The future of the awards: how coronavirus will have long-term effects on Emmy, Oscar, Grammy and other ceremonies

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The exhibition is scheduled to continue and the 2020 Emmy Awards will be held this Sunday in a largely virtual format due to last year’s coronavirus pandemic Like last year’s NFL draft and primary political conventions, entertainment parties like last month’s Emmys and MTV Video Music Awards were forced to reinvent themselves without live audiences , red carpets and the same old hype.

A vaccine will arrive and the pandemic will decrease, but as with all other aspects of our lives, coronavirus will continue to have short- and long-term effects on primary awards such as the Oscars, Grammys and Golden Globes.

“I’m not sure we’re going back to where they were before the pandemic,” says Don Mischer, the veteran of the live occasions who has produced several Oscar, Emmy and Tony ceremonies.

“The industry will replace notoriously because of COVID and many of those adjustments will be sustainable or permanent,” says Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent, the Spirit Awards organization.

With the 2021 calendar already radically renewed, the logistics of the Grammy Awards (January 31), Golden Globes (February 28), Film Independent Spirit Awards (April 24) and Oscars (April 25) will continue to evolve, under the supervision of producers, physical fitness restrictions and the most productive practices in the run-up to those dates. But industry professionals and the prize experts Yahoo Entertainment spoke to have agreed that screens will almost be “hybrid” occasions that mix moments in person from the sites. as well as vital virtual elements.

“Hollywood faces this desirable challenge of being forced to adapt to existing technology,” says Tom O’Neil, editor-in-chief of leading value prediction site Gold Derby. “It’s absurd that we’re still watching the Oscars on television, 40 years after the start of the cable, and now with all those streaming platforms, the old Hollywood classic wears tuxedos and formal dresses on one occasion to honor itself, and this COVID crisis precipitates them into this era of Zoom.

“It forces them to innovate, and that’s a smart thing to do, and it may save their livelihood from rewards. “

As for the ceremonies themselves, “Everything will be through the safe,” Mischer says.

Welsh is at the forefront of the constantly evolving procedure of preparing for a primary award ceremony. “The planning of the 2021 Film Independent Spirit Awards has been very daunting, for the same explanation of why making plans for 2021 is intimidating. “Welsh says. ” No one knows what the world will look like: when there may be a vaccine, when large-scale occasions will be possible, etc. Hope is eternal, but we are first and foremosto committed to the fitness and protection of our One of the most demanding situations has been to identify a schedule in which we must make safe decisions, because things are very fluid.

Within the ceremonies, we can also see quarter-shift or half-full cinemas when it comes to populating the audience, which would accumulate over time, as we now see in theaters and NFL stadiums open to consumers and fans. . It would possibly mean that only nominees, presenters, some members of the Academy, and their visitors occupying socially remote seats can also attend the Oscars, providing us with some other surreal display brought in via COVID-19.

“I think there’s an edition of the Oscars in user where only nominees are in the room, a little press,” says Clayton Davis, Variety’s award writer. “And I think there’s an edition of the Oscars that tries to be as general as possible, but [where the attendees] are in all the other seats. I think there are several other features on the table and I think the Academy is preparing for one of them to take place. “

“You need other people to be on the same level and you need to have presenters,” says Anne Thompson, editor-in-chief of IndieWire. “They will do everything they can when the time comes, they will do as productive as possible. “

In June, Recording Academy President Harvey Mason Jr. told Variety that the Grammys “were simultaneously releasing 3 shots of what the screen would have: one is the classic screen with a full crowd, two is a limited crowd and 3 without crowds, and creativity around those 3 ideas: how and where we would film it. But none of them involve converting or postponing the date [January 31]. “

The logistical situations demanding to make plans are endless. “When I think about the past awards I attended, it’s so hard to believe that so many ‘normal’ things are happening, at least as they did in the past,” says Welsh, adding the Film Independent Spirit Awards. every year they are held in a large tent in Santa Monica Bevery on the Saturday before the Oscars. “A crowded press line on the arrivals carpet, other people sharing non-unusual food at tables, full transfers that take other people to the parking lot, presenters sharing microphones at the level while announcing the winners, is happening” change.

Until there is a critical mass of vaccines, COVID tests may still be given to participants and a mask may be required. Some applicants may not be comfortable attending in person. Then she is like Kate Winslet, who admitted that the pandemic had led her to think again about the vigour and environmental effects of globetrotters at times such as press trips, film releases and awards, which she discovered were “stressful,” as she told Vanity Fair.

The absence of nominees can also have effects on virtual elements. Mischer sees this as one of the few positive aspects that arise from the new standard, noting that the Emmys sent 130 video kits to quarantined nominees to film themselves for transmission. “When I was doing those shows, adding the Oscars and Emmys, I hoped there was a way to move on to the nominees’ homes and families,” he says. So when a nominee won an Oscar or an Emmy, not only if we saw the crowd at Microsoft [Theatre] or Dolby [Theatre], you can also see their families. Possibly they’d be in Oklahoma City, possibly they’d be in New Hampshire. Possibly they’d be in East Lansing, Michigan, now we’re more prepared to attract virtually more people to a stage, even if it’s live. “

This happens out of necessity with the Emmys, but it may well be a normal facet of the entertainment awards in the future.

“That’s what the audience needs to know not only to get used to, but also to love a lot,” O’Neil says. “They like Trevor Noah’s casual character with a sweatshirt at home [presenting The Daily Show]. They like to see other people in their kitchens, in their gardens or drop their laptops. There will be massive hugs with members of the family circle. Therefore, there will be a whole new way to respond to wins and losses. It’s a smart way for [the prizes] to get out of their small, enough pavilion. “

Virtual elements can also be a budget issue in the future: the pandemic has followed a few tumultuous years for organizations that are the source of wonderful awards, while ratings for their broadcasts continue to fall year after year. the future, streaming services) that streaming rewards are probably to look for more cost-cutting measures, adding more emphasis on augmented reality, allowing manufacturers to create sets and actions on high-resolution LED displays for on-site shots.

“There’s a fight for survival among the academies that sponsor those awards,” Mischer says. “Their revenue comes largely from the rates they collect from the chains that broadcast the programs. I’ve been worried about [the Oscars and the Emmys] and I know it. And they’re threatened because ratings are going down. “

Thompson sees the Oscars, the greatest Kahuna of all the prizes, fighting no matter what happens next April for those horrible quintess. “The Academy can’t not have Oscar,” he says. I think they will promote, press, applaud and celebrate the videos in a way that means more right now because they are very threatened and because the theaters are so besathed.

Mischer thinks that, therefore, it is quite possible that we will see a decrease in profile categories, such as nominated and Oscar-winning films, and categories of films removed from circulation, or they can be distributed on separate nights, as the Television Academy has done. Faithful five unreleased nights this year (five nights!) to the presentation of his Emmys of Creative Arts in categories adding technical achievements, guest performances, as well as categories of animation, truth and documentary.

“When you produce those things, you serve two amos,” Mischer says. “We have to please the network that needs less of those rewards [in the air] . . . And the institution. His total philosophy is that the Emmy or the Oscar for sound mixing is the same as the Emmy or the Oscar of the director or the most productive film ».

If coronavirus remains an imminent risk in early 2021, praise broadcasts may move abroad. Would the Dolby Theatre Oscars temporarily move to a concert hall like the Hollywood Bowl?Anything is possible. But “you play Russian roulette when you move something outside,” says Mischer, who has also produced half-time Super Bowl exhibits and Olympic ceremonies. “When you’re out and it’s starting to rain, you have to move on. It’s not how you’re going to postpone it, you know, so you take the risk.

Speaking of activities, what will the red carpets look like after COVID?

“I suppose we’ll see a form of glamor on the red carpet from a social distance,” says Thompson.

“I think other people are going to be very tired of getting back to normal, whatever it is,” Davis adds.

“If there is a serious fatal risk to the public, in fact, they might not wear ceremonial clothing, they will pass with the city’s clothing, which has happened beyond the awards,” says O’Neil, referring to examples like the one in 2003. Iraq War. O’Neil also says that the red carpet circus is still a relatively recent phenomenon in the biggest trend of Hollywood traditions, which has only exploded in the last 20 or 30 years with the popularity of cable entertainment news coverage. “I think COVID is about to turn out not to be as must-have, as it’s been hunting as it has been lately,” he says.

In May, design company 1540 Prods shared with The Hollywood Reporter the depictions of what the red carpet looks like after closing, with socially remote press modules separated by giant glass walls.

In the end, there is no doubt that, as with all walks of life, coronavirus and our long national closure will have persistent effects not only on the festivities, but also on the reward circuit and on the entire extravagant crusade involved. , however, the excess that surrounds them will in fact be reduced by some notches. Emissions would also be less predictable. And it’s not just the coronavirus that will remain in everyone’s brain in 2021, given all the occasions of the year that will follow.

“I think the Spirits, and certainly other programs, will reflect the moment we’re living in another tone,” Welsh says. “This is not just the year of COVID, it is the year in which we are witnessing a long-awaited This is the year when environmental devastation is feeling increasingly inordinate and the year of an election that will mark the long term of this country in the most internal way imaginable. the prizes deserve a big and serious business, but we don’t have time to say who you’re wearing. “

“I think at the end of the day, the awards will gain advantages from this crisis because they were on a predictable and boring downward trajectory,” says O’Neil. “And I think you can revitalize them, customize them, make them create a more powerful human bond with enthusiasts and the audience, and open up artistic probabilities none of us are aware of yet.

“I am firmly convinced that the Oscars are a smart thing, which help many films that would not otherwise have caught the eye, would not even have been made. They enjoy each other and are popular,” Thompson says. I know there are a lot of other people who say, ‘You’re a fool. ‘But I’m an r. Y. I think they perform a really mandatory function. But all the promotion around them, the intensity of it, the ridiculous degrees to which celebrities receive God’s prestige and throw away fashionable clothes and six-inch reclining heels or whatever. It doesn’t have to be like this. “

Instead, we may see the winners celebrating sitting on their sofas and dressed in slippers.

Learn more about Yahoo Entertainment:

The long-term life of cinemas: how socially remote seats and other new protection rules will replace the filming experience

The long-term TV of truth: how will systems adapt to the pandemic?

Disney World’s long-term: here’s what you’ll see when visiting Disney, Universal and other theme parks after the coronavirus

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