RadioFreeLiberal.com

WTF?

The Oscars were the only award show worth watching. Now they seem to want to increase the TV audience by making them more like (pardon the expression) the Golden Globes, which are a well-known joke.

1. Show stops at 3 hours. Period.

2. Tech awards (sound, editing, etc) given during commercial breaks. Shit, those are the best ones for those who huddle in the trenches of This Town. Commercial breaks were the only advantage to renting a tux (they double the rates for that day) and hiring a limo (ditto) and actually seeing the damn thing in person. All the best jokes from the host were while the TV was paying for itself. Vicious sometimes, funny always.

3. New award: Popular Film. WTF? That's all they said. It'll reward the most popular film, and that'll get all the yahoos in drumpftown to watch. Too many arty movies in Best Picture, they said. (Those damn Academy members. How dare they nominate for quality instead of gross like all the others.) They didn't define popular. Maybe they're working on a metric (business school speak). World B.O. take? Number of trailer downloads? Most shirts sold?

4. Notice nothing about racial diversity, or appealing to people who watch for the awards, not the fabulous designer gowns. I guess those are SO last year.

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"Our democratic institutions... seem to have been upended by frat-boy billionaires from California," remarked Canadian politician Charlie Angus. (BBC, 11/27/18)

ticket sales
ticket sales
ticket sales

remember, the oscars were created to bring attention to sell more tix in the first place, right?

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"Corporate Democrat" phrase created at the same place "Angry Mob" was...People keep falling for rightwing talking points. How sad.

Of course it's to promote movies as an entertainment option. Everything is. That was always one reason for the whole bloated show, but never the only reason.

Yeah, my guess is they'll go with world gross. Can't wait for Qanon VS the Sharks from Mars to win an Oscar.

No, the Motion Picture Academy plays it pretty straight. It really is about quality, or used to be. They've done a lot for film as a medium, not just a business that's more like a crap shoot. They have archives and a library which I used to use all the time. They set the format for the original 35mm frame in the first place, though now SMPTE does that sort of thing.

The Oscars started as a little dinner in Hollywood, then moved to their own little theater on Melrose, then expanded and moved to the glamorous and tres chic Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. After that they moved to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and that's when they got pretentious. Now they're at that self-conscious faux movie palace at Hollywood and Highland, and imploded. A self-conscious bore. And yes, SO SO white.

Maybe they should fix that first, instead of dicking around with the format.

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"Our democratic institutions... seem to have been upended by frat-boy billionaires from California," remarked Canadian politician Charlie Angus. (BBC, 11/27/18)

Good. Too often the show runs overtime. Get up, announce the category and winner, 3-second acceptance speech, and then move-on to the next category.


Tech awards are only sexy to those in those fields. Most people don't know what or cares who a gaffer is. It's much like we don't know the name of the mechanic who worked on or care; we only care about the end product.


Isn't that already reflected in gross ticket sales?


Racial diversity will happen when producers/writers/directors start making movies that aren't just for white actors. IMO, most movies could be recast with all-Black actors, all-Asian actors, all-Hispanic actors and the story line wouldn't suffer. Unfortunately, Hollywood reverts to formulas to make moves remaking old movies for a new audience. For an industry that should be thriving on creativity they sure aren't very creative.

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When you vote Left you vote right.

1: Agreed on the time. Being a really pretty provincial business, they don't seem to care that they're out of prime time in the east and losing viewers. They can cut down the length of production numbers, which are stupid anyway. They can cut down acceptance speeches, though that won't be popular with Academy members. In doing all the things this show is expected to do, the TV producers tend to forget that it used to be about an industry honoring its own for actually giving a damn about their craft.


3: My own opinion is that the gross is its own reward. They've already deposited their award in the bank. They don't need a dumb statue. Get MPAA to do that.

Gross is fickle, and while there are more sure things than there used to be, it's still quite a bit like a trip to Vega$. There's a lot of force majeure at work on the gross. You make your release date, huge opening, then an asteroid hits the Earth. Slight exaggeration. Only slight.


4: Not just actors, though of course casting is what the audience sees. There's also a problem getting women and people of color onto crews. If they can't work, they can't build a reputation, and they'll never be invited to join the Academy and become voters. Also the marketing people are after a young audience, which is fine, but as a result some crafts that shouldn't be ageist, are. Writing comes to mind. Who cares how old the writer is if he comes up with the next gigabuck gross? Oddly, producers do.

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"Our democratic institutions... seem to have been upended by frat-boy billionaires from California," remarked Canadian politician Charlie Angus. (BBC, 11/27/18)

2a: There's no Oscar for gaffing. They have a separate awards ceremony, which is more like the way the Oscars started out, where they give plaques and such for people like gaffers and camera operators. Also the unions have their own awards for these. They like to give awards in This Town. Seriously, though, if you've spent a year on some bloated epic working 16 hour days for 6 days a week, any honor is nice. Thing is, people who do such insanity for a living do tend to value it as a craft, and like seeing department heads (DP, editor, sound) get honored on the Oscar show when they do a good job. Ditto for people who made the documentaries and foreign films. Often they're putting up their own money to get something onto the screen, then maybe it makes money in TV deals and maybe it doesn't. It's nice when they get their due on a world telecast.

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"Our democratic institutions... seem to have been upended by frat-boy billionaires from California," remarked Canadian politician Charlie Angus. (BBC, 11/27/18)

Popular Film award: just in time to not have to give Black Panther best film.

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Stop calling the cops on us.

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The first super hero movie to win an Oscar for Best Movie CANT be a cast like this, dont you know?

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"Corporate Democrat" phrase created at the same place "Angry Mob" was...People keep falling for rightwing talking points. How sad.

I know there’s no award for gaffer, I just used it as an example of how little people know about how and who makes movies. It’s the unknown behind-the-scenes people that make it happen. As for awards, it’s like the saying about pissing in a brown suit. It gives you a warm feeling but no one notices.

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When you vote Left you vote right.

Yes I realize that one loses perspective in This Town. Also, if the audience is noticing your lighting and camera work, you have a big problem with the story. Here we have the legitimate debate as to what the Academy Awards are about, and who they are for, and how you achieve a balance. You are lucky you're not on the Academy board right now.

Far as tech awards go, it's definitely pissing in a brown suit, but the people that matter will notice. It can help a career. The grunts put in their time, usually months away from families, and do very technical jobs requiring considerable skill plus constant physical exertion. If they want to give each other plaques in a private ceremony a couple of nights a year, well good.

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"Our democratic institutions... seem to have been upended by frat-boy billionaires from California," remarked Canadian politician Charlie Angus. (BBC, 11/27/18)