Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 501 The True Ending After the False Ending

"Ronald, it's the role that you asked me to play as an interesting guest. Coppola and the others don't want to give me a few lines. In your movie, I can still go head-to-head with the protagonist and have a lot of fun. You don't know, I played in the past. In acting school, I had Jack Nicholson in my class."

  Roger Coleman sits in a dressing room built in a corner of the Cal State gymnasium, applying makeup.

  Ronald invited him to guest-star as a judge for a final dance competition, and he had quite a few lines.

   "Anthracene? Now that you are retired, you can develop into an actor, and maybe you can even be nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor." Ronald joked and handed a cigar.

   "Ha, this is a good thing, a sign of a successful person", Roger Coleman took the props, picked up the match, struck it, and then slowly lit it.

   Ronald remembered his promise. Every time he made a movie, he would always call his former boss to make a cameo. This final dance competition also has such a judge, which is just right for Roger Coleman's gentle appearance.

   In addition to wearing gold wire glasses, he speaks in a well-organized manner, and his temperament is more refined. I really don't know how he made so many blood plasma horror movies with the respectful appearance of a university professor.

  Roger Coleman got his make-up done and sat behind a table with the actors who acted as judges. The entire set is a bit copied from the "Lightning Dance" layout, but all the sets and props are downgraded by two levels to fit the budget of the exploitative film.

   But Roger Coleman clearly liked the tune, and when he lit the cigar again and there was a puff of smoke, Ronald got all the departments ready to start.

   "Action!"

   Playing the role of Franko, the teacher of Kelly's jazz dance training class, is Ben Lodge, who looks very feminine and bad. He and his team had just finished jumping, retreated from the judges, and headed into the trio of Motor, Cyclone, and Kelly.

  Franco saw that they had broken through his own obstruction with the help of his agent, and he still came to the competition. He immediately went back to the dance competition and protested against the judge played by Roger Coleman.

   "They are street dancers and are not eligible for this dance competition. Do you want them to go to Broadway to perform musicals and dance those black dances?"

"There is no problem with your qualifications, but the purpose of this dance competition is to select actors for new off-Broadway musicals, you..." Roger Coleman looked at the registration form and found the names of the trio, but He also kindly persuaded them not to waste time.

   "Okay, next one! Report what dance you're doing." The judge, played by Roger Coleman, saw that the trio was left speechless by the accident and thought they wanted to quit.

   "The next one is me, Whirlwind!" The Whirlwind played by Sabado was finally angry. Why can't blacks and Latinos go to Broadway to perform musicals?

   He pulled the suit he was reluctant to put on in order to participate in the dance competition, and he ripped off both sleeves. "What I want to perform is street dance—break dance!"

   "Cut!"

   Ronald looked up at the director of photography, who said OK. Roger Coleman is always very comfortable playing this type of role.

   "Take care of the table here." Ronald called the assistant director, and with the assistants, he started to clean up the documents and chores on the table, leaving a lot of space.

   "Audio!" Ronald asked the recording department to turn on the tape recorder playing the soundtrack, and there came the "Nothing Can Stop Us" music.

   "Action!"

  The camera is shot from the side, and the head is Roger Coleman. The trio began to dance a very rhythmic breakdance. The judges had never seen this kind of dance, and they all beat the beat with their feet in amazement.

  Franco was angry, "You promised me that you couldn't let them compete!"

   "Get out of the way!" Roger Coleman waved his hand in disgust, telling him to dodge, so as not to hinder himself from watching the dance of the trio.

   "Okay, since this is the case, I will withdraw from the competition." Franco thought that forcing the opponent in this way, the dance competition did not have the support scene of his own dance group, the jury kept him, kept him and expelled the Kelly trio.

   "Yeah!" The trio quickly ran over from behind, the three of them exerted force at the same time, jumped onto the judge's table, and then jumped while standing on the table.

  The DP motioned the coolies to move the camera, move the camera slightly, then a zoom, and the shot was full of Kelly's thighs in pantyhose, dancing in front of Roger Coleman.

   Yoga clothes with high slits, paired with the bottom leg warmers, a **** Jane Fonda dress, Roger Coleman cooperated to make a happy look, really looks like a virtuous college teacher.

   "Cut!"

   "Where's the iron arm?" Ronald yelled at the director of photography, "Quick, let him come."

   The camera operator with strong arms, carrying a camera similar to that of a Steadicam, was called over.

   "...remember all? You control the speed yourself." Ronald instructed.

   "Action!"

  The trio of Whirlwind, Motor, and Kelly, who got the highest score, hugged in the middle of the dance floor.

The   iron arm carried the camera, shot it from a low angle, and started to turn around the three people.

The effect of    shooting like this is as if the trio is the center of the circle, and the camera is like the eyes of the audience, drawing a circle.

   "Cut!" Ronald saw that the iron arm operator was still very tired, and shook his arms again and again, "Ten minutes to rest, let's do it again."

   This kind of lens is prone to problems, so I’m really worried if I don’t take a few shots. At this time, the advantages of TV cameras are revealed. You can use video tapes to play back at any time. You can see whether the effect is good or not.

   And movie cameras do not have this ability, you must trust the photographer.

  The judges, played by Roger Coleman, presented them with trophies. But after the awards, I told them directly that Broadway could not accept them as protagonists. Maybe in ten years, they would have the opportunity to enter the highest art hall.

  The important thing is not to capture Broadway now, but to carry forward the form of breakdancing. America is a commercial society, and as long as someone likes to watch it, there must be greedy businessmen to use it to make money.

   After shooting this morning’s footage, most people had no other arrangements in the afternoon, but everyone stayed where they were. The news that Michael Jackson was coming was leaked for some reason. All want to stay and meet the hottest singer in America right now.

  "MJ!" The crowd suddenly cheered, and a group of people walked in from outside the gym, surrounding this lean black man.

  Michael Jackson was still wearing diamond-studded clothes and sunglasses. When he saw Ronald, he took the initiative to hug him.

"I'll introduce to you, this is Boogaloo Prawn, this is Falcon..." Ronald brought him to know the main members of the crew, the most important of which were two highly accomplished breakdance choreographers Dance talent.

  MJ first chatted with Boogaloo Prawn and Falcon. The two dancers were so excited that they dragged their jackets and danced their best spacewalking and popular mechanical dance.

  Michael Jackson's eyes lit up. His dance steps at the Motown concert had two shortcomings. The first was the step backwards in the spacewalk, which was more powerful than dashing. The second is that the movements of the upper body are not rigid. With the help of two choreographers, wouldn't it be even more exciting?

  Michael Jackson nodded to the assistant who came with him, and he went to discuss cooperation with the two master choreographers.

  MJ just made time to sign autographs for the fans at the scene. Dozens of copies were signed one by one, until the assistant came out to announce the end of time.

   The group headed to a nearby beach, and Ronald directed the camera to aim at the walking path leading to the dance venue.

  MJ came over from there and shot twice in a row for easy editing. Then there was a close-up, MJ took off his sunglasses and said to the camera, "You guys dance well, can you do it together?"

   "Cut!"

  Michael Jackson is a star who often faces the camera, and he plays himself here, so the shooting is not difficult. Just waiting for the editing after the event, let his appearance become the real ending of the movie. Finally, let's hang on to the emotions of the audience.

   "Is it that simple?" MJ came over and asked Ronald in a soft voice, "The last time I shot a movie, every shot had to be rehearsed and shot several times."

   "Because you're playing yourself, MJ. You're acting naturally, and you're good at acting." Ronald replied, "I heard you're going to shoot a TV commercial for Pepsi? When will it start?"

   "At the end of this month, we are going to shoot abroad, and I also wrote a part of the script." Michael Jackson was very proud of this incident, "I used the BillieJean single I mentioned last time as the background music."

"That's good." Ronald knew that there was a huge trend of adapting popular pop music into movies. Plus many record companies made a lot of money by entering the film industry. Many people were thinking of this idea, changing the track and then make a fortune.

   "I'm also going to make this BillieJean single into a screenplay. My agent told me about it. It sounds interesting. Can you help me then? Ronald."

   "Of course, I will read the script for you when I have time." Ronald agreed. The song that MJ sang at the Motown Memorial Concert was his first spacewalk breakdance, and Ronald wanted to see what kind of story he would turn the song into.

   (end of this chapter)