Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   "Uh...um..." Meg Ryan and a handsome guy with a thick chin kissed passionately in the departure hall of JFK Airport in New York.

  The camera backed away slowly, circled an arc on the track, and finally stopped on the close-up. Billy Crystal has shaved off his green bangs for a grown-up hairstyle. He passed by the happy couple, and suddenly he recognized Sally and looked at the man who was kissing with her, and walked on.

   Then, Harry looked back, as if he knew the man too. So he walked back and looked at the two who were still kissing.

   "Cut!"

   Ronald sat behind the camera and was satisfied with the performance of the three.

   The actor who played Sally's boyfriend five years after Harry and Sally carpooled to New York was called Steven Ford. He has a strong crocodile jaw and is perfect for this transitional role called Joe.

  Joe graduated from the law department. After getting his lawyer's license, he worked as an assistant prosecutor in the prosecutor's office. After accumulating several years of experience, he jumped to a law firm to carry out criminal defense business. This is the most common career route for young people from powerful families.

  This Steven Ford is not very old, but he can act like that kind of dude. When Ronald saw his performance, he couldn't help but think of Little George. He played the kind of young man who has a silver spoon in his mouth and knows little about the lives of ordinary people very well.

   "Hair stylist, hair stylist to help Meg's hair..." After Ronald saw the kiss, Meg Ryan's hair was a little messy. The tone of this movie is to be close to life.

  In the first act, when Sally just graduated from college in 1977, she wore the big wave hairstyle that the hottest female star at the time, Farrah Fastett, had in "Charlie's Angels".

In 1982, when Sally and Harry met for the second time in the current scene, her hairstyle became that of Cheryl Ladd, who replaced Farrah Fassett as the blonde in "Charlie's Angels". shape. A platinum hairstyle with straight hair and a lighter shade.

   This method of making the heroine's hairstyle close to the fashion at that time can easily arouse the feelings of the audience who have similar experiences, and it is also very close to the characteristics of Sally Al'Brien's work as a reporter.

  However, because the scene in 1982 was only a short section at the airport, Meg Ryan used wigs and hair extensions to deal with it. The passionate kissing scene just now was a bit messed up.

   "Director, are you satisfied with my performance?" Steven Ford, who played Sally's boyfriend Joe, came over.

   "What do you think?" Ronald glanced at him.

"I'm an actor, I think the director is the one who gives my performance evaluation, isn't it?", Ford speaks like a boy from the Upper East Side of New York, and ordinary conversation can also be made very condescending by him aggressive.

"You don't know Ronald, Steven." Meg Ryan came over to smooth things over, "You'll understand if you shoot a few more scenes with him. When you're filming under him, no news is good news. A rare actor's director. "

   "Sounds great!" Ford praised Ronald.

  Ronald just smiled and signaled the makeup artist with his eyes to "touch up his makeup" and tell him to shut up.

   "Where did we find such a treasure?" Ronald turned to screenwriter Nora Ephron. She replaced Rob Reiner, who had returned to oversee "Steel Magnolia", and came to the crew to provide timely script guidance.

   Too many parts of this play rely on the improvisation of the hero and heroine. Ronald has to rely on the screenwriter to judge whether the improvisation is suitable for the overall story. Is there anything inappropriate?

   "Hehe...he is the son of Commander Gerrard"

  Nora Ephron, casting director Jane Jenkins, and Janet Heshenson chatted for a while, and the three came to answer Ronald.

  Julia Taylor, who worked with Ronald the most, went to work on other projects. Ronald, who was temporarily accepted, asked her to recommend casting directors suitable for romantic comedies. These two names were recommended to Ronald.

   Sure enough, the two of them had good eyesight. For the role of the blue-blooded dandy, they really found a real dandy to play it.

  The youngest son of the former commander-in-chief originally studied ranch management. After his father unexpectedly took over the post of commander-in-chief, he became interested in Hollywood and became an actor.

Hollywood gave him very good treatment. He played the main supporting actor in "Grease" when he first debuted, but because of "stage fright", he suddenly quit the crew before the filming started. Alcohol and drug abuse.

  But because of his father, he can still play certain types of roles in Hollywood. For example, this Joe is very suitable for him to play in his true colors.

   "Joe? I thought it was you just now, I thought it was you..."

  The filming continued, and Harry pretended that he had just recognized Joe, who lived on the first floor with him back then, and repeated unnutritious words. Sally tried to avoid this person who drove to New York with her for more than ten hours, so as not to be embarrassed when they recognized each other.

   "Let me introduce you, this is Sally, Sally Al'Brien."

"Hello…"

   "Hello..." The protagonists greeted each other pretending not to know each other.

   "Cut!"

   Ronald took a few more. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan have great chemistry. When the two appear in the camera at the same time, they are always full of tension. Let the audience hope to see which direction the story of the two will go.

   It's a feeling that's hard to describe, but it's mostly Meg Ryan. Her various expressions and postures make people involuntarily think of the girl beside her. She seems to have taken out the most typical part of the American girl's personality traits, and then showed it to everyone.

  She plays Sally, who has an open side and a traditional side, which makes people feel a little contradictory. And these two qualities, shown in Meg Ryan, are convincing.

   Around us, there are always some friends who are very traditional in their bones and hope to meet the most special love. But they follow trends and are shaped by modern consumerism and mass media, making them appear to be open and modern.

  The key point to achieve this kind of contradiction and unity is an emotion that American girls in Meg Ryan, especially American actresses, rarely show—"shyness!"

Although Sally can be wild enough to perform fake Climax in public in a restaurant, she is so shy and shy when facing her beloved one, and she is careful to test for fear of scaring the other party away, just like the classic Climax described by Jane Austen. British women.

   "We might hit the Powerball jackpot..." Ronald murmured. Nora Ephron and the two casting directors know what he means. Such a heroine can make the audience worry about the two protagonists regardless of the plain plot, and eagerly want them to be together of.

  The movie "When Harry Met Sally", the reason why Rob Reiner was very suspicious before, was mainly because the plot did not have the kind of obstacles that a romantic comedy must have.

  If this is an ordinary love drama, there must be various people between Harry and Sally to prevent them from being together. Either the parents object (Romeo and Juliet), someone else gets in the way (Gone with the Wind), or love is abandoned for a greater purpose (North Africa).

  The last two protagonists broke through various obstacles and came together, so that there can be drama and make the audience feel enjoyable.

   But in "When Harry Met Sally", there is actually no one acting as such an obstacle. By the time the two met for the third time, Joe had broken up with Sally, and Harry had divorced his wife.

   The blind dates that I wanted to introduce to each other, Mary and Jess, didn't fall in love with either Harry or Sally, but they fell in love with each other.

  All the people in the story are creating opportunities for Harry and Sally to be together. What really stops them is their own confidence in their love for each other.

  This kind of relationship has happened to everyone, but to perform that kind of natural charm, you must have the right time, place and people, and just meet the right actors to be successful.

  It may just happen that Meg Ryan is in a relationship with Dennis Quaid, and the two also have a lot of uncertain feelings about each other's future, so this feeling was moved into the filming, coupled with her own special...

   "Steven, I like your performance very much." After the shooting of these few shots, Ronald hurriedly said goodbye to Ford, and dismissed the former grand master who was still unsatisfied.

  The crew moved to the ground conveyor belt on the other side of the airport. Harry had recognized Sally a long time ago, but she was in love, so he didn't recognize him at that time.

   But leaving Joe as her boyfriend, Harry and Sally began to set magnets on the conveyor belt. Both of them forgot the name of the girlfriend who asked Harry and Sally to carpool. During the exchange of words, it seemed that the two wanted to say more than they and their respective partners wanted to say.

  …

   "Today's filming is complete, let's go back and rest early." The filming went very smoothly, and Ronald also enjoyed the luxury of going home and spending time with his family every day during filming for the first time.

  This is because the film does not have any technical difficulties, but the interaction between the characters, logically speaking, there are many difficulties. But because of the good condition of the two protagonists, there is no scene that cannot be passed through repeated shooting.

   "Why do you have time to go home and rest every day?" Donna came to see her cousin on this day and brought a Chinese takeaway by the way.

  "Lucky, everyone cooperated very well, so it went smoothly." Ronald picked up the fried vegetables and ate them.

   "Has your directing skills improved?" Tomorrow it's Donna's turn to appear in a cameo role, and she is also very curious about making movies.

   "It's more about my excellent casting...", Ronald talked about the excellent state of the two leading actors, and then began to explain tomorrow's shooting to Donna.

   People who have never made a movie are always full of fantasy, but in fact, this is just a job.

   "Beep beep..."

  The phone rang and Ronald picked it up.

   "It's me, George."

   It turned out to be the son of another high-ranking official, and George Jr. called.

   "Why, what's the situation now?" Ronald felt that George Jr. called in such a hurry, it must be because of his father's election.

   "Your judgment is very accurate. The advertisement on the Boston pier has little impact on Dukakis' approval rating, and at the same time, my father's approval rating has also decreased.

  Columbo (Jorge Jr.’s younger sibling), the Spanish-speaking ad, has the opposite effect...hehehehe..."

   "Aren't you supposed to be worried and disappointed now?" Ronald replied half-jokingly. The behavior of these dandies is really different from ordinary people. If his father didn't win the election, what's the point of fighting between brothers like this?

"I'm just being so straightforward with you, hahaha..." Little George laughed a few words, "The correct strategy can only be carried out when the wrong strategy is corrected. I'm not gloating, it's just that the facts have determined that their method is useless. "

   "What do you think of Barbara?" Ronald asked the key point. The most critical person in this election is Barbara. Only when she decides to change her strategy can she really change.

   "My mother is still watching, but there is not much time for Jeb. As long as this trend continues next week, our strategy will work. My mother will definitely call you then, you know what to say?"

   "Of course, I have to congratulate you...and Laura."

  The reason why little George is so gloating is because of the competition between several daughters-in-law. The younger brother and sister born in Mexico were short and had different customs. If Barbara hadn't preferred the younger son, where would it have been her turn to be on camera and shoot commercials for Old George?

  …

  The next day, the crew went to the studio in Queens. It has already built the appearance of the cabin of a civil aviation airliner.

   "We used to be... ummmm?" Harry boarded the plane, sitting right behind Sally. He leaned forward, gestured, and spoke to Sally.

   "No, no...", Sally felt uncomfortable.

   "Would you like to sit together?"

  The man sitting with Sally in front offered to change seats with Harry. The camera panned to the seat next to her, where Donna was sitting, a little nervous and artificial, trying not to look at the camera lens.

   "Cut!"

   Ronald noticed his cousin's nervousness. It seemed that she had no talent. But fortunately, it's just a cameo, so the audience's attention won't go to that side, and it doesn't matter if you're a little nervous.

  After the filming, Harry changed positions, and the camera crew began to re-set the lighting.

   Meg Ryan quickly went back to the trailer to rest, while Billy Crystal chatted with Ronald.

   "If I want to be a director, what do you think is the most important thing?"

  Billy Crystal already has a good reputation. He wants to go further. It is very difficult to improve as an actor, so he wants to follow the precedent and see if it is possible to switch to directing and acting on his own.

   "First of all, you need a qualified assistant director to help you manage the chores of the crew. Especially if you want to direct and act on your own, when you are on stage, you have to have someone to perform your director's duties."

  Ronald did not hide his secrets, and explained some of his own practices.

"You know? It's easy for actors to turn into directors, because they often watch how directors work. But if directors don't have acting talent, it's hard to turn into actors. I really don't know how you work." Ronald said laughingly.

   "That's the privilege of being an actor..." Billy Crystal knew what Ronald meant. The preparation of actors is always introverted, and outsiders don't know how their inner preparations are carried out. Unlike a director who has a lot of work to communicate with other people, it is an outgoing job.

   The break is over, and Meg Ryan is back on set.

   "Every department is preparing, hairdos, come here, I need to tidy up here..."

   "Action!"

   "How long have you and Joe started? Three weeks?" After Harry sat down, he and Sally began to chat about each other's situation.

   "One month, how did you know?" Meg Ryan's expression was in place, and Harry told her about her relationship so quickly, which made Sally wonder whether Harry was inquiring in private?

"Because only those who have just begun to fall in love will send their lovers to the airport. But this also has its disadvantages. If the relationship has been going on for a long time, and he will not come to see you off in the future, you will think, why not send it off now? Is it? Is it...

  So when I started a relationship, I never dropped off the plane, just in case that happened. "

   "You look like an ordinary person, but in fact you are an angel of death..." Sally couldn't stand Harry's realistic analysis, which made her romantic yearnings likely to be shattered.

   "Are you going to get married?" Harry continued.

   "We've only known each other for a month, and it's not time to think about it yet...", Sally suspected that this was another trick Harry wanted to use to "calmly analyze himself" in love, and explained the situation in strict terms.

   "I'm getting married..." Harry turned his head and announced the news.

   "You? People like you want to get married?"

   "Why not? Weird? Helen Helson is her first name and she wants to keep her maiden name."

   "Hi, huh, ... congratulations, someone like you ... it's great to see you embrace life with such a positive attitude."

   Ronald watched this long dialogue scene behind the camera. The two performed really well.

  When she heard the news of Harry's marriage, Sally was obviously overwhelmed, and it took her a while to recover her ability to think and speak normally.

   Just like watching Sally and Joe kissing passionately just now, Harry stood at a loss for a long time before deciding to go up and say hello to Joe instead of Sally.

  This kind of subtle emotional expression is the real attraction of this movie that seems to have no strong dramatic conflicts.