Unit 6: Investigating Visual Production and Technology & Unit 7: Investigating Interactive Production and Technology - Oscars Rundown

I only did one segment for the Oscars Rundown, but I didn't mind as the one I did is a subject that I am very passionate about when it comes to film. The segment I decided to do was Sexism in film and the Oscars as it seems to be a running theme that mostly men get the nominations, and wins, and women get little recognition when it comes to their amazing achievements in filmmaking and what they have produced throughout the year. 

This year was much better with 44% of nominations going to women and the other 56% going to men, so the nominations are almost equal. I especially wanted to make light of the issue as at this year's Oscars, Greta Gerwig was massively snubbed a nomination for Best Director for her beautiful adaptation of "Little Women", as well as all of the nominations for Best Director went to men:

• Bong Joon-Ho - "Parasite" (out of all the nominees he definitely deserved it as Parasite was a brilliant film)
• Sam Mendes - "1917"
• Todd Phillips - "Joker"
• Quentin Tarantino - "Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood"
• Martin Scorsese - "The Irishman"

It wasn't only Gerwig who was snubbed for her talents in directing but also:

• Waad Al-Kateab - "For Sama"
• Claire Denis - "High Life"
• Mati Diop - "Atlantics"
• Marielle Heller - "A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood"
• Joanna Hogg - "The Souvenir"
• Jennifer Kent - "The Nightingale"
• Melina Matsoukas - "Queen & Slim"
• Sacha Polak - "Dirty God"
• Lorene Scafaria - "Portrait of a Lady on Fire"
• Lulu Wang - "The Farewell"
• Olivia Wilde - "Booksmart"

I think it's really important for women to be able to get the same chances and opportunities as men in the industry, and just in general, as all of these women, in the pictures above, are incredibly talented and they should get more recognition for their work. It is still baffling that after the 92 years that the Oscars have been running for, only five women have ever been nominated in the category for Best Director:

• Lina Wertmüller (the first woman to ever be nominated in the category) - "Seven Beauties" (1976)
• Jane Campion - "The Piano" (1993)
• Sofia Coppola - "Lost in Translation" (2003)
• Kathryn Bigelow (the only woman to win an Oscar in this category) - "The Hurt Locker" (2009)
• Greta Gerwig (the first woman to be nominated for a debut film) - "Lady Bird" (2017)

Best Director isn't the only category that hardly nominates women, in the category for Best Cinematographer the first and only woman to ever be nominated is Rachel Morrison, this was for her work on the Netflix film "Mudbound" in 2018, 90 years since the first Oscars was held. Music awards also shy away from nominating any women in them.

The most categories women have been nominated for are:

• Best Costume Design
• Best Makeup and Hairstyling
• Production Design

These categories are seen as more feminine and it isn't a surprise women have mostly been nominated in categories that don't get as much praise as Best Director or Best Cinematographer. 

2020 Nominees and Winners

(Winners are in bold)

More Research

Week 1

Tuesday 3rd February 2020

My first day working on the Oscars Rundown, I helped film two of the segments for the show. I was first on working on Best Cinematography as the D.O.P., it was my job to make sure that all of the cameras were positioned properly and that the hosts (Ollie, Thomas and Amiliyah) and sets looked fine on camera, whether that be to lighting or whoever could be seen on each camera. I worked on the master camera, which was the camera set up in the middle, of the the two cameras (Tom and Kai), that got a wide shot of everyone hosting, as well as the set. The Floor Manager was Lewis and he made sure everyone was filming at the right time and also told us to stop incase something went wrong during filming. 

I also worked on the segment for Best Picture (hosted by Tom Rymer and Thomas Bytheway) and my role on set was the Floor Manager. It was my job to give information to the producer, at the end of filming, to see how well the whole of filming went. I also needed to make sure everyone was filming (D.O.P was Mitch and Nathan and Hashim were on camera) at the same time and also stopped incase there was a slip up in the script, as well as take note of it, or incase there was some unwanted background noise. 

Thursday 5th February 2020

The day before, we all decided we wanted to create our very own homage to the Oscars. We all decided to do our own rendition of the film "Knives Out", which was nominated for one Oscar this year, that being Best Original Screenplay (it was beaten by "Parasite" by Bong Joon-Ho). 

Each member (apart from Joe and James) played a character from the film. I played the character Marta who is the main focus of the film. We recreated our own version of the trailer instead of doing scenes from the actual film as only me and Tom had actually watched it. So, we watched through the trailer many times and recreated the scenes that were shown in that. 

Week 2

Tuesday 11th February 2020

I was again the floor manager for another segment, this was for Best Production Design and VFX (hosted by Nathan, James and Conrad). The D.O.P was Lewis and Hashim and Amiliyah were on camera. I again had to make sure that filming would go as smoothly as possible, as well as make note incase there were some production difficulties. 

Wednesday 12th February 2020

Today was the day me and Laura were hosting our segment for the Oscars Rundown, that being 'Sexism in Film'. We first met up early in the morning to go through some notes, we both had a lot of information about our subject and mostly just made brief notes, for our script, to be able to look at throughout the show and then have a conversation about. 

I did add a lot more extra notes as we both decided I would talk more about a lot of the statistics of women's involvement in the film industry, as well as their recognition at the Oscars.

We had Eden as the D.O.P. and Ethan and Mitch on camera, as well as Ethan working the master camera, we were short of crew due to people needing to finish off their work before the deadlines of the next day. 

I felt I could have done much better as a host, I have not really done much in front of a camera and having to be myself is terrifying, so I kept getting very nervous and kept fumbling over my lines. Luckily, Laura was there to save the segment as she kept talking through everything and edited it really well. 

Thursday 13th February 2020

This was the last day that I worked on the Oscars Rundown and it was also the last segment that was filmed of the whole rundown, which was Family Friendly Oscar Winners (hosted by Anya and Matthew). I was again the D.O.P for this segment, with Kai and Mitch on camera and Hashim as the Floor Manager.