Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 930 Oscar Prelude

"I know Billy Wilder, and I almost bought the house next door to him." Ronald arrived at the airport and said to Cameron Crowe, who returned to Los Angeles with him, "The directors union will have a meeting tomorrow to discuss the current screenwriters. The stalemate of the union strike, if he comes, I will introduce you..."

  Crow is very happy. He is a die-hard fan of Billy Wilder, and he dreams that one day he can make a movie as well-conceived as Wilder.

   "Mr. Li, I have your call. It's urgent..." A flight attendant in the terminal interrupted their conversation.

   "Who is it? Did you say your name?" Ronald asked, he was about to take a business jet back, and he didn't want to answer the phone anymore.

   "He said his name is Mr. Yan, do you want to answer his call?"

   "Okay", Ronald thought it might be Xiao Yan who was studying in Staten Island, took the long phone call, and put it to his ear, "Hello?"

   "Brother Luo? I'm Xiaoyan. I know from my aunt that you are at the airport. I need to find you urgently. It's not convenient for my aunt to know."

"whats the matter?"

"Your garden site has been shut down. A group of people claiming to be the New York City Parks and Recreation Department came today and said that your garden has violated the original state of the New York City Hall reservation, and it seems to have affected the migration of some migratory birds, Lao Wang They are almost finishing work, and now they are in a hurry, and almost fought with the people from the Park Department, but fortunately I was there, let them stop the conflict first, the park management department in America has law enforcement officers."

   "You did a good job..." Ronald was at a loss. Didn't the garden outside the house pass the assessment? Why are you harassing again now, migrating birds? Why is the garden still hindering the birds?

"You are right not to let Aunt Karen know about this. Do you have my cousin Donna's phone number here? Yes...you go to her, tell her the matter, and then ask Donna to call my personal lawyer——Lin Cy Doll.

  She will take full control of my affairs. I will fly to Los Angeles soon, and I will contact you when I arrive. "

   Called Richard in New York again, Ronald got on the plane, took out the blindfold and put it on, wanting to enter the dark sweet dream without being disturbed.

  However, this kind of mess still affected my rest. Ronald was full of such messy things as migratory birds, migration, gardens, and parks. Coupled with the low engine sound of the business jet, he was half asleep and half awake...

   "We don't want real estate, we want wetlands..." The shots on the screen in the dream seem to be shot from an excavator, and in the frame are various people holding signs against starting construction and repairing houses.

   "Is it too much? I'm not building a house, I'm also doing a garden, and I've made a wetland lake that won't affect you." Ronald thought this dream was as realistic as a movie.

   "I reported for you on the spot. Now many local residents, moved by the story of Amy and Dayan, came to support. But we haven't seen Amy or Dayan. They seem to have disappeared."

   Is it really a movie? Ronald recognized the cut from the camera, not the news. It's a good thing I didn't let my house and garden be on TV, otherwise if something happens when it's exposed, would I still want to live?

   "According to the zoning regulations, it has passed five o'clock, and the wild geese have not migrated back. This place has become a private territory. Please leave immediately!"

  A man with a thick neck who looked like a real estate developer stood on a forklift and announced with a loudspeaker to the protesting crowd below.

  The workers behind him, suggested by him, turned on the engine of the excavator, moved the joystick up and down, the excavator began to roar, and the dump bucket began to move up and down repeatedly, threatening the residents on the site.

  Suddenly, the excavator began to drive in, the dump bucket gently arched the soil, and the protesters began to object loudly.

   "Please be quiet, otherwise we won't be able to hear the voice of the little girl and the geese... The engine of the glider is very soft..." A bearded man shouted to the group, but everyone was silent, and the excavator stopped temporarily.

   "Om..." There was a very soft sound of the engine, and everyone looked up to the sky.

  A glider that looks like a wild goose, and a row of herringbone-shaped wild geese flew slowly over the lake wetland.

   This aerial shot from top to bottom is impressive and beautiful.

   "Ronald, Ronald..."

   "Huh? Are the migratory birds here?" Ronald was woken up by Cameron Crowe. It turned out that the sound of the engine came from my own business jet, and it was about to descend and land.

   "What migratory bird?"

   "It's nothing. There is a lake near my new house. They say that migratory birds and wild geese fly here every year."

  …

  The plane landed in Los Angeles. In addition to Richard, there was Joel Silver, the producer of "Die Hard", who came to pick him up.

   "We might really make something good", Silver took Ronald to watch the rough cut version just made.

  The action scenes in "Die Hard" were incredibly complex to film, only shutting down two weeks before Ronald's own "Working Girl," and now just finishing rough editing and syncing.

   "This is Cameron Crowe, my earliest film partner." Ronald introduced Crowe to Joel Silver, saying that this was his friend, and they went to the editing room together.

   "This is the real Bruce Willis sitting on top of the elevator car."

  Ronald didn’t have time to watch all the samples, but just picked some action scenes and looked at them roughly.

   "The fireball in the elevator shaft was also shot in real action?" Ronald saw an interesting scene. The bomb was ignited in the elevator shaft, and the flames caught up with the protagonist Bruce Willis from the lower part, and almost caught up. The explosive atmosphere that hits the face is very shocking, and I have never seen such a shot before.

“We got a pyrotechnician and a photographer on it because we didn’t know how fast the lens should be, and we had poor director of photography De Bont lay on top of the elevator car a few times before we found one that fit. "

  Joel Silver is very excited about this movie, and he didn't expect it to be so wonderful. Most of the action shots are done by Bruce Willis himself, which adds a lot of excitement to the movie. The villain, Alan Rickman, is also addictive, playing an unusual and highly intelligent crime boss.

  Looking at four or five explosion shots with similar angles, but with fast and slow explosion speeds, Cameron Crowe, who came together, was eye-opening and excitedly wrote down something in his notebook.

   "Isn't it interesting? Film shooting is like this. In many cases, we don't need to learn in advance, but in order to complete a certain shot, we find ways to invent ways to complete it."

  Ronald patted Crowe on the shoulder. Directing skills are not learned from textbooks and cases like in college. There are many great directors in Hollywood who directed the erection of cameras to shoot still shots, and there are also many masterpieces.

For example, the great director Howard Hawks, who is as famous as Billy Wilder, does not have too many technical breakthroughs in his films. He relies entirely on the positioning of the actors and exquisite design, and can also shoot different types of movies. A masterpiece that was successful both with reviews and reviews.

  …

   "Mr. Wilder, is Howard Hawks really just shooting medium shots like that?"

   On the second day, Ronald took Cameron Crowe again to attend a meeting of the directors' union. It happened that Billy Wilder also took the time to come, and was caught by the fan Crowe, who asked a lot of questions around him.

"Howard, oh, he is a genius. Before he shoots, he has designed the movements of the actors in each scene and their reactions to each other. In addition, he chooses the most accurate and suitable roles every time. So in fact, the filming expenses left to him are not the most, and most of the time it is to save filming costs."

  Billy Wilder was very happy to ask such a young fan for advice. He is not an actor, and usually not many fans come up to ask for autographs. Only his peers in the industry respect him. But that was twenty years ago, and now that he's retired, Wilder still misses the moment of being surrounded by industry peers.

   "Mr. Wilder, what are you talking about about Lubitsch's brushwork?"

  Rona shook his head, Cameron Crowe still has a lot of unrealistic fantasies about shooting movies. In fact, a new director needs those basic techniques, not the advanced techniques used by such master directors.

   But it’s a good thing to have passion. See if you have any low-cost scripts that are suitable for him to practice.

  Ronald turned around and greeted Spielberg who had just entered.

   "Ronald, what is the decision of the directors' union?" Spielberg asked when he came up, and he was also a busy man.

   "Continue to work with the Producers Guild, not with the Writers Guild, but they will remain silent and not speak publicly about this strike." Ronald whispered to Spielberg.

"Very well, I just came over from Nick Counter, the president of the Producers Guild. Now the negotiator of the Writers Guild, that Brian Walton... has been inclined to accept our offer, about 50 million The dollar ends this negotiation."

   "Phew... Finally, the negotiation is over... My aunt called me and complained that the TV series are all reruns of old dramas at night, it's really boring."

   "And stand-up comedy..." Spielberg also laughed.

  The pressure from the public is the greatest, and everyone feels very frustrated that they cannot see new TV series. Now the Producers Guild has put forward similar conditions to the original ones, and the pressure is on the Screenwriters Guild.

"I haven't congratulated you on your Oscar nomination yet, do you know? Except for you, all foreign directors were shortlisted for the best director award this year." Spielberg seemed to be very satisfied with his "Empire of the Sun" losing most of the heavyweight awards. So I don't mind.

   Ronald thought, it really is.

Apart from himself, Bertolucci, the director of The Last Emperor, is Italian, Adrian Lane, the director of Fatal Attraction, John Bowman, the director of Hope and Glory, two British directors, and the Swedish director of Dog Faced Years Russell Halstrom.

   "If it weren't for me, this would soon become the best foreign language film." Ronald also joked.

   "Hahaha..." Spielberg was amused. Those high-ranking Jewish officials really did too much. In order to suppress him, no one made it so ugly.

"However, they won't give me the award for this reason." Ronald also laughed. Spielberg is a liberal Jew who integrates mainstream values ​​and doesn't respect Jewish customs too much. He still doesn't respect Jewish customs in many ways. It's to those people's tastes.

  Spielberg got the news he wanted and got up to leave, Ronald sent him out.

   "By the way," Spielberg thought of something, "You haven't seen the members of The Last Emperor's crew this time, have you?"

   "No, I just arrived last night." Ronald didn't understand why he brought up the movie. To say that Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" actually collided with "The Last Emperor" in terms of subject matter, and the attention of many judges was attracted by that more powerful movie.

   "I warn you, people who see their crew at parties be careful, especially producer Jeremy Thomas."

   "Huh? Why?" Ronald didn't know what was going on.

   "You'll find out why..." Spielberg patted him on the shoulder. This kid broke his own record by being nominated for Best Director at such a young age.

   "I have to go first..." Ronald found Cameron Crowe who was still consulting with Billy Wilder.

   "Oh, I was talking to Mr. Wilder, we ended up with his fake ending method..."

   "Go ahead, leave me alone, I have something to do over there, I need to talk to my lawyer." Ronald pressed Crowe to prevent him from getting up, "Thank you, Mr. Wilder."

   "Huh... I'm just a retired old man, and it's nice to hear that someone uses my shooting method, it shows that people still take movies seriously..."

   Ronald also left the directors' union party and went to a party hosted by Michael Douglas. As the awards ceremony approached, Douglas held several parties in a row in order to win the Best Actor award.

   "Ronald..." Douglas greeted Ronald with a smile on his face.

  The two talked about the recent situation of the meeting, and the guests around them all watched the two of them talking and dared not interrupt. This kind of Hollywood celebrity party, who can talk to whom, has an implied level.

   "Michael...where are you?" A female star came in from outside.

"Glenn is here, I'm going to say hello to her, she is very nervous, this year is also her best chance." Michael Douglas saw Glenn Close, the heroine in Fatal Attraction, and told Ronald He said hello and went over to greet her.

   This year's "The Last Emperor" took all the nominations it could get, except for the two best actor and actress, because they are Chinese actors and did not get nominations. Glenn Close has her best chance without her rival in the most explosive film The Last Emperor.

   "By the way, you just returned to Hollywood. If a reporter asks you about the last emperor, don't answer..." Douglas also remembered something, and turned to warn Ronald.

   "Why?" Ronald looked puzzled, and two people had warned him today.

  Douglas didn't speak, just gave him a strange smile, and went to meet Glenn Close.

  …

  It was past nine o'clock in the evening, and Ronald finally arrived at the hotel. After saying goodbye to little Bud, he fell asleep on the bed. The past two days have been very busy, and touching the bed is really fun.

   "Beep beep..." The phone rang again.

"Hello?"

   "It's me, Lindsay", and his personal lawyer is on the phone.

  Ronald sat up suddenly, "What's the situation now?"

   "This is a targeted attack. The representative of the New York City Hall's Park Department directly ordered to investigate the recent renovation project related to the public green space on Staten Island. Did you offend him there?"

   "Interstellar exploration?" Ronald remembered the director of the Park Department he met when filming the wedding scene.

   "It seems that you really know him? Henry Stern is quite powerful in New York's political circle. How did you get targeted by him?"

   "I just met him once when I was filming, and I didn't say anything to him."

   "What do you want to do? Now there are two options, either go to court with the Park Department, or suspend the project first, and slowly clear it up. I guess there is some misunderstanding between him and you as a film director."

   "Help me deal with it, stop work first, I'm busy with the Oscars now, I don't have the energy..."

   "Okay, let me help you suspend the project according to their notice, and wait until you are done."

   Ronald hung up the phone, what a mess. The high-thread-count cotton sheets made Ronald feel like he didn't want to get up after he fell asleep.

   "Beep beep..." The phone rang again.

"Hello?"

   "Ronnie, are you asleep? I just found out you're back in Los Angeles."

   "Diane? How is your new filming going? I just fell asleep, are you coming? I'll wait for you."

   "Let me meet you, hee hee, this movie was very fun."

  (end of this chapter)