Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 921 Harrison Ford favored by the camera

   "You're right, he acted, uh, like nothing happened."

  Art director Polly Pratt is well-informed. She watched several shots of Harrison Ford on the set and whispered to Ronald in her ear.

  The dinner the night before was great. In the end, everyone was overwhelmed by the food. Instead of talking about filming, we started talking about places in New York and Los Angeles that have food.

  Donna works on Wall Street and often has access to high-level restaurants. But she is not the person who knows the best food in New York. The native, casting director Julia Taylor is the living map of New York food. Both Harrison Ford and Ronald had a great time listening to her story, and they couldn't wait to eat all these good restaurants.

   This also made the relationship between Ronald and Harrison Ford begin to improve. After all, filming is work, and food is life. With their wealth and social status, both of them can taste the best restaurants in New York without pressure.

  So this morning's Harrison Ford and Melanie Griffith **** scene was much better than last night's.

  The so-called "bed scene" is just a scene filmed on the bed. Melanie Griffiths in strapless underwear, sprawled under the covers, with Harrison Ford behind.

  The two of them were back to back, and the news program was still playing on the TV on one side. Melanie, who was awakened, stretched out her hand from the quilt and touched her back. It was a man!

  Melanie Griffiths made a remorseful expression. Tess didn't want to share the bed with Jack Trainor before talking about business. She covered her face, then sat up, turned her head to look...

   That's right, Jack Trainor.

  Melanie Griffiths picked up the alarm clock next to the bed and looked at it. It was already past seven o'clock. She crept out of bed, picked up a black dress worth six thousand dollars, went into the bathroom and started tidying herself.

  The camera did not follow Melanie Griffiths, but still pointed at the bed. Harrison Ford will have a show here.

   "Hmm..." Harrison Ford turned over, touched the bed, and found a pillow. He hugged the big pillow Tess had slept on all night into his arms, and fell asleep on his stomach.

  The action is very good, the quilt only covers his lower back, the exposed upper back muscles are very good, and there is also a side face facing the camera diagonally, which is why many female audiences like to watch Harrison Ford.

   "Cut!"

   Ronald stopped filming.

  Harrison Ford only cared about showing his handsome face, um, and half of his back. No in-depth research has been done for this scene at all.

  It is very meaningful to use the pillow as an important prop in the script.

  Tess took sedatives, and when she woke up the next day, she thought she had a sexual encounter with Jack. She touched it with her hand to make sure there was a man, and then went to see his face to make sure it was Jack Trainor. This is a progressive mental activity.

   Melanie Griffith's performance is very layered. The rhythm of every action is on point, from waking up to find that he is not at home, to confirming a man, finally seeing the face is the person he wants to know, picking up his clothes and running, the turning points of each mental activity are explained very well clear.

  This kind of language under the lens allows the audience to understand the mentality of the heroine Tess without any effort.

   Quilts, TV sets, alarm clocks, and skirts are all tools used by Melanie to express this kind of mental activity.

  Harrison Ford's Jack Trainor, who just goes home with a beautiful woman he met at a reception, has a less complicated acting relationship. Woke up by the sound Tess made, then turned over and scratched with his hands...

  At this time, the pillow is the key prop used to express psychological progress. Tess slept on the pillow all night, stained with the fragrance of her hair and body. At this time, as long as Harrison Ford has some hints in his actions, the audience can understand that he still remembers Tess's charm last night.

but…

  Harrison Ford did nothing. He just turned over and found the right angle so that the golden focus of the lens was right on his side face.

   "You'd better pray, he's like Gary Cooper back then..." Art director Polly Pratt whispered in Ronald's ear.

   "What do you mean?" Ronald was confused. He had seen Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly's business cards—"High Noon." Cooper's performance in it is accurate and full of charm. His close-ups appear on the screen, like saying something to the audience, a very powerful actor.

   But what did Polly Platt mean? Which young director was Gary Cooper inspired to suddenly have?

   "I'll tell you later..." Polly Platt stepped forward and said a few words to Harrison Ford. This Hollywood female player with qualifications older than Harrison Ford chatted with him in the past.

   "Let's have another one..."

  After chatting with Polly Platt, Harrison Ford offered to do another one. He seemed to have a new idea about how he should explain the logic of the character's behavior. He made movements on the bed, folded the sheets, and marked two places.

   "What did you say to him?" Ronald felt that Polly Pratt was very good at communicating with stars, so saying a few words allowed Harrison to actively explore more performance possibilities.

"I just mentioned that I was with Melissa (Matheson) in Coppola's diorama company for "Black Horse". Melissa is the one who insisted that he do this working girl. behind the influence."

   "It's really you... Only you can handle this kind of thing." Ronald and the experienced Polly exchanged glances.

  Melissa Matheson is the screenwriter of several blockbuster commercial films, and she actually knows better about selecting scripts than Harrison Ford.

  Stars should choose those characters that are in harmony with their daily image, but they can't always shoot those characters that are in perfect harmony.

  It is best if the character's underlying traits are similar to your own, and then there is a little breakthrough every time, which can make film critics praise your acting skills.

Polly Pratt called Harrison's wife, and the two chatted a lot about Harrison's performance on the set. Today she will come to the set to visit the set. Because of this, Harrison Ford is willing to go more than usual One step, challenge your acting skills.

   "Action!" A new one starts shooting.

   Melanie Griffiths did those moves, picked up her dress and ran. When Harrison Ford turned around this time, he wrinkled his nose to save face, buried his face in the pillow, and smiled like a baby who smells a familiar and pleasant smell.

   "This is a little better than last time," Ronald thought to himself, and he couldn't ask too much for a star. As long as the audience can keep up with the plot, the performance will not confuse the audience, and the play will be completed, then the task will be completed.

   "Dididi...Dididi..." According to Harrison Ford's design, the alarm clock next to the bed rang at this time.

  He was so immersed in the pillow containing the aroma of Tess that he didn't want to leave, and he stretched out his hand to look for the alarm clock.

   "Bang..." Melanie Griffiths is behind the camera, closing the door, and the storyline is that she is startled by the sound of the alarm clock and runs out of the room quickly.

   "Huh?" Harrison Ford was awakened by the sound of the door closing, and he sat up suddenly, with a puzzled look on his face. Is that fragrance from the beauty I brought home yesterday?

   "Cut!" Ronald stopped before Harrison Ford finished.

   "What's the problem this time?" Harrison Ford, as a star, has already given Ronald a lot of face. This kind of simple shot was shot twice, because of the promise to his wife Matheson, and to cooperate with the director to find a breakthrough in acting.

   "It's not about your performance," Ronald immediately smiled, and then crossed his hand across his chest and swiped it from left to right.

   "Oh Shxt!"

  Harrison Ford looked down and realized that his quilt had fallen too low, exposing his chest.

  In the agreement he signed with the crew, the scope of **** scenes was specified in detail. He can't miss a shot.

   It’s not that his muscular chest is ugly and needs a stand-in, nor is it because the scale of this shot is too large. The working girl is an R-rated movie. The frontal view of the upper body of a male is not an out-of-the-ordinary shot.

   But Harrison Ford's current star position, it is impossible to shoot this kind of shot to please the audience. What kind of lens and what location can be photographed are clearly stipulated in the thick contract submitted by his agent.

   "Action!"

   Restored again, this time there was no major problem with the cooperation between the two, and finally got the picture Ronald wanted.

   "Melissa is coming to visit this afternoon, so I'll take a rest first." Harrison Ford said to Ronald.

   "Oh, really? Then let's go to the Greek restaurant that Julia mentioned yesterday?"

"why not?"

Still using food to coordinate the relationship between himself and the big star, Ronald asked Donna to book a restaurant, and he quickly pulled Polly Platt, and the two went to a small screening room near Manhattan, and began to watch yesterday's filming samples.

   "What did you mean by Gary Cooper this morning?"

  After sitting down, Ronald remembered what Polly had said to him before, and asked Polly next to him for advice.

"I heard Peter (Bogdanovich, Polly's ex-husband) say that Gary Cooper can't act at all. Orson Welles went to see Cooper on the set, and he It was as if nothing happened at the scene.

But the movie camera favors him, the dull, clumsy, and questionable Gary Cooper, after the subtle deformation of the movie camera, will become the America on the screen who seems to have seen into the hearts of all female audiences. The most attractive man ever.

  He doesn't have to act, all the audience can see any subtle expressions they want to see through his face under the close-up on the screen. "

"Is there such a thing?" Ronald was startled. He had never seen this kind of actor before. "It's like a face full of ambiguity? The audience thought what kind of expression he should have at this time. Can it be seen automatically on the screen?"

"Hey, that's it," Polly Platt agreed with Ronald's statement. "I've heard a lot of people say that Marilyn is the same. As long as she is in front of the camera, she is a woman with a lot of charm. Although she is also a beautiful woman in life, she does not have the charm that makes all men fall in love with her."

   "This is really a ghost!"

   I saw the scene shot by Harrison Ford yesterday, and it turns out that the star does have the peculiarity of being favored by the camera as Polly said.

  It may be a certain combination of facial features, or a certain line of the jaw and cheekbones, in short, it is a very subtle thing. The face of the star, after being slightly deformed by the movie lens, becomes full of charm on the screen.

  Although, Harrison Ford's acting skills are still terrible, but what does it matter?

  From that tough, humorous, cynical face, the audience can really imagine any expression that the plot needs.

   "Melissa didn't marry him for nothing..." Polly Platt complained there.

   "It's a miracle of God's providence."

   Ronald also appreciated it. If Gary Cooper's screen charm is 100%, then Harrison Ford is at least 90%.

  This may be the truth about many star legends in Hollywood. After all, it is an art under the lens, and acting skills are often not as important as the favor of the lens.

  Stars, the performance may not be true at all, but what the audience loves is not the truth of the character actor, but the truth that they believe in under those completely unreal faces.

   After watching all the samples shot the day before yesterday, Ronald knew what was going on. Dealing with a star like Harrison Ford doesn't require the same standards as dealing with Melanie Griffiths. As long as it generally fits the storyline, Ronald lowered the standard of acting skills to 70. Anyway, the audience themselves will filter out the unreasonable elements in the star's performance.

  Restored Ronald, who had strong confidence as a director, and returned to the crew with Polly Pratt.

  A tall beauty with her hair tied up, wearing a professional women's uniform skirt and black high heels, is entangled with the volunteers of the Screenwriters Union who came to supervise at the entrance of the shooting location.

   "You are a member of the Screenwriters Guild, I'm sorry, but you can't go in." The supervising volunteer stopped the other party and refused to let her in.

   "For Christ's sake, I'm here to visit the set, and my husband is filming in it."

   "I know you. I saw you accept the award at the annual meeting of the Screenwriters Guild. I don't think there is any aspiring screenwriter who doesn't know ET's screenwriter, right? Ms. Melissa Matheson."

"Comeon!" Ronald couldn't take it anymore, Harrison Ford's wife was stopped outside, "She's not only the writer of ET, but also Han Solo's wife. Can't we be flexible? She's now It's not the screenwriter of our crew, this is just a wife visiting her husband...have some sympathy..."

  Ronald hurried up to defend Harrison's wife Matheson. Polly took Melissa to the side to chat.

   "I... this... is not allowed according to the regulations..." The volunteer's arrogance became less arrogant.

   "Well, if you find someone to go in with her, it's considered fulfilling your supervisory obligation, right?" Ronald glanced and saw the milder screenwriter he talked to last time. Hastily asked her to come and accompany Melissa Matheson in.

   "Hi, Melissa..." Harrison Ford saw his wife coming, and hurried up to hug and kiss, "You don't know how much I miss you and the children here."

"I'm watching over there with Polly, don't delay Ronald's shooting, he is a good director and a very good person", Melissa Matheson looked at Ronald, obviously paying attention to him and herself Satisfied with respect.

   "Wait for me, look at my performance... Ronald agreed that he will go to eat Greek food with us today, he is an expert in food..."

  In the afternoon shoot, Tess escaped from Jack’s house, changed her clothes, went to Jack’s office, and formally sold her merger plan to him, enlisted him to join in, and went to Tesco to sell together.

Melanie Griffiths changed her hairstyle. Instead of casually draping her light blonde hair, it was neatly coiled on her head, fixed with magic hair clips, and tightly attached to her scalp, revealing her fair and beautiful neck. .

   "That hairstyle is very good, where did you find it, very retro..." Melissa Matheson, who stood behind watching the filming, whispered to her friend Polly Pratt.

"That's Melanie Griffith's mother, Tippi Hedren, in Hitchcock's 'The Birds,' I had my hair stylist try it on her. His daughter is very suitable."

   "Hmm...", Melissa Matheson cleared her throat in a low voice, and touched her hair subconsciously. Also tightly coiled hair.

   "Cut!"

  In this scene, Jack chatted with Tess about the merger plan in the office. Members of Jack's team thought that Tess's idea, although whimsical, was theoretically very likely to succeed.

  So everyone approved the plan, and Jack Trainor officially decided to cooperate with Tess.

  The two of them slept in the same bed last night. Tess went home in the morning and changed her clothes. Jack Trainor was still wearing yesterday's shirt, so he changed it in the office.

  Camera looks at Harrison Ford and the glass window halfway behind him. The leaks in the medium shot were not serious, and Harrison doused himself with cold water and wiped himself with an old shirt, blocking a lot of the shot.

  Behind the glass windows of the office, the extra performers working in the hall were all happily watching the Harrison Ford strip show.

   After finally putting on a new shirt, Harrison Ford adjusted his clothes, and some actresses who played secretaries in the extras outside had already started applauding.

  Harrison Ford also opened his hands and saluted. The unbuttoned body radiates the strongest masculine charm of male actors on the big screen today.

   "Cut!"

  Ronald is very satisfied with this paragraph, anyway, the female audience on the screen will definitely scream like the live group performers.

   "Harry is such a walking boon..." Polly Platt told her friend Melissa Matheson, "You're a lucky woman."

"Come to dinner with us", Melissa was obviously very satisfied with her husband's live performance, and Melanie Griffiths, who wore her mother's hairstyle at night, did not go, which made the corners of her mouth even more upward a little.

  (end of this chapter)