Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 1009 Seven and a half million gallons of sadness

"This is a device for monitoring diving conditions. There is an annunciator on the diving equipment. If you are in trouble, just press it, and an alarm will be received here. I will let the assistant director watch here, and then there is a diving instructor here. I was on standby, diving with me, and underwater photographer Al Giddings.

  Look, it's very safe. All of us in the crew can dive to the deepest point. Why don't you try it? I don't remember being so timid when you were doing Top Gun. "

  The next morning, Ronald watched the crew get busy diving, and Cameron still invited him to go diving. This is a hobby he has had since he was a child. Cameron likes to dive alone with his hands, without the sound of being isolated from the world. He really wants to share this feeling with his good friends.

   "No, I'm born with physical discomfort for diving..." Ronald shook his hand desperately. Cameron and underwater photographer Giddings started wearing rubber wetsuits. A smell of bleach and rubber made Ronald feel sick.

  The large containment vessel of the nuclear power plant contains a total of 7.5 million tons of water, which has not been changed for many days. The nearby sheep often come here to drink water and graze, and sometimes the dirt is discharged into the artificial lake.

  In order to prevent infection caused by long-term underwater shooting, the crew poured a large amount of bleach into it every day, which made people's eyes uncomfortable. Ronald noticed that Cameron's and the underwater photographer's hair were a little faded from the bleach.

   Cameron noticed Ronald's nausea. Some people are not suitable for diving by nature. He shrugged. His friend Ronald couldn't share that mysterious and quiet feeling with him.

"Then you stay here for a while. I'm going to verify the reliability of the underwater camera. It will take an hour to shoot. There are many interesting props here. You will like it. Then we will watch the video together and I will tell you about diving. filming."

  Ronald nodded, "Then I'll wait for you here, and you, Mr. Giddings, I'm very interested in underwater photography, and I'm going to hear your opinion in an hour."

  Underwater photography, especially Cameron’s deep-diving photography, has a lot of his exclusive skills in terms of machinery and shooting, and the opportunity is rare.

   Giddings didn't speak, and pointed to his ear.

  "The aftermath of a diving accident. He likes to use a diving bell to dive in shallow seas. One day the diving bell had an accident, and the sharply changing pressure made his ears almost deaf."

   "Oh?" Ronald was a little scared again. He would rather fly into the sky than go into the sea.

   "When we go up, we have to be very careful and let the pressure change slowly, otherwise there will be a lot of trouble... So we can't come back in an hour, and it will take half an hour to go up."

  Ronald nodded to indicate that he understood. Cameron smiled, and made a gesture with Giddings, and the two walked into the artificial lake together.

   "By the way", Cameron walked halfway, turned back to Ronald and said, "Gail is coming today, you can talk to her..."

  Ronald was speechless for a moment. The two couples had a purely working relationship. Gail Hurd as producer and Cameron as director work together very well, but that's where it ends.

   "Mr. Li, would you like to take a look at this stuff, it's very interesting."

  The assistant director who stayed on the shore and was in charge of watching the alarm device came over to interrupt Ronald's nostalgic thoughts. He took a small bottle filled with a water-like liquid.

   "What's this" Ronald feels like it must be something interesting props.

   "Oxyfluorocarbon liquid", the assistant director came up to offer a treasure. This is a future technology, and people can use it to breathe when diving.

   "Oh?" Ronald didn't quite believe it. People can use this liquid to breathe when they leave the air? This is not the same as fish.

   "We have done a lot of experiments," the assistant director expected that Ronald would not believe it, and immediately snapped his fingers to ask the assistant to send a cage.

   "Zhizhizhi...", there is a small white mouse in the cage.

   "Look...", the assistant director caught the little white mouse, squeezed it with both hands, and threw it into the bottle of so-called oxyfluorocarbon liquid.

"Squeak...cheep...", the little white mouse uttered a few times, and then began to struggle violently. Ronald could see that it was suffering from lack of oxygen, and finally the air in its lungs was exhausted, and then it turned over and lay on the ground. The bottom of the bottle was motionless.

   "God...", Ronald felt that the assistant director must have made a mistake with the liquid. Although it was a mouse, it died in pain like this, and he still couldn't bear to watch it again.

The assistant director wants to make a good impression in front of him, but in fact, this kind of trick may be able to win the amazement of laymen. As a director, Ronald's request to the assistant director is to solve all kinds of troublesome things for the crew, not to reproduce a little bit by himself come out.

  If this is seen by some animal protection organization, it will definitely cause a storm. Hollywood directors don't like to shoot animals, and these organizations must have contributed more than half of the reasons. If they completely follow their requirements, a pet, a horse, they are often treated better than actors in the crew.

   "Look, look, it's about to come alive," the assistant director unconsciously held the bottle in front of Ronald.

   "Squeak...", to Ronald's surprise, the little white mouse actually came back to life. As if in the air, it slowly resumed its activities.

   "I... what kind of magic is this?" Ronald's eyes almost popped out, this is indeed future technology.

"This is a new invention of oxygen-containing fluorocarbon compound, which is very special and has extremely high oxygen solubility. Therefore, it can store and transport a large amount of oxygen. It is Dr. Kelstra and Dr. Bennett of Duke University invention."

  A man in a white coat, seeing Ronald's surprised look, came to explain to him.

This is the emergency doctor of the film crew. This oxyfluorocarbon solution has been carried out in some hospitals for exploratory research. Some patients with severe lungs have already used this oxyfluorocarbon to allow the lungs to breathe oxygen again. .

   "Can this thing really allow humans to breathe?" Ronald was surprised.

   "Yes, but we haven't found a way to let him reabsorb oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. It's just an experimental stage." Emergency doctors have some understanding of this pioneering technology.

"In the movie, the protagonist Ed Harris' plot, this oxyfluorocarbon solution is at the key point of the plot. In order to save the diving expert's ex-wife, he is willing to give up his chance of survival. After that, he and the high-level creature When we meet, we rely on this liquid to maintain our oxygen supply."

   "You'd better watch the sirens..." Ronald felt bad. The plot, the star, is Cameron's expression that he wants Gale back.

  The couple are like-minded fellow travelers and once had a deep love. This relationship has particularly tortured Cameron. Especially now that Gail can still meet, but only professionally. He had just told himself that Gail would come, obviously with a complicated expression.

   "Huh?" Ronald thought of something, did Cameron have a subtext for him to communicate with Gail? I am a mutual friend of the two, and they both came out together from Weishi. Maybe Cameron wants to let himself know Gale's true thoughts, is there a chance to redeem?

   Ronald looked at the director's seat, and there was a photo frame on it, which was a photo he took of the two of them when he was in New World Pictures.

   "Hey...", Ronald sighed.

   "What a surprise to see you here, Ronald."

   After a while, Gail Hurd really came.

   She happily embraces Ronald. The few movies that Ronald has made recently are female-centric, which makes Hurd very happy. There are more such movie stories. Among the young people of the next generation in America, women will use the images of women in these movies as moral models. , Men will also feel that dealing with women in this way and respecting their personal choices is the correct way to communicate with women.

   Gail happily chatted with Ronald for a long time, Ronald took the opportunity to bring up the topic, and pointed to the photo on the table, "So, you and Jim now?"

   "Pure work relationship... nothing else..." Gail replied firmly. She followed Ronald's eyes and saw the group photo. Without saying a word, she slammed the photo frame down on the table.

   "Ms. Heard, would you like to take a look at this thing? It's very interesting." The assistant director, like an immature child, came over to show Gail a look.

"Who put this in the relationship?" Ronald was dissatisfied, but Gail had a good chat with him, and he couldn't talk, so he stood up and walked outside, "I'll go find a cup of coffee, and then go Take a look at the artificial lake."

   Ronald turned and went out the door, the sunlight outside the door shone in, leaving a shadow on the table. The assistant director performed even harder, "Look, look, he will come back to life soon",

  While dancing, he accidentally knocked a socket on the siren, which leads to the speaker. The alarm light on one side is also connected to a pager.

  Suddenly, this warning light began to flash faintly on and off. It was covered in the sun, and no one noticed it.

   "Didi...Didi..."

   At the bottom of the artificial lake, Cameron's diving equipment had a problem, and the throttle valve of the oxygen cylinder had a problem. He put the respirator in his mouth and inhaled hard, but there was no response.

   "Al...", Cameron made a strong voice, but the diving photographer Al Giddings in front of him couldn't hear what happened here because he was deaf.

   "Damn...", Cameron tried his best to send out a signal for help, but there was no response. There were no first aiders by the lake, and the diving instructor of the crew came to rescue.

  He had to take off the respirator, open his hands, and swim up as hard as he could.

"It's unlucky. I just told Ronald about the diving sickness. I didn't expect to have to go up quickly. If I'm unlucky, nitrogen will make trouble in the blood vessels. In the slightest, the muscles will be damaged, and in severe cases, it will cause blood clots, or the heart and brain. There is a problem with the blood vessels in the body.

   Soon, the rapid ascent caused Cameron's ears to start buzzing, and his whole head began to ache, accompanied by huge tinnitus.

  Pa... The diving instructor and part-time lifeguard on the shore found a huge splash emerging from the bottom of the water, and immediately threw a respirator into the water, jumped into the water himself, and dived. Something must have happened, he immediately saw that Cameron was not wearing a helmet and respirator, something must have gone wrong.

   "Pfft..." Cameron caught the respirator thrown by the lifeguard, took a breath, but found that it was not oxygen but water. The only air in his mouth was exhausted again, and Cameron choked on several saliva. He waved his hands desperately.

   "Don't be afraid, I'm here, you're safe." The other party thought that Cameron was in the underwater time and showed symptoms of panic attack. Floating up quickly at such a time would cause a big problem, so I went to catch him and held him down desperately.

   "Damn...", Cameron's mouth was full of water, and he didn't have the strength and ability to say that he didn't have a panic attack that he had a chance to encounter in deep diving, but that your respirator was broken.

  The more he struggled, the closer the opponent's hoop got, the greater the movement of the two underwater, and the movement on the water surface gradually became more intense.

   "Jim! Jim!, are you alright?" Ronald, who had just come over, noticed the problem with the water surface, and quickly yelled. This is not an accident, right?

   "Rom...", Cameron was not far from the water, he felt Ronald's call. Suddenly, a burst of strength came out of nowhere, and he punched the lifeguard, hitting his chin. Then he used his last bit of strength and jumped up hard.

   "Jim!" Ronald saw that Cameron's hands were no longer moving when he came up. He was so frightened that he ran forward quickly, took off his sneakers, and jumped into the artificial lake converted from the containment of the nuclear power plant.

   "Jim, I've got you, hold on," Ronald dragged Cameron, who was already unconscious, and swam toward the shore. Just hearing Ronald's cry, some staff came over and pulled them ashore together.

   "Go to the doctor quickly", Ronald put Cameron on the shore, tried his breathing and heartbeat, it was okay, he just passed out. But he surfaced in such a hurry, Ronald was also very worried about the diving sickness he mentioned.

   Soon, the doctor from the film crew came over, and there was no major problem in the preliminary examination. As long as you rest for a period of time and observe, if there is no blood clot or other conditions, you will be fine.

   Cameron had already woken up at this time, and he remembered that it was Ronald who finally pulled him ashore. Although unable to speak, Ronald understood in his eyes. When a person is in life and death, perhaps the little thing he grasps is his most precious. Maybe at that time, what Cameron saw was Gale's appearance.

   "I'm going to find Gale."

   "I'll go, I'll go", someone hurriedly informed the producer Gail.

   When he found Gale, Cameron had already been carried to the director's chair by the lake, half lying down, covered with a blanket, looking pitiful.

   "What did the doctor say?" Gail Hurd didn't speak to Cameron, but asked Ronald next to him.

   "It needs to be observed for a day. If there is no problem, there will be no problem." The doctor interrupted to answer.

  Gail's eyes turned back to Cameron. His eyes were complicated. This man is talented, but he also has all kinds of common problems of men. I gave him the opportunity to shoot the Terminator back then, but now when the relationship between the two has problems, he and the female director...

   "Hoo...", Ronald breathed a sigh of relief when he saw this. This situation is very similar to the scene where he and Gail went to Italy to rescue Cameron back then... Wasn't that why they became acquainted?

   "As a director, can you still continue to shoot?"

  A cold sentence spit out from Gail's mouth.

"As a producer, you can rest assured that I will be able to continue working tomorrow." Cameron finished his sentence after a while, and the whole person spent a lot of energy, then closed his eyes, no more energy speak.

   "It's not necessary..." Ronald looked at Gail's back with complicated emotions.

   Just like the seven and a half million gallons of water in this artificial lake, every drop is not as heavy as the tears that the two parted people tried to hold back.

   Ronald didn't know what to say, and he had nothing to say.

   Cameron rested for half a day, began to recover at night, and returned to work the next morning.

  The first thing he did was to fire the assistant director who neglected his duty and ignored his distress signal, and the instructor who was negligent and failed to ensure the diving equipment. If it were another person, it would be a big deal.

   Then he quickly invited the best diving instructor in Los Angeles, and gave all the actors a week of intensive diving training before the filming started.

   Cameron himself chatted with Ronald about the special effects production of this movie.

   "So what do you mean, you are not sure about the computer special effects this time?" Ronald heard Cameron's narration, and felt that his old friend was really taking risks.

"No way, the people from Industrial Light and Magic have done two experiments, but both failed. They used to deal with either solid targets like TIE fighters, or particles like lightning and flames. This liquid deformation method, We still have to experiment gradually.”

  In the story of "The Abyss", the high-level creatures on the bottom of the sea finally simulated the appearance of a human with sea water, and communicated with the professional diving expert played by Ed Harris.

   "Aren't you afraid they won't be able to do it in the end?"

   "This is an unavoidable risk, but I am confident. This is an engineering problem. No one has done it before. Now that I am here, more directors will design special effects like this in the future."

  (end of this chapter)