Photographers Blog

By Mario Anzuoni

I was assigned to cover this year’s MTV Movie Awards. These awards are voted by audiences online and besides some of the traditional awards, they also give out unique ones, such as: the “best on-screen dirtbag,” the “best kiss” and “best fight” award.

The challenging part of the assignment was that my position was in a regular audience seat on the main floor, in a show that has much audience participation and standing up. It translated in me free handling the 400mm lens to get a clear shot, past the standing crowd.

Witty, British humor was provided by actor and comedian Russell Brand who hosted the show. Jennifer Aniston was the first to be recognized as the “best on-screen dirtbag.”

Emma Watson accepted an award on behalf of the cast of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2″ for “best cast,” while Kristen Stewart accepted “best picture” on behalf of the cast of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1.”

The awards lineup was punctuated by cameo appearances by Charlie Sheen, the cast of “The Dark Knight Rises,” and Charlize Theron.

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.

View an audio slideshow from the Venice Film Festival here.