Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1081203
39 Q1 2019 / CINEMONTAGE in the analog days. "The effects are one of first things we rehearse on camera," he explains. "The technical setup takes a couple of days. That time used to be consumed with installing all the equipment and getting all the sourcing worked out and routed correctly. Digital technology changed everything. The technical setup now goes much faster. "The engineering team for the Oscars is amazing," he continues. "There's a lot of planning and attention to detail. There's a giant infrastructure for the show and the effects are just one element." But some things haven't changed too much, according to the technical director, who stresses that rehearsal is still crucial to test everything. So is the chance to run through the show with the camera people using stand-ins for the nominees, and to double-check that the right name comes up with the right face. From Shapiro's vantage point, live shows like the Oscars are about anticipating the points of disaster. For example, a sequence starts and one of the nominees is missing. This is something that has happened numerous times over the years. "Maybe the nominee is a no-show or in the bathroom," he posits. "The bottom line is that they are not on camera. What do we do? Do we drop all the effects? Do we move on and stay with the package?" He recalled a near disaster with a nominee effect at one of the Oscar telecasts on which he worked. Shapiro had built a complex 3D "slab" video effect using multiple videotape machines, electronic graphics, numerous keys and still-store slides that on-cue would flip around to reveal the live-nominee camera in the audience before flipping around to the next nominee clip. "When we started into the effect sequence, one of the camera people got on the PL [private line intercom] and said that the nominee was not in his seat," he reveals. "At that time, we only had no-show photos of nominees we knew were not coming to the show. I realized that we did not have a photo of the missing nominee to substitute in place of the live camera. I had planned for a 'bailout' possibility but had not rehearsed to the technical director, who stresses that sequence, one of the camera people got on the PL [private line intercom] and