Fan Fare

from Photographers Blog:

The room where no one says cheese

You’ve just won your Oscar, given your acceptance speech to the world and are whisked off stage. The world watching on television goes to a commercial break as you are escorted off to meet the press, first stop “The Photo Room”.

You come around a corner and step up onto a 60-foot long low-rise stage. Behind you are three 10-foot golden Oscar statuettes, each surrounded by a bouquet of colorful flowers. In front of you is a grandstand of 60 well-dressed photographers who all want you to hold up your award and look at them, and no one says cheese.

In actuality “The Photo Room” has very little to do with the art of photography on Oscar night. We have all come in days prior and hung strobe lights, tested power packs, synced our data feeds out of our digital cameras, inputed IPTC codes, selected the IP addresses back to our editors and tweaked our lighting from edge to edge. On Oscar night it’s all about the winner looking at you.

So the photographers yell: “to your left,” “to your right,” “over here,” “kiss the trophy,” “look up,” “look down” and “it’s me."

They yell, I yell, “put the Oscars together” and “get closer.” We are all trying to compose a picture as if we are the only photographer in the room and have the undivided attention of the winner and their magical award.

from Tales from the Trail:

General Odierno gives “The Hurt Locker” friendly review

As the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno must have on-the-ground knowledge of the American military teams that defuse roadside bombs in Iraq.

So it seems like high praise, indeed, that he complimented the Oscar-winning movie "The Hurt Locker" for how it portrayed the sacrifices made by bomb disposal soldiers in the Iraq war.

"I think what I like about it is, it shows, first, the camaraderie that is required here, the tension, the risk that's involved in some of the jobs that we do here," Odierno said in an interview with PBS Newshour.

"I'm sure many people would say it could be a bit more accurate in some areas, but I believe it's a good representation of the sacrifice, dedication that it takes here in order to combat such a very difficult mission of terrorism and fighting a war on terrorism," he said.

"The Hurt Locker", an Iraq war drama about a team of bomb-defusing specialists, won the Oscar for best picture and placed Kathryn Bigelow into history books as the first woman ever to win the Academy Award for best director.

Photo credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson (Bigelow poses with her Oscar for "The Hurt Locker")

“Avatar”, Oscar’s big snub?

There is little doubt in our mind that if the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was filled with 10 ft. tall blue people with tails, that “Avatar” would have won the best motion picture Oscar on Sunday night.

But it’s not — perhaps sadly. “Avatar” and director James Cameron picked up three awards in technical categories: visual effects, art direction and cinematography. And for the highest grossing film of all time — $2.6 billion worldwide and counting — that seems like robbery. You can read about “Avatar” as an Oscar “loser” here. And there is no doubt, it lost. But did the Academy get it right?

Movie ticket seller Fandango.com ran an online poll and “Avatar” was deemed the biggest snub of the night by 57 percent of those responding. Quentin Tarantino losing for best screenplay to “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire” was voted the big snub by 21 percent and Cameron losing best director to ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow was considered  the worst by 10 percent.

We note one consideration. Just because “Avatar” is popular with fans, that doesn’t mean it has to be popular with the Academy, which has about 5800 voting members. Importantly, most all members are in the business of making movies, and everyday they judge films on financial merit in one way or another. Oscar is one chance where they get to judge the art of film. That said, how can they deny the art of “Avatar”? Tell us what you think, here. And while you’re at it, you can read our fashion story and tell us what you think about the ladies and their gowns.

Going some place? Foreign films hop on Oscar’s train

Foreign filmmakers may not pander to Oscar like some of their American counterparts. But early Saturday morning in front of a packed audience that had even some of the actors from the films scrambling to find a seat, the directors of this year’s five nominees talked about what the Oscars can do to gather the momentum to put enough bottoms on seats to gaze at their subtitled works. The first ever foreign language film nomination for Peru, “The Milk of Sorrow,” is still looking for a U.S. distributor, but director Claudia Llosa said the nomination was helping to inject film investment in that country.

Respect at Oscar they get. But American box office? Well, that’s always a slightly more difficult task. Even in regards to Oscar, all the filmmakers said they could not allow themselves to even possibly consider an Academy Award when they began to make their films.  As Oscar frontrunner Michael Haneke of “The White Ribbon,” which has swept many of the awards in the past year, put it, “You don’t make films to win prizes, you make films to communicate.”

And clearly from the adoring audience they did. Watch the video above of Israeli director Yaron Shani, whose film “Ajami” took 11 odd years to make from conception, talking outside the screening on Saturday morning about the reception he has received in Hollywood and how the film is still touching people back in his conflicted homeplace .

Lights. Camera. Action versus inaction.

Everyone knows documentary filmmakers get the short end of the stick. They spend years scraping together budgets, going on rough shoots in poor countries or places that throw them into jail, and when it comes to Oscar time, they’re the ones that keep smiling as they compete for attention with other such serious topics such as who is wearing what label.

But can docs really change things? Watch these videos of the two favorites to win the best documentary feature Oscar, directors Louie Psihoyos of “The Cove” and Robert Kenner from “Food, Inc.” who talk about the long road to their official Academy Award reception for the best documentary shorts and features that was held Wednesday night. More than six months after both films had their U.S. release, Kenner continues to battle big U.S. companies over bad food practices, and Psihoyos knows some dolphins are still being captured in Japan for marine amusement parks and killed for food, not to mention both continually competing for box office from audiences who prefer lighter fare at the cinema.

But grin and laugh they still do. Kenner says he is optimistic about the Oscars helping draw more attention to a food safety bill currently running through U.S. congress. While Psihoyos, who says he has a warrant out for his arrest in Japan, chuckles in the midst of blinking lights and evidently, an empty stomach. More sympathies anyone?

Oscar shorts clamor for attention … while they can.

Oscar shorts? Who watches them? Why make them? Does anyone care? Oscar does.

It may not have been the most jammed-packed, star-studded red carpet, but a week of official Oscars meet-and-greets and a taste of possible Hollywood glory kicked off Tuesday night with the first official Academy Award reception for the best short film nominees. It was not exactly Power Hollywood. But a crowd of ticket-paying short film lovers laughed and whooped as they crammed into the Academy’s headquarters to watch the five animation and five live-action nominated short films and rub elbows with their makers who flew in from around the world.

Nominees chatted at the reception before the screening about being at the Oscars for the first time. Danish director Joachim Back of “The New Tenants” talks about how his work as an advertising commercials director paved the way for his short and how he keeps changing his possible Oscar-winning speech.

Irish producer James Flynn, nominated alongside director Juanita Wilson for the somber film, “The Door,” which is set in Russia about the Chernobyl disaster, shares how short films are a serious business and how it’s a strong Oscar year for Irish-produced films with five Irish nominations. But the real question is this: Could the Irish presence mean hard partying at an Oscar ceremony full of Irish fun? Maybe. That answer awaits Sunday’s awards. In the meantime, Flynn thinks it may. Watch him above.

Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus in contention for Oscars

Old-school Hollywood types would be aghast, but think of the boffo ratings if teen starlets Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus nabbed Oscar nominations next year.

The duo are part of the way there, having co-written songs that made the shortlist for Oscar consideration. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday unveiled 63 original song contenders that will be winnowed down to a maximum of five nominees.

The Swift and Cyrus songs are among the five from Disney’s “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” which starred Cyrus in the title role. Cyrus co-wrote “Don’t Walk Away” with John Shanks and Hillary Lindsay, while Swift co-wrote “You’ll Always Find Your Way Back Home” with Martin Johnson. The three others are “Back to Tennessee,” co-written by Miley’s dad Billy Ray Cyrus, “Butterfly Fly Away” and “Hoedown Throwdown.” But under Academy rules, a maximum of two songs may be nominated from any one film. 

All the artists who received Golden Globe nominations on Tuesday made the cut: Paul McCartney (“Everybody’s Fine”), U2 (“Brothers”), Maury Yeston (“Nine”), James Horner, Simon Franglen and Kuk Harrell (“Avatar”), and Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett (“Crazy Heart”). 

Other notable potential Oscar nominees include White Stripes frontman Jack White (“It Might Get Loud”), British rocker Jarvis Cocker (“The Fantastic Mr. Fox”), and Swedish songwriter Lykke Li (“The Twilight Saga: New Moon”).

Members of the Academy’s Music Branch will screen clips featuring each song on Jan. 12. The nominees will be determined by a points system, and they will be announced along with the contenders in the other categories on Feb. 2. The Academy Awards will be handed out on March 7.

Oscar hires Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin … Huh?

They aren’t exactly Laurel and Hardy, or Hope and Crosby, or Lewis and Martin (that’s singer Dean) or even Rowan and Martin (as in Laugh-in’s Dick Martin). So when Oscar organizers on Tuesday named Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin as the co-hosts of the upcoming Academy Awards, it left more than a few Hollywood watchers scratching their heads. You can read the story here.

After all, their only two pull quotes from the press release issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ranged from Martin’s mildly funny “I am happy to co-host the Oscars with my enemy Alec Baldwin,” to a decidedly mixed statement from Baldwin, “I don’t play the banjo but I’m thrilled to be hosting the Oscars — it’s the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Baldwin’s first reference is, of course, a joke about Martin’s love of the banjo, but the last half of the statement sounds rather serious.

It seems like salt and pepper, oil and water, but maybe that’s exactly what Oscar organizers are hoping for. And, if nothing else, it looks to generate some publicity and maybe even some controversy given Baldwin’s history with social and political activism. Yet, no matter how you slice it, it’s an odd pick and left more than one or two Hollywood publicists scratching their heads in Hollywood.

So, we leave it to you. Martin (the standup comedian) and Baldwin (the actor) co-hosting the world’s top film awards. Good choice? Bad? Or somewhere in between, which in some ways would be the worst choice of all because it might not elicit any reaction. And if they were successful, could it be a new comedy team: Martin and Baldwin? Or would it be Baldwin and Martin? We’d love to be a fly on the wall in that conversation among Hollywood agents.

Fan Fare @ the Oscars: Our Live Blog

 ***Veteran showman Hugh Jackman pulled out all the stops in his first stint as Oscar host, gamely singing and dancing his way through the night’s five best picture nominees with rarely seen Broadway flair.

In the musical number that traditionally kicks off the awards ceremony, Jackman — deadpanning that the Academy had cut back on the glitz this year because of the recession — pranced between cut-outs illustrating the reverse-aging of Benjamin Button; sat at a bare-bones set of the fictional quiz show in “Slumdog Millionaire”; roped in an ostensibly bemused Anne Hathaway to recreate the “Frost/Nixon” interview; stood on a “soapbox” Milk-crate; and, finally, stood on the top ropes of a make-shift wrestling rink as paper Oscars unfurled on either side.

“Because of the recession, everything is being downsized. Next year I’ll be starring in a movie called ‘New Zealand’,” the “Australia” actor remarked just before breaking into song.

Pundits had been undecided on Jackman before the show, given the Academy’s decision not to go with a comedian. But if the standing ovation and raucous applause from his toughest critics — the royalty of Hollywood seated in the front rows — were any indication, Jackman may just pull it off.

***Ben Stiller got laughs onstage and backstage for his riff on former Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix, who is giving up acting to for rapping and should get an online Oscar for his portrayal of the “Unibomber” on David Letterman.  Natalie Portman should get a prize for keeping a straight face.

***Heath Ledger, the evening’s shoo-in, won a posthumous Oscar for his depiction of The Joker in “The Dark Knight.”

Backstage, Ledger’s mom, Sally Bell, said he would have been “quietly pleased” with the award.

Name your favorite in the Oscar movie race.

After months of watching movies, listening to punditry and seeing critics’ picks, the Oscar race has rounded the final corner and is in the home stretch. Nomination ballots are due at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this week, and the world’s top film awards will be given out on Sunday, Feb. 22, in Hollywood.

Most Oscar watchers favor ”Slumdog Millionaire” to take the best motion picture award and its director Danny Boyle to win the directing trophy. Danny gives it the thumbs up. After all, ”Slumdog” has scooped up nearly every other award in sight this Oscar season, and it is clearly a crowd pleaser with an overall U.S. box office slowly inching upward to the $100 milion mark.

But is it really the best movie? Does it have the artistry and cinematic appeal of rivals “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Frost/Nixon”? Can it match the hope and inspiration of gay themed “Milk” with Sean Penn in an award-winning performance? Is it missing the weightiness of Holocaust-era drama “The Reader” led by star Kate Winslet?

Will the popular appeal and critical success of “Slumdog,” the rags-to-riches tale of an Indian boy competing for love and money on a TV game show, be enough to sway Academy Award voters. Now may be your last chance to weigh-in here. How would you vote?