“I’m sure they’re very lovely people, but they just didn’t have the disposition for this,” Natoli said. “You need somebody who’s going to be confident and unafraid.”
Thursday, March 02, 2017
Oscars Stage Manager Details PwC Accountants’ Incompetence: ‘They Froze’
“I’m sure they’re very lovely people, but they just didn’t have the disposition for this,” Natoli said. “You need somebody who’s going to be confident and unafraid.”
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Wow I was just reading this article and I thought "I should send this to David for the greenpage" but it's already here! You read my mind! When I saw this happening at the Oscar's I was wondering why it took so long for them to go out and correct this mistake. At first I thought that this was because they had printed the wrong name on the best picture card, but then I learned that there were two copies of every envelope. At that point I knew that PwC was to blame, but I had no idea just how badly they reacted to this situation. This article really shed light on just how unprepared they were to cope with this. It's almost worse knowing that they had even discussed what they would do if something were announced wrong and they completely disregarded this in the heat of the moment. There is no excuse for waiting over a minute and half to go onstage and fix their mistake. At first I felt bad for PwC because this one error is probably going to have serious consequences for them, but now that's all gone away knowing that they stood around doing nothing instead of paying attention and solving the problem. It was also very irresponsible on the academy's end to make the envelopes harder to read just to make them look prettier. Like we said in class, this really might be the end of the envelope. The stage manager is right that this ruined an otherwise solid show, and unfortunately some people might blame the management team for this mistake.
If sounds as if everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. Not only were the envelopes switched, but the print on the new design was too small and the PwC people failed to act until later prompted. I definitely think that part of the reason that this mix-up became as big as it did was because of how the situation was presented. To viewers, it seemed like it was staged because of how informally they announced that Moonlight was best picture. Despite their lack of action, I can’t help feeling bad for the PwC accountants. Not only did they mess up the Oscars, but they did so in a very public way and everyone now knows of their mistakes. This article essentially blames them, and even though the failed to act quickly and appropriately I don’t believe this deserve this public humiliation. Nonetheless, this article was very interesting to read and hopefully new protocol can be enacted to prevent this from happening again.
While I appreciate the in-depth description about the mishap that happened at the Oscars, I admit I had to re-read parts of this article a few times to understand who was talking or who was being talked about. Though there were a lot of names and people involved in the mishap, it could have been made clearer what was happening in the article (this is all coming from someone with essentially no prior knowledge of the names of those involved).
As for the content of the article, I agree with Natoli’s criticism of PwC. Assuming Natoli’s description of the situation is accurate, the two PwC representatives erred in their inability to resolve the situation despite knowing what they were supposed to do given an incorrect announcement. However, I have some reservations since there was the one complaint mentioned about the poor design of the announcement envelopes, meaning it is entirely possible that it was the Academy’s blunder that caused the wrong envelope to go out in the first place. In other words, PwC did a terrible job of controlling the problem, but perhaps they were not all to blame.
Wow. What a wild story. You never think something like that is going to happen until it does. I would think that they would have been more prepared for this sort of thing. I imagined that all award shows had very intricate ways of sending out the ballots to avoid this very problem, but I guess not. It is crazy to me that Martha pretty much knew and didn't say anything and even once they found out both her and Brian didn't want to go out and fix it. What did they think was going to happen? Were they just going to let LaLa Land think they won? With the events laid out for me and the quick thinking of the stage managers, I am proud. It is so cool how as soon as the SMs were presented the problem they acted, no hesitation, they figured out the best course of action and went for it.
Wow...I imagine that the Carnegie Mellon Drama Community can relate to this way more than most can. We are all aware of the difficult tasks and responsibilities that cycle backstage. We hold a lot more power than most are aware of, sometimes we are not always fully aware. I honestly can not help but feel terrible for Cullinan and Ruiz. It could not be argued that it was not a tough situation to be in, but it is also just the nature of working in entertainment. The fact that Cullinan was taking pictures backstage instead of paying attention was careless and ultimately costly and unprofessional. I am curious about how much experience the two had as well as if they have served in previous Oscars before. All that being said, this is a brilliant lesson about when functionality needs to be prioritized over style. If the lettering had remained clearer, this too could have prevented the mistake, especially if backstage at the Oscars is anything like most stages-dark. It is also a brutal reminded that the crew is all in it together as Stage Manager Gary Natoli makes a point of. He was not in control, or responsible for the fluke, but the mistake falls upon the entire crew’s back regardless. There really is a specific personality with is suited for working in live entertainment and Cullinan and Ruiz will probably never make the same mistake again. Hopefully they can learn from this and be presented with another opportunity to demonstrate understanding elsewhere. It is really important that we treat everyone like accident-prone humans. We all make mistakes, the key is learning from them.
I can not imagine what id do in this situation, although i can hope i would handle it a little better than the PwC accountants. even though everyone was pretty shook by this mishap, i bet we here at Carnegie Mellon can relate to this more than most other people who witnessed. backstage of any show is hectic and utter chaos, and is for sure one of the reasons that we are not allowed to use our electronics backstage, because it draws your attention completely away from where it should be. Apart from Cullinan's blatantly irresponsible behavior backstage, his reaction to the whole event is more surprising and disappointing especially because of the conversation they had just days before. the protocol and responsibilities of the PwC accountants were clear, and yet there was no action from them to remedy the mistake. It will definitely be a major blow to both Cullinan and Ruiz's careers, and while i am sorry for the amount of public ridicule they have received, i think there is a price to be paid for being ill prepared. However i am truly sympathetic towards Gary Natoli and the entire crew for the Oscars because they work their hardest to put on a great show, and when something goes wrong, they still deal with the fallout despite the fact that they are not responsible for the mishap. Im sure in future it will be protocol to detail to the accountants exactly what their responsibilities are in case of a mistake, but i hope it never comes to that again.
I cannot believe there was no real contingency plan. I guess I understand that with something so important with such established protocol you do not expect anything to go wrong. However at the same time, you would think that a contingency plan in the case that anything goes wrong would be part of that well established protocol because it is so important. It's especially disappointing, because (as Nick said in his comment) they had just had a conversation about what to do. Even tho it wasn't a legitimate plan, it was something that both the accountant and stage manager had agreed made sense to do, so why did no one do it? Granted, no one likes to own up to the fact they made a mistake, but it would have been the most professional thing to do. Cullinan being unwilling to step out onto the stage and rectify the situation made it worse for PwC, worse for the Oscars crew, worse for La La Land, and worse for himself. That hesitation comes off as childish to me, especially in combination with his inappropriate backstage behavior. You would think that for something that is such a big deal PwC would've put better suited people backstage or at least had a plan. I still just can't believe there was no plan, there should be a plan for every thing. At least there probably will be now...
I’ve seen so many articles recently revolving around the Best Pictures mishap at the Oscars including one focused solely on the typography of the envelopes, but the thing that surprises me the most is that the accountants weren't paying attention when the wrong picture was announced and then froze up when they realized the mistake. The stage manager mentions a couple times in the article that he didn’t think they had the right disposition for what was happening. And it's true that this is probably so hard for the theater community to understand because we do have the disposition to react to things quickly and if fact many of us have had to deal with onstage incidents, though obviously not with anything this public. But for people who are not used to having to think on their feet, I can understand when they realized their mistake and that everyone watching the Oscars, millions of people, saw it they completely froze up. There is a certain kind of insanity it takes to work in live entertainment because anything could happen, and you have to be ready for it.
I loved how the Stage managers were not afraid to speak up and say that this incident was the accounts fault. The accounts clearly did not do their job of either memorizing all the winners or just not speaking up right away. La la land should have never gotten to be on that stage for as long as they did. It was said that they were taking pictures instead of paying attention. If that’s true why the hell were they doing that. It was there job to make sure nothing like this happened and yet it did. It is very upsetting that accounts have not released an apology. The accounts needed to go up there right away to fix they mistake. But they did not. And no till forever Moonlights win will be overlooked at the fact that the Oscars made a mistake. It’s a shame what had happened to Moonlight, La la land was surprisingly amazing sports about not wining.
I know this may be cynical to say, but i really think this whole oscars thing is quite funny. I don't know if i actually believe the rumors of this being a publicity stunt. I think it may have just been a result of poor execution and poor preparation/communication. Like Simone, I am shocked about the absence of a contingency plan. I am not sure if this has happened before with other awards and I am not sure about how you should handle the situation. This situation shows that there is clearly a lack of communication and preparation in this award show industry. I mean I can only imagine how large/hard an award show is to maintain and manage, its an art in itself. I've always wondered how many stage managers are on these projects (and for the tony awards specifically) do they switch off for each performance of a different broadway show?
I think that this would have been more excusable if the accountant had not mentioned that there was a protocol and that he had no problem entering the stage to correct any errors made in terms of envelopes. I think it's sort of a stage fright, that he didn't want everyone looking at him and knowing that he was at fault for the mistake. I do think the point about legibility on the envelopes is also a fair one. In my opinion, function comes first and then you add the decoration, not sacrificing important function for aesthetics. That could have definitely stopped this particular mix-up. I'm sure that either the accountant, an SM or the presenter would have realized had the words "Best Actress" on the envelope supposedly containing the result for best picture were not correct. I think overall, it's is always tough when something goes wring, but I'm glad in this particular case they have identified what caused it and not lay blame to run crews or SMs arbitrarily.
I kind of love to read articles about live event mishaps and fuck-ups because it helps distract me of my own fuck-ups as ASM and SM. I actually found It interesting to read about the PWC contingency plan before the whole mishap happened, as I thought it was a reasonable, and even respectable plan. But unfortunately "the best laid plans of mice and men" and all that make it so that got plan is only as strong as who you entrust it to. It seems like the Oscar gig was a kind of fun stint for these two PWC accountants, and not a serious production role as it should have been. Why have these people be from PWC in the first place anyway? I understand they have to ensure the "confidentiality" and everything, but everyone knows that the Oscar is just a big Hollywood circle jerk, so if they treated it more like a show than anything else, it would make sense to put an ASM or someone like that on the job, as they would have more incentive to make the show go well, and above all, would have experience and the wherewithal to act.
This is quite opposite from the fiasco on New Years with Ms. Carey. In that situation the talent blamed the technical team and no clear story emerged from the situation. In the Oscars situation, there was a clear story about what happened and the talent admitted fault. The proper actions were taken and all was well. I now have a good amount of respect for the Academy. They should have listened to the SM team that the envelopes were going to cause issues, but hopefully they will learn from this. It will also never cease to amaze me how much one can plan for a situation, and then somehow have that situation happen and the plan not be executed. Enabling success through others is what makes the world stressful and so much more difficult. If someone gives you a plan for a certain situation, just do it no questions asked and all will be well.
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