Working Magic Podcasts: Behind Every Oscar
On the evening of Sunday, March 2, millions of television viewers will have their sets tuned to the annual Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences awards show, affectionately known as the Oscars. All eyes will be on the stars and famous directors and producers parading down the red carpet.
But what about the hundreds of crew members who work on films behind the scenes? Every film employs scores and sometimes hundreds of skilled workers, whose names appear in the end credits when most people have gathered their belongings and empty popcorn boxes and are headed home.
For the past four years, I have been working with my interns on interviewing some of these workers for a documentary project called Working Magic: The Occupations of the Film Industry. Their interviews include positions as diverse as stunt coordinator, makeup artist, set decorator, composer, and animator. Previous blog posts have featured podcasts produced by Smith College intern Julia Fernandez.
Julia recently produced four more podcasts, which we offer here to honor those people whose names you may never hear called from the Oscar stage but whose hard work is nonetheless important and should be recognized.
1) Andrea Bloom, producer from Washington, D.C.
Interview by Julia Fernandez, fall 2012
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2) Alex Ibrahim, cinematographer from Washington, D.C.
Interview by Julia Fernandez, fall 2012
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3) Amelia Zontini, set costumer from Virginia Beach
Interview by intern Emily Vallerga, spring 2013
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4) Tim Smith, historical film and TV actor from Yorktown, Virginia
Interview by by Emily Vallerga and Betty Belanus, spring 2013
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Tim also participated in the 2007 Smithsonian Folklife Festival program Roots of Virginia Culture, since his family owns and operates a historic boatyard.
Betty Belanus is a curator and education specialist at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.
