Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 275 Universal will send someone to check

   "Hahaha..." Editor Eric looked at the picture on the monitor and began to laugh out loud.

   "Your screenwriter is a genius. Although I have watched it many times, I still laugh out loud every time I see it."

   Ronald couldn't help laughing, too. On the screen was Stacey's eldest brother Brad. He was fired by American Burger because of a dispute with a customer. In order to repay the installment loan of his beloved four-door luxury car, he had to work part-time job at the rival "Captain Hook Fish and Chips" fast food.

   On his way to deliver food to IBM, the manager asked him to wear a full Scottish skirt suit and a big-brimmed hat with a pirate logo to deliver it.

   At a red light intersection, next to an open-top sports car, a beautiful blonde and blue-eyed woman in a purple and pink two-tone cashmere sweater kept smiling at him.

  Brad thought that the beauty was looking behind him at first, but the constant smiles and scrutiny made him think that the beauty fell in love with him at first sight, so he quickly showed his teeth in response with a smile, and winked at the beauty.

The   beauty thought him more and more ridiculous, she couldn't help covering her face with laughter, and when the green light came on, she stepped on the gas and left.

  Brad realized that his understanding was wrong, looked at his pirate hat in the rearview mirror, grabbed it angrily, and threw it out of the car window.

"That's the girlfriend of screenwriter Cameron Crowe, Nancy Wilson. The guitarist of the women's rock 'Hearts'." Ronald said, pointing to the beauties in the freeze frame on the screen, "If you watch MTV If so, they are playing their music video recently."

   "No wonder she looks familiar." Editor Eric laughed.

  The editing has been going on for two weeks, soaking in the editing room from morning to night, immersing in the fantasy world depicted in the film, Ronald and Eric are a bit disconnected from the real world.

   "Would you like a cup too?" Ronald asked Eric, picking up the thermos cup and pouring out black tea.

   "Okay, I'll have a cup too. I'll watch you drink this every day, instead of coffee?"

   "Coffee is like a loan shark, it helps you refresh your mind, and you will be drowsy to get it back in a few hours. Black tea is more like an installment loan, smoothing your attention peaks and valleys."

  The two drank a cup of black tea and went back to the hard work.

  "Fast-paced Richmond High School", the editing work has recently encountered a bottleneck and is not progressing fast. Ronald has done the first cut, and the characters in the complete story are vivid and emotional. The only big problem is that the length exceeds 115 minutes, which is more than 20% more than the 90 minutes required by the producers.

   After watching the first cut version without a soundtrack, the two producers actually persuaded Universal executives to release it in 115 minutes. But after a little experimentation, it was found that it was impossible.

   This type of teen comedy, Universal is used to fill the annual slump. After the summer vacation is over, it is the wooden period with the lowest box office for a year. During this time, few audiences go back to the cinema to watch a feature film of about two hours.

   Only light comedy can have a market. The theater chain hopes that the length of the film will be controlled within 90 minutes, which is convenient for lining up one more time at the prime time every night and increasing box office revenue.

   To reduce the length of the 115-minute film by 20% without affecting the original story and emotion, this presented a great challenge to Ronald, who was editing a feature film for the first time.

   "You could actually cut out a shot of Brad driving off, and have Brad and Nancy Wilson crossover, which would have made the audience feel like they were talking back and forth.

   After Nancy drove away, there was no need to show the shot of Brad starting, just cut to the point where he looked in the rearview mirror and found himself as ridiculous as a clown. "

   Editor Eric advises Ronald.

  Ronald thought for a while, and indeed the audience should not have any obstacle in understanding. Today's Hollywood movies no longer follow the requirement of continuity in time and space. In films before the 1950s, this temporal and spatial continuity was a rigid rule.

   For example, in reality dramas at that time, we often saw scenes with characters entering skyscrapers.

Under the dogma of the continuity of time and space, we must cut a series of shots of getting on the elevator, closing the elevator door, the elevator indicator light keeps showing that the floor is rising, the elevator on the top floor stops with a ding, open the elevator door, and the character walks out of the elevator to explain that the character is in The flow of time and space.

   But the new wave of the Chinese people created a new method of editing, and it also profoundly influenced American movies after it spread to Hollywood.

  Hollywood directors suddenly found that as long as the plot is coherent, after entering the scene of the building, cut all the elevator scenes, and let the characters open the office door and walk in directly, the audience will not have any incomprehension.

   They automatically omit the unimportant parts in the middle and light up a light bulb in their minds. Oh, this guy came into the building and went into the office to talk to people.

  The continuity in time and space has since been abandoned by Hollywood, and it is also ranked the least important among the six editing principles given by Murkey.

   "I think so, let's try it." Ronald replied to Eric.

   "Okay." Eric ran the editor and subtracted that shot.

  The editing assistant came over, wrote down the time of cutting the scissors this time, and the numbers of the front and rear shots, then picked up the tape and quickly connected the front and rear shots on the machine.

   In the end, she carefully collected the cut film and put it in a plastic bag for record keeping to prevent the director from repenting in the future and having to reconnect the original footage.

   Ronald and Eric went through the edited footage, and the story and mood were as expected, unaffected.

   "Very well, this saves another four seconds." Just like this, the length of the film is advancing hard toward the 90-minute mark.

   "Hi, Ronald. How's the progress today?" After lunch, producers Lin Sen and Azov came to the editing room on time for an "accidental walk".

   During this time, they came more and more diligently, sometimes twice a day, once for a walk after lunch, and once after dinner.

   Generally speaking, directors are full of love for the film they shoot, and cutting out any part is like cutting off their hands and feet with a scalpel on their beloved.

Recently, Warner Bros. produced "Blade Runner (Blade Runner, the producer, starring Harrison Ford, and director Ridley Scott fell out because of the editing time and plot, the two sides have come to fight The point is, grapevine rumors are everywhere in Hollywood.

  Ronald doesn't have any prejudice against editing, but the pace of progress has been getting slower and slower lately, which worries the two producers.

   "Not bad, cut about five seconds in the morning."

   The two producers were very nervous. The editing speed for several days in a row has not increased. I am afraid this progress will be seriously delayed, and the editing speed will be slower as it goes on. It is likely that the editing will be less than 90 minutes.

The two exchanged glances, and Lin Sen said, "Ronald, we all trust you, but Universal's executives don't know how good this movie is, they will definitely use the 90-minute total length in the contract to restrain it. yours."

"I know..." Ronald also has a headache, "I try to cut it without compromising the story and the emotion, but it's hard, and the speed can't be improved. It's not that kind of comedy, every character and story is With foreshadowing and highlights, it is difficult for me to cut out the entire plot with scissors, and I can only cut the time of each shot."

Azov couldn't help it a little bit, "You know what, Ronald. There is a voice at the top of Universal saying that your movie is not a comedy, but a drama that reflects social reality, or even a tragedy with crying scenes. He also said that you are holding Universal money to play by itself.

  Tom Mount is going to send an experienced director to check the progress, and he will step in if it is not satisfactory. "

   Ronald frowned. I don't know who spread this rumor out of context.

There were indeed crying scenes during the filming, but Linda, played by Phoebe Cates, cried and explained to her friend Stacey after she was unable to conjure up an imaginary Chicago boyfriend to attend her prom. It's obviously a humorous comedy scene, and has nothing to do with tragedy.

   As for reflecting social reality, this is a modern teen comedy, and it is not normal to reflect some social reality?

  For example, Stacey got an unplanned pregnancy and went to a free clinic funded by the Women's Liberation Organization of California. For example, Brad worked at a Seven Eleven convenience store and was robbed at gunpoint by teenage robbers.

   But these plots are all told in the context of light comedy, and there is no heavy atmosphere like "famous in the world". "Fast paced" as a whole will be entertained by the audience from time to time.

   "Okay, I see, I'll speed things up."

  Ronald was angry, this Mount was always making trouble for himself, and now he has to send someone to check, which is the most taboo thing in artistic creation. Could it be that when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine frescoes, the church would let Leonardo da Vinci come to check his artistic ability midway?

  As a last resort, Ronald had to work two more hours of overtime every day, but this made the editor Eric and the two editing assistants very tired, and the editing efficiency plummeted.

   Seeing that the progress was getting slower and slower, Ronald pressed the irritability in his heart and let Eric and his assistant take a day off.

   He also had the opportunity to rearrange his thoughts and relax his restless mind at the same time.

   But Ronald has no friends in Los Angeles. Jim Cameron couldn't bear it any longer. He borrowed some money from himself, bought a plane ticket, and flew to Rome, Italy. .

  Gail Hurd is getting busier and now overseeing four production crews, and she looks like she has a chance to be promoted to vice president.

   Ronald had no friends to complain about his distress, so he had to watch TV at home to relieve his boredom. Fortunately, MTV TV station gave him a lot of joy, and all kinds of strange editing methods there opened people's minds.

  MTV did not have enough film sources. After dozens of minutes, the content was repeated again. Ronald picked up the remote control and changed to a news station.

   "In San Francisco neighborhoods, an epidemic of a mysterious disease, usually male-based, has been discovered, and local doctors say there is no evidence the disease is contagious."

   "San Francisco?" Ronald was stunned for a while. He hadn't contacted Walter Murkey for a long time. He was an Oscar-winning editing expert. He had encountered editing difficulties. Why not ask him for advice?

After   Mercie left the diorama, he didn't do any movie editing or sound design. Ronald doesn't have his phone.

   After inquiring through the brokerage company, I got the phone number of the house where he lives with his wife and children in the countryside.

   "Hey, I'm looking for Mr. Walter Murkey. I'm his friend Ronald."

   "Daddy, someone is looking for you." It seemed that it was Mo Qi's youngest daughter who answered his call.

   "Hi Ronald, long time no see, how are you?"

   "I'm shooting a small-scale youth film for Universal, and I encountered some problems with editing, so I had to ask you for advice."

   "Oh, look, Ronald, you've finished your directorial work, and I'm still in the script preparation stage."

   "That's different, yours is a big production, I'm an exploitative piece."

   "Haha, there's no big or small difference in movies."

  Merzy chatted with Ronald, and then listened to Ronald recount his predicament.

   "It's like boiling tomato sauce when making spaghetti. There is no shortcut for editing, you can only slowly collect the sauce, cut a little here, cut a little there, and finally boil a bowl of delicious sauce."

   "I think so too, but Universal is not satisfied with my progress, and some rumors are also spreading at the top. They may send another director to check my editing progress. I'm also a little anxious."

"Well, if you're really stuck, try the Procrusteanbed, it's also an editing method. I wouldn't do it myself, but George Lucas That's how the film is cut, you can try it."

  Walter Murkey saw that Ronald was in trouble from above and thought of a trick for him.

   (end of this chapter)