Ben Winston is tired. Television producer who moved from the UK to Los Angeles to start six years ago Late self with James Corden, A week away from its first Grammy telecast from executive-production. He says, “Last night I literally had two hours of sleep A falling stone or a circular stone By zoom.
On Sunday, March, the recording academy presented artists for the March 14th 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, including Billy Elish, BTS, Taylor Swift, Cardi B and Harry Styles. But while those names are on the lineup, Winston knows that nothing about live TV is set in stone – especially in times of epidemics – so he’s spending his days in double and triple-checking plans, waking up at 4:30 p.m. Dry-eyed and restless. He says he made a show “from the heart” – he says “loneliness, calm and not feeling alone.” He also took additional steps to ensure the three-and-a-half-hour program, which will not come to the Staples Center’s Grammys’ usual home, is covid-safe for artists and attendees. Despite all this, he looks remarkably enthusiastic and alert.
Here’s what viewers can expect next Sunday from the biggest night of music, according to Winston: a multi-stage, audience-free show that highlights the year’s creative triumphs, social justice activities, as well as the influence on the arts of Covid-19. Williston hints at several “incredibly powerful” performances on the slate, adding that villagers in the country have “fully accepted” what happened in the past year.
Winston, who co-produced Bruno Mars’ co-broadcast live show Apollo for CBS in 2018, also wanted to release independent locations, which is “the lifestyle of the industry” and a launch naped for emerging musicians – so Grameen will be introduced. Guest places for owners and activists of iconic American destinations, including AA’s Trubador and Hotel Caf,, NY’s Apollo and Nashville’s Station Inn. Winston says, “I pass by Troubadour every day on my way home from work. “It simply came to our notice then. I always think, ‘When that board comes down, this will be over.’ That would be a sign. It will be like the same day, ‘We went through this.’ Shutdown.
Employees will come to the camera to “say a little about their place” and present some awards. “So, you’ve got a bartender at a beautiful, independent place, and it gives these megastars the album of the year,” he explains. His goal is the acceptance of people who have worked tirelessly to keep these stone throwers afloat and have recently lost their jobs. “Those places are created by the bartender and the security guard, the manager, the person on the office x office fee and the cleaner at the end of the night.” It hopes to remind people again of the importance of supporting local destinations when it is safe.
Originally, the Grammys were scheduled for January 31st, but organizers announced March after the new year. Winston says he felt American morale was low in January – between the political uprising, the impeachment experiment, and the tremendous cowardice in Los Angeles – among 19 – and that it “didn’t feel right” to put the show in the middle. That. Both the recording academy and CBS, which only broadcast annual shows, supported his decision to postpone. “I can now do whatever I want in my best-of-the-scene this year,” he says of Sunday’s show.
Sunday’s location is an undisclosed building in Los Angeles, but Winston Tees notes that the new location is “huge,” “magical,” and “the biggest building I’ve ever lived in.” “I don’t want to see Staples being criticized, because it’s a very attractive place,” he insists, adding that if they’re open to bringing villagers back to the arena in the future, he says. While he believes staples are a safe place, he says he wants to go up and down to make even the most skeptical participants feel safe.
A team of covid security officers oversees the production set-up, and the performers will enter the stage from different directions to minimize contact. Each artist also has their own backstage area. He says the place “allowed the whole world to be created.”
The show will include five stages of the same size and shape, four of which are for performances and one of which is for presenters. The phases are arranged in a circle, facing each other, and crew members will work from the middle of the set. “People will perform when they see, applaud and enjoy the other three or four performers on their stage. As soon as it ends, the next one goes, the next one goes, and the other one goes. Every 45 minutes, you change those phases, and you bring another four megastars into the room, “says Winston, partly inspired by the British show” Part-Grammys, Part-Abbey Road Studio Session “setup. Jules Holland And TFI Friday.
“It’s becoming a night of musical zodiac that I don’t know we’ll ever repeat,” Winston says. “It’s about taking a camera in the room, and creating a beautiful musical moment by filming quite simply and beautifully.” The show, which began hosting in April 2020, will be a mix of live and pre-record – the full live show involves many crew members and risks close contact – but the whole thing is intended to feel completely live. (Winston challenges viewers to challenge and guess which sets are pre-recorded; he finds it difficult to tell them.)
To help plan the sporadic, immersive show, Winston brought a suite of collaborators, including co-executive producer Jesse Collins, who produced The Weekend’s Super Bowl halftime show; Co-executive producer Raj Kapoor, who has handled the creative direction for various artists over the last seven Grammys and produced Vegas Residences for the likes of Backstreet Boys and Mariah Carey; Producer Fatima Robinson, whose creative direction and broad background in choreography led her to the Black Eyed Peas’ 2011 halftime show and Kendrick Lamar’s 2016 Grammy show; Producer Misty Buckley, who handled the production design for the Casey Musgraves 2020 Christmas show; Talent executive Patrick Menton from Dick Clark Productions; Cordon collaborator Josie Cliff; And Hamish Hamilton, director of Super Bowl halftime, Olympic ceremonies, scissors, and Amis, describes Winston as a “legend” he has admired since he was 14 years old. (David Wilde, who has written for the Grammys since 2001 and became a producer in 2016, is the only person to return to his role.) Winston also points out that the actors were heavily involved in creating their own performances.
Instead of installing cameras in empty seats and oddly small stages, the production team decided to rediscover the visual format with a five-stage setup. He said the limitations of the epidemic, with the benefits of new faces, coming with a new perspective, helped him avoid thinking in terms of what Grammys had done before, he said.
Most likely, the Covid-19 didn’t push for too many changes. This made Winston very worried.
“There has been a lot of uncertainty about what you are allowed to do,” he says. Changes to international quarantine rules are raising the question of whether certain artists can fly, while health guidelines are constantly changing: “Every time my computer or phone dings, my first instinct is, ‘Oh, God, what What went wrong? ‘ I don’t know if that has ever been my mindset before. ”
Winston says that while all the actors confirm and are currently covid free, “You never know, one of their girlfriends may be covid and may have to be kept apart, they’re all just bonkers,” Winston says. “There’s an artist who, after all, currently can’t make it here because of the rules of that country. There’s an immigration issue that we’ve left out.”
If someone pulls out the show doesn’t have hand replacements – it will cut that impression.
Above all, Winston wants 2021 exercises to focus on the terrible times. “I want people to be able to see the 2021 Grammys in 2040 and go, ‘Wow, what a beautiful show it was,’ and no, ‘Oh, it was the Covid year, that’s why they had to do it,'” he says. “I think we can achieve that if we get it right on Sunday.”
