Exploitation Hollywood 1980

On the first day of shooting, Ronald found some relatively simple shots and began to find a state for himself and the entire crew. He first shot the scene where the two protagonists connected with each other and performed simple dance steps. It was not technically difficult and helped to enhance everyone's understanding of each other.

Director, confidence in yourself.

In the morning, Ronald used a dance rehearsal room in Mountain Lake Villa as a set for filming the classroom where Johnny teaches the baby to dance in the movie.

While setting up the lights, Ronald first asked Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray to put on their dance clothes and start rehearsing in the next room.

The weather was very hot, and air conditioning was not available. The crew had to put a lot of ice cubes indoors to cool down, and then used a large electric fan to start blowing at a location where the camera could not capture it.

The indoor lighting is relatively simple, with several large windows letting in direct sunlight. The lighting team used some curtains and screens to weaken and reflect the light, making the entire atmosphere ambiguous and warm.

Ronald now prefers to use this kind of natural light to shoot. Shortly after sunrise in the morning, the slanting sunlight gives people a feeling of comfort.

"You have to raise your hands and don't slump your shoulders."

As a dancer whose mother runs a dance studio, Sweets is very good at teaching girls how to dance.

But Jennifer Sweets is not a good student. She has no foundation other than good coordination. She often remembers this key and forgets that. She is also ticklish and does some intimate actions with Sweets.

When I was young, I was often tickled by his gentle movements that made me laugh out loud.

"You have to pay attention to the distance between you and me. Keep a sense of distance. Don't be too far, don't be too close. Just follow my feeling."

"Hehehe..." Jennifer Gray laughed again.

"Ah..." Sweets grabbed her hair and screamed. She had never seen such a sensitive girl. Gray is already over twenty-five years old, nine years older than the baby in the script, but he still looks like a little girl.

"Are you ready?" Ronald walked in just in time. The lighting was already set and he was waiting for the two protagonists to pass by.

"Okay, director."

Gray stopped laughing, and while Ronald turned his back, he stuck out his tongue to Patrick Sweets.

"Don't stick this kind of tape on the wall. Our contract with Shanhu Villa states that any damage to the equipment will be compensated according to the price. This kind of tape is suitable for sticking on wood. The wallpaper here is easy to tear off.

It was damaged when the tape was put on..."

The speaker was Eddie Cohen, the general manager of Ronald Daydream Pictures. He had been handling chores for the crew in Los Angeles. He had just gotten the crew list, bought everyone's life insurance in Los Angeles, and hurriedly took the night shift.

Red eye flight to Virginia.

He arrived at the scene this morning. Regardless of his fatigue, he immediately helped manage the trivial matters of the crew. In fact, he became an on-site production manager.

"Thank you, Eddie." Ronald thanked his old friend and clapped twice. "Everyone, please follow Eddie's instructions and don't damage the wallpaper."

"These kinds of tapes you use, I just bought them from the Home Depot supermarket in Hollywood. This kind is for wallpaper, this kind is for sticking on wooden furniture, this kind..."

Eddie took out rolls of tape from the box and threw them to various assistants.

They quickly and carefully tore off the original tape without leaving any traces, and then replaced it with the variety Eddie brought.

Many of the props on the crew are actually fake and are temporarily fixed with tape so that they can be replaced later.

After they were done, another ten minutes had passed. Ronald asked Sweets and Gray to stand on the positioning tape stuck on the ground, and then began to tell them the first thing of the day while the camera crew measured the focus.

scene.

"Johnny was here to teach the baby how to dance Mambo. The baby's level was average, so Johnny was dissatisfied when he was teaching. Then the resort owner's youngest son came over and saw the two of them hugging each other and dancing like this.

Johnny hurriedly separated from the customer. This is not allowed. If the boss's son sees it, he may lose his job."

After the focus was measured, Ronald asked the two leading actors to rehearse their positions.

"Love, love is strange

Many people regard it as a game

once you get it

You never want to give up, no no”

The famous song "Love is Strange" by the black group "Mickey and Sylvia" began to play repeatedly in the speakers at the scene.

Sweets raised his hand and shook it in a circle, then put it against Gray's palm, and the two began to dance the mambo. This first scene happened to be the song they danced to during the audition.

"Watch your arms and don't slump your shoulders." Sweets was still reminding Jennifer Grey.

"I know..." Gray enjoyed the artistic conception brought by this song, and she didn't want Sweets to just say these disgraceful words.

"Watch the distance, don't get too close to me, follow my guidance, my rhythm."

Gray jumped more and more without paying attention to the rules. Her heart melted in Sweets' single-lidded eyes full of masculine charm.

"Don't look at your steps, look at my eyes, look here." Sweets was still teaching.

"I know." Gray threw his hands away angrily. He was not a professional dancer like him, so why was he so strict and ignorant of style?

"Hey..." Sweets sighed, why was he so stupid at dancing? He fell to the ground in an exaggerated manner, looking up at Gray with a helpless smile.

Jennifer Gray was amused by him, and then began to practice the dance steps by herself, one click, two clicks, twisting her hips and turning her head.

The music played reached the middle section, and the two singers stopped singing for a section, and used dialogue to talk about the coquettish dialogue between a man and a woman.

Sweets became interested, and he lip-synced and spoke the dialogue on behalf of singer Mickey.

"Sylvia?"

"Mickey" Jennifer reacted and lip-synced to Sweets, who seemed to be quite interesting.

"Why did you call your lover over here?" Sweets continued to lip-sync while lying on the floor.

"Come here, lover boy)" Gray waved to his lover on the ground.

"What if he doesn't answer you?"

"Oh, lover." Gray changed his provocative posture, and Sylvia in the record also began to seduce with a gentle tone.

"What if he still ignores you?"

"Then I have to say..." Jennifer Gray looked at Sweets on the ground, and her eyes were as sweet as honey.

"Oh, sweetheart, sweet lover." Gray also knelt down on the ground, getting closer and closer to Sweets. The two began to get closer, lip-synching, getting closer and closer.

"Hahaha……"

Playing like this diluted Sweets' dissatisfaction with Gray's dancing a lot. The two looked at each other and laughed, and the atmosphere of antagonism finally eased into mutual appreciation.

This chemistry is exactly what Ronald needs most.

"Have you turned it on?" Ronald was stunned. The two of them had not practiced dancing together for a long time since the audition. Ronald deliberately wanted to retain Gray's beginner status.

But unexpectedly, Jennifer Gray's love for Sweets has not diminished at all, but has become even stronger because of this short separation.

This impromptu performance was like a real little fun between lovers, with sparks flying. The chemistry between the two was explosive.

"No..." Photography director Jeff Zu shook his head. It was originally a simple rehearsal, but not only was the camera not turned on, but the recording pole was not set up either.

"Oh, shxt", Ronald now really felt the benefits of the habit of not rehearsing that Jonathan Demme told him.

When actors are afraid of missing rehearsals, they give their best performances. Demi always turns on the camera to rehearse, even if it wastes film.

This is because of today's scene.

"Repeat the impromptu performance you just performed. This time we turn on the camera."

Ronald hurriedly struck while the iron was hot, and before the feeling between the two of them disappeared, and the God of Movies suddenly favored him, he wanted to recreate the performance just now.

"action!"

Ronald moved his head away from the monitor on the camera and gave instructions to the two leading actors.

This time on the crew, Ronald also used a new toy, a small monitor on the camera for the director to see the composition of the shot.

The clarity of the thing was extremely poor. Ronald had to raise his head and look at the actors performing live to observe the details.

"Cut, let's do it again. I want the feeling you just rehearsed."

After all, this is a deliberate performance, and the feeling is completely natural, which is definitely not comparable to the improvisation last time.

I re-shot several scenes, but none of them were as good as the one I rehearsed.

“Very nice, we took the photo here, during lunch time”

Ronald regretfully patted himself on the head. In order to save money, he delayed the wonderful shot, which really outweighed the gain.

The film production cost was limited, and I didn't prepare enough film. I originally didn't plan to waste it, but objectively I shot more, but I didn't get good results.

"I want to make more money, and I plan to film every rehearsal. This film is very particular about the tacit understanding between the dances. Maybe the best one is when both parties still have a special sense of freshness.

Appeared in rehearsal. The actors are all experienced, and I didn’t want to give up this good opportunity to shoot a scene with special rapport.”

During lunch, Ronald took Eddie with him to discuss the budget for the shoot.

"Your budget is very tight. If you shoot rehearsals, it will increase the cost of film by about one-fifth, and you may need to use reserve funds."

"I know, I will talk to Douglas Jr. later, and he will probably agree. This is the key to artistic standards. This movie does not involve fledgling actors. The supporting roles use a lot of experienced actors. Their

The difficulty is to get rid of the formula, so the first one is usually the best.

The movie "Dirty Dancing" is not about break dancing. The screenwriter Eleanor strictly adheres to the story progression of the three-act play. Therefore, the spark of the opponent's scene is particularly important. The same is true for dance. It is very important to capture this improvisational spark.

"

"You are the boss, Ronald. I have no problem. I will call Douglas Jr. later and ask him to talk to you."

On the first day of shooting, except for the dance scene and the most sparkling rehearsal, which was not caught, and the follow-up reshoots were slightly worse, everything else can be said to have gone smoothly.

While Ronald was having dinner on the set, he was talking to Douglas Jr. about adding a portion of the reserve fund.

"No problem, isn't this money just in case? It's very suitable to use here."

"Thanks, buddy."

No problem there for little Douglas.

Ronald took a slice of pizza, picked up a Coke and ate it. He continued to have meetings with the crew to discuss various matters.

"This is an episode from various submissions I collected. Listen to it when you have time..."

Music director Danny Goldberg was in a great sense of crisis because his purchase of old song rights was robbed by broker Jimmy Lehner.

For the three interludes that needed to be newly created, he worked very hard and dumped the demo tapes of dozens of songs that he had collected on the ground.

"Don't be free. We're going to listen now. Please come with Eleanor."

Ronald took a tape recorder and put the first volume in.

Eleanor is the creator of this story. She is very familiar with the music style of that time and has a feel for the situation of each episode. Therefore, Ronald always calls her when choosing music.

The actors, after finishing their meal, were about to start a disco party as usual, but they were attracted by the sound of recorded songs and gathered around.

"Is this an episode that the director plans to use in the movie?"

Many actors are asking about it privately.

Tapes after tapes were put in and then taken out. Ronald and Eleanor's brows slowly furrowed.

These songs may be because I made them in a small way and did not add my name to them, so the songs I found were not very satisfactory.

"None of these are very satisfactory, you have to keep looking." After listening to this, Ronald said to music director Danny Goldberg.

"I'll fly back to Los Angeles right away and continue collecting..." Danny is working very hard now and he doesn't want to be fired now.

"Director, I have written a song. Isn't my character going to sing a song at the resort performance? I think this song is quite suitable."

After a while, Jane Brooke, who played the baby's sister Lisa Houseman, came over specifically to find Ronald with a tape in her hand.

"Hula, Hana... Hula, Hana..."

The tape was put into the recorder, and there was a very strange song in it. Jane Brooke's voice always repeated those few syllables.

"What song is this?"

Eddie couldn't hold it back and spit out a mouthful of Coke.

"Isn't it a witty song that suits Lisa Houseman's character as a silly big sister?"

"Hula, Hana, Allah, Hana, Huna, bai..."

Ronald nodded and smiled, "It's really suitable, and you sing very well." He looked at the screenwriter Eleanor and asked for her opinion.

"It's really good, but it's not suitable for the ending episode." Eleanor felt a little regretful.

"Then it's settled?" Jane Brooke successfully recommended herself and was very happy.

"You can sign a contract with music director Danny Goldberg later, and I will buy it."

"Yeah..." Jane Brooke is completely different from the character Lisa. She is actually a good actress, can sing, and can write her own words. In this movie, letting her play a girl who only knows how to dress up is actually a bit of a humiliation.

.

"Congratulations!" Jane Brooke high-fived several supporting actors, and everyone congratulated her. If her lyrics and music can be used as an episode in the movie, she will receive a long-term residual dividend if the movie is a hit.

Patrick Sweets also saw all this from the side. He walked to the hotel room, picked up the phone and asked the front desk to make a long-distance call to Los Angeles.

It's wife Lisa Niemi at home on the ranch.

"Lisa, dear, bring the tape of that song to Virginia Mountain Lake Villa. The movie still lacks a theme song... yes, that's the one..."