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Breaking down what it takes to produce the Oscars this year

A statue of the Oscar is placed for transportation along Hollywood Boulevard as preparations for the red carpet arrivals area continued March 25.
FREDERIC J. BROWN
/
AFP via Getty Images
A statue of the Oscar is placed for transportation along Hollywood Boulevard as preparations for the red carpet arrivals area continued March 25.

It will take more than 5,000 broadcast technicians, stagehands and associate directors, among many other professionals, to produce the Oscars this year.

Here's a glimpse at the large undertaking the production will take this year, according to Sunshine Sachs Morgan & Lylis, an independent full-service communications and narrative consulting firm:

  • 55 cameras are used across the Oscars, pre-show, digital show and international feeds
  • 12 broadcast mobile units and more than 20 technical support and office trailers are used in the production
  • It requires 30 days to load, set up, rehearse and strike the show
  • All electrical power is provided by Los Angeles DWP. In the event of a power failure, a dual UPS backup system is used saving hundreds of hours of generator time and diesel fuel use
  • 14 miles of fiber optic cable are used to support the broadcast infrastructure
  • 1,500 lighting instruments and 18 miles of data and power cable are used to light the show
  • There are over 120 musicians and 80 dancers performing on this year's show
  • More than 45 presenters participated in Saturday rehearsals. The orchestra rehearses and records at the world-famous Capitol Studios in Hollywood prior to moving into the Dolby Theatre
  • The stage is 120 feet wide and 75 feet deep
  • There's a 32-foot-wide elevator on-stage that descends 50 feet into the basement to assist in changing scenery
  • The set is embedded with almost a mile of custom LED tape and is covered in 3,500 yards of pleated fabric
  • The on-stage video wall surface totals 2,400 square feet
  • There are more than 3,000 linear feet of red carpet created in custom "academy" red
  • It takes 600 man-hours to install and remove the carpet. The entire length of carpet is cleaned the morning of the show
  • There's a 70-person COVID team administrating over 14,000 PCR tests for the cast and crew
  • More than 200 countries air the Oscars, many of them live
  • Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    Ciera Crawford
    Ciera Crawford is a supervising producer at All Things Considered. She joined the show in October 2019 as the update producer who helps keep the show fresh for later feeds. Crawford previously worked at Westwood One News in Washington, D.C., where she worked as the overnight executive editor, and later as the morning drive assignment editor. There she wrote for anchors and hosts, assigned stories, pitched story ideas and edited copy, while producing special report coverage for big breaking stories such as the North Korea summits and the mass shootings in New Zealand and Las Vegas, as well as political stories including the 2018 midterms and 2016 presidential election. She is an alumna of Virginia State University. Outside the office, she enjoys sports (Go Celtics!), her four dogs and all things pop culture.