. Craig made a slightly breathing creature with spaceship parts scattered around the terrain. Abra had the most difficulty out of the gate and took longer to finalize her design but ended up winning.

One thing I was surprised about was that the judges didn't criticize Craig for how dark his set was. It was supposed to be a daytime scene but it was so dark, it could have been night. Abra's set was monotone (all red) but it had least had the glow of daylight. I think if Craig's set had been brighter, it might have brought out more details of the landscape and given him a better chance of winning.

I was disappointed in both designers. I feel like I've seen both sets before--her's being very Total Recall and his being like a set from Aliens. Neither one of them looked particularly alien. I think you could find places on Earth that look like their sets. I wish they had put more creativity into creating a world we haven't seen before.

I enjoyed watching it, though, and will tune in next week. Hopefully the next pair of designers will bring more to the set.

[Arielflies]

I would have liked to have seen Craig's set breath as promised. But, until one of the judges mentioned that possibility to him in a critique during the build, he hadn't even thought that his "living" rock should live. Abra's thought process does not translate into words. She is one of those who design in their head, but the translation gets lost.

I liked the fact that they could bring with them two trusted associates and with them a crew of builders...otherwise the three day time frame would have been undoable. I also like that they actually filmed a couple of minutes of action in the set so you could see how it would look on film and how the actors would move around the scenery.

The host, as with the Face Off host, is a Hollywood legacy and the judges as with the Face Off judges, are acclaimed in their field. As with Face Off, the panel adds that touch of authenticity that benefits this type of show. I, too, was surprised with the format of two designers facing off with a single prize of $10,000 to the winner. But, can you imagine ten set builds on a sound stage in one challenge? This doesn't give the audience time to "pick" a favorite, but it does give us insight into how sets are imagined, created and constructed.

I'm watching again.

[Florimel]

I'll watch again, too. I find production design and set decoration fascinating and a very important part of film making. I like this concept better than Face Off because good movie makeup artists do more than just horror and creature type makeup and the show seems to focus only on that aspect.

[ness]

Count me in.

Abra, bless her heart, DEFINITELY needs to work on her communication skills. You can "dream a little dream" all day and night long in your HEAD, but --- PARTICULARLY in THIS field, it seems --- no man (or woman) IS an island. If she can't clearly get across to her crew the conception that's in her head, then she's going to have more than a few instances of working up a set, and her crew getting frustrated and wanting to kill her because they have NO clue what's going on, what they're supposed to be doing. Good for her, for having won the 10K. but I don't think I could've lasted with her for a solid 15 minutes. Far as I'm concerned, the majority of what she DID show was how NOT to communicate with vital people that were engaged in helping you win a decent chunk of money, and piss 'em off, in the process.

I actually liked Craig's (?) set better. It was the more interesting of the two, to me. Plus, overall, for me, he DID meet the criteria of the set creation better than Abra did, and he had much, MUCH better communication going on with his crew. They didn't have to try to read his mind, or stop dead still to wait on him to get back when he wasn't present to carry on working. Where I think he shot himself in the foot was that his set WAS so dark. Also, after going after the "breathing' aspect of the set, he and his crew weren't able to pull it off really well. I can't say I blame him for being irked that Abra won, though.

I think this'll be an interesting show.

[Kocky_Kamikaze]

I don't know if I can get into this. After all, a set is a set. It's coming from the director's/producer's imagination. A set can be extremely spare to completely cluttered. I just don't get the competition part of it I guess.

[Gala62]

hmmm...interesting concept, but only having 2 contestants each week? I understand building a lot of sets would get crazy, but with only 2 you are at the mercy of boring/bland/ditzy people which makes for a dull show. Watching Abra trying to articulate her vision was painful and so I fast forwarded through much of this to the final reveal.

Craig had a better overall vision but didn't execute the breathing aspect well at all and ITA, his set was far too dark. All the detail was lost.

I'll keep recording it, but doubt I'll watch every minute like I do Face Off.

[pikachu]

I don't know if I can get into this. After all, a set is a set. It's coming from the director's/producer's imagination. A set can be extremely spare to completely cluttered. I just don't get the competition part of it I guess.

It's about who can make the most compelling set. I understand the competition aspect of it. If you were directing a movie and needed to hire a production designer based on examples of sets they've done, which one would you hire? They both had the same guidelines based on the script but came up with very different sets.