For most Oscar viewers, the red carpet is little more than a fluffy delight — a few hours filled with insanely expensive dresses, over-caffeinated commentators and false modesty. But for Joe Lewis, whose job is to make sure the red carpet is ready to be tread upon come Sunday, it's serious business. For the past seven years, Lewis has been contracted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to hire hundreds of vendors for the big day, overseeing everything from power and lighting to fan bleachers and porta-potties. His company began preparing for theOscars in September. Around two weeks before the Academy Awards, Lewis relocated from his home in Manhattan Beach to the Loews Hollywood Hotel so that he could be close to the action. Not that the proximity has helped his sleeping schedule much. "I got 70 minutes last night," he said with a chuckle Tuesday morning. "But I like the intensity of it. We're essentially building a little city out there." The actual red carpet — which begins after the stars exit their limos at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue and travels all the way up the staircase to the Dolby Theatre entrance — is more than 600 feet long and won't be laid until Friday evening. Until then, Lewis will repeatedly check the weather forecast — the area is tented in the case of rain (a distinct possibility this year). And on Oscar day, just before the 289 media outlets credentialed for the show arrive, he'll even make sure the carpet has been vacuumed. Lewis, of course, isn't the only one busy this week preparing for perhaps the world's splashiest red carpet. The Times spoke to some of those who work the Oscars to get a sense of what goes into readying for the big day. At E! — the network home to the Kardashians and Joan Rivers — there is no day bigger than the Oscars. "Oscar day is our Super Bowl," said Kolb, president of E! Entertainment, who will send 20 cameras and 350 employees to the red carpet this weekend. The plethora of producers, stylists and camera operators will all help create nine hours of Oscar-centric programming set to air on the cable channel Sunday. "We literally started planning the day after the Oscars last year," said Snegaroff, the executive producer of all of E's red carpet programming. Though the main event will be Ryan Seacrest interviewing celebrities on the red carpet, dozens of other E! personalities will also be dispatched to critique fashion and cover big parties, like the Governors Ball and the Vanity Fair bash. This week, research teams dig up information on the various Oscar nominees and presenters for Seacrest, who is given a card on every celebrity who might approach his platform. "His first question is thought out, but the rest is often pretty spontaneous," said Kolb. "Ryan is a tremendous draw for celebrities. We don't have to do any bending over backward to get them to stop because he's not a reporter they've never met before from an outlet they've never heard of." E! representatives will reach out to celebrity publicists in advance in the hopes of locking them into the schedule. But on the red carpet, where hundreds of people are chaotically rubbing elbows, those plans often fly out the window. "Honestly, if it rains, the limo is gonna be late, or there might be a dress malfunction," said Snegaroff. "You can never count on them, but I get it. They want to look good." The vote count starts on Wednesday in a windowless room at an undisclosed location. That's where eight PricewaterhouseCoopers employees will begin tabulating the Oscar ballots of 6,028 academy members, which were due Tuesday evening. |
對(duì)于大多數(shù)奧斯卡觀眾來說,紅毯不過是象征著空洞的虛榮——充斥著價(jià)格昂貴到令人咋舌的服飾、過于興奮的評(píng)論者和虛偽的謙遜的幾個(gè)小時(shí)。 但對(duì)于喬·路易斯來說,并不只是這么簡(jiǎn)單。他的工作是確保紅地毯在即將到來的周日能夠安全地供人們行走。在過去的七年中,路易斯已經(jīng)和美國電影藝術(shù)與科學(xué)學(xué)院(AMPAS)簽訂合同雇傭了上百名供應(yīng)商來為這一盛會(huì)做準(zhǔn)備,負(fù)責(zé)監(jiān)督從電力、燈光到觀眾看臺(tái)、便攜廁所等所有工作。九月份,他的公司開始為奧斯卡頒獎(jiǎng)禮做準(zhǔn)備工作。 大約在頒獎(jiǎng)禮開始前兩周,路易斯從他位于曼哈頓海灘的家搬到了洛斯好萊塢酒店以便工作。然而住得如此之近并不能給他更充足的睡眠時(shí)間。 “我昨晚只睡了1小時(shí)零10分鐘,”周二的早上,路易斯輕笑著說?!暗蚁矚g這樣的工作強(qiáng)度,我們實(shí)際上就是建造了一座小型城市出來?!?/p> 真正的紅地毯——從明星們走出他們位于好萊塢大道和高地大街拐角處的豪車開始,直到走完所有樓梯到達(dá)杜比劇院的入口——足足有600英尺長(zhǎng),并且直到周五晚上才可以開始鋪設(shè)。 在那之前,路易斯會(huì)反復(fù)查看天氣預(yù)報(bào)——為了防止下雨(今年很有可能會(huì)出現(xiàn)),整塊區(qū)域已經(jīng)用帳篷遮蓋了起來。到頒獎(jiǎng)禮當(dāng)天,在289家允許進(jìn)入的媒體到達(dá)之前,他還會(huì)確認(rèn)下紅地毯是否已經(jīng)被真空吸塵器打掃干凈。 當(dāng)然,路易斯并不是唯一一個(gè)忙于為本周這個(gè)全球最引人注目的紅毯做準(zhǔn)備的人。《泰晤士報(bào)》也采訪了其他為奧斯卡而忙碌的人,看看人們?yōu)榱诉@次盛典還準(zhǔn)備了些什么。 在E!——對(duì)于卡戴珊一家人和瓊·里弗斯來說就像家一樣的網(wǎng)絡(luò)——沒有什么比奧斯卡頒獎(jiǎng)禮更盛大的日子了。 “奧斯卡對(duì)我們來說就像超級(jí)碗比賽”,E!娛樂公司的老板Kolb說,本周末他將派出20臺(tái)攝像機(jī)、350名工作人員前往奧斯卡頒獎(jiǎng)禮。這些數(shù)量眾多的制片人、造型師、攝影師都是為了能夠在周日成功直播頒獎(jiǎng)禮。 “事實(shí)上,去年奧斯卡一結(jié)束我們就開始準(zhǔn)備今年的奧斯卡了,”E!娛樂公司此次奧斯卡項(xiàng)目負(fù)責(zé)人Snegaroff說。 盡管主要事件是瑞安·西克雷斯特采訪紅毯上的名流,但E!公司的還是會(huì)派出一些人士負(fù)責(zé)評(píng)論明星們的著裝、采訪一些奧斯卡中一些重大聚會(huì)比如頒獎(jiǎng)禮晚宴以及舞會(huì)。 本周,研究團(tuán)隊(duì)已經(jīng)為瑞安·西克雷斯特挖掘到了關(guān)于這屆奧斯卡提名者及演講者的各種信息,西克雷斯特手中會(huì)有一張卡片,卡片上寫有每一位可能會(huì)走過他身旁的名流們的各種信息。 “他的第一個(gè)問題是仔細(xì)想好的,剩下的絕大多數(shù)都是即興提出來的”,Kolb說,“瑞安對(duì)名人們來說就是一個(gè)很大的吸引力。我們不需要費(fèi)盡心思地努力讓明星們停住腳步,因?yàn)槿鸢膊⒉皇莵碜阅欠N名不見經(jīng)傳的媒體的無名記者?!?/p> E!娛樂公司的代表會(huì)提前聯(lián)系那些明星以便將他們列入計(jì)劃之中。但是在幾百人摩肩接踵的紅毯上,這樣的計(jì)劃經(jīng)常會(huì)落空。 “如果下雨,明星們的豪車就會(huì)到得稍遲一些,或者他們的服飾可能就會(huì)出現(xiàn)問題。你不能指望他們,但我知道,他們都想看起來漂漂亮亮的?!?/p> 計(jì)票工作會(huì)在位于秘密地點(diǎn)的一間無窗的屋子里進(jìn)行。普華永道事務(wù)所的6名工作人員將會(huì)在這里將6028名學(xué)會(huì)成員周二進(jìn)行的投票結(jié)果進(jìn)行統(tǒng)計(jì),制成表格。 (譯者 wei十二 編輯 丹妮) |