Hot Set - Season 1 (2012)

From the producers of Syfy’s top-rated "Face Off" comes a visually stunning new competition series "Hot Set." Each week, two Hollywood production designers and their teams will compete in an extreme design challenge to create original movie sets inspired by the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres. Each episode is one complete competition, with new production designers introduced each week. The episode’s winning designer will be the one who creates the ultimate movie set that is able to transport the viewer into an immersive world based on creativity, technique and overall presentation. A member of an American movie family dynasty, radio and television personality Ben Mankiewicz hosts the series. Ben’s grandfather, Herman Mankiewicz, is an Oscar-winning screenwriter for "Citizen Kane" and his great uncle, Joseph Mankiewicz, is an Oscar-Winning writer and director for "All About Eve" and "A Letter to Three Wives." The contestants will reveal their completed sets and edited film scenes on the Hot Set sound stage to a panel of judges who are leaders in feature film production design -- three-time Art Director’s Guild Award nominee Curt Beech ("The Social Network," "The Help," "Star Trek"); two-time Oscar nominee Lilly Kilvert ("The Last Samurai," "Legends of the Fall"); and Art Director’s Guild Award nominee Barry Robison ("X- Men Origins," "Wedding Crashers," "The Chronicles of Narnia"). The production designers will each have two team members to help them execute the daunting challenges. In the premiere episode, production designers Abra and Craig have just three days and a budget of $15,000 to conceive and build a film-quality world -- a devastated alien landscape to be explored by a crash-landed astronaut. The designers draw support from their skilled team of carpenters and scenic painters, the expansive Hot Set supply room, and many of the prop and set dressing houses located in Hollywood. When time is up, the production designers have 30 minutes to shoot a scene on their original set. In the second episode airing September 25, designers Carl Dove and Kim Tolman must build a film-ready throne room for a gorgeous but brutal alien queen. In the end, one production designer is determined to have that week’s Hot Set and leaves with a $10,000 prize.