Spike Jonze and Lance Bangs directed portrait of author of "Where the Wild Things Are"
PGA Conference Puts Focus on Producer
“The producer is at the center of entertainment,” PGA president Marshall Herskovitz said.
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It’s perhaps the most anticipated head-to-head competition in Oscar history.
Kathryn Bigelow’s low-budget indie war film, “The Hurt Locker,” and James Cameron’s 3D mega-blockbuster “Avatar,” both nominated for nine Oscars Tuesday, are going directly against one another for Director and Best Picture, among other categories.
Oh, and of course, Bigelow and Cameron used to be married.
Which film is going to win the big Best Picture prize on March 7?
TheWrap breaks down the competition.
The opening of the first annual Produced By Conference was about confronting new challenges.
People from all parts of the country and all employment backgrounds crowded onto the Sony Pictures lot for the sold-out event, some looking to sell, some to buy and some just to learn. 3D screens were ubiquitous, with the biggest of all at 103 feet.
When Vance Van Petten, the executive director of the Producer’s Guild of America, got on stage to kick off the first annual Produced By Conference, he could not quiet the room.
Instead, Marshall Herskovitz, president of the PGA, told the crowd, “The producer is at the center of entertainment,” he said. “The producer is being forgotten and producers must seize the center of activity.”
Stands were set up for companies promoting cameras, public relations, private jets and credit while state film commissions had booths to advertise that they had the best (or cheapest) film locales.
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The day began with director James Cameron, and people could be heard talking about his session until the day was over. (See related story.)
But the most entertaining panel of the day was probably “Episodic TV: Elements of a Hit,” where every panelist complained about how difficult it is to sell a show.
One of the biggest issues facing television, according to “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner, is the inability of Nielsen to calculate real viewership by counting Tivo or online watching.
“There is no such thing as creating a hit anymore,” ‘Scrubs’ creator Bill Lawrence said.
Lawrence noted that when he first approached the networks with ‘Scrubs,’ they told him that a single-camera comedy would not work. Now, having helped make that genre successful, he is returning to the same networks and being told that a multi-camera comedy cannot work.
Both Lawrence and Weiner also lamented that having a hit show meant spending less and less time writing.
“If you want your show to succeed, you have to immediately develop business acumen,” Lawrence said.
Nonetheless, it was also the same duo that soaked up the spotlight with Weiner making the first of many self-deprecating jokes about his lack of business savvy.
