A 'Greenlight' to behind-the-scenes movie drama

Hop into the DeLorean and travel back in time all the way to 2002, when making a movie required more than a YouTube account.

"Project Greenlight," a 2002 reality series that gives a wannabe filmmaker the chance to direct a Hollywood movie, is a fascinating relic of the early digital age that demonstrates just how much the industry has evolved in the past decade.

The first two seasons of "Project Greenlight," produced by HBO, are available for instant streaming for Hulu Plus subscribers.

The setup: Miramax Studios (which is now The Weinstein Company, basically) takes online submissions for unproduced screenplays. The top 10 screenwriters are then asked to shoot a scene from their movie, and based on both the script and the quality of the scene, Miramax greenlights one script into production with a $1 million budget.

Pete Jones and his script "Stolen Summer" are the focus of season one. In season two, the screenplay and directing contests are split, and the focus of the season is the production of "The Battle of Shaker Heights."

The notable highlight of the series is the involvement of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, back when they were still the darlings of Miramax (thanks, mostly, to 1997's "Good Will Hunting"). They help choose the screenplay and serve as producers on the winning movie.

While Affleck and Damon disappear for stretches of episodes, their appearances are some of the highlights of the series. Clearly intending to beef up the entertainment value, they frequently combat with the stuffier studio executives and go to bat for the amateur filmmakers.

The other notable "character" on the series is producer Chris Moore, who is forced to clean up the mess created by the ineffective leadership of winner Pete Jones. He would be considered the "villain" of the series had Jones been more competent behind the camera.

Making a small budget movie within the studio system is unquestionably difficult, and the show provides a unique perspective of a film studio trying to minimize the damage and costs of a production that needed a more experienced hand. The resulting film, "Stolen Summer" is an unmemorable effort that didn't come close to recouping its budget.

The second season movie, "The Battle of Shaker Heights," also didn't win over critics and audiences, but the production does feature a charismatic young Shia LaBeouf, before he turned into a pretentious whiner.

The show's strength is showing the calamities associated with filming even a relatively simple Hollywood movie. Put it simply, this isn't the behind-the-scenes material you see as Blu-ray extras. Warning to audiences: The show is riddled with adult language, most effectively used, of course, by Affleck and Damon.

The real fascination of "Project Greenlight" is how it chronicles just how constricting independent filmmaking was to outsiders before digital cameras and easy-access editing software made everyone on the Internet a polished artist. It's much easier now to be a filmmaker, although becoming "successful" remains elusive as ever.

Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.