A local filmmaker from neighboring Owego found himself thrust into the Hollywood spotlight when he was selected to be a contestant on this past summer’s reality show, ‘On the Lot.’

Born and raised about 30 minutes from the Binghamton University campus, Kenny Luby Jr. made it to the top in the ‘American Idol’-style reality show for filmmakers. At a forum at the ART Mission and Theater this month, Luby discussed his experiences competing on the fast-paced Fox show in California.

Luby said his father told him about ‘On the Lot.’

‘So I checked it out online and saw the competition,’ he said. ‘Basically it was a competition where any filmmaker that wanted to compete for a chance to be on a reality show can submit a piece. I think any filmmaker that saw it said, ‘Hey, let’s go for it, let’s submit something.’

Produced by Mark Burnett and Steven Spielberg, the show was designed to showcase amateur filmmakers. As weeks went by, the cast was narrowed down and different directors were getting closer and closer to winning a $1 million contract with DreamWorks Pictures.

Luby said he enlisted the help of his longtime friend, Harry Callahan, to start working on his first film.

‘Me and [Callahan] always talked about making something, making a film,’ he said. ‘This was just the opportunity to do it. Basically we just made a biography of how we live our lives every day.’

After submitting the film, Luby got a call from producers requesting that he create a follow-up movie. With one week to film the project, Luby teamed up once again with Callahan to create a music video.

He was then selected to be on the show. Luby left the Southern Tier for California, where he quickly had to adapt to a different type of filmmaking.

‘It’s an insane process in three days,’ Luby said. ‘It took three days to do this and that isn’t a whole lot of time, and this was the first time that I worked with more than just my one other person. It was a lot to get used to.’

He said he was forced to realize that he was not only in a filmmaking competition, but also being filmed himself.

‘It was just overwhelming to have all these people there on set. The pressure to create this project ‘ and then I have the whole ‘On the Lot’ reality crew filming me in the background,’ Luby said.

Luby also had to contend with the show’s format, which required him to make a film of a different genre every week.

‘No filmmaker is going to be good at every genre. There’s going to be some ups and downs, and that was the idea,’ Luby said.

As Luby watched the edited footage of the show, he could see that he was being portrayed as a stubborn person who didn’t like to work with others.

The weeks passed and the contestants were narrowed down. Even though he did not win, Luby’s life has been changed because of ‘On the Lot’ and he will be moving to California permanently to pursue his career.