Scanned Photos Used In Academy Awards “In Memoriam”

Photo Montage Honors 33, Omits Many More

Each year since 1993, the Academy Awards telecast has included a feature called “In Memoriam,” which honors academy members and others in the movie business who have passed away in the year since the previous awards ceremony. Included in each year’s memorial are famous figures like this year’s Patrick Swayze, Michael Jackson, and Brittany Murphy, as well as lesser known “behind-the-scenes” characters, whose names and faces are unfamiliar to the public but dear to the academy.

Because of time restraints, the “In Memoriam” segment is typically limited to about 30 names, though more than 100 people in the industry may pass away in any given year. Bruce Davis, the executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, told the Associated Press that the memorial feature is “the single most troubling element of the Oscar show every year… because more people die each year than can possibly be included in that segment.” Although Mr. Davis’s office keeps a relatively comprehensive running list of actors, directors, producers, and other movie biz insiders who pass away each year, that list is whittled down by a small committee of academy officials, until only 30 or so names remain. Davis admits that “it’s just not comfortable” to drop recognizable names from the list, calling the annual meeting “close to agonizing.”

This year’s memorial montage was produced by Chuck Workman, whose job it was to choose the photos and video footage that would be used to represent the careers of the 33 actors, writers, producers, directors, cinematographers, and industry executives that the academy chose to honor this year. The feature, which Workman planned to set to “some schmaltzy music,” was instead accompanied by a live performance from James Taylor, covering the melancholy Beatles song “In My Life.” The segment was mostly a montage of scanned photos, which were assembled into a video using computers and digital editing software. During the musical interludes in Taylor’s performance, the scanned photos were accompanied or replaced by short clips from films that either starred or were produced by those being remembered.

Because the segment honors a necessarily exclusive list of recently deceased individuals, Bruce Davis’s office receives complaints each year from friends, family members, and fans of people who were omitted from the memorial piece. This year’s notable omissions included actress Bea Arthur, who died in April at the age of 86, and Farrah Fawcett, who died in June after a very public battle with cancer. Fawcett, who was best known for her work on television as one of “Charlie’s Angels,” also appeared in 14 feature films, including The Cannonball Run (1981), Extremities (1986), The Apostle (1997), and Dr. T and the Women (2000).