Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Is last night's Oscars flub a sign of the times?

Steve Sherrick

Steve Sherrick

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
Messages
7,275
Reaction score
54
Points
48
Location
Boston
PWC has been in charge of the secure handling of Oscar winners for 83 years, and by all accounts this is something taken very seriously and not something that a company with $36 Billion dollars in annual revenue would let its guard down and risk its reputation with an incompetent series of events that unfolded at last night's awards show? So, what happened there? Did something change in the protocols that have prevented such mistakes from happening in the previous 83 years? Was it simply an error by one person (to err is human)? Or, was there something more mischievous at play? Perhaps we will find out more soon, but let's just assume for a moment that this was a mistake. Someone messed up and handed the wrong card out. For me, it raises an interesting question. Are we as a society simply more distracted than ever, and are we going to be prone to more mistakes like this (perhaps in more critical areas such as aeronautics, surgical procedures, being President of the United States, etc?

I recently heard that a study was done (I will try to track down the source) that concluded that humans seem to be developing an impulse to communication through their portable devices. In other words, they constantly feel the need to check it, especially when they hear the sound of incoming email or text. There is a physiological response happening. Which leads me to wonder, are people 100% focused on the tasks at hand if they are wondering about their devices and what they may be missing? I think we have all witnessed this first hand in conversations. It's not unusual now to be having a conversation with someone and they will glance down at their phone or even start texting while they are having conversation with you. In other words, they are not entirely engaged with you like they may have been 20 years ago.

Also, I believe it is estimated that employees are on average only 70% productive and that the other 30% is being directed to Facebook and other online activities. If that number is true, that is staggering. And of course, Facebook and the like have been attributed to a high number of recent divorce cases. So, clearly, there is evidence of this all around us. Our government is conducting lot of its business through social media, so it's really not a complete shock. However, I do find it a bit disturbing, especially when you start to think about people who are in charge of critical infrastructure, anything that requires 100% focus, that one mistake could be catastrophic. Hopefully we still have people who are able to do that moving forward.

I might sound like an alarmist here, and I'm open to that criticism but I'm simply just observing what I see happening all around me. And also, I'm not sure I'm impervious to it either, as I'm typing this on a social media site during the middle of the day when I should be writing content for a project today. So, in a way I'm proving my own point. :-)
 
It was always going to happen sooner or later. Nobody died FFS. Some people got a slap on the back from their friends who after a few minutes got a bit embarrassed and slapped their other friends on the back and everyone was lovely and gracious.

There's slightly more important things to give a crap about these days.
 
Steve Sherrick said:
PWC has been in charge of the secure handling of Oscar winners for 83 years, and by all accounts this is something taken very seriously and not something that a company with $36 Billion dollars in annual revenue would let its guard down and risk its reputation with an incompetent series of events that unfolded at last night's awards show? So, what happened there? Did something change in the protocols that have prevented such mistakes from happening in the previous 83 years? Was it simply an error by one person (to err is human)? Or, was there something more mischievous at play? Perhaps we will find out more soon, but let's just assume for a moment that this was a mistake. Someone messed up and handed the wrong card out. For me, it raises an interesting question. Are we as a society simply more distracted than ever, and are we going to be prone to more mistakes like this (perhaps in more critical areas such as aeronautics, surgical procedures, being President of the United States, etc?

I recently heard that a study was done (I will try to track down the source) that concluded that humans seem to be developing an impulse to communication through their portable devices. In other words, they constantly feel the need to check it, especially when they hear the sound of incoming email or text. There is a physiological response happening. Which leads me to wonder, are people 100% focused on the tasks at hand if they are wondering about their devices and what they may be missing? I think we have all witnessed this first hand in conversations. It's not unusual now to be having a conversation with someone and they will glance down at their phone or even start texting while they are having conversation with you. In other words, they are not entirely engaged with you like they may have been 20 years ago.

Also, I believe it is estimated that employees are on average only 70% productive and that the other 30% is being directed to Facebook and other online activities. If that number is true, that is staggering. And of course, Facebook and the like have been attributed to a high number of recent divorce cases. So, clearly, there is evidence of this all around us. Our government is conducting lot of its business through social media, so it's really not a complete shock. However, I do find it a bit disturbing, especially when you start to think about people who are in charge of critical infrastructure, anything that requires 100% focus, that one mistake could be catastrophic. Hopefully we still have people who are able to do that moving forward.

I might sound like an alarmist here, and I'm open to that criticism but I'm simply just observing what I see happening all around me. And also, I'm not sure I'm impervious to it either, as I'm typing this on a social media site during the middle of the day when I should be writing content for a project today. So, in a way I'm proving my own point. :-)
Click to expand...

If I ran the show each envelope would be a different color and/or have a different stripe on it etc., AND have the category name printed on it.

So when Warren Beatty looked at the envelope he could read the category and see that, at a minimum, he had the correct envelope, and people
just off stage could also tell at a distance if it was the correct envelope because of the color and stripes.

NASA space suits have colored stripes on them so you can tell who is inside at a distance.
 
Martin Stevens said:
AND have the category name printed on it.
Click to expand...

I've got news for you:

Q0vyon_H.jpg
 
PWC.....?


Uhm.....Beaty was looking at the card for a while, sufficient for a dyslexic to read the winner.



https://youtu.be/nsIjn-Qp154



Smells like PR bullshit damage control.
 
Steve Sherrick said:
I think we have all witnessed this first hand in conversations. It's not unusual now to be having a conversation with someone and they will glance down at their phone or even start texting while they are having conversation with you. In other words, they are not entirely engaged with you like they may have been 20 years ago.
Click to expand...

Its more like a normal occurrence these days...really a shame, although I am just as guilty of this as anyone else. Its now accepted as the norm to look at your phone in the middle of a conversation.

Regarding last night, I dont think it was anything more than a series of errors..Honestly Beatty should take some of the blame, if you look at it again he clearly knew he had the wrong card and rather than say something which he should have done, he let Dunnaway read the winner. 83 years and this is the first major flub...thats pretty impressive for a live event.

In the end give credit to Jordan Horowitz for his gracious save...he was the star of the night imo.
 
I don't buy the official excuse. This is something that is impossible to get wrong. Envelopes and cards are double-checked with plenty of time to spare. They are all labelled.

Some believe that the incident was deliberate - to get some publicity. It worked, in any case.
 
Karim D. Ghantous said:
I don't buy the official excuse. This is something that is impossible to get wrong. Envelopes and cards are double-checked with plenty of time to spare. They are all labelled.

Some believe that the incident was deliberate - to get some publicity. It worked, in any case.
Click to expand...

Conspiracy Theory...thats BS. Who would want this publicity and why?
It was a fuckup...nothing more. An embarrassment frankly.
 
Karim D. Ghantous said:
I don't buy the official excuse. This is something that is impossible to get wrong. Envelopes and cards are double-checked with plenty of time to spare. They are all labelled.

Some believe that the incident was deliberate - to get some publicity. It worked, in any case.
Click to expand...

Here's why I don't think it was deliberate, at least not by the Academy and certainly not by PWC. While I acknowledge that the ratings have been in decline for the Oscars, they have also prided themselves on this process, hence why they have a reputable firm handling the protocols involved in delivering the winners, to ensure the integrity of the process. And for PWC, a blunder like this if it was their error would be a bit damaging to their reputation, although not devastating but still enough to piss off the upper management and lead to some people getting fired.

Whatever happened, the most unfortunate part is the Moonlight team got slighted, and although i'm sure they will get over it, when you work hard in this industry and the symbolic top of the mountain is the Oscars, to get there and only be able to half enjoy it is kind of tough.

But, this is just the Oscars, entertainment. It's not life and death and what I was getting at is, are we heading in a direction where it will become life and death events due to distraction? We already know the statistics linked to distracted driving caused by mobile devices. That one is indisputable. But what other areas are being affected, not only by use of these devices but anticipation of incoming communication or updates?
 
I didn't stay up to watch it last night, but when I saw it on the news this morning my first thought was, the happiest person on the planet is Steve Harvey.
 
Mark Phelan said:
I didn't stay up to watch it last night, but when I saw it on the news this morning my first thought was, the happiest person on the planet is Steve Harvey.
Click to expand...

Jimmy Kimmel was actually really quick to make a joke about that right after it happened. He said "Personally, I blame Steve Harvey for this."

Here's Kimmel's breakdown about what happened:

 
I think more than anything, Beatty and the other presenter were thinking how awkward it would look for them to call out someone from the backstage to double check when they were live, the program running late and all eyes were on them. The lady decided to read the film name and "wing it", hoping that the mistake of the card wouldn't compromise the outcome. That is understandable because La La Land was the clear favourite and most wouldn't see Moonlight as a contender for best film.
 
On a funny note, I was doing commentary live about the outcome of the Oscars on local news as a local filmmaker, and when I was describing my opinion about the winner (La La Land), I was interrupted by the journalist saying it was Moonlight. I had a sort of moment live with this too. Couldn't help but laugh out loud in live radio!
 
Sounds like it was an accident waiting to happen. I understand the rationale for having two sets of envelopes, one for each side of the stage, but that certainly introduces the possibility of a screw up. Comedic timing that it happened at the very end, on the most important of all the awards and after all the speeches.

Have to tip the hat to Jordan Horowitz for taking control of the situation. He was the one person on stage who could and did make the right call. Good on him.
 
Greg M said:
Conspiracy Theory...thats BS. Who would want this publicity and why?
It was a fuckup...nothing more. An embarrassment frankly.
Click to expand...

I agree 99% that it was just a screw up. However, the publicity itself is good for Moonlight. I honestly can't remember at this moment what won Best Picture the last two years, but Moonlight will be remembered as a winner for a long time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top