Bruins have a hand in Oscars

After the red carpet is unrolled, the limousines are lined up,
and the statues are shined, the biggest names in film will fill
Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre for the most awaited award show of
the year: the 78th annual Academy Awards.

And among the pattering feet and smiling faces will be, for the
first time, Amy Adrion and Eddie Matazzoni ““ two graduate
students in UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and
Television.

Adrion, a third-year master of fine arts candidate in directing,
and Matazzoni, a third-year MFA candidate in production management,
were selected after a series of applications and interviews as
interns for the prestigious March 5, 2006 Oscars telecast.

“I only choose from UCLA,” said Gil Cates, a
twelve-time producer of the Oscars, former Dean of UCLA’s
School of Theater, Film and Television and current faculty of the
department.

Cates has made it a tradition of asking UCLA graduate students
to help with the Academy Awards. This year, he and his assistant
Shannon Noel personally selected Matazzoni to intern for the
production.

“Involving students is a good way for them to learn the
process and see if they really want to work in the field. It is
also great for those of us who have been involved for a while to
meet the next generation,” Cates said.

Matazzoni Cates’ personal staff since mid-January, working
out of both the Century City Academy offices and the Kodak Theatre
itself, and spending up to 10-hour days invested in pre-production
tasks.

Working closely with Noel, Matazzoni answers phones, watches
film packages, arranges meetings, researches and performs other,
more glamorous tasks that a confidentiality agreement prevents him
from revealing.

“This experience is something that really can’t be
replicated anywhere, especially in the classroom,” said
Matazzoni, who hopes to one day become a film and TV producer.
“The Oscars are something that I’ve watched my whole
life. This is the pinnacle of television. … To be able to be a
part of it is an honor in itself.”

While Matazzoni works with production of the award show, Adrion
interns with Dennis Doty, producer of the official Oscar red-carpet
telecast.

“The pre-show and the regular show definitely work hand in
hand,” she said of this year’s one-hour program.

Adrion helps gather information for research binders used by
interviewers and producers throughout the show. Along with Doty and
the show’s head researcher, she pages through magazines,
newspapers and Web sites to find anything and everything regarding
the nominees and presenters who may appear on the carpet. From
that, she helps to create possible interview questions for various
hosts throughout the program.

“I think one of the huge draws of the Oscars is the
personalities. For a lot of people, one of the most interesting
aspects of the Oscars is the red carpet,” she said. “It
ramps up the excitement of the show.”

Adrion said the pre-show also serves to familiarize the public
with the year’s films, especially important considering this
year’s slate of independent, lower-grossing films.

In the hopes of drawing a larger, younger crowd to the award
show, Cates also chose talk show sensation Jon Stewart as this
year’s host and booked presenters such as Owen Wilson and
Steve Carrell.

“The films are very diverse this year and you need a
bright mind who can put those all together,” he said.
“Every year is different, because the films are different and
society is different.”

“We’re doing a song this year called
“˜It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp’ that
there’s no way we would have done 15 years ago,” Cates
said.

The rap group Three 6 Mafia will perform the nominated song from
“Hustle & Flow,” having rewritten the song to meet
broadcast standards.

As producer, Cates is responsible for coordinating and managing
everyone else who works on the show and to drive at a common theme
and goal for the year.

“The producer is who finds the restaurant and the food so
that the director, the master chef, can make something special out
of it,” he said.

After dozens of daily meetings, phone calls, screening times and
trips to the Kodak Theatre all beginning around Labor Day, Cates
intends to have everything set in place by Sunday night.

“The day of the show is actually my easiest work
day,” he said. “It’s tense, but everything should
be in place. But if everyone did their job perfectly, I could go
take a cruise or a nap.”

In addition to working with set designers, two groups of script
writers, the director, presenters, hosts, interns and dozens of
other production staff members, Cates is in constant contact with
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Cates, who has also directed plays, such as the nearby Geffen
Playhouse’s recent “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof,” and
directed and produced television programming, feels that student
work on a show such as the Academy Awards is a cornerstone of the
film industry.

Matazzoni said he knows now that this is the direction toward
which his future leads.

For Adrion, an aspiring filmmaker, the entire experience has
been encouraging.

“(It) shows that people are out there (making movies). It
makes it a little more palpable, a little more possible,” she
said.

“At UCLA, I have had so many great opportunities, and
interning for the Oscars is at the height of that. It’s kind
of an only-in-L.A. experience.”

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