Oscars 2012: A hit in social media

 

Although the 84th Annual Academy Awards came across decidedly old school in its television broadcast, the event delivered high marks in new media. 

Sunday's Oscar ceremony generated 3.8 million comments on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, according to data generated by Cambridge, Mass.-based Bluefin Labs. That made this year's awards show the second most talked-about entertainment event on TV since the company began measuring and analyzing social media traffic several years ago.

CBS' telecast of the Grammy Awards this month was the undisputed champ with 13 million social media comments. The third most popular awards event was last year's MTV Video Music Awards with 3.1 million comments, according to Bluefin Labs.

The ABC television network, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and advertisers stepped up their social media campaigns promoting the Oscars this year, in large part, to keep the TV ratings high. Their efforts appeared to have paid off with Nielsen's estimates that more than 39 million viewers tuned in -- an increase of 1.4 million people compared with last year's show. 

Comments on social media sites surrounding Sunday's ceremony and red carpet arrivals surged nearly 300% over last year's gala. In 2011, there were fewer than 1 million comments. The trend suggests that more people are turning to social media outlets while watching TV by using a "second screen" -- a tablet, smartphone or laptop computer -- to stay connected to their friends and followers who are also watching TV.

Bluefin Labs' analysis found that the gender breakdown for the social media pundits was roughly in line with the composition of the TV audience. An estimated 57% of those who commented were women; men made up 43%.

It was more difficult to ascertain the mood of commenters. Bluefin found that 22% of the comments about the Oscars were positive, 16% negative and 62% neutral.

Peaks in the social media traffic came at somewhat predictable intervals.  The most talked-about moment came at the end of the evening when the nearly silent film, "The Artist," won for best picture. The second most popular portion was the presentation of three awards by Tina Fey and Bradley Cooper -- two crowd-pleasing comedians particularly popular with the social media demographic. 

The pair was on screen several minutes, presenting honors for film editing, won by "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," and sound editing and sound mixing, both won by Martin Scorsese's 3-D family film "Hugo."

Octavia Spencer's emotional acceptance speech for supporting actress for her performance in "The Help" was the third most popular highlight in social media. Remarks about Spencer ranked highest in terms of "most positive." 

And even though, at age 82, Christopher Plummer would seem to be well beyond the Facebook demographic, his win for supporting actor in "Beginners" registered as the fourth most buzzed-about Oscar moment. 

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-- Meg James

Photo: Octavia Spencer, escorted by Christian Bale, after Spencer's win for supporting actress for her performance in "The Help." Credit:  Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

 

Kodak name to disappear from Academy Awards theater

Bankrupt camera and film giant Eastman Kodak Co. won court approval on Wednesday to remove its name from the Hollywood theater that houses the Academy Awards.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Allan Gropper rejected the effort by landlord CIM/H&H Media to compel Kodak to continue with a 20-year sponsorship offer signed in 2000, worth an estimated $72 million, representatives for the two companies confirmed.

The Kodak Theatre opened at the Hollywood & Highland shopping complex in November 2001 and has since housed 10 Oscar ceremonies, as well as other events including the ESPY Awards and the resident Cirque du Soleil show "Iris."

Kodak sought to cancel the agreement, under which it paid approximately $3.6 million a year, to save money following its January filing for Chapter 11 reorganization.

Left undetermined by Gropper is how quickly the Kodak name and signage will be removed from the theater. The camera company had sought to do so immediately, but CIM claimed in an earlier court filing that doing so before the Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 26 is "not practically feasible."

Meanwhile, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has considered moving the Oscars ceremony to the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles beginning in 2014. An academy spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

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On location: Oscar contender: "The Artist" gives a shout-out to Los Angeles

— Ben Fritz

Photo: Preparations for the 2006 Oscars outside the Kodak Theatre. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times.

On Location: Oscar contender 'The Artist' gives shout-out to L.A.

As a front-runner to win top honors in the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony, “The Artist” is a rarity. Not only is it in black and white, almost entirely silent and a French director's take on old Hollywood, it is the only movie among the nine best picture nominees filmed entirely in Los Angeles.

The 1960s civil rights drama “The Help,” another potential favorite for best picture, was shot in Mississippi; “The Descendants,” starring George Clooney, was filmed in Hawaii; and Martin Scorsese's “Hugo,” a whimsical tale about the early days of cinema, was produced mainly on a soundstage in the United Kingdom. “Moneyball,” starring Brad Pitt as Oakland A's General Manager Billy Beane, was filmed in Oakland and various L.A. locations, including Dodger Stadium.

Only “The Artist,” however, filmed exclusively locally, giving star treatment to iconic Hollywood locations -- from downtown L.A.'s historic movie palace the Orpheum Theatre to the Hancock Park mansion where Mary Pickford once lived -- at a time when many productions are leaving the state for cheaper locales. The $14-million picture released by the Weinstein Co. took the top prize at the Directors Guild of America Awards on Saturday and a day later at the Screen Actors Guild Awards garnered lead actor honors for Jean Dujardin, who plays silent film star George Valentin.

PHOTOS: Where were the Oscar best picture contenders filmed?

“The Artist was not just a love letter to silent cinema, but to the city of Los Angeles as well," director Michel Hazanavicius said recently at the Critics Choice Movie Awards, where the film picked up four awards including best picture.

The L.A. City Council returned some of the love Tuesday when it presented Hazanavicius and other cast and crew members from the “The Artist” with its first “Made in Hollywood” honor. The city proclaimed Tuesday “The Artist Day” in a ceremony at Red Studios on North Cahuenga Boulevard, which represented Kinograph Studios in the movie.

The city's elation is understandable. Relatively few big feature films still shoot in Los Angeles, especially Academy Award winners and nominees. Since 1973, only about 20 best picture nominees, including Roman Polanski’s 1974 movie “Chinatown,” Steven Spielberg’s 1982 classic “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” and “Seabiscuit,” shot primarily on locations in the L.A. area (excluding animated movies or those filmed mainly on soundstages), according to an awards data base from the online movie ticket service Fandango.

If “The Artist” wins, it would be the first best picture Oscar winner since “Crash” that was filmed mainly in L.A. Prior to that was Clint Eastwood’s 2004 winner “Million Dollar Baby” and 1999's “American Beauty,” which ended a two-decade-plus drought following “Rocky” in 1976.

Woody Allen’s 1977 movie “Annie Hall” filmed partially in L.A., but it was hardly a flattering portrait of the city. When actress Diane Keaton’s character Annie Hall remarks about the cleanliness of L.A., her big-screen lover Alvy Singer (Allen) replies: “That’s because they don’t throw their garbage away, they turn it into television.”

Why the paucity of L.A.-based Oscar nominees and winners? The obvious explanation is runaway production. Filmmakers continue to flock to states such as Louisiana, Georgia and New York and foreign cities such as Vancouver and London to take advantage of film tax credits and rebates.

Best picture contenders “Hugo,” “The Descendants” and “The Help” all benefited from out-of-state film tax credits. (“Moneyball” received a California film tax credit; “The Artist” applied for one but did not receive it as the credits are doled out by lottery).

Another factor may be the tendency of Academy voters to favor movies shot in unfamiliar places far way from L.A., where most of them live.

“It may just be a subconscious thing,’’ said Chuck Walton, editor in chief for Fandango. “The Academy’s choices tend to be films that take you on a journey, outside the L.A. comfort zone. With `The Artist’, everything old feels new again -- it’s classic L.A., but re-envisioned through French eyes.”

Producers of “The Artist” had considered shooting the movie in Eastern Europe to take advantage of lower costs, but Hazanavicius insisted on filming in L.A., using classic Hollywood locations including the Bradbury Building on South Broadway downtown, Fremont Place in Hancock Park, Cicada Restaurant downtown on Olive Street and the American Film Institute near Griffith Park.

“The initial thought was we should shoot some of these iconic locations in L.A. and film everything else in Romania or Bulgaria,’’ said Richard Middleton, an executive producer on “The Artist.” “Then we thought, ‘This is crazy.’ If the end result is that people laugh at the movie because it’s not the Hollywood that people have in their minds' eye, it’s a waste of money.”

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Photo: A scene from "The Artist" filmed at the Bradbury Building on South Broadway. Credit: the Weinstein Co.

Where the cameras roll

Sample of neighborhoods with permitted TV, film and commercial shoots scheduled this week. Permits are subject to last-minute changes. Sources: FilmL.A. Inc., cities of Beverly Hills, Santa Clarita and Pasadena. Thomas Suh Lauder / Los Angeles Times

The Morning Fix: More trouble at OWN! Netflix on rebound?

After the coffee. Before another long day in court.

The Skinny: Hollywood makes being a lawyer seem so glamorous, but watching the Golden Globes trial for a few days will clear that image right up. It's hard work and long hours and lots of standing and no coffee allowed. I don't know how they do it. Thursday's headlines include more trouble at OWN, how electronic voting is coming for the Oscars, and a look at this year's Sundance "It" girl.

The Daily Dose: One question still not answered in the aftermath of Lion Gate's plans to merge with Summit Entertainment is what happens to the latter's deal to sell its movies to HBO. Lions Gate is a partner in Epix, a smaller pay cable channel that competes with HBO. Summit signed a five-year deal with HBO that starts next year. People familiar with the matter think Summit will not try to break the contract with HBO since it is guaranteed revenue for its movies. Still, down the road it may get tricky to determine what (besides a "Twilight" movie) qualifies as a Summit movie that should go to HBO.

Will the last one leaving OWN turn out the lights? OWN, the cable network started by Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications, continues to struggle both on air and behind the scenes. On Wednesday, Lisa Erspamer, a top production executive at the network and a longtime member of Winfrey's inner circle, was shown the door, the latest in a string of high-profile departures at the network. Meanwhile, the talk show starring Rosie O'Donnell, which was OWN's big and expensive bet, is generating no heat in the ratings. O'Donnell has gone rogue off air, canning much of the staff of ex-Winfrey workers and abandoning the glitzy and expensive set that was built for her show in favor of a much smaller set that looks to me more like something one would see on a cheesy cable access channel. The details on Erspamer's abrupt departure and OWN's other headaches from Deadline Hollywood.

Some good news for a change. Netflix saw its subscriber and revenue numbers grow in the fourth quarter of 2011, which led investors to push the company's stock price up 13% in after-hours trading. However, profits were still off 13% compared with the fourth quarter of 2010. A look at the numbers from the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal.

Going electric. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is moving ahead with plans to launch an electronic voting system and do away with paper Oscar ballots for its members. Fear not, those accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers will continue to be in charge of counting the votes. The Hollywood Reporter says the move could have "far-reaching implications" for awards season.

Katie's comeback. Former "Today" and "CBS Evening News" anchor Katie Couric was down in Miami earlier this week meeting with television executives at an industry convention to promote her new talk show, which debuts this fall. Couric is banking on the vacancy created by Oprah Winfrey's departure from daytime. USA Today chats with Couric on what her show will be like.

Trading Martha for Marie. Hallmark Channel, which is dropping its association with lifestyle diva Martha Stewart, is close to a deal with Marie Osmond that will see the former teen star host a show for the cable channel, says the New York Post.

Inside the Los Angles Times: Gina Rodriguez is this year's Sundance "It" girl. It's a high-profile gig but it doesn't always turn into a long-term career. After threatening to close down, the motion picture nursing home is going to stay open and add new patients.

-- Joe Flint

Follow me on Twitter: It's where we pretend to know each other. Twitter.com/JBFlint

Photo: Oprah Winfrey. Credit: Prakash Singh/AFP.

ABC and motion picture academy unveil updated Oscars app

Behind-the-scenes moments of the 84th Academy Awards ceremony Feb. 26 will once again be coming to multiple screens near you.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, together with Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Television Group, have updated the Oscars app they introduced last awards season that brings video from the red carpet, backstage and the Governors Ball to portable Apple Inc. devices.

Tuesday's announcement coincides with this morning's unveiling of the 2012 Oscar nominations.

Enhanced features include new ways to experience Hollywood's biggest event of the year from the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. Viewers will have two ways to view the goings on: in a "watch" mode that provides a guided multi-camera tour of the Oscars, or a "direct" mode that enables viewers to choose their own camera angle.

One pre-show component offers access to awards buzz on Twitter and video from last year's show and original video, plus photos.

"Our team really listened to what fans had to say last year, and made a huge effort to build on the things that worked and make them even better," Karin Gilford, senior vice president of digital media for ABC.com, said in a statement.

The Oscars app is an attempt to hold onto viewers who already use a tablet, smartphone or laptop computer to check their email, surf the Web or post to social media sites while watching TV shows. Its content is designed to complement the live telecast.

ABC sister division Walt Disney Studios is competing for best picture in this year's Oscar race with two movies it distributed for DreamWorks, "War Horse" and "The Help." 

However, Disney's Pixar Animation Studios did not receive a best animated feature nomination for "Cars 2" -- the first time an eligible Pixar movie has been snubbed by the Academy since the animation category was created in 2001.

Pixar's "La Luna" did garner a best animated short film nomination Tuesday.

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Image: The Oscars app. Credit: Disney/ABC Television Group

Oscars 2012: 'The Artist' online ticket sales boosted by noms

The fabled "Oscar bump" is already looking real for "The Artist."

Ticket sales for the Weinstein Co.'s black-and-white, largely silent film, which received 10 Academy Award nominations including best picture, jumped 190% on Web retailer Fandango.com in the five hours following the announcement of the nominations Tuesday morning.

Also getting a boost was the George Clooney drama "The Descendants," which received six nominations, including best picture, and sold 65% more tickets than during the same five-hour period Monday morning.

Not every movie benefited from the academy's attention, however. Despite receiving 11 nominations, more than any other film, the Martin Scorsese-directed 3-D family film "Hugo" didn't see any immediate increase in ticket sales on Fandango.

Of course, "Hugo" has also proved the most popular of those three movies, taking in $55.9 million to date. "The Descendants" is close behind with $51.3 million.

But "The Artist" has grossed only $12.1 million thus far, meaning there are a lot more potential moviegoers who haven't yet seen it.

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Photo: Bérénice Bejo in "The Artist." Credit: Peter Iovino / Weinstein Co.

Will Ratner flap hurt his Hollywood career?

With the ouster of Brett Ratner as producer for the 84th Academy Awards telecast, the question now is whether his insensitive remarks will damage his film career.

Ratner submitted his resignation from the Oscar gig Tuesday to Tom Sherak, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, after making an anti-gay slur at a weekend screening of his movie "Tower Heist," and confiding disturbing details about his sex life on Monday's "The Howard Stern Show." 

In a statement Tuesday, Ratner apologized, calling his remarks "ugly and bigoted' and adding, "I deeply regret my actions and I am determined to learn from this experience."

Notwithstanding his contrition, Ratner's comments could damage his career. One of Hollywood's top filmmakers, having directed blockbusters like "Rush Hour" and "X-Men: The Last Stand," Ratner was recently tapped to direct the upcoming DreamWorks SKG's film "The 39 Clues," a live-action adaptation of the successful young adult Scholastic Media book series.

Jeff Nathanson, who had worked with Ratner on the "Rush Hour" movies, wrote the screenplays for the DreamWorks film, which is still in development, and for Ratner's "Tower Heist," the action comedy starring Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller that had a soft opening last weekend. Nathanson was also one of the writers working with Ratner on the Oscar telecast. 

A spokesman for DreamWorks declined to say whether the flap over Ratner's anti-gay slur would affect his job as director of "The 39 Clues" but added: "We are impressed with the sincerity of his apology and his willingness to give up something so important in order to underscore the weight of his apology."

It wouldn't be the first time a prominent Hollywood figure has paid the price for ill-advised comments. Mel Gibson's career took a hit after he made racially charged remarks about Jews in 2006 and for abusive comments directed to his girlfriend in 2010. More recently, Tracy Morgan, co-star of the NBC series "30 Rock," took a public drubbing after making anti-gay jokes at a June comedy show.

Read more about the story in 24 Frames  

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Photo: Director Brett Ratner at a recent premiere in Hollywood. Credit: Fred Prouser / Reuters.

 

Oscar surprise: Only 'The Kids Are All Right' shot entirely in L.A.

 
 
The Focus Features film "The Kids Are All Right" may not walk away with an Academy Award Sunday night, but it does take the prize for being the only film among the 10 best picture nominations that was shot entirely in the city of Los Angeles.

In a stark reminder of how few prominent films are still filmed in L.A. these days, nine of the best picture nominees were shot either outside of California  ("The King's Speech," "Black Swan," "127 Hours" and "True Grit") or only partially in Southern California ("Inception" and "The Social Network").

"I've been be doing this for over 30 years and we used to shoot almost everything here," said Ned Shapiro, location manager for "The Kids Are All Right." "Today, to have a film that's shot entirely in the city of L.A. -- it's almost unique."

The movie,  about a lesbian parents and their two children who seek out their biological father,  stars Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo. Produced for just $4.4 million, it has grossed $29.5 million in worldwide ticket sales.

"Kids" was filmed over 23 days in July 2009 at homes in Venice and Echo Park (where Ruffalo's character lives), Ocean View Farms Community Garden in Mar Vista, a hardware store in Highland Park and a loft near Dodger Stadium that was converted into a restaurant, among other locations.

WIth a budget of just $250,000 to cover the on-location filming expenses, Shapiro spent a lot of time  negotiating discounts with property owners.

"I made deals,'' he said. "I told people this is not a big-budget movie and we didn't have a lot of money to spend and that the two big stars were working for scale, and they went along with it.''

-- Richard Verrier

Photo: Annette Bening (left) and Julianne Moore star as Nic and Jules in Lisa Cholodenko's "The Kids Are All Right," a Focus Features release. Credit: Focus Features.

 

Motion picture academy and ABC renew Oscars pact [Updated]

One of the longest streaks in television history ... will continue.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the ABC television network said Thursday they had extended their licensing agreement six years, through 2020. The agreement keeps the Academy Awards telecast a fixture on ABC, and the announcement comes just days before this weekend's 83rd annual Oscar gala on the network.

"This contract ensures that the Oscar show will be an ABC tradition for 45 consecutive years," academy President Tom Sherak said in a prepared statement.

The contract had been scheduled to expire in 2014.  

Foreign television rights for the Oscar telecast are covered by a separate contract with Walt Disney International, an arm of ABC's parent company, and is separately negotiated. That deal also expires in 2014. 

Updated 2:07 p.m:  Financial details for the new contract were not disclosed. The existing license agreement is part of a television rights package that provides the academy approximately $70 million annually. (This version clarifies an earlier post) The telecast is highly profitable for both parties. The academy relies on the television licensing to finance its operations, including staging the Oscar telecast and Governor's Ball.  

And for ABC this year, the telecast is expected to garner at least $80 million in advertising revenue -- up substantially over the last two  years.  The ad rate for the show is near a record of an average $1.7 million per 30 second spot during the program.

-- Meg James

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Oscar Gold: Academy aims for younger audiences

 

Oscar gold: Academy aims for younger audiences

Advertisers have spent nearly $720 million during the last decade to advertise their products in the Academy Awards telecast, according to an analysis released Monday by Kantar Media.

That comes out to an average of $72 million a year, although three years -- 2006, 2007 and 2008 -- saw spending levels top $80 million. The total haul is important to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences because the organization relies heavily on ad revenue from the telecast to finance its operations and stage Hollywood's annual glitzy gala, including the Governors Ball. 

ABC is on track to bring in more than $80 million in commercial sales for this year's event, which will be broadcast Feb. 27.  The Walt Disney Co.  network has sold out its available inventory for the program and fetched prices of about $1.7 million per 30-second spot.  That's up considerably from last year's $1.4 million per spot.

Last year's higher ratings -- an average of nearly 42 million people tuned in -- helped ABC bump up the ad rates this year.

Over the last five years, more than half the total ad revenue from the show has come from just five companies: Coca-Cola, J.C. Penney, General Motors, American Express and Mastercard International, Kantar said. Auto giant GM took itself out of the running two years ago and was promptly replaced by Hyundai, which continues to be the exclusive auto sponsor -- and the program's largest advertiser overall.

This year's hosts -- James Franco and Anne Hathaway -- are part of the Academy's campaign to attract more young adults to the TV screen.  The median age of last year's Oscar audience was 50, according to Kantar, and that's slightly grayer than advertisers would like.

In another bid to attract young viewers and whip up excitement surrounding the awards show, the Academy this year has amped up its interactive media elements, such as Internet coverage of red carpet arrivals and peeks at backstage areas, including press-room interviews with winners. 

-- Meg James

Photo: Awards show host James Franco arrives at last week's nominees luncheon in advance of the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. Credit: Mike Nelson/EPA