I wish I could bring myself to watch the Academy Awards. Unfortunately, just as I became disillusioned to the bearded fat man who brought me my Christmas presents, I’ve also become disillusioned to the [bearded] [fat] men [and women] who bring me my list of honorable films each year. I don’t know them personally, but personally I could teach them a few things about merit.
Year after year my perception of the Academy Awards becomes more and more like my perception of The X-Files or Lost--a convoluted mess of decisions that no one agrees with or understands (and everyone wishes all three would have called it quits years earlier). In fact, the only difference between the three is that the results of the Academy Awards leave me feeling more confused and upset.
This year I believe I speak for everyone when I cry, “Where the heck is The Dark Knight!?”
It isn’t necessary to divulge the reasons for which The Dark Knight is deserving of Best Picture (or at least the nomination!), but its absence is a perfect example of the prejudiced traditions of those who make up the Academy. Specifically, I’m talking about the fact that The Dark Knight is tied for third in number of nominations this year, yet finds itself absent from the nominations for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Picture. The three other films are nominated for all four of these awards.
I can’t be the only one who finds it odd that The Dark Knight accidentally excelled in all of its nominated fields. I say accidentally because obviously the Academy didn’t think Christopher Nolan had anything to do with the excellence, otherwise how could they have left him off the list of Best Directors? What were the other directors nominated for?
It was in 1999 that my eyes were first opened to this irrational behavior from the Academy. American Beauty had won Best Picture and it followed with four other wins. The Matrix, lacking nominations in any of the four ‘prestigious’ categories, rounded up four other awards to make it second only to American Beauty that year. Then last year, No Country For Old Men won Best Picture and three other awards, while The Bourne Ultimatum rounded up all three awards it was nominated for (again none of which were ‘prestigious’). Is it possible that most films are either well acted and written, or well achieved technically--never the twain shall meet? What exactly is an awards ceremony worth that awards films that are only half-baked?
Other recent anomalies included Spielberg’s directing win for Saving Private Ryan while Best Picture went to Shakespeare in Love. Russell Crowe won for Gladiator after being snuffed the year before for his far superior performance in The Insider. Martin Scorcese recently won for The Departed which most will agree was among the least deserving of his pictures (he should have won in 2004 for The Aviator, but the award went to Clint Eastwood because the Academy just seems to love the guy).
How exactly does a film get nominated for Best Picture without its director (this happens all too often)? And how does a film achieve such technical nominations without its director? Or without the rest of the film? What’s being rewarded?
Let’s just say it--the Academy didn’t give the nominations to The Dark Knight because it was a comic book movie. It didn’t give the nominations to The Matrix because it was a sci-fi/action film. It didn’t give the award to Scorcese for The Aviator because Clint Eastwood was there (to apologize it gave him the award the next time around even with Clint there). “If you’re a sci-fi/comic book movie, it’s okay for you to receive the technical nominations,” sounds a little like “If you’re black it’s okay for you to ride in the back of the bus.” In a year when others grew out of ridiculous traditions and rose to the stature necessary to elect a black president, I’d hoped we’d see the close minded traditions of the Academy set aside, but it wasn’t to be. Apparently the only films worth mentioning each year are the ones that don’t carry our imaginations too far from reality--and, of course, they’ve been handled by Clint Eastwood.
I sure wish I could bring myself to watch the Academy Awards, but I’ve got some episodes of Lost to catch up with, and I think I’ll be able to follow them better.
The Trials of Young Werther
This is the last film whose creative process I was a part of. A little more impressive than Snap in its quick creation, I made this film in only about 3 hours from beginning to end with a crew of only two. There was myself and then there was Tracy. If you look closely you can see the light meter on his hip in some of the scenes. This was all shot on film as an experiment. We wanted to see if we could shoot a film linearly that would come back ready to show--without any editing. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the intricacies of film, that is crazy. Tracy kept telling me I was crazy, but it worked. I started to doubt myself, but I didn't have any choice after I'd started. I was blown away though, and so was the rest of my class, when it came back working. Since then it has seen some minor editing to make it flow better, but if any one is interested I guess some time I could post the original so you can see how it all threw down.
Snap
This was the very first film I ever seriously made (which does infer that I made some other less quality films that, while teaching me a lot, are not suitable for mass disclosure). It was for a contest and so the entire thing was made from conception through the finished product in 24 hours. I was fortunate enough to get a great team to work with me and it was, sadly, the last time the four of us ever worked together. But what do you care about all this? If you have questions just ask me in a comment or shoot me an email.
The Cools
I am in this film (to my chagrin). I did some sound for it. Mainly, however, this was the one and only time I have operated as production designer. All the effects and craziness at the beginning I designed. The look throughout the rest of the film was also my design (film stock and lighting aside). I had a good time with it. Especially if you knew the budget I had and the size of my crew. But in any case, it's a good looking film.
P.S. I baked the cornbread you see at the beginning--from scratch.
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