Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 383 Submachine Guns and Motorcycles

   "Did you see that earring pierced?" Gail Hurd came to Ronald's rented screening room today to watch the daily dailies with him.

   "I see, it was worn by Doris, my stepmother. In fact, it was supposed to be two scenes before and after, but she wore two different earrings." Ronald nodded and whispered to Gail.

  The small crew's record level is not high, so I forgot this detail.

   "But I don't plan to reshoot it. The theater audience may not notice these details. If I reshoot it, the budget will be overrun again."

   "You are the director, you have the final say." Gale stopped talking.

   There is no night scene today. After watching the daily samples at night, Ronald has no shooting task. Gail drove Ronald to Jim Cameron's studio.

  Working for more than ten hours a day, Gail was afraid that Ronald would have an accident with his own car, so he specially came to pick him up to see the progress of special effects photography.

   "Jim" Ronald took a nap in the car, but regained some energy after arriving at the special effects photography studio, "How is the special effect of the comet completed?"

   "Ronald, here you are", Cameron was fiddling with the mechanical equipment in front of him, a few wires and rails with a tiny camera on it. Seeing Ronald coming, he stood up and wiped his hands on the canvas coverall.

"This movement controls the camera system, which repeats the movement of the camera precisely every time. Lucas invented the good thing for 'Star Wars'. This way we only shoot one special effect at a time, and then use the special effect printer to print each shot. the films are combined together.”

  Ronald was busy shooting himself, so Cameron was in charge of the special effects at the beginning of the film.

  Cameron is worthy of taking all the special effects photography courses in the UCLA library. He designed a scheme that does not cost too much money to shoot a comet approaching the earth.

The    special effects camera is aimed at the comet model and will be shot three times.

   For the first time, the comet model moved in a fixed orbit.

   For the second time, the comet was replaced by a light model, and it moved on the same orbit. When it was more than halfway, it began to emit a dazzling dark red light.

   The last time was a model of the Earth at a specific location, spinning on its axis.

   During these three shots, the trajectory of the model and the trajectory of the camera will be exactly repeated. Finally, when they are combined together, it is a world-annihilating comet. It returns to the solar system from a distance, and when it reaches the side of the rotating earth, it begins to emit a dark red death light.

"Thank you, Jim. You two are still looking for financing for 'Terminator', and I'm asking you to come and shoot me this special effect shot." Ronald finished watching the progress of the shooting, hugged Cameron, and patted him hard back to thank you.

"It's nothing, it only takes two days in total. But after this shot, if you need special effects for the title of the film, you need to find a special effect subtitle machine to do it. This thing is very expensive, and it will cost you a few seconds. Tens of thousands of dollars or more," Cameron said.

   "No way, I want the title to present a sci-fi effect, with dark red three-dimensional fonts, which can give the audience a hint that this is a sci-fi theme."

   Cameron was responsible for the special effects, so don't worry about it, Ronald turned to the street the next day.

  In the morning, the two sisters took out their father's weapons and started to practice shooting, preparing to deal with zombies. Ronald applied for two days of closed filming, and the first day of the assault focused on shooting street shots and motorcycle stunts.

   "This is a MAC-10 miniature submachine gun. I will empty the bullet when you shoot with your guns."

  The firearms expert specially invited by the producer will explain the knowledge of firearms to Kelly Maloney and Katherine Mary Stuart.

   "Hold it with one hand, open the safety, and then press and hold the trigger. He fires a Parabem pistol. The design of the whole gun is relatively balanced, and the recoil is not large. Women and children can also easily manipulate it."

   Ronald looked at the firearms expert and whispered to the producer, "Didn't you say you want the Uzi submachine gun, why did you change it to this?"

"Ronnie, I'm sorry, now several big factories are shooting gunfight movies, most of the Uzi submachine guns are borrowed by them, I finally found this firearms expert, he said that the MAC-10 is similar to the Uzi submachine gun, anyway, the audience Not many know the difference.”

   "It doesn't matter, I just think the Uzi submachine gun looks better."

   "Stand, load, and fire." The firearms expert finally demonstrated to the two female leads. The two tried a few shots.

   "Okay, we're ready to shoot."

  Katherine Mary Stuart's Regina is more of a tomboy who has practiced a lot of firearms with her officer father. But the younger sister Samantha, played by Kelly Maloney, doesn't shoot much. The plot is mainly about the sister teaching her sister to protect herself.

   "Action!"

  Bunker Mountain was empty in the morning, and an unoccupied area after the clearing was used for shooting scenes.

  Regina handed her sister Samantha the loaded MAC-10 submachine gun. Samantha squatted with her legs half-squat, gripped the submachine gun with both hands, and pulled the trigger.

   "bang bang bang bang... bang bang..."

   Kelly Maloney hit a shuttle, a puff of blue smoke came from the muzzle, and then it got stuck.

   "Cut! Fuck". Ronald cursed, "What about the firearms expert? What's going on?"

   An already tight budget because a good shot was wasted because the bullet jammed.

"It's stuck, Director. This is the weak point of the MAC-10 submachine gun. It was originally a miniature submachine gun modified from the pistol design, because the shooting was shooting blank bullets, and the rear seat distance after the ammunition was fired was sometimes not enough, and it would cause a jam."

   "I don't understand this, how can I not get stuck?"

   "Two solutions, switch to real bullets, or when firing, don't pull the trigger all at once, fire a few rounds, release the trigger, and fire a few more rounds."

  Ronald gave him a sideways look, "Do you think my actor can shoot short bursts like a soldier? Or are you not afraid to die and stand diagonally across from a loaded submachine gun to be a camera operator?"

   Ronald took another look at the producer, and he shrugged that there was nothing he could do if he didn't have enough money.

   "Come on, Kelly. If it gets stuck again, just pull the bolt to unload it, and keep playing, don't stop."

   "Okay, Ronald. I'm familiar with it again." Kelly Maloney is not tall and small, and it's really embarrassing for her to shoot a submachine gun.

   "Okay, clearing the scene, recording? Camera? Action!"

   "bang bang bang bang..." The MAC-10 submachine gun jammed again without any accident, Kelly Maloney pulled the bolt, "bang bang bang..." it jammed again.

   "Cut! Cut!" Ronald hurriedly stopped shooting.

   "Fuck you, can't you figure something out?" Ronald breathed out, greeting the producer and firearms expert.

   "No way, Director. If you don't borrow the Uzi submachine gun, it's much more reliable." The firearms expert was stunned, and he couldn't help it either. The MAC-10 made by the British was a cheap weapon, and with blank ammunition for filming, it really did poorly.

  Ronald took the shooting schedule from his assistant. There were still a lot of motorcycle scenes to be filmed in the afternoon, and there was no time to reshoot.

   "Never mind, Kelly, Katherine." He called the two leading actresses to him.

"I know you guys often shoot daytime soap operas, and you all have the ability to improvise. This MAC-10 often gets stuck. This time, if there is another problem, you can play it according to your needs. I can't be for this The play drags on any longer."

   "Okay, Director. No problem, Director." Catherine and Kelly nodded in agreement and went to prepare.

  Samantha, played by Kelly Maloney, is still wearing the same style of cheerleading uniform. The two long legs are separated under the short skirt, showing a horse stance. Then she pulled the trigger.

   "bang bang bang bang... bang bang..." stuck.

   Samantha handed the submachine gun to Catherine, "Here".

  Regina took her sister's gun and handed her the other.

   Ronald secretly screamed in his heart, it was the elder sister who trained the younger sister, so it was normal for the gun to get stuck and handed to the elder sister.

   Samantha opened the safety and kept firing.

   "bang bang bang..." Stuck again.

"Fantastic!" Carrie Maloney uttered a sarcastic line, which she improvised, "See, that's the problem. If Dad was here, he'd get us Two Uzis."

  Katherine Mary Stuart's Regina covers her ears with one hand and holds a submachine gun with the other, "but the car doesn't know what the difference is between the two guns."

   "Cut!" Ronald yelled, and the two soap opera actors improvised really well. The jammed accident was fooled.

   "Okay, let's go to the next shot, drive that broken car over."

  Ronald instructed the driver to drive over a dilapidated used car and parked on the side of the road.

   "It's up to you now. I'm going to smash that car to a pulp."

   The firearms expert wears sunglasses and ear muffs. The firearm was then checked again.

   "Action!"

   "bang bang bang ... bang bang ... bang bang bang"

   The firearms expert fired a few bursts, and a parallel bullet hole appeared on the pre-installed explosion point on the door of the broken car. Then the hubs of the two wheels were also blown out, and fell to the ground with a clang.

   "Cut!"

   The whole rhythm fits, and Ronald stops the shoot and announces that the firearms part is done.

   In the afternoon, we continued to shoot Regina, played by Kathleen Marie Stuart, who drove home on a motorcycle after killing the zombies after coming out of the cinema.

  Stunt double Debbie Evans is about the same size as her, wearing a costume and a wig, and you can't tell it's a stunt double in the distance.

   "Let's try it!" Ronald shouted at Debbie Evans in the distance, picking up the electric horn.

  Debbie Evans can perform handstands on a motorcycle, but Regina is just a tomboy, so she just needs to do normal driving.

   "Ronald, it's easy, why don't you let me go?" Katherine Mary Stuart leaned over and asked him.

   "The first principle is that the action that can be taken by a stunt double is taken by the double. I don't want you to sprain your ankle and take two weeks off."

  "OK", Catherine obediently stood by and watched how the stunt double played.

   "Action!"

  Debbie Evans only has a back figure in the movie shot. The large fans on both sides blow out a puff of smoke. In the dark red filter, Regina is riding a motorcycle farther and farther.

  Empty city, in the dark red field of vision, the ashes of the human body burned by the radiation of the comet drifted past, the whole picture showed a strange beauty, with a sense of cruelty in the end of the world.

   "Cut!"

   "Bring the pickup over here." Ronald scrambled to complete as many shots as possible in the scheduled shooting time.

   "It's your turn, Catherine."

  The motorcycle that Debbie Evans rode was loaded with a large pickup, and Kathryn Marie Stewart climbed onto the pickup and rode on it. The camera is fixed across from her, taking close-up shots of her.

   "The car moves." Ronald gave orders from the car following him.

   Pickup started to move slowly.

   "Sound, Camera, Action!"

  Catherine sat on the stationary motorcycle, holding the handlebars with both hands, her long hair was blown up by the electric fan, making it look like she was riding a motorcycle.

   The pickup truck below started to move, and the street scenes on both sides kept receding. In the narrow viewfinder captured by the camera, no flaws could be seen.

   "Cut! Let's get another one." Ronald shouted from the car next to him.

   (end of this chapter)