The Oscars are always an interesting event, bringing people of all walks of life, races, creeds, and cultures from all over the world together. With bubbles of random thoughts running rampant on who may or may not be the winners, it shines forth each year as scheduled. The stress it creates can range from delirium to plain old Oscar madness. Some don’t know what an Oscar is but are drawn to the Los Angeles/Hollywood area in hopes of meeting someone who can open the door that leads to fame and fortune, not knowing what the real cost of fame and fortune is. As our cameras walked and talked to these people, who come every year no matter what to see the most important event in entertainment, we discovered they had never been to California, many of them were from out of town and other countries. I find it odd that those who live right here in Los Angeles, some near Hollywood, have no interest in what goes on in the world of entertainment whatsoever.
OSCARS 2024
Meanwhile there are a few facts about the history of the Oscars that are fun to know: Did you know that on Oscar Night 1,500 lighting instruments are used and all the electrical power is provided by LADWP? Walt Disney has earned the most awards, nominating for 64 and winning 26. Composer John Williams received the second-most nominations, with 47. Katherine Hepburn won the four Best Actress awards.
Oscars: The Rainmaker and The African Queen. Clint Eastwood won the most director Oscars with four trophies: two for best director and two for best picture for Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. Only three films have ever won all five spots at the Oscars: Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director, and Writing. It Happened One Night (1935), One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest (1976), and The Silence of the Lambs (1992). The shortest performance to win an acting award in 5 minutes and 40 seconds was Beatrice Straight in Network. The Red Carpet, according to People Magazine, is 3,000 feet long in the costume hue of red and takes six hundred man hours to install and remove. Perhaps AI can help out now that we have robots, why waste our time and energy? The carpet is cleaned on the morning of the show. More than 5,000 production staffers are needed: broadcast technicians, stagehands, associate directors, stage managers, hair-and-makeup staff, costumers, performers, singers, dancers, musicians, stand-ins, ushers, pages, catering staff, security, building staff, Motions Picture Academy staff, valets, seat fillers, and vendors. More than 200 countries air the Oscars 55 cameras are used across the Oscars pre-show, digital, and international feeds. Additionally, 12 broadcast mobile units, 20 technical support, and office trailers are used in the production, and 14 miles of fiber optic cable support the broadcast infrastructure. Overseen by a 70-person COVID-19 team 1400 PCR COVID-19 tests were administered to cast and crew members ahead of the show. The biggest memory the Oscars will be known for is the slap that was felt around the world when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock after he made a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The Academy issued a statement warning perpetrators that, in the future, violence of any kind will not be tolerated. Let us hope that it sticks and sticks hard. Although this was a recorded historical event, the negative impression that it left on an event that seemingly holds to a higher standard took the quality way down. We are hopeful that in the future, something devastatingly positive can happen to pump it back up.