Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 293 Have you ever fallen in love with someone?

"You didn't get picked, and Coppola gave the apprenticeship that the Directors Guild paid for to a relative at the top of Warner Bros. You have to understand him, Ronald. Coppola's financial situation isn't great right now. The movie turned over. It was impossible for him to refuse a request from the top Warners."

   Ronald heard the bad news from his agent Nisita the next day, and he had to settle for the next best thing:

"Okay, I understand. Rick, can you contact Director Coppola for me, I want to ask him in person about the consistency of the actors' performances, I only delay him for half an hour. I know you help him finalize Coppola would agree to a distribution deal for the new film.

   Can you do me a favor? when i owe you once? "

"Hahaha", Nisita's serious face suddenly burst into laughter, "Although that position is not given to you, Coppola wants you to help the crew and be his special assistant. Because of financial constraints, he can only give it to you. The minimum wage is paid after the machine is turned on.

   So he asked me to ask you, he knew that you had already directed a feature film, and he was afraid that you would not accept this basic salary position. "

   Ronald was overjoyed, "It doesn't matter, it's okay if you don't give it, I can post it upside down."

   As long as you can see closely how the big director handles the performance consistency problem, you can arrange it any way you want. There is no place to spend money to learn it.

   "This is the place of work, the studio of the diorama, remember to help Tom Cruise, and other contracted actors of CAA." Nisita handed over a list.

  The list of actors who signed up for the audition by CAA is listed above, there are more than a dozen of them, and the clients of Nisita and Paula are specially marked with asterisks.

   Ronald, who happily accepted the job, came to the "Diorama" company's studio in Los Angeles to report the next day.

   "Coppola was very busy today, he asked me to teach you how to use this new toy, and then start filming the audition video."

   is talking about Fred, the casting director who worked with Coppola for ten years. He was in charge of casting the Godfather.

  Ronald picked up a camera on the table. It had a black exterior and exquisite metal processing. On it was the Dongying manufacturer's logo "SONY", and below the logo were the words "BetaCam".

   "It's made by the same manufacturer as the Walkman." Ronald thought to himself, picking up the machine and carrying it on his shoulders.

   "The zoom of the lens is here, and here is the clip for installing the microphone. After installing it and right next to the lens, the sound reception effect within five meters is very good."

"Here's the video button... Hey, have you ever used this little toy?" Fred, the audition director, was surprised when Ronald found the video and stop buttons, and skillfully buckled the viewfinder's hood over his right eye. arrive.

   "No, it's my first time, but he has the same button design as the VCR, and it's in the right place." Ronald lowered the Betacam over his shoulder.

   "A tripod can be attached below, and then you will be in charge of auditions for that position." Fred pointed to a corner of the studio, where there was a small "room" surrounded by wooden boards.

"Here is the video tape. Each disc can record 30 minutes of picture and sound. When it is about to end, there will be a red light warning, you remember to replace it. This is the audition log, you remember to write down the name of each audition actor and other information .

   Then ask them to give their name, age, height, and which side of their face is more photogenic when they audition. Then you ask them some character related questions, here is the list of questions. By the way, actresses are not allowed to wear makeup. "

"I understand."

  Ronald turned on the Betacam, sat across from the camera, and began, "My name is Ronald Lee, I'm twenty-two, six-foot-two, and I don't know that half of my face is more photogenic."

  The audition director Fred pressed the stop button, then connected the camera to the TV, "My name is Ronald Lee..." Just now Ronald shot his own picture and it was shown on the TV.

   "Camcorder?" This Betacam can not only shoot, but can also be connected to a TV. It's really a good toy, but it's a bit too big to take out to play with. Although he is much smaller than today's general purpose cameras.

"How much does this thing cost?"

   "It hasn't been officially listed yet. This is a sample sent to Coppola by Sony in Dongying."

  Ronald set up his tripod and camera in the makeshift audition room enclosed by wooden boards. Then lay the audition log flat on the table with a list of questions and ask Fred, "How many actors are auditioning today?"

   "All America's actors under the age of thirty-five are here."

   It seems that the appeal of director Coppola is still very large, although there is only a budget of less than 10 million, the scale of actors who come to audition is similar to that of Leon's 30 million-dollar blockbuster.

  Sony's BetaCam is still a little faulty. Its three color channels are not quite equal, and the shot shot is a little green, which is a little different from the color in the real world, with some sci-fi feeling.

   "Please tell me your name, age, height." Ronald turned on the video button and asked the first actress who auditioned to introduce herself.

   "Kate Capshaw, I'm five-foot-seven and a little more." The actress raised her hand in a "little" gesture.

Capshaw has curly blond hair and looks like she is close to thirty years old. She is trying to use playful movements to make herself look younger. Looking at Ronald's smile, knowing that her little trick has been seen through, she is embarrassed. laughed.

   "What is the age range for the role you think you can play?" Ronald knew that she deliberately didn't talk about age, but he had to ask himself clearly, so he used a less hurtful method.

   "Ah, that's a very good question." Capshaw bowed his head sadly. He was over twenty-eight years old and had not yet had the chance to make a famous movie.

   The heroine of this "Ultra World" is only 16 years old, and the agent is still urging him to try it again and again, "What if Coppola likes the way you look?" This is the agent's original words.

She sorted out her emotions, then looked up at Ronald behind the camera and said, "I think twenty...", she looked at Ronald's eyes and adjusted her answer, "Twenty one..., Twenty-one to... thirty? What do you think?"

   Ronald felt that the actress was about to cry, "You answered very well. When Director Coppola has watched everyone's audition, he will inform you."

"Next person…"

  The actresses filmed the audition video one by one. As the audition director said, all Hollywood and Broadway actors came under the age of thirty-five. Ronald and another audition assistant were in charge of a video recorder that filmed actresses' auditions.

   There were two video cameras at the other end of the studio filming the actor's audition.

   "Hi Ronald! What are you doing here?"

  Ronald looks up from behind the camera, a long-lost acquaintance, "High School of Rock" star PJ Sowers.

   "Hi, PJ. I'm working as an audition assistant for Director Coppola, will you audition too?"

   Ronald couldn't help but sighed at the charm of director Coppola. PJ Sowers, who was thirty-two years old, also came to join in the fun to play a high school student.

   "I'll give it a try. Actually, I'm here with Dennis." Sauls' husband, Dennis Quaid, is twenty-eight this year, but he looks young, and the eldest brother who plays the protagonist, Ma Zai, may have a show.

   "Okay, you introduce yourself to the camera." Ronald wrote the name of PJ Sowers on the audition log, and asked another audition assistant to operate the camera.

   "Out of tape," Ronald reminded the audition assistant.

   "How did you change this?"

   Ronald picked up a blank tape and helped him put it on. The two exchanged places again.

"Next person…"

   The person who walked in this time was a beautiful woman, a well-known youth idol in the country, and the camera assistant froze on the table without speaking.

   "My name is Brooke Shields, I'm sixteen years old, and I'm six feet tall."

   "Hey? Brooke, you're here too." Ronald stuck his head out from behind the camera.

   "Huh, Ronald. Is that your director? How did my mom say Francis Coppola?"

   "I'm just his assistant." Ronald quickly denied, "Let's do it again, you said to the camera."

  Ronald rewinds ten seconds and starts recording again.

   "My name is Brooke Shields, I'm sixteen years old, and I'm six feet tall."

   "Have you ever had the experience of falling in love with someone?" The audition assistant saw that Brooke Shields was a little excited, and stammered and asked the audition question.

   "Well, I haven't really fallen in love with anyone, if you mean romantic love. But I love my mother, my classmates, and fans.

   You know, I did 'Endless Love', and 'Blue Reef', and on screen I could play the girl in love too. "

   "Okay, thank you, Brooke. Director Coppola will be watching the audition together, and your mother Terry will be notified."

   Ronald shook his head secretly, although he didn't know why Coppola asked this question, but the heroine "Cherry" in the novel is a girl in a relationship, and Brooke's audition did not show a state of love.

  Borgy's acting skills are always a problem, although her looks fit the role and her fame helps the movie's marketing, just dye her hair blond with a little reddish tinge.

   "You know Brooke Shields? Can you ask me for an autographed photo?" The audition assistant smiled and came up to beg.

   "Go ask her yourself, her mother is also there, and she is willing to ordinary fans."

  The audition assistant ran out.

"Next person…"

   "Please introduce your name, age, and height..." Ronald looked at the camera and aimed at the chair, then semi-automatically said the opening remarks of each audition.

  In the frame of the camera, a figure was squeezed into it. He was quite tall and wore a turtleneck sweater. The brown hair was a little blond in the camera, and the shawl was loose, and it felt a little disheveled.

   "My name is Helen Slater, I'm five-foot-eight, eighteen years old,"

   Ronald smiled and asked the audition question, "Have you ever fallen in love with anyone?"

   "Yeah, I feel that love is the first feeling, a kind of flame, a kind of lightning..." Helen said to the camera with her big blue eyes.

  Ronald felt that Helen seemed to be talking about love in an orthodox Shakespearean accent. Did she study drama at the High School of Performing Arts?

   "Okay, Director Coppola will have watched the audition video, and we will notify your agent when the time comes."

   "Also, Helen, do you have any plans for noon? Let's go have a cup of coffee?"

   "Ronald?" Helenlu covered her mouth with her hand and showed a surprised smile. Then she stared at Ronald with big eyes and asked, "Are you asking me out?"

   "You wait for me to audition for the last few before noon. Let's go to the cafe next door. Didn't you say you came to Los Angeles to interview for a big project? I thought it was Leon's 'Once Upon a Time in America'."

"I will also go to 'Once Upon a Time in America'. It was recommended by the agent my mother found. This 'The World's Urchin' was recommended by the agent my father found. They are all works of great directors, and they are here today. How many hundreds?"

   "There's a lot more tomorrow", Ronald busy recording Helen's audition.

  Helen saw Ronald lowering his head to write the interview log again, changing the videotape, "I'll go out and wait for you first, then come to the door when you're done."

   "Okay, you wait for me."

  Ronald auditioned for several more actresses, and when the lunch break came, Coppola came to see him audition.

   "We interviewed...a total of actresses in the morning, do you want to continue at one o'clock in the afternoon?" Ronald reported the situation.

   "Well done, we will start mixed interviews after the primaries in these two days." Coppola looked at his watch, you go to lunch first, Ronald, we will start on time in the afternoon.

   Ronald hurriedly went out to find Helen, the date was less than an hour, and he was a little nervous. "What do you mean by mixed interviews? Could it be Coppola's secret? His 'Godfather' casting was perfect, and he had to learn from it himself."

   Picked up Helen Slater at the entrance of the studio, and the two went to a nearby cafe for a light meal.

   "Your parents found you an agent?"

"Yeah, my father's agent always restricted me from casting roles. There were some exposed scenes in 'Once Upon a Time in America'. He didn't let me go, saying it was my father's will. But my mother was very open-minded, she recommended Another agent in my office helped me get in touch."

   "Isn't your mother a lawyer? How do you know an acting agent?"

   "It's interesting to say that the agent also supported environmental protection and anti-war, and participated in activities organized by my mother. He also discovered Christopher Reeve who played Superman..."

   "Have you graduated from New York's High School of Performing Arts?"

"Yeah, I told you that the classmates there liked your script's 'Famous in the World'. Now the TV version has been broadcast on MGM TV in New York, and the role of Leroy in the movie version is still the original version. The actor...but Erin Kara who played CoCo is no longer..."

   "That's Gene Ray, I didn't expect him to go back and play the TV version of the same character..."

   Ronald Los Angeles is rare to have acquaintances to chat with. He felt that the quality of this light meal was very good, and he seemed to be fully charged.

  …

   "Bert and his daughter Diane are here," casting director Fred, meanwhile, told Coppola in the diorama studio.

   "It's the noon break, and Ronald hasn't come back yet." Coppola looked at his watch, "It's okay, let her audition. I'll operate the camera for her."

   "My name is Diane Lane... um, Diane Lane, seventeen years old..." Diane was a little nervous, mispronounced the accent of her name. Coppola is the director of "The Godfather", and his father, Bert, has instilled a lot in him, knowing that this opportunity is rare.

   "Have you ever fallen in love with anyone?" asked casting director Fred.

"Did you fall in love with someone else? Yes, in high school." Diane lowered her head a little shyly, then raised her eyes, "Hmmm... The most important thing in falling in love with someone is the first time you feel that way. You know , um..." She laughed nervously.

   "It's that he peeks at him when he's not paying attention, and prays that he will look over and look over. But when he does look over, you avoid his eyes. Hehe..."

   One of Diane's eyebrows was raised in a look that was a mixture of cuteness and shyness.

  The casting director Fred quietly poked Coppola, "What do you think?"

   "I think she's a living Cherry."

   (end of this chapter)