The Oscars producers are finally figuring out that you don’t necessarily need young hosts to be hip on the social web. The team behind the Oscars seems to be developing simple and effective ways to partner with already existing influential communities. First a video in partnership with Funny or Die and now a 5-part web series with Shira Lazar’s What’s Trending show.
Called Oscar Dailies, they’ll feature an “all-star lineup of film experts…including Mashable Entertainment Editor Christina Warren, YouTube Star Michael Buckley, The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg, Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Weekly’s Dave Karger and G4’s Chris Gore.” The online show What’s Trending says it has “20 million weekly Twitter impressions and over 100,000 video views per week.”
We caught up with Lazar at NATPE who explained the importance of this partnership to the social TV component of the Oscars. “ABC is doing a whole 360 experience with their digital experience and interactive app available on iPhone and iPad, which actually won an interactive Emmy last year, and will continue to bring fans unprecedented access to a dozen cameras on the red carpet and even inside the Kodak Theatre and the Governors ball,” she explained. “In terms of ‘Oscars Dailies’, we are creating two live-streams (a nominations special and an Oscar preview) in the style of What’s Trending that use Twitter and other social tools to bring in the buzz surrounding the Oscars online and to interact in real time with our online audience,” she added. “We’re also producing panels around the best actor, best directing and best picture categories including previous Academy Award winners sharing their Oscar memories and favorite movie moments.”
New content will be available each Thursday. Here’s a clip of our interview.