Organisers of the Oscar Awards came up with a plan to avoid boring and long speeches full of ‘thank yous’ and praises directed to the people, whom the stars have worked with. Their solution was to make the winners prepare two speeches.
The stars vying for the top film awards, like George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Sandra Bullock, and Jeff Bridges, gathered for the Oscar nominees’ luncheon held annually in Beverly Hills. At the event, the show’s producers gave tips on how the stars should deliver their speeches within the 45-second time limit.
Normally, nominees are advised to keep their acceptance speeches short, and keep away from too much acknowledgement of important people in their lives. Bill Mechanic, the show’s co-producer, said that those kinds of acceptance speeches are “the single most-hated thing on the show”.
Mechanic and his co-producer, Adam Shankman, decided to have the winners prepare two speeches. One will be delivered on stage to tell the people the essence of winning the much coveted award, and the other will be delivered backstage where the winners can say ‘thank you’.
The backstage video will be posted online so that the fans could watch. The management even said that the winners could download it so that they could email it to their peers, or upload it to their own personal websites.
In addition, organisers of this year’s Oscars modified the way the trophies are given. Traditionally, the trophies without nameplates are handed to the stars on stage, and the nameplates will be delivered after several weeks.
This year, engraving will be done during the Governor’s Ball so that the winners will stay longer.
