Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 375 Coleman's Secret

  Colman was in the office opposite New World. Ronald and his agent Nisita walked to "Millennium Pictures", found Coleman, and told him the situation.

   "Remy? Robert Remy? No way? He worked for me for three years, became director of sales, and then in 1978, left for Embassy Pictures.

I heard that he did a good job in the Embassy Films. He made movies with good box office one after another, and the annual revenue increased from 20 million to 90 million. He was dug out of Universal. I don’t know why he rejoined the new film. The world is in trouble with you. "

  Roger Coleman was a little surprised. He had a good impression of Remy. When he was in the new world, he was always able to meet the deadlines, and he often exceeded sales tasks.

"That's right, when Remy was at Universal, he was very opposed to Ronald's films, so after the 'fast tempo' hit, he had a hard time at Universal and was under a lot of pressure. That's probably why he The reason for returning to the new world," Nisita interjected.

   "That's right," Ronald thought beside him. Remy had previously been in charge of sales in the New World, coupled with the significant increase in revenue at Embassy Films, and finally gilded the position of Universal Vice President.

   For the three lawyers who acquired New World, he knows both distribution and production. He has also worked in large companies, and his resume is indeed perfect.

   "I'll give him a call, their phone number should not have changed." Roger Coleman picked up the phone, ready to dial to ask about the situation.

"Mr. Coleman, pardon me, now Ronald's film project, the distribution channel is blocked, the key is between you and the new bosses of the new world, how was the contract signed at that time, whether Ronald Can you get the guarantee of a new world release?"

  Colman nodded to show that he knew, picked up the phone and dialed the switchboard of the new world, "I'm looking for Robert Remy, I'm Coleman."

   His other hand searched the drawer for a long time, took out a contract and threw it to Nisita, then explained:

   "My purpose is very simple. I want to retire to accompany my family. If I want to make a movie, I have a professional distribution agency to help distribute it. So I signed a two-year and five-film distribution contract with them.

   As long as it is a movie produced by me, Shinsegae will release it with 15% of the box office distribution fee unconditionally. But Ronald didn't sign a production deal with me personally, but with New World, so Remy would have some autonomy. "

"Wait, the phone's on," Roger Coleman motioned for silence, then said into the phone, "Hello, Remy? I'm Coleman, Ronald is here, and he says you don't want to publish his movies?"

"The script is anti-Amelica?...Huh?...Excessive nudity?...Smearing government agencies?...Tell me how you're going to release a Ronald movie, I promised this good guy . Modify the script until...? Then what about his withdrawal? What do you want to do?... I'll discuss this with your three bosses... Okay, that's it."

Roger Coleman hung up the phone, then looked at Ronald calmly, "He said you're going to revise the script until he's satisfied, or he won't give you the green light. There can't be too much nudity, and What do you want to do with a government-affiliated research institution into a villain?"

"Mr. Coleman, I can't do this. Without giving the audience some ice cream, this kind of small production really has no audience to watch. And the bad guy in the government research institute is an important reversal plot in the third act. , The savior that everyone was looking forward to was actually a bad person.

  I can't get rid of this plot, otherwise the third act lacks the twist and the final climax...unless it is completely overturned..."

   "Bullshxt, do you really want to change the script?" Coleman stood up in surprise. Originally, he meant to help Ronald withdraw the distribution agreement, but he didn't expect him to actually consider changing it.

"I hate people modifying my script the most in my life, modifying my editing, ignore this bastard, just switch to another distributor, don't worry about my feelings. My agreement with them has a clause, I can't get involved in film distribution for five years , otherwise I will personally help you do the distribution."

   "Mr. Coleman..." Ronald wanted to say thank you.

  "You don't know, why I developed my own company." Coleman waved his hand and opened the door to let the secretary come in for a few cups of coffee.

"At that time, I shot and edited America's first film, 'The Trip', which reflected the psychedelic theme. At the end, I arranged for the actor Peter Fonda to honestly tell the audience about psychedelics and himself. , and will not try again in the future.

But Samuel Akov, that son of a **** at American International Films, the genius who invented Akov's formula, re-cut the end of my movie without permission and gave Peter Fonda a mirror-shattered The special effects are frozen in the state of the protagonist's spiritual fragmentation.

   In a fit of rage, I cut off the cooperation with them, and then built a distribution network from scratch. A film director, if he doesn't even have the courage to stick to his own creativity, then he should stop doing it as soon as possible. "

   "Mr. Coleman...I wonder if your financing amount is available?" Nisita interrupted Roger Coleman to discuss Ronald's financing with him.

Coleman took a sip of his coffee and said, "I understand that issuers generally want to dominate, so unless you can get more than a million investment from the issuer, they won't allow other investors half a million amount of.

  I have negotiated with Remy, he will allow you to withdraw the issuance contract and return the investment of 500,000 yuan, and the two will be irrelevant from now on. Also, I love your movies, so I'll keep investing as long as you need it, within the new publisher's license. "

   "Thank you, Roger." Ronald was very moved. At this critical moment, Roger Coleman did not treat himself as a businessman, but as a film director and artist.

   If it wasn't for Coleman to suppress Remy, withdraw the issuance contract. In the end, if Remy gets stuck in his contract, then 'Night of the Comet' will not be able to go up, and those who can't go down will be stuck in the middle, and he must be very uncomfortable.

  The director with his heart was blocked by Remy again, and if he just messed around with it, he would be caught by Remy and slandered himself.

"Can I borrow your phone? Mr. Coleman, I'm calling Atlantic now, and they made it clear to Ronald that they would release his film." Nisita saw Coleman's explicit statement and offered to borrow it contacting via phone.

   "Just use my phone and I'll make another coffee. This time is really sleepy." Coleman gave Ronald and Nisita the office so they could easily communicate.

   After a while, Ronald opened the office and invited Coleman in again.

"Atlantic expressed their willingness to take over. They invested another 400,000 yuan to get 500,000 yuan of investment. As our publisher in America, we can sign the contract immediately. So you can only leave an investment quota of 100,000 US dollars here." Nisita Said, it is equivalent to Coleman and Atlantic exchanged investment quotas.

"No problem, come and get the check when you sign the contract." Coleman patted Ronald on the shoulder, "There will always be problems in film preparation, don't be discouraged. That's how filmmaking is, not here, Maybe there."

   "Thank you, Roger. It's just that the Atlantic has the money for the release of last year's 'Valley Girl', and they won't be able to get the money to invest in the distribution of my film until it hits theaters in April."

  Atlantic was very small, and all the money could only guarantee the production and distribution of a small-budget film. This "Valley Girl" Ronald also went to the scene to see it. It was Gale's friend and female director Martha Coolidge, starring Nicolas Cage.

   "I haven't talked to you about this, Ronald. Are you too obsessed with the effects of special effects? In fact, your script can be shot very well for 500,000 to 800,000 yuan, and you don't have to worry about sales."

  Colman thinks Ronald is making a big fuss. Sci-fi movies can’t be made for $800,000? As long as the method is right, 300,000 can be shot.

   "I pulled Jim Cameron and carefully calculated the cost. The cost of the two main scenes cannot be cut. The first is the scene of the comet destroying the earth, which is a big visual chocolate for the audience.

   The second is the deserted city, which is a kind of loneliness that the movie must have. Without these two points, this movie is a bit, a bit..." Ronald didn't know how to phrase it.

   "A bit like my cheap sci-fi?" Coleman laughed.

"Hahaha……"

  Roger Coleman also laughed, but he quickly recovered his seriousness and said to Ronald, "I'll tell you two stories that may inspire you."

   "I'm listening in both ears."

   "One is Peter Bogdanovich, he was a film critic, and later became an assistant director in my 'Wild Angels'. After shooting, he told me that he could make a film.

   I gave him some extra film, a set that hadn't been taken apart, and then an actor Boris Karloff owed me two days to shoot.

As a result, he let Karloff sit there, put on the costume of the previous movie, and began to tell the story. The scene that would have cost a lot of money to shoot turned into a few old friends chatting, through a third person. A story told by the mouth.

  This saves a lot of money, and if it wasn't for an old horror movie actor to tell the story to lead the story, that movie wouldn't be that great. "

  Ronald nods to note, he knows Coleman's implication is to use script adjustments to avoid expensive shooting scenes.

"The second story is about a racing car I shot. I went to a sports car sales center to borrow a car to shoot a movie. The salesman agreed to lend me his sports car to shoot, but asked me to sign an agreement to ensure that the car would be fine, otherwise I would have to take pictures. price compensation.

  I know that the front windshield is the most troublesome thing in car shooting, so I removed the front windshield of all the cars, and then used the down-motion method to shoot the high-speed chase scene. "

   "This is to let me be creative and think of ways that others can't think of to save costs, so that the effect of the final film exceeds the cost." Ronald also wrote down the revelation of the second story.

   "Remember, Ronald, the difficulty of making a movie is nothing that a screwdriver and a roll of tape can't fix. If it doesn't work, tear up this script."

"I'm afraid that won't work," Ronald thought to himself. "In the days of Coleman's movies, audiences could tolerate such shoddy shooting methods, but now with Lucas and Spielberg's sci-fi blockbusters, audiences The taste has been cultivated.

   Again, this kind of third-party storytelling avoids the big scene, I am afraid that the audience will throw garbage on the spot. "

   But this kind of thinking can be used for reference, Ronald nodded and asked, "Even if I use the method of side profile to shoot the scene where the earth is destroyed by a comet, the empty city is the key environment of the movie plot.

   Without the effect of being empty in this modern city, I am afraid that the temperament of a lonely survivor created by the movie will be discounted by more than half. Whether I shoot with a set or apply to block traffic for a few days in Los Angeles, the cost will not come down. "

   "Why do you have to help the police? Have you forgotten the original method of filming in the new century? Guerrilla tactics?"

   "This is also a way." Ronald agreed, disapproving in his heart. This important scene will take at least two full days to shoot. With so many related shots, if I learn from Coleman’s method and tear up the scene from the script before it’s filmed, I’m afraid it won’t be enough to make up the kind of atmospheric shots that the script requires.

   Besides so many shots, it is impossible to play hide and seek with LAPD.

unless……

   Unless the shot is taken at night when the power of the LAPD wears off.

   But that's not quite right either, "Night of the Comet" is a lively zombie movie, not a horror movie dominated by dark night scenes.

   Horror isn't the undertone of this movie, it's actually a zombie movie with a romantic comedy undertone. The two girls in the valley, looking for their own romance in the lonely apocalypse, are to some extent the combination of comedy and horror that CAA has always advocated.

   And there are scenes where the sky is covered with red comet dust in many scenes. How to shoot such scenes at night? I only heard that there is a method of shooting night scenes during the day - "day to night", but I have never heard of shooting day scenes at night, and there are no lamps with such high power to produce the illumination of sunlight.

   But these are all details, and Ronald has two immediate problems to solve.

  The first is to revise the contract with Minahan's Cannon Films. The original American distributor has changed, and the guarantee terms have to be redrawn.

   The second is to find Nicolas Cage to discuss the schedule. Now the movie is obviously going to be postponed, and there will be conflicts with his new movie. If the schedule cannot be filled, a new male lead will have to be found.

   (end of this chapter)