Oscars® Tuesday Report

It's a rainy day in Hollywood today which delayed the installation of the red carpet. Rain, however, would not delay the installation of my company's new neon sign.

I crossed the street from the Loew's Hotel to 1800 North Highland Avenue which is the site for the “Dolby Theatre Welcomes You to Hollywood” sign making its debut this week. It's the latest addition to the iconic Los Angeles skyline.

The rain makes everything a bit of a bummer but I stuck around for an hour to document part of the process.

The side street was blocked off from traffic so that the two cranes that would be used to lift the sign could have the room they needed to maneuver. The sign weighs 6000 pounds!

The installation team stopped to inspect the sign every step of the way which left plenty of time for photo opps.

The sign was in two pieces and needed to be mounted together and then raised to the top of the building.

The sign right before it was put together…don't you love fish-eye lenses!

 Moving the Dolby Theatre piece was a bit tricky because they had to maneuver around a street lamp, a couple of times I thought they were going to knock it over!

But they got it going in the right direction.

And perfectly placed.

There is something about the way the guys are climbing all over the sign that made it feel like something I used to watch as a kid, I think maybe the Electric Company which used to be on right after Sesame Street.

In place and ready to be lifted.

And me taking a photo for posterity sake. This is the one and only time the sign will be on the ground for the next 20 years!

Going up!

And it's off!

I didn't see the rest of the process because it (a) started raining a lot heavier and (b) I had to jam over to the Dolby Theatre to take some shots of press interviews, but I got this iPhone photo from our official videographer/photographer covering the event:

Once over at the Dolby Theatre, I entered and was escorted into the Dolby Lounge for interviews. The plan was to do press interviews on the red carpet, but the rain made that a no-go. I was happy to see the newly decorated lounge. This is the spot the VIPs hang out during the Oscars and I was interested to see how the makeover went.

Since Dolby is an audio company, the designers strove to physical represent of sound in the ceiling as well as other elements of the Dolby Lounge. I think it turned out pretty cool!

Tomorrow I hope to capture the red carpet area and track down some of the international press. Stay tuned!

Also the sign is going to be lit-up on Thursday evening, I'll be around for that!

Photo info: The Oscars image is a fully paid-for (by me) and licensed image from www.istockphoto.com.