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

The only one who didn't seemed lip synced and auto tuned was Hugh Jackman.

SIDENOTE: I want to be Hugh Jackman's hair in my next life.
 
TheMacB said:
it seemed like the whole show was designed more for the audience in the theatre than the audience at home.
Click to expand...

I think overall it was a very classy Oscar show, and a such a welcome change from recent years. The focus really seemed to be on celebrating CINEMA and the people involved, and showcasing such (instead of an emphasis on stand-up comedy).

As far as being designed more for the live audience, I think I agree, but most of the show still worked quite well for the television viewer. With the very obvious exception of Zak's piece, for which the TD was just simply horrendous. How I wished I could have been there at the Kodak theatre, because it really did look like something wonderful--if you were there!

What they did to Zak's "In Memoriam" reminded me of what they were doing for quite a few years with the nominees in major categories. They would have some weird visual, like an Oscar statuette rotating in the foreground, maybe even with a long line of Oscars receding into the background, and the clips of the actors or picture nominees would be shown on a little rectangle less than 1/4 of the area on the screen. At least with the nominees this year, they really put a lot more focus on the actual nominees, not some graphic that shows us this is the Oscar show (like we didn't know that already).
 
It seems every year we get a promise that 'we're going to jazz up' the Oscars, and every year I cringe. The Oscars always has been and always will be a long, tedious and garish spectacle. 'Jazzing it up' just makes it longer, tedious-er, and garish-er. Producers should just stick to the basics instead of trying to re-invent it every damn year.
 
Zak nice job of editing but they should have just showed the memorium.

I thought that the Ben Stiller part was really stupid. Show some clips and give the Cinematography award.

I would have rather seen Brad Pitt get the award for best actor.

Hey where was Jack Nickolson?
 
Thinking about Zak's whole experience of being hired on to breathe some new life into the Oscars to only have it bogged down by the same old execs using the same old formula had me thinking about the academy awards and as a film/video maker I feel like they might be making the cardinal sin: they don't know who their target audience is (or they do and they're doing nothing about it).

Last night at around midnight (eastern time) I get a voicemail from my dad saying "Yea, so what's Slumdog? I've never heard of it, but it just won best picture". Granted my dad is far from a cinema buff, but that really got me thinking. Everything leading up to the awards show and even the award show itself is hyped and advertised heavily to the masses, most of whom don't know most of the films or half the actors (let alone cinematographers, composers, etc.).

I thought this was really evident in some of the pre-show red carpet coverage that I saw. The reporters were clinging dearly to any mainstream big name they could get: Brangelina, Miley Cirus, Zack Hefron, etc. while people like Mickey Rourke just walk by in the background.

Someone needs to remind the Academy that if you target everyone, you'll end up reaching no one. Although it would certainly change the event, I think the Academy would be better off making the awards more mainstream (add interactivity into the program, include the audience, feature films like the Dark Knight, get all the big name stars to come and be featured) or make the awards geared more towards the niche market of cinema fans ala the spirit awards (cut out all the fashion design pre-show talk, get rid of the gimmicks, get rid of the fluff entertainment).

At this time the full ratings aren't out I don't think, but even though ratings were up this year, it was still one of the 3 least watched Oscars and I imagine if they're going to break this trend they're going to need to bring some drastic change the ceremony.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top