Academy Awards: In Memoriam (and Oscar's Discussion Thread)

That's right, I can't believe I forgot about Carlin, that one broke my heart, one of my heroes. A comedic legend, I mean one of the all time greats, and with a fair amount of screen credits too, I can't believe he was snubbed.
 
I saw at least one of the exiting through a doorway shots... very cool idea, too bad there wasn't more of it in the final cut. Great work, Zak.
 
Zak, they butchered your segment bro :( I was pulling for you and wanted to strangle whomever decided to have Mr. Fancy Pants control the camera. I also thought the editing was too fast, but considering we lost so many, I understand how it had to be moved along. This was the first year ever I was actually disappointed with a tribute segment, I mean, how do you screw that up (not you, the producers)? My wife was pissed cause she couldn't even read the names at the bottom of the various screens due to that as*hole of a camera operator. And to have that washed up rap singer or whatever she is with zero talent singing over the faces of legends was simply insulting. Ouch, man, ouch.
 
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alveraz said:
And to have that washed up rap singer or whatever she is with zero talent singinging over the faces of legends was simply insulting. Ouch, man, ouch.
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Ok...now you are way off here... She sounded beautiful on that track regardless of it being the right or wrong song for this segment.

Good job Zak. I too wish it wasn't so rushed but hey..... I liked the Paul Newman thing at the end.
 
what Ian said.
I think Queen Latifah has matured into a terrific talent and I was moved by her performance.
Who did you want - Bette Midler?
 
my first cut was 4:30 and felt really good. not perfect, but the pacing was there. then i was told it had to be under 4 mins and to take brad renfro out and put vampira in. I removed some of the bridge from the second half of the song. then i was told that queen latifah had to sing solo for the first 30 seconds so i was losing more time.
 
I agree about Queen Latifah. I thought she did a great job. We so often assume because people get famous doing one thing, that's all they can do. I think she's a good singer and actress.
 
I've been out of the loop for a while but I just realized who brad renfro is. I really dug "The Client" and it was the performance of that kid that drew me in. Wow...what a loss.
 
Zak - It may not have gone the way you wanted it to, but congratulations are in order for just being part of the process of such a major production. :thumbsup:


alveraz said:
...My wife was pissed cause she couldn't even read the names at the bottom of the various screens due to that as*hole of a camera operator...
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The camera operator wasn't making any editorial decision with his/her composition. Rather, the director makes that determination.
 
terry's right. remember, all of that inane camera movement was pre-taped on saturday. someone sat in an edit bay and assembled it that way. the footage i saw from thursday's taping was much better. they went in to do some reshoots on saturday but it looks like they redid the whole thing and made some very bad choices.
 
it seemed like the whole show was designed more for the audience in the theatre than the audience at home.
 
my thoughts on the Oscars...

First, congrats Zak. Even if things didn't go as originally planned it was still a pretty cool thing to be a part of and encouraging to the rest of us dvxusers. I'm sure all of us would love to have 2009 Academy Awards Editor on our resume. Good job and looking forward to the day when you're calling the shots over there.

2nd, I really wish I had seen Slumdog and Milk before the awards so I'd know more about the films winning every award.

3rd, bummed that Mickey didn't win best actor. The Wrestler was my favorite picture of the year. Mickey was terrific in it and selfishly I would love to see a guy that dresses like the biggest pimp in the building, shoots from the hip, thanks his dogs, has a noticeable distance from the hollywood scene win the award.

4th, is the Academy ever going to give Roger Deakins an award?!

5th, how can Bruce Springsteen win the Golden Globe for best song and not be nominated for an Oscar?

6th, I just saw Man on Wire last week which was amazing and Philippe's "performance" during the acceptance speech just made him even more epic.

7th, I couldn't stop laughing when Ben Stiller was pulling a Joaquin on stage, I almost felt bad for the cinematographers being featured during the segment because Stiller was stealing the show.
 
I'd have to echo much of chrisf's comments.

I applaud the show for trying to do some things differently, but there were just moments that didn't work at all. Stiller's bit, funny as it was, took the focus away from the award, and let's face it, Cinematography is an award more people should take notice of.

I actually really liked how they handled the music and song awards, and the arrangements they put together.

The "grouped actors" presenting awards for acting seemed strange at first, but with the exception of the unintelligible Sophia Loren, I found them humorous, touching, and they seemed very moving for all of the nominees.

The bit with James Franco and Seth Rogen was f'ing hilarious. But the best line of the night had to be Kaminski's. "Suck on this Anthony Dod Mantle!"
 
Zak:

Nice job on the edit. I must agree with you, the shooting it off a all of those screens was the definition of "the medium obscuring the message". Oh well, at least they tried something new I guess but I could feel your frustration coming through my television screen as I watched it, if it would have been my edit, I would have been tearing my hair out.

Any time you do work with a body as out of touch with today as the Academy, you are going to run into this. It's a good credit to have but as a artistic process, I am sure you would think three times before agreeing to do it again.

From what I could see of your edit, it was excellent, but even my wife and daughter were like what the heck are they doing it this way for, you can't even read half of the names and the shots are being missed during the stupid jib moves. Oy, I feel for you.

Dan
 
During the memorium before I re read much of this thread, I really thought why tf arent they just concentrating on whats being celebrated here i.e. the lives of some very talented people, instead of all the fancy camera moves and the screens.

Enjoyed the edit Zac.

Was happy to see Mr Ledger receive the best possible memorium an actor could wish for - the award. No surprise that he won really.
 
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