Off we go.
Narrator: This year's Oscars won't include
a Popular Film category, like the Academy once proposed.
But, many of your favorites will still be there.
Campaigning for an Oscar takes a lot of work
but nothing like the work that went
into actually making the movie.
From groundbreaking visual effects
to daring stunts, to layers of makeup
there's a lot to admire from this year's Oscar nominees.
Here's what 2019 Oscar nominees
looked like behind the scenes.
Few movies in the last decade have altered our culture
as much as Black Panther did in 2018.
Its showing at the Oscars proves
that it took blockbuster filmmaking to new heights.
The movie involves a lot of demanding stunt work
from the cast for each intense fight scene.
Yes, Danai Gurira really did use a wig
as a defense mechanism. And yes, Chadwick Boseman
did kick a guy across a field, with the help of a few wires.
Meanwhile, Michael B. Jordan went to set every day
and was covered in around 3,000 prosthetic dots.
Makeup artist Joel Harlow told us
the fake scars were made to withstand
the actor's more physical scenes
as well as the ones where he got wet.
And a studio in Atlanta
was convincingly transformed into Wakanda.
That space came complete with bustling city streets
and a waterfall that would become Warrior Falls.
Horror movies are often overlooked during awards season
but this box office and critical success
was too impressive for the Oscars to ignore.
While the movie produced scares from its lack of sound
the ways it did use sound were impressive.
The film's sound team used a strange array
of objects to make Foley sounds.
Crab legs perfectly captured the sound
of the monsters walking.
A combination of celery and romaine lettuce
would make the sound of an ear opening.
To figure out the monsters' spine-chilling
echolocation sounds, the team did some experimenting
and discovered the best way to do it
was by tasering a patch of grapes
and then slowing the sound down.
There'll always be a place for period pieces at the Oscars.
The historical epic, centering around Mary Queen of Scots
and Queen Elizabeth I, and starring Margot Robbie
and Saoirse Ronan, is notable for its costumes
makeup, hairpieces, and sets.
The movie was shot on location
around the United Kingdom and Scotland.
The stars acted with a literal army of extras.
The Favourite plays a bit more fast and loose
with history, but it still flawlessly immerses
the audience in 18th-century British aristocratic life.
The costumes and wigs are eye-popping and elaborate.
The movie was shot at Hatfield House in England.
They stripped many of the beautiful rooms in the palace
and built a massive bath, as well as Abigail's room.
The reception of First Man, which chronicles
Neil Armstrong's trip to the moon, was mixed.
But one thing nobody can deny
is that it's visually stunning.
Its set pieces are as historically accurate as possible.
Production designer Nathan Crowley told us
that the lunar module and space capsule
were built to scale.
Meanwhile, the Saturn V model seen in the movie
was actually just 14 feet tall.
That's about 1/25th the size of the actual rocket.
Some of the models could even move.
In some scenes, to convincingly replicate zero gravity
they put the camera below the actors.
A technique that has been used in many movies set in space.
The moon landing sequence, which is shot in IMAX
will actually make you feel like you're walking on the moon.
Some parts of this sequence were shot in a quarry.
Other parts were shot on
a very convincing-looking soundstage.
The stunts were equally impressive.
Gosling allowed himself to be launched
out of a capsule, and then got dragged around
in the movie's most daring stunt.
What sets A Star is Born apart is that
all the concert scenes were filmed live
and Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga
are always performing together.
Even for two people as talented as them
they still had to rehearse a lot.
A big part of the production was sound editing
which required layering multiple sounds
in a single scene, including the vocals.
All of which were sung live.
Wes Anderson's second stop-motion animated feature
was one of the best animated movies of 2018.
It's staggering just to look at
the numbers behind the movie.
Isle of Dogs animators were working with
around 1,105 puppets on set.
A single sushi making sequence from the movie
took six to eight months to bring to life.
Animators, meanwhile, had to use pins and wooden sticks
to move the dogs' eyeballs and lips around
to make the characters move realistically.
The animators even painstakingly moved the fur around
to give the impression that dog's fur
was blowing in the wind.
Stop-motion animation requires faces to get changed out
for each different mood and emotion.
Andy Gent, the head of the movie's puppet department
told us that the character's fur made this process
much more difficult than usual.
Marvel's most ambitious movie yet
didn't quite get the same awards love as Black Panther
but it still managed to make an appearance.
The biggest standout technical aspect
of the latest Avengers was Josh Brolin's
towering performance as Thanos.
The actor performed in a motion capture suit
for a character who would then be created using CGI.
Because Thanos is so tall, Brolin often acted
with an object on top of his head.
That way, actors would know where exactly
they should be looking.
Motion-capture technology has gotten so good
that Thanos felt real.
Honestly, it's about time the Academy starts taking
motion-capture performances more seriously.
The long-awaited sequel involved
a cast of very committed actors.
Meanwhile, production designers created
a very accurate version of 1930s London inside a studio.
For this shot, in which Mary Poppins falls into a bathtub
they built a giant slide beneath the tub
that Emily Blunt had to slide down backwards.