Oscar pre-pre-pre-pre-show

Friday morning I took a few minutes as I walked past the Kodak Theater to snap a few shots the setup for the impending 2009 Academy Awards. (I didn't go out of my way; this location I pass several times a week.)

No actual stars spend any time along Hollywood Boulevard except when there's a movie premiere or ceremony, but the town kowtows to those moments. For the Oscars, the entire stretch of the street between Highland and Orange is closed a full week before the show. Traffic is redirected for over 7 days for an event that technically lasts around 4 hours. It takes time to lay red carpet down the middle of the street.

The only thing I really meant to show you was how the red carpet that is laid down the hallway leading into the actual Kodak Theater--which is still open to the public for that week, and not closed until the weekend of the ceremony--is covered with plastic. As though that was some clever Oscar show trivia. So there are a couple pictures of that. But of course I couldn't stop at merely that.

I'll admit up front: There's not much in the way of fabulous photography, but there are pictures of the statues still wrapped in plastic, reporters... uh, reporting, the clear tent over the street, the opaque tent with the big "The Academy Awards" text that you'll see in every aerial shot during the hours leading up to the broadcast, and of course: Porta-Potties.

Never let it be said I don't cover topical things. I just do it my way.











20 Feb 2009