If filmmakers and movie stars lose sleep the night before the Academy Award nominations are announced, they are not alone.
Nearly 100 workers spent a sleepless night preparing for Thursday’s early morning announcement. They surrendered their cell phones and locked themselves into the high security of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ headquarters, where they focused solely on the business of breaking worldwide movie news.
A minute-by-minute account of their all-nighter:
8:30 p.m. — Overnight workers arrive, greeted by a sign that reads: “No cell phones. No BlackBerrys. All communication with the outside world is prohibited until 5:38 a.m.”
8:45 p.m. — Telephone and Internet access is shut down throughout the building. Workers are given walkie-talkies.
9:05 p.m. — Representatives from PricewaterhouseCoopers, the firm that tabulates the ballots, arrive with the results. The overnight crew gathers on the fourth floor to welcome the accountants, who distribute the nominees’ list. The workers cheer, then fall silent as they devour the news. Muffled “hmms” and “wows” follow.
9:18 p.m. — The floor empties as the Web designers, graphic artists, researchers, publicists and producers disperse to prepare for the 5:38 a.m. press conference, which is attended by hundreds of reporters and beamed live worldwide.
9:22 p.m. — Fourteen Web designers, each facing a Mac laptop, fill a regal conference room overlooking the Hollywood Hills as they begin updating Oscar.com with photos and footage of the nominees. An oversized Oscar statue stands in one corner, bags of chips and cases of Red Bull fill another.
9:39 p.m. — Academy executives, film experts and a reference librarian meet on the top floor to assemble factoids and trivia bits about the nominees. They discuss whether Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are legally married — if so, they’d be the only married couple each nominated for acting in the same year; they determine the two aren’t wed.
10 p.m. — Virtic Brown, the communications-desk supervisor, conducts a walkie-talkie roll-call from her post on the fifth floor. Every hour, she checks to make sure the radios — and the workers — are still working.
11:02 p.m. — The experts and executives finish the factoids and trivia bits. They ask an assistant to make copies for the press.
11:50 p.m. — Graphic designers claim a corner of the fourth floor to format photos of the nominees for the televised announcement. They started collecting images of likely nominees weeks ago to make the process quick and easy, says supervisor Doug Stewart, but there was a surprise name in the mix. They had to scramble for a photo at the last minute. He won’t say which one.
12:28 a.m. — Six women wearing blue plastic gloves start making up press kits. They fill a table with various stacks of paper — the nominees’ list, the factoids — then walk in circles around it collating printouts. It will take more than two hours to assemble 850 press kits. The gloves prevent paper cuts, one woman says, but they don’t do much for the dizziness.
12:49 a.m. — The academy’s executive director, Bruce Davis, studies the nominees’ list in his office. Down the hall, coffee cups and soda cans pile up in front of the Oscar.com workers.
1 a.m. — Brown does her third walkie-talkie roll-call. “I’m still here,” replies one weary worker.
1:13 a.m. — Media members begin unloading video cameras, lights and other electronic gear into the academy’s second-floor theater, where the nominations are announced.
1:17 a.m. — The graphic designers move their operation out of their fourth-floor corner and into the wings of the theater, where they’ll fine-tune their images and timing during a technical rehearsal.
2:09 a.m. — A worker vacuums the first-floor lobby, which is filled with linen-covered tables and bountiful buffet stations.
2:58 a.m. — Bleary-eyed workers straggle into the lobby to eat. A few journalists join them.
3:59 a.m. — Academy President Sid Ganis arrives. He looks over the nominees and begins rehearsing for the press conference, which he’ll help present.
4:08 a.m. — Co-presenter Forest Whitaker arrives. He and Ganis practice reading names off a teleprompter.
4:23 a.m. — Ganis and Whitaker step into the theater for a dress rehearsal. They run through the five-minute presentation a few times as a clock behind them ticks down the minutes until the live broadcast.
4:35 a.m. — Oscar telecast producers Laurence Mark and Bill Condon take seats inside the theater. Meanwhile, the 850 press kits that were assembled earlier line long tables outside.
5 a.m. — Ganis gives an interview in his office. “It’s a very exciting morning,” he says. “It’s a big job to announce Oscar nominations.”
5:10 a.m. — Few seats remain as journalists from 400 media outlets fill the theater. The accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers sit in the front row, next to the reference librarian.
5:15 a.m. — Whitaker sits for hair and makeup. “I just left from Washington,” he says, rubbing his eyes. “I flew in last night and woke up a few hours later.”
5:17 a.m. — No longer behind their computers, the Oscar.com workers relax. The site is ready and waiting to go live when the broadcast begins.
5:34 a.m. — A voice booms over the buzzing crowd in the theater: “Five minutes to our live broadcast.”
5:38 a.m. — The same voice says, “10 seconds everyone.” Music plays. Ganis and Whitaker take the stage.
5:43 a.m. — The press conference ends. The overnight crew gather their things and start to head home. Four weeks until showtime.
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