Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Oscars Take Low Road On Technology

I watched the Oscars the other night, and if I learned anything from the endless broadcast, it’s that the much-discussed marriage of Hollywood and technology is still one of convenience, not commitment.

Sure, some of the nominated movies incorporate some stunning effects – check out Pan’s Labyrinth -- and every movie has a Web site, but mostly the winners were pretty standard dramas and comedies.

That’s cool, but the show itself was decidedly low tech. I mean, they had a “Sound Effects Choir” making train noises. It was kind of fun to watch, but is that really still how they create the audio effects in modern movies? And they won’t even let animated films -- mostly done by computer – compete against the “real” movies.

Of course, the cool kids’ biggest dis to the geeks is that the Scientific and Technical Awards aren’t even part of the show. They get given out rather anonymously a couple weeks earlier. At least someone persuaded Maggie Gyllenhaal to show up.

No comments:

Post a Comment