Every year, the Academy develops a unique video activation for Oscar Winners just moments after they leave the stage. The objectives are to highlight the winner’s creativity and personality in a short vertical video, ensure that the activation is quick and easy for the winner to complete, and to edit and distribute the videos online as soon as possible. Releasing the videos while the Oscars live show is still airing is a top priority, as there is a steep drop-off in views and interest after the show concludes.
Our activation had a footprint of 12’x17’ and was located in a meeting space in the Loews hotel. After an Oscar Winner leaves the stage in the Dolby Theater, they are led to a hallway that emerges into the Loews hotel. From there they are able to take part in photo, press and video opportunities.
We wanted the winners and light-painting to be the primary focus of the videos, which resulted in a simple, yet elegant, braided curtain and wood floor for our set. The color and texture reference variations of the official key art for the 95th Oscars.
The light-painting software technology and workflow was developed by a German company called Lichtfaktor GmbH. We mounted the two cameras closely together, one on top of the other. At a distance of 9’ it was important that both cameras had identical frames. One camera (Camera A) was then exposed for the talent, the other (Camera B) was calibrated to capture the flashlights used for the light-writing. The thickness, brightness, and texture of the writing was driven by the practical flashlights that were used.
In real time, Camera B footage was run through Lichfaktor’s software, the painting effect was created, and composited on top of the footage from Camera A. The resulting composite was then routed to a monitor above Camera A for the winners to watch and get real-time feedback for their paintings.
Four video sources, Camera A, Camera B, Light Effect, and Camera A/Light Effect Composite, were captured simultaneously for each winner. These were then copied to a shared server where a team of four were able to edit and post each video in about 20-45 minutes. We were able to finish and post 9 videos the night of the show - the remaining 11 were posted over the following two days.
Our primary goal was to increase visibility and engagement for the content we produced across different platforms, and the performance metrics indicate that we accomplished this effectively.
In just four days after being posted, the 20 videos uploaded to YouTube Shorts accumulated a total of over 200,000 views. The eight videos featured on The Academy's Instagram account collectively received an impressive 7.9 million views.
The mostly positive response from our followers/subscribers validates our efforts and underscores the effectiveness of our team's concerted approach in achieving the desired impact.
