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 Tony to Oscar and back?

Has Tony really turned into Oscar? True, last night’s Tony Awards didn’t feel that far from the Oscars. There were the hoards of screaming fans outside, the red carpet filled with stars like Scarlett Johansson and Will Smith. And the backstage media room where winners are wheeled in breathless and smiling for an impromptu press conference.

But for all the talk that the Tony’s are going all Hollywood, perhaps they are not. For starters, some of Hollywood’s A-List don’t take America’s highest theater honors as seriously as the Oscars. Some, like best actor nominated Jude Law who was a long shot to win, was nowhere to be seen. Others, like first-time Tony Award winners Scarlett Johansson and Catherine Zeta-Jones, did not bother going backstage to speak to the press afterwards.

And if any Tony organizers thought the presence of more stars than ever at the awards would guarantee better ratings, it wasn’t to be. The Tony’s broke a streak of award shows improving on their ratings this year by dropping 8 per cent in viewership from last year. The show’s roughly 7 million viewers fell far short of the number of  basketball fans watching the Los Angeles Lakers lose to the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association’s championship series.

And, as yet there are no confirmed, big-name Hollywood actors announced for Broadway shows for the rest if this year (Unless you count T.R. Knight, we don’t.  ‘Harry Potter’ star Daniel Radcliffe is confirmed to return to the Great White Way — next year.)

Still, it is hard to imagine Broadway giving up on the approach it has taken straight from Tinseltown: get a star actor on board and bet the seats fill quicker. Too bad if a smaller name actor is better. And again last night, Tony voters chose mainstream commercial ventures over more innovative productions, with the classical musical “Memphis” edging out the more daring “Fela!”

Time will tell if Broadway goes or more or less Hollywood on us. Predictions?

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 .

Oscar beckons Sarah Palin … for shopping.

(Reporting by Zorianna Kit)

What a difference a year makes! Last year, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was catching flak for her shopping habits during her 2008 campaign. This year, she’s strolling around Hollywood’s Oscar gift suites with family members having items given to her — leopard print sandals to match her leopard print jacket, for instance.

The morning after her appearance on “The Tonight Show”, and amid reports she was in Hollywood talking to TV executives about a possible TV show (see below and here on the blog), the former Alaska Governor turned up at the Silver Spoon gifting suite in West Hollywood with daughter Willow, grandson Trip and an entourage of about seven people, according to the suite’s organizers.

The gifting suites, in case you don’t know, are set up by merchants to promote their products during Hollywood’s Oscar week when the town is filled with A-list  celebrities. The idea is to have your product photographed or in some way associated with a celebrity and, as a result, people will want to buy it. And who better to help sell a product than politician-turned-celebrity Palin?

So, what did Palin get? Well, right from the start she wrote a check for $1,750 to the American Red Cross, which was collecting donations at the suite for Haitian relief. “That was the first thing she did before even checking in and saying ‘hello,’” said The Silver Spoon’s Lorena Bendinskas. She said suite organizers had invited Palin because she had been a big supporter of the Red Cross. Notably, Palin and her entourage came and left before the suite opened officially on Wednesday morning.

Then, Palin and family got down to the business of shopping — Oscar style. They went to each vendor and were “gifted” items including hats and sunglasses by Perry Ellis, Jenna Leigh Lingerie, Stone candles, Wembe soaps, skincare products from Bloom.com and eyelash condition from Lash food. Stopping at fashion line C&C California, she picked out a tanktop for daughter Willow. At Bandals Footwear, she found those leopard sandals to match her jacket, and she seemed especially excited about Danish-designed Aiaiai headphones for traveling and exercise.

Meanwhile, on its Hollywood Insider blog late Wednesday night, Entertainment Weekly magazine reported that Palin and reality TV producer Mark Burnett have been making the rounds of Hollywood production houses and TV networks pitching a TV docudrama about Alaska. Several reports described it as a Planet Earth-type look at the state from Palin’s point-of-view. You can read about it here.

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.

“Project Runway” — Oscar style

Heidi Klum won’t be hosting and Tim Gunn won’t be telling designers to “make it work,” as he does on hit fashion TV show “Project Runway,” but it will have all the glitz and glamor that Oscar and Hollywood can provide. And that’s a lot of glitz and glamor.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday unveiled a competition among nine “up-and-coming fashion designers” in which one lucky winner will see their gown worn by one of the Academy Award escorts — the models who bring the little golden boys onstage to hand to winners — on Oscar night, March 7.

The designers unveiled their gowns for the media on Tuesday, and you can see a couple of them here. People can vote at Oscar.com. Ballot collecting ends on March 1, and from March 3 through March 8 the Academy is hosting its own Web series, “Oscars Designer Challenge: Behind the Dress,” documenting the competition.

The designers in “Oscars Designer Challenge 2010” are Fernanda Carneiro, Los Angeles; Elda De La Rosa, Chicago; Ivy Higa, New York; Phong Hong, Los Angeles; Rania Salibi, Phoenix; Oday Shakar, Los Angeles; Ari Sheuhmelian, Los Angeles; Oliver Tolentino, Los Angeles; and Kelsy Zimba, New York. Photos are by Reuters’ photographer Mario Anzuoni.

“Twilight” stars Stewart, Lautner grab Oscar spotlight

Call it Oscar’s equivalent of hiring a really good Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon to nip a wrinkle here and tuck a chin there.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday said four of today’s hottest young actors and actresses — Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron — will be presenters at this year’s ceremony for the world’s top film honors on March 7.

The Oscars have long been the arena of mostly veteran actors and actresses, and that is one reason — albeit not the only reason — the telecast is considered by some to be out-of-touch with mainstream moviegoers who tend to be mostly young. We aren’t so sure that piece of conventional Hollywood wisdom is true, but we do know that when box office hits like  the “Lord of the Rings” movies get a lot of nominations, more people tune in to the telecast than when low-budget dramas such as “No Country for Old Men” walk off with the best movie prize. We also know that “Lord of the Rings” was aimed mostly at young audiences and “No Country” at adults.

So, very likely in an effort to spur young audiences to tune-in, Oscar organizers have signed up the foursome to present. All good, but we’d offer that maybe they didn’t have to. Action adventure “Avatar,” the biggest box office hit of all time, is among the most-nominated films and it, too, was targeted mostly at young audiences.