To make sure the annual Academy Awards
show goes off without a hitch, thousands of volunteers, employees and
vendors work tirelessly to ensure that the audience and at-home viewers
have an unforgettable experience.
Here's a list highlighting just seven of the many behind-the-scenes jobs at the Oscars.
1. Seat filler:
Ever wonder how there never seems to be a seat left empty at an awards
show? Surely stars need to use the bathroom or take a break from sucking
in on-camera. Enter the seat fillers. Seat fillers are hired to fill
empty seats so the audience always looks full. Awards shows work with
outside vendors, such as Seat Fillers and More or SeatFiller.com.
While this is usually a volunteer position (translation: no pay), isn't
it payment enough to rub elbows with some of the world's biggest stars?
2. Talent escort: Another volunteer position that gets
you close to celebrities is talent escort. Talent escorts are
essentially celebrity guardians; they are assigned specific celebrities
and are responsible for them from the moment their feet touch the red
carpet. Escorts do everything from keeping celebrities on schedule to
guiding them to their seats. If a star is presenting, the escort is
responsible for getting him backstage and ready to present.
3. Associate director:
While the show's director is the one who calls the shots, the AD sets
up the shots. The AD is the assistant to the director, doing everything
from choreographing the camera operators' moves to ensuring that the
props and set are ready for each segment.
4. Stand-in: It takes several rounds of rehearsals to get the lighting,
sound, cameras, flow and timing just right, and you can't expect
celebrity presenters to give up precious time to attend every rehearsal.
That's where celebrity stand-ins come in. This paid role involves
standing in for the real celebrities and doing everything from walking
on and off stage, running through lines and giving faux acceptance
speeches.
5. Security consultant:
Not surprisingly, awards shows can be targets for people who want to
commit harmful acts. With the thousands of people attending and working
the show, not to mention the hordes of fans crowding around the theater,
being part of the security team is one of the show's most important
jobs. Security personnel begin working weeks, if not months, ahead of
time, coordinating with the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department,
scoping out entrances and exits, locating areas of vulnerability, doing
bomb sweeps and setting up security check-ins, among other duties.
6. Accountant: As
the commercials come to an end and the cued music begins, viewers wait
with excitement to see who the next celebrity presenter will be, only to
groan in disappointment when the announcer says, "Please welcome
representatives from the accounting firm..." Sure, they may not be the
most exciting folks to grace the stage, but accountants play a big part
in ensuring the integrity of the awards. According to a press release from PricewaterhouseCoopers,
the accounting and consulting firm that oversees the balloting process,
"PwC's long-established balloting system involves the precise tallying
of every single ballot at a concealed location to maintain the utmost
level of accuracy, objectivity and confidentiality."
7. Stage manager: Stage managers are the backstage directors, so if you're backstage at the Oscars, you had better listen to what the stage manager
tells you to do. The stage manager hangs out in the wings, directing
traffic, ensuring that presenters are on their stage marks and keeping
the show's timing on track, among other responsibilities.