Southern York County Life

‘On the Lot’ contestant keeps York County in suspense

She always loved filmmaking, but Jessica Brillhart was 15 or 16, back at Dallastown Area Senior High School, when she realized it could be a career.

She took a job aptitude test, and her interests were so diverse that the test was inconclusive. But she looked at the results, and filmmaking was one suggestion for what she should do with the rest of her life.

From the time she was 2, her imaginary play scenarios were filled with directing activities, but she hadn’t realized it. So the test’s suggestion sort of clicked, Brillhart said last week in an interview from the Hollywood studio where she and 15 other aspiring directors are competing for a directing contract.

The 22-year-old Dallastown graduate is a contestant on the new Fox reality show “On the Lot.” The reality competition is similar to “American Idol,” but it’s a contest of film-directing skill instead of singing. Brillhart’s one-minute comedy short “To Screw in a Light Bulb” made the cut when a field of 18 contestants was narrowed to 15 two weeks ago. The next episode airs at 8 p.m. tomorrow.

Filmed near York: Brillhart graduated from New York University’s film school last month and lives in Brooklyn, but she said it’s likely that a show coming in the next few weeks will feature a “cool little suspense film” she made in Stewartstown when she returned home recently.

There’s one person in it, Kent Blevins, a family friend who owns the Blevins’ Fruit Farm, where she shot the film, she said. She prefers unknown actors and people “who look the part” to big-name stars, she said. And she said it was important to her to return home to York to make a film.

“It’s just great to have the hometown backing me,” she said. “I’m very happy and grateful that York is supporting me, and I hope they continue to do so.”

Her family, parents Chris and Joe Brillhart and sisters Jasmine and Jenna, have been cheering her from their York Township home. But they haven’t been able to speak very often because of the show’s time constraints, Jessica Brillhart said.

Home sweet bubble: For about the past three weeks, Brillhart has been living in one of two “cottage-esque” bungalows situated on “our own little nook” of a studio lot in California, she said. The two bungalows house the 15 contestants. They are well-decorated, and the studio “went to great lengths to make us comfortable,” she said. It’s a unique experience to live with so many interesting people who are also filmmakers, but being on the show has been like entering another dimension, she said.

“I have no sense of time here because the weather’s fine all of the time,” she said. “You definitely feel like you’re in a bubble, except it’s a wonderful bubble. The general idea of the show is very exciting, and everything’s very positive.” But it’s a busy bubble, and the producers keep the contestants “on a tight rope,” she said.

Brillhart said she doesn’t have a favorite genre—she just loves to be behind a camera. And she has had plenty opportunity for that lately. The idea behind the show is to make a film every week, so the contestants have less than a week to do what can take a couple of years to accomplish on a feature film, she said.

Being on a TV show and not being able to watch the show is also surreal, Brillhart said. People at home see her and know her, but the contestants aren’t experiencing the reality of the show the way the TV viewers are. And she doesn’t know how events and people are being portrayed, she said.

“I guess it’s best that we don’t think about it because that’s not what we’re here for, really,” she said.

Winner takes ...: The series is executive-produced by television producer Mark Burnett and film-directing giant Steven Spielberg, who created the show as a springboard for aspiring filmmakers. Brillhart and others in the group of unknown filmmakers were selected from more than 12,000 applicants.

The show premiered May 22 and will air at 8 p.m. every Tuesday throughout the summer. Each week, the filmmakers whose features garnered the fewest votes from television viewers will be sent home. The competition continues until only one filmmaker remains. The winner receives a $1 million development deal at the Hollywood studio DreamWorks.

-- Reach Christina Kauffman at 505-5436 or ckauffman@yorkdispatch.com.

Source: The York Dispatch (we obtain permission for external material)
by CHRISTINA KAUFFMAN
Posted by Dan Baldwin on 06/11/2007 at 12:14 PM in News

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