This coming Sunday is the 87th annual Academy Awards.  While many will be covering the winners and the amazing fashion, I’m going to be spotting all the technology.  Let’s take the biggest category, Best Picture, and look at the technology in each of the films.

American Sniper

American Sniper is a poignant look at what it’s like on the front lines for Navy Seal sniper, Chris Kyle.  Not just on the battlefield, but once he comes home.  Chris Kyle is played by Bradley Cooper in the film.  Now when you think of films like these, the special effects aren’t magical, but they are there, stunning and practical visual effects are what add to this story.  The graphic killings and war scenes in the movie display this perfectly.  I think that’s what makes films like even better, there isn’t an over abundance of special effects.  But the technology depicted in the film that the armed forces use is very real. The communication devices, rifles, computers, all real life things that are used today.

Birdman

This movie is about an actor, Riggan Thomson (played by Michael Keaton), who is widely known for playing the super hero Birdman in a movie franchise.  Now he wants to distance himself from that role and be taken seriously as an actor; so he plans a production on Broadway.  Now this movie I am sure many hadn’t heard of as I hadn’t.  But this one from the trailer alone has enough fantastical effects to catch my eye.  There’s a giant raven which although we know that can’t be real, it looks amazing from a CGI perspective.

Boyhood

This film is centered around a young boy, Mason and his childhood.  So growing pains if you will.  But he is going through a few extra things his parents are divorced and dealing with problems as well.  So the movie title accurately describes the film.  Another raw story, there isn’t much in the way of fancy visuals aside from lighting, you are getting a good story.  Most of technology is real world things, the cars, the regular computers, the ability to have bumper guards on the bowling alley lanes.  Coincidentally, I went bowling this weekend and I didn’t use the bumper guards but I could have.

The Imitation Game

A World War II movie, but based on the true story about Alan Turing leads a group of mathematicians to crack the  code from a German Enigma encryption machine.  They end up designing the first computer ( I don’t think you felt the enthusiasm as I typed).  Their machine would crack the coded messages instantly.  Oddly enough there are other things hidden in this film, check out the planes!  But of course the visual effects in this film are great as they are taking us back to a period none of us lived in and it’s real and authentic.  Please make note of that massive computer, and in comparison to the German encryption device.  It reminds me that although creators want their technology proprietary, all of it is pulled from another idea.

Social Media the new movie marketing tool??

Now up to this point I’ve only mentioned 4 of the Best Picture nominees.  Some of these films you may have heard of while there are some that are a little more obscure to mainstream.  But they’re nominated so they’ve garnered the attention of the Academy.  Most of the films in the Best Picture category aren’t box office smashes, or movies that are meant to enthrall audiences of all ages, so how does they go about getting the traction or buzz going about these films?  Sure they are at the independent film festivals, they have screenings for those they think the movie should be in front of, but what else?  Social Media of course almost anything and I do mean anything has a hashtag attached to it or it’s as simple as someone that has seen it making one up by using the title or a catchy phrase.  This is the easiest form of advertisement and it’s free.