What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 7th May 2013

Welcome to another of those lovely short weeks!

Last week was a blur of entries for the PRCA DARE Awards and judging for the Midlands Media Awards which means only one thing at Cloud 9 Towers, it's script time!

Whilst we are no strangers to writing scripts for awards ceremonies, it has to be said that it is not one of our favourite tasks as the wrong script can put an audience to sleep, but the right one can lift a room and ensure you have the makings of a great night.

But just how do you get it right and what happens if it all goes horribly wrong?

The awards ceremony is a time for celebration. A real chance to recognise the exceptional. Whether it is in a special setting, where you celebrate the success of a specific group of people or a single individual, the larger the set, the more impact you need to make.

Did you know that you are doing the script and the tone of voice so that it reads just as you would actually say it aloud?  Write scripts to encourage and to sound positive even if the subject manner is dull, and above all deliver a speech that everyone can understand.

The speech can be anything you want it to and if accompanied by a presentation, remember that most of the attention will be on screen and not on the script. If you can get real participation from the audience, you could also write the script so that it tells a story. 

The story may start with the winner or the nominees history, and then recognise the contribution or achievement before you make any announcements. If you are recognising a company or organisation then always remember to include the names of the individuals involved so that people feel included the awards have more value. In addition, tell a story that people want to continue to listen to, so that they can hear the climax of the story and end. The end of the story is the actual awards presentation.

Of course there can be long faces and sour grapes: when awards ceremonies don't go by the script.

The Award for Best Face at the 2013 Golden Globes went to Tommy Lee Jones.

As Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig performed an hilarious double-act of misunderstanding the plot of several nominated films, the sour puss that Jones displayed, amid all the perma-beaming, shining-eyed beauties at the first night of the movie industry's awards season, could have curdled milk. Perhaps he'd been told he was going to be pipped to the Best Supporting Actor gong (in Lincoln) by Christoph Waltz playing, in Django Unchained, almost exactly the same role he played in Inglourious Basterds. But might his thunder-over-Mount-Rushmore face have been a sign of the Academy's disapproval of the Globes?

The Golden Globes were not the only awards to get it wrong this year and more recently

 The Professional Footballers' Association has also made a big error in judgement.

 

Now embroiled in a fresh racism row after its chairman, Clarke Carlisle, admitted it was a "huge mistake" to hire the comedian Reginald D Hunter for the unions annula awards bash.

Hunter, a black American comedian renowned for racial humour, used the word "nigger" during his set at the Grosvenor House hotel in London, following two years in which high-profile incidents including the John Terry-Anton Ferdinand case and Luis Suárez's abuse of Patrice Evra have blighted the game.

The anti-racism campaign group Kick It Out also condemned the PFA's choice of entertainment and Carlisle, who has been chairman since 2010, admitted he was "embarrassed" while watching Hunter perform. "I thought we made a huge mistake," said the Northampton Town defender. "I thought with everything that we have gone through over the last few years, using a comedian of his type was a bad error in judgement. I was embarrassed sat up there throughout and I want to apologise unreservedly to the footballing community that was present.

"What galls me is that it was a momentous occasion. It was our 40th award, Kim Little won the first women's award, a place in history. It was the first time that the men's and women's game had unified and instead we are talking about someone who we paid to come in as entertainment and be facetious about something we stand vehemently against so I apologise for that. I was embarrassed.

"I'm not lambasting Reginald D Hunter. That's his act, it's what he does. When you go to a comedy store you know you might have to leave your moral compass at the door, but the PFA awards dinner, the showpiece of our season, is not the time to have an act like that."

A Kick It Out statement read: "It is a matter for the PFA … Kick It Out condemns racial slurs, the use of the n-word irrespective of context, and will act on any complaints made to the organisation on it."  However, the PFA chief executive, Gordon Taylor, defended the choice of comedian. Asked if it was a mistake to hire Hunter, he said: "No, no, don't be silly. Are you serious? I think there were a few raised eyebrows over the comedian but that is the sort of thing you can't control. It was unfortunate. He is a professional comedian. It's a difficult subject in football and with him not being fully aware of how emotive it has been in football, that was probably a difficulty for him."

Even really high profile ceremonies and those televised can fall foul of the awards scripting nightmare....

In 2007, Sir Terry Wogan announced the wrong winner of the public vote to find the UK's song for Eurovision.The veteran broadcaster had to be corrected by co-host Fearne Cotton after he said singer Cyndi had beaten Scooch. The mistake led to the BBC issuing a statement, insisting that Sir Terry had been given the right information in his ear-piece and "no technical problem" had occurred. The corporation admitted the studio was noisy and emphasised Sir Terry was not being blamed for the mix-up.

US pop star Katy Perry was wrongly handed one of the main prizes at a music award ceremony in France in 2009. She collected the trophy for best international song at the NRJ Awards in Cannes, but it was intended for Rihanna for her track Disturbia.Host Nikos Aliagas admitted the error at the end of the show. She did not leave empty-handed after giving the prize back, as she legitimately won the best international album prize.

Ant and Dec were presented with the people's choice trophy at the British Comedy Awards in 2005. An independent report revealed that pop star Robbie Williams had been given assurances that he could present the duo with the prize if he agreed to appear at the ceremony. But BBC comedy The Catherine Tate Show collected more votes and should therefore have been declared the winner. Ant and Dec later agreed to give back the award.

Finally, when actress Marisa Tomei won the Academy Award for best supporting actress in 1993 for My Cousin Vinny, many were surprised she was picked over veteran actresses Joan Plowright and Vanessa Redgrave. After Tomei won the award, rumours circulated that presenter Jack Palance had been unable to read the winner's name or was drunk and had simply read out her name by mistake. However, the claims were never proven and Oscars organisers insisted two certified accountants were at either end of the awards stage to prevent such a mistake from ever happening.

So bearing that in mind we will try not to make any mistakes in our script writing for any of our awards this year, let's just hope our presenters do us proud!

See you next week folks, enjoy! 

What's Floating Around Cloud 9? 21 Jan 13

Welcome to another week!

Awards are and have always been our mainstay and whilst activity on the Midlands Media Awards, Fresh and another couple of exciting new programmes (which we are keeping under wraps for now) are all progressing nicely, we thought it timely to focus on some of the great opportunities for eager awards entrants in 2013!

It doesn’t seem to matter which industry you are working in these days, there is bound to be a programme that recognises and rewards your sector and it doesn’t matter if Car Parks or Catering is your thing, there will still be an awards event that is either up your street or your cup of tea……

So why should you bother?

Winning a business or industry award provides independent recognition of your expertise and success. And if promoted well, it allows you to stand out from your competitors. Reasons why organisations should enter awards include the opportunity to raise the profile of the company, demonstrate you are well-run and successful, attract media coverage, increase the company's appeal to potential investors and be seen as a good employer, which can help attract top flight staff. Winning is also a fantastic morale booster for everyone and sometimes provides a valuable prize.

It might be that the prize is simply a trophy, but what that can represent can make all the difference in attracting new business.

So, you have completed a great project, written a first class article, provided unprecedented service or designed a ground breaking logo – which is the awards programme for you?

One of the most comprehensive sources of information about awards events, which includes links, deadline and event dates is the Boost Awards site. You can search by sector, discipline and even for regional, national and international awards and by registering, you can get an alert when the deadline is looming.

Whilst we love awards (it’s our business afterall) we don’t necessarily advocate any of the following even though some of them are clearly very popular and well supported!

The Golden Collar Awards: As far as weird awards ceremonies go, it seems that every dog has their day. In the case of The Golden Collar Awards, the most prestigious pups tinsel town has to offer are celebrated in an awards ceremony with (just slightly) less tension than the Oscars. This year, Uggie, the adored (and now acclaimed!) Jack Russel terrier The Artist was named this year’s top dog.

Bad Sex in Fiction Award: Founded in 1993 by literary critic Rhonda Koenig, and the editor of Literary Review magazine, Auberon Waugh, the annual Bad Sex in Fiction Award singles out an author who writes about lovemaking so awkwardly (and unconvincingly) that readers may be convinced the person on the other side of the pen has sexual experience akin to likening breasts to sand bags!  While the awards aim “to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it” some of the nominations exist in a realm far more cringe-worthy than a Judd Apatow movie. 

 Merlin Awards:  Now that we’re on the esoteric side of things, it may be a good time to give a shout out to the Merlin awards, a ceremony instituted by the International Magicians Society that is to magic what the Grammy’s are to music.
As long as you meet the reasonable criteria of talent, showmanship, originality, skills, and an ability to entertain under any conditions, then the next Merlin award winner could be you! 

The Psychic of the Year Awards: If you have been blessed with clairvoyant powers that transcend the banally bleak existences of us Muggles, you may be in the race to win a spot on the acclaimed Psychic Hall of Fame. In celebrating the 29th anniversary (there is definitely a numerological significance to that number) of the Australian Psychics Association, the country’s best psychics have been announced and awarded.
If that’s not enough to get your telepathic juices flowing, a new magazine called the 2012 Australian Psychics Directory has just been placed in news agencies around the country, where you can find a comprehensive list of reliable readers – tarot readers, that is.  

 Darwin Award:  Survival of the fittest is a wonderful thing really, particularly when it comes to the Darwin awards, a posthumous honour-giving tribute.

The ceremony “commemorates individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives... winners eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chances of long-term survival.”
Previous winners include a would-be robber who, when his gun failed to fire at his intended victim during a hold-up, peered down the barrel and tried the trigger again, only to shoot himself; a teenager who tried to muffle explosives – with his crotch; and an extremely bright individual who wanted to make fireworks display for New Years, so he opened a hand grenade with a chainsaw. 

  Ig Nobel Awards:  The irreverent Ig Nobel awards parody the Nobel Prize, where improbable scientific research and unlikely (and, at times, trivial) studies are awarded. Winners of previous awards include a team of medical researchers who found that decision making is impacted by the need to urinate, and an inventor who designed an alarm clock that runs away and hides when it goes off. Peace prizes have been awarded to a man who determined that illegally parked cars can be solved by flattening them with an armoured tank, while another team of modern-day Mother Theresa’s pioneered research into the activity of locusts' brain cells while watching Star Wars film clips.

The Stella Awards:  If you too have noticed people filing outrageous and frivolous lawsuits far too frequently (#firstworldproblems) then The Stella Awards may be of interest to you. Named after Stella Liebeck who, in 1992, spilt hot (McDonald’s) coffee over herself and was subsequently awarded $2.9 million in damages, The Stella Awards have maintained a commitment to giving these ludicrous lawsuits the attention they deserve.  
Other noteworthy cases include a woman who was awarded just under $800,000 after she broke her ankle over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store, and a man who was granted almost $15,000 after being bitten on the backside by his neighbour’s dog. Injuries are seriously the best things that have ever happened in these people’s lives. 
Most Phallic Building Award: This one is pretty self-explanatory, so we’ll just leave you with a selection of pictures via the link to ponder on...
The Foot In Mouth Award: Awarded by the British Plain English Campaign, The Foot In Mouth Award is celebrates the most “baffling comment by a public figure”. For more explanation, see below quotes by previous winners:
“I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe and somebody said I was a snake, I'd think ‘No, actually I am a giraffe.'” – Richard Gere
“I love England, especially the food. There's nothing I like more than a lovely bowl of pasta.” – Naomi Campbell
“I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe – I believe what I believe is right.” – George W. Bush

Ernie Awards:  On a less tongue-in-cheek note, The Ernie Awards bring to light the most misogynistic comments made in Australia. Named after former Australian Workers Union secretary, Ernie Ecob, who was famously quoted saying, “Women aren’t welcome in the shearing sheds. They’re only after the sex”, the awards name and shame the say-ers of that year’s most sexist comments. 
Here are some gems:
1995: Justice John Gallop, Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court: (upon imposing a bond upon a man convicted of raping a 12-year old girl), “Our jails would be full if we locked up everyone who did this.”
1999: "Magistrate #1" (in a case reviewed by the Judicial Commission): “Women cause a lot of problems by nagging, bitching and emotionally hurting men. Men cannot bitch back for hormonal reasons, and often have no resource but violence.”
2002: Archbishop George Pell, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney: “Abortion is a worse moral scandal than priests sexually abusing young people.”
Yeah, an Ernie is probably a trophy you don’t want in your pool room. 

And of course we are currently in “Hollywood Awards Season” with The Golden Globes which were held on 13 January which delivered a few surprises.

The winning films set the tone and Les Misérables was named best comedy-or-musical whilst Argo shot down Lincoln to take the best film drama award.  The Oscar race was blown wide open by some of the winning decisions at The Golden Globes.

By rights this should have been Lincoln's night. Steven Spielberg's meticulous tribute to the civil war president strolled in as the lofty frontrunner, having led the nominees at the Globes, Baftas and Oscars alike. So it was startling to note that it was promptly sent packing with just one prize to its name (a best actor gong for Daniel Day-Lewis), whereas Django Unchained – an altogether brasher, bloodier approach to the subject of American slavery – came away with two.

Many will feel that the real "best drama" at this year's Globes came courtesy of Jodie Foster's extraordinary speech on receiving a lifetime achievement award. Judged in terms of emotional voltage and sheer nail-biting fascination, Foster's monologue (not so much a public declaration that she is gay as a celebration of privacy in general) risked casting Argo's high-wire antics as so much excitable tomfoolery.

In conclusion, then, we're none the wiser. At various stages of this most confounding of awards seasons, the favourite's baton has been passed from Argo to Zero Dark Thirty to Les Mis to Lincoln and now back to Argo again. The Globes have spun and brought us all full circle.

We suspect now that the Baftas may plump for the musical while the Oscars will go for Lincoln. But who knows? The experts are in uproar and the consensus is a joke. The real best drama may be yet to unfold.

One thing is for sure, we will be glued to our screens on Sunday 10^th February for The BAFTA’s and again on Sunday 24^th February for The Oscars.

Of course, you could actually win a couple of tickets to TheOscars. Not to sit next to Brad or Angelina we suspect, but you could win a Red Carpet Experience with 2 tickets for the bleachers.

The winners also get Airfare for two to Los Angeles, 2 nights hotel accommodation and a Gift bag with Oscars merchandise and 2013 Program. It’s free and you have until 12:00 PM (noon) PT on Friday, February 1, 2013 to enter

So that’s it for this week, we’ve lots to tell you about upcoming events but for now, we’ll wish you all a great week!

Enjoy!