PODCAST EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Michael Hall: From ShoHawk Media, this is Filmmaking Footnote with your host Michael Hall. You’re listening to episode 4. This is the show where we give you the best filmmaking and production information so you can make the best project possible. Without having to spend a bunch of time or money at film school. Let’s do it! Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Filmmaking Footnote I’m your host Michael Hall. Thanks again for joining me for another great day.
Today we are talking about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A lot of you will know this by their shorthand they go by the Academy or as a lot of people like to call them the Oscars. so the Academy the Academy Awards the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a really interesting concept, and it’s an interesting group of people in recent years they have had some some controversy a couple years ago.
They were called out by a lot of African American actors and filmmakers for not being very inclusive of of African Americans in A, the awards process and B, nominations so as a whole. The Academy has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years and then last year in 2016 they came under scrutiny even more during the award ceremony because they accidentally handed out the the wrong the wrong best picture award or they gave the Best Picture award to the wrong group of people.
They accidentally gave it to I believe they they accidentally gave it to LaLa Land but they meant to give it to Moonlight. Now I have a lot of I have a lot of filmmaker friends and actually just friends who work in the industry or just like going to see movies for fun. And a lot of people will constantly all I hear people say who like who has the authority to actually give these movies these awards and I hear a lot of people say like, “oh these awards are meaningless” like art is subjective like you shouldn’t be giving awards on you know a subjective piece of art.
And so I wanted to give you a little background on who actually makes up the Academy where the Academy came from and why it’s actually important. So the Academy was actually started back in the 20s it was started in 1927 because at that time there was quite a few labor disputes happening in Hollywood between the unions and the the the head of MGM at the time his name was Louis B Mayer and he wanted a impartial a impartial organization to to come into these labor disputes and be able to reconcile differences between the different between the different labor the heads of labor and different labor boards so that was why the Academy was initially formed back in the in the late 20s.
They did not actually stick with labor disputes long they quickly moved away from that because unions could handle a lot of these disputes themselves but the thing that that really came out of this organization. This nonprofit organization was the idea of the Academy Awards and the idea that there needed to be a organization within Hollywood that celebrated the achievements of those involved in the filmmaking industry and community.
And it’s interesting because when you look at the roster of the people that initially made up the the founding members of the Academy Awards there’s a lot of really famous people on this list. So you look at well I said Louis B Nayor who is actually if you know something about film history he’s pretty he’s pretty famous in my opinion. Mary Pickford, Sid Grohmann, Jesse Lasky, George Cohen, Cecil B DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Cedric Gibbons, and Irving Thalberg.
That is who the Oscars.com list as the founding members of the Academy and these founding members they really recognized the need that there was in Hollywood to have, as they called it, any words of merit. So that’s where the idea of the Academy Awards really came around. Because they felt like they needed to have something in place to celebrate the artist in Hollywood. So initially the Academy was actually broken out into five main groups or branches.
And this has grown over the years, but initially the five groups were: producers, actors directors, writers, and technicians. So, like I said over the years this is this is actually grown and it’s now up to it’s now up to 17 branches of the Academy. So, we have actors as of as of 2017, we now have actors casting agents cinematographers, costume designers designers, directors, documentary, executives, film editors, makeup artists, hair stylist, music producers, public relations, short films, feature animation, sound,, visual effects, and writers.
It’s a lot.. there’s a lot of different branches in the Academy and there’s actually a lot of secrecy around who is actually chosen for the Academy. Why they’re chosen for the Academy and it actually came out in 2012 that of the of the active 5765 members the Academy at that time was 94% white 77% male and 86% aged 50 or older.
So you can see how this would be a problem and the comments a few years back about I believe that the hashtag was hashtag Oscars so white so you can see that that was actually not unfounded. And the Academy has addressed this and they said moving forward that they will they will induct more minorities and more females and this is obviously a good thing you know you want you want diversity in art celebrated so that it can be amplified to the world you know these award shows.
Like I said in the beginning a lot of my friends will say like oh the Oscars are so dumb or you know like what is the real purpose of the Academy Awards or awards shows in general and I get that I think there’s way too many award shows. But I think I think the thing with the Oscars is that it gives light to to a lot of films that wouldn’t necessarily have the marketing budget or the push behind it to reach a wider audience.
And when you have a stage like the Academy Awards where you are able to get small films with a really unique voice in front of a large group of people I think that’s a really good thing. And that’s the biggest benefit I see with the Academy Awards – is giving these small artists a much bigger platform that wouldn’t have gotten if they had just been out promoting their movie. So, in that regard from my point of view I think the Academy Awards are really important to give to give that kind of limelight to deserving artists.
And I think I think in recent years, I mean, especially since you know – I’m a young guy I’m not I’m 29 right now, and in my lifetime I think that the Academy Awards has always been about like the glitz and glamour which you know is fun. Like, I know there’s a lot of people into that but I think that at the at the true root of it is important for these for these artists to to have a bigger stage, and so that’s why I think the Academy Awards are important.
You know like we have so many film festivals and other awards shows but like once you get once you get to the Academy Awards or have your film recognized on that stage that can really do wonders for for you and your film. And if you’re a minority if or if you’re a female it’s it’s really good that they’re shifting towards getting more Academy members who are not just old white people, old white dudes. One other really interesting tidbit is that your if you if you are inducted as a member of the Academy your membership never expires.
So, if you’re inducted when you’re really young you have a lifetime membership which is really cool. And that’s that’s one of my goals I’d love to be Aca… even though I’m a white guy… I would I would still love to be in the Academy that would be that would be a really really cool goal in my life I would love to do that.
So, really quick we would love to hear from you we would really really like to engage with you guys and get no you. So if you get a moment we would love for you to head over to the the blog for the show specifically for this specifically for this episode head on over to FilmmakingFootnote.com/4 and we would love to know who was your favorite host who’s your favorite Academy Awards host I would love to know.
I won’t tell you mine on the podcast your you’ll have to go over to the comments to see who my favorite was but I would love to hear from you we will see you tomorrow. Thanks again for listening today tomorrow we’re gonna get into some camera gear. So tomorrow we’ll be talking about B camera and additional cameras and what exactly that looks like on a on a on a set, and how you can actually use additional cameras and B cameras to make a really strong project.
Thanks again for listening I’ll see you tomorrow!
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