Why So Blu?

Oscars – Day 4

In today’s video clip, CableSuite 541 Movie Critic and Star 97 DJ Jim Kulko and I opine about our favorites for the Oscar wins this year. Many people ask why the Oscars don’t more closely track the box office with the movie making the best money in the year winning best picture. Well, you have to remember, the folks who put on the Academy Awards is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the academics who promote and advance the movie-making craft. This means that they are concerned about the art form, not those movies us Midwesterners choose to spend our money to see. 

As you might deduce by reading my blog posts, one of my hobbies is freelance writing. I like to do stage plays and screenplays, and cover media events (like the Oscars!). So, I’ve done my research on writing a movie and what the academics have decided that a movie should be. I want to share some of that basic knowledge and then see if you can apply it to picking your winners from this year’s Oscar nominees.

First, a motion picture is by and large just that: A movie should take advantage of the visual image on the screen. Second, based upon the first, follow the basic rule of “Show don’t tell” (love this in the Netflix commercial). Movies that employ a lot of voice-over, as in a movie like “The Vow” are not considered high art when they break the basic rules.

Thirdly, artists in any medium try to evoke emotions in us and sometimes by shocking us with realities of our world that exist, but that maybe we sanitize and avoid. Same is true in movies. The Academy respects filmmakers that bring out this dirty laundry and bring it the forefront.

So, when you are filling out your ballot for your favorite movies and actors this year, keep that in mind. Did the movie use the pure art form like the “Artist”? Did it show us a real character dealing with life without voice over like “Moneyball?” Or, did an actor go deep into an uncomfortable place and deliver a gritty, naked emotional performance as in “The Help” or “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?” Think like and Academy member and you will be surprised how many winners you can predict.

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