The Oscar

The Academy Awards! In the movie world every one is struggling to make the best movie for the people and for the entertainment world. So too reward these people who are trying to entertain us, they made the Annual Academy Award of Merit. The Oscar was born in 1929 just after the first movies were starting to talk, the first ticket was 5$. The Academy, itself, began with 36 members, who were production executives and film celebrities. Actual membership in the Academy is by invitation of the Board of Governors and is limited to those who have achieved distinction in the arts and sciences of motion pictures. Officers are elected from the Board for one-year terms. Cedric Gibbons, a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Art Director, designed the statuette and Los Angeles sculptor George Stanley was selected to create the trophy. The figure is a knight standing on a reel of film and holding a sword. The film reel features five spokes, signifying the five original branches of the Academy, actors, directors, producers, technicians, and writers. The official name of the statuette is the “Academy Award of Merit.” The award began to be nicknamed the “Oscar,” after Margaret Herrick, an Academy librarian and eventual executive director, who commented that the statuette resembled her Uncle Oscar. The 15 statuettes presented at the initial ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze. Within a few years, the material used was changed to the Brittanium alloy, which gived the statuettes a smooth finish. Due to the metal shortage during the World War II years, the statuettes were made of plaster. Following the war, all of the awarded plaster figures were redeemed for gold plated ones. Each statuette is actually made from the alloy Brittannium and is then plated in copper, nickel silver, and, finally, 24-karate gold. The Academy Awards represents society’s connection to the world of movies. Movies have constantly bonded hopes, and dreams of all individuals. They have helped the public both through excitement and times of great success. At times, we watch a movie and just look at the surface of the plot, when there have been so many people behind the actual production of the film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences provides a way of honoring those who put their heart and soul into the project. The Academy also honors college students in order to help them pursue their ideas, which could then alter the future of film as we know it today. Future generations will have the opportunity to know how the motion picture industry was formed, but they will also have the chance to put their own twist on things in order to create a whole new way of producing films.


Some links:
The Oscar Official Website
The Oscar at Wikipedia