It's Dai Time

Katie & Scott & Simon & Cecily.

Tag: oscar

Day 222: award shows

September 21, 2009 / / 0 Comments

We taped the Emmys yesterday and watched them tonight. I’m not sure why, but award shows are all about reinventing themselves these days.

It supposedly worked as this year’s telecast pulled in more viewers, although I’d also wager that NPH had something to do with that as well. The overall shake-up, though, seemed to have to do with the order of presentation, grouping types of awards with each other. It was nice to streamline it, but there was a promise of “a complete transformation of the stage” between genres which was wholly unfulfilled.

Also, I’m not sure about Oscar’s decision to have double the number of nominated films this year. First, it puts a serious damper on the annual tradition of watching all the nominated films the Saturday before the actual awards show. Second, I’m not sure it can deliver on either of its promises: that it will allow popular mainstream movies to be nominated or make the race more exciting.

I’ve always also been a bit unclear on the number of nominees per category. Some categories seem to have a set number (usually 5) and some seem to just have as many good nominees as they have that year. Why not be consistent? Either make every category pick 5 nominees or just open it up to however many make it above a certain nomination threshold. It’s sad to see a nominee that clearly won’t win, but it’s also odd to see a film win when it’s in a category of only two.

Ah, well. Award shows are never really about the best of the best anyway. They’re a big political game, and that’s just the way I like them. it’s like trying to reform the election process: an idealistic thought I have once in a while, but ultimately, too much work and doomed to fail.

Day 12: everyone’s a gamer (part 2) + Oscar recap

February 23, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I’ll continue on the gaming front in a bit, but first a short Oscar recap.  How did I do in my pool?  Decent, but not great.  In a relatively upset-free year (except perhaps the coup of the night in Documentary Short), I made two mistakes: predicting an upset in Best Supporting Actress and underestimating the momentum of Milk.  And when you miss three biggies like Original Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress, it’s hard to end up in the pool elite.

On another note, this year was probably one of the most entertaining Oscars I’ve watched in a long while.  Hugh Jackman was a terrific host and sang and danced multiple times.  The opening number was entertaining, Anne Hathaway was a sexy Nixon, and we got one of the best acceptance speeches of all time.  I also thought that the presentations of the acting awards was refreshing and nice, giving a bit of time to each of the nominees.  It finally felt like it was actually an honor to just be nominated.

OK, enough of that.  Continuing from yesterday’s post…

Second, new gamers have to go through a difficulty ramp that us veterans have all but forgotten: basic controls.  Give a 360 or PS3 controller to someone who’s never touched one before and it’s easy to see the fear in their eyes.  In addition to the dozen inputs on the front, there are four “trigger” controls that they probably wouldn’t have even found on their own!  Oh, and that central glowing thing is a button too!  And you can push down on the joysticks!

While it’s easy to scoff at local newsmen and politicians on TV when they say, “Oh, I haven’t played anything since Pac Man,” it’s hard to jump into today’s gaming.

If, that is, we define gaming as playing on a console.  A console that isn’t the Wii.  Because it ends up being not that hard when your son or boyfriend or nephew hands you a Wiimote and tells you that to play tennis, all you have to do is swing the controller like a tennis racket.  It’s not that hard when all you have to do is use that mouse and keyboard that you use all day at work to click on a few gems and move them around.

The Wii completely broke down one of the major barriers for entry into gaming today.  Suddenly, anyone could pick up a controller and start playing a game; you didn’t have to be familiar with the conventions that the game industry had been developing for the past 20 years.

Overnight, Nintendo essentially exposed the secret that everyone is a gamer.  This isn’t to say that the Wii is infallible; it has many disadvantages when compared to other consoles and the PC.  However, it is nothing short of truly revolutionary.  In a few short years, it has greatly transformed both the game industry and the game-buying population around the world.

And…scene.  Here are some more games for you to waste your time on:

Day 10: too much movie makes the scott go awesome

February 21, 2009 / / 0 Comments

In an hour, Katie and I are headed to the movie theater to take part in the our yearly epic Oscar Movie Showcase.  It’ll be the third (consecutive) year that we’ve decided to do it, subjecting ourselves to the glory of watching five movies in one theatre on one day.  I think that Frost/Nixon closes out the evening for us around 11:50 PM.

That’s pretty much it for today, but I thought I’d answer some frequently asked questions that you have.

Are you crazy?  That’s so many movies to sit through!
I know!  Isn’t it great?  It’s a little crazy but not crazy enough.  The theatre’s usually pretty full and anyone can leave anytime they want.  It’s a great experience, though, and it’s a great way to get pumped for the Oscars tomorrow.

Does your butt get numb?
A bit, but movie theater seats are pretty comfy and you get short breaks in between each movie, as well as a longer dinner break between movies 3 and 4.  Besides, I practice by sitting for 8 hours each day at work.

So if you’ve seen some of them, you just rewatch them?
Yes, except I got lucky this year.  I haven’t seen any of them yet!  Katie’s seen Benjamin Button, but that’s it.  In fact, since we started going to the showcase, we’ve started to avoid watching potential Oscar Best Picture nominees through the year.  Between both of us, we’ve only ever watched one of the five films all three years.  For reference, it was Little Miss Sunshine and Juno the two previous years.  And I could watch Juno as many times as you play it front of me.

How do I win my Oscar pool?
Don’t be swayed by your emotional attachment to the films.  Don’t predict too many upsets, especially this year.  Don’t get last minute jitters and change all of your votes.  And, in most places, vote for Slumdog to take home the statuette.

Do you believe that the best film of the year always wins the Oscar?
No way.  There are so many independent films that get released yearly and there is so much campaigning and politicking around the Oscars themselves that it’d be impossible to say that they always award the actual “Best Picture.”  Heck, sometimes the “real” Best Picture may not even be nominated.  The academy does an admirable job, however, of highlighting some pretty good movies usually, even if their tastes from year to year seem to stay similar.

Oh, do you get any perks at this showcase thing?
Heck yeah!  Free popcorn, all day.  And a collectible lanyard thing!  There’s also trivia in the theater in between movies where you can win posters and stuff, but it’s pretty random and haphazard who gets called on to answer.

All right, I’m off for 13+ hours of quality cinema and will attempt to not let me personal feelings cloud my Oscar pool picks, which are already pretty well solidified.

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