Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 345 She Can't Dance

  In the small town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Coppola's second film adaptation of Hinton's novel, "Betta Fish", has been filming for the last few days.

   While waiting for the lighting, Matt Dillon saw Diane Lane reading a newspaper and asked, "What are you reading?"

   "Report on interviewing Ronald" Diane put away her smile, "Variety interviewed him. It also said that Nick is very good at acting."

"Oh, can you show it to me?" Nicolas Cage, who played the second male lead in Douyu, took the newspaper and read it carefully. There was a 45-degree profile photo of Ronald, taken in black and white. Yes, there is a deep feeling.

"Even some actors with small roles may achieve success in Hollywood." Cage watched for a while, and finally found the part where he praised himself, "It's the first time I've been praised for my acting skills in the newspaper, can you give it to me? I want to keep it."

   "You take it, I still have one here."

   "Do you have a crush on Ronald, Diane?" Matt Dillon asked suddenly. Diane has always been lukewarm to her since the cast of "Urchin'".

   Although it does not prevent him from acting as a couple in the movie, Diane never talks to him when he is sitting and waiting for the lighting. Director Coppola is very particular about lighting, and waiting for hours every day is boring.

   "You're so imaginative, he's my best friend's cousin."

   "At this age, it's time to date a friend's brother." Mickey Rourke, the actor who played Dillon's brother in "Betta Fish", muttered. Coppola asked him to slur all his lines in the film, and no one could hear what he was saying.

   "I don't know what Ronald is doing now?" thought Dianton.

  In CAA Nisita's office, Ronald is shaking hands with a fat man, and the two have a great conversation.

"Ronald, it's a pleasure to meet you today. I love your movies, I watched your interview, and I know you love the San Francisco Four-Nines, and I'd like to invite you to their game, when they come I'll give you two tickets for the road game between Los Angeles and the Rams."

   "You're too kind, John. I'm looking forward to going to the ball with you."

After the    variety show's exclusive interview was published, many Hollywood actors began to contact Ronald through Ronald's agent.

  The one who came to see him through his agent today is Cameron's fellow countryman, Canadian comedy star John Candy (John Candy), who is a frequent visitor to TV comedy talk shows and TV dramas. He is fat and very popular in the Hollywood actor circle.

  Ronald chatted with him about each other's acting careers, and Candy is mainly in comedy. Ronald is terrified of comedy, and he doesn't plan to venture into the genre anytime soon.

   But that didn't stop Ronald and Candy from being friends. Candy's ability can actually act as a drama, and he has a lot of friends in Los Angeles.

   sent John Candy away, Nisita asked the secretary to close the door, and he wanted to give Ronald a business.

"Don Simpson strongly invites you to visit him, his 'Flash Dance' is in trouble again, and director Adrian Lane is a little unhappy with the heroine, and he knows you chose Jennifer Beals, so Simpson thinks Please solve it."

   "It's none of my business. Mr. Eisner asked me to make an idea, and I just made an idea. I don't like anyone more personally."

"Don Simpson was already dissatisfied with Adrian Lane, he wanted to hire Brian De Palma, but Palma dumped him for the new film 'Scarface'. So this time you go, it depends on the situation. Harmony, let you replace Ryan as the director."

   "Isn't that bad?" Ronald shook his head and refused. "When I was a director, what I hated the most was that the producers let other directors replace me. Now it's my turn, and I don't want to do such a thing."

"I know", Nisita nodded, this kind of thing is actually very troublesome, and it might lead to disputes, "I have already rejected Simpson for you, my client will not take over any directorships until he dismisses the original director. ."

   "But his problem is really related to you. You'd better go and see. What Simpson means, you can not be the director and go to the crew to name an associate producer."

"Oh?"

"I know you're still raising money to shoot your 'Night of the Comet'. Even if it's an exploitative film, sci-fi will cost more than one million dollars, right? Simpson is very generous. If you can solve the director's problem, he'll give you a shot. A salary of 100,000, plus the signature of the associate producer.

  If I were you, I would promise to come down. Having experience as a producer is good for your career development. Besides, the script on the side of 'Full of Strength' is still over a few producers, so you might as well take a look. "

   Ronald nodded. Dean Pitchford, who wrote the script for "Full of Power," sold the script to former MGM executive, now indie producer Daniel Melnick. Melnick then sold part of the production rights to Paramount, and several parties signed a cooperation agreement.

   The film is actually not entirely Paramount-funded. The revised script, in addition to Paramount, has to be approved by Daniel Melnick and another co-production company that participated in the investment - "Screen Partners".

   Hollywood production contracts are complicated. The agreement signed by Melnick stipulates that he has the right to suggest and veto the script, so the script must be approved by the producers sent by the three parties before the filming can be green-lighted.

   This intricacy of script property rights also creates the “planning hell” situation common to big studios. Before the script starts shooting, it is necessary to coordinate the positions of all parties. It often takes half a year to a year of repeated planning and everyone agrees before giving the green light to start shooting.

   "So what's wrong with 'Lightning Dance'?"

  Ronald is still more interested in his own script. Hearing Don Simpson's generous treatment, he can get money as long as he solves some practical problems in shooting, and he is very interested.

   "In the end, this matter is still about you, so Simpson is willing to pay a high price to let you out." Nisita explained the difficulties encountered by "Lightning Dance" in detail.

  It turned out that Ronald gave Eisner an idea, and the target audience representatives voted for Jennifer Beals. But after Beers was selected, and went to meet director Adrian Lane for some experimental shots, director Lane discovered that she couldn't dance.

  If Jennifer Beers can't dance, it means that the whole film must use dance doubles a lot, and use clever editing to cover up the essence of Beers' can't dance.

"I don't think this is a big problem, right?" Ronald asked. "Some difficult dance moves can only be performed by professional dancers. It is normal for musicals to use stand-ins. Now is not the era when musicals are popular. , his original three candidates are not dance background."

  Demi Moore, and another candidate, Leslie Young, are not professional dancers, and Ronald can tell by their size.

   "It is said that Bills' dancing is particularly bad, you go and see. I will finalize the contract with Don Simpson."

   "Ronald, thank you for calling me in advance."

  Director Adrian Lane is an Englishman with blond shawl and long hair, very artistic. He was more modest and well-spoken than Alan Parker, another British director Ronald had dealt with, and the first impression was that of a man of culture.

   The premise of Ronald agreeing to help the "Lightning Dance" crew is to say hello to the director Ryan, who has communicated with Ryan on the phone before.

   He said straight to the point on the phone that he had no intention of replacing him. He just heard that his idea had caused inconvenience to the crew, so he came to see if he could solve the problem.

   "No problem, they showed me your jeans ad. I love it."

Before Ronald came to the preparatory office of "Lightning Dance", Nisita found Adrian Lane's ad for British jeans. The very characteristic single-light lighting and quick editing made Ronald want to get acquainted with this guy. British director.

   "I heard that I picked Jennifer Beals, are you not satisfied?" Ronald asked.

   "I'm very satisfied with her acting talent. Bills is a student at Yale University." Adrian Lane pulled out a cassette and put it on the VCR, and a video of Jennifer Beals' audition appeared on the TV.

   Ronald also looked at the video.

  Jennifer Beals played a crying scene, her tears came quickly and the emotional intensity was good.

   Then there's a flirting scene with a lover, in which Bills lies with a man, facing the camera, and she whispers softly, all thanks to her eyebrows.

   There is a close-up at the end, Bills is sitting on the ground wearing a T-shirt, speaking his lines, and then naturally reaches into his clothes, takes off his underwear, and puts it aside.

   It depends on Jennifer Beals' emotional expressiveness. The most emotional scene, the most gentle scene, the most ambiguous scene. Bills did a great job.

   Ronald looked on.

  Jennifer Beals put on a ballet suit and did a one-legged spin before tripping over her own leg.

   Ronald covers his face with his hands, can't he do this?

   What follows is another series of dance tragedies.

   "Jennifer Beals doesn't have a foundation in dancing, right?" Ronald asked director Ryan, pointing to the dark-skinned beauty on the TV.

   "She used to be a fashion model. She came to audition to earn money to pay for college tuition. She is very talented in acting. Although she can't dance, she is indeed the best person to play the heroine Alex."

   Adrian Lane explains how he picked her up.

   "So you don't object to Bills playing?"

   "Of course I don't object, I found a good dance double, and her figure is very close to Bills."

   "So what's the problem?" Ronald felt that there seemed to be a misunderstanding in communication. Adrian Lane was ready to use a stand-in, so what problem did he ask him to solve?

   "The problem is here." Director Ryan changed the tape again.

   A chair appears in the picture, a beautiful woman sits on it, and there is a red light and a blue light on the background, passing through the smoky space, making the picture very beautiful.

  Ronald saw this scene, which was somewhat similar to the light used by Director Ryan in the jeans video.

  The beauty pulled the rope and a bucket of water poured on her, and then she began to dance, her hair splashed with water splashes, reflected in the red and blue lights, very dynamic.

   "Is this the dance double?" Ronald thought the girl's dancing skills were very good.

   "Yes, her English is not good. Do you see the problem? Ronald."

Ronald shook his head, "I just see that you're using smoke here, I've seen it on Alan Parker's set, your British director of photography, you're very good at doing edge lighting with a single light, and then using Smoke or fragrant powder to complement the atmosphere.

   I personally like it very much, but the unions here are against it. "

"That's right," Ryan tried Ronald's level, "that's the problem, I took this movie because I wanted to make the dance scene more beautiful, and now the producer doesn't allow me to use smoke, then this How about a stand-in dance scene?

   If you use multi-point lighting, the stuntman will have to re-light each time he performs a new action, and there will always be flaws in editing.

  The expressiveness of multi-point lighting is not as good as that of single light and smoke. In addition, dance scenes require a lot of motion shots, and if there is more lighting, the scheduled shooting schedule is not long enough. "

   "So you want me to help you convince Don Simpson?"

   Ronald understood, it turned out that Simpson did have the idea of ​​replacing Adrian Lane. Putting smoke on the filming site will attract the opposition of the union. If a lawsuit is caused, the producer will be in great trouble. Once filming is stopped, it will be a waste of money every day.

   Director Ryan wanted to use Ronald’s directorship to endorse his method of adding single-point light source lighting to smoke, and to explain to the producer that the artistry of such lighting is far superior. Otherwise he would rather quit the project.

   "I can't promise anything, but I'll talk to Don Simpson. The artistic expression of this approach really suits your style of shooting and editing."

   "Thank you, I knew you could understand my thoughts." Adrian Lane showed a typical British sly smile.

   "By the way, is the one who played with Bills the male lead candidate?"

   "The one in bed with her in the audition? No, that's just the Paramount carpenter. I gave him two hundred dollars to play with all the girls."

   (end of this chapter)