Exploiting Hollywood 1980 Chapter 757

  The vacation continued for a while, and Ronald finally adjusted his mental state.

   On this day, he received a call from Walter Murch. The rough cuts and first assembly of the film have been completed, and he can go to the editing room to talk about the details.

   "Walter, how about my new film, I feel that this is the film with the most tacit understanding of actors since I started working. What's your comment?"

   Ronald saw Murch in front of the editing station and asked him what he thought of the film he had invested in. Since Murch taught himself editing in San Francisco, there have been a lot of blockbuster movies. It's time for Murch, who is like a master, to evaluate whether he has improved in the past few years.

"The dance scene is so good, I've never seen it before. The casting of the actors is probably one of the best I've ever dealt with outside of Coppola's 'Godfather'", Murch saw Ronald come He happily stood up and hugged him, then made a seat and let Ronald sit in front of the editing table with him.

   "But the movie clip for you is a little less interesting, so I really hope you come over and discuss it with me."

   "Interesting?" Ronald asked.

  "A rough cut version of the entire film, lasting two hours and ten minutes.

  Every shot you shoot is actually the same, I don't have many options, unlike some films made by directors, the rough cut will more than double the final length.

   And many shots, often only the first one is the best, for you to edit, just like completing the homework of high school students, they are all multiple-choice questions. "

   "Ha..." Ronald smiled, "Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"

"From the producer's point of view, this shows that the director has his own imagination for the finished film and can complete the shooting on time. From the director's point of view, some actors may be less free to play on the set. However, from the editing point of view , I think it's a little less challenging. It's not like when I cut for other directors, I often have to push the envelope and cut together seemingly impossible pieces."

   "Hahaha, I'll take it as you praise me."

   The two were joking, starting from the beginning and slowly looking at all the shots.

   After two days, Ronald gradually entered the state and began to express his thoughts to Murch on the processing of certain scenes.

  The two are in the same line in the editing methodology, and many times they can quickly agree with each other. Only in sound design, Ronald didn't know much. Murch led the work and took time to give Ronald a supplementary lesson.

   Every day's editing work is moving slowly at a speed visible to the naked eye, discarding a second or two of cutscenes and using a more interesting connection method. The length of the film was gradually reduced from more than two hours to one hour and fifty minutes, and gradually moved towards the target of one hour and forty minutes.

  One afternoon, the two were discussing a shot in the editing room. Ronald and Walter Murch both insisted on their own ideas. The two discussed for a long time without results, so they took a break to add caffeine.

  Murch asked Ronald, who was drinking a strange drink like wolfberry black tea, a question he had wanted to ask for a long time.

   "I heard that those high-ranking Jews are looking for trouble for you?"

"Yes, they also asked Michael Douglas to interview me. In fact, they just didn't want a rich Jewish girl to fall in love with a poor Irish boy, and finally gave up the rich second generation of Jews and came together with a dancer .”…

   "So what are you going to do? Our current version has a lot of intimacy shots of Baby and Johnny, as well as the scene where they finally clear up misunderstandings and look forward to the future together."

   "I have my way." Ronald smiled and replied to Murch.

   "Don't you want to get things done secretly? You can't do that, it will cause big problems."

  "Ronald", Murch pulled Ronald to the table, "You are still very young, when you entered the industry, those Jewish forces in Hollywood have retired from the front and behind the scenes, and you may not understand their ferocity.

  If you deceive the old Jewish guys with the idea of ​​making copies of yin and yang, there will be big problems later. If nothing else, the MPAA, which handles movie ratings, is also a place where there are piles of Jewish people. They can jam you there and give you a bad rating.

   Even if you get a good rating from the MPAA, or find a way to bypass them, it is still very risky to find a theater by yourself. Don't forget, it is the son of the Douglas family who is looking for you. "

   "What happened to the son of the Douglas family?" Ronald did not answer Murch's question, but was curious about his evaluation of Michael Douglas' family, as if there was some gossip.

"Well, I haven't caught up with the days when Jewish gangsters were in Hollywood. According to my predecessors, before the 1960s, Jewish gangsters had a more feared reputation than Italians. Legend has it that Michael's father Kirk was the Jewish gangster in the Hollywood spokesperson.

   Do you know the actress Natalie Wood who passed away unfortunately a few years ago? "

   "Sure, I saw him at the Ballon d'Or," Ronald replied.

   "It is said that she was forced by Kirk Douglas in her early years in Hollywood. He is a Hollywood 'sex predator'."

   "No way?" Ronald raised his brows when he heard this kind of gossip. He is also familiar with Hollywood, and the actresses are all yours and I will communicate with each other through the agent. Everyone gets what they need. Haven't heard of such coercion happening? Do you want to make it so ugly?

   Unless it is a project that is not recorded by the union, some small production companies directly launch the film for the video tape market, I have heard of such a thing.

   Originally at Weston Pictures, Michelle Cannold, the distribution director of Daydream Pictures who was dug up by Ronald, talked about the chaos of those small projects. Weston Films used to shoot NC-17 content video tapes exclusively.

"Hollywood is a new place now. But when I was in college, it was still a chaotic hodgepodge. Many actors didn't have makeup artists and had to do their own makeup, and actresses often asked their brothers to be assistants. The set protects itself.

I've also heard... Kirk Douglas, in Hollywood in the late 1940s, had a young actor named Jean Spangler impregnated on the night she went to see Kirk to negotiate. disappeared.

   His body and handbag were later found on the way from her house to Kirk Douglas' house, along with an unfinished note with Kirk's name on it. "

   "Really?" Ronald had never heard of these gossips. "Then why do people think of the Italian Mafia when they talk about gangs? And no one mentions Jewish gangs?"…

"You can figure it out yourself. There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, Jews are gradually occupying the upper echelons of Hollywood, and they are reluctant to make movies and TV series about Jewish gangsters. On the other hand, Italian directors like to shoot. Gangster stories.

  The people of America today, most of the stereotypes about ethnicity come from movies and TV shows. This kind of film has been made more, and it has gradually become a symbol of Italian descent, and many ignorant Italians are still very proud..."

   Yes.

  Ronald touched his ears. After Coppola filmed The Godfather, the mafia in many movies had Italian-American looks. Although "The Godfather" is essentially a family film, but the background story of the mafia, many gangsters began to learn the style of the movie instead. It further deepened the stereotype of other ethnic groups against Italians.

  Thinking of this, Ronald smiled at Murkey. The other party obviously cares about himself very much, so he will talk about these gossips.

   "It's alright, Walter, I have a sense of balance. I thought about it when I invested in this movie. Old Jewish men, I won't say anything about this movie."

  Ronald attached to Walter Murch's ear and repeated his thoughts.

"Are you sure?"

   "I'm sure, in this way, if the Jewish people want to trouble me, any action they actually do will deepen the audience's impression of the Jewish girl's story. So the best way is to pretend to be invisible."

   Another time passed. The rough cut of the film had been completed, and after the second assembly of the film into a full print, Ronald called and asked Michael Douglas, who had been helping to spread the word, to see what the finished film would look like.

"You were filming in Virginia before this movie, right? I happened to be filming 'Fatal Attraction' in New York at that time, which was about the same time that you returned to Hollywood." Michael Douglas was still dressed as a nobleman, very spirited, and when he came in, he just came in. Hugs Ronald.

   "Oh, how was the collaboration with director Adrian Lane? I was on the set of his 'Lightning Dance' and was a very talented guy."

"It's amazing, it's simply amazing. He's a great 'cast director' who doesn't put us too much of a bind, and as an actor, it's most comfortable to work with a director like him. Glenn tells me a lot , how lucky to work with Adrian."

   "Glenn?"

  " is the heroine, Glenn Close.

  Close), she's a great actress, playing a somewhat neurotic lover who's going to destroy my family. have you seen her? "

   "Oh, it's her. I met once, in 'The Great Cold

  Big

  Chill)' party. Kevin Costner used to have a lot of shots that ended up being deleted..."

  Ronald chatted with Douglas for a bit of gossip, then invited him to the screening room and watched the "Spicy Dance" with him that had already been accompanied by music.

"Boom...dong..." Mambo's drumbeat recalled that what appeared on the screen was an old-fashioned dance scene. Several dancers were dancing in the basement. The tempting scene was shown in slow motion in the form of on the screen.

   "Is this what you call the 'spicy dance'?" Douglas touched his chin, as if interested. …

  The duration of the copy is one hour and forty minutes, and the final subtitle table has not been added.

   Michael Douglas, who was watching the full movie, looked at Ronald.

   "You changed the ethnicity of the heroine Baby? Or more accurately, hide it? I don't hear anyone saying they are Jewish in the whole movie.

   And Johnny's ethnicity is not mentioned too much, only when the two finally embraced and danced in the crowd, he mentioned it.

  If you cooperate like this, I think those old men will have no problem. But does this hinder your creative freedom? ' asked Michael Douglas politely to Ronald.

   "Michael, you lived in Los Angeles when you were young, right?" Ronald didn't answer, but instead asked the other party.

   "No, after my parents divorced, I lived with my mother in New York, where I went to school since I was a child, and went to New Jersey until college. What?"

   "Then why don't you know that the Kellerman Resort Hotel in the movie is based on the Catskills? Those resort hotels dedicated to Jews are not called borscht by you?

  The food that appears in the movie also has borscht in it, which is a resort hotel that only Jews go to. As long as it's a Jewish kid there, you can see it, right? "

   "Oh, actually my mother is not Jewish, she is of Irish descent. So I didn't go to those Jewish-only resorts when I was a kid, we all went to Long Island in New York for our vacations."

   "Pfft..." Ronald almost didn't laugh, no wonder Michael Douglas didn't respond to his ethnicity hidden in the background of the story.

   This kind of handling of the character's ethnicity without saying it is just a way of dealing with the Jewish forces that Ronald came up with.

  The movie never mentions a word from the beginning to the end, Baby's Hausman family is Jewish. Moreover, the actors of the Hausmans he chose did not have the particularly obvious Jewish nose of Barbra Streisand.

   Even the heroine, Jennifer Gray, has a much smaller nose than another candidate, Sarah Jessica Parker.

   Unless you are a Jewish audience, you can find a little familiar background from the clues. They will notice that Jennifer Gray's nose is not obvious, but it also fully reflects the ethnicity.

  Ronald does not mention a Jewish word in the whole movie, but the background of the story tells the story of a Jew everywhere.

   Then, the audience will be divided into two parts, one part non-Jewish, not aware of it. Some Jewish people know that they are telling their own stories.

   This is the so-called understanding naturally understands, and those who don't understand can't understand.

  If the high-level Jewish people want to make trouble for themselves, then it is bound to mention in the media that Ronald has any anti-Semitic tendencies, deliberately photographing Jewish girls who don't know themselves, and slaughtering them to nasty Irish people.

  Whenever they mention this, those viewers who didn't feel that Ronald was telling the story of a Jewish girl would suddenly realize it.

  America's society as a whole didn't have much affection for Jews, and these conservative Jewish old men dared to come out and promote this outdated and racially discriminatory concept. It must be attacked by the mainstream media. …

   So Ronald's clever way of telling it actually puts the old die-hards who were against making this story into a dilemma.

  If your media is just a hint, then people will not understand what you are saying. If it is stated clearly, it will arouse the disgust of more people.

   It is better to let go with your eyes closed. As long as media marketing does not deliberately promote this story as a Jewish story, then there is no problem.

   "So, in marketing, you wouldn't deliberately mention this as a Jewish story, would you?" Michael Douglas nodded in appreciation after realizing Ronald's handling. Then ask Ronald to give a guarantee.

   "I'm not a fool, why do I deliberately provoke the cognition of the old men?

   Besides, Jews only account for less than 3% of America's teenage population. I made this movie by investing myself. Of course, I want to make money. I don't need to give up the bigger market, right? "

   "You convinced me," Michael Douglas nodded in agreement.

   Ronald laughed, took out a cigar given to him by Paramount President Ned Tanning from his seat, cut it, and served it to Douglas graciously.

  I didn't know Michael Douglas's maternal line before, he was of Irish ancestry. This makes it easier to speak. He also lived with his mother after his parents divorced. Compared with being closer to Irish blood, he would not object to this kind of plot.

   "I'll bring you a message, and then I'll say something nice for you." Michael Douglas took a sharp puff of his cigar, then slowly exhaled the smoke, "It's a good thing."

   "A gift from a friend, it's the Dominican Fuente Hemingway series." Ronald took out a new wooden box and handed it to Michael Douglas, "Take it and try it out for me, I know you're an expert."

  "Thank you, I will", Michael Douglas took it in his arms, "but those old men will be more stubborn, they don't know much about the current situation in America. In their opinion, everyone should respect Jewish culture and religion.

   They probably don't understand the fact that most American people don't even know that the Catskills are an exclusive holiday destination for Jews.

  If you have better evidence that the audience won't find out that this is a Jewish story, I think they will be more reassured. "

   "I will hold a preview and then do an audience survey, what do you think?" Ronald thought for a while and asked.

   "I think it's ok, you're done, send the results to my agent. I'll make an appointment with my father."

"very good!"

   Ronald was also satisfied with Douglas' help, squinted his eyes, and puffed with him.

   "Then I'll go first, it's really interesting to chat with you." Michael Douglas enjoyed a while, then got up and said goodbye.

  "I'll send you off", Ronald got up to send him off.

"In addition," Michael Douglas turned around and said at the gate, "the last scene, Johnny and Baby looking forward to the future together, can you delete it? I thought about it, this may be the only An uncomfortable place for the old men."

   "Why? I didn't say Baby was Jewish? It just said that she joined the Peace Corps, and Johnny was going to perform in a dance group. The two were in a long-distance relationship and had no confidence in the future."…

   Ronald did not understand this request.

"Uh... I just think that the old men will not be happy with the rich girl and the poor boy, not for a short-term relationship, but for a long-term plan. You know, they are all rich, and they may be more than family members for this kind of thing. The ethnic disparity is also worrying.”

   "Oh, I'll think about it." Ronald frowned. It turns out that these old men think that there are not only ethnic conflicts, but also conflicts between the rich and the poor.

   But this movie itself is a love story that crosses ethnicities and classes. If there is no happy ending, will the audience be left unfulfilled?

   "Also, we shouldn't be tied down by Baby's ethnicity, but on the other hand, don't bring the Irish poor stereotype into the movie, what do you think?"

"Um…"

  It turns out that Michael Douglas also thought about it himself. He didn't want his mother's Irish blood to be beaten as a poor man. He could only make money by physical strength and physical ability, such as going to dance, instead of the stereotype of making money with his brain.

  Ronald's mind was racing, and now he still needs Michael Douglas as a middleman to deliver messages to the Jewish old men. Then again, this really isn't a necessary plot.

   "From another point of view, maybe leaving the future of Baby and Johnny blank is also a good way to deal with it. This way, it can leave a suspense to the audience..."

   "Hahaha... Yes, you can also make a sequel. You are really an interesting person. We will keep in touch in the future. I will call you when there is a party."

  Michael Douglas is also a producer, and as soon as Ronald said that, he knew he wanted to make a sequel.

   "So, you're going to delete this scene where you tell the story of the future? Well, it's almost twenty seconds."

  Walter Murch sat in the editing room and heard new ideas from Ronald.

   "What do you think? I got feedback from Michael Douglas that the theater may have some concerns about this paragraph. I was wondering whether to leave it blank to avoid controversy."

   "Blank processing?"

  Walter Murch cut this part out, then stepped back a few minutes, and re-read the whole sequence several times.

"Leaving blank is a good way. Baby and Johnny may face the future together. It may also be that Johnny came back and gave her a deserved dance in order to give Baby a good memory, and after making her the focus of everyone, Break up again.

   This processing is a more advanced method. This allows the audience to also participate in the creation of the film. "

  Walter Murch gave another set of his film theories.

   After several creations of script, acting, shooting, editing, etc., the director loses control of the film. And in the end, whether the audience likes the movie or not, it depends on their impression of it after watching the movie in the movie theater.

   Many times, about 10% of the content of a movie is a combination of the audience's imagination and impression, which may not be in the movie.

   "Fine, we're going to cut it like that, and then we'll do an internal test screening and do an audience survey to see how many of them see it as a Jewish story. There needs to be a reference there.

   Then we can send in the MPAA rating. "…

   Ronald hopes to get a PG-13 rating. With ratings like these, all teens can see for themselves. Plus this "Dirty Dance"

  Dang)”, is it crazy?

   "Hahaha..." Thinking of the joy, Ronald laughed in the editing room.

   Internal preview, scheduled in a few days.

   All of the audition participants were recruited by Ronald from high schools and colleges near Hollywood.

   He doesn't really believe in the test screening method of letting the secretary of the film company go to the movie. These people are all part-time workers in the company. Maybe they are suspected of saying good things for the boss's face.

   is still selected from the identified target customers, which is more in line with the real situation.

   Ronald called his release team, Michelle Cannold's team, general manager Eddie, and two agents to the scene.

  The audience's reaction, so that those who will have a direct relationship with the distribution marketing work, have an intuitive impression, which is a very good thing.

  Sometimes, no matter how good the audience rating data is, it is not as good as seeing the audience applauding like crazy at the scene, which is shocking. It can give these people more confidence in the results of their work.

  Ronald still remembers the "breakdance" he shot, and that's it. After seeing the enthusiasm of the audience after the release, learning to break dance on the spot, and keeping the actors from leaving, Minahan Golan was confident enough to take over the distribution job.

   "Boom... dong dong..."

  The familiar rhythm sounded, and the audience looked at the deliberately outdated picture, and the loving dance moves above made the young people cry out "Ooh".

  The opening is with the Hausmans going to the Kellermans Resort. The audience was quickly absorbed into the plot by the lively rhythm.

  When Baby saw the tacit understanding of Johnny and Penny at the dance, he stumbled into the resting place of the dancers and saw their blushing dance. The audience was silent, except for a lot of drooling sounds.

  The story continues, Baby and Johnny gradually fall in love with each other, and they practice lifting in the lake, making both male and female audiences make "tsk tsk" envious sounds.

   Finally, Johnny broke through the obstacles, returned to the Kellerman Hotel, and invited Baby to dance on stage.

   When the audience saw this, they couldn't hold back much, and began to whisper to each other. The dance music "I have found the time of my life..." sounded, and some people were already clapping to the rhythm.

   In the end, Baby made a shocking leap and was lifted up by Johnny like a bird.

  The emotions of the audience were stirred up for more than an hour and a half, and they couldn't bear it anymore. When they saw this scene, they all started to explode. They began to applaud desperately and applaud.

   A female audience member in the front row disliked her applause being too low, and began to stomp the ground hard.

   Immediately this stomping action triggered a chain reaction, and all the audience began to imitate, stomping the floor of the auditorium with a thumping sound. The manager of the screening hall thought something was wrong and rushed in to check.

   "Thank you, please fill out a questionnaire for us, we have a gift for you."

  At the exit, Michelle Cannold's team began handing out questionnaires to the audience. There are many problems above. …

  How would you rate this movie?

   Would you recommend this movie to your friends?

  Do you know what ethnicity Baby is?

   Do you know what ethnicity Johnny is?

  Do you know what disease Penny is suffering from?

   Collected all the viewers' questionnaire responses, Michelle Cannold was very excited and came back to report to Ronald.

   "The movie's rating is A, 94% of viewers said they would recommend it to friends, and 92% said they would like to watch it again if they have a chance."

   "Yes, what about the cognitive part?"

   "Only less than 20% of the audience found out that Baby was Jewish, and some people actually remembered it after seeing other people answering the question.

Only 30% of the audience knew that Penny was pregnant. We filmed it rather obscurely. If it wasn't for someone familiar with the pregnancy, or someone who had a similar experience, most of them just thought that Penny had a stomachache and that she had appendicitis. are higher than in pregnancy. "

   "Very good, send Michael Douglas a copy." Ronald told his agent Richard to deal with this matter.

   "Where's Nisita?" Ronald asked when he saw that there was no Nisita around.

   "Rick was chatting with the P&G marketing manager, and he insisted on seeing it all over again."

  "Oh", Ronald saw Nisita's light-colored suit in the distance, and he and another man who was also in a suit were talking.

   "You are unnecessarily worried, we handled it very well, you can go to the market research report there." Nisita insisted to the manager of the Procter & Gamble Company opposite.

   "I don't think so. The two ladies sitting next to me clearly said that word."

   "What's the matter?" Ronald asked Nisita, who joined the discussion in the past.

   "This is the marketing manager of Procter & Gamble... He thinks there is an abortion in the movie, and their acne cream products are mainly aimed at teenage women.

"What?" Ronald didn't expect this out. "We handled it very carefully, this gentleman. You see, we just did a market research, and only less than 30% of the audience found Penny. The physical problem is..."

"I understand, Director Ronald. I personally support Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision. But the target market for our product is teenage women, and I can't risk that after this movie is released, some conservative force will organize a protest. activity, which associates our company's name with...

   This is the consistent policy of Procter & Gamble, please understand. "

   "But you signed a contract with us."

   "But there is a force majeure clause in the contract." The other party insisted.

   "If I understand correctly, force majeure refers to natural disasters such as earthquakes, which are not force majeure." Ronald retorted.

"Haha", the other party smiled, "Procter & Gamble's legal team is composed of elites from all over America, and we also have the top ten law firms in several major cities across the country, which are ready to hire services for us, so we at P&G believe that this belongs to force majeure."

   "You! Shxt!"

   Ronald was so angry that he was speechless. His daydream was that of a small company without a strong legal team. It would be a disadvantage to fight such a lawsuit with a multinational company.

   "Then I'll go first, Director Ronald. Procter & Gamble's legal department will send you the documents to terminate the contract, and we will pay the liquidated damages according to the terms."

   "Damn Jew", Ronald cursed in his heart, looking at the big, curved nose of the other party.

   "Sorry Ronald, I didn't expect them to think like that." Nisita came over and apologized.

   "It's okay", Ronald shook his hand, indicating that it was none of Nisita's business.

   is nothing more than diverting a part of the distribution budget to fill in the money that P&G used to cancel the placement of advertisements.

   In the future, I will not accept any advertisements of P&G acne cream! But their competitor Unilever can be considered.

   "You've got to find me some advertising business, the short-handed kind." Ronald pulled Nisita aside and whispered.

   "Are you financially?"

   "There is no problem now, but the issue fee..."

   "I'll make arrangements right away and ask those patrons for their intentions."

  The money was suddenly short of hundreds of thousands, and Ronald had to temporarily pick up the advertising business he didn't really want to take.

   I hope to make two lucrative commercials, which can be finished in a short period of time, to supplement my bank account.

Chapter end