Awards Season 2020

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felipe
Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 11:06 pm

Re: Awards Season 2020

#526 Post by felipe » Thu Apr 29, 2021 12:02 pm

This is all new to me. I had no idea that so many people don't have access to network TV in the US.

That being said, at least here in Brazil, it's also a thing that many people, specially younger, that live broadcasts of people covering the Oscars, instead of watching the actual Oscars. You'll find many of those here on YouTube and now even TikTok, some of them heavily promoted and sponsored by cable channels.

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Toland's Mitchell
Joined: Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:42 pm

Re: Awards Season 2020

#527 Post by Toland's Mitchell » Sun May 02, 2021 8:57 pm

To piggy-back off TWBB's post about ordinary people defaulting to what's conveniently in front of them, I find this concept also applies to accessing this year's BP field. Just to stream the nominees this year, you needed to have access to HBO Max, Prime, Hulu, and Netflix. It's reasonable to assume not everybody has all these services. Then again, there is the VOD option, where customers can pay a variable sum depending on the title for a 24-hr rental. However, from what I've noticed, many people don't do that. I think there exists a comfort zone TWBB mentioned with audiences and their streaming services. They prefer to spend their nights and weekends exploring the libraries of shows and films available on the services they pay for, rather than pay extra for a film that is not. Consequently, I think audiences were largely unfamiliar with this year's slate of nominees, even more so this year than previous.

This redirects to other points made about the saturation and fragmentation of the entertainment industry, which I agree decreases the cultural importance of the film medium and the prestige of the awards. And I'm not sure what the Academy and ABC can do at this point. I agree additional viewing outlets would help. Maybe have it stream on YouTube or Netflix simultaneously with the ABC telecast. Still, if the slate of nominees don't generate much interest, the show won't generate much interest. I think more broadly-appealing nominees would be a bigger help going forward. 2020 was admittedly tough in that regard given the external circumstances, and the ratings this year should be taken with a grain of salt. I still highly doubt they'll ever recapture their 2014 modern-day high-water mark, but they need to change up something if they still want to be around and somewhat relevant in the coming years. By the way, I missed all but the last 20 minutes of the show due to work last Sunday, what was it that made this year's show especially awful?
Last edited by Toland's Mitchell on Mon May 03, 2021 12:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

felipe
Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 11:06 pm

Re: Awards Season 2020

#528 Post by felipe » Sun May 02, 2021 11:36 pm

Toland's Mitchell wrote:
Sun May 02, 2021 8:57 pm
By the way, I missed all but the last 20 minutes of the show due to work last Sunday, what was it that made this year's show especially awful?
It wasn't much of a show actually. They were just handing out the awards one after the other, with nothing but long introductions and even longer acceptance speeches.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Awards Season 2020

#529 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri May 07, 2021 12:16 am

Soderbergh discusses Oscar ceremony, defends choices

It's a very brief interview and worth a read, I appreciate his reasoning even if I don't agree with all of it

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soundchaser
Leave Her to Beaver
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2016 12:32 am

Re: Awards Season 2020

#530 Post by soundchaser » Fri May 07, 2021 1:06 am

This is a perfect example of the road to Hell being paved with good intentions — his reasoning for switching the order of the awards was exactly what we’d suspected, and it backfired spectacularly. His reason for cutting out clips and focusing on the nominees themselves feels noble, but it had exactly the opposite effect from what he intended: it made the industry feel even *more* insular than ever before, with these stars pretending to be totally familiar with each others’ lives and attendees visibly bristling at questions like “who got started on short films?” failing to get any sort of response.

I do think if Soderbergh is brought on again for next year he needs to do some serious soul-searching about how his choices actually came across on-screen. Especially as he says this was an opportunity to try things differently and see what worked...and then refuses to acknowledge that some things didn’t.

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Brian C
I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Awards Season 2020

#531 Post by Brian C » Fri May 07, 2021 1:14 am

To steal a bit from one of his own movies, there's just one thing I don't understand. And the thing I don't understand is every motherfucking word he just said.

Like this:
You have to understand this show was very much viewed by us and by the academy as an opportunity to try some really different stuff. And the understanding was always, there are going to be some things that work and some things that don’t, things that people like, things that people don’t. That’s the point.
This makes it sound like there essentially was no reasoning behind the choices they made - that it was all essentially arbitrary, and who cares if it works or not.
Same with this:
[Changing the order of the awards] was something we were going to do well before the nominations came out — we talked about that in January. It’s our belief — that I think is not unfounded — that actors’ speeches tend to be more dramatic than producers’ speeches. And so we thought it might be fun to mix it up, especially if people didn’t know that was coming. So that was always part of the plan.
Oh. It "might be fun". Because actors' speeches "tend to be more dramatic". But why does that lead to the conclusion to change the order? Why would it matter if people knew it was coming or not? None of these thoughts have anything to do with one another! They're just arbitrarily strung along. He sounds like some addled corporate marketing guy trying to justify Poochie the dog.
I like the stories. I like knowing more about the nominees. I think that grounds the industry in some sort of reality and makes it clear to people that the majority of the workers don’t come from L.A. and New York, don’t have connections to the entertainment industry and that there is not a firewall between the cast and the crew, that everybody is very much working together. And that the experience of making a film is not siloed the way I think some people believe.
Huh?

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Awards Season 2020

#532 Post by therewillbeblus » Fri May 07, 2021 1:38 am

soundchaser wrote:
Fri May 07, 2021 1:06 am
His reason for cutting out clips and focusing on the nominees themselves feels noble, but it had exactly the opposite effect from what he intended: it made the industry feel even *more* insular than ever before, with these stars pretending to be totally familiar with each others’ lives
This is exactly what I had in mind as well. Soderbergh likes to experiment and I believe he is not only comfortable with creating something that doesn't land for others, but gets a high from sculpting something novel that appeals to him as his audience. He's also able to rationalize his choices because he puts significant thought into them, but that doesn't mean his own logic applies in actuality to the masses. I don't know, this was probably the worst Oscars yet, but I like the Oscars the usual way, I like (most) hosts, I like wacky acceptance speeches- with Phoenix's from last year being one of my favorite ever (don't throw the tomatoes!)- but Soderbergh's director speech is still my favorite so I'll forgive him for this atrocity. I will never forget being a kid rooting for Traffic at the ceremony, and not only being thrilled to see him win, but bowled over as he dedicated his award to everyone who creates something. It was so humble of him, and validating for an anxious kid who wanted to be a director like him but had self-doubt, to just pause for a moment and remember that thinking and writing and creating was 'enough' and meaningful on its own.

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