Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 202 Writing Inspiration

  The story takes place in the summer of 1963. At Ryder High School, a new group of students was welcomed. The boss of the girls' gang "Pink Girls" has become Stephanie, and new transfer student Michael joins the boys' tough guy gang when he returns from South Vietnam with his army officer father.

   They were rivals at first, and they didn't like each other. But after witnessing the "I have a dream" speech of black leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. together, and the shock of President Kennedy's assassination, the two eventually discovered they had a lot in common.

   Overcame all kinds of difficulties and fell in love, but eventually parted ways because of their different futures after graduation.

  Michael was finally admitted to Cambridge University in Britain, Stephanie became a flight attendant for Pan Am, and the two met on a plane to London...

  The production director of Paramount, Katzenberg, quickly read the synopsis provided by Ronald.

   There are several deliberately reserved singing and dancing times.

   When the school started, the pink girl's singing and dancing inherited the style of the previous episode, and the gorgeous pink girl should be very eye-catching.

  Michael's experience in the army made him feel like a duck to water in the tough guy gang, and he danced with the tough guy's standard motorcycle, just in line with the car dance in the last episode.

   In the end, on the plane, the singing and dancing of the reunion of the male and female protagonists was the highlight, leaving enough room for the choreography. The airport, passengers, stewardess uniforms, and the scale of the group show can be compared to the graduation song and dance in the last episode.

  The structure of the script is very good, leaving space for the beginning, the end, and the three main songs and dances in the middle and the back, so that it is convenient for those in charge of song and dance creation to play.

   "It's rare for a young man to understand the writing structure of musicals..." Katzenberg put away the paper in his hand, and then began to ask Ronald, "Why did you arrange for the male protagonist to go to college abroad?"

   "The Vietnam War is coming soon. If you don't go abroad, you may be conscripted." Ronald replied.

   "The reason for the arrangement of the military officer's family background?"

   "Officers often have to be deployed to different places, so it is more convenient for the male protagonist to be a transfer student, and he is also exposed to machinery. He is a Harley lover, so it is convenient to get involved in the motorcycle plot of the tough guy gang."

  Katzenberg asked a few more questions, and Ronald answered them fluently, seemingly thinking about the script as a whole.

   "I said, Ronald is the most suitable person." Robert Sterwood is also very happy that the sequel to "Grease" that brought him huge money and reputation income is finally about to start.

"Paramount hired Ronald in principle to write the script for the Grease sequel 'Grease's Son' (tentative title), with a creative deadline of 2 months. Before the deadline, Ronald must provide the script content except the singing and dancing parts... ...Ronald has the right of first choice and refusal to modify the script, and only if Ronald refuses to modify the script, Paramount can choose other screenwriters to modify it... The fee for each modification is agreed to..."

  The legal lawyer began to discuss the contract details with Ronald's agent. Ronald signed his name after asking lawyer Lindsay Dole to confirm.

The owner of   RSO Records, filmmaker Robert Sterwood, sent a bottle of champagne in advance. Seeing the signatures of both parties, he opened the champagne and poured it into a vertical champagne glass. Everyone raised their glasses to congratulate the sequel.

  Ronald received a $10,000 script option, and a right to reject the preferred modification. In the future, no matter whether it is Sterwood or Paramount, if he is not satisfied with the script, he can find someone else only if he is not willing.

   Walking out of Katzenberg's office, someone was carrying furniture in and out of an office opposite Ronald, as if there was a change in high-level personnel, and it was going to be rearranged.

   This time, everything went well in Los Angeles. Even the Israeli brothers of Cannon Films also signed a contract with MGM. Since then, their films have entered the distribution market of mainstream American theaters.

   wrote a cheque to CAA, and Ronald flew back to New York.

  Two months of writing were tight, and Ronald had to immediately devote himself to scriptwriting when he got home. Entering September, Ronald had to go to the university for classes, forcing him to think secretly during class time, and busy writing and revising at night, which made him very busy.

  New York University Di Shi College, it is time for a new academic year. A group of Chinese graduate students came to the classic film appreciation class. Ronald knew they were not local Chinese because their English was not very good, and they often avoided greeting their classmates in their home country and sat together in class.

  Ronald still has a kind of intimacy with Chinese students. After class, he took the initiative to greet three international students, one man and two women, "Hi, Howayyoudoing?"

   "Fine, thankyou. Andyou?"

  “I’mfinetoo.”

Um? Ronald didn't know why he said that.

   The other party stopped talking, as if he couldn't talk about other conversations. Ronald felt a little embarrassed, so he went home and wrote.

   "Really Nirvana? It turns out that foreigners can really speak according to the dialogue taught in English textbooks."

   "Stupid, you are a foreigner in New York."

   "You are stupid, aren't they foreigners compared to us?"

   "Miss Zhu, Miss Wang, please stop arguing, we'd better go back early and read the book." A male classmate ended the argument and walked out of the classroom with a notebook.

  There are many elective courses available since the second year of the university. New York University can take classes across departments, and there are also requirements. Most of the students chose the acting class. No matter how busy Ronald was with the script, he didn't have time to go to the acting class. Find two Chinese courses on the course list and apply for both.

   One is Chinese and the other is the study of ancient Chinese poetry. Ronald took two sections, which were both easy for him and met the credit requirements, so that he could spend more time writing. After getting the newly bought textbooks, Ronald went to the library to find the books on the reference reading list given by the teacher.

   "Three Hundred Poems of Tang Dynasty", "Enlightenment of Sound Rhythm", ... well, they are all in traditional Chinese.

   "Can you speak Chinese?" The Chinese male student in the appreciation class asked in Chinese when he saw Ronald holding a Tang poem.

   "I can speak, but I can't write this..." Ronald pointed to the traditional characters.

   "Chinese is difficult to write. I think your pronunciation is very standard. Where did you learn it?"

   "Uh... high school, high school. I remember you guys have a simpler way of writing it."

   "Yes, that is the way of writing on the other side, and we still use this traditional way of writing."

   "Would you like to join the role of a foreign student?" Ronald, who returned home, remembered the incident of encountering an international student and began to think. In 1963, the situation in South Vietnam was turbulent, and some wealthy Vietnamese students began to immigrate to America.

   The heroine Cindy of the original work of "Grease" is a foreign student, and a Vietnamese female student is also added here to tell about what happened in Vietnam, create conditions for the hero and heroine, break the stereotype and begin to develop good feelings for each other.

   Ronald began to fill in plot details on the skeleton of the script.

   "The strike of the Screen Actors Guild has caused the starlight of the 32nd Primetime Emmy Awards to be dimmed on September 7. There were almost no actors who went to the scene to receive the awards for the performance awards.

   Only one Powers Booth took the stage to accept the award. In his acceptance speech, Booth said that this may be the bravest or stupidest move he has ever done in his career.

   The Screen Actors Guild stated that it would not punish Booth for accepting the award, and accepting the award on-site at the Emmy does not fall within the scope of the Screen Actors Guild strike. "

   was walking around the room, thinking about the details of the script, when he heard the NBC Entertainment News report on the TV.

   Strike? Do you want to let the hero and heroine also go on strike? Make high school students strike to protest the US military's support for an unjust government in Vietnam.

  Ronald sat down, crossed out the original plot on the draft, loaded the typewriter with new paper, and began to type with a crackle.

   "The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Actors Guild of Television (AFTRA) held a pro-strike rally at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood yesterday (September 16).

  Many stars came to support, and thousands of spectators attended. The event, called "Night of the Stars," raised $300,000 for the strike fund of the two unions, which will be used to pay basic living expenses for the bottom-level actors who have no means of making a living on the strike.

   ABC has you covered in Los Angeles”

   Procession? it is good! Add a scene to a pro-affirmative movement rally for the hero and heroine. There are also many backgrounds and group performances to design a rally dance. It seems that the ABC news is also good, very inspirational.

   also allows a character to recite the famous "I have a dream" speech.

  Ronald took inspiration from the entertainment news again, and quickly wrote down these details with a typewriter before forgetting.

"Because of the fundraising, the strike continued. The Producers Guild announced on the same day that negotiations would continue, and the two sides sat at the negotiating table for the first time since the strike began in July. Union negotiator Ed Asner said that the two sides Agree on the division of home entertainment media such as video tapes.

   Actors can start to share up to 4.5% of the sales revenue when the number of videotape sales in home entertainment media exceeds 100,000.

   However, the two sides have not reached an agreement on the union conditions for raising the minimum wage by 35%.

   Ed Asner said the two sides would continue negotiations. The trade union vowed to protect the rights and interests of actors and would not give up until the goal was achieved. "

   When will this **** strike end? Going further, all of your businesses will be affected. Ronald watched the news scolding greedy capitalists and union negotiators who took the opportunity to benefit themselves.

"On September 21, the first televised presidential debate will be held at the Baltimore Center in Baltimore, Maryland. The current president, Jimmy, declined to attend because of the participation of independent candidate Anderson. Elephant Party candidate, former California The governor's performance was well received.

  The independent candidate Anderson's polls dropped sharply after the debate. He told reporters that he would not participate in the second debate next month, giving the current president a rally to express his views. He said he would not withdraw from the race. "

  Ronald is scratching his head how to write a scene, so that the male and female protagonists can begin to understand each other, breaking the original bad impression, from hostile relationship to remission, and finally to mutual affection.

   "Debate? Should we arrange a debate contest for high school? Should we support the Vietnam War?"

   In this way, debaters on both sides can speak one after another, which is convenient for composing and writing lyrics for male and female duets. The other debaters and audience can act as chorus, and a mezzo-soprano is played by the teacher.

   Ronald feels that only CBS current affairs news is the biggest source of inspiration for his writing.

   (end of this chapter)