The Nothing Men, a film by Mark Fitzpatrick, with Colin Friels, David Field

13 August 2010

The Nothing Men, trailer, (NSFW: profanities) is the first feature of Australian director and screenwriter Mark Fitzpatrick. Set mainly on the floor of a Sydney factory that is about to close, six bored men bide their time, as they are forced to wait two weeks for their redundancy payments.

Despite the fact there is no actual work to do, and the men have started to become a tad irritated with each other, their final weeks of literally sitting around haven’t been too bad. After all, very few companies effectively pay their staff to spend the day drinking and playing cards.

News that a worker, David Field (David Snedden), from head office is to join them for their final fortnight however unsettles the foreman, Jack Simpson (Colin Friels). David spent the week prior at another company site where a dozen workers were abruptly sacked, losing their severance payments in the process. Jack thinks he smells a rat.

David, who on first acquaintance seems normal enough, is though, as a draftsman, an odd placement for a factory workshop. When he starts making what he claims are private phone calls behind closed doors in the office, and seemingly going home during the day for personal reasons, everyone soon becomes unsettled.

The men fear David is a spy sent from head office to find excuses to sack them, so the company won’t have to pay out their redundancy money. Accordingly, they reluctantly agree to dispense with the beer and card games, and sit tight for the duration, while also keeping their distance from him.

David does manage to befriend Wesley Timms (Martin Dingle-Wall), the quieter, more studious, of the six, who is also a fellow chess player, and invites him back to his place for a game one evening. While there, Wesley makes a disturbing discovery, and also learns, unbeknownst to David, that they are linked by a past tragedy.

Anyone who has been in a situation similar to that facing the soon to be retrenched men, will understand how uncertainty, innuendo, and gossip, can combine to create fear and mistrust.

Compound that with the prospect that much anticipated redundancy payments are at risk, and the situation can quickly become insufferable. Are the fears of the factory workers justified though, or are they perhaps over reacting? The Nothing Men shows just how suddenly the seed of an idea — whether based in fact, or not — can get out of hand.

While equal parts drama and thriller, The Nothing Men is let down by several plot inconsistencies. There are also a number of red-herrings, intended to build up mystery around David that are just a tad too contrived, and at odds with the rest of the story. Still, the audience is left guessing as to what will happen, right up to the final frame.

Originally published Friday 13 August 2010.

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The Waiting City, a film by Claire McCarthy, with Radha Mitchell, Joel Edgerton

12 July 2010

The Waiting City, trailer, the second full length feature of Sydney and Los Angeles based Australian filmmaker Claire McCarthy, has the distinction of being the first Australian produced movie to be filmed entirely in India. The story recounts the experiences of Fiona Simmons (Radha Mitchell), and husband Ben (Joel Edgerton), who travel to the city of Kolkata to adopt a baby girl.

While outwardly happy, the couple are as different as chalk and cheese. The “always on” Fiona continues working on client cases — through her mobile phone and laptop — as if she never left the office. This is in sharp contrast to the laid back, somewhat aimless Ben, who easily strikes up rapport with the locals through his music.

The adoption process, which the couple expect to be a mere formality — they only booked their Kolkata hotel for two weeks after all — turns out to be far more daunting than anticipated. Instead Fiona and Ben find themselves confronted by a rigid, and manual bureaucratic system, replete with delays and hold-ups, that are unexpected and unexplained.

Despite the reservations of others, particularly Krishna (Samrat Chakrabarti), a hotel worker with a direct manner whom they befriend, there is no doubt Ben and Fiona are eagerly awaiting the finalisation of the adoption process. The want nothing more than to take Lakshmi, their adoptive daughter, home to Australia.

But Ben’s chance meeting with the younger Scarlett (Isabel Lucas), a fellow musician from Australia, brings to light the first hint of trouble in his marriage with Fiona. This leads to a series of rifts between the two, which at one point sees the pair staying in separate hotels.

The growing discord between Ben and Fiona gradually results in the reopening of old wounds, and the uncovering of a long held secret. Their marital woes come to a head during a trip to Bhopal, Lakshmi’s birth place, leaving the couple questioning whether they should even be together, let alone adopting a child.

McCarthy is in no hurry to tell her story allowing us to take in the enthralling destinations that are Kolkata and the other places Ben and Fiona visit. Mitchell, who blends seamlessly into her role as the hopeful mother-to-be, together with the ever versatile Edgerton, put in stand out performances.

Visually, The Waiting City is a delight to watch, thanks to the work of cinematographer Denson Baker, whose soft, hazy camera work beautifully renders the locations. His use of close shots meanwhile, projects the bewilderment and turmoil first time travellers to unfamiliar places experience.

The Waiting City is more than a journey to exotic lands though, it is one of self discovery and coming to understand what you really want from life. To adapt a line from a well known quote, perhaps the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself first.

Update: I recently interviewed director Claire McCarthy about the making of The Waiting City.

Originally published Monday 12 July 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

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We made it back to the future, but in a parallel universe

9 July 2010

If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Back to the Future fan I hope you weren’t taken in by the claim that last Monday, 5 July, was “Future Day”. That being the day Marty McFly and Doc Brown arrived in the future when they travelled forward in time during 1989’s Back to the Future Part II.

The arrival of the time travellers from 1985 last Monday may not have been all bad though, had it have happened. In the twenty-five years since the release of Back to the Future, and only five years out from 2015 — the setting for much of Back to the Future Part II — we still have ground to make up in terms of matching some of the advances in technology seen in the movie trilogy.

So far we’re still lagging in the development of:

• Flying cars (actually they exist, but are far from in everyday use)
• Hoverboards
• Time travel

We have however made advances in other areas, with the advent of:

• The World Wide Web
• Smart phones
• High Definition TV (if that’s much of innovation really, considering we’ve had low-def TVs for years)

There’s still another five years to go though, perhaps by then we’ll at least have hoverboards that are able to match what we can do with skateboards today.

Originally published Friday 9 July 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

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Q&A with Claire McCarthy director of The Waiting City

30 June 2010

Australian director Claire McCarthy’s latest film The Waiting City is a portrayal of an Australian couple Ben (Joel Edgerton), and Fiona (Radha Mitchell), who travel to Kolkata, India, to collect a baby they have adopted. But delays in finalising the process, together with the disorientation of an unknown city and unfamiliar culture, begin to take a strain on their marriage.

The Waiting City has the distinction of being the first Australian made movie to be filmed entirely in India. Recently Claire McCarthy (Instagram page) took some time out to answer a few of my questions about the making of her new film.

Q: To what degree did your experiences of living in India, and working in orphanages there, have in inspiring the film?

A: A great deal of the film is based on real life situations, friends and interview subjects although it is most certainly a work of fiction. The film is an amalgam of many formative experiences in my life.

Beginning with working in the slums of Kolkata with Mother Teresa’s nuns with my amazing sister Helena and at a turning point shooting a music video on the sweltering banks of the Ganges with my husband-to-be Denson Baker ACS as a test run for the real film, The Waiting City in many ways is an expression of many of my loves; of people, music, food, culture and importantly, of the city of Kolkata.

The documentary I made (called Sisters) also undeniably became a jumping off point for research and development of the fiction screenplay of The Waiting City and gave me insight into the people behind adoption as well as the people and city of Calcutta. I have gleaned so much inspiration from so many very remarkable and inspiring people who have allowed me to interview them and have shared their stories with me.

The inspiration for this story is personal, researched, observed and imagined.

Q: The Waiting City was filmed entirely in India, and accordingly we see nothing of the life of Ben and Fiona in Australia. Why was that?

A: My intention was to allow Fiona and Ben’s history to gradually bubble up to the surface through their experiences in India. This felt like a more elegant solution to expose the characters, and us the audience, to the world of India and that in doing so force them to question their lives and choices about themselves and their relationship.

Q: Aside from your past association with Kolkata, why did you choose to make this city the main setting for the story?

A: The personal connection I had with Kolkata was a big factor in setting the film in this city. It was crucial that the film had a unique rhythm, texture, colour palette and sense of exoticism that we as a Western audience had never seen before. Kolkata is a perfect for this as it has such a unique look and feel and so many contrasting locations and settings.

It was important that through the journey into this city that the main characters would be forced out of their comfort zones to be truly present experiencing each other and the city. The film is really inspired by the beauty, textures and unique rhythms of the city of Kolkata.

As another character in the film too Kolkata forces our main characters to really think about their projections and judgements and to look at their own lives back in Australia from a different vantage point. So it was an aesthetic, strategic, emotional and personal reason to shoot in the city of Kolkata.

Q: What for you was the biggest challenge in filming completely on an overseas location?

A: It was crucial to me that the team became like a family in the making of The Waiting City. We never wanted to be considered a ‘foreign’ film as such and were resistant to the idea of just coming into India and taking over the town. We wanted the film to be a collaborative process with a blending of ideas and resources.

This was one of the biggest challenges of the film; finding the time to ensure the creative process was not lost under the freight train of production pressures. The film is a very fine example of high level planning, collaboration and cultural exchange between incredible Australian and Indian creatives and technicians.

Q: Adoption is a key part of the story, were there any thoughts you wished to convey here, especially on the adoption of children from developing nations?

A: As a filmmaker it’s not my intention to be for or against adoption, it’s more to raise questions about what it means to take a child away from their culture and whether or not bringing them to another culture is a good or a bad thing. In the work I did in orphanages and the research I did about adoption, the one consistent factor I found was the protracted waiting period to receive a child.

Over and above the adoption process itself, the possibilities interested me of what might happen to a couple whilst they were waiting to receive their child.

So I began to look at that emotional stranglehold for both the parents and the child, which was of primary interest to me as a filmmaker over and above the adoption process itself. I started to consider that in waiting for a child a couple would inevitably be pulled in so many different directions and vulnerabilities would be exposed within their relationship.

So in the film the adoption process forces the relationship of the couple under a microscope and causes them to address other issues as well: motherhood, fertility, mortality, gender politics, different expressions of families and journeys to parenthood, spirituality and desire.

Thanks Claire.

Update: some behind the scenes video footage of The Waiting City just to hand.

Originally published Wednesday 30 June 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

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Flip from left to right when driving from Hong Kong to China

16 June 2010

A proposal by Dutch designers, NL architects, could result in the construction of a far from ordinary bridge roadway connecting Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland, which would include artificial islands serving as car parks and bus stations.

Under the proposal, a “flipper” would be incorporated along the connecting roadway, allowing Hong Kong motorists – who drive on the left – to switch safely and effortlessly to the right, the side Chinese drivers use, and vice versa.

Originally published Wednesday 16 June 2010.

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An online revenue model for independent content producers

12 April 2010

Independent online publishers, content producers, and bloggers, who are looking for a way to earn an income, or make money online, could do worse than take a few cues from Daring Fireball, the website of John Gruber, who lives and breathes all things Apple.

Daring Fireball serves over two million page views, and generates an estimated revenue of US$15-20,000 each month, making Gruber’s methods well worth scrutinising. Let’s find out how we, as independent content producers, can do likewise.

Become a member of a private advertising network

Daring Fireball is part of The Deck, a private ad network created by Jim Coudal. Collectively, member websites have a very large audience made up mainly of creative, web and design professionals.

Members, who are admitted by invitation only, are required to display an image 120 by 90 pixels in size, and cannot carry any other forms of advertising on their website.

When you consider that 26 advertisers pay US$7900 per month, to advertise across 43 member sites though, the return, even allowing for The Deck’s cut, is going be very worthwhile.

Sell weekly sponsorship slots on your RSS feed

Gruber estimates that in excess of 150,000 readers (though the actual number is probably far higher) subscribe to Daring Fireball’s RSS feed, and this level of interest has allowed him to offer exclusive weekly sponsorship at US$3,500 a slot.

Do the maths there, that’s an income of US14,000 every four weeks, not bad at all for a one person operation.

A number of other high profile bloggers have attempted to monetise their RSS feeds, many of whom incidentally are members of “The Deck”, though very few have emulated Daring Fireball’s success.

A recent discussion with Jason Kottke on The Pipeline, Dan Benjamin’s online radio show, both conceded that Gruber is one the few people to make RSS feed sponsorship work.

Sell merchandise and website memberships

Daring Fireball offers readers the chance to become members for a cost of US$19 annually.

While membership isn’t worth much in itself though, aside from gaining access to a separate RSS feed which apparently includes a few extra items not published to the main feed, it is really a way for supporters of the site to make a contribution should they wish to.

T-shirts are also sold, they are usually made available once a year, and with a purchase comes an automatic one year membership.

The income from t-shirt sales and memberships, while handy, would be far less than that generated by “The Deck” membership and RSS sponsorships though.

Leverage your online profile to earn income offline

Someone with the high profile of John Gruber could probably do well on the speaking and appearance circuit, so there are definitely opportunities in that regard.

Don’t charge your readers a cent to access your website

Despite publishing one of the most highly regarded news and information resources of all things Apple and Mac, Daring Fireball does not charge the casual reader anything to visit the site.

Sure, the super-motivated can take out a US$19 annual membership, or buy a t-shirt, but there is no compulsion whatsoever to do so.

I want a piece of the action, what do I do next?

Who wouldn’t want to be an independent online content producer earning in the region of $20,000 a month? I’d happily settle for a quarter of that amount.

Without telling you how to go about it, I can say that there are two important things you need to do, and that both require inordinate amounts of time and effort.

One is always to work on boosting your profile (marketing and promotion), the other is producing quality, useful, content.

While nowhere near the traffic levels of Daring Fireball, it’s my thought that an independent online publisher could make a reasonable, self supporting, income from around 30,000 unique visitors a day.

At least it’s a nice round number to aim for.

Originally published Monday 12 April 2010.

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How to make your own green tea… matcha cappuccinos

23 March 2010

A green tea cappuccino, that’s a new one for me, and I had the chance to try one of these beverages while out road tripping last week. I jotted down a few notes while our host prepared the drinks, so should you wish to indulge, here’s the recipe.

You certainly don’t need a coffee-making machine to whip up a green tea cappuccino. A kettle, tea cups, a mixing jug or cup, and a cordless hand-held milk frother, will do the trick, along with:

• Near boiled water
• Warmed, but not excessively hot, milk
• Matcha green tea powder

And now to brew:

• Place two heaped dessert spoons of green tea powder per tea cup into the mixing jug
• Pour a third of a cup of near, but not fully, boiling water, per tea cup, into the mixing jug
• Blend the tea powder and water for a minute until foam forms on top of the mixture with the milk frother
• Pour an equal measure of the mixture into each tea cup
• Pour the warmed milk to the mixing jug and froth
• Add the frothed milk to the tea cups
• Serve and enjoy

If like me, you’re a big drinker of both green tea and cappuccinos, you may find the green tea cappuccino takes some getting used to. Worth it though.

Update: a video of the brewing process (thanks to the ever vigilant Coffee Girl).

Originally published Tuesday 23 March 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

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What might have happened if the internet was not invented?

1 March 2010

The other week, an article written in 1995 by Clifford Stoll who — in short — could see no future for the internet, resurfaced.

While events obviously took a different course, Stoll’s words started me wondering about a world without an internet, and what our lives in 2010 might be like in the absence of this “most trendy and oversold community”, as Stoll put it.

And faster than Marty McFly and Doc Brown can conjure up an alternative timeline, here we are, a day in my life, in an un-wired, web-less, 2010.

The day begins like this, as always…

I go down to my letter box. There are three letters, a bill, two magazines, and the daily newspaper. A prominently placed front-page article boasts of a circulation increase of 0.1%, according to the latest readership audit.

Over breakfast I continue scanning the paper. The music industry is on the war path. Again. They can’t seem to shut down the groups who are bootlegging albums, by burning them onto DVDs and then selling them for — quite literally — a song on the street.

Before settling into the day’s work I quickly reply to the letters I’ve received, this is a breeze since nowadays people mostly only write letters that are a paragraph or two long. And given they now only cost five cents to send, literally millions are exchanged daily in Australia.

Getting down to work, I need to do some research

I work from home as a freelance writer. I work for a number of what are called street magazines, which are independently produced publications.

Sometimes several people operate them, sometimes they are the work of one person, an editor, who also relies on contributions from freelance writers.

But more on street magazines later.

I work using a computerised pad like device about the size of an A4 sheet of paper. The top section has a screen, while the lower part has a keypad.

I can send output to either a printer, via fax (the Victorian age technology has really stood the test of time), or save it as a text file to a floppy disc, which I can courier to whomever I’m writing for.

I have two article deadlines in two days time, and will need to spend a couple of hours at the local library doing some research for them.

Some of those street magazines are quality rags

Some of the more popular publications do really well, and thanks to their numerous sponsors, turn out top-shelf editions each week.

People like Jason Kottke, Karen Cheng, John Gruber, and Duncan Macleod who runs a zine called The Inspiration Room, are considered some of the big names in street magazine publishing.

What makes one street magazine more popular than another? I have no idea really. Quality content for sure, but I think luck has a lot to do with it also. That hasn’t stopped a large number of hopefuls from publishing street magazines on how to publish street magazines though.

Clearly these sorts of publications don’t bother the established newspapers though, who are after all, boasting of increases in their readership.

Producing your own street magazine is also easy

Self publishing really caught on with the advent of photo-copy print machines, and because they are so cheap and easy to operate, they can be found in most corner stores, newsagents, and supermarkets.

The whole process is incredibly simple. You write content using your computer’s word-processor, and then, when finished, export the file to a floppy disc. Then it’s away to the nearest photo-copy print machine.

You simply insert the floppy disc in the yellow slot, select from a number of print-out (or publishing) options, insert some money, and a few minutes later you are a published author, proudly holding your paperback — which is usually A5 size by the way — in your hands.

Sites that offer photo-copy printing services also allow you to place your publications in vending shelves, for a small fee. Your readers can then come along and pick up your latest work.

Cafes, bars, cinemas, and even public transport services, also have distribution facilities, so publishers with good advertising revenue can afford to widely circulate their magazines.

Instead of Facebook and social networks

The way you meet people in this world is truly weird.

Case in point. I was just over at the supermarket when a girl smiled and waved at me. This puzzled me as she didn’t look familiar, so I asked if I knew her from somewhere. She looked perplexed. “I was just wondering if you wanted to be friends,” she said.

Maybe it was the way I was looking at her, as if she had stepped out of a flying saucer or some such.

“Well, what do you expect me to do? Send you a photo, a bio, and a list of my friends to you, or something? Come on, what sort of world do you think we live in? The Star Trek universe?”

We ended up shrugging at each other and went our separate ways.

Coffee meetings and face to face networking

Today is when the weekly writers coffee group meets. We get together every week to chat, network, and compare notes.

One guy there today was in a very excitable mood though, “you know, this is far more than people sitting in a cafe chatting, exchanging information and tips, it’s a… I don’t know, er, community network, a like, social network, you know?”

A social network? That sounds kind of cool. We all nodded meaningfully, and resumed our random chatter.

Instead of Twitter, micro-blogging, and text messaging

On returning home from the coffee group, there are a stack of “slips” in my letter box.

Slips are a micro revolution in what I call — for want of a better term — instant communication. Basically people can send 150 character messages to each other via the postal service.

In Australia for example you pay $100 a month and can send up to 500 slips. To send one you call the Post Office service centre, where a communications consultant transcribes your message, and then faxes it to the post office nearest to where the recipient lives.

Slips are delivered through out the day, though not so often in rural areas, by people who drive around in very distinct red and blue striped vans.

The big advantage of slips is in their brevity. People often can’t be bothered making a phone call or writing a letter, especially if they only want to tell their friends what they had for lunch or where they were at a certain time, so slips really took off.

Designed to be recycled, and printed on fax paper with a special ink that fades after a few days, they have also proved a boon for postal services worldwide as a result of their popularity.

Advertising is also carried on the back of slips, making the concept a veritable gold mine.

The future of the future is still televised

I watch as someone called Steve Jobs walks onto a stage at a trade show with a pad like device very similar to what I use. Except it has what Jobs’ refers to as a dongle attached to it.

The “dongle”, which is about the size of a packet of chewing gum, is a wireless transmitting device that allow computers to talk to each other, and also share information and files. It will change the very essence of our lives, Jobs says.

We’ll be able to buy music and movie files through the dongle somehow, publish street magazines “online”, and even meet people the same way. Yeah, right.

Quite a few people in the audience are clearly excited by what he is saying. But not me. Such a thing will never catch on.

I flick the TV off, and as I take delivery of the day’s last batch of slips, prepare to spend the rest of the evening reading through the growing pile of street magazines that I subscribe to.

An “online” world?

I couldn’t possibly imagine living in such a place. If you disagree though, please send me a slip or letter. Good night.

Originally published Monday 1 March 2010, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.

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Classical recital etiquette protocols? Thought you’d never ask

22 February 2010

Classical, or chamber, music recitals were not events I went along to a whole lot until I was introduced to the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) last year.

Going to see a band, either in concert or at the local pub, seems — to me — like something that requires no thought it’s so natural, but what about a classical music performance, isn’t that, you know, different?

Aren’t there dress codes (top hat and tails?) and other protocols to be observed? Or, you’ve been asked to go along to a show with the company’s CEO, have no idea what happens, and are keen not to distinguish yourself for the wrong reasons?

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person to have ever wondered about such things, so here we go, a guide and some tips to the etiquette and protocols of attending classical music recitals.

What’s the dress code, what should I wear?

This seems to be the main concern of many first time recital-goers, and I’m pleased to report that top hat and tails are generally not necessary.

For me though, someone who only wears a suit once in a Blue Moon, dressing up is part of the fun of going along to a recital. I don’t usually bother with a tie though, I only wear those once every couple of Blue Moons, but at the very least think “smart casual” if wondering what to wear.

Be punctual, there’s nothing worse than being shut out

The best idea is to plan to arrive early.

There’s an important difference between going to a movie and being late, and a recital and being late, the recital is a live performance.

Unlike their big screen counterparts, live performers find it a lot harder to ignore the distraction of latecomers trying to find their seat, which is invariably at the front of the house.

Then there’s the matter of trampling on the toes of audience members sharing your row, and blocking the view of others behind.

In all likelihood though, if you are late, you’ll be barred from entering the auditorium, until there is a significant break in the music, or at intermission.

So, arrive early, have a drink at the bar, and acquaint yourself with the show program, while you wait for curtain up.

Applause, when do I clap?

While pauses during a song or composition are common to all musical genres, classical music is replete with silences and breaks. This can often confuse those unfamiliar with the music being performed, who often think it is complete, and start clapping.

You don’t want to be that person. Unless you are well acquainted with the music, wait until everyone else is applauding before you join in.

Also watch the performers for end-of-play cues, members of the ACO for example usually raise their violin or cello bows above their heads at the conclusion of a piece.

Photos, recording, and mobile phones

Taking photos and video recording during a recital are generally a big no no. A few snaps of the concert hall, and empty stage, before the performance may be ok though, but the check show program, or ask someone, before you pull your camera out.

Needless to say mobile phones should be switched off or set to silent mode.

Take some time out at intermission

Most recitals have an intermission break after about 45 minutes, which tend to last for about 20 minutes. If you need to go to the bathroom, or return an urgent call from the boss, intermission is the time.

It’s also a good idea to get up and stretch your legs, the show will be a little more enjoyable if you don’t feel restless.

How long does the show usually last?

While it depends on the pieces being performed, recitals tend to run for about 90 minutes with a 20 minute intermission about half way through, so all up, about two hours. The show program should have the exact times of the performances.

Read the show program

I’ve mentioned the show program a few times, and trust me, it’s a good idea to read through it, especially if you are not a regular recital goer. They usually include details of recital and intermission times, and of course information about the music being played.

There’s nothing like looking as if you know what you are doing.

Originally published Monday 22 February 2010.

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How does the Oscar nomination and voting process work?

16 February 2010

NOTE: this is a legacy article published in 2010. Much of the information presented is likely now out of date.

While the movie buff in me takes an avid interest in who wins what in the Academy Awards each year, I’ve never given much thought to how a film reaches the winning list, aside from the fact it must be good — or reasonably good — and was favoured by members of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), who preside over the venerable award.

And as it turns out, after doing a little research into the process, garnering an AMPAS member’s favour is the very first thing a film must do, if it is to set itself along the Oscar winning pathway.

Favour, choices, AMPAS branches, and nominations

The nomination process commences when each of the 5,777 members of AMPAS, or the Academy, are asked to select their favourite eligible ¹ films — usually five — from the preceding year.

The Academy is split into 15 branches, which represent the various aspects of the film production process, and include actors, directors, writers, producers, and visual effects branches, to name a few.

Branch members are only able to nominate “in-house” however. For instance members of the Writers Branch can only nominate film writers for an award, they cannot, for example, choose actors or directors.

Member numbers can vary across branches, and the Academy as a whole, from year to year, and this can have an effect on the overall process, but more on that shortly.

Preferential voting and magic numbers

The choices made by branch members, which are ranked preferentially from one to five, are sent to accounting and auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), who then count the selections — manually — and after much sifting of paper, eventually determine the top five choices — or nominations — in each Oscar category.

To be in the running a film must receive at least one number one ranking from a member, or it is eliminated from the count. PwC go through all the votes, or selections, short-listing the top five number one ranked films in each category.

Taking the Animated Feature Film category as an example, here’s how the nomination selection process might work. This year the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch of the AMPAS has 340 members.

PwC divides this number by 6 ², which equals about 56. To make the grade therefore, a film must secure at least 56 number one votes from members of this branch.

For example 63 members might have selected “Coraline” as their first choice. Another 62 might have chosen “Fantastic Mr. Fox” as their first choice, another 61 “The Princess and the Frog”, 60 “The Secret of Kells”, and finally 57 “Up” ³.

Any other animated features that may have been voted as a top choice by members of the branch are now eliminated, as they did not receive enough votes to make the top five in the category.

It gets complicated — sometimes very complicated — however if five movies do not reach the minimum vote threshold, and this is where the preferential voting system comes into play.

They [the PwC team] then look at the piles still left on the table and get rid of the one with the smallest amount of votes, redistributing them to other piles ranked on the 2nd favourite film on the ballots. If the number 2 choice has already been eliminated then they go to the 3rd choice and so on. Once that’s taken place they count again, if a film hits the magic number it’s taken off the table and is a nominee.

Changes to the number of Best Picture nominations

This year, for the first time since 1943, there are ten movies competing for the Best Picture gong, rather than the usual five, meaning the PwC team would have short-listed the top ten, rather than top five, number one voted films for this category.

The Visual Effects and Make Up categories are the only other exceptions to the five nominations per category rule this year, each sporting three contenders.

Voting and electing the winners

The final voting process is relatively similar to the nomination process.

Once nominations have been finalised, Academy members are sent ballot papers, and again using a preferential voting system, make their selections.

At this stage though, just two people at PwC are involved in counting the votes, and they remain the only ones to know the final results, until the winners are announced on Oscars night.

Controversy in Best Picture decisions

For all its mathematical precision, there is still no guarantee that the best film will be accorded the Best Picture award. 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, a superbly made movie in my opinion, could be considered a case in point.

Despite winning a slew of other film awards, and five Oscar nominations, it nevertheless missed the Best Picture award. It was suggested the Academy shunned the movie in the final round of voting as members were uncomfortable with a gay love story.

After “Brokeback Mountain” won an unprecedented number of precursor awards for best picture — 26 — it entered the Oscars with the most nominations and was considered a shoo-in to win best picture. That is, until the majority of its members — straight, ole, self-absorbed, guy geezers, as legend has it — refused to embrace the gay movie and so they gave their top prize to “Crash.”

That said, “Crash” was still a very good film.

And, to date, no science fiction or animated films, have received a Best Picture award, suggesting the Academy prefers only certain film genres.

Other factors influencing Oscar nominations

While nominations ultimately boil down to the individual tastes of the Academy’s 5,777 members, certain factors may sway their decision.

For example in 2008 sociologists from Harvard University, and the University of California, found female actors appearing in dramas, rather than comedies, were more likely than their contemporaries to score an Oscar nomination.

Academy Award nominations tend to go to performers in dramas, who are female, who have been nominated in the past and who command a high rank in the movie-credit pecking order.

And finally if I were a member of the Academy…

My ten choices — for Best Picture — this year would be:

• An Education
• Up
• The Road
• Up in the Air
• Watchmen
• Star Trek (a long shot, but…)
• Looking For Eric
• (500) Days of Summer
• Beautiful Kate
• Is Anybody There?

These are not, unfortunately, ranked preferentially (though “An Education” would still be very near the top), plus I’m not 100 per-cent sure that all titles are eligible for this year’s awards.

And just so you know, this year’s Oscar awards take place on Sunday, 7 March, 2010, or Monday afternoon, 8 March, as it will be in this part of the world.

(Sources: Wikipedia, Radio 1 Movies Blog, Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Live Science, Gold Derby.)

Originally published Tuesday 16 February 2010.

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