Oscars....Yes or No?

Started by life_boy, January 15, 2003, 12:32:44 AM

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jenkins

BEE's useless anger tires me, but that's unrelated to you people

Alethia

Could you elaborate? Which aspects of said anger specifically, and how/why useless?

jenkins

lamenting the loss of film as the center of culture is romantic i guess, being pissed off about it is useless energy. in my previous post that i deleted i asked if film being lost is any worse than opera or plays or books. i mentioned how a caveperson didn't think "i need something to read now." that's not what cavepeople were thinking about. they didn't see books coming back then, like we can't see what's coming after the internet now. it won't be vr (i can't fucking wait for hologram chambers). it won't be tv because that already happened. tv and vr are niche markets, and the market place is now niche. that's because the cultural platform is the internet. BEE is on it, that's why people are talking about what he's talking about, they wouldn't be talking about that if they weren't hearing him from the internet. his show being popular is actually an excellent example of the power of the internet. but he's pissed about movie shit: so human. i also had this thing about how i don't think the internet has altered the general character of being human, so in some ways the internet is overrated as well, i want the next thing too, i'm ready for us to be over the internet. but still here i am.

BB

Quote from: jenkins on August 31, 2018, 07:04:44 PM
it's the internet of course it is. it affects culture in the way the center does: how we think, what we do, what we talk about, what we wear, etc. i can easily find people who don't watch tv, but good luck finding those who avoid the internet ("the new rebellion")

Of interest, too, is that probably THE central sub-medium of the internet is web video, which is film. The internet ate everything, but its heart and lifeblood remains film. People are constantly watching short form content, they're just not the type of content we who grew up with capital-F Film culture hold dear (ie. feature-length, well-produced, etc.). But they could be if this is what people wanted. This is the true democratization of the form, the thing Coppola talks about at the end of . We've now seen what the little fat girl in Ohio makes ... and it's Musical.lys and vlogs and the Shiggy challenge. Whether or not we like it, this is filmmaking -- sans professionalism.

I'm not sure, however, that Coppola's closing remark, that this is when film will finally become an art form, has been realized. Certainly, I don't think there's been much in the way of web video that compares with the best of cinema on the basis of artistic merit. At least I haven't seen it if it's out there. But this is not so much an internet/film problem as a democracy problem.

wilberfan


Quote
From: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

To: Membership

Re: Addendum

The academy has heard the feedback from its membership regarding the plan to present four Oscar awards — Cinematography, Film Editing, Live Action Short and Makeup and Hairstyling — during commercial breaks in the telecast. We take these concerns seriously. All Academy Awards will now be presented without edits, in our traditional format. We look forward to Oscar Sunday, Feb. 24.

And while we're at it, we would like to formally apologize for "The Greatest Show on Earth" winning best picture over "High Noon," "Going My Way" over "Double Indemnity," "Shakespeare in Love" over "Saving Private Ryan," "Crash" over "Brokeback Mountain" and for "Dances With Wolves" ever being made.

We would also like to retroactively nominate Barbra Streisand in the best director category for "Yentl," which we were too mean to admit is a very good movie. We would also like to give Bill Murray the best actor Oscar for "Lost in Translation," because, honestly, he deserved it.

Marisa Tomei gets to keep her Oscar, though, because that was not a mistake — she was terrific in "My Cousin Vinny."

We cannot change but deeply regret the following: encouraging James Franco to convince Anne Hathaway that hosting together was a great idea, giving James Cameron a platform on which he could announce he was king of the world, telling Seth MacFarlane that "We Saw Your Boobs" was a go, and not insisting that David Letterman just stop with the Uma/Oprah thing already.

We are currently rewriting the show's script to include separate categories for best picture, drama, and best picture, comedy, because we believe every movie craft should be honored equally.

In that same spirit, we are re-instituting the juvenile Oscar and the awards for best assistant director, best title writing and best dance direction.

Also there will be new categories, for best script supervisor, because without those folks, movies would never get made, and for best depiction of a British royal and/or Winston Churchill because, well, it just keeps coming up.

We are currently rebuilding the stage so there are no steps to imperil the lives of women, or men, in high heels and we have asked the Los Angeles Philharmonic to perform the entire score for each and every nominated film, twice for "Bohemian Rhapsody."

And finally, no winners will ever again be played off — we heard you and we want to hear you, even if you are just rattling off a random list of names and saying "Oh God, I can't believe this" 820 times.

If the television audience doesn't like it, well, we're meeting with their reps Tuesday.

Source

jenkins

The eligibility period for the Oscars will be extended to February 28, 2021
- Nominations will be announced on March 15, 2021
- AcademyMuseum  will open on April 30, 2021

Drenk

Hilarious and pointless delay. They're gonna give everything to Nolan, right? Just because. The respectable Hollywood whose movie was released in theaters.
Ascension.

putneyswipe

Better a Nolan than a Green book. Spike is overdue

jenkins

it's genuinely exactly the same to me if it's nolan or the green book. like whyever in the hell the name nolan is being mentioned is nonsense in the first place, from my personal perspective, related to movies that move me. and you're not experiencing a dawning epiphany you're remembering how much you like the dark knight or whatever. it's not horrible it's hilarious and i just want the museum

putneyswipe

I forgot spike actually won last year. Who cares

wilberfan

The 2021 Oscars Will Shake Up the Awards Show Format and "Feel Like a Movie," According to Steven Soderbergh

Quote"...producer Steven Soderbergh says viewers will quickly see that he's taking this opportunity to significantly shake up the awards show format. The Ocean's 11 director said, "Right out of the gate, people are going to know: 'We've got to put our seatbelt on.'"

QuoteThat means we're not going to see any acceptance speeches on Zoom or winners wearing pajamas. But perhaps the most intriguing approach to the 2021 Oscars ceremony is that Soderbergh wants it to feel like a movie. The filmmaker vaguely explained what he means by that:

"It's going to feel like a movie in that there's an overarching theme that's articulated in different ways throughout the show. So the presenters are essentially the storytellers for each chapter. We want you to feel like it wasn't a show made by an institution. We want you to feel like you're watching a show that was made by a small group of people that really attacked everything that feels generic or unnecessary or insincere. That's the kind of intention when I watch shows like this that is missing for me. A voice. It needs to have a specific voice."

QuoteRather than treating the stars as presenters, they're referring to them as cast members, further adding to the idea that this will be more like a movie. Does that mean that we'll be getting performances from these cast members as they hand out the awards? Again, we're not entirely sure. But since the base of the 2021 Oscars will be Union Station in Los Angeles rather than the typical Dolby Theatre (which is still being used in some capacity for the show), at least the location will feel a little more cinematic. The awards will also have a "more widescreen look," not to mention having Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson serving as music director.

I'm still not going to watch.

Alma

Honestly reading the full interview it sounds pretty intriguing. I would be watching if it wasn't the middle of the night where I am.

wilberfan

The Oscars Are a Week Away, but How Many Will Watch?

[some emphasis mine]

LOS ANGELES — Neither intimate looks into stars' living rooms nor scantily clad pop stars performing provocative hits have been able to stop audiences from tuning out award shows this year. The ratings for the Grammys were down by 53 percent. The Golden Globes plummeted by more than 60.

Now, as Hollywood prepares for a coronavirus-delayed Academy Awards telecast on April 25 on ABC, it is faced with the ultimate doomsday scenario: that the viewing public is ready to toss its premier showcase into the entertainment dustbin, plopped next to variety shows. Oscar, meet Lawrence Welk and his bubbles.

At a time when the traditional film industry is fighting for its primacy at the center of American culture — with at-home entertainment soaring in popularity and pandemic-battered theater chains closing — a collective shrug for the Oscars would send Hollywood deeper into an identity crisis. And a shrug certainly could happen. Guts + Data, a research firm that focuses on entertainment, said last month that only 18 percent of active film watchers (in theaters or at home) had heard of "Mank," the Netflix film leading the Oscar race with 10 nominations.

"When even I find myself having a hard time caring, that's a problem," said Jeanine Basinger, the founder of Wesleyan University's film studies department and author of Hollywood histories like "The Star Machine."

Some people in the entertainment industry, whether out of optimism or denial or both, believe that award shows are simply going through a temporary downturn because of the unique circumstances of the pandemic.

But Nielsen ratings for the Oscars were already in free fall before the pandemic, plunging 44 percent between 2014 and last year, when 23.6 million people watched the South Korean dramatic thriller "Parasite" win the top prize. An additional drop on a par with the Globes show in February would put the Oscars audience in the catastrophic single-digit millions.

Much more than vanity is at stake. The Academy Awards have long been an economy unto themselves, with companies like Netflix spending $30 million or more to campaign for a single film and Disney, which owns ABC, committed to paying more than $900 million for the worldwide broadcast rights through 2028.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is not conceding defeat. The organization, which generates about $90 million a year in after-expenses income from the Oscars telecast, has handed the show to one of Hollywood's most celebrated directors, Steven Soderbergh. He and his fellow producers, Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins, have been asked to shake up the telecast while also sticking to tradition (awarding statuettes in 24 categories, including the "boring" technical ones) and complying with pandemic safety restrictions.

If that wasn't difficult enough, the three have the additional challenge of attempting to jump-start theatergoing when most of the world is more than a year out of the habit.

"If we can get out at three hours and deliver a show that we see on paper right now, we feel like we will have had a cultural moment where the nation, the world, will say, 'Yes, I love movies!'" said Mr. Collins, a veteran live-events producer who oversaw both this year's Super Bowl and the Grammys. "That will get us another step back to theaters."

The three are trying to reinvent the show, yet are hamstrung by the Covid-19 safety costs, which alone are taking up a third of the production budget. The group is also adamant that the show will not take place over Zoom. Mr. Soderbergh, who directed the 2011 virus thriller "Contagion" and headed up the Directors Guild return-to-work task force, had that provision written into his contract when he signed on to the project.

"I made it clear that that has to be the absolute worst-case scenario," Mr. Soderbergh said of the ubiquitous pandemic technology. "It's the Academy Awards. We all want it to be special, and that doesn't feel special. It just doesn't. It reminds us of the pain of the last 14, 15 months. Not the joy of cinema or going to the movies."

In an attempt to make the show like an exclusive gathering, the producers are stepping into a logistical morass that will aim to get every nominee in front of a television camera at a designated location, whether at two in Los Angeles — the downtown Union Station and the usual Oscars location, the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood — or to one of 20 satellite spots around the world. (The largest hub will be in London.)

For Mr. Soderbergh, the decision to take the job at such a fraught time stems from his own long history of complaining about the show. Whether he was in the room as a nominee or at home watching it on television, "the lack of intimacy" always bothered him.

"I didn't find it a very pleasant experience to be in the audience," he said of his two visits, one in 1990 as the screenwriter of "Sex, Lies and Videotape" and again in 2001, when he won best director for "Traffic."

Ms. Sher, who has attended the Academy Awards four times, remembers being awed at first in 1995, when she was an executive producer of "Pulp Fiction" and the movie was nominated for seven Oscars.

"When I got out of the car and saw those giant Oscars, it was one of the most mind-blowing moments in my life," she said. "And it completely went downhill from there."

This year, the producers want to focus less on winning and instead make sure the notably diverse group of nominees has a better-than-average time by making the event more communal and intimate. They also intend to create a mask-free telecast that reminds audiences at home why they like going to the movies.

Not helping the producers' cause is the slate of films they are celebrating. Even though the majority of the best picture contenders are available on streaming services, they remain relatively obscure. According to the Guts + Data survey, conducted the week of March 21, the best-known contender was "Judas and the Black Messiah," with 46 percent awareness. The front-runner, "Nomadland," registered only 35 percent.

Mr. Soderbergh did acknowledge that there is only so much the producers can do.

"People's decision-making process on whether to watch or not doesn't seem to be connected to whether or not the show is fantastic or not," he said, pointing to the strong critical response for this year's Grammys, which notably featured a risqué performance by Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B.

The Oscars telecast, on the other hand, saw its ratings peak in 1998, when 57.2 million people tuned in to see the box office juggernaut "Titanic" sweep to best-picture victory. Since the turn of the century, the most highly rated year was 2004, when the academy honored another box office behemoth, "Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

Analysts point to a litany of challenges propelling the decline. Old broadcast networks like ABC are not as relevant, especially to young people. The ceremonies, even if kept to a relatively brisk three hours, are too long for contemporary attention spans. Last year's Oscars ran three hours and 36 minutes (the equivalent of 864 videos on TikTok).

Why slog through the show when you can just watch snippets on Twitter and Instagram?

Moreover, the Oscars have become overly polished and predictable. "The Oscars used to be the only time when you got to see movie stars in your living room, and very frequently it was a hoot," Ms. Basinger, the Hollywood historian, said. "Some seemed a little drunk. Some wore weird clothes. A few had hair hanging in their face."

Increasingly, the ceremonies are less about entertainment honors and more about progressive politics, which inevitably annoys those in the audience who disagree. One recent producer of the Oscars, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential metrics, said minute-by-minute post-show ratings analysis indicated that "vast swaths" of people turned off their televisions when celebrities started to opine on politics.

And there is simply awards show fatigue. There are at least 18 televised ceremonies each year, including the MTV Video Music Awards, BET Awards, Teen Choice Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, CMT Music Awards, Tony Awards, People's Choice Awards, Kids' Choice Awards and Independent Spirit Awards.

With ratings expected to tumble for the coming telecast, ABC has been asking for $2 million for 30 seconds of advertising time, down about 13 percent from last year's starting price. Some loyal advertisers (Verizon) are returning, but others (Ferrero chocolates) are not.

"We're really not getting much advertiser interest," said Michelle Chong, planning director at Atlanta-based agency Fitzco, "and it's not something we've been pushing."

jenkins

it would've been West Side Story year, if you've forgotten. the fact is there isn't a big name and this will be the only time ever that a Fincher movie leads the Oscar nominations.  it's not a sadfuck of a year it's the year of the plague, and whatever Soderbergh accomplishes is a transitional step. he likes the heat so he's fine for the job. in fact he's better for the job than others. he's still just Soderbergh but someone needs to break the ice

WorldForgot

I'd like to think Mank leads the pack, but most peeps I know that get screeners either skipped it or didn't finish.
Nomadland, Minari, or Sound of Metal might have a better shot at Best Pictuture -- and out of these three probably mostly the first two