Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 118 Your ads don't need anymore

  Ronald went to PBS's New York offices again to meet Helen's father, Gerald Slater.

  Gerald had seen the storyboard that Ronald had drawn for Helen, and asked Secretary Stella to inform him that he should come to the office to "discuss" the details of the advertisement with him.

   "Mr. Slater." Ronald was introduced into the office by Stella and greeted Gerald.

  Gerald Slater motioned him to sit down with his hand, still talking on the phone:

"Yes, our PBS is an alliance of education stations from all over the world. Of course, the control of the sub-stations is not as strong as that of NBC, ABC, and CBS. Therefore, when filming TV series, the sub-station ordering is not active enough, and the production budget we can come up with is not enough. They are so tall.

   Yes, this makes it impossible to invest in big productions. If we produce TV series ourselves, the budget will be insufficient, and the ratings will not be too high, unless you find the next George Lucas.

  ...so I suggest to bring in continental Europe, especially British TV dramas, they have an advantage in language.

   also increased investment in filming documentaries. Yes, this is our advantage, there are many documentary lovers in the local education station under the alliance, mainly middle-aged men, with good spending power, advertisers will like it..."

   After ten minutes, Gerald finally finished the phone call with other high-level executives, thinking of Ronald sitting idle.

   "I've seen your script for the shooting, and the drafts of the sub-shots. Your level is good."

   "Thank you for your compliment, Mr. Slater..."

  Gerald Slater raised his hand and stopped Ronald from continuing, "However, your script doesn't reflect Helen's advantages at all. What's going on? I thought you would know her quite well."

  Ronald was stunned, "Mr. Slater, that was the first time I saw Helen, and I didn't know much about her advantages..."

"Pia told me the details later, you're not his date," Gerald raised his hand again to stop Ronald's defense, "but it's been so many days, you haven't deepened your right. Does she understand?"

"I've been busy shooting the first version of the chewing gum commercial for the past few days..." Ronald said quickly when he saw Gerald raising his hand again, "I'll go and learn more about her specialties, I've been there two months ago. She has been shooting movies based on the high school of acting, and she is familiar with her high school teachers."

Gerald put down his half-raised hand and nodded with satisfaction, "I divorced Helen's mother, which hurt her a lot. She was not happy living with her mother, a lawyer who specializes in promoting anti-nuclear and affirmative rights. I can only Try to create conditions for her to do what she likes.

   Letting her transfer from Big Neck High to Manhattan's Acting High is something I did for her, I know Helen loves acting and music. "

   Ronald nodded. Gerald's social status was higher than that of Elizabeth Shue's father, but he was willing to spend time on his daughter's affairs and was a good father.

   "Just to give you a hint, Helen was trained in jazz since she was a child, and she can play the piano well and sing well."

   Ronald took a pencil from Gerrard's desk, drew a new sketch of the storyboard on the reverse side of the storyboard, and handed it to Gerrard.

   "That's what I thought, Helen could play a young jazz singer who, after playing and singing a line, picked up the gum from the piano and said the ad line."

  Gerald finally looked at it and appreciated Ronald's urgency.

   "In this way, she sits in front of the piano and is aimed at the camera at a forty-five degree angle, which can show her temperament. I don't know which side of her face is more photogenic. You can arrange the position of the piano at that time."

   "Both sides are fine, the left is better." Gerald had already tested his daughter's talent in acting.

   After talking about business, Gerald pressed the intercom and asked the secretary to bring in two freshly brewed cups of coffee, "Try it, the Brazilian product my friend gave me."

  Ronald picked up the first product, and it was really extraordinary. There was no sour taste of cheap coffee at all, the aroma was strong and the taste was very good.

   "I heard you had some trouble at CBS?" Gerald asked suddenly while Ronald was tasting his coffee.

   "Yes, Darcy Maguire, the creative director of BBDO who hired me, is a woman in pants, and I seem to be involved in a power struggle within their company."

   "Stressed? You can handle it, right?" Gerald took a sip of his coffee, put the cup down, then spread his arms and pressed his fingers against the fingers of the other. Staring at Ronald with piercing eyes.

   "It's not a problem," Ronald said lightly. "The more small movements the other party makes, it means that someone inside the competitor has discovered the excellence of my version of the advertisement. This is not a gap that the level of shooting can make up."

   "They used a lot of tricks that didn't make it to the stage. I still have to find an absolutely reliable place for editing and post-dubbing. I don't know Mr. Slater..."

   "You go to Stella, she will arrange it." Gerald picked up the coffee again, and with the other hand picked up the top of the stack of documents on the table and looked at it.

   Ronald knew it was time to leave.

   In the TV editing room that Stella helped contact, Ronald discusses the final cut with Spike Lee and cameraman Dixon.

"How about this voiceover narration, I specially asked the line teacher in the department to help. Why did gymnast Jenny stop eating the old CareFree chewing gum and start eating the new version of Chewels chewing gum?" The price is not bad, right? ?

   "It's really worth the money." Ronald was very satisfied with Spike's connections among black people, and the black line teacher charged a friendship price, and his accent couldn't tell that he was black at all.

   "He can imitate Shakespeare, English poor Cockney, New York Brooklyn, no problem."

   Ronald stood in front of the editing machine and practiced Walter Murkey's editing theory. The standing clip worked better, and he had pressed the button three times in a row, all breaking on the same grid.

The TV station's editor is not the same as the Moviola editor that Ronald used in New World Productions. Instead of physically cutting the film, he wrote down the timecode of the master tape and then put the different timecodes together. clips are re-recorded.

  Some movies also use this kind of editing machine, first convert the film to tape mode, then edit it, and finally rely on the time code to send it to the laboratory, let the final negative film editor cut the real film.

  The three of them made the edited master tape, copied one copy to Ronald's house, and sent the other copy to the creative director, Miss Maguire.

"Here are two versions of the ad of different lengths. This one is 15 seconds, and there are reasons for it. This one is five seconds and only has two lines." Ronald played the commercial on the video recorder in his office to Darcy Marquey. Er explained.

   "I feel that your long version is similar to the short version, and there is not much content." Darcy Maguire pointed to the TV screen and said.

   "Yes, so I suggest that if you have 15 seconds, you might as well play the short-run commercial three times, so that the probability of being heard by the TV audience is high." Ronald said with a smile.

   "Okay, you and I go to the meeting. The bosses have to review it in person before putting it into the test." Darcy Maguire picked up the video tape and took Ronald to the company's largest conference room.

"My dear Darcy, I heard that your editing had an accident again? Why did you hire such a college student to shoot? When can BBDO not be able to pay for a professional production company?" Competitors, another creative director Dan and Dar Said after shaking hands.

"Because some people in the company don't respect the interests of customers and want to destroy advertising production to win." Darcy Maguire did not show weakness, and his words were sharp, "It's a pity that this is futile, Ronald and PBS have cooperated, We were able to get CEO Gerald Slater's daughter to appear."

   "You..." Dan was hit by Darcy's accusation, and he stood up to refute.

   "Hey hey..." A voice clearing his throat came from the top of the conference table, and it was the partner who was speaking, "Don't worry, let's take a look at the advertisements of both parties first."

   Ronald was also sitting on the back chair, curiously watching what the other party's advertisement looked like.

   There was a flash of snow on the TV, and a large outdoor billboard appeared, and a painter was painting a print ad for Chewels.

  Ronald looked at the lighting and the artwork are very luxurious, and the estimated cost is not low. Unfortunately, on the TV, the effect is not visible. If it is shot on film and placed on the screen, it may be quite shocking.

  An old man walked past and asked the advertisement artist, "Why did you forget the word sugar-free?", and then took out a Chewels chewing gum and pointed it to the artist, with the words "sugar-free" on the package.

   "Oh, because Chewels tastes so good, I forgot!"

The    voiceover begins, "It's easy to forget that Chewels is sugar-free, the only sugar-free gum on the market that has a good taste."

  Ronald laughed, the idea is funny and has a sense of humour.

   The director of the other party was Hugh Hudson, a Briton from RSA, who saw Ronald smile and nodded to him with a smile.

   Ronald also nodded. The version I made is now playing on the TV.

   Elizabeth Sue flipped off the uneven bars and pulled out old-fashioned CareFree Sugar Free Gum. jingle! Suddenly, like magic, it was replaced by Chewels' new chewing gum.

  The voiceover begins to ask "Why did gymnast Jenny stop eating the old CareFree gum and start eating the new version of Chewels?"

   Elizabeth Sue faces the camera: "Because Chewels tastes better!"

  The joy of sports girls is very easy to convey to the audience, and Ronald is very satisfied. Although in the details of the shooting, Hudson still has a better grasp, and the lighting and performance are indeed better than himself.

"Everyone can see that the pros and cons of the two versions of the ads are very clear, let's not waste time, just use Hugh's version." The other party's creative director, Dan said maliciously, "You don't need to use your ads. "

   (end of this chapter)