Exploiting Hollywood 1980 Chapter 782

   "Moonlight Sultry" clip, continue. When editing the Nicholas Cage and Cher **** scene, editor Walter Murch also praised Ronald's directing standards.

"You're a really good director of this **** scene. This scene has both the love at first sight between men and women, the desire to be attracted to each other's flesh, and a little dramatic exaggeration that makes them say 'You got my heart, your brother' Can only get my body' is a line that would be very nauseous and exaggerated in a movie.

   What you direct makes people look very natural, without that kind of goosebumps. How did you do it? "

   "Hey, hey, this is a coincidence. It's not about my on-site guidance, but the casting." Ronald smiled.

   As Murch said, in many places in this film, there are traces of Broadway plays. This kind of numb line, if two actors are used to perform it, it will make people feel very fake, and I can't wait to get goosebumps.

   Even the opera "Bohemian" that Loretta and Ronnie went to see in the filming scene did not have such a nauseous line.

   This play allows the audience to watch the extremely exaggerated performance of the two actors without making people feel fake. To a large extent, it relies on the special acting skills of Nicolas Cage.

   Influenced by his uncle, he admired the German expressionist film "Metropolis" in the 1920s. Expressionism is to let the audience ignore the details of the performance through the cooperation of various lights, sets, and actors, and go directly to the heart of the audience.

   In other words, this genre of acting pays more attention to the imagination of the actors. If the actor can imagine himself as the character himself, the audience will be directly brought into the actor's inner emotions by the performance of his subconscious in actions and expressions.

  In this case, once the audience can believe that this is a real person, no matter how exaggerated the lines, in their opinion, there is a certain real element in it.

  The most fearful thing for film directors is that when the audience sees a certain scene, they suddenly jump out of the plot and realize that they are watching a play. Once there is such an experience of jumping out, it will be difficult for the audience to be brought into the plot again.

   Therefore, the most difficult thing for this kind of exaggerated plot is to find suitable actors to play. As for the director and guidance on the scene, it will not play a big role.

   You can't take an actor with average acting skills who can't be brought into the scene and say a few words at the scene, so that he can become convincing to the audience.

   "Hmph, this nephew of Francis (Coppola) has great potential." Murch said, pointing to Cage on the small monitor.

"He is indeed a different actor." Ronald nodded in agreement. Among a large group of Hollywood actors who respect Methodism, such actors do not rely on analysis and skills, but rely on strong imagination to perform. , very different.

   In fact, there was no strong chemical reaction between him and Cher in this scene, but with his own excellent imagination, Cage believed in his role very much and brought Cher into the prescribed situation.

  A lot of strange roles that other people had a hard time playing were easier for him to do.

   "I'm going first today, the son of my Chinese partner, he's coming to America today." In the afternoon, Ronald looked at his watch, said goodbye to Murch, and went to the Los Angeles airport to pick up his partner Lao Yan's son. "

   "Uncle Li!"

   Ronald waited until Xiao Yan, who was poking his head outside the cabin, saw that everything was fresh.

   "Don't, just like in Xujiahui, call me Ronaldinho. Or Ronald."

   "My dad asked me to call him...hehehe" Xiao Yan scratched his head embarrassedly, and he didn't want to call this man about his age uncle.

"I've arranged for you to stay in my apartment for two days, and I'll have my assistant, Bud Jr, take you to LA for two days. He'll come back to Staten Island with you on the weekend. You're in Stan Admissions to Don Island Community College is done, you take a language class in New York, and then wait until the fall.”

   Ronald arranged for Xiaoyan to go to a community college in her hometown. Xiaoyan's English proficiency is average. She has practiced for a long time with foreigners traveling on the Bund, but she still doesn't understand much in the United States.

   Staten Island Community College has just joined the public education system of the City University of New York. As long as Xiaoyan can graduate in two years with a sub-degree, he can also choose other schools in the city university system to continue his education.

  If he can't get enough, Ronald is also ready to work in the Stanton factory. After he enters the factory to study for a period of time, he can go back to take Lao Yan's class.

  If he wanted to do something else, Ronald would help too. I have to take care of my partner in the Minhang factory. The Chinese pay attention to mutual assistance between relatives and friends. With Lao Yan as a partner, we can find ways to do other cooperation in the future.

   "Director Huang's application materials have been brought to me." Xiaoyan asked Xiaoyan to translate the materials for Director Huang's participation in the Los Angeles Women's Independent Film Festival, and asked Xiaoyan to bring them to Ronald.

   "Very well, Director Huang's film has caused a small sensation among the female producers and directors in the industry. They never expected Xujiahui to produce such a pioneering work."

   Ronald collected the materials and asked Xiaoyan to send a telegram to the family to report safety. Then he asked little Bud to accompany him shopping, and completely transformed into a youth dressed up in America.

   Ronald brought Director Huang's application materials to Gail Hurd. She is now working with director Martha Coolidge and others on a Hollywood Women Producer Directors Guild. It happened to have contacts with the independent film festival at the beginning of each year.

  Ronald found them, and at the Independent Film Festival, an award for new female directors has been added. For women directors around the world. It happened that there were not many people who signed up for the first session, so it was cheap for Director Huang's "human and ghost feelings".

   Martha Coolidge, who was fired from the "Wonderful" crew by John Hughes and who robbed him of his comedy idea, now scolds that Chicagoan John Hughes when he sees it.

   Ronald listened for a while, but nothing new. Coolidge just kept cursing Hughes, while reassuring Ronald that such a pioneering and progressive film by Director Huang must be seen by more Americans.

   Ronald knew in his heart that except for a small number of curious people in America, it was impossible for the Americans to read the story of a Chinese opera actress. So he just asked Daydream to contact the movie theaters in Chinatown in major cities.

  There are many immigrants here who have worked here for many years, eager to see more of the scenery and humanities of their hometown, and to solve the pain of homesickness. Therefore, let "Human Ghost Love" be shown in these places first, so that the money from the copy can be earned.

   Maybe it was Martha Coolidge's curse that worked, or maybe Howard Deutch, who replaced her as the director of "Wonderful", was not taken seriously within Paramount.

The day after    sent Xiao Yan away, Ronald received a distress call from Paramount President Ned Tanin.

   "That's the way it is. I'm investigating. If someone is behind the scenes, I'll definitely give him justice. But now that this kind of accident happens, I can only ask you to help me and see if I need to make up shots.

   Now that the crew is scattered, only you have the prestige to get the main actors to come back for reshoots. "

  Ned Tanin was in the Paramount screening room, with Ronald, director Howard Deutch, watching the dailies that had gone horribly wrong.

  The movie has been shot and edited. But while editing the negatives and developing the copies, there was a serious accident.

  Eric Stoltz, who plays the male lead, and Leigh Thompson, who plays the female lead, have a romantic location scene at the Hollywood Bowl, the largest open-air movie theater in Los Angeles.

  In this semi-open-air theater, in addition to showing movies, various performances are also held.

  The actor Keith just wanted to be here and touched Amanda Jones, who had a crush on him for a long time. Finally, in the room inside the Hollywood Bowl, he showed Amanda that he had spent months painting the other person's portrait. In the end, Amanda was really moved, and he faced up to this poor, but honest and daring lover. lad.

   On the screen, there are black borders and dark frames around this scene, and the negative has been damaged.

   "Do you have any enemies? Howard?" Ronald asked the extremely frustrated director Howard Deutch sitting next to him.

   "I can't think of anyone trying to hurt me unless..."

   "Martha? She'd curse you at most. It's impossible for her to go to the laboratory to do this."

   Ronald sighed.

  In the laboratory, every time a copy is made, the chemical potion prescribed by the formula is used. This is the most important part of quality management. A good studio can produce hundreds of copies so that the naked eye can't see any difference.

   But this time, for some unknown reason, Paramount's laboratory had an accident. The film of these scenes, the formula of chemical potion, or the water temperature control problem, there are overexposed burnt marks around the film.

  Fortunately, experienced and skilled workers detected and prevented the further expansion of the accident in time.

   But it is very unfortunate that the damaged scene this time happened to be a scene that director Howard Deutch only shot.

   It costs a lot of money to rent a venue to shoot at the Hollywood Bowl. To save money, Howard Deutch only rented for half a day.

   The only lens that was satisfactory and usable was damaged by the laboratory.

   There is no extra copy to replace this scene, and there are only two options in front of him, either delete this scene, or recall the two leading actors Eric Stoltz and remake it with Leigh Thompson.

  Howard Deutch doesn't have the prestige to recall an actor to pay for a technical blunder at the lab. Only Ronald, who dealt with Stoltz's escape mentality at the time, and persuaded Leigh Thompson to take over the heroine, might make them sell face.

  Ronald didn't want to worry about this shit.

   But the movie is innocent, the rest of the movie is well shot. The interaction between the three protagonists, one man and two women, is very chemical. It can be seen that they all put a lot of effort into their extraordinary performances.

  This scene is a scene where the two protagonists fall in love, and it is a key change in the movie's plot. If it is deleted, the whole story of the movie will collapse. Without the plot of Keith drawing with Amanda as the model, the audience will be very puzzled when they see this, why Keith and Amanda suddenly have a good impression of each other.

   Looking at Howard Deutch's pitiful face, Ronald agreed to try it.

  The movie itself is not wrong. The cost of tens of millions of dollars and the efforts of hundreds of people for several months. Ronald did not want the crystallization of everyone to be ruined by an accidental or deliberate technical error.

"I watched your filming, it was very good, very good." Ronald arrived at the mansion in Beverly Hills, Leigh Thompson was packing, her house was about to be taken over by the real estate economy, and she looked for a house to look at .

   The failure of "Howard Duck" caused her expected income to plummet, and now she can't afford the mortgage on such a good house. After the filming of "Wonderful", Leigh Thompson disposed of the house as soon as possible and prepared to move with her sister.

   "Ha, I followed the instructions you gave me. I'm not pretty enough, so I put more effort into Amanda's kindness." Leigh Thompson shrugged and looked at the house, still a little reluctant.

   "I have to thank you very much. If this movie can box office well, I may not need to sell the house. I like this house very much."

   "Hey, actually, I'm here to..." Ronald glanced at the director Dutch, who came with him. Seeing that he didn't speak, he had to speak.

   "Sister, your phone" her sister called from the room.

   "Sorry, let me go." Leigh Thompson said sorry to Ronald and went inside to answer the phone.

   "You bastard...why do you say that? If you don't want to get engaged, I can cancel..."

   After a while, a quarrel was faintly heard from the room.

   Ronald and director Howard Deutch glanced at each other, knowing that something embarrassing had happened again. Leigh Thompson and boyfriend Dennis Quaid have started fighting again.

   "Eric? Eric? I'm just a colleague with him, but you're ragging and saying that I..."

  Lee Thompson hung up and came out looking very bad.

   "We have a scene that needs to be shot..." Howard Deutch was very concerned about Leigh Thompson. Seeing that her face was not good, he consoled her with a few words, and said what she meant.

   "I'm sorry, Howard, I'm not in good shape right now, I need to adjust. When will you make up?"

   "Oh, the movie is scheduled to be released next month, it'd better be as soon as possible..."

   "Forget it, you rest for a few days. Howard and I are trying to figure out if there is any other way. The lab broke the negative."

   "Sorry, but you asked me to adjust for a day, and I can resume shooting the day after tomorrow. Which scene is it?"

   "It's the scene where Amanda finds out that Keith has secretly painted his oil paintings."

   "Oh..." Leigh Thompson covered her face in pain.

  This scene takes a long time to brew, to show the kind of mentality where the two lovers break through the barriers and progress to the point where they have good feelings for each other, but they have not yet officially fallen in love.

  Lee Thompson was accused by her boyfriend Dennis Quaid of having an affair with Stoltz again because he was filming with Eric Stoltz. It is estimated that it will be difficult to get back that subtle feeling in a short time.

   "What happened? You made them come true?" Ronald asked director Dutch after he came out of the mansion.

   "No, why would I do this?"

Romantic comedies, especially whole movies like this, rely on the chemistry between the leading actors to impress the audience with their true feelings. Some directors can't find that subtle feeling and will take shortcuts to let the actors really feel. of love on the set.

   This is more convincing than acting.

   But on the set, there were many scenes of falling in love, all of them were beautiful women and handsome men, so it was hard not to fall in love on the set.

  If the male and female lead actors do not work hard to get rid of their emotions after filming, it is easy to fall into emotional troubles.

   "I won't do this, I just let them be together and discover more of each other's advantages..."

   "This..." Ronald scratched his head, didn't love start with discovering the good points in each other, this little spark?

   Now on the one hand is Leigh Thompson's personal love life, on the other hand, the movie needs her to play her acting skills again and pretend to be in love with Stoltz.

   "Isn't this a moral dilemma?"

  Ronald also felt a little bit painful. The director's professional ethics should not invade the actor's private life too much. But the total cost of 10 to 10,000 yuan before and after is missing an eye, which is more important?

   "What about this?" Howard Deutch was very painful. He thought about it for a long time. In his own works and the actor's private life, he had no choice.

   "Take me to the props and set scene to see if there is any other remedy."

  The two came to Paramount's warehouse, where all the important props of "Wonderful" are placed.

   "So, Li and Eric, were they really in love during the filming?" Ronald looked at the various props and remembered that when he watched the demo again, the chemistry between the two was really good, so he asked Howard.

   "They've dated once or twice. But I don't think Leigh Thompson has a crush on Eric. She's looking for feelings.

   But Mary Stuart Masterson, who played Keith's neighbor girl Watts, is actually a bit of a taste. So in the end, the confession scene between Watts and Keith was so beautiful. Mary Stuart Masterson was beautiful when she cried. "

   "Is this the prop for Amanda's oil painting?" Ronald turned to a picture framed oil painting and asked Howard Dutch.

   "Yes, that's the one." The woman above is a bit similar to Leigh Thompson, but it's still a bit different from the real person.

   Actually, you should find a better painter. Ronald thought that the audience didn't really care if Keith was able to draw very well, so the audience would have a play for a portrait that didn't look alike.

   "What is this?" Ronald finished the portrait and found a frame behind it.

   "Eh?" Ronald found another portrait of Amanda.

   "What about this? And this?" Jumping into the pile of props, Ronald found that leaning against the wall, there were seven or eight portraits behind, all drawn after Leigh Thompson.

   "Uh, I don't think I'm good at painting, so I found a lot of painters."

   Ronald gave Howard Deutch a deep look.

It seems that the director is also very easy to fall in love with the heroine. He thinks about the heroine's inner drama every day, what are her advantages, why does the hero fall in love with her? ?

   These paintings are actually of the same level, and Howard Deutch is also a little stunned. He seems to be very obsessed with Leigh Thompson, but I don't know if he has discovered it himself.

   "Okay, let's think of a way, and see Li's condition tomorrow."

   Ronald can't do anything about it, it seems that this has to be remade.

   "What's wrong with you, you seem to have something on your mind?"

   Back in the editing room, Walter Murch saw that Ronald had something on his mind.

"I acted as a producer, and a film I facilitated had a big technical problem. When I was developing the negative, there was an accident... The scene that I want to reshoot now is difficult to find because of the heroine's personal love life. …”

   Ronald told Murch about his predicament.

   "What is it like to wash?"

   "It's the recipe of the potion, the time, the temperature, and one of the three samples went wrong. The four corners of the film turned black, and the four edges turned yellow, making it unusable."

   "You said it was difficult to remake?"

   "Yes, it's hard to do. Leigh Thompson has had a big problem with her personal love life recently. I think she is a very good actress, but some things are beyond her control."

   "If that's the case, you can go to Lloyd. He's been in the lab for forty years, and there's a way."

"any solution?"

   "Will this work?" Ronald found what Murch said, Lloyd, who was about to retire after working in the Paramount Laboratory for forty years.

   "It depends, you might lose a few frames."

   Lloyd was working slowly on the machine.

   "Okay, look at this paragraph."

   "Huh? Not bad." Ronald leaned on the monitor, watching Lloyd's restoration.

   "Come and see, Howard." Ronald gave up the position to director Dutch. This old-fashioned machine can only allow one person to look at the film through the monitor.

   "Yes, not much to lose."

  Howard Deutch watched it several times.

  The surrounding of the film is carefully cut, the original distant view, the surrounding is cut off, and it becomes a medium shot.

  Although a lot of lens arrangements and image quality have been lost. But I don't need to retake it anymore.

   "That's it, it's good to be able to recover a little bit."

   Ronald felt that although the picture quality was a little rough, it was much better than the remake of the heroine who could not find the state.

   "Thank you, Ronald." Howard Deutch was very impressed with this strange trick to solve the problem. If it wasn't for Ronald, his second movie would have been bad.

   "It's alright, you're still busy with marketing. By the way, don't you put those portrait paintings in the warehouse if you don't take them back?"

   "I found one and gave it to Li."

"Hey, you don't understand." Ronald thought of the "brilliant" Likin Catroll's similar models, "You don't know what those looking at warehouses can do to portraits of beautiful women. Come."

Chapter end