Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 271 The director must take a vacation

   After the weekend, Donna will go back to New York to prepare for the final exam. The family only has one day to play in Los Angeles. Ronald accompanied his aunt and Donna to the mall and bought some presents.

"Ronnie, I really want you to go back with us. You have been in Los Angeles for half a year. We miss you very much. I hope you can go back to New York for Christmas. But you should work harder in Los Angeles, after all, this is your first movie."

   After seeing the filming scene, Aunt Karen was inexplicably in awe of Ronald's work.

   Commanding a crew of more than 100 people and issuing orders is not a job that ordinary people can do. She didn't want to delay the editing work and let down the efforts of all the actors because Ronnie went back to New York for the Christmas holiday.

"It's okay, I was going to take a few weeks off. Film editors have to look at the dailies with a critical eye, like a Donna teacher grading her homework. If I go to the editing room now, my mentality hasn't changed. If the director changes, I'm afraid he won't be willing to delete a single one."

  Ronald explained to his aunt the job of filming. The director shoots each shot with his own thinking, and some shots are finally shot after a lot of hard work.

   But the idea of ​​editing is to cut out the bad parts of all the films and connect the good parts. Sometimes the film that was shot casually turned out to be better than the one that took more than 20 shots with serious effort.

One of the things Ronald learned from Walter Murkey was that after filming, he had to play for two weeks and then sit in the editing room before he could forget about the director's take on his own shots. Love, regaining an objective general audience perspective.

"Okay, okay. I'll be working hard in LA for another week, and then I'll be back in New York to spend Christmas with you guys." Ronald smiled and agreed with Aunt Karen's "you have to work hard" look on his face. Back to New York sometime.

   "Shall we go to the movies?" Donna suggested. After seeing her cousin's directorial work, she became interested in movies, and she always asked Ronald how a certain movie was shot. Ronald even said some guesses, some of which he couldn't think of himself.

  Sometimes a movie attracts more audiences just because of some particularly interesting scenes.

   "Wait a minute and I'll write this postcard and send it out," said Aunt Karen.

   Aunt Karen has been a loyal supporter of the Grand Commander ever since he miraculously survived the assassination. Write him postcards often to show your support.

  According to her military widow friends, the current commander is the son of heaven and can escape assassination. God specially sent him to do some things to save America, and he is not allowed to die until he is done.

   Recently, the leader of a small African country, Colonel Gaddafi, was rumored to assassinate the chief. NBC reporters went to interview him, and he was so frightened that he had to call the White House during the live broadcast and personally clarify to the commander-in-chief that he had absolutely no assassination attempt.

   A lucky female worker in the leg warmer factory also received a handwritten reply from the chief commander, and suddenly became the most powerful local celebrity. This gave Aunt Karen even more energy to write.

   This made Ronald very admire. The commander-in-chief randomly selects some people to reply to letters on a daily basis, and he does not speak about it in the national news media. But the ordinary people who received the reply would spread the news locally, and as soon as the local media reported it, there were small groups of people all over the country supporting him.

   When the tax cut bill needed congressional approval a few months ago, the commander-in-chief called on the people to write letters to the state senators and the congressmen in their constituencies, calling on them to vote on the tax cut bill in Congress. Aunt Karen also wrote urging letters to the New York state senator and the Staten Island congressman.

  America's congressmen are most worried about the fire in the backyard and losing the support of voters. This continuous pressure has caused many members of Congress to change their attitudes, and the tax cut bill was successfully passed.

   When it comes to acting, the scheming and scheming way to agitate the people is much better than most Hollywood male stars.

  The most powerful thing is that, as the leader of the Elephant Party, he also won the support of most of the Southern Donkey Party members. The masculine voice and humorous conversation really attracted the love of southern housewives.

Even Joe, a senator from Delaware, where white supremacy in the South is heavily influenced, and the chief member of the Donkey Party of the Senate Judiciary Committee (meaning that he has served as the longest senator on the committee), the weather vane of the donkey party, also voted in favor of tax cuts. ticket.

   "What are you watching, Ronnie? Shall we go to the cinema?" Donna saw that her aunt had finished writing the postcard, and La Ronald couldn't wait to go to the Hua Guo Theater together.

   "The Lost Ark of the Covenant has once again topped the box office charts and is expected to be the top-grossing Christmas movie of 1981"

  This film produced by George Lucas and directed by Spielberg has occupied the top three box office charts for half a year, and it has climbed to the first place as Christmas approaches.

   "Lights Out," starring Timothy Hutton and Tom Cruise, premiered last week. The box office can only be ranked fifth.

   Ronald put down his weekly box office column in The Hollywood Reporter and went out with his family to the Hua Guo Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

  This is a famous theater in Hollywood, and the gate is a Chinese-style building with carved beams and bucket arches.

   "Which movie are we going to see?" Ronald sees the ticket window with several movies to choose from.

   "Look at 'Lights Out', there's Tom in it." Cousin Donna remembered that the cake from Tom Cruise was delicious.

   Well, Ronald would also like to see the quality of this 14 million Twentieth Century Fox production. The Hollywood Reporter says it's on track to hit 3 million this week, a number that's not great news relative to the cost.

   "Hahaha, you can see that my hands are similar to Monroe's." Donna smiled and played in the handprints and footprints of stars at the entrance of the Huaguo Theater.

   Among the more than 100 stars who have left handprints or footprints, Monroe is the most popular among the audience. Her handprints are obviously darker than other handprints because of the number of touches.

   There is also a strong Chinese style in the Huaguo Theater. The curtain pulled up on the stage is Hua Guohong, with the words "Double Happiness" on it in bright yellow, and some Chinese myths.

  The curtain slowly opened, Ronald sat in an old-fashioned chair and looked at the Fox logo on the screen. Watching a movie here is really unique.

   "Lights Out" tells an absurd story. George C. Scott, who once played General Patton, played a brigadier general working in a military academy, instilling honor and responsibility in the military to military cadets.

   When politicians and real estate businessmen wanted to overthrow the military school and develop real estate projects, the students took up arms to defend the school.

After the    commander came to power, the ideas of tradition and honor that conservatives insisted on began to resurface. Three years ago, there would have been no movies to give soldiers a positive image.

  Aunt Karen was quite satisfied that there was no smearing of soldiers in the movie. Donna thought that Tom Cruise was more handsome in it than the starring Hutton, which made Ronald laugh.

   Indeed, Hutton's performance in the film is a mere formality, not as real as Tom Cruise's performance.

  I heard from Nisita that Paula arranged a series of acting courses for Tom. Tom also worked very hard. Every time he got a new role, he studied for a long time, trying to impress people in the movie.

   As for why Tom's performance feels more real than Hutton, Ronald is a little puzzled. In all fairness, although Hutton did not deal with himself, his performance should not be very bad, otherwise he would not be able to win the Oscar.

   But his performance in "Lights Out" always makes people feel less real than Tom Cruise, and the supporting roles of Sean Penn. Maybe it's not that Hutton is bad, but that he met Tom and Sean, and the audience has an opinion in comparison.

   Ronald felt that his main research direction should also be on the acting skills of actors. As a director, I already know a lot about the skills of various types of work, so I can avoid being deceived by technicians.

   But what the film ultimately presents on the screen is the performance of the actors. He couldn't tell now why Hutton and Tom Cruise were good or bad. If you don't want to spend your life making exploitative films like Roger Coleman, acting is an area that you must learn.

   Sending off his aunt and cousin, Ronald started a vacation in Los Angeles. Touring around, soaking in hot springs, watching other people's movies, is to stop thinking about anything "fast-paced".

When    took time out, Ronald went to visit Little Venice, where he lived three years ago, and it was still the same. There are also many surfing people on the beach in winter, but Ronald didn't try it because he knew he lacked talent.

   The karate gym where I used to practice was not doing well and has been converted into a kickboxing gym. The owner of the pavilion who had fought with him back then also disappeared.

  Only the crowd who danced various dances on the street expanded. Ronald also saw many people teaching, allowing interested boys and girls to learn various robot movements and ground movements. The dance is purely driven by interest, and there is no charge. Everyone dances very vigorously.

   Of course, Ronald did not forget his old friends. On this day, he invited James Cameron to drink beer and eat barbecue with Gail Heard.

   "Congratulations to Ronald on finishing his first directorial work," Gale suggested, cheering for Ronald.

   "Thank you, and congratulations too, Jim. Are you done with your movie too?" Ronald asked, otherwise Cameron wouldn't have time to come to the party.

  Cameron has returned from the tropical island of Jamaica, and was directing some "Piranha 2" studio shots in the Los Angeles studio a few weeks ago.

   "Shxt, I don't want to be signed in this unfortunate movie, the producer Asonitis is a bastard." Cameron scolded.

   Ronald has long noticed that Cameron is in a bad mood, thinking that he is too busy with his work to ignore his family, and has another quarrel with his wife Sharon.

   Now it seems that it is for the filming of the film, so he quickly asked, "What's wrong? Does he not give you the right to edit?"

  The director does not naturally have the power to edit. Just like Ronald himself, after editing the 120-minute first-cut version, he has to discuss with the producer how to edit the final 90-minute version for release.

  The final duration, and whether or not to reserve some shots, he does not have the power to decide independently.

"No, this bastard. He wants to be a director himself. But he fired the director and signed his name before. The director's union found out that any films he directed were banned from showing in American theaters. That's why he hired him. I signed the director and bypassed the union."

   "The former director just left because he knew his background. This **** is optimistic about my stunt production ability. I shot all the piranha scenes in Jamaica.

   But as soon as he got to LA, he criticized my daily dailies for not meeting his requirements, then gradually stripped me of my power, the staff were Italian-speaking, and eventually kicked me out of the studio. "

   "This..." Ronald did not know how to persuade him. It's unfortunate to meet such a producer.

"I think you should sign, no matter how bad it is, this is a movie that will be shown in American theaters. The director of the film that has the film and the film that is not shown, in the eyes of the producer, are completely different. creature." Gale advised Cameron not to cancel his signature.

"You're right, I took a lot of effort to shoot those piranhas jumping out of the sea and attacking humans on a helicopter. When I got to Jamaica, they didn't even make a scene." Cameron was shot by Gale persuaded.

   "But Asonitis wants to bring the original film back to his hometown in Italy for editing. What should he do to get the editing power?" Cameron had a plan in his mind and drank his beer in one gulp.

"Continued Cup."

   Ronald poured him another beer and patted him comfortingly.

   (end of this chapter)