The tradition began in the 1927. The
beginning was much like it was with the movies, it was modest.
The awards were paid by attendances.
Besides the awards, Academy does research
and educational things. All activities are related to the movies. The
inventor and founder of the academy was Louis B. Mayer, studio chief of
the Metro Golden
Mayer ( MGM ) movie company.
The 1st female chairwoman of the Academy was famous actress, Bette
Davis, in the year 1941. The 1st chairman of the
Academy was a famous actor, Douglas Fairbanks.
The Oscar-awards came to movies few years after the Academy was
founded. The first Oscar gala was a dinner, held in May 1929.
Structure
Officers and Board of Governors are in the top the Academy. Officers
are in the payroll, Governors are professional movie makers. Governors
are elected from branches. Each branch has 1 - 3 governors.
There are currently 15 branches. One branch for each working group
and profession.
Oscar-award
The original official name of the award is The Academy Award of Merit.
It was used until the year 1939.
Quite soon after the award was born, the award got a nickname Oscar.
The nickname was used behind scenes, in talks between the academy
members. From insider talks Oscar popped to publicity in the year 1934.
The original monstrous name was officially changed to Oscar in the year
1939.
During the history raw material of the statue has varied a lot.
Nowadays statues are made from 24 carat gold. The Statue is 13½ inches
( 35 cm ) high and weights 8½ pounds ( 4.25 kg ).
Heading for Oscars
The election of the award winners goes in two stages. There are two
elections before the Oscar Gala. 1st one is for nominees, and the 2nd is
for the winner. 1st election for nominees is held in January, the 2nd
election closes app one week before the Gala. The elections for nominees
and winners are called ballots.
The people who vote for the Oscars are movie makers, and Academy
Members.
Each branch has it's own awards. Actors for example have four awards,
Best Leading Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Leading Actor and
Best Supporting Actor. The Award winners are elected by the members of
the Actors branch. A member of the directors branch cannot vote
for Actor's awards, and so on.
The best movie of the year is only the Academy wide Award. All
academy members have a right to vote for Best movie of the year. Movie
itself is not a living thing, and it does not have branch and voters.
And even if movies are living things and they have a life, they are
spirits, and they cannot vote. Someone else must do the voting job for
them. Just like everything else. That's for sure.*
Ballots
In the nominee ballot there is one rule, which limits the candidates
: A movie must have a theater opening in United States during the
past year. All eligible movies are listed by the Academy. The listing is
done by request from the movie maker or distributor.
From the listed movies members are allowed to vote whatever they
want. Within their branch.
In actors branch it is possible to vote any
actor in the movie for the leading actress / actor. Although the actor
was on the screen only for few seconds. Votes like this are not very
rare. The behind scene relationships always produces supporting votes for the
minor roles in the movie. A member votes for his wife and so on.
The freedom of choice is common to all branches, where it is possible
to vote many persons. In some branches multiple persons are gathered to
workgroups. And in some branches, like directors-branch, it is possible
to vote for only one person in one movie.
In ballots each member makes his / her own list of nominees / best
performances. Members are allowed to vote for 5 - 10 nominees. Voting rules
varies from branch to branch. The victory in the Nominee Ballot is
dependent on the number of votes.
After the votes for the nominees are calculated, and the names of the
Winners are clear, Oscar comes to public. The five winners of the
nominee ballot are announced.
In final voting, members are allowed to vote for one of the five
pre-elected nominees.
Promoting
The key issue in getting the Oscar is the quality of the work you
have done.
The Academy has very tight rules for promoting and advertising. The
rules are made to support the main thing.
The only thing you are allowed to do, is to promote and show your
work to the members.
You can show the movie in the private screening event, you can also
send free tickets to the public screening. Sending a copy from the movie
on DVD / BRD disc is the third possibility to promote your work.
The usage of the three things is free. You are allowed to use all
three things for a single member. You are allowed to send her / him
tickets and discs, and arrange free screenings. As many times as you
wish.
The shape of the promotion is also regulated by tight rules. The
invitations, tickets, disc covers and screening events must be very
simple. All extra features are forbidden on promotional discs, and so
on.
Breaking the promotional rules lead to disqualification of the whole
movie.
Making promotional speeches about the nomination is also forbidden
from all beneficiaries. Not only from the nominee. Although promotional
speeches are not entirely forbidden, there are rules for the contents of
the promotional speeches. In practice it is usually best to keep your
mouth shut. And let the others talk. Some other nominee might turn you
to the Board, and after that your hopes for the Oscar are over.
The tight rules make the promotional work quite cheap, and available for
everyone. The price of the
full scaled promotion campaign starts from $30 000 ( with year 2010
levels ). Arranging private screenings for the eligible members raises
the cost.
? The price of the Oscar promotion is not a big cost in a movie
production. The production cost of the single movie is always over $1
000 000.
Usually the promotion is done by the production company and
distributor to all Academy members. But if the movie stinks, and there
is only one good performance in the movie, it is possible for an
actress, actor or some other person to make an individual promoting campaign
for the members of her branch / voters only.
The list of members and their contact data ( for promoting
purposes ) can be acquired from Academy. There are some special rules
for people, who are eligible for getting the lists. The list must be destroyed
after the use. So that the lists do not end to the hands of paparazzis
and other people. There are lots of private addresses, private e-mail
addresses and private phone numbers in Academy's mailing lists.
Money
The profits from getting a nomination or award comes after the
nomination is done.
The movie must be released in United States'
theaters before the nomination is possible. And the effect of the nomination in U.S. theater grosses is not very big.
The movie is quite often away from the U.S. theaters, when it gets the
nominations. And even if it is in the theaters, it is almost dead, and
the grosses and the boost are very small.
The money from the nomination and award comes from the next works.
The nomination is used as a marketing argument in the following
movies.
For an individual the nomination and award naturally raises the wages
and fees you get from your work.
What do I get from it
The movie and moviemakers get benefit from the award through disc
sales and broadcasting right sales. The nominations and awards are used
in marketing and pricing.
Sometimes Oscars have affect to worldwide grosses. This happens when
the movie has it's U.S. opening in November or December, and the
Worldwide opening is in the next year.
In this case the nomination and award boosts opening grosses. They
are used in marketing. Besides that people outside U.S. are aware of the
nomination ( sometimes award ),
when the movie comes to theaters. The opening grosses and popularity has
big effect to the forthcoming grosses.*
In principle so called "Oscar-Vehicles" should be released
on December with delayed worldwide opening. If movie for example gets
good reviews from early screenings and festivals, it might be a good
idea to adjust the openings for the maximum grosses and popularity. Just
in case the movie gets the nominations.
* "Popularity increases the popularity", is the
scientific explanation, term and law for this phenomena. The formula is
not unique for movies, it is a general market law from economics. There are
many things which generates the phenomena. Mouth-to-mouth marketing,
humans habit to live / act in herds and the habit to follow other
people's example are the key things in the phenomena.
Predictions
The award season begins at December, and it ends to Oscars. Oscars
are always the last awards.
Some awards come from movie related organizations. But most of the
awards are given by the movie critics from different districts. The
national Critics Choice Award ends the Critic award season.
Just like the critics, the Oscar voters take also part to a ballot
before the final voting.
All movie related guilds in Hollywood votes for the best performances
and works of the year. SAG - Screen Actors Guild is probably the best
known guild.
Oscar voters are not the only voters in these elections, guilds are
open for everyone. Guild awards usually give hints for the Oscars
winners. It is very rare, that someone wins Oscar, without a nomination
from the guild. Do not have to win the guild award, but the nomination
is almost always required before getting the Academy Award.
