tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post964557173229212041..comments2023-11-03T06:02:02.128-07:00Comments on By Ken Levine: The incredibly stupid new Oscar rulesBy Ken Levinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17305293821975250420noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-12779264065784299132019-02-12T08:14:08.210-08:002019-02-12T08:14:08.210-08:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.MikeBrianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09663514883934563978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-35705326082367556482018-09-06T12:45:40.771-07:002018-09-06T12:45:40.771-07:00Announced today... delayed at least a year.Announced today... delayed at least a year.Stuarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14321606529601641865noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-64962148270617017842018-08-11T02:13:05.760-07:002018-08-11T02:13:05.760-07:00Make the intentional walk to the podium automatic
...Make the intentional walk to the podium automatic<br />Put in a pitch clockAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-39791384312851773072018-08-10T20:37:04.429-07:002018-08-10T20:37:04.429-07:00Of course there's not exactly a meeting of min...Of course there's not exactly a meeting of minds here. Some of us care about the idea of annually recognizing the best work in our profession, while the subject at hand is actually how to keep pulling peak advertising dollars into a walking-dead TV "event" that probably jumped the shark sometime around the Bicentennial.E. Yarbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-2602551766740682162018-08-10T19:00:32.855-07:002018-08-10T19:00:32.855-07:00Hey, why not get Deadpool to host the show?!Hey, why not get Deadpool to host the show?!tavmnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-60776822335499619062018-08-10T16:21:22.002-07:002018-08-10T16:21:22.002-07:00I never agree with all the snark about award shows...I never agree with all the snark about award shows every year on this blog, but Ken sure gave the right title to this post. The changes do indeed cheapen the awards, especially saving a few seconds by not airing all the categories. When you think of the time wasted on all the silly things mentioned above, and then the biggest moment in an artist’s or craftman’s life isn’t given a moment for recognition, it is just sad.Diane D.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-59820896474427780172018-08-10T16:19:59.100-07:002018-08-10T16:19:59.100-07:00Obviously, the Academy Awards had far more public ...Obviously, the Academy Awards had far more public interest when movies were a dominant form of entertainment instead of a side current in an increasingly streaming platform. They've also suffered from changes in format echoing those of the night talk shows, which originally featured people actually TALKING largely off the cuff before the producers got unnerved by any possibility of surprise and began planning each beat of the program. The Oscars are similarly now a series of rushed award presentations larded with promotional material written by people who apparently hate the Oscars. The last time anything truly unexpected happened at the ceremony was the Best Film mixup, and when that happened we were repeatedly assured that nothing off-script was EVER supposed to happen on the program... and never would again.<br /><br />Maybe I know how hard anonymous cogs work in this business, but I can't get on board with the sentiment, "Make it three hours, remove all but the top four awards, and don't let the winners talk. (And I still won't watch it.)" If you're truly trying to celebrate the movie industry, you have to let the public appreciate all the behind-the-scenes talent whose work is taken for granted but plays a larger role in the viewers' involvement with a film than expected. Attending an Avengers movie without surround-sound is like going to a Grateful Dead concert without drugs, as many have observed to much sorrow through the tedium. <br /><br />For one night the industry should thank EVERYONE who makes films happen, not just the names everyone already knows, and we all need to consider the multiple layers of effort that go into a finished production. <br /><br /><br /><br /> E. Yarbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-27340990352419187992018-08-10T15:33:16.085-07:002018-08-10T15:33:16.085-07:00This was supposed to been addressed in 2009 when t...This was supposed to been addressed in 2009 when the Academy expanded the number of Best Picture nominees. The impetus for the expansion was the reaction to the snubbing of "The Dark Knight" and "WALL-E" in 2008. And it worked- for two years-"Up" and "Toy Story 3" got Best Picture nominations. Since then, squadoosh. So if expanding the number didn't bring about more nominations for animation or superhero films, adding a new category won't help either. <br /><br />In the 70's the films with big box office numbers got the nominations. I remember in 73, we (who lived out in the boonies) saw "The Sting" "American Graffiti", and "The Exorcist". We had an interest in who won Best Picture- the big debate was "The Sting" or "Graffiti"? Hard to have an interest in the Oscars when you haven't heard of the nominees. <br /><br /><br /><br />Jeff Boicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14600946876122022978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-26531767700380627412018-08-10T13:34:34.291-07:002018-08-10T13:34:34.291-07:00I guess if the Academy wanted to rid the show of a...I guess if the Academy wanted to rid the show of any political content whatsoever, they could avoid airing the Best Documentary Short and Feature categories, or perhaps not even air the excerpts, since the titles alone would mean they had definite POVs not to mention how opinionated the winner would be on his/her speeches...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-26228156535001257422018-08-10T13:05:53.153-07:002018-08-10T13:05:53.153-07:00I think all the folks upset about this are way off...I think all the folks upset about this are way off. Sorry Ken.<br /><br />First, it would be easy to determine which films are eligible for the popular film award based on box office receipts, say any film that brought in over 100 million dollars. <br /><br />Second, there's no reason a film couldn't be nominated in both the old and new categories. Black Panther can be nominated for best picture and best popular film, but not the Shape of Water.<br /><br />Third, making the show shorter makes a lot of sense. Simply don't show all the short film categories. No one has ever seen them or cares. And if you had a cut a few more let's get rid of sound editing and mixing too. <br /><br />HenryHenrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-52466948768056976822018-08-10T09:52:01.651-07:002018-08-10T09:52:01.651-07:00I guess I've never been overly focused on the ...I guess I've never been overly focused on the Oscars, partly because Best Picture and the other awards don't seem to honor the "good" movies (read: movies I want to see). I think the only one that really fits that category was "LOTR: Return of the King". I enjoyed "The Shape of Water" and "Birdman" and "The King's Speech", but there are few other Best Picture nominees in the last ten years that I'd care to see.<br /><br />Let's see, out of the 95 films nominated in the last ten years, that I wanted to see and were great:<br /><br />Avatar (great!)<br />Up (also great!)<br />District 9 <br />The Blind Side<br />The King's Speech<br />The Help<br />Silver Linings Playbook<br />Her<br />Birdman<br />The Big Short<br />Arrival<br />Hidden Figures (great!)<br />The Shape of Water (although I did mainly see this because it won Best Picture)<br /><br />The ones that I wanted to see, and thought were pretty good:<br /><br />Lincoln<br />Gravity<br />The Grand Budapest Hotel<br />The Imitation Game<br />Mad Max: Fury Road<br />The Martian<br />Lion<br /><br />And the ones out of that list that I've seen for some reason or another (sometimes years later), but were disappointments:<br /><br />The Curious Case of Benjamin Button<br />THe Hurt Locker<br />Black Swan<br />Inception<br />Toy Story 3 (I adore Pixar films, but sadly not the Toy Story films for some reason)<br />Les Miserables<br />Zero Dark Thirty (I have no idea why this won any awards at all)<br />La La Land (really? this got nominated?)<br /><br /><br />That's not a great percentage of the Best Picture nominees that I'm interested in, although more than I was expecting before I compiled the list. If it's "Arrival" and "Hidden Figures" vs. eight films I've barely heard of, which look uninteresting, and they pick one of those, why should I care about the show? When two amazing films - "Avatar" and "Up", lose to something tedious like "The Hurt Locker" (I did go back and finally see it last year), why should I put any weight on the Academy's opinion? <br /><br />I'm sure they are grading on some criteria that I am not qualified to judge - but I generally know what I like, even without film school.<br /><br />Is "Black Panther" the best film of the year? I'd argue that it's in the running. "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" and "Wonder Woman" were my judged best of last year, and the Academy went "meh". "Murder on the Orient Express" was high on my list too, and again, "meh". None won any Oscars.<br /><br />Best Popular Movie? Well, that's a thought, but it's not clear what criteria they'll use to make movies eligible. I do agree that it does dilute Best Picture. <br /><br />In any case, I'll be looking at the list of winners the next day. I's pretty hard to make any awards ceremony non-tedious. ;)<br /><br /><br />Tim B.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-9447018125765742512018-08-10T09:41:28.879-07:002018-08-10T09:41:28.879-07:001) Y'know, if you take out the 20 minutes of c...1) Y'know, if you take out the 20 minutes of commercials each hour, the actual show would be well under three hours. Maybe they should move to HBO or Netflix.<br /><br />2) Who's really at fault here? The studios, for not making more "grown-up" films, or the mass audience, which has clearly rejected them? Times change, tastes change, people change. The Miss America Pageant used to be a BFD. Now it's a joke. The country used to come to a halt each October for the World Series. Now the country just shrugs. Maybe it's time for Oscar to acknowledge as much and just play to its base, small though it may be.cadavranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-67577804284162773832018-08-10T06:55:44.303-07:002018-08-10T06:55:44.303-07:00CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
STANDING OVATION!!!!!!!
...CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP<br />STANDING OVATION!!!!!!!<br /><br /><br />the best way for the Oscars to improve audience: <br /><b>Make Movie Everyone wants to see!</b><br />let's take the 1980 awards. All 5 movies were in the top 40 of the box office. The winner (Kramer v Kramer) was actually the top Box office film.<br />In 1978, 4 of the 5 were in the top 20 of the box office with 2 in the top 5. The Bumble Bee Pendanthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11782074071758250824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-83568983710075934732018-08-10T05:28:49.814-07:002018-08-10T05:28:49.814-07:00Get rid of the long walks, from one end of the sta...Get rid of the long walks, from one end of the stage to the other, that will cut 1/2 hour. Get rid of the entire production company, cast and crew coming up on stage to claim an award. That would cut another 1/2 hour.<br /><br /> I rather like the Popular Movie award. That would have allowed a much better movie, such as in 1997’s LA Confidential or Good Will Hunting or As Good AsIt Gets, to win Best Picture. It doesn’t have to be given every year, but Black Panther does deserve recognition for such epic popularity. <br /><br /> I’m one who does fast forward during the Tecnical awards because for me it doesn’t relate. Bring back the Honorary Oscar Winners to the main Broadcast. I’m not the biggest Jerry Lewis fan but he deserved more that he got. <br /><br />Cut off the political speeches and put a real soap box out on the street for them to preach. If you want to make a statement, do what Marlon Brando did...refuse the award. People will remember you then. <br /><br />Pam, St. Louis. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-50980749242257223482018-08-10T02:45:27.521-07:002018-08-10T02:45:27.521-07:00The people who like the Oscars won’t like the chan...The people who like the Oscars won’t like the changes, and the people who don’t like the Oscars aren’t going to care. The worst if both worlds. <br /><br />Either the Oscars mean something or they don’t. I’d like to continue believing they do. <br /><br />Small note, the category is technically: “Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film”. I don’t know what that means either, but it’s better than “Best Popular Film”... maybe. Johnny Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07157630082355224244noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-41254979718933738182018-08-09T21:56:36.824-07:002018-08-09T21:56:36.824-07:00Actually, the best awards show I've seen in ye...Actually, the best awards show I've seen in years has been The Carney Awards.<br /><br />The awards are to celebrate the best character actors. A given year's awardees are known ahead of time, and the ceremony is simply to fete each of the winners.<br /><br />The entire broadcast, which ran this year on Cozi TV, ran I think 2 hours. It moved along fairly well and kept my attention without being bloated or being bogged down.Janet Ybarranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-88534654018652878902018-08-09T21:27:34.533-07:002018-08-09T21:27:34.533-07:00If you've moved to streaming rather than the t...If you've moved to streaming rather than the traditional broadcast television and movie house movies mix, you have a completely different perspective. You still watch lots of video, and some of it is quite good. You might watch on your phone or laptop, or on your 65" television set which compares favorably to 35mm and even larger film formats. You also still go to the theater to see some movies on a big screen, often in iMax and 3D.<br /><br />In other words, there are two types of video, and the breakdown isn't television and movies anymore. It's stuff you watch on your own gear and stuff that's worth watching at a movie house. The Oscars haven't caught up with this. They're stuck in the old television and movie world, so there's lots of good stuff that doesn't get shown in movie houses or gets shown on a special limited release just to qualify for the Oscars. Meanwhile, there's the stuff people find it worth going to a movie house to see. That's the stuff this new award is aimed at, they just can't say that, so they say 'popular'.<br /><br />If you actually care about the best picture, you have to include made for streaming video in the competition. Unlike straight-to-video movies, straight-to-streaming stuff often has serious artistic merit. If the Academy continues to limit the competition to shown-in-a-movie-house video, then it might as well have an award for the best movie that people found worth going out to see.<br />Kaleberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05283840743310507878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-13801957701208778482018-08-09T19:43:03.315-07:002018-08-09T19:43:03.315-07:00James, I agree with your overall premise that that...James, I agree with your overall premise that that ABC (or whatever "broadcaster" and I'm using that term loosely) find new ways to package and distribute the Oscars to provide a classy engaging show for those who care to partake.<br /><br />But currently, as it sits on ABC, the Oscars are stuck in an antiquated situation where the ratings are all important for ad dollars. Unfortunately, they are chasing an audience share that will no longer exist because the broadcast networks don't have the command they did 20, 30and more years ago.<br /><br />So maybe you are right, give some Oscar rights to Sirius XM radio for their listeners, give a a complete saturation daylong package to a cabler or a streaming provider. And then give ABC a 2 hour peek so casual viewers get to see the "big awards" before bed (on the East coast). So in that way, you kind of break up viewing a little like NBC parcels out the Olympics, except what the Olympics would be over 2 weeks, the Oscars would be covered throughout one day/night.Janet Ybarranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-36277646937009170392018-08-09T19:19:18.050-07:002018-08-09T19:19:18.050-07:00Oh, and the single longest acceptance speech of &#...Oh, and the single longest acceptance speech of '57 was Hermoine Gingold reading S.J. Perelman's written remarks. No one felt in a rush to end them.E. Yarbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-34150147371033874362018-08-09T19:11:19.135-07:002018-08-09T19:11:19.135-07:00Funny hearing about the radio simulcast idea, sinc...Funny hearing about the radio simulcast idea, since I listened to the NBC audio broadcast of the 1957 awards this afternoon, hosted by Fred Allen's old announcer Jimmy Wallington with the one-armed Robert Wagner doing play-by-play. MC Jerry Lewis opened the show apologizing for how long it was going to be (105 minutes). The first award was a technical prize for a guy who'd developed something called videotape. Talk about diversity... SEVEN SAMURAI went up against Edith Head in the costume category! (Both lost to THE SOLID GOLD CADILLAC). Eva Marie Saint was a presenter... does she do that EVERY year? Kirk Douglas did a remote intro from the set of PATHS OF GLORY. "Robert Rich" won Best Original Screenplay but couldn't accept the reward because he was Dalton Trumbo. Nobody ordered pizza, but during Oldsmobile ads Jerry went into the audience with a bullhorn to harass the stars (as Wagner put it). <br /><br />You know, these shows could be a lot of fun if the makers went into them with the idea that they're about the AWARDS, not treating the winners like some regrettable obligatory afterthought.<br /><br />On the other hand, there seems to be support for dropping the awards altogether and fashioning a new annual ritual dubbed HOLLYWOOD WE HATE YOU, three hours of pranks like throwing Ron Howard into a piranha tank followed by Martin Scorsese being pulled in half by two tractors. Those people think so much of themselves. E. Yarbernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-34781595092367007122018-08-09T18:18:27.356-07:002018-08-09T18:18:27.356-07:00Why are the ratings for the Oscars so important? B...Why are the ratings for the Oscars so important? Because of the show's 3 hour length, many people just don't care to sit through it and are satisfied with getting the wrap-up afterwards. The Oscars also doesn't seem to care about broadening the fan base for the show. The E Channel used to simulcast the behind the scenes Oscar press room where journalists interviewed the winners after every Oscar was handed out and you saw the actors much more than you did during the broadcast, and the program would be rerun by the E Channel a couple times. But then it abruptly stopped and no one else picked it up even though in many ways it was more interesting than the Oscar telecast itself. And as far as the telecast goes, why not make it more widely available? For a few years I worked at a convention which happened to be on the day the Oscars were telecast and I'd start my 2 hour drive home about 5 PM but no radio station was simulcasting the Oscars which is very talky and therefore perfect for radio. But nothing. And now they are worried about ratings in a world where there are hundreds of channels on cable and multiple streaming services (I subscribe to 4 and that is by no means all of them) where people have access to hundreds of movies and TV shows 24 hours a day. All these new rules will do is dilute what they are already doing and make it less interesting, not more interesting. So what if Best Picture is a film 95% of the audience has no interest in seeing? That's not what the Oscars is about. At least that's not what it used to be about. These new rules make me far less interested in watching the show in 2019.James Van Hisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06658381884799398658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-24585031653240719962018-08-09T17:15:16.129-07:002018-08-09T17:15:16.129-07:00If so, the first to go should be Spade Cooley, a w...If so, the first to go should be Spade Cooley, a western swing bandleader who had a popular TV variety series in Los Angeles in the '50s. He was convicted in the particularly gruesome murder of his second wife in 1961 (which may have come after the first batches of stars were installed the year before).<br /><br />I'd like to see Teri Garr or Jackie DeShannon get a star myself...especially since both still are with us.VP81955https://www.blogger.com/profile/11792390726196611188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-67552545535388492302018-08-09T17:09:01.176-07:002018-08-09T17:09:01.176-07:00Why is BLACK PANTHER not "Best Picture" ...Why is BLACK PANTHER not "Best Picture" worthy? Because it's about a superhero? It at least tries to explore issues more complex than the navel gazing of most movies Woody Allen has made in the past few decades (and been nominated for, by the way).<br /><br />No one can dare suggest that STAR WARS is perhaps a better movie than ANNIE HALL -- from the technical achievement alone to arguably a more compelling character arc (the heroic journey) for the lead. No, SW has light sabers in it! <br /><br />I could take another Best Picture winner (1976's Rocky, for example) and turn it into a superhero film with only cosmetic revisions. Is it suddenly no longer Best Picture? Is Rocky's struggle no longer moving?<br /><br />There are a lot of crap superhero films. Just like there are a lot of crap "serious films" (Woody Allen has made a lot of them. It's the 40th anniversary of his first attempt, which is the dreadful INTERIORS). <br /><br />I wish we could keep open minds and not try to silo the works. I'd say the same for the Emmys: There were years where CHEERS or FRASIER flat-out were the best shows on TV. Frankly, there were some points where the *dramas* got a break by not having to compete with comedies.Stephen Robinsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03670422634319094941noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-33645329760389653892018-08-09T16:18:59.313-07:002018-08-09T16:18:59.313-07:00Hell, President Voldemort has a star on the Walk f...Hell, President Voldemort has a star on the Walk for one stupid, mediocre TV show. I think that is ridiculous.<br /><br />But I agree Bill Bixby should have a star.<br /><br />I disagree with the Hollywood Chamber, however. I believe there ought to be circumstances where a star can be revoked/removed (ie Bill Cosby).Janet Ybarranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19336675.post-59922766855369261052018-08-09T15:27:36.505-07:002018-08-09T15:27:36.505-07:00I agree that 'it's all about the benjamins...I agree that 'it's all about the benjamins' when it comes to these award shows as well as other awards and honors. I like Niecy Nash but she has a star on The Hollywood Walk Of Fame and Bill Bixby doesn't...WTF?DARON72https://www.blogger.com/profile/01726705799261360259noreply@blogger.com