Thoughts from the Shop: We’d Like to Thank the Academy…

There were the good times, and there were the not so good times, but (most of us) made it through, and now we have much to discuss.  This is what we thought of the 82nd Academy Awards:

On Avatar:
“ I couldn’t help but think that there was an academy-directed punishment of sorts taking place… punishment for too much past success, too much innovation, too much common popularity? Being too provocative to too many people for too many different reasons? The hurt locker wins seemed somewhat out of proportion to me”
“ I can’t help but speculate if this is one of those Oscar years that 10 years hence fans and film historians will wonder happened? In terms of importance, will avatar’s legs and influence on the industry have far outstripped those of the hurt locker?”
“ I’m personally glad that Avatar didn’t win best picture or best director as the actual plot and story is pretty damn basic and it’s the money and the effects / look of the film that have made it of interest. That and the fact that the success of the flick has been THE surprise of the year; remember all the online disses of Avatar as clips and such began to leak?”

The Hosts:
“I liked Martin and Baldwin. I’m not certain how much better a host should be. It is an impossibly hard job.”
“ Everything original wasn’t good and everything good wasn’t really original. And that’s coming from someone who genuinely loves Martin and Baldwin.”

The Red Carpet:
“Didn’t watch the actual Oscars but caught the AP feed of the preshow online. Seems like the women really brought it this year in terms of dresses; lots of interesting designs and lots of colour. Perhaps this is a subconscious nod to “we’re coming out of the recession”?!”
“I really just watch for the red carpet fashion/commentary. ”
“Vera Farmiga blew it on the red carpet…”
“ Loved Robert Downey Jr.’s blue shades.”
“ The red carpet appears to be more like a factory or assembly line with each passing year… it’s almost a separate entity in and of itself.”

The Youth Appeal:
“How about how Oscar seemed to try to court more young people after declining show viewership amongst youth, with non-nominees Taylor Lautner, Miley Cyrus, Kristen Stewart and Amanda Seyfried on hand to present, as well as the big So You Think This Is a Good Way To Show all the Original Score Nominees dance number. And yet, with two hosts whose combined age was somewhere around a hundred and ninety, no youth-relevant song in the nominees, and no actual nominations for any of the really cool youth film properties this year, the show probably didn’t do what it tried to do in nominating 10 films for best picture – that is, create a stronger connection between younger-skewing blockbusters and the Oscars.”
“I liked that more younger people were involved in the show (at least it’s good for comedy) but I don’t think that has as big an impact on the younger viewers.”

Social Media and the Oscars:
“ On the online feed tip it’s becoming, happily, more and more common that pivotal “shared common experience” events (i.e. the Olympics and The Oscars Red Carpet) can be found online through major media channels – that “second screen” is becoming more and more mainstream and being treated as such by the majors.”
“Like all massive events, [it is] more fun watching with social media at the same time. The National Post, ew.com, and tons of other sites [were] live-blogging with integration of comments or tweets from regular folks. We had two laptops and four smartphones going, and it enhanced the whole thing for many of us. There were also a few moments where the Internet helped us to figure out why a particular actor was presenting something: for instance, I couldn’t figure out why Kathy Bates was shilling Avatar until I used the web to tell remind me that she was Molly Brown in Titanic.”

Other lingering thoughts:
“Where was Brangelina?”
“The dance number was useless. Worst use of a dance scene since Matrix Reloaded.”
“Happy to see that George Clooney’s hair was getting a little shaggy.”
“First airing of the iPad TV ad.”

Our suggestions:
“The most spontaneous parts of the show are the acceptance speeches. Why cut them short?”
“One of my pet peeves was when the actors were asked to pay tribute to the Best Actor/Actress nominees. In theory this should be a nice lasting tribute where you get some sort of odd insight into what it is like to work with each nominee. However, it ends up feeling something like a cross between a court deputation and a wake, with each actor paying tribute to a nominee feeling the need to pay greater tribute to their nominees than the previous actor. It gets to be a bit much. By the end I expected someone to say: “And he’s a great actor, friend and humanitarian. He even gave me his kidney!””
“I don’t care how long the show goes. All I care about is how good the show is. Don’t rush things, just cut out the crappy stuff. If it takes 4 hours, then make it four good hours.”
“More celebration of movies. I love when they show retrospectives of careers, or talk about how influential a genre is. For a place known for shameless self-promotion, they could do a better job taking about the influence of movies and how movie reflect our times.”
“Next year, I’d love to see a better integration of social media. A selected twitter feed across the screen? I don’t know. Something.”

A final note:

“Producing and putting on the Oscars: damned if you do, damned if you don’t!”

Tag . Events, Movies, Thoughts from the Shop