Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 259 Time Limit

   After Heckling and the two heroines finished speaking, they returned to the place and motioned for Ronald to come forward.

   "I also know the rules. No one in the crew can issue Action orders except the director." Ronald felt a little more comfortable. He raised his hand and motioned for the first assistant director Al to call for the password. He didn't want to have anything to do with Hecklein's film, so as not to be unclear when he watched the samples later.

  I know where Hecklin's fatal problem is. As long as she maintains her normal performance, everyone will be able to tell the difference between the good and the bad when you watch the demos tomorrow, not the morning after.

   "Recording? Camera? Action!" Al called out the password to start shooting.

   In the same over-the-shoulder position, the camera motor began to rustle, capturing the performance of the two actors.

   "Do you want to serve his table instead of me?" Stacey was a little shy and wanted to strike up a conversation but was afraid of being rejected.

   "Don't you think he looks like Richard Gere, look at that **** little ass." Linda replied.

   "Look him in the eyes after ordering, then whenever he tells any joke, pretend it's the funniest joke in the world and laugh out loud to him. . . . Well, then don't forget to smile."

   "What are you waiting for? If I didn't have a great boyfriend in Chicago, I'd **** myself."

   "Go, just order her."

  Linda really followed Hecklin's guidance and spoke the lines with a sweet memory.

   "Maybe Phoebe Cates really remembered her boyfriend? Emotional memory is a powerful method. But no matter how well it's played, it's still going in the wrong direction."

   Just as Ronald was thinking, Jennifer and Phoebe had already finished their performances, but Heckling didn’t stop. They didn’t know what to do next and started to turn their heads to look at the camera.

   Ronald stabs 1st Assistant Director Al.

   "Cut!"

  Al stopped filming and looked at Hecklen.

   "Yes, Cut." Hecklin, who was directing a theatrical film for the first time, was so involved that she forgot to stop.

   "Do you want this?" Al asked Hecklen.

   "Yes, I want another one."

   "One more."

  The film crew came again as it was.

   "Very well, let's take a shot of Stacey going to the handsome man Ron Johnson to order, you have to show a kind of..."

  Hecklin catches Jennifer Jason Leigh for a joke.

   "Wait a minute, wait a minute." Ronald smiled and stepped forward, "The over-the-shoulder shot of Jennifer from another angle has not been shot, and the reaction shot of the two of them."

   "Oh, yes..." Heckling made a joke. She has never been a director of a Hollywood theatrical film, and is not familiar with the Hollywood method of one master and two shoulders. I still shoot graduation short films and documentaries as before, and follow the camera's point of view to get closer to the plot.

   This joke was seen by some technicians on the set, and some people couldn't help laughing.

   "It's not a big problem, it's just inexperience." Ronald relieved her in turn, looking back to the direction of the laughter. These are the old electricians who are often with the group from the periphery. When they saw Ronald's look, they immediately stopped giggling.

   "I think Hecklen has expressed her meaning and filmed the number of pieces she understands. Why don't we move on and wait for some children's scenes. We will finish them first."

   Ronald asked for advice steadily.

   Mount glanced at Hecklin, who nodded to indicate that she had captured what she wanted.

Tom Mount shook his head inwardly. Since he has to do something and **** the director's position, don't think about the nonsense of fair competition, use any method, just like the battle between himself and Simberg, this is also his own a small battlefield.

   "I think it's better to let you all shoot a version of the over-the-shoulder shot facing Jennifer, so that this set of shots is complete, so that we can compare better."

   "This is unscrupulous, to squeeze the time of shooting children's scenes, so that I can't finish it, and make another mistake?" Ronald immediately understood Mount's bad practice.

   We could have shot the scene where the kid’s side was already lighted, so that the pizza shop was doing the lighting for the opposite over-the-shoulder shot. Lighting and shooting on both sides are carried out crosswise, without wasting time. Now I'm going to shoot this side first, I can't make full use of the time, and I'll be very nervous when I shoot children's scenes.

  Ronald looked at his watch, it seemed he had to ask MCA President Simberg to see the samples through Spielberg, and he could suppress Mount in his presence.

   And Simberg had a conflict with Mount because of the ET matter. If he had the opportunity to suppress Mount, he might be willing to come.

  Heckline looked at Mount and then at Ronald, her mouth opening into an O. I didn't expect Mount to be so ruthless, and to take advantage of the situation to find fault, it's easy to really irritate Ronald.

   In fact, he has already found Ronald's weakness, and if the competition is fair, he can win.

   And Ronald did some of the shooting chores very efficiently, and the technicians served him. I became a director myself, and I wanted to ask him to stay on the crew to help me handle some management work.

   She walked to the camera crew and made a "Sorry" mouth shape to Ronald in a place where Mount didn't see it.

   Then Hecklen motioned to the assistant director to start shooting. She was confident that she could defeat Ronald head-on without this means.

  The photographer set up the camera again, and after lighting and measuring the focal length, he finally signaled to Ronald that he was ready. The camera is on Jennifer Jason Leigh.

  Hecklin didn't waste time talking, she whispered a few words in Jennifer's ear, and then called the password to start shooting.

   "Would you like to serve his table instead of me?" Jennifer began to speak.

   "Huh?" Ronald stood behind the camera and didn't speak, trying to buy time. When I saw Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance, I was suddenly surprised.

   "Jennifer's performance is different from what he imagined." Ronald glanced at Hecklin, this woman is not completely a sham, she is a bit skilled in directing performance.

   This is another way of showing that Stacey lacks dating experience with men and wants to try it.

  The way of shooting in Ronald's imagination mainly shows Stacey's shyness.

   She has never been asked out by a boy, and wants to make up for this life experience as soon as possible in high school. So there is a lot of yearning for dating. Saying that you don't want to go is just keeping a girl's reserved. Whenever a handsome customer asked for a phone number, she would give it.

   And Heklin didn't know what she said to Jennifer just now. This time, her performance added a little bit of another emotion.

   "No, it's fear." Ronald accurately captured a trace of fear in Jennifer Jason Lee's eyes.

How is this going?

  Although Ronald can't understand, but from my own life experience, it is true that girls will be a little bit scared when facing a boy on a first date.

   If you can understand this subtle and real emotion, then the performance quality of the whole film is a big improvement.

   Don't look at this youth film with many characters and trivial plot, in fact, the whole film is talking about one theme: Coming of Age.

  How do boys and girls experience things and grow into adults who can be responsible for themselves.

  Stacey's growth is mainly in the improvement of emotions.

   Why does this little bit of fear arise? And how was Hekelin inspired by just a few words?

   Ronald didn't think about it for a while, and he didn't have time to think about it. He hurriedly instructed everyone to finish shooting their own version of the reaction shots, and quickly urged the camera crew to move to the entrance of the cinema opposite.

   Actors Guild stipulates that young actors under the age of 16 must not work more than 5 hours a day, and must end filming before 12:30 pm.

  Because we took two more over-the-shoulder shots, the photography team made another light, which wasted an hour or so.

  From 9 at night to 11:30, only four or five shots were taken, and most of the time was wasted on lighting. This is still based on the unique trick of the art director and the director of photography, which reduced the lighting time by half.

  Most of the time when making a movie is not shooting, but waiting to be shot.

  Ronald directed the camera crew to install the camera at the designated location while talking to the two children.

   "Do you have any bands you like to listen to?" Ronald asked them half-squatting on the ground.

   "We like to hear Van Halen" The two young actors looked at each other and replied Ronald.

"Okay, wait, this Mike has two tickets for their concert, you want to buy it. But his asking price is very expensive, you are not willing at first, and finally you want to go to Van Halen's concert, so you have to give in ."

   "Oh, what about our lines?"

   "Without the lines, you can just assume that he really has two concert tickets. If the performance is good, I will pay you to buy a Van Halen record."

   "We want tickets for the concert, Van Halen just happens to be in Los Angeles."

"make a deal."

   Ronald got up, and Romanus, who played the scalper Mike, began to instruct "Don't follow the lines, improvise, and try to have a one-off."

   The lighting team began to focus on metering, and the director of photography, Matthew, knew the importance and forced them to put out all their efforts, and finally completed the lighting and positioning at 12:15.

   "Get ready to shoot." Ronald directed the recording team, extending the long microphone boom over the child's head.

   At this time, the two, accompanied by Azov, another producer of the film, quietly walked into the shooting scene on the top floor, watching Ronald directing the shooting from a distance.

   "Oh, I'm an expert. Is this the Ronald you recommended? No wonder you asked me to take a look. It reminds me of you when I was young." MCA President Simberg said softly.

   "I didn't expect him to be a great director. I wasn't as skilled as him when I made 'Jaws'," Spielberg replied in a low voice.

   "Action!" Ronald gave the order to start shooting.

   "Did Dolly Parton give you a share of the box office? You work so hard?" Scalper Mike joked when he saw Mark the nerd, a good friend who was working at the ticket gate.

Simberg heard this line later, and saw the poster of Dolly Parton's unfinished new film "The Best Chicken House in Texas", and immediately understood what was going on. Can not help smiling.

   This line is funny and humorous, and makes fun of Dolly Parton's crew for putting them in ads.

   The ticket inspector Mark did not answer his friend's joke, and pointed to the two children on the right.

   "I heard you have tickets for the Van Halen concert?" the child asked.

   "I may have." Romanus waved his hand and motioned the two children to go a little further with him.

   The camera operator starts panning the shot to keep up with the movement of the actors.

   "How much is the seat before row 10?"

   "$20 a piece."

   "But the original price was only 12 yuan 5."

   "Then don't buy it!"

   "You scalpers also earn too much."

   "Did you just call me a scalper? Listen, I provide a ticket service, and the service costs money."

   "Okay, let's buy it."

   "Wait, how much did I just say, 25?"

   "20!" The two children handed over the money, got the tickets for the prop painting, and turned away.

   "Cut!"

  Ronald was very satisfied, the little actor performed in his true colors, and Romanos' improvisational skills in playing the ticket dealer scalper were also great, as expected from the streets of the Bronx, New York.

   "Clap...clap..." There were two people applauding from behind, and then all the actors and staff in the audience began to applaud, applauding Ronald's wonderful control.

   He will finish shooting with a gap of more than 10 minutes before 12:30.

   Among them, there are also many staff members who complained about Ronald and applauded.

  Hecklin also applauded, this level is really amazing, just improvised like this, 10 minutes passed, and the result was very good.

  Tom Mount did not applaud, his eyes fixed on the person who came, MCA President Sidney Simberg.

  I was ridiculed by Simberg at a dinner party for Spielberg's box office. Leaving the table early to support Hecklin. Hoping for a chance to counter Simberg with the blame for the wrong choice of director.

  The president of this parent company has repeatedly put his hand into Universal Pictures' own pocket to show his power. It was another investment of more than 10 million yuan for Spielberg to shoot ET, and he also intervened in the project and chose Ronald to direct it. It was just an opportunity for him to restrain himself.

   One movie always wins and one loses. Spielberg lost "1941" and won "The Lost Ark of the Covenant", can ET guarantee a big sale? It's unwise for Simberg to tie his authority to ET's box office.

   "Ronald, your work is wonderful." Spielberg stepped forward and hugged Ronald, congratulating him.

   "Yes, I haven't seen such a promising young man for a long time." Simberg followed up and praised, his most important job now is to tightly bind Spielberg and Universal.

  Since Steven admires this young man, he can help him as well, "WellDone! Ronald. You convinced me that the original choice was the right one. If there is anything, you can come to my secretary directly."

  Simberg found Mount on the other side, and this was actually meant for him.

   Ronald quickly thanked them, what a pleasant surprise, the director's seat is now secured.

   (end of this chapter)