Director Daniel Kwan (left) and Daniel Scheinert pose with their Best Director trophy. everything everywhere at once
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
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Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Director Daniel Kwan (left) and Daniel Scheinert pose with their Best Director trophy. everything everywhere at once
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
If you have ever worked on any type of annual project may be an event may be a report Or maybe it’s the Oscars. You may have been part of the questioning process. which various stakeholders Let’s get together to discuss what’s right. What happened and what happened Really? Wrong. For example, maybe your Best Actress winner gave a lovely speech. But your Best Actor winner goes back on stage and slaps a famous comedian in the face. It happens.
Of course, these debriefing sessions look different depending on the situation. But the shape is generally the same: positive, negative, notes for the next year. May have a few compliments for a job well done. What is sometimes missed is summaries of not-so-sexy but important mistakes. avoidBecause anyone who has been involved in annual projects for years can tell you that bad ideas have a secret way of introducing themselves. When you avoid it long enough
Consider the final remarks on the 2023 Academy Awards, which ended Sunday night in a shameless manner. I’m going to omit the obvious stuff like “no one was physically assaulted on stage” or “no one was mispronounced the best picture winner” – for a mistake that might be re-introduced one day. If we are foolish Enough to weaken our overall defense.
They handed out all the awards during the broadcast.
It’s easy to forget that last year’s Oscars chose to award multiple entries in the previously recorded segment. with the express purpose of accelerating the show. This is a bad idea for fundamental reasons of decency and viewability. Yes, people are interested in seeing people win prizes like film photography. while still giving viewers a sense of satisfaction with what fills the cut. It also robs Oscar’s strengths: it’s hard for the show to lag when you’re back in the official business of continually handing out trophies. There was definitely a fill in last Sunday’s broadcast (ahem, little mermaid promotions), but felt the pace was noticeably faster than usual.
they cut little things
As Glen Weldon noted in NPR’s Oscars live blog at the time, this year’s Oscars cut out the intro. Especially when it comes to clips of the 10 movies nominated for best picture. “Consider: They’re introducing tonight’s Best Picture nominees with off-screen announcers,” Glen wrote. “In the past year The presenter does this instead. The actor who walked away, paused, teased the presenter hard. Then introduce the best picture nominees. Seems like a minor adjustment but it’s easy to shave. What, at least 10 minutes of this airing?” Imagine if every four hours you drive You must park on the side of the road 10 times and wait 60 seconds each time. Then imagine driving the same car without those stops. Improving the screening process on Oscar night might not seem like much. But it is a big improvement in the quality of life that is hidden.
The person opened the clip! The person opened the clip! The person opened the clip!
on occasion in the past few years Oscar producers tried to cut time by skipping clips of the nominated performances. Sometimes it’s just a name. Sometimes the presenters talk about how great each nominee is. You’d think the Academy Awards would know the value of the show more than the talk. But this mistake still appears every few years. Showing the clip underscores the value of the nominated work. Give unfamiliar viewers ideas about movies they might still want to see. And it’s probably most relevant to the attention of the Oscars. It pays homage to the awesome power of the better than a million “A Salute to…the Movie!” montages ever made.
They killed the audience’s microphone during “In Memoriam”.
Whenever you have a musician playing the title of the song that just left. You run the risk of the event turning into a tasteless exercise of Applause-O-Meter. You may hear some applause from time to time this year. This was likely from Lenny Kravitz’s mic, but could easily be missed. This was an avoidable disaster. Successfully avoided!
naturally These Oscars still make other mistakes. Including the use of a dissonant orchestra to play people off stage. and the Academy’s insistence on nominating Diane Warren’s song again, but this year still feels like progress.
This piece first appeared in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter in order not to miss the next episode Plus get weekly advice on what makes us happy.
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