The Academy Awards - 2011 Recap and Review

Well folks, it's hard to believe, but Oscar night has come and gone! What a night it was! Below is my crazy long wrap up of Hollywood's biggest night.

For starters, the Red Carpet was nice. Robin Roberts did a great job hosting the countdown. If I were to pick my favorite / best dressed of the evening, I think it would be Erin Andrews. Most random Red Carpet moment? Seeing Donald Trump appear out of nowhere! Why was he even there?!

As the show started, things seemed to be going in the right direction. The cold open video was cute and well done, and James and Anne were well received when they came on stage. After that, everything seemed to go downhill for the first few acts. The first 30 minutes were a bit painful. Giving away the award for 'Best Art Direction' first might have been a mistake. Usually, in year's past, they start with some awards that can feature camera-savvy individuals. This year, the first few winners were folks that were clearly not the best at being in front of a camera or crowd...WHICH IS FINE, but don't put them up first!

As the Oscars continued, Kirk Douglas made his way to the stage. I like how he teased the 'Best Supporting Actress' nominees, but his bit went on wayyyyyy to long. I'll be willing to bet ABC lost a lot of viewers during his bit. I'm all for paying tribute to Hollywood legends, but Kirk was alot like Dick Clark -- very hard to understand and at times, almost cringing to watch.

Melissa Leo, the winner of 'Best Supporting Actress', had a speech that seemed to go on forever. Between that and the fact that she was the first person to throw an F-bomb on the Oscar stage, I was glad to see her leave the stage as quickly as possible.

That being said, The Academy may have lost points for putting some of the more 'boring' acts first, but their INCREDIBLE SET made up for a lot of it! The flashbacks at the beginning that featured clips from "Gone With The Wind" and "Titanic" were stunning. Later, when it was put to great use for Randy Newman's performance, it continued to shine. Justin Timberlake also had a great moment with it when he pulled out his 'app' to bring Far Far Away Land to life.


The intro to the 'Best Original Score’ segment was awesome. The musical montage was so well done with the set, screen, and orchestra all working together. Oh, and thanks, Mr. President, for sharing that your favorite Oscar song is 'As Time Goes By'. -rolls eyes-

Anne Hathaway's version of "On My Own” (sung to Hugh Jackman) was funny! James Franco coming out dressed as Marilyn was okay. I feel as if there could have been something funnier here.

I was THRILLED to see The Social Network win 'Best Original Score'! Hooray!

The music video / auto tune montage to some of the Best Pictures was fantastic! Very funny! I look forward to watching it over and over again on YouTube in the near future.

When Billy Crystal came on stage, it was such a huge sigh of relief. I wonder if this means we can expect to see more from him in the near future?!?

The Bob Hope montage with the hologram was very cool and well done. I feel as if they could have used that for their opening, but nonetheless, it was cool. Props to the tech department for pulling that off.


Gwyneth Paltrow had an interesting performance when she sang the song from "Country Strong". What was with the bright white microphone??

Randy Newman's speech was both amusing and hilarious. Within minutes, he was trending on Facebook, Twitter, and Google!

And was it just me, or did Sandra Bullock seem to show no emotion when she came out to present her award? She just looked pissed and not into it at all!

I am thrilled that Natalie Portman and Colin Firth won for their respective categories. They both did a sensational job and deserved their Oscar gold!

For the 'Best Picture' category, I am pleased that "The King's Speech" won. It was a surprisingly refreshing movie that made audiences laugh, cry, and sit on the edge of your seats, and in this town, that's what you need to do to take home the grand prize. I would have been thrilled to see "The Social Network" win, as well, but that's okay. (And it will go without saying that "Toy Story 3" winning would have made my night!) BUT! That all being said, I think Mr. Spielberg himself said it best.

"To the nine nominated films that do not win, they will join such celebrated pictures as Citizen Cane, The Grapes of Wrath, The Graduate and Raging Bull."

As the ending of The Oscars show began, I started immediately rolling my eyes. I could not believe they were bringing out a bunch of kids from PS22 in New York to perform was is bound to be the next great lipsyncing scandal on live television. When they actually started to sing, I was thrilled they were singing 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow', but I feel as if it could have been done much better. For starters, let's get these kids dressed up in cute dresses and tuxes. (Instead of their t-shirts declaring some are ALTO and others are SOPRANO...) And what was with the swaying? Half the kids looked drunk! Let's get some real choreography in play!


That being said, the kids did sound good. They did a nice job with the song. I LOVE LOVE LOVE how they ended it with all of the Oscar winners coming out on stage to join the kids and sing the song, with their prizes in hand. It was very classy and extremely well done. The picture of Oz on the back of the stage sealed the deal. If only the beginning of the end would have been a bit better...


As for James and Anne, they were interesting choices to host from the beginning. Anne really came out and shined throughout the evening, making her a solid choice. James, on the other hand, was rarely seen! And when he was, he seemed out of it. He seemed more into recording live video to stream onto his website than he was into hosting the show!

Looking to the future, it seems that the Twitterverse is pushing to see Kevin Spacey host The Oscars next year. I think he'd be a fun choice. Tonight, my friend Elliot and I both agreed that it'd be a blast to see Robin Williams host, but I'm not sure if he's still as 'family friendly' as he was back in the 90's.

All in all, The Oscars were alright this year. They had their highs and lows, but overall, not shabby. I am pretty happy with most of the wins :) Hooray for Hollywood!

Oscars - Behind the Scenes!

Everybody always asks me, "What is it like to live in LA on the night of the Oscars?" It may not be hard to believe, but the entire Hollywood area is FULL of chaos!

Here's what the Red Carpet looked like early this morning inside the Kodak Theatre. (Note: They still had the protective wrap over it)


From the street, the Red Carpet setup looks like this. As you can see, they have SHUT DOWN the entire Hollywood Walk of Fame for the event!




And what's this?! A MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL truck at The Oscars?! Since The Kodak theater does not have enough room behind the scenes to accommodate a TV Control Room, the folks at The Academy Awards hire the creative minds over at Monday Night Football to bring their live sateliete trucks in! Inside the truck is a fully functional control room, which is where the director will call the shots on Oscar Night!

The most exciting part of the Red Carpet event is watching all of the hosts come in early on Oscar morning to rehearse. Although a majority of Red Carpet shows are unscripted, show producers like to plan as much as possible. A lot of hard work goes into making the Red Carpet look great on TV!

As celebrities arrive at The Oscars, they will encounter a swarm of paparazzi. Shortly after they are blinded by all the lights, they will make their way down the carpet to be interviewed on all of the entertainment shows.


After celebrities have their chat with the press, they continue their journey towards the theater. They will walk up the Grand Staircase which brings them to the entrance of the Kodak. Along the way, they will pass panels on either side of them, which highlight the Best Picture winners from each year The Academy Awards were held.



Their entire walk - from start to finish - is filmed for a global audience to see!



When the arrive at the top of the staircase, here is what they see as the enter the Kodak!



That's all for now! Be sure to stop back after The Oscars to see my next blog post!

Tim Allen

Last night, I went to The Laugh Factory in Hollywood to see Tim Allen perform a stand up routine! My friend Alan went with, and we had a GREAT time! I haven't laughed so hard in a while! It was really cool to see a Hollywood celebrity that I grew up watching ALL the time.



I really enjoyed how Tim talked about EVERYTHING. He had a huge bit about life in Hollywood, and how he is the 'family man' for American families. He also talked about life on the set of 'Santa Clause' and how it was to work with the kids. And best of all, he acknowledged the fact that he was a rich celebrity.

This may sound weird, but most stand up comedians don't do this. In fact, most try and act like they are 'one of us' shopping at Wal-Mart on the weekdays and such, even though we know they don't. Tim, on the other hand, used the phrase "I've got PLENTY of money" a few times during his routine to really add an extra punch to some of his jokes. Very well done.

Updates

Hey Everbody! This past week has kept me very busy, and there are a few exciting moments I'd like to share with you.

Craig Furgeson at Lunch - When going to lunch with my friend Becky the other day, I saw Craig Furgeson filming for 'The Late Late Show'. Him (and his bunny puppet sidekick) were doing a 'man on the street' type of gig with a Lemonade Stand. While watching Craig entertain the crowd, I ran into Alan, the audio guy I worked with on Top Model!





Writer's Panel - Last night, my magician friend George and I went to a Writer's Panel in Studio City. George is looking at getting into the writing game, and he asked if I'd be interested in going along. On the panel, they had numerous industry professionals that work as writers on big name shows (CSI, Big Bang Theory, etc). It was pretty cool to listen to everybody on the panel. This time, I found myself saying "yep, check, got that, uh huh, doing that..." alot...more than I found myself saying "ohhhh, that's new". I suppose that's a good thing that I have a similar mindset to them :)



Top Model Premiere - Exciting News! The next season of America's Next Top Model premieres TONIGHT! Be sure to watch! It's a season premiere that is sure to take your breath away! Below is a picture from when I worked on the show. This picture was taken on the rooftop of the LA loft where the girls stayed for the show. As you can see, I'm with my incredible crew. Such good memories!

Happy Birthday, Elliot!

Last night, I went to my friend Elliot's house to celebrate his birthday with him and a few friends. We spent the evening watching home movies and grilling out steaks.

Today, we continue the celebration on this President's Day by going to the movies to see all of the Oscar Nominated Short Films! It should be a good day!

Happy Birthday, Elliot!!

Car Problems :(

Today was full of some sad news :(

My mini van pooped out on me when I was heading out for a class. It is now in the shop, and in the next day or so, I'll have it back. It sucks, because not having a car in Los Angeles feels kind of like not having legs.

Nonetheless, my car has always been good to me, and this is just a little detour in the course of my week. The timing was pretty good. It could have been MUCH worse. I could have been stranded somewhere awful, or it could have happened during a week where lots of important things were happening. Luckily, none of those elements were in play, and for that, I am thankful.

More updates soon. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed for my car!!

The GRAMMYS!

What do YOU think the best moments were last night at THE GRAMMY'S?

My Top 3

1. Katy Perry's 'Wedding Montage' / Teenage Dream Mashup
2. Lady Gaga's New Song - 'Born This Way'
3. 'Forget You' Performance (with the puppets!)

Top 3 moments aside, last night's show was rather interesting. For starters, it was SUPER LONG!! I saw a lot of people itching in their seats throughout the evening.

Furthermore, did anybody else find it weird that Glee got 'no love' last night at all? For the exception of when Matthew Morrison talked on stage with the Grammy President, Glee was pretty much ignored, even though everybody from the cast was there! They didn't even show them rockin' out in the audience during performances.

Lastly, I don't think people realize how 'BIG' of a deal it is to win "Best Record", "Best Album", Best New Artist", or "Song of the Year". The winners receive a Grammy that evening, but they also get their name on the Grammy Walk of Fame in Downtown Los Angeles, CA -- next to the Grammy Museum. Here's one from a the 1984 Show.



Do you think this year's selections were worthy of being on the 'Walk of Fame'?? Will people look back 20 years from now and say, 'Wow, what good music' like we do currently?

Jam Packed Week!

Boy, this past week has been full of non-stop action!

This week, I have been working around the clock on pushing 'Mouth to Mouth' forward. We are continuing to make amazing progress, and I am very pleased that we are still ahead of schedule on the entire project.

It's weird, because I'm actually starting to 'feel' a little bit like a 'real producer'. I'm running around LA non-stop, having meetings with storyboard artists, editors, potential producers, and the works...and it's a never ending process! It's a rush, but very tiring at the same time.

In other news, this week I have been taking classes to be an IT for the American Red Cross. IT stands for 'Instructor Trainer', which means that I am allowed to teach potential instructors of the American Red Cross. It's a title that means a lot to me, and it took a lot of hard work to get to this point. I am happy to report that I have passed the IT course, and I am soon going to be sharing my knowledge with incoming instructors. :)

I'm looking forward to catching a break soon. I hear us humans need those every once in a while. I'm looking forward to taking some time to BREATHE on Sunday, even though I will still be hard at work! (At least it'll be fun work!)

More soon! Stay tuned...

Inspiring Mail

Today, I got some inspiring mail in my mailbox. Some was more 'cool' than inspiring, but you'll see what I mean.

First up, was a postcard and hand-drawn/written letter from Carroll Spinney. For those of you that are unaware, Mr. Spinney is the create force behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Seasame Street. I had the pleasure of meeting him a little over a year ago at a Hollywood Convention. He was perhaps one of the nicest guys I've ever met, and it was a real treat hearing his stories about 'the business'.



After meeting him, I sent a letter telling him what a pleasure it was to hear about his stories. After over a year, I finally received a reply back...from both him and Oscar! :) His letter was very inspirational and came at just the right moment. For the past few weeks, I've been running around like crazy working on 'Mouth to Mouth', and Mr. Spinney's words were so nice to hear as an extra boost of motivation to keep moving forward.

Here was the front of the hand-drawn, hand-written letter he wrote.



Inside, he talks about the difficulties of getting into the industry. He encouraged me to continue following my dreams, and to stay persistent. He also mentioned he ran into my blog and saw my work. He said that I seemed to be 'on the right track' and 'heading to a great career'. Wow. Pretty cool, coming from a guy I started watching as soon as I could watch a television.

Here was the postcard from Oscar:



I also received another postcard in the mail this week from Tyra (and friends) over at America's Next Top Model. It's exciting to receive these post cards because that means A) a new season is starting soon, and B) they enjoyed working with you enough to take some time to send you a postcard :) It's always a good feeling to know that hard work is paying off!

"Mouth to Mouth" Progress

Lately, things with Mouth to Mouth have been going incredibly well. The other day, I took a step back to view the progress we've had in just the past month. We have really come a long way. This time last month, we had just started the casting process and were meeting people for the first time. It's amazing to see how much has happened in a small amount of time.

As we speak, things are still moving ahead full force for the show. The latest news is this...

- Elliot (my good friend and our show's fantastic editor) is hard at work behind the scenes making countless edits of our 3-minute sample scene that we shot (last week Sunday) until it becomes perfect. Elliot is doing a fantastic job and the final cut will be ready soon.

- A website is currently in the process of being made for the show. The hope is to have it all up and live before the end of the month. Furthermore, new media sites like a Facebook fan page, Twitter account, and more are being created as we speak.

- I met with Bobby (a good friend of mine from Top Model) the other day at the Hard Rock Cafe, and he is showing our project an incredible amount of love and support. It seems that he is really on board with our idea, and is willing to help us push this project as much as possible to gain some studio funding, so we can shoot our pilot episode.

- If we are unable to get funding through a 'studio-type source' by the end of the month, we will begin our Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds ourselves. At this point, I am confident that with our dedicated cast, crew, and supporters, we will have no problem getting the pilot shot.

Again, I cannot say enough about everybody who has helped make this project what it has become so far. I am so lucky and blessed to be working with an incredibly talented cast and crew of true 'up and comers' in the industry. Furthermore, the support I have received from family and friends (both here in LA and back in Milwaukee) has been greatly appreciated. A special thanks to everyone for your faith in our project. I know we have a great product, and I am just itching to get it shot so we can share it with you.

If anybody is interested in being a 'test audience' for our sample scene, please let me know! We'd love to get some feedback from people on the clip and see what people find funny, etc...

Until then, it's back to work!! I have a lot to do!

Super Bowl Review

WAY TO GO, PACKERS!!! I'm not one for sports, and I rarely watch football, but this was a fun game to watch!

As for the half time show, The Black Eyed Peas did their job. They entertained. Their song choice was great, and Slash was a nice breath of fresh air and was a great pick. Usher was un-necessary and didn't seem to fit. Perhaps the most thrilling part of the show was the epic flash mob that featured hundreds of talented, lit up dancers. (It almost looked like the show was sponsored by TRON: Legacy...)

It's too bad the Super Bowl producers can't catch a break. For the past few years, they have recieved slack for pre-recording and lip syncing their performances. This year, they go live again and they experience technical difficulties (both with turning mics on and off and with auto-tuning not sounding the best). I do give the producers credit for being bold and going live. That's never an easy feat.

As for the best part of the Super Bowl, the commercials, audiences certainly had their fair share of laughs and entertainment this year. Check out my list below!

Top 10 List:

1. Best Buy - "What's a Bieber?"

2. VW - "Little Vader"

3. Doritios - "Grandpa"

4. Carmax - "Feels Like"

5. Chevy Cruze - "Facebook Status"

6. Bud Light - "Product Placement"

7. Chevy Cruz - "Retirement Home"

8. Budwiser - "Tiny Dancer"

9. Teleflora - "Your rack is unreal"

10. Coke - "Guards on each side" (typical warm, fuzzy, feel good Coke ad!)

Honorable Mentions

The X-Factor - "He's Back" (mainly because it was cool with awesome effects)

NFL - "Best Fans Ever" (TV clip montage)

Chevy - "Great idea for an ad"

GoDaddy - "Joan Rivers"

Pepsi Max - "Jogger"

For some reason, Ozzy Osbourne just knows how to make a good Super Bowl commercial!

This upcoming week is going to be full of tons of events, so stay tuned and watch my tweets for more updates soon!!

Mr. Nelson Memorial Video

Mr. Nelson's memorial will be held tonight at 5 PM at the SM PAC. The following video was created by yours truly, and will debut tomorrow night in front of his students and fellow faculty members.

Tune in TONIGHT!

Tonight is the night! Be sure to tune into the Lifetime Network to see a new show called "Seriously Funny Kids". I had the pleasure of working on this show, and trust me, you will not want to miss it! It's the 'Kids Say the Darndest Things' of our generation! The same producers that worked with Bill Cosby are the creative forces behind this show. It's bound to be a hit! Make sure to watch!

You can check out the website here: http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/seriously-funny-kids