Alys Holden, technical director for Oscar venue Kodak Theatre, gives production companies a wide berth for their network needs.
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She covers more ground at the Oscars than Joan Rivers and runs into far more stars. But don’t expect Alys Holden to dish any Hollywood dirt. As the technical director of the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars are held, she was never prone to being star-struck. “Backstage at the Oscars, they’re working and I’m working,” Holden says. “In fact, I make it a point not to talk to them.”
The 180,000 square-foot Kodak Theatre, owned by the Anschutz Entertainment Group and built to the exacting specifications of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, is the home of the annual awards show. Opened in November 2001, the Kodak has sparked wide-scale redevelopment in Hollywood, better known more recently for its sleaze than its sparkle.
Television cameras will never adequately capture the elegant cavern of maroon seen from the Kodak’s stage. On each tier is a large lobby area with a sleek, massive service bar. Poster-sized photos of Julia Roberts and others exulting with their statuettes adorn the walls. Talk about your Kodak moments.
The public spaces of the theatre prove quite a contrast to Holden’s office, a drab windowless affair in the basement. Next to her desk is an oversized printer for reproducing architectural blueprints. The office also houses a couch with a pillow on it that looks like it came from her spare bedroom and a spool table, probably left over from a cable run.
More shabby than chic, maybe, but it’s clear within minutes that neither she nor her staff have time for the niceties of decorating. People drop by her office every few minutes. Her pager hums a constant tune. The 60-day planner tacked to her office wall is crammed with events for the venue.
Holden says 16-hour days are not uncommon, and June has proven to be the Kodak’s busiest month. In June 2002, she took three days off but still managed to put in 300 hours. This June she had the Essence Awards, BET Awards and The American Film Institute’s tribute to Robert DeNiro, all back to back.
Holden says she has put most of her outside interests and hobbies on hold because of the job demands. When time does permit, she’s a big science fiction fan, especially of the author Lois McMaster Bujold. If a sci-fi fix isn’t enough to take her mind off work, Holden says mixing some homemade margaritas and playing foosball usually will do the trick.
In her role as IT director, Holden works with the production companies staging events at the Kodak.
Like many performing arts venues, the Kodak is essentially a shell that permits others to come in, fill up the trays with cabling to connect cameras, mixing boards, sound equipment, production trucks and other equipment. Fiber connectivity is provided via Verizon or Bexel Broadcast Services, both of which have unlit fiber terminating in the theatre.
The Kodak’s own IT needs are minimal. An Ethernet LAN connects about 20 internal users to one server; DSL provides Internet connectivity. The most widely used application is the Microsoft Office suite with Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The Kodak uses custom software for its time management system for hourly employees, ticketing and point of purchase needs. It also uses AutoCAD and Adobe Acrobat.
It’s a bit ironic that Holden works in and has risen to the heights of the entertainment industry. She grew up without television and never visited a theme park, she says, then backtracks. Admitting to one trip to Six Flags Over Texas, Holden betrays just a whisper of a Lone Star accent, having grown up in eastern Texas.
Holden ‘s background and education is in stagecraft and the technical aspects of working with wood, steel and plywood. After completing her masters at Yale in 1997, she immediately was recruited by Walt Disney Imagineering to handle rigging and special effects. It was a big transition from East Coast to West and she figured she’d only be in southern California a couple years.
Still, when a friend told her the Kodak was looking for a technical director, she applied, never expecting to hear another word. “I had no union experience, no TV experience, and I was a woman,” Holden says, noting that the “cool” factor was already pretty high at Disney. “When I told my relatives I was leaving Disney to go to work for the Kodak, they were pretty disappointed, but they got a lot better about it after the first Academy Awards here,” she laughs.
Sweeney is a Los Angeles writer and editor who has covered IT and networking for 20 years. He can be reached at terry@tsweeney.com.
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