Lisa was certainly not a strong project manager, didn't have the strong leadership skills to manage the attitudes of some of the prima donnas in ASAP, and was out of her depth. Having said that, she did a great job engaging the kids in the performance, and it would take exceptional skills to manage some of that team! Can't help feeling she was probably relieved to be out of the cat fight. Her most telling point, when asked by the game-player Star what support she would have liked .. "Kindness". The insistence of "billing" by Star (apparently successful) and Warwick (not) exemplified what Lisa was up against imo. I continue to like Marlee (and was as taken aback at Warwick's dismissal of deafness as "sad" as she was) and Niki, who pointed out that "be yourself" was an overly advanced concept for 4 year olds, but was ignored, yet it was something the judges later agreed with. NeNe said the choice of Lisa was to get her to fail and be fired .. something three of them worked hard and effectively to achieve imo.
Meat's offer to be project leader was a spot on move in my view. A key part of the project played to his love of and understanding of children, to his strengths as a director, and he led his team well, and to victory
He started with a clear concept of what he'd like to see and who should be the central character, but readily went with the character Lil John being a child in the classroom. He delegated well and effectively (no mean feat given the presence of Jose in the team), managed the project as a whole, coached/directed the performance, and wisely decided to read the narrative himself .. I loved the way he engaged the kids by using his "funny" name
The only criticism of the judges was that he didn't keep the book highly visible during the performance .. I think perhaps because he was so focused as a director at the time. We've read so often how well he is liked by colleagues when filming; how personable, encouraging, resourceful he is, ever ready to step in and offer guidance/support whilst remaining respected and liked by everyone. Imo these attributes led to his success leading the team. His intervention to get Busey focused was calmly, steadily and well executed imo. Interesting that Eric Trump described this to camera as "at each others' throats" because I saw no evidence of that whatsoever. To me it shows very clearly that this is what they want to see happen (may even have been added to the edited version after the conflict we saw on that early promo clip; a case of hindsight being used to vamp up and change history!) Meat led a cohesive team (in contrast to ASAP, where cohesiveness is about the farthest advective one could use) and led them well. After showing his colors in the boardroom last week, Jose is exhibiting plenty of unhelpful behaviour .. his rudeness on the phone towards the woman he and Busey were to meet was startling, and his pedantry over one phrase in the story sustained and petulant. Whilst I could relate to Meat's concern over casting him as the schoolmistress, I think it was on balance the wisest choice
Great in the boardroom, Meat praised all his team, defended Jose when Trump criticised his stage performance, and even when at Trump's insistence that he say who was most difficult, he named Busey but kept it diplomatic, clarifying that it was about keeping his focus during the project. Busey had immediately taken offence and defended his ability to focus during a performance, and Meat kept his head and the floor to stress that it was not feedback on the latter. His team praised his leadership of the project, and when asked who he would bring back to the boardroom if his team lost, his response that he'd wait until that might happen and he heard what his team said before making a decision was excellent .. never name anyone unless and until forced to do so, and it should keep them in line until that moment!
He was visibly emotional when his team was announced the winner. Imo Backbone's story was more original, had a "moral" which was spot on for the age group in question, and had the best visual impact both in terms of illustration and font size. I hope it's very successful and brings in a lot more funding for Painted Turtle.
Caryl