Producer Gil Cates' plan to add a few new twists to the traditional Oscar ritual of reading off the nominees' names, opening the envelope and then calling the winner up to the stage is meeting resistance from members of the crafts categories, who fear it is designed to marginalize them.

Cates first unveiled the changes last week at the luncheon thrown by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the nominees for its 77th Annual Academy Awards.

As he explained it, in addition to the traditional method of announcing Oscar winners, this year's show will introduce two other methods. In some categories, all the nominees will appear onstage as their names are read, with the winner stepping forward to accept. In other categories, the nominees will be grouped together in a specific section of the audience, where the presenter, who opens the envelope, also will be stationed.

One of the most vociferous objections has been raised by editor and multiple Oscar winner Walter Murch, who e-mailed Cates on Friday, saying, "I would like to protest in the strongest possible terms your decision to not allow 'technical' crafts on stage to receive their Oscars." He added, "To apply some kind of PMI (People magazine index) to the nominees and make this the criterion for whether they get to go onstage or not and speak to the Academy is disgraceful to the Academy and to all of the people who work in film, whether they are members of the Academy or not."

At the moment, according to Academy executive director Bruce Davis, the plan calls for seven categories to appear onstage, while three categories will be featured in the audience.

Cates -- who said Tuesday that he had received three direct communications, which had been widely circulated, objecting to the experiment -- explained that the new methods were designed to give more face time to nominees while also allowing the eventual winner in a category more time for an acceptance speech because the two strategies eliminate long treks from the back of the auditorium to the stage.

"It's always been my desire to have more and more nominees onscreen," said Cates, who is producing his 12th Oscar show, "and everyone who wins an Oscar will get the same amount of time to talk on camera."

Cates would not specify how individual categories would be treated, saying he wanted to maintain some surprises for the broadcast.

Responding by e-mail on Cates' behalf to Murch, Davis said that the changes will not necessarily affect just the technical categories. "For most of the categories affected, people will be more 'onstage' than ever before," Davis promised.

Those reassurances haven't yet filtered through the ranks of the technical craftsmen, though.

In an interview before he'd heard from Davis, Murch predicted that the new approaches "will only reinforce the insignificance of certain awards, which is generally the attitude that some people on film crews contribute less."

A number of those objecting to Cates' ideas likened the all-nominees-onstage method to a beauty pageant lineup.

"There is no way on God's green earth actors will go up in beauty pageant style to get an award," said one Oscar strategist, who asked not to be named. "It's not fair to subject editors, costume designers, DPs to that -- to take away from their experience of being nominated for an Oscar."

Cates, who was honored by the American Society of Cinematographers on Sunday, admitted that a number of those present expressed their concerns to him, but once he explained the situation, they understood the plan.

However, others suggested that despite general unrest, few will go on record with their concerns -- at least until this year's voting is completed.

"I'm telling all of my people to shut up until the polls close," said a spokesman for one company that has multiple nominees in both the crafts categories.

Commented Lea Yardum, a publicist for both the American Cinema Editors and the Visual Effects Society: "Speaking for visual-effects artists and editors, there's a sense of devastation around this. They've worked so hard to get these artists the recognition they richly deserve; for the Academy to even consider taking it away is a true slap in the face. Unlike the actors, the artisans have no angry, growling guard dogs to fight for them. Many don't have agents and publicists who will put up a fight (for them)."

Responded Cates: "Personally, I think it's understandable that anybody is anxious about changing anything in a show with such a long tradition. But I think it's going to benefit everybody. All the acceptances, whether on stage or in the audience, will be beautifully lit, beautifully done. I think much of the brouhaha will disappear."

Murch said, even after hearing from Davis, he still felt qualms. As he explained earlier: "To do this will simply cement in world opinion the idea that these are trivial arts. And its the beginning of slippery slope where potentially other awards get sidled into a completely different celebration, and Oscars become a version of the SAG Awards or the Golden Globes."

To familiarize themselves with the new processes, those nominees who are in the affected categories already have been notified by mail and have been invited to a special rehearsal the Thursday before the Feb. 27 awards show.