On-Line Diary: The Floating Film Festival

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 24, 2008

Today is the 80th anniversary of the Academy Awards and the beginning of my trip to the Floating Film Festival. More about that later. First I have to get to Los Angeles, see the awards and then make sure I'm awake at 3 am LA time to report on the show via phone and satellite for radio and television stations back home in Toronto.

So far things are going smoothly, save for a guy in front of my who has his seat pushed back so far that I am actually pinned into my chair, barely able to move. It does give me a good view of his dinner plate sized bald spot, but I am distracted from the vast hairless tracks of land in front of my face by the little girl sitting next to him whose running commentary includes remarks like, "I don't feel sick yet, just really, really scared!"

This year there doesn't seem to be the general excitement in the air regarding the Oscars. Perhaps it's because of the writer's strike and the uncertainty of the show happening, or perhaps it's because if you combined the grosses of all the movies nominated in the marquee categories you'd barely have enough to cover the craft services budget on Transformers. There Will be Blood, No Country for Old Men and Michael Clayton may be great movies, and all three appeared on my Top Ten list for last year, but they didn't exactly burn up the box office, so the buzz factor is kind of low.

I'm less excited about the whole thing this year, but only because I am convinced that I know who is going to win in the major categories, and because of my faith in my Oscar prognostication skills, the gold isn't quite as shiny for me this year as it has been in years past. This year I tried logic instead of sentimentality or opinion to create my Oscar Pool entry. I took all the major film critics polls and combined that data with the Golden Globe winners and SAG winners and came up with a mathematical formula to determine who will win and who will go home empty handed.
Somewhere my grade school math teacher is laughing really hard to himself, dancing a jig with his slide rule at the idea of me coming up with a mathematical anything, but I think I have come up with a method that is as good as any to determine the winners. It's numbers verses gut instinct, usually the kind of thing I hate, it's way too logical for my taste, but I have taken such a beating on the Oscar Pools in the last few years by using my expertise and opinions that I thought I'd give practicality a try for a change...

To read more about Richard's adventures on the high seas click here...