Where’s Steve Stoute when you need him?<\/p>\n
So they hire Anne Hathaway and James Franco to appeal to the younger demo but end up with a traditional show that youngsters don’t care about.\u00c2\u00a0 No wonder the Oscar telecast is in trouble.<\/p>\n
To a youngster a movie is "Iron Man 2".\u00c2\u00a0 A roller coaster ride outside the home where you can make nerdy jokes with your buddies or feel up your girlfriend.\u00c2\u00a0 The concept of film as art is completely unknown to this demo, because producers have pandered to them for so many years.\u00c2\u00a0 Where are the flicks detailing teen angst? Abortion…\u00c2\u00a0 Oh right, that’s a no-no.\u00c2\u00a0 Or unrequited love?\u00c2\u00a0 Instead we get lowest common denominator tripe and that which is so broad it can play around the world, with subtitles in not only Hebrew and Arabic, but Swahili and Tongan.\u00c2\u00a0 And even the most casual fan of art knows that if you try to appeal to everybody, you end up appealing to almost nobody.<\/p>\n
In other words, the best moving pictures are on television, where it’s all about the story and special effects take a back seat.\u00c2\u00a0 There are fewer prima donnas and with lower costs and more production there are more risks.\u00c2\u00a0 This bodes poorly for theatrically distributed movies.\u00c2\u00a0 Even Harvey Weinstein realizes the jig is up, he’s now producing for television.<\/p>\n
And would "Social Network" have won if Harvey had produced it?\u00c2\u00a0 Or even the aforementioned "Iron Man 2"?\u00c2\u00a0 Insiders don’t believe the best film wins, but the best promoted.\u00c2\u00a0 And outsiders just don’t care.<\/p>\n
In other words, the Oscars are no longer mainstream.<\/p>\n
They retooled the Grammy show.\u00c2\u00a0 They got rid of the classical and made it all about pop performances, what the people want to see.\u00c2\u00a0 But the awards themselves are still confusing.\u00c2\u00a0 If Justin Bieber and Eminem are such stars, how come they don’t win?<\/p>\n
I’m not saying they deserve to win.\u00c2\u00a0 But the interesting point is the public’s perception.<\/p>\n
In music, youngsters believe most music is overproduced commercial crap.\u00c2\u00a0 But with distribution barriers so low, there’s a burgeoning indie scene.\u00c2\u00a0 Mumford & Sons not only gets on the Grammy telecast, they have one of the best-selling albums in the country.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas most people haven’t seen "The King’s Speech" and still won’t.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a circle jerk for elitists, it’s got nothing to do with me.<\/p>\n
Then there are the Golden Globes…\u00c2\u00a0 At least they know how to throw a party.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s why people tune in.\u00c2\u00a0 The awards are a joke, with only a handful of hangers-on voting.\u00c2\u00a0 But you get to see the real performers, as opposed to the gussied\/trussed up automatons walking the red carpet.\u00c2\u00a0 If people want to see clothes, they’ll tune in to Kim Kardashian.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, her clan outgrossed so many of tonight’s winners.<\/p>\n
And then there are the MTV Movie Awards.\u00c2\u00a0 They realize it’s a joke.\u00c2\u00a0 That film is all about hype and cross-promotion and prestige is for pussies.\u00c2\u00a0 They give the people what they want, not by pandering to them, but acknowledging that they’re in on the game.\u00c2\u00a0 What exactly is the Hollywood game again?<\/p>\n
Oh, it’ll be on the front page tomorrow.\u00c2\u00a0 Assuming the ancient newspapers have not gone to bed before the winners have been announced.\u00c2\u00a0 Once upon a time, baseball was the national pastime.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s football.\u00c2\u00a0 Why?\u00c2\u00a0 Because baseball got ever slower and forgot about the children, playing the World Series at night.\u00c2\u00a0 The movie business is now baseball, there’s still a lot of money to be made, but it’s a sideshow as opposed to the main event.<\/p>\n
Anne Hathaway made the most with thin material.\u00c2\u00a0 James Franco was two-dimensional.\u00c2\u00a0 Billy Crystal’s brief turn showed us that a real host realizes it’s about entertainment, being warm and connecting with the audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Is there anybody out there who doesn’t think if Billy came to dinner they could ease right into conversation?\u00c2\u00a0 What would you say to Mr. Franco?<\/p>\n
And Sandra Bullock.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody in creation knows about her marital mistake yet the writers have Anne Hathaway say she’s a beacon pointing the way?\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?\u00c2\u00a0 Talk about laughable moments.<\/p>\n
And Francis Ford Coppola makes the biggest and bestest movie of the modern era, sorry James Cameron and Steven Spielberg, but he doesn’t even get a chance to talk on camera?\u00c2\u00a0 We could learn something from a guy who made "The Godfather", which still plays seemingly every day and is part of the national fabric, which "King’s Speech" will never be.<\/p>\n
And "The Social Network" couldn’t be more now.\u00c2\u00a0 But kids didn’t go to see it.\u00c2\u00a0 Because they haven’t been trained to see this kind of picture, one that challenges them, one that makes them think.\u00c2\u00a0 And the problem is not the kids, but the industry.\u00c2\u00a0 Just like a music industry that purveys beat-infused crap and wonders where the audience went.<\/p>\n
The music business has been decimated by technology and is now being rebuilt by passionate people who don’t put the bottom line first.\u00c2\u00a0 Next came the news business.\u00c2\u00a0 Now comes the movie industry.<\/p>\n
It’s out of touch.\u00c2\u00a0 It wants to be lowest common denominator and high brow at the same time.\u00c2\u00a0 It talks out of both sides of its mouth.\u00c2\u00a0 And as a result, no one takes it seriously anymore.<\/p>\n
Oh, senior citizens still go, like lemmings to the mall in "Dawn Of The Dead".\u00c2\u00a0 But fewer baby boomers are addicted, because they remember 1969, with "Easy Rider", "Midnight Cowboy" and "Alice’s Restaurant", and just won’t go to see crap.<\/p>\n
Yes, the kids will see crap.\u00c2\u00a0 But if there was a way to have the same experience at home, without prying parents, they’d give up the overpriced cinema in a minute.<\/p>\n
You think the public is not smart?\u00c2\u00a0 Then why are they abandoning 3-D at such a speedy rate?<\/p>\n
You can never lose betting on quality.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially today, when people know something is good instantly via modern communication techniques.\u00c2\u00a0 And this year’s winners were all good, it’s just they were not in pictures that appealed to the younger generation.<\/p>\n
Just like hit music is no longer something you live or die for, but something you bump asses to in a club, movies are disposable.\u00c2\u00a0 And we suffer for it.\u00c2\u00a0 Because when something is truly great, it’s transcendent.<\/p>\n
And never believe you can’t be mainstream and great.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at those Michael Jackson albums, "Off The Wall" and "Thriller".<\/p>\n
But Michael could sing and Quincy could produce and they used the best players available after sifting through a ton of numbers to get the right material.<\/p>\n
You can do it.\u00c2\u00a0 You can create great mainstream art.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s hard.\u00c2\u00a0 And failures are usually complete.\u00c2\u00a0 You either make history or are forgotten.<\/p>\n
The Oscars have lost touch.<\/p>\n
And if Harvey Weinstein is proud and laughing right now I’m crying and disgusted.\u00c2\u00a0 I remember being addicted to the movies.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only going every weekend, but every night!\u00c2\u00a0 That was the thrill of living in L.A., the sheer plethora of films to see!<\/p>\n
And the artists shooting for the stars.\u00c2\u00a0 Speaking to me.<\/p>\n
Now they shoot for the gutter and they don’t care about me.<\/p>\n
Oh, sometimes they do.<\/p>\n
But infrequently.<\/p>\n
I’m looking for that amazing visceral experience.\u00c2\u00a0 And now more than ever it comes online from a younger generation putting excellence in front of remuneration, unlike their parents.<\/p>\n
Yes, tonight’s telecast was your father’s Oscar show.\u00c2\u00a0 Why would you want to watch that?<\/p>\n
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Where’s Steve Stoute when you need him? So they hire Anne Hathaway and James Franco to appeal to the younger demo but end up with a traditional show that youngsters don’t care about.\u00c2\u00a0 No wonder the Oscar telecast is in trouble. To a youngster a movie is "Iron Man 2".\u00c2\u00a0 A roller coaster ride outside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,2,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movies","category-music-business","category-television"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-10F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3885"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3888,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3885\/revisions\/3888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}