Boycott the oscars-no televised editing or cinematography-fail! ;-(

puredrifting said:
Precisely. What any of that blather has to do with honoring cinema and filmmakers, I'm not sure. And thats the point, the Academy, in search of a ratings hit, has squeezed out most of what the AA have always supposed to have been about. That's why I, and most of my colleagues in the business, don't bother watching it.
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So maybe it's time to create something new. The internet provides unlimited opportunities, including live streaming events. The people doing the work vastly outnumber the people controlling the current (failing) system. No reason to be angry, just walk away and join/create something better, right?
 
jcs said:
So maybe it's time to create something new. The internet provides unlimited opportunities, including live streaming events. The people doing the work vastly outnumber the people controlling the current (failing) system. No reason to be angry, just walk away and join/create something better, right?
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I wouldn't say I am angry, just a bit frustrated. I've worked closely with classic film resorations and have made documentary programming about some of the best Cinema ever produced and it's disappointing to see how the Academy is run, what their priorities are and how they have blown decades of opportunity to educate and propagate interest with the public in the art of film. I think the two biggest factors why Cinema is dying is that the people in power in Hollywood took the stupid, greedy and easy way out and the Oscars is emblematic of this. There is such an incredible lineage and legacy to Hollywood that has been squandered and few people these days consider films an art anymore, it's just tentpole sequel product that the machine spits out and as you well know, filmed entertaimment, as a business, has been massively dwarfed by gaming for over a decade and half now. Some of that is due to the inevitability of the rise of interactive gaming due to the digital revolution but at least a chunk of it is due to the mindset of Hollywood and the Academy and the squandered the opportunity to make film, filmgoing and respect for filmmaking a more integral part of society.
 
puredrifting said:
I wouldn't say I am angry, just a bit frustrated. I've worked closely with classic film resorations and have made documentary programming about some of the best Cinema ever produced and it's disappointing to see how the Academy is run, what their priorities are and how they have blown decades of opportunity to educate and propagate interest with the public in the art of film. I think the two biggest factors why Cinema is dying is that the people in power in Hollywood took the stupid, greedy and easy way out and the Oscars is emblematic of this. There is such an incredible lineage and legacy to Hollywood that has been squandered and few people these days consider films an art anymore, it's just tentpole sequel product that the machine spits out and as you well know, filmed entertaimment, as a business, has been massively dwarfed by gaming for over a decade and half now. Some of that is due to the inevitability of the rise of interactive gaming due to the digital revolution but at least a chunk of it is due to the mindset of Hollywood and the Academy and the squandered the opportunity to make film, filmgoing and respect for filmmaking a more integral part of society.
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Media, including video games, has been used to influence general thought more so than to provide entertainment or education (profit surely an incentive, perhaps more about power). It was subtle in the beginning, however as the messages became more obvious in recent years, people got turned off and have looked for other ways to spend their time. The messaging is so obvious for recent content, it's impossible to watch. Instead there's plenty of old content that's still enjoyable. You can feel the energy was different back then, the way people acted, the way things were shot: better camera-work & lighting and craft in general, so much more constructive energy if you will, more (good) humor, better stories, more social connectedness, and so on.

So that's something- the preservation of older content can be brought to light and shown to the current generation, which will motivate current and future content creators to expand on those earlier ideas and produce new content that people want to engage with in 2019 and beyond.
 
puredrifting said:
In the meantime, I've been boycotting the show for more than a decade because I just don't care. To me, all awards shows are meaningless. I've won Tellys, Cindys and bunch of other "awards" that are essentially a system where people pay to win a trophy but even if those were real awards, what do they mean? They mean nothing. At the time, we had a marketing manager who wanted to have a trophy case in the lobby full of awards. So we did it. When we moved from that office and downsized, it was very easy for me to throw every single one of them into a dumspter because they meant nothing, stood for nothing. If filmmakers are making films to win awards, they should be in a different business. Hollywood's backslapping, glad-handing awards shows make me sick, they have nothing to do with Cinema and everything to do with what's wrong in the industry. The best work is rarely recognized, and so much crap is that it makes the contest meaningless.

If the Academy used their heads and weren't a high school dance committee on steroids that looks at the Plastics in Mean Girls as role models, they might be able to improve things and get the recognition and telecast part of what they do back on track so that it actually meant something. The voting has always been suspect, the Academy voting members are largely out of touch old white people who haven't worked in the industry for decades, they need MUCH more diversity and to be in touch with the best filmmakers working today and films that are more than just product. There, I vented my spleen. I'm not "in Hollywood" so it's easy for me to tell it how it is because I work in Hollywood and see behind the scenes.
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Ha. This is a very nice spleen venting! And I agree 100% about most awards - especially those of which you pay for - being meaningless. (perhaps lifetime achievement type awards might be the exception?) And these shows are mostly a parade of fashion (or at least that's why my wife watches them) both of the cultural times and of the clothing.
And let's also not forget about the many Oscar snubs through the years (Citizen Kane only won for screenplay, Kubrick or Hitchcock never won an award, etc. etc etc.)
 
Philosophizing aside, if a decent number of our co-workers who are academy members - big name directors, actors, writers, etc.- agreed to boycott the awards ceremony, I think you would see a pretty quick reversal of this idiotic decision by "the board". Indeed, the folks could still attend the after parties and pat themselves on the back for helping to protect the "integrity of the industry".

Venting doesn't help...action does.

My .02 (OK, .05 with inflation).
Ken
 
Given viewing figures have been dropping I suspect its due to the Hollywood elite hijacking the awards with "me me me" and the platform to preach and lecture the public everything from politics (not my president etc) to personal life stories. The average viewer is fed up with being spoken down to and hence can't be arsed watching.
From a UK newspaper " and fed up with yet another round of over-the-top speeches and mutual Hollywood back-slapping".

Perhaps its time to go back to the actual process or art of cinema.
 
I figured after reading the open letter from the ASC with all those high named signatures attached they would overturn their stupid choices. Happy that the program will air as planned now.
 
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