Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Alonso is a Latino photographer with a Mexican mustache. He is less than fifty, has a calm face, and speaks with a slight Spanish accent. After greeting Ronald and others, he got into work.

He opened the camera, loaded it with discarded film, and began to start and stop it repeatedly.

The noise of ultracam is inherently louder than that of Panavision, Allais and other brands. In the indoor environment of the office, it has a buzzing echo. Alonso picked up the camera and ran to the corner to experiment.

Ronald went to watch for a while, but Alonso was not very talkative. He just started and stopped repeatedly. After the motor had finished rotating the waste film, Alonso removed it and put it back on again, and then started it all over again. .

Ronald looked bored and returned to the chair to close his eyes and rest. During shooting time, rest is a very luxury for the director, and he must seize his free time.

After waiting for a long time, ultracam's technical support staff finally arrived. He asked about the symptoms of the camera and did not go there to watch Alonso adjust the machine. He just took out a maintenance application form and asked the photography director to fill it out.

"What's the problem?" Ronald stood up and watched.

"An old problem is that the machine has an unexplained motor overheating. When using certain types of Kodak film, film fogging will also occur randomly. Fortunately, it is not serious. Only about 20% of the time, the printed positive film is projected on the screen. , it will be a little blurry and not light.”

"Only?" Ronald was too angry to argue.

This is not a regular problem. You don’t know which one of the 10 shots will have a problem. It will definitely have a big impact on the filming situation of "fast-paced Richmond High".

"Is there any solution?" The director of photography Matthew knew from Ronald's tone that the director was going to be angry, so he hurriedly asked the ultracam expert.

"We can provide a backup camera and then go back and repair it. But you know, we can't guarantee that the backup camera will work well in your shooting environment. This fogging problem occurs very randomly, and we have never been able to find a pattern. "

"What about the motor card film problem?"

"That's a problem with the cooperation between the motor and the film cartridge casing. In order to pursue a short flange distance and a compact overall size, this camera has a relatively compact reflective lens design. The film cartridge and lens group are very close to each other. We suspect that some The slight deformation of the shell caused the jamming."

"Click", the sound of the winding motor suddenly stopped, and Alonso pressed the stop switch.

Speaking in English with a slight Spanish accent, "I think I found the reason."

"what is the reason?"

Alonso did not explain, but said to the camera assistant, "Go and get a Panasonic camera battery made in Japan."

Then he said to Ronald and Matthew, "I think you can solve the problem of film jamming in the film winder as long as you replace it with Panasonic brand batteries.

Ronald, producer Lin Sen and others looked at each other, dubious about what Alonso said.

Ultracam's technical support staff also spoke up, "This is not a battery problem, but the film winder motor cannot drive the film forward. We have reproduced this fault, and the battery indicator light is always on when there is a problem. "

Alonso didn't tell the difference. He just picked up the Panasonic-compatible battery that his assistant had just brought and installed the camera with a click.

"That's it. I promise that we won't have the problem of film jamming again. As for some films fogging up, that's a design flaw. I can only reduce the fogging phenomenon, but I can't eliminate it."

Producer Lin Sen felt unsure as he listened to Alonso's Spanish-accented English, "Let's get a new Arri or Panavision camera and just make do with the film from the previous two days, right?"

"No, if you want to use another brand of camera, you have to re-shoot. Otherwise, the films shot by different cameras will be mixed together during editing, and the audience will feel very strange." Director of photography Matthew disagreed with this approach.

"Or we can use a backup ultracam to shoot first and wait for their repairs," said Azoff, another producer.

"I have no confidence in them. It seems that the backup machine cannot avoid this problem." Matthew replied.

The director of photography, producer, Crowe, Heckerling and others all looked at Ronald. Everyone in the crew can give their own professional or unprofessional opinions on issues. But in the end it has to be left to the director to make the decision.

Just like the general in the army, the officers and soldiers below can express their own opinions, but once the general makes a decision, the people below must comply with it.

Likewise, the person who makes the decision must also bear the consequences of the decision. Regardless of which approach he takes, Ronald must take responsibility for his current decision.

If problems still occur after changing to a backup camera, or if another brand of camera is used and two versions of film are used for the audience to watch the play, Ronald must find a solution. The resulting shooting delays and cost overruns must also be It was up to him to explain to Universal executives.

Ronald did not make a decision immediately, but walked to Alonso and looked at the battery on the ultracam. After the battery was installed, the camera's power indicator light turned on slightly, and Ronald followed Alonso's example and pressed the on button.

"Woo..." A low motor sound sounded, and the waste film in the film box was pulled and accelerated. After a few seconds, the film soon reached the highest speed and switched to a uniform motion. That's what Ronald calls! Before that, the director of photography must confirm why the motor is already running at a constant speed.

Alonso was like this before, press open, let the film roll to the end, then stop, load the film in reverse, and press open again. Repeatedly.

Then...he pointed out that the problem was with the battery.

A flash of understanding flashed through Ronald's mind, and he pointed at the indicator light and said, "The problem here?"

Alonso smiled, "Yes, the indicator light read the battery incorrectly. The battery has dropped below a certain level and cannot run the film at full speed, but the indicator light still lights up normally."

"Why are Panasonic batteries okay?"

"Japanese people are very serious. The battery voltage and current drop curve is very smooth. It can maintain a basically flat line before it is completely out of power. When it is out of power, it drops rapidly. At this time, the indicator light will jump to a warning state.

Our manufacturing industry in America is no longer as attentive as the Japanese. Companies like Panavision can also customize batteries. Ultracam can only use standard battery packs on the market. "

"I understand, but what about the film fogging problem?"

"That's a design flaw. As the manufacturer's expert said, in order to open up the market, this model of camera has a specially designed viewfinder that works with a zoom lens. You can clearly see the change in depth of field during the zooming process of the lens.

But in this case, a very long viewfinder is required, which reduces the distance between the lens and the internal exposure plane of the camera. In this way, their reflectors are compressed into a too short flange distance, and the lens tilt angle is too large, which can easily be A motor with insufficient voltage causes resonance and scratches the surface.

If your crew is using some Kodak films that require high light transmission, there will be slight fogging. According to your shooting progress, when the battery is low, the resonance is greater and the fogging phenomenon is more serious.

To completely solve this problem, the camera design must be changed. Now that Panasonic has a stable voltage battery, serious fogging will basically not occur. Of course, the picture is slightly blurry than Panavision, which is inevitable.

If you are not a professional, ordinary viewers should not be able to find it. "

"Why can't an expert like you be in charge of the technical department?" Ronald completely understood Alonso's logic. He had just repeatedly used waste film to idling, trying to recreate the shooting scene. How could the film jam occur?

"I like being on the set, and speaking of my accent..."

Ronald knew in his heart that there was a hierarchy among white people in America. Europeans, who are mainly Anglo-Saxon, have always discriminated against Latinos. In the early years, southern European immigrants were also said to be half-black.

Descendants of immigrants from Mexico like John Alonso are even lower class than Southern Europeans.

Ronald stretched out his hand and shook it vigorously, "Thank you, Mr. Alonso. You are really a skilled photography expert. I hope to have the opportunity to cooperate with you, amigo."

"I also hope to work with young directors like you. My master likes to work with young directors. He said that young people are not limited by the so-called industry conventions, but can make good movies."

"Who is your master?" Ronald didn't understand the inheritance between photographers.

"It's Chinese-American photographer James Huang. He is the greatest master of low-key photography. He was also the first photographer to use a portable camera. He also invented the velvet method so that actors with blue eyes would no longer be discriminated against in the era of black and white films.

In fact, he was the inventor of deep focus photography and the first lamp available in the sound era. However, like me, many of his achievements were not recognized by the mainstream Hollywood photography community because of his ethnicity. "

Unexpectedly, there is such a Chinese photography master in Hollywood. This is the first time Ronald has heard of it, "What about him now?"

"He has been dead for a few years. He was included in the gray list due to anti-Chinese and anti-confession reasons. He did not have many works in the color era. But he has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Cinematography many times and won twice."

"Oh," Ronald nodded. When he watched old movies, he paid more attention to the director and actors, but did not pay attention to the name of the master of photography.

Thanks to Alonso, Ronald decided to adopt the solution he provided, using Panasonic batteries produced in Japan, leaving everything else unchanged and operating as usual.

"Go buy some more batteries for the Panasonic camera. We'll still use this camera." Ronald instructed the camera assistant to run errands.

"Are you sure?" Producers Lin Sen and Azoff both asked.

"This is the best solution right now."

Everything went well during the shooting that night. The efficient lighting system and the camera that had no problems again made the shooting progress ahead of schedule again.

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