UPDATED: Arlington filmmaker survives first-round cuts on FOX’s On the Lot reality series

by Chad Jones

During last night's premiere of FOX's new reality show, On the Lot, local filmmaker Brent McCorkle survived the initial elimination round.

A freelance producer born in Dallas and currently living in Arlington, McCorkle, 34, impressed the show's three judges (Carrie Fisher, Garry Marshall and Brett Ratner) with his assigned story pitch and has therefore made it into the second round.

On the Lot is a reality T.V. series produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett, wherein aspiring filmmakers from around the world (but mostly the U.S.) compete in weekly elimination competitions. The ultimate prize is a million dollar development deal at DreamWorks.

Below is McCorkle's Crashland, the five-minute short which got him into the competition in the first place.

Another contestant, "Will B." from Canyon, TX, has also passed the first challenge, but that's pretty far out of our coverage area.

UPDATE:

Apologies for the delay on this one, but it seems that though McCorkle did indeed survive the first round, he did not survive the first episode. In the second-half of the show's premiere (which my TiVO completely failed to record—yes, I am blaming the machine), McCorckle and several others were nixed for their less-than-impressive one-minute short films, which they were supposed to write, direct and edit within a 24-hour time frame.

In light of this tragedy, Texans must now place their hopes on filmmaker Will Bigham from Canyon, Texas, whose short film "Lucky Penny" won over all three judges and several hundred viewers as well.