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This week: Oscar Gaffe: Conspiracy? Mistake? Both? Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI RIP BIKERIDER  
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Intriguing. Entertaining ...
And heart-warming, or disgusting?
Did it make you feel all fuzzy,
or (fussy?  ) or just exasperated?
One thing that the mistake did was
to make sure the Oscars got talked about this year.
For all the wrong reasons?
Who's to say? |
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Dear Reader,
It has been called the biggest gaffe in Oscar history, and commentators predict that it'll retain the #1 mistake spot forever, 'coz hey, you can't make a bigger mistake than that.
To cut a long story short, first the presenters said that La La Land won best picture, then it turned out that was a mistake, and halfway through La La Land's third acceptance speech, it was announced that the winner was, in fact, Moonlight.
"This is not a joke. Moonlight has won best picture."
(Why am I thinking "A giant leap for Oscarkind" ... ? But I digress)
Anyway, the social media went wild with this. And I saw, on a friend's Facebook status, the perhaps inevitable question -- was it a publicity stunt?
Aha.
A PLOT!
I put the question to my writer friends, here on WDC.
(Click  to read what they had to say.)
"OSCAR GAFFE - PUBLICITY STUNT?"
And I was intrigued by the responses. There weren't, perhaps, many individual members responding, but even within the handful, responses ranged from tongue-in-cheek to serious, from  to  to  and even    .
So if you're writing up the story of the Oscar Gaffe, 2017, here are the scenarios you can look at:
1. Straightforward mistake. Forgive the guy/gal, it could happen to any of us.
2. Straightforward mistake. Don't forgive the guy/gal, aren't they paid just for this?
3. Conspiracy theory, all parties aware and involved -- the Oscars have never been more talked about, heck even Writing Dot Com is doing a newsletter about them! 
4. Conspiracy theory -- all participants involved, but only few of them aware ... (Therefore, conspiracy by whom and against whom ... ?)
5. A win-win, both movies got watched by people who wouldn't have known of them otherwise. Doesn't matter, mistake or conspiracy, the outcome was good.
6. Who cares? Why are we falling for it and giving them what they wanted by talking about it?
7. (Any other scenario you come up with.)
And so on and so on. Click on the in-and-out to see how all these scenarios can be explored with varying degrees of heat, and from the point of view of one or the other of those involved. The more you think about it, the more you can get out of the emotion you're playing on. It gets more -- funny, or pathetic, or heart-warming or irritating or boring, as you go deeper and deeper, depending on your take on it.
How come?
Because it was a man-made situation in the first place. So it wasn't an absolute by itself, ever. Had it been more real, it wouldn't have had scope for so many types of responses. Possibly, responses would have just been positive or negative, leaning toward one side or the other. Does this mean that fake situations give more room for exploration, for a writer?
Take another conspiracy on reality TV. One that happened a few years ago, but that I haven't been able to get out of my mind. It was in the show 'The Amazing Race', and there was a team of two guys that was considered to be weaker than the others, and therefore more desirable (read -- beatable) as rivals in a final.
Well, the other teams came up with a fairly elaborate conspiracy to eliminate a stronger team in one of the earlier rounds, to keep these two guys in the contest. The apparently stronger team was out, the two 'weak' guys walked in to the finals, topped the final task and got the $1 million. I am fairly certain, from the faces of some of those rival teams when they saw who the winner was, that this was not scripted! 
Was it funny? Certainly. Was it heartwarming? Yes. The guys are now successfully running their dream farm, thanks to the winnings. Was it awfully sad? Yes, from the point of view of that strong team, who could have won. Was it plain stupid? Well, of course, in hindsight, what those others did was plain stupid. But that's in hindsight.
Again, one conspiracy, different reactions -- because the situation was man-made in the first place. Is it good for us writers, or bad? Let's explore that, shall we ... ? We're writers, after all. We write about real situations, and we make up our own situations.
Let's just conspire write on!
Thanks for listening,
Sonali.
In case you'd like to take a(nother) peek at the Oscar episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KeOxeuiZjs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvK-g1rehpU
And here are the two guys:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPAQU-qxBKo
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Thanks for the responses to "For Authors Newsletter (December 28, 2016)"
The article emojis is entertaining and creative fun.-- Apondia 
Smashing read, as ever. I love emojis, and what a great way to use them as a writing exercise.   -- Acme 
No wonder I never liked emoji's much! How can you get a single emotion across when you know you're actually feeling several? The person you're talking to would definitely have to know the circumstance, how you generally react to things and your personality. What a conundrum. -- Elfin Dragon-finally published 
Thanks for such advise.I always focus on the text rather than on the emojis.However I like thematic images or videos which enhance the quality of the articles. -- hbk16
I love emojis! I'm definitely one of the people out there who overuse them on a regular basis.  And, of course, in my own opinion, there is absolutely no such thing too many emotes!  -- Dragon is hiding
Great commentary on the interplay of emojis and emotions. Loved that you showcased the emojis as I often want something other than a smile but didn't know what or how to locate other emoticons here on WDC! Tag me -- tucknits 
*cough* I'm 60+ and fairly computer savvy, most of the time. My kids love to tease me when I ask where to find things on my smartphone/fascebook etc. I signed on for instagram. I don't use it. i see no need since all my friends (in low places) do FB. I found some of those cute emojis that are dogs, minions, mice, etc. I use them more than the happy faces. When I really laugh at a joke or some cute picture I have a dog ling on its back laughing. I'm not so old I don't like a good joke. I have a HS alum I'm friends with on our grad year group. He posts every day if not two or three times, jokes.
Life is good even when you're older. -- Quick-Quill 
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For Authors: March 22, 2017 Issue [#8176]
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