The basement of a hotel, an Al Malaikah temple and the annex to an open-air shopping mall are just a few of the locations where the Academy Awards have been held throughout its 93-year history.
But with the pandemic comes a big change in the entertainment industry and what better time than to change Oscars – in this case the 82-year-old Dolby Theater transaction for Union Station, designed by John and Donald Parkinson, downtown Los Angeles?
As Oscar producer Stacey Sher noted on Saturday, “We’re here to make a case of why cinema it matters“And Union Station is an iconic landmark in the world’s film capital, where features such as crime noir Union Station, The Way We Were, to Live and Die in LA, Blade Runner and The knight of darkness rises they were shot. As Pete Hammond of Deadline wrote, Oscar producer Steven Soderbergh’s “Manifesto” has the award as a movie, not a TV show, at 24 frames per second, widescreen with movie photos, including over the shoulder.
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Rockwell Group
Oscarcast production designer David Rockwell said today at a news conference that this year’s inspirations come from a return to the elegance of previous Oscars at the Biltmore and Roosevelt hotels. Both locations were considered this year before production was established at Union Station. The train station supports Art Deco architecture for Los Angeles, but what’s important at this year’s show is creating “a room in a room,” per Rockwell, especially one that is transparent.
The building borrowed an Oscar show in “enormous scale” and “oxygen”, allowing “horizontal scale and vertical sweeping”. In essence, the old ticket office at Union Station will host the main stage. The northern and southern terraces with jacaranda trees will be used for pre- and post-show. “The camera will be used 360,” Rockwell said. “There will be camera positions that will act throughout the room.”
One of Rockwell’s challenges in working with the site: “Nothing can be attached to the ceiling and nothing can be attached to the floor.”
The deco lighting fixtures are part of the show’s lighting, as are the station’s 40-foot windows in the old ticket area. Participants will be in pairs of two – one nominee and one guest – seated at tables and banquets.
“Remember that the ceremony starts at 5pm, so this production goes from daylight to night,” Rockwell said. “We will use daylight and other production lights in the corner of the room to light up the stage.”
The deadline was recently ventured to Union Station and is a work in progress; much of the detail comes to life in the last 48 hours before the show. The station remains in full operation between subway lines and Amtrak trains, with major areas such as the courtyards and the original ticket hall, blocked and accessible by badge staff.
The Oscars are broadcast live on ABC starting at 5:00 pm on Sunday, April 25.
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