It takes a whole year to organize the Academy Awards Ceremony. It requires an entire week to set up the 150 meters of red-carpet, the statues, the security tent where x-ray machines are hidden (just like at the airport), plus, and not “counting” the hours it took to count the votes or the presentation rehearsals. But in less than six hours, everything, absolutely everything had to disappear.

While the winners were being announced inside the Dolby Theatre, the red-carpet area was in the process of being torn down on Hollywood Blvd. The decorations, statues, flower arrangement and bleachers were all dismantled, but the carpet was left intact until the very end of the night.

As the guests started to walk out of the theatre, with the choice of going home or moving to a different after-party, the crew walked around with a list of names at the front of the carpet to call the limousines and have it be waiting before the stars reached the other end of the carpet. To make the wait more enjoyable, there were coffee stands scattered through out carpet serving complimentary cappuccinos and hot chocolate.

For those who were invited to stay, an exclusive festivity awaited some of them on the fourth floor, right above the Dolby Theatre. Only 1,500 guest were invited to the Governor’s Ball, but at the end of the night, once everyone had left, it was just like any other room. The Academy arranged with a local organization called the Chef to End Hunger to donate all the left-over food from the party. The 10,000 flowers from South American and Holland that were used as center pieces at the start of the night became souvenirs for the guest to take home.

After winning her Oscar for Best Actress for a Leading Role, Emma Stones shares her plans for after the ceremony backstage, “I’m going to go out with a bunch of my friends and dance and drink champagne. That’s pretty much the only plan.”

While the winners celebrated, the luxurious stage of the Dolby theatre was dismantled for the next show. Even the Metro Rail that was closed off for security purposed had to open so that the first train could pass at six, Monday morning.

The Academy considers all nominees winners, but at the end of the night the real winners are ABC, who earned at least $2 million dollars for every 30 seconds of commercial. Think about it: only in the United States, La La Land (which did the best in the box office out of the nine featured films) grossed over $133 million in nine weeks and ABC, for this one day, earned over $115 million.

As the night came to an end, maintenance began rolling up the carpet. The Oscar statues are wrapped like mummies and transported to a storage facility where they hibernate a whole year, dreaming of the next winner. By that time everyone has gone to bed, Hollywood and Highland goes back to its regular day.

The Oscar’s might be over, but Hollywood continues to be a “la la land” where dreamers dream with their eye open, hearts continue to break, but the music never stops.