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Oscar 2013 What it Costs

THE ACADEMY AWARDS:

Walt Disney Co., which pays $75 million annually for the rights to broadcast the awards show through 2020.
$21.8 million

The amount AMPAS  (The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) spent to present the 84th annual Oscars ceremony in February 2012.

 Producers’ honorarium: $100,000-plus

As a token of gratitude for overseeing the massive enterprise, the Academy sends the telecast’s producers (this year: Craig Zadan and Neil Meron) a thank-you card and a check in the low-six figures.

 

Host’s fee: $15,000-$25,000
The responsibility of keeping the awards show entertaining and ending it on time goes to the host, and for shouldering that burden, first-time host Seth MacFarlane is paid above the $15,000 SAG-AFTRA minimum.

 

Oscar statuettes: $45,000
The value of the 24-karat-plated mini man is tied to the price of gold, currently about $1,600 an ounce. THR calculates that each of this year’s 50 statuettes from manufacturer R.S. Owens is worth about $900.

 

Security: $250,000
A private firm unaffiliated with the Academy estimates it costs a quarter-million dollars to secure the Oscars, a process that requires thousands of hours of preparation and months of planning and training.

 

Singers: $14,000-plus
Adele and Norah Jones receive a minimum of $3,500 to perform nominated songs; union rates for other numbers start at $2,400 for soloists like Barbra Streisand and $5,000 for groups like the Les Mis ensemble.

 

The set: Less than $1 million
The cost of the Dolby Theatre set is comparable to that of a major musical: at least several hundred thousand dollars. The Academy saves by renting equipment that vendors are loath to loan to open-ended Broadway runs.

 

Winners’ envelopes: $10,000
Stationery designer Marc Friedland spends 110 hours laminating, hand-folding, goldleaf-stamping and embossing 488 nominee cards, but only the 24 bearing the winners’ names will be revealed onstage.

 

The red carpet: $25,000
Unaffiliated L.A.-based Red Carpet Systems quotes $1.50 per square foot for the priceless experience of walking the world’s most famous crimson corridor, which is 500 feet long and 33 feet wide.

 

OTHER:
$11.1 million
Oscar-related activities include nominees’ events and legal expenses.

Membership screenings: $250,000-plus
The Academy’s year-round calendar includes events and screenings in L.A., New York and London for all the Oscar-nominated films.

 

Nominees Luncheon: $260,000
The 156 Oscar contenders gathered at the Beverly Hilton on Feb. 4 for the annual luncheon and class photo, after which each received an “Oscar nominee” sweatshirt.

 

Copyright/trademark protection: $1.5 million
The Academy pays about $1.5 million in annual legal expenses, some of which was spent this year on a lawsuit against domain registrar GoDaddy.

 

Governors Awards: $865,000
On Dec. 1, the Academy saluted D.A. Pennebaker, George Stevens Jr. and Hal Needham and recognized Jeffrey Katzenberg with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

 

Sci-Tech Awards: $432,000 
Star Trek’s Chris Pine and Zoe Saldana hosted the Feb. 9 ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel to honor the film industry’s scientific and technical trailblazers.

 

GOVERNORS BALL:
$1.8 million
Thanks to vendor deals, event planner Sequoia Productions spends up to four-fifths less than the estimated retail value of the items below.

 

Sterling Vineyards wine: $58,000
The Napa winery is providing 540 bottles each of its 2007 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (retail $75) and its 2009 Reserve Chardonnay ($33), which took 1.8 million grapes to create.

 

Thienot Champagne: $87,000
The relatively obscure brand will make its Oscar debut at the Governors Ball with Thienot Brut ($40) at the preshow reception, followed by Thienot Rosé ($66) and the Thienot Vintage 2005 ($50).

 

White truffles: $34,800
The creme de la creme of the prized delicacy hails from Alba, Italy, and Wolfgang Puck is using 10 pounds of the stuff for his chestnut tortellini, among other dishes. Rakuten.com offers 4 ounces for $870.

Snake River Farms steak: $25,300
The Idaho-based purveyor’s website sells two 10-ounce New York strip steaks for $79. Puck has ordered 400 pounds, which he will serve with Japanese matsutake mushrooms ($45 a pound).

 

Chocolate: $20,000 

From “pop rock” pops to gold-dusted Oscars, there’s no shortage of the guilty pleasure on pastry chef Sherry Yard’s menu, which will use 1,000 pounds of Guittard bittersweet chocolate ($30 for a dozen two-ounce bars).

 

Decor: $100,000-plus
Lux Lounge EFR is creating 423 lounge pieces, which will be covered in 1,935 yards of fabric from Resource One. Custom glass cocktail tables will feature blooms from Mark’s Garden sprouting from the pedestal.

 

Chandelier: $1 million
The grand centerpiece of this year’s ball is a custom-designed 120-by-70-foot six-tier fixture, composed of 1.78 million beads and 18,000 LED points of light. It will be available to rent after the party.

 

Event staff: $240,000
To accommodate the 1,500 VIP guests, at least 1,000 personnel (including 350 culinary staff in uniforms designed by ball chair Jeffrey Kurland) will be on hand, working about 12 hours at an average of $20 an hour.

Go Inside Oscar Campaigning

It’s been a wonderful year in film and we are all routing for our favorite movies at this year’s Oscars. But were you aware of the important role that marketing and advertising plays in the success of a movie?

655 movies were released in 2012 and without advertising and marketing, we as movie-goers wouldn’t know about half the movies that come to theaters. If a film doesn’t make a big splash opening weekend you might as well consider it a box office casualty. So it seems promoting a film to the max is pretty essential these days—especially if you want a chance at getting recognized during award season.

But let’s skip past the movie trailers, the social media hype and the box office numbers. What happens after Seth MacFarlane declares you as a 2013 Academy Award nominee?

It’s called Oscar campaigning and it is a real thing. On average, studios can spend anywhere from $5 to $25 million mounting Oscar campaigns. This means that once the noms are out, the claws come out. Think schmoozing with Academy voters, VIP screening parties, brilliant public relations and frequent cast appearances with Leno, Jimmy and Conan.

 

Forget about the price of gasoline: The real skyrocketing expense this year is the Oscar race.

With two deep-pocketed studios locked into one of the closest best picture duels in recent memory and Academy Award voting extended by two weeks, the battle between “Argo” and “Lincoln” has sparked what several Hollywood executives say is the costliest campaign on record

The best picture contest recently has been dominated by independent productions such as “The Hurt Locker” and “The Artist” that couldn’t easily throw money around as if it were confetti. But in the current Oscar race, Warner Bros.‘ “Argo” and the Walt Disney Co.‘s “Lincoln” are each spending an estimated $10 million and potentially much more touting their film’s chances, up to double what a costly campaign has totaled in years past.

Other studios are only a little less profligate: Universal Studios (“Les Misérables”), 20th Century Fox (“Life of Pi”) and Sony Pictures (“Zero Dark Thirty”) all have spent lavishly on their “For Your Consideration” promotions.

Why is all this money spent?

A best picture win can bring in millions more at the box office, and help sell a ton more DVDs. What’s more, Oscar hardware can help woo image-conscious filmmakers into a studio’s fold. Disney, the distributor of “Lincoln,” has never won a best picture statuette, and Warner Bros. has a substantial interest in making “Argo” director Ben Affleck and producer George Clooney feel a lot of love.

Although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has curtailed the number of post-nomination screenings, parties and promotional email blasts, it has no power over paid advertising and related campaign expenses.

The spending blizzard includes covers in Hollywood’s trade newspapers (a single-page Variety cover can cost as much as $80,000), 30-minute TV spots highlighting a film’s bona fides (local broadcast time for recent half-hour “Lincoln,” “Argo” and “Silver Linings Playbook” ads can cost more than $100,000) and first-class air travel, limousines and hotels for filmmakers skipping around the globe to woo awards voters and collect lesser trophies (“Lincoln” star Daniel Day-Lewis doesn’t fly coach and stay at the local EconoLodge).

Outdoor “wallscape” advertising on buildings in prime real-estate locales can run more than $200,000, including production and installation costs. And then there are the high-end parties and receptions for the nominees, which, if held at tony establishments like the Beverly Hills Hotel, can set studios back $100,000 per event.

The expenditures begin months before Tuesday’s voting deadline by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Studios start targeting various precursor awards groups such as critics organizations and show business guilds in the fall, often wooing votes with an array of gifts.

This year, members of the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. received four different lavish “Lincoln” books (including one devoted to Civil War recipes) as well as a special DVD that arrived in an inlaid, numbered box. After the 250-plus member group gave

Spielberg’s film a record 13 nominations, each voter received a personally signed thank-you note from the director on his letterhead stationery.

Universal sent every BFCA voter an iPod Shuffle (retail price: $50) pre-loaded with the songs from “Les Misérables.”

Universal said that its “Les Misérables” campaign, which is all but certain to bring a supporting actress Oscar to costar Anne Hathaway, cost less than $10 million.

After all the nomination and marketing it all comes down to the final voting for the Oscars which will end on Tuesday, February 19, at 5 p.m. PT. Ballots received after the deadline will not be counted.

The 5,856 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will have until the 19th to vote in up to 24 categories. This year the Academy for the first time offered its members the option of casting their ballots online. Final voting began on February 8.

X Factors Fifth Harmony signs record deal

We have all heard it said; “winning isn’t everything”. Well, for this year’s  third-place finishers on the Fox reality competition X-Factor it is especially true. The group has recently been signed by  L.A. Reid’s Epic Records (via Simon Cowell’s Syco Music).

The girls are also about to hit the studio in L.A.. Among the priorities of their first sessions is to record fresh, studio-quality covers via UStream, while A&R execs present the girls with potential song options to one day make their own. Along with writing  some of their own material,  Fifth Harmony will be working with songwriters Autumn Rose (Leona Lewis, Chery Lloyd) and Lil’ Eddie (Usher, Pink, Cody Simpson). Julian Bunetta is executive producing the album.

We can certainly expect a pop sound with an R&B edge from these very talented harmonizers.

http://youtu.be/_CeRg1gvrSE

Disneys Paperman introduces groundbreaking animation technology

Already a winner for Best Short at this year’s Annie Awards (the highest honor given for excellence in animation), Walt Disney Animation Studios “Paperman” has also received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short.

Paperman Introduces a groundbreaking technique that seamlessly merges computer-generated and hand-drawn animation techniques, first-time director John Kahrs takes the art of animation in a bold new direction with the Oscar®-nominated short, “Paperman.” Using a minimalist black-and-white style, the short follows the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City, whose destiny takes an unexpected turn after a chance meeting with a beautiful woman on his morning commute. Convinced the girl of his dreams is gone forever, he gets a second chance when he spots her in a skyscraper window across the avenue from his office. With only his heart, imagination and a stack of papers to get her attention, his efforts are no match for what the fates have in store for him. Created by a small, innovative team working at Walt Disney Animation Studios, “Paperman” pushes the animation medium in an exciting new direction.

Watch the full length short of Paperman!

http://youtu.be/aTLySbGoMX0

The Band Fun sets the bar high

In our article, “Are Marketing and Ad agencies the new music labels?” , we pointed out that the use of indie music in commercials as well as movies and TV continues to rise.  Advertising is now one of the best channels for music distribution, and music is one of the most powerful channels for commercial message distribution. Some artists also get their first big hits via music that is featured in ubiquitous commercials.

It very well may be that the  New York based indie pop band Fun., has set the standard for the use of music in advertising channels.

Their first single, called “We Are Young,” from the album “Some Nights” featuring Janelle Monáe, has been used in several other media including television series Gossip Girl, 90210, Glee, and Chuck, commercials for Chevrolet and Apple,  and in the trailer for Judd Apatow’s film This Is 40.

On February 10, 2013, Fun won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for “We Are Young.” Additionally, Fun was a nominee for four other Grammy Awards: Record of the Year and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance (both for “We Are Young”) along with Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album (both for Some Nights).

Fun’s single “We Are Young” reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. This makes Fun the first multi-member rock band to have a No. 1 Billboard debut on the Hot 100 since Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me” in December 2001/January 2002. On April 11, 2012, Billboard.com announced that Fun’s “We Are Young” also made Digital Sales history. As the song was at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for a sixth consecutive week, it has become the first, and at this time only, song that has ever gained 300,000+ downloads for seven weeks straight.

Congratulations Fun. !!!

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