Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 384 Guerrilla-style shooting

   It was half past five on Saturday morning, an hour before sunrise. The "Night of the Comet" crew is already waiting to shoot at Bunker Hill in Los Angeles.

   A light came on to show the way for the staff. Everyone is doing their part and getting ready for the morning magic time shoot.

   There are a few office buildings and commercial buildings in Bangkeshan District where companies have already settled in, and they usually go to work at 9:00 in the morning. Today is the weekend, and fewer people come to work overtime early in the morning.

   In order to capture the deserted city, Ronald chose to shoot this part of the scene on Saturday morning. They had to get the key shots right before the overtime workaholics arrived.

   "Thank you, I trouble you to seal the road so early." Ronald shook hands with the two police officers and handed over the tip in his hand.

  The older of the two police officers felt that the cash he had received was not thin. Looking through the light, it was a few folded sheets of Andrew Jackson. He quickly changed his smiling face and chatted with the young director warmly.

   "It is also LAPD's responsibility to assist the film crew in shooting. Besides, no one is here on weekends, we just follow the regulations to see."

   "What movie are you shooting? It seems like there was a shootout yesterday?" The younger police officer was very interested in filming.

   "It's a sci-fi movie where a comet kills people or mutates them into zombies, and then two girls in the valley save Los Angeles."

"Oh, I like Dawn of the Living Dead. Do you have zombies like that in your movies? Can I watch them? It's super-zombie." The young police officer is also a fan of zombie movies. Zombie movies are coming.

   "Did you know? We have another scene today where the heroine dreams of two traffic cops turning into zombies. If you are interested, you can also make a cameo."

   "Oh yeah? Can we really do a movie? Are you serious?"

   "Make up, take the two to try on the zombie headgear, and sign an extra deal with them if they fit."

  Ronald was very happy, saving two extras, they also had their own uniforms to wear, and they could borrow their police car for some shots. They wouldn't mind if the shooting took a little longer.

   "Ah... ah" Kelly Maroney yawned and got out of the RV parked on the side of the road. She should start wearing makeup.

Ronald is very good to the actors, although small productions can't have any good treatment, but she and Catherine Marie Stuart share a RV, and Ronald often makes them sleep more during their breaks. a while.

   "Kelly, are you awake? I was about to ask the assistant to call you. I'm almost ready to make up." Ronald said to Kelly Maloney, "Where's Katherine?"

   "Catherine is making coffee."

   "Makeup, where's the one who put the makeup on the two heroines?" Ronald began to shout again.

   "The makeup artist is gone, and no one answered the phone call to her home. Yesterday someone heard that she seemed to say that the salary of the big crew was higher or something." The first assistant director came over and explained the situation in a few words. There are often people in small crews who suddenly get halfway through work, get a better job and run away.

   "Ask who wears make-up and help." Ronald covered his face. Low-budget productions are like guerrillas. If something goes wrong, it’s just as simple as doing it. It’s impossible for a crew to stop and wait for a makeup artist.

   "Director, I can do my own makeup, we do that on daytime soaps." Catherine Mary Stuart heard about makeup artists putting doves.

   "Can you draw Kelly Maloney too?"

   "Uh... Of course." Catherine didn't expect Ronald to climb the pole so fast, and was stunned for a moment.

   In this scene, the two sisters had a knot in their hearts. When they heard the song was still playing on the radio, they went to the radio to find a survivor, and accidentally saw another survivor, Hector, who came along the radio. The next day both sisters wanted to date him, so they had an argument.

   "Action!"

  The camera is aimed at the sisters on the balcony, pushing down the close-up. Sister Samantha is still wearing a cheerleading costume, with two long legs and blonde hair, which is very sexy. Clothing Two identical outfits for Kelly Maloney for her to change.

   she asked her sister Regina.

   "So, did you have **** with him last night?"

   "Who? What?" Regina replied.

   "Who else, that handsome and humorous man."

   "God, is that why you ignored me in the morning?"

   "Cut! Cut! Cut!"

"Who the **** is calling Cut!" Ronald was furious. He finally found the magic light time in the morning. Filming this scene where the sisters opened their hearts and strengthened their relationship, the two heroines played well, no Know which idiot stopped and ruined everything.

   "It's me, Ronald."

   Ronald looked back and saw that it was the producer Wayne Crawford, who hurriedly swallowed the swear words he was about to blurt out, "Wayne, why did you stop?"

  I saw the producer anxiously pointing at the office building opposite Ronald, behind the two actresses, "There's a glass cleaner there."

   Ronald looked up and saw a cleaner, hanging from the window of the opposite skyscraper, cleaning the glass. Today is Saturday, the office building is not working, it is the time when they clean the glass curtain wall.

  Ronald hurriedly leaned behind the camera to look over, only to see at the top of the viewfinder frame, the cleaning worker just slipped down one layer from the top and entered the background picture.

   "Oh, fuck." Ronald scolded, how could there still be workers cleaning glass exterior walls in the last days? This gang was too big and had to be reshot.

   He picked up the electric horn and said, "Hi, hi, my friend across from you, can you go up for a while? We're filming a movie, so you're helping."

   "Huh? Are you talking to me?"

   "Yes, it's you, can you wait up first? We'll finish this shot right away."

   After a rush, the cleaners finally slid up a few floors to give the crew some time to shoot.

   "Action!"

   "Okay, listen, I didn't 'do' with him last night, why are you always so sad?" Regina looked helpless at this sister who always wanted to destroy her romantic relationship.

   "Why are you sad? My sister always attracts the attention of every boy I know, and now, she has to attract the last man in Los Angeles!" Samantha rushed forward and pushed Regina.

  Regina showed a shocked expression, then stepped forward to look at her sister. The opposing emotions of the two are very cleverly expressed in the picture.

  Two girls come face to face, both against each other starring Kevin Costner in what may be the last man in Los Angeles.

   On the balcony railing behind them, there is a bottle of Pepsi can and a MAC-10 submachine gun, two symbols of the capitalist world - consumerism to satisfy one's own desires, and high-tech weapons to protect one's property.

   "Hahahaha..." The two finally couldn't help laughing.

   "Cut!"

  The camera was quickly moved downstairs and a dark red filter was installed. Then take a look-up shot upwards. The two sisters were still standing where they were, relatively silent. Compared with the conflict of seeing the same boy, it is obviously more important to support each other to survive in this apocalypse.

In the    zoomed out shot, there are only skyscrapers and streets. An empty space represents the last bit of persistence of the two valley girls in the empty city of Los Angeles in the last days.

   The next shots were relatively smooth. Ronald borrowed two LAPD police cars and let Katherine Mary Stuart ride a motorcycle and check for survivors next to the police cars.

Under the dark red sky, the props team used a blower to lift up the red powder produced by grinding the red bricks of the building bought by the crew. Regina was riding a motorcycle, sitting alone. There were only two suits in the police car. The police officer has been reduced to ashes.

   This represents the last line of order in the city, which has collapsed, and we all need to fight on our own.

   "Lunch time! After a half-hour break, the actors eat first, then the staff." After all the morning shots were shot, the first assistant director began to arrange lunch.

  Ronald put on his sunglasses, the red powder just now was Cameron's idea. Although it is very cheap, but it blows up and falls on people's heads and bodies. Wearing sunglasses can prevent powder from drifting into your eyes.

   He wiped his hands, walked to the front of the RV that served lunch, and lined up to pick up the meal. Everyone eats the same thing in small productions. The hamburgers are wrapped in tinfoil and heated, and a glass of Coke is added on-site.

   "Who are these people? Not from our crew, right?"

   One of the duties of the second assistant director is to count the people who eat. Many young actors in the entertainment industry don’t have much money, so they would go to the movies where the actors they know acted in flocks to eat. Some rich crews don't care much, so lunch is sent.

   However, "Night of the Comet" is a small production, and the number of people for lunch is also very tight. Ronald and the producer do not want dozens or hundreds of people to come to eat every day.

   "Aren't you here to give out charity lunches? Last time, the church used such a RV to give out free lunches."

   "We are here for filming lunch, not charity." The second assistant director stepped forward to stop the more than 20 homeless people who were waiting in line to receive them, "I'm sorry."

  Ronald looked at them all, and they were all ragged vagabonds, frail, and some were very hungry. Men and women, young and old, of any ethnicity. And they're not begging for money, they're begging for a lunch, and they are really unfortunate people.

   Although the current economic momentum is good, the unemployment rate is still very high. There are many poor people who are old and frail and have no value for exploitation and no family care. After losing their jobs, they were abandoned by the big machine of capitalism.

   Ronald felt a little sympathetic, and asked the first assistant director who had dealt with all three religions and nine streams, "Gordon, who are they usually in charge? What do you usually eat, and do you have a place to live?"

   "Never mind your business, Ronald. These people are generally run by churches and charities, they're either white or Latino, and they don't even get government relief.

  Although some people are really pitiful because of divorce, unemployment or bankruptcy, there are also many people who abuse illegal drugs or gamble badly. If you show a little sympathy, they'll stick with the crew and make trouble without paying them. "

   "At least give them a hot meal. I'll pay for the lunch money for these twenty people. Anyway, after we finish filming this scene, the location will be almost done, and I won't care about their affairs tomorrow."

   "Okay, I'll go talk to the producer."

After   , each homeless man got a lunch, opened the steaming tinfoil bag, and they began to gobble, and a few women were left in tears.

   "Call the church?" Ronald said to his assistant, "Move these poor people over, don't enter the frame, we have to continue filming."

   (end of this chapter)