Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 316 Another Ballet Girl

  Ronald took a look at the audition photo Eddie had handed him, and the girl in the photo smiled at him. Ronald was in a trance for a moment.

   The photo is of a very beautiful girl, a different kind of beauty.

   Compared with Helen Slater, a girl from a wealthy family, her beauty is closer to the ordinary people of America.

  Slightly curly red hair, a small nose, two very long eyes, and two dimples appear on his cheeks when he smiles.

   really fits the Burger King ad, she's more of a normal family girl next door than Elizabeth Shue. This is exactly the kind of pretty girl you'd see in a normal person's community.

   Born in a small town, he studied in a big city and worked as a part-time fast food waiter to earn tuition. At a glance at this girl, the audience will think of these backgrounds. It looks like Eddie isn't promoting unsuitable actors for his commission.

and……

   Except for the hair color, this girl looks like an old friend of hers.

   "Does it look a lot like Antonia?" Eddie said to Ronald. "Her resume looks a lot like her."

"Um."

   This girl does look a lot like Antonia Francesky, Ronald's ex-girlfriend, famous star and now a dancer with the New York City Ballet.

   The girl's photo has the name Lea Thompson underneath.

  Ronald flipped through the audition photos, with a short resume pasted behind the photo.

   "Twenty years old, from Minnesota. He has won scholarships at the San Francisco Ballet and the American Ballet Company. Just retired from the ballet career and turned to acting." Eddie introduced the girl's situation beside him.

   "Invite her to audition." Ronald glanced at Eddie, not on purpose.

  Ronald was in his early twenties and made a box-office hit, and CAA's Nisita had warned him that many brokers were actually doing other kinds of "matchmaking" business.

  The beautiful girls in the entertainment industry use their agents to ask powerful people for opportunities, or money in return, and then give something.

   "Li, are you free? Come to my office for an audition tomorrow." Eddie was calling Li Thompson, "It's not a print ad, it's a TV commercial, yes, a big company, a famous director."

   "I asked her to audition tomorrow."

   Ronald saw that Eddie didn't mention any exchange conditions, and knew that he really couldn't bear to see this girl's talent being wiped out to be a model for a local supermarket's price reduction promotion advertisement, so he recommended it to himself.

   "Okay, I'll come over tomorrow. Why doesn't she continue her ballet career? Is it also because of an injury?"

  …

"No, I'm not injured. It's..." Leigh Thompson sat in the audition office, looked up at Ronald and the agency's director, Maguire, then turned to her agent, Eddie, "I must Do you want to say it?"

   "It's okay, they just want to know your background." Eddie looked at Ronald.

"If it involves privacy, you don't have to say it. I just want to know why you don't do ballet anymore. You must know that being an actor is no less than that of ballet." Ronald was a little worried that the girl would give up because ballet was too hard .

   This commercial, although only has two lines, but as an inexperienced actor, he may take a lot of lines. If there is no preparation to endure hardships, the performance can easily fail to meet the director's requirements.

   "I love ballet, and I got scholarships from two ballet companies." Li began to defend her dreams. "I gave up because ... because Mikhail Baryshnikov, the male chief of NYC, said I had no talent."

  The girl raised her head, her eyes were bright, "He said I was too stocky."

   "What kind of evaluation is that? He's still a little dwarf who can't find a ballet partner." Ronald laughed angrily at the words of the ballet dancer who had defected from Seville as he relayed to Li.

  Li was also amused by Ronald's words, and two dimples appeared on her cheeks again.

   "I didn't know the director was Mr. Ronald Lee, I really like your 'fast pace', I watched it twice."

   "Change into this Burger King uniform and get familiar with the lines." Ronald handed over a Burger King hat and a page of lines, then pointed to the locker room for Thompson to go over.

   "Okay." Leigh Thompson put on her hat, changed into her overalls in the locker room, straightened her hair in the mirror, and read her lines twice.

   "Can we start?" Ronald pointed the camera at Thompson and zoomed to close-up focus.

   "From coast to coast, as many as two-thirds of customers think grilled is better than fried. Burger King, roast beef, McDonald's, fried beef."

   "Okay, that's it. When we have a decision, Eddie will let you know." Ronald was actually very satisfied with Thompson's performance.

   "Okay, thanks." Thompson was ready to go.

   "By the way, have you worked at Burger King?" Ronald stopped Thompson and asked.

   "No, but I did at McDonald's in my hometown of Minnesota."

   "Okay, thank you. You can go." Ronald, who asked for a satisfactory answer, signaled that Thompson could go.

   "You don't think she's a bit famous..." Maguire asked Eddie.

   "Like Antonia?" Ronald continued, "Actually, I think Thompson's commoner girl-next-door temperament is very suitable for this advertisement. At first glance, it is the beautiful girl you may meet at Burger King."

   Soon Burger King was satisfied with the results of the audition, and thus confirmed Leigh Thompson and Elizabeth Shue as the two actors in their new version of the commercial.

  …

   "This girl is a natural actress." Ronald has admired Leigh Thompson's acting talent several times since he started shooting the commercial.

   "She really didn't study acting before?" Ronald asked Eddie on the set.

   "She just earned some small money before she could sign up for an acting class."

   "Let's do a close-up of Li." Ronald told the photographer to start preparing.

  The big close-up shot was replaced, and the photographer signaled that he was ready to shoot.

   "Recording? Camera? Action!"

   Ronald gave the order to shoot.

  Lee Thompson took a close-up, took out a baseball glove and put it on her hand, and started tossing and picking up a baseball.

   The camera slowly begins to zoom, slowly advancing towards a close-up of Thompson's face.

   "I know you're watching a baseball game, but I have good news for you. Two-thirds of customers found grilled beef burgers better than fried in tests from coast to coast.

   Come to think of it, two out of three people like to bake. Burger King, grilled; McDonald's, fried. Remember to go to Burger King after watching a baseball game. "

   "Cut!"

   Ronald was very satisfied, and Li made the very boring advertising words very interesting. The rhythm and mood of the lines are very good, and every accent is exactly on point.

   "Very well, the one with Elizabeth Shue next. Let Lisa prepare."

   "Director, how did I shoot?" Leigh Thompson came over and asked Ronald about her performance. Her dimples reappeared on her cheeks.

  Ronald looked at Leigh Thompson's face carefully. There was a depression under her cheekbones, which gave her face a three-dimensional look. There was not much difference between the left and right sides. It was indeed suitable for an actress.

   "Yes," Ronald replied. "You should be able to see this ad on major TV stations soon."

   Next shot of Elizabeth Shue. She came specifically from Wesleyan College to shoot this ad.

"This weekend, go to Burger King and order a Whopper, just say 'grilled is better than fried', and you can get another free Whopper" Elizabeth Sue brought out two Burger King's "Whoppers", facing the camera said.

  Have the experience of shooting gum last time, and Elizabeth also did a good job.

   "Director, your movie is very popular right now." Elizabeth Shue's mother said to Ronald.

"thanks."

   Unlike Thompson, Elizabeth has been admitted to Wesleyan College for Women. There is also a big difference in the ambitions of the two to perform. Elizabeth is now doing some commercials to earn some extracurricular money. In an Ivy League girls' school, there are many comparisons among classmates, such as going to Vermont for skiing during the holidays.

   "Director, how was my filming?" Elizabeth Sue also jumped over to ask Ronald after filming.

   "Good. You should be able to see this ad on major TV stations soon."

   Maybe it was Su's mother's lack of ambition for her daughter's career as an actress. Ronald made a correction. Elizabeth Su still cares more about her image on camera. A beautiful girl of this age, who hasn't dreamed of being a star?

   But her mother's plans were normal. Going to college is very important for children in ordinary families.

   Helen Slater finally discussed with her parents that after graduating from high school this year, she will not choose a university and use a gap year (GapYear) to try her career as an actor. For actresses, youth is short, and if it takes four years to go to college, many opportunities are missed.

  Thompson and Su, two actors, dressed in Burger King uniforms, chatted beside them. They are both young actors in their 1920s, and the two of them are quite topical.

   Next Ronald is going to take some close-ups of the different ways the two types of beef are roasted and fried.

   "The heat and bubbling of this roast beef is not enough, and it's not very different from frying." Ronald looked at the scene of the Burger King's chef in the studio, and was not satisfied.

   "Turn up the flame of this gas stove, let the flames come out and let the camera see."

   "This will burn the beef." The staff reminded.

   "I don't care about this, I don't want to eat it, I want to take a good-looking shot." Ronald glanced at the other party, as long as the shot was good-looking, he didn't care whether the beef patty was burnt.

  The flames were high enough to overtake the grill, squeaking the beef patties and bubbling the juices on top.

   "It's a great feeling." Darcy Maguire sat in the post-production room watching Ronald's dailies.

   "Is this really okay?" Eddie pointed to the beef patty with McDonald's written on the monitor. It was fried on a frying pan, and it looked very uninspiring.

   Ronald also looked back at Maguire.

   It is not without advertisements that attack competitors by name, but a big Mac like McDonald's is not good. They don't hold back so much that Burger King attacks their burgers like that.

   "This is something that Burger King's legal team considers." Maguire shrugged.

"And we've done a lot of preparation, and this ad says twice as many people think it's better grilled than fried, it's a statement of fact, not a subjective judgment, and it can Avoid some legal trouble."

   "So they really did a blind test?"

   "Of course, from West Coast to East Coast stores. Let the market research company find dozens of customers to do it repeatedly, and the desired result will always be achieved."

   "Haha, does the roasted beef patty really taste better than fried?" Ronald asked.

   These companies do everything for marketing. Anyway, my contract has been reviewed by lawyers, and all the data and facts are informed by written documents from Burger King. If there is an error, they are deliberately deceiving, and it has nothing to do with me.

   "How do you say it? If you follow the process strictly, it will taste better than frying. But fast food restaurants, you know, sometimes the kitchen is not so strict when you are busy."

   "That means, it's actually not that tasty?" Ronald said.

   "No, they can choose whether to put onions, pickles, and a variety of sauces." Eddie interjected.

"Sometimes I don't like it either. They have too many choices. Sometimes I just want a quick meal. There are always customers who wait for a long time to confirm, which makes the queue very slow. And they have more waiters than McDonald's." Quill is a professional woman and must eat fast food.

   "So they made so many gimmicks and invited more waiters, but the business is still better at McDonald's? And the cost of roasting is higher than frying, right?"

   "That is, an automatic grill is used for grilling, and only a constant temperature iron pan is needed for frying." In order to take over this business, Maguire studied the difference between Burger King and McDonald's.

   "Well, very interesting."

   Ronald is busy shooting, and the commercial is finished. Burger King trusts his level. After all, the fact that the business of burgers in the United States has skyrocketed on the West Coast makes them feel amazing.

   took his check, Ronald came to Lawrence, the accountant, and instructed the use of the money.

   "So you took the check from Burger King to buy McDonald's stock?" Lawrence looked in disbelief.

"Any questions?"

   "No, no problem. I thought you'd buy Burger King stock, after all, you're helping them shoot an ad, so their sales will go up."

   "They don't make money. Each store has a lot of waiters and a special automatic grill. McDonald's can sell more hamburgers at the same time."

   "Alright, anyway, they pay a lot of dividends every quarter." Lawrence put aside his surprise and started calling Ronald's stockbroker.

   (end of this chapter)