Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1573: Someone cheated at the Oscars?
After finishing the interview at the awards ceremony, Ronald and Diane each held a little golden man and walked towards the Executive Committee Ball hosted by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences behind the awards hall.

This is an event that takes place right after the award ceremony, which takes place at around ten o'clock. Those who are nominated and receive awards are automatically invited to attend.

When they arrived at the ball, Ronald and Diane went to engrave the Oscar. They got to know each other better at the engraving ceremony at the 1981 Oscars.

There were many people who wanted to have their words engraved, and everyone was queuing up. Ronald asked Diane to sit down and rest first. High heels and dresses were not meant for standing for long periods of time, but for photographers to take pictures. It was really not fun to stand like this.

Meg Tilly probably had some reasons for taking off her shoes because she felt uncomfortable. Of course, her behavior later offended someone, and someone kicked her shoes off on purpose, which is another story.

"Ronald, do you want to go first..." Several colleagues who won the Best Picture Award with him also asked Ronald to go first to engrave the words. The trophy already had the same words as everyone else, such as the award, year, and number, but the winner was announced at the last minute, so it had to be engraved on the spot using an engraving machine.

"No need, we are all winners, there is no order of priority..." Ronald was very happy holding the two little golden men. Although the trophies were a bit heavy, he didn't feel it at all.

The reason is that the Best Director Award is the key. He can now fully understand why Spielberg kept holding on to the two Best Director Awards last year. After all, this Best Director Award is different.

After more than a decade, the Oscars' post-award committee ball has also improved. It is no longer like when Ronald won his first Best Original Song Award, where he had to hand it over to the committee first and then wait for many days before getting the trophy with his name engraved on it. Now you can get it right away.

Therefore, at the Oscars now, there will be a large group of winners lined up in tuxedos. Among them, only Polly Pratt, one of the producers of Forrest Gump, and another winner of the Best Set Award are women...

This will definitely be criticized in some reports tomorrow. Ronald tried hard to get rid of these messy thoughts from his mind. He just wanted to store the joy of winning the award in his mind like saving Microsoft Office software. He could recall it happily in his spare time in the future.

"Ronald, you should come first, otherwise we all feel it's too much to ask you to queue with us."

Greg Landecker, the sound mixer of "Speed", was in the queue ahead of them. The Best Sound Award was the only award for the film. These people knew Ronald, the person leading the project. Especially for those who won technical awards, their status in the industry was not as high as that of stars and producers, so they felt uneasy when they saw Ronald in the queue behind them.

"It's nothing excessive. We are all winners of the 67th Academy Awards. We are equal. Hahaha. Do you want some ice cream? I'll get it for you..."

Ronald is not being pretentious. He just wants to experience and enjoy the feeling of winning the Best Director Award as much as possible. Besides, he is also a technical person and his first Oscar was for Best Original Song, so he actually has a lot in common with these people.

"Hahaha, then we won't be polite." Greg Landecker and others did not hesitate. They grabbed the ice cream that Ronald's assistant brought and started eating it bite by bite.

After a few bites of sweets, these technical experts opened up their mouths and chatted with Ronald.

"How do you feel about the recent DTS cinema sound system?" Ronald wanted to ask about the production of this new sound system that has been gradually transformed in high-end theaters in America since Jurassic Park.

The effect of DTS is well understood by everyone who has experienced such a sound system, but non-professionals really don't know what the difficulties are in its production.

The first thing that the audience perceives about this kind of sound effect is high fidelity and better stereo reproduction. This Dolby system is different from the old system next to the film. It is a completely new digital sound system.

Therefore, it cannot be produced next to the film and then restored through a projector like Dolby Stereo. DTS must use a special disc to store the sound code, and then use a separate decoder and synchronizer to keep the sound and image synchronized.

It is also very troublesome to produce. Its individual channels are several more than Dolby Stereo and Dolby Surround, and the common 7+1 system requires much more work to produce.

Such trouble brings excellent results, especially the so-called dynamic response of sound, which can restore a frequency range far exceeding that of Dolby technology.

"So, this is good for action movies like Speed?" Ronald touched his chin. In fact, the requirements for sound for ordinary theatrical feature films or feature films watched on videotapes are not so high. DTS excels in movies with explosions and action scenes, which give people a unique shock.

"In fact, romance and musicals are also suitable. You know, Ronald, teenagers' hearing is actually better than that of middle-aged and elderly people." Greg Landecker also told a little secret among mixers. Many people will lose their hearing in high and low frequencies when they get older. Only teenagers can hear the broadest and richest sounds. It is also beneficial to use DTS with a wider dynamic response and frequency range for genre films specially made for them.

"Actually, I have one more favor to ask of you. I mentioned Roger Corman in my acceptance speech. Do you know him?"

"Of course, we know this exploitation film mogul..." These technicians took on all kinds of movies and were familiar with Coleman. They were all curious about what a big boss like Ronald could do for them.

"I tried to get him an Honorary Oscar, but this award requires unanimous approval from all executive committee members. I asked many directors to write letters of support, but unfortunately I failed this year..."

"Haha, you want us, as Oscar winners, to build momentum for him, right? No problem, we will write a letter to the Executive Committee."

It doesn't take much to say a few nice words to these people, but being able to get their support will be beneficial to your influence in the Oscars. After all, they are all going to become new judges.

Today’s machines can engrave very quickly, and Ronald happily received two little golden men with his own name on them, and his collection cabinet will have new collections.

Ronald said goodbye to everyone with a smile and prepared to go to the variety show's post-match party with Diane. The party there would be more upscale, and the winners of these technical awards might not have tickets to go to Morton's Restaurant in Beverly Hills.

It was a luxurious restaurant that had just opened in Hollywood, and was chosen by Variety Magazine as the venue for this year's party. There was a strict access control, and there were many private rooms inside, which was very suitable for Hollywood's top stars to have some private exchanges.

The two were walking out when they suddenly saw a white man walking towards them from a distance. He seemed to want to chat with them, but felt it was too rude and didn't dare to approach them.

Ronald recognized him. This was Steve James, the producer and director of the documentary "Dreams of Basketball Stardom". This movie was very interesting, capturing the story of two high school basketball players with the potential to enter the NBA draft and their struggle for a scholarship to enter college.

The whole documentary is well shot. It is not the kind of animal documentary you see on PBS, but it is shot and edited in the style of a feature film. When the audience sees it, they will worry about the fate of the two and hope that both protagonists can get the scholarship.

The film's artistic quality is very good, and it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Editing. It's rare for a documentary to receive such recognition.

The excellence of this movie also lies in the fact that it has a box office record of more than 10 million US dollars and was sold to TV stations for broadcast. It has both commercial success and artistic value. Ronald likes this kind of movie the most, so he waved to him and chatted with him.

"Hello, Steve, I like your dream of becoming a basketball star..." Ronald shook hands with him.

"Hello, Mr. Lee... Excuse me, I just overheard your conversation with those award winners. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I have great respect for your action in fighting for an award for Roger Corman. You are one of the few people in Hollywood who can treat the little guys fairly.

I have a problem here too and I want your help."

"Ha, you can talk to my agent, he will record your request." Ronald lost interest when he heard this and prepared to leave.

"Mr. Li, what I want to say is that I was framed by two brother bosses of a certain company and some powerful people in this year's Oscar selection... This is a huge damage to the credibility of the Oscars. It is just like Mr. Coleman not being able to win the award. It is very unfair..."

"Huh?" Ronald immediately thought of the Weinstein brothers. Could it be that he had some dirty information on them?

"I'm going to Morton's restaurant in Beverly Hills. I'll take you there..." Ronald gestured to him to talk in the car.

"I'm sorry, but I don't have an invitation to the Variety magazine party, but I think the trip will give me enough time to make myself clear."

……

"Mr. Li, this is what happened. I think you can find out if I am telling the truth by investigating... If you need me for anything, please call me."

When they were a few hundred meters away from the entrance of Morton's restaurant, Steve James, who had already told the whole story, stopped the car and got out and left.

Ronald continued to drive slowly to the restaurant entrance and stopped. Ronald got out of the car first and walked into Morton with Diane. Their arrival also caused a commotion among the guests inside... This was the big winner tonight.

Ronald hugged and greeted everyone, which was a necessary courtesy and social activity. However, Ronald was still thinking about what Steve James had just said. If this could be confirmed and then revealed, it would be big news.

It turns out that the quality of Steve James' documentary is very good. The buyer, PBS, originally only wanted to make a 30-minute short film, but in the end the material was exciting enough, so it was edited into a feature film.

The film received rave reviews after its release, and in the end, Steve James and the two producers all began to think about marketing it for the Oscars.

There are many examples in history of small productions that were nominated for Oscars and then re-released to great commercial success.

However, they also made a mistake by trying to enter this basketball star dream into the Best Picture and Best Director awards, rather than just the Best Documentary Feature category where it should have been.

Because of this ungrateful behavior, the Weinstein brothers were offended. Because they were also doing their best to publicize these two awards. Unlike Ronald's Forrest Gump, which was highly anticipated, the Weinstein brothers' project really needed public relations to successfully get nominated.

Moreover, it is actually very dangerous for a movie like Pulp Fiction to be nominated. This movie has many innovations, and ordinary judges may not be able to understand those brilliant parts, but may find it a bit long and tedious.

In other words, ordinary actors, who make up the majority of the judges, are not very sure whether to vote for him.

In this way, the basketball star who also won the spontaneous love of the media and the audience actually became Weinstein's biggest rival.

Harvey couldn't afford to offend people like Ronald, but for small figures like Steve James, he did his best to suppress them and used many very shameful tricks.

In addition to the usual smears, Harvey Weinstein also mobilized some people to spread the word in the circle that Basketball Star Dreams is a documentary and being nominated for Best Picture is disrespectful to all producers.

Some producers did have issues with this, and as a result, one of their potential competitors was eliminated.

However, this is not the reason for Steve James' anger. Their application for Best Picture is just a try, and the one they really want to win is the Best Documentary Feature.

Who would have thought that when the nominations were announced last month, "Battle Royale," a movie that looked very likely to win an award, was not even nominated, ranking sixth in the voting, and was blocked from the five nominees.

Steve James was shocked, and two of his producers launched an investigation. The final result was outrageous.

The Best Documentary Feature is not voted by all judges like the Best Picture, but is selected by some judges who have experience in documentary categories.

Unlike the technical awards, the documentary category does not have many judges, and few have seen the films submitted. So the Academy's executive committee convened the judges, formed different groups, and then watched and voted on the spot.

Since many documentaries submitted for selection were poorly made, they gave each judge a flashlight. If they felt bored, they would turn on the flashlight and shine it behind them. If the projectionist saw too much flashlight light, he would stop the screening and put down another one.

There aren't many documentaries worth watching, and this method can basically be used to select the shortlisted films every year.

Of course, "Basketball Star Dream" is very good, and no one turned on the flashlight, but it only ranked sixth, while two documentaries with many flashlights squeezed into the top five nominations. Steve James and his team could not swallow this breath, so they planned to reveal in the media that "Basketball Star Dream" had no documentary nominations after the Oscars.

Ronald saw that in the opposite corner, the person who followed Quentin closely was Harvey Weinstein. Looking at his fat face, Ronald also admired him in his heart.

"You are really good. You even dare to cheat at the Oscars?"