Posts Tagged ‘the academy awards’

TONY POTTS: Oscars 2013 Show Proves It’s On The Dell Inverted Hockey Stick Fast-Track

Posted: February 25, 2013 by Tony Potts in Uncategorized
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I truly feel the Oscars are in a time-warp. Seriously. Specifically, The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. It’s as if the entire world…Facebook, iPhone, Apps, Twitter, iPad, Skype — and the billions of humans who use them and new technology to watch movies, find movies, rate movies, critique movies, rave about movies and make movies (among everything else in the universe) never happened. None of it exists.

This technology allows innovative producers to put together incredible shows, if they’re allowed to do it.

People asked me if I thought Seth Macfarlane would lead the Oscars out of the usual hum-drum show it’s become. I said, “No.” Here’s why.

I remember chatting with former Oscar hosts Jon Stewart and Chris Rock during their week leading up to the show.

While they didn’t come out and say it, I could tell that the weight of the Oscar mafia was bearing down on them. And I say mafia in only the kindest of terms.

You see, I had seen it before. These very talented individuals are asked, courted at times, to host the Academy Awards. Stewart and Rock are exceptional at what they do. They both do it in the comfortable, well-crafted environment of their world. The Oscar world is an entirely different world.

I could tell when I chatted with Jon Stewart that he was inside the Oscar machine. When creativity and new thoughts run up against “the way it’s always been.”  Chris Rock?  Same thing. I asked Chris on a Thursday before the Sunday show if he was able to be Chris Rock, if the Academy was reigning him in at all? He just shot me a look.

Year after year we start off with hope it will be different and hope gets put through the Academy meat grinder, circa 1978, and it comes out the other end as Oscar Sausage. This is 2013. There are complete gluten-free menus in restaurants these days. Geeeeez!. Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the Oscars. I went to every one from 1999-to-2011. It’s like when you have a relative who you love but who can’t get out of his or her own way.

Pretty soon the Academy will have to get out of it’s own way before late one day an intervention suddenly appears. An intervention because the Academy has continued to ignore the inventions of the day, which will cost them the 20-30-year olds who are embracing the new technology and new ways of doing things, watching things and more.

If the Academy doesn’t embrace the young, who will watch when the 40-50-60 year olds are gone? Apple did a smart thing when it opened up it’s retail stores. Rather than have all the laptops and computers bolted to the counters like every other retail store, they had them all available to pick up and play. More importantly, they had those little computer stations for kids. Suddenly kids were using Macs. Then kids wanted Macs. Then the iPod came out. Kids wanted those. Then kids wanted music and went to iTunes. Then they grew up and went to iPads and iPhones. You get the picture.

What did Microsoft do during this time? Nothing to capture the youth market, the adult buyers of the future. My 19-year-old daughter doesn’t associate anything with Microsoft. She is Apple everything. She rarely watches tv. It’s all second screen, YouTube, etc.

My 8-year-old daughter will never use a PC. She’s Apple wired.

Here’s my point. The Academy is a poor-man’s Microsoft. Teens and those in their 20s are vaguely aware of the Oscars. How will it ever open up the live-show equivalent of the interactive Apple retail store?  Or will it be the pc equivalent of Dell? Once great, but quickly becoming marginal?

TONY POTTS: Grammy Awards, Sanitization & The CBS’ Dress Code Memo To The Stars: 93-Million Reasons The Grammy Awards Will Continue To Lose Viewers (or people who care)

Posted: February 11, 2013 by Tony Potts in Uncategorized
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I don’t know about you, but didn’t the Grammy Awards seem completely sanitized this year? And I’m not talking about CBS’s nudity and obscenity memo. Sure, there was less skin and outrageousness (which meant my 8-year old daughter could watch the first few minutes…), but there wasn’t anything that was a “Grammy moment”. 90-minutes in, even after Justin Timberlake’s “Suit n’ Tie” throwback, I was still looking for it. Is it that there are so many music shows on tv (The Voice, Idol, X-Factor et al)…with the occasional riveting personal, underdog story that makes the Grammy stuff feel kinda like MySpace –once all that and some serious dial-up, but now so “a thousand yesterday’s ago”?

And here’s the Grammy’s conundrum: How can it change to be better? The show has all of the same, high-quality producers it’s had for years. Which is probably the problem. Although, even new producers (or hosts and their writing teams), with magical, creative ideas to shake up a show often run up against the organization holding the event (The Grammys, CBS, The Oscar folks, etc..).

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Ask Jon Stewart and Chris Rock. I saw both them in the middle of their week leading up to hosting the Oscars and I could just tell the pressure being brought to bear by the Academy. It is the Oscars’ sandbox, make no mistake about it. They have the toys in the sandbox you can play with and you might be able to bring one or two of your own. And if you do, the organization has to approve your toys. And if they do, you probably won’t be allowed to play with your toys the way you usually do.

Speaking of hosts and to see how behind CBS and The Grammys are, I’m watching LL Cool J come out of a commercial break and talk about reading “all of your Tweets backstage”. THAT is how CBS believes it’s staying relevant to what’s hip, happenin’ and in the social zeitgeist.? It’s completely and utterly laughable.

There are a million ways to integrate the Tweets in a very cool interactive way. But that’s not going to happen anytime soon…as I’m sure most of the old school producers on these shows don’t even have a Twitter account. Or, if they do, they just got it and have minimal tweets.

By the way, if my 8-year old daughter is bored (and she’s watching only because I have the it on) and my 19-year old NEVER watches it, where is CBS going to get its viewers in the future as the older ones die off or go away and the new generation hasn’t a clue what the Grammy Awards are or care?

Here’s the answer, they’re not. Here’s your statistical proof: Bruno Mars, say a decade ago, would have needed a boost from a Grammy performance as, say, Ricky Martin did back in the day, to get buzz generated and to reach a large audience. Not today.

Bruno Mars performed his hit, “Locked Out of Heaven” on the show. That video has more than 93-Million views. About 65-70-Million more than the Grammy Awards will get tonight. That’s just one artist.

They no longer need the Grammy Awards show. They don’t need a network. They are their own network. The shift of musical power continues to swing back to the artist. Anyone remember A&R men?