Tariffs on imported solar panels will have a direct impact on California, stunt business continues to fight for Oscar recognition, assessing the risk for tsunamis in SoCal.
7 big (and small) takeaways from the 2018 Academy Award nominations
The 2018 award season has been unlike any other, from the Golden Globes blackout to the Screen Actor's Guild awards being hosted and presented by only women. And now we've just about hit the halfway point with the 90th Annual Academy Award nominations.
"Shape of Water" led the charge with a whopping 13 nominations, while "Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri" followed not too far behind with seven nominations.
Vanity Fair's Rebecca Keegan spoke with A Martinez about the announcements major takeaways.
#MeToo's biggest beneficiary
One big question going into this year's awards is how the #MeToo movement will affect the Oscars. It manifested in two ways:
The first way we felt its effect: Christopher Plummer. The 88-year-old actor nabbed a nomination after a nine-day reshoot job just two months ago. Plummer replaced Kevin Spacey in his role as J. Paul Getty in the Ridley Scott "All the Money in the World."
On the flipside, James Franco's film "The Disaster Artist" only got one nomination. Leading up to the Oscars Franco won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a musical or comedy and was nominated for a SAG award. However, during the Oscar voting period, several allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against Franco.
Academy is anti-Netflix no more
"Mudbound" which is currently streaming on Netflix got four nominations including Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Cinematography, Original Song and Adapted Screenplay...which suggests the anti-Netflix wing of the Academy is in retreat.
Also, "Mudbound's" cinematography nomination is making Oscar history. Rachel Morrison is the first woman ever to receive a nod in this category.
Fox Searchlight receives 20 nominations
Fox Searchlight received the most nominations of any company. This success should help the company maintain its model as the Disney/Fox deal unfolds.
"This Disney deal is going to be closely watched. Searchlight is kind of a jewel in the Oscar race and how Disney treats that company, whether they let them continue to operate the way they have been...Early signals from Bob Iger, the Disney chief, are that Disney likes Searchlight, likes them doing what they do, the way they do it and perhaps Disney would like to be in the Oscar business in a bigger way than it has been since it sold Miramax a few years ago."
Some other smaller takeaways...
Greta Gerwig's nomination marks only the fifth time a woman has been nominated in the directing category.
"Logan" is the first comic book film to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Saoirse Ronan's Best Actress marks her third Oscar nomination. She's only 23.
Jordan Peele is only the third person in Academy history to receive a nomination in Best Picture, Director and Writing.
Click here to check out the full list of nominees. The 90th Annual Academy Awards will be televised on Sunday, March 4, on ABC.
Stunt workers say they deserve Oscars recognition — but the Academy refuses
Jack Gill has been through a lot in his career.
"I've broken my back twice. I've broken my neck once,” Gill told Take Two’s A Martinez. "I've got a steel plate in my neck. Broken 23 bones and punctured lungs. Broken shoulders, knees, ankles.”
As a stunt performer, Gill has worked on dozens of films and TV shows over the years, including major blockbusters like the “Fast and Furious” franchise and comedies like “The Hangover” movies.
Though it takes a physical toll, Gill said it's worth it.
“You just hope that the one time you get hurt, you're not getting to a point where you can't ever do it again because you love this business.”
That passion has given him a lengthy career. But he still hasn’t gotten the one thing he’s spent 26 years advocating for: A category for stunts at the Oscar Awards.
“The Academy [of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences] recognizes artistic performance and technical performance,” Gill said. “An action designer is heavily involved in both of those aspects."
Gill has been involved in stunts for 40 years. He started as a stuntman, performing feats of derring-do through explosions and high-risk falls. Now, he’s a stunt coordinator and action designer, overseeing the overall design of the action for a film.
“Over the past 20 years, the [stunt coordinator] has been the guy who comes in there way before the movie starts,” Gill said.
“He starts on the ground level with the writer and the producer and director and every other department head to try to move the action in the way that they see it in their heads.”
That work involves everything from consulting on storyboards and scripts to helping prepare actors for whatever action their roles require.
“A lot of times what you see Johnny Depp or Tom Cruise or the rest of all these action stars doing was designed by the stunt coordinator,” Gill said.
But even though many directors and actors say that stunt workers have been an invaluable part of the movies, the Academy has yet to recognize their work with an awards category at the Oscars.
“You talk to people that are the hierarchies in the film-making business, and they thought we had an award. It just wasn't televised,” Gill said. “When you tell them that you're not even represented, they’re flabbergasted.”
Gill has tried a lot of things to get the Academy to understand why his peers should be honored with an award.
He’s had directors Martin Scorsese and Stephen Spielberg write directly to officials in the organization. He’s tried to galvanize the public with petitions and information campaigns. He’s even helped get the Screen Actors Guild to start to recognize their work.
But the Academy remains steadfast in its refusal.
“[The word] ‘stunt’ has kind of a negative assumption to it. You believe that [stunt workers] are below your social stature,” Gill said.
“We are being discriminated against. That's the biggest part of it. Why does every department head have a category in the Academy Awards and yet one of the biggest ones that makes the biggest difference and the way a film is seen they're left out?”
Even though Gill has worked toward this for a long time, he wants to keep up the goal of getting stunt work recognized at the Oscars. What might help is the fact that the Academy has a new leader.
“Every four or five years, they get a new president. This last year it was John Bailey… He’s a very easy-going guy who understands action work and so … I’m going to go meet with John and explain what our problems are and see what he says.”
Gill hopes to help Bailey understand how much stunt workers sacrifice for films. From every injury to every car crash to every fight scene, Gill said that what they do is out of love for the film industry.
“You just want to be able to have your peers congratulate you for what everybody else is seeing as fantastic.”
No Place Like LA: Mary isn't a tourist when she gives the tour
NO PLACE LIKE L.A. IS OUR SERIES THAT ASKS L.A. TRANSPLANTS AND IMMIGRANTS: "WHEN WAS THE MOMENT YOU FELT THAT LOS ANGELES WAS TRULY HOME?"
THIS IS THE STORY OF Mary Little from the Arts District.
I am from Northern Ireland, and I moved to just south of the Arts District in Los Angeles in 2014.
But our dear old friends Lisa and Danny were born and raised here.
About a year ago, we took them on a tour in the Arts District.
Beautiful little stores like Poketo – I go there to buy birthday cards, thank you cards.
I took them to Hammer and Spear, it's a really cool interior design store.
We went to Hauser and Wirth, a really great gallery. They even have chickens.
When we got back home, Danny said, "I can't believe you - of all people - have just given us a tour of our own city."
That's why I love downtown.
TELL US YOUR OWN STORY, TOO. IF YOU'RE A TRANSPLANT OR IMMIGRANT, WHEN WAS THE MOMENT WHERE YOU THOUGHT TO YOURSELF, "L.A. FEELS LIKE HOME, NOW?"
The science of tsunamis and SoCal
Southern Californians had a brief scare early Tuesday morning when a powerful 7.9 magnitude quake off the coast of Alaska triggered a tsunami watch for us here thousands of miles to the south.
That watch is canceled. But if such a disaster were to strike, it could cause a serious amount of damage.
"Most areas along Santa Monica Bay are equally vulnerable," says Costas Synolakis, director of the Tsunami Research Center at the University of Southern California. "We're vulnerable to tsunamis from pretty much everywhere around the Pacific."
A tsunami that originates from a quake thousands of miles away wouldn't create the kind of massive flooding people saw in Japan in 2011. However, a tsunami would create problems in one specific kind of place.
"Ports are very vulnerable to very strong currents," he says.
In 2010, the Port of L.A. had to stop operations because of swirling currents created by a tsunami originating off of Chile's coast. And in 2015, another earthquake-triggered tsunami from Chile headed towards Ventura.
"It was hardly noticeable – less than half a foot high," says Synolakis.
But it generated strong vortices inside the harbor for about 36 hours.
Also, natural barriers like the Channel Islands offer little protection.
"It turns out that small islands, like Catalina or the Channel Islands, tend to focus the wave energy behind them," he says.
Imagine an island breaking the wave. When the wave is split, however, the two sides can re-merge in the middle and create a big wave that continues to head towards the coast.
New algorithm could help child protection agencies
For workers at child protection agencies, deciding whether or not to check on a family that's been reported for possible abuse is complicated.
Emily Putnam-Hornstein, an associate professor at the University of Southern California's school of social work, is one of the creators of a new tool to help in these situations. It's called the Allegheny Family Screening Tool.
The tool is an algorithm made for the office of Children, Youth and Families (CYF) in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.
The algorithm uses data from the county, like a family's history with the child welfare or criminal justice systems, to create a risk score for a child. This score provides an additional piece of information to help social workers decide which families might need support services or intervention.
"The algorithm in no way should replace that clinical intuition and the learned experience of workers," Putnam-Hornstein.
The tool comes into play when Children, Youth and Families receives calls reporting children in potentially dangerous homes, Putnam-Hornstein explained. She pointed out that in these moments, call screeners have to respond to the specific report they are hearing and it is hard for them to also look back at historical data.
So far, the effectiveness of the tool, which was implemented in August, 2017, is still being studied but early results are positive, Putnam-Hornstein said.
"It is reducing some of the unwarranted variation on the part of workers. What we don't want is a decision around screening in or screening out [a family] for an investigation to be subject to the randomness of which worker or which supervisor that is assigned to, and we're starting to see there is more consistency in the response."
Other algorithms have been used for similar purposes by other child welfare agencies, but Putnam-Hornstein said this one was different because of the transparency that was involved in its creation, partially do to the actions of Allegheny County.
"The county assumed a tremendous leadership role in making sure that the algorithm belonged to them. They've commissioned an ethical review [and] an independent evaluation."
Other similar tools have also received criticism for being racially biased, and Putnam-Horstein said that this was something they were careful to monitor with their results in Allegheny.
Right now, this tool is being used in Allegheny and was tailored to that county's specific data but Putnam-Hornstein said research is being done to adapt it to other child welfare offices in different areas.
The West Coast represents at the 60th Grammy Awards
The 60th Annual Grammy Awards are this Sunday. For the biggest night of the year for the music industry, there are a lot of artists from Los Angeles that could take home some gold. Music supervisor Morgan Rhodes joined Take Two's A Martinez for a special preview of three Los Angeles artists that stand a good chance of winning.
Kendrick Lamar
Damn
Clever. Honest. Ruminative. Kendrick Lamar's fifth album is a study in introspection. Over 14 tracks, he explores religion, fame, his legacy and his choices over 808s and trap beats.
Loyalty
And Fear
Tyler the Creator
Flower Boy
Like the flowers in the nursery rhyme, "How Does Your Garden Grow," each one of the tracks on Tyler the Creator's latest album, Flower Boy, has a place in this album which is all about self discovery and growth. The album hints at a transformation in thought, aided by time and experience - and celebrity.
Tina Campbell
It's Still Personal
Tina Campell's Grammy-nominated song, "It's Hard Not To," is personal - a song about forgiveness. Whereas the rest of the album is about a relationship with God, this song is about a relationship.