Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1570 Waiting for the truth to be revealed

Next up was the Oscars for the technical awards, which were handed out three weeks ago at a hotel in Beverly Hills. The winners could choose between beef or eel on the menu…

The award was presented by Diane Lane, Schwarzenegger's partner and on-screen lover of Jamie Lee Curtis and Tom Hanks.

David Letterman started his tasteless jokes again. Ronald had experienced it several times and finally understood that the tasteful jokes were the work of screenwriters, while the jokes that sounded like blue-collar workers were Letterman's normal performance.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoosh..."

There was a helicopter prop on the stage, and the sound of the propeller spinning non-stop was playing on the speakers. Jamie Lee Curtis grabbed the landing gear of the helicopter prop with one hand and fell from the sky.

This was a re-enactment of her scene in True Lies. Ronald was full of respect for the actress who played this scene herself, and stood up and applauded with everyone else.

In comparison, Diane was much more comfortable. She waited for Curtis to come down in her dress. After they met, they introduced the science and technology awards together.

"A few weeks ago, Diane and I had the honor of hosting an awards show and dinner to recognize the outstanding contributions of the technology community to film." Jamie Lee Curtis wore a little black dress similar to the one in True Lies, and she and Diane looked a bit like sisters.

"It was a very good party, I have to say it was much more fun than today..." Diane's lines drew laughter from the audience, which was tantamount to a response to Letterman's joke.

Ronald guessed that this was probably Diane's improvisation because she didn't know Letterman would make such a joke in advance.

After the audience finished laughing, Curtis continued, "Yes, there are big differences between the two dinners..."

"It's different from tonight's awards ceremony. At that awards ceremony we knew clearly what contributions the winners had made to Hollywood. All the images and sounds we see on the screen today are the result of their inventions." Diane and Curtis seemed like a very tacit partner. They spoke quickly without wasting time and were very interesting.

"Yes, we have only chosen two today to represent all the winners. To thank them for their great contributions to the film industry, we have also awarded them the highest honor in the industry, the Oscar..."

The last thing that was shown on TV was the footage of Lao Yan and another couple who invented the blue screen keying technology. Interestingly, they were also a father and son team. Finally, a 30-second clip of a movie that was recently shot using lightning and blue screen was shown.

This inserted video had an unexpectedly good effect, especially the wonderful editing at the end. Many viewers in front of the TV were amazed that the lightning in Jurassic Park and the scenes of interaction with many celebrities in Forrest Gump were shot in this way.

ABC's customer service center also received many calls asking whether there was any documentary broadcast that detailed this type of special effects shooting.

……

The Oscars were midway through, with many honorary awards beginning to be inserted. After being nagged by Letterman all night, Oprah finally had a chance to show off her newly-lost body and the dress that matched it.

She was presenting the Jane Hersolt Humanitarian Award, an honorary memorial award that is not given every year and requires a unanimous vote by the Academy's executive committee before it is presented.

Jane Hersolt served as the chairman of the Film Relief Foundation for 18 years, which mainly provides humanitarian relief to those film and television professionals who have encountered misfortune.

The foundation also has an old people's home, which is dedicated to taking in retired elderly people who work in the film and television industry and have no children or relatives. So to win this award, you must have made some achievements in humanitarian work.

Of course, this is just a title, just like if you want to give an honorary Oscar to a black person, you can't just say it's for black people. You have to take a detour and say that this black person has done a lot of humanitarian work.

In her award introduction, Oprah said that the award had been given to more than a dozen actors, half a dozen producers, seven studio executives, and a screenwriter and director, and that this year it could finally be given to a musician.

The winner announced by Oprah is Quincy Jones, a well-known composer in the film industry, a famous black music producer and musician.

The speech was so smooth that it was obvious that Oprah had prepared for a long time, but Ronald heard a different meaning from the audience.

Since the award was first established in 26, it has been given to white people, and today it is finally the turn of a black person.

"Wow, wow, wow..." Ronald clapped with everyone else, smiling and nodding as he clapped. Oprah's little thought was indeed very clever. He didn't mention anything about the black ethnic group, but most of the audience at the scene and in front of the TV would probably think of this matter.

Quincy Jones's formal, yet long and boring speech finally came to an end. Next up was the Best Cinematography Award, for which Forrest Gump was nominated along with several of its main competitors.

The Shawshank Redemption, Legends of the Fallen, and Red in the Red, Blue, and White trilogy were all nominated. Only Pulp Fiction did not receive a nomination for Best Cinematography. This is also natural. Quentin's directing ability is not enough to form his own photography style. There is not much stylized photography in this movie that can be appreciated.

The presenter was Paul Newman, who made some minor mistakes when announcing the nominations because he was not given a small monitor to see what was being shown. He only read out the four films after Forrest Gump, and he did not read out the names of the nominated films and nominees.

Paul Newman looked very old this year. In addition to his gray hair, his skin and gait also showed obvious signs of aging. This may be the reason why he did not realize that the video introduction of the nomination for Forrest Gump had ended.

Fortunately, Paul Newman is a veteran star and a handsome man who has always been in the hearts of many American moviegoers. He resolved the awkwardness with a smile.

"Do you want me to go back and read the title again? Oh, never mind. I won't. The Oscar for Best Cinematography goes to: John Toll, Legends of the Fall."

Ronald felt very sorry that Forrest Gump didn't win any of the small awards today, except for Walter Murch's Best Editing. However, there was one consolation, that is, its main competitor Pulp Fiction didn't win either.

These awards represent the majority of judges' opinions on the film. If Pulp Fiction wins a few of these awards, it means that they have a good opinion of the film. If that were the case, Ronald would start to get anxious, wondering if there would really be an upset tonight.

Things continued to go south, with the awards for Best Art Direction and Best Set Decoration. Forrest Gump was also nominated. Polly Pratt, Ronald's favorite art director, was nominated along with Nancy Heher, the lady in charge of the set decoration.

The award was announced by Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. Tim Robbins had put on a lot of weight recently, and with his graying hair and ill-fitting suit, he looked about the same age as Susan Sarandon, who was wearing a sexy gown.

Finally, Ken Adam, artistic director of the British production of Mad King George, won the award.

This is good news amidst the bad news, because the winners of these small technical and artistic awards are very scattered and not concentrated in one movie.

There are several awards with strong correlation, such as Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, as well as Best Actor and Actress awards. The probability of these awards going to one or two films is relatively high.

The reason for this is that these are the most important factors for a film to be outstanding. Especially the Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. The finished film of a film is very beautiful and artistic. But it is very difficult to distinguish among these awards and who has made the greatest contribution to the finished film.

Moreover, the situation of each crew is different. In some crews, the director will control everything. He will ask the director of photography to shoot the pictures he wants, ask the screenwriter to modify the script to the way he needs, and ask the editor to cut the finished film he needs.

Some directors are more democratic. They respect the professional ideas of the director of photography and the editor...

Therefore, as an outsider judge, it is difficult to tell clearly whether, in a particular movie, it is the screenwriter, the cinematography, or the director that created the final appearance of the film.

The end result is that when the judges vote for these awards, the final results will converge.

“In Hollywood, nothing is impossible. Especially with the hard work of the special effects teams working hard in the special effects studios and imaging laboratories, this year there are three films nominated for Best Special Effects Cinematography, which is a great showcase.

They are The Mask, a joint creation of engineers and artists, who made Jim Carrey's eyes pop out exaggeratedly; Forrest Gump, they chose not to surgically cut off Gary Sinise's legs but used computer special effects to perform the amputation surgery; and True Lies, which allowed Schwarzenegger to fight the bad guys in a high-altitude fighter jet..."

It's time to present the Best Visual Effects award.

If the fact that the Best Cinematography Award lost to "Legends of the Fall" which was shot with traditional photography methods can be explained, then the Best Visual Effects Award is a very important indicator.

Two of the three nominated films, True Lies and The Mask, were not nominated for many other important awards. If Forrest Gump, which did not win the Best Cinematography Award, could win an award for Best Visual Effects, it would mean that the vast majority of judges still recognized Forrest Gump in this regard.

After all, Forrest Gump has a ton of special effects, and the other two nominated films, The Mask and True Lies, are no less impressive. They all broke through previous constraints in some ways and are visual spectacles that audiences have never seen before.

To some extent, this award has a similar effect on these three films as the best photography award for traditional films.

There were not many people who understood these key points at the awards ceremony with thousands of people. Apart from Ronald, only Spielberg, George Lucas and his biggest competitor Harvey Weinstein understood the key points. So before the award was announced, many people were very nervous. Harvey, who was sitting not far away, kept looking at Ronald's expression.

The person who announced the award was the action star Sylvester Stallone. He and Schwarzenegger are the two most competitive action movie stars since the 1980s. Many people saw this scene and had some thoughts: could it be that the winner was a true lie?

"The Oscar goes to... Van Vliet, Stephen Rosenbaum, and... Forrest Gump"

"Hahaha..." Ronald laughed. He would definitely get the award, and things would go more smoothly from now on.

Several award winners were sitting in seats closer to the back, which were not very convenient. They all had to pass in front of Ronald and squeeze to the front to receive their awards.

Ronald simply pulled Diane to his feet, made room for them, and hugged them one by one. He knew that this scene would be broadcast live, and his image of respecting talents would be further solidified.

When Ronald made room for them, he also saw Harvey Weinstein sitting in the opposite aisle. Harvey had a helpless smile on his face, and he shook his head slowly and clapped his hands to signal Ronald.

His subtext seemed to be saying that I gave up everything, it's not my time. Ronald nodded slightly with pride and glanced at Harvey, as if accepting his surrender.

"Have we all failed?" Harvey's brother Bob whispered.

"It hasn't been decided yet, I think we have a chance." Harvey replied to his brother. He had made a gesture, but who can say for sure that he will win the award? In the past few years, there have been cases of splitting the best picture, best director, and best screenplay awards to different movies. There is still a chance until the last minute.

"You seem very happy. Is the next award secured?" Diane asked Ronald the same question.

"There are only two people at today's awards ceremony who know the result. They are the two partners from the accounting firm PwC."

Ronald said so, but he still had great expectations in his heart. If there was no big dark horse, he could have realized his dream.

The following awards were uneventful, and had little to do with Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction. The Best Original Song and Best Original Score awards went to Disney's The Lion King.

Hans Zimmer and Elton John won the two golden statues respectively, which was also the winner that surprised no one. Who can compete with Simba and Nala's duet "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" this year?
The next Best Foreign Language Film was awarded to Russia's "The Sun". This is also the first Best Foreign Language Film Oscar that this country has won under this name. This film also won the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes. Ang Lee's "Eat Drink Man Woman" did not enter the main competition in Cannes, losing to Nikita Mikhalkov twice. We can only hope for the future.

Ronald took a deep breath and waited for the Oscar honorary awards to be presented. Then it would be time for the two screenwriting awards, and that would be the moment when the truth of the night would be revealed.