84th Academy Awards – Oscar Producers Brian Grazer And Don Mischer “CELEBRATE THE MOVIES”

For producer BRIAN GRAZER and producer/director DON MISCHER, the 84th Academy Awards are more than a celebration of the year’s best movies. They are a celebration of the shared moviegoing experience. “We wanted to recapture the feeling of seeing movies in a theater with hundreds of other people. Because that crowd often serves as a magnifier of how you feel. It’s the original social media,” Grazer says.

Mischer, a 13-time Primetime Emmy Award-winner, concurs. “There’s something about that focused experience when you go to the movies that’s just part of our cultural tapestry. I will always remember how I felt in a theater when I saw Tom Hanks land successfully in the ocean in ‘Apollo 13.’ There is something about sharing those moments with other people that makes it a better experience.”

“We’re accelerating into the world of video-on-demand, of watching everything on an iPad or an iPhone,” adds Grazer, an accomplished film and television producer whose film credits include “Apollo 13,” “8 Mile,” and “A Beautiful Mind,” the 2001 Academy Award winner for Best Picture. “But I thought that if we could go back to what it was like when we were kids or even young adults, seeing movies in a theater in a heightened situation, then that would be a great thing to do.”

To bring their concept to life, Grazer, Mischer, and their production team have redesigned the Kodak Theatre to resemble a timeless movie palace. The art department responsible for this transformation is led by two-time Academy Award-winning production designer John Myhre. “We just closed our eyes and asked, ‘What would the movie theater in heaven look like?’” the designer says.

Executing this singular vision takes much collaboration. According to Mischer, as Oscar Sunday approaches, Grazer has become the one primarily involved in finalizing the script, booking the presenters, and evaluating the important film packages while Mischer begins to focus on his directing responsibilities. In fact, at the production’s Century City headquarters, Mischer has two offices. He uses one in his role as producer. The other serves as a base of operations for Mischer and his directing team. “We’re determining the blocking of the show, the staging, the scenic cues, when scenery is coming in, what’s going to be on it, how it’s going to be lit,” he says.

Adds Myhre, “Don is very clear, very specific. My favorite way of creating is collaborating, and you couldn’t ask for two better collaborators. So I would get the creative juices flowing with him and Brian, and Don could talk about what the cameras are going to see.”

Says Mischer, whose producer/director credits include President Obama’s inauguration, opening ceremonies for Winter and Summer Olympic Games, several Super Bowl halftime shows, and the 83rd Academy Awards, “The directing is a lot of last minute craziness. The last ten days you’re working out of a truck—but it’s a highly sophisticated, state-of-the-art truck.”

Joining Mischer in the truck will be Supervising Producer MICHAEL SELIGMAN. For Seligman, whose duties also include overseeing the production’s budget and a staff of over 1,000 members, this year’s ceremony marks his 35th Academy Awards ceremony. His first was produced by Howard Koch, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of “Casablanca.” Since then, he has also served as a producer or supervising producer on the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Kennedy Center Honors, and others.

But Seligman’s introduction to show business was far from the studio lots and searchlights of Hollywood. “My first job was as an usher at a major theater in Boston called the Metropolitan. I was 12 or 13. It was fantastic. I saw all the movies. Every one of them.” Although Seligman has not been back to the Metropolitan in over thirty years, he remembers it vividly. “It wasn’t pretentious outside, but inside, it was like a whole new world: beautiful Carerra marble, and as you went down, rich, wine-colored carpets and seats. It was an experience.”

Seligman also recalls the important role movies played in his household as a child. “My dad never missed a Bing Crosby movie,” he says. “He thought he sounded like Bing Crosby, so he was always singing around the house. Crosby was in a movie where he whistled parts of ‘White Christmas,’ and my dad memorized the whistle parts!”

Mischer can relate to Seligman’s enthusiasm. “I remember as a kid growing up the first time I saw ‘The Ten Commandments’ with Charlton Heston. I think all of us remember the first time we ever went to the movies and had a theatrical experience that made a great impact on us.”

Grazer also remembers what sparked his passion for the movies. “I loved the thrill of the James Bond films. That’s what really got me started on seeing movies,” he says. “I would ride my little Stingray bicycle to the movie theater so I could see ‘Dr. No’ or “From Russia with Love.’”

Although this year’s ceremony marks Grazer’s first as a producer of the Academy Awards, his three nominations for Best Picture and his nomination for Original Screenplay give him a unique perspective on the proceedings—and on the experience of the nominees. “I feel compassion for the people in that room. I feel their anxiety. I just know how hard it is to get there. You have to have all the stars and moons and planets align themselves,” he says. “But when it happens, and you win, you really feel like you’ve fulfilled all of your movie dreams.”

Mischer, a veteran of large-scale live television events, is counting on several elements to help deliver a successful ceremony and broadcast: organization, delegation of authority, and timely decision-making. “One of our jobs as a producer is to anticipate everything that can go wrong and have some kind of game plan for it,” he says.

Grazer and Mischer are also counting on one additional element. “This year, we’re really stressing comedy. We have that with a number of our presenters. And we have that with Billy Crystal returning,” Mischer emphasizes. Crystal, who made a much celebrated cameo appearance at the 83rd Academy Awards last year, is making his long awaited return as Oscar host. Crystal’s last stint as host was in 2004.

Still, Mischer acknowledges that truly memorable Oscar ceremonies hinge on two components. “Who wins and the acceptance speeches are the two key ingredients in a show like this,” he says ruefully. “And producers have absolutely no control over them.”

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