Exploiting Hollywood 1980

After the weekend, Donna has to go back to New York to prepare for her final exams. The family only had one day to spend in Los Angeles. Ronald accompanied his aunt and Donna to the mall to buy some gifts.

"Ronnie, I really want you to go back with us. You have been in Los Angeles for half a year. We all miss you and hope you can go back to New York for Christmas. But you should work harder in Los Angeles. After all, this is your first time. movie.”

After Aunt Karen saw the filming scene, she was in awe of Ronald's work.

Directing the work of a crew of more than 100 people and giving orders is not a job that ordinary people can do. She didn’t want Ronnie to go back to New York for Christmas vacation, which would delay the editing work and let down the hard work of all the actors.

"It doesn't matter, I'm going to take a few weeks off. Film editors look at the dailies with a critical eye, like a teacher marking Donna's homework. If I go to the editing room now, my mentality has not changed. Once the director changes, I'm afraid he won't be willing to delete even a single thing."

Ronald explained the filming process to his aunt. The director shoots every shot with his own thoughts, and some shots go through a lot of hard work before they are finally shot.

But the idea of ​​editing is to cut out all the bad parts of the film and connect the good parts. Sometimes the results of those films shot casually are better than the results of more than 20 shots taken with serious efforts.

One thing Ronald learned from Walter Mersey is that after the filming is completed, you have to completely play for two weeks to clear your mind, and then sit in the editing room, so that you can forget about the director's knowledge of the footage you shot. Love, regain the objective perspective of ordinary viewers.

"Okay, okay. I'll stay in Los Angeles for another week and work hard, and then I'll go back to New York to spend Christmas with you." Ronald looked at Aunt Karen's "You have to work hard" expression on her face and agreed with a smile. Return to New York later.

"Shall we go see a movie?" Donna suggested. After watching her cousin's work as a director, she became interested in movies and always asked Ronald how the shots of a certain movie were shot. Ronald made some vague guesses, some of which he couldn't figure out himself.

Sometimes a movie attracts more viewers just because of some particularly interesting scenes.

"Wait for me for a while. I'll write this postcard and send it out." Aunt Karen said.

Ever since the Grand Commander miraculously survived the assassination, Aunt Karen has become his loyal supporter. I often write him postcards to express my support.

According to her war widow friends, the current commander-in-chief is the chosen one.

He was able to escape the assassination because God specially sent him to do something to save America. He was not allowed to die before completing the task.

Recently, the leader of a small African country, Colonel Gaddafi, was rumored to assassinate the commander-in-chief. NBC reporters went to interview him, and he was so frightened that he called the White House during the live broadcast and personally clarified to the commander-in-chief that he had absolutely no assassination attempt.

A lucky female worker in a leg warmer factory also received a handwritten reply from the commander-in-chief, and suddenly became the most powerful local celebrity. This made Aunt Karen even more motivated to write.

This impressed Ronald very much. The commander-in-chief randomly selected some people to reply to the letter every day, and did not mention this matter in the national news media. But ordinary people who received a reply would spread the news locally, and as soon as local media reported it, there were small groups of people supporting him everywhere.

When the tax cut bill needed congressional approval a few months ago, the president called on people to write letters to their state senators and representatives from their districts, calling on them to vote to pass the tax cut bill in Congress. Aunt Karen also wrote urging letters to the New York State Senator and the Staten Island Representative.

What American congressmen are most worried about is a backyard fire and losing the support of voters. This continued pressure caused many members of Congress to change their attitudes, and the tax cut bill was successfully passed.

When it comes to acting skills, the commander's sophisticated tactics of inciting the masses are much better than most male stars in Hollywood.

The most powerful thing is that, as the leader of the Elephant Party, he has also won the support of most of the southern Donkey Party members. That kind of masculine voice and humorous conversation really attracted the love of southern housewives.

Even the senator from Delaware, a state with strong white supremacist influence in the South, Joe, the leading member of the Donkey Party on the Senate Judiciary Committee (meaning he has served as the longest-serving senator on the committee), the bellwether of the Donkey Party, also voted in favor of tax cuts. ticket.

"What are you watching, Ronnie? Shall we go to the cinema?" Seeing that her aunt had finished writing the postcard, Donna couldn't wait to drag Ronald along to the Chinese Theater.

“The Lost Ark of the Covenant once again tops the box office charts and is expected to become the top-grossing Christmas movie of 1981.”

This movie produced by George Lucas and directed by Spielberg has been in the top three box office charts for half a year. As Christmas approaches, it has climbed to the top again.

"Lights Out," starring Timothy Hutton and Tom Cruise, premiered last week. The box office can only rank fifth.

Ronald put down his weekly box office column in The Hollywood Reporter and went out with his family to the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

This is a famous theater in Hollywood, and the gate is a Chinese-style building with carved beams and brackets.

"Which movie should we watch?" Ronald saw that there were several movies to choose from at the ticket window.

"Watch 'Lights Out', there's Tom in it." Cousin Donna still remembers that the cake sent by Tom Cruise was delicious.

Well, Ronald also wanted to see the quality of this 20th Century Fox 14 million big production. The Hollywood Reporter says that this week's box office is expected to reach 3 million, which is not good news relative to the cost.

"Hahaha, look, my hands are almost the same as Monroe's." Donna smiled and played with the star's handprints and footprints at the entrance of the Chinese Theater.

Among the more than a hundred celebrities who left handprints or footprints, Monroe was the most loved by the audience. Because her handprints were touched the most, they were obviously darker than other handprints.

There is also a strong Chinese style in the Huaguo Theater. The curtain raised on the stage is Hua Guohong, with the words "Double Happiness" and some Chinese mythological stories displayed on it in bright yellow.

The curtain slowly opened, and Ronald sat on an old-fashioned chair and looked at the Fox logo that lit up on the screen. Watching a movie here really had a unique flavor.

"Lights Out" tells a ridiculous story. George C. Scott, who once played General Patton, plays a brigadier general who works in a military academy and instills the honor and responsibility of the military into the cadets.

When politicians and real estate businessmen wanted to bulldoze the military school and develop real estate projects, the students took up arms to defend the school.

After the general came to power, ideas such as tradition and honor that conservatives insisted on began to make a comeback. Three years ago, there would have been no movies to give soldiers a positive image.

Aunt Karen was quite satisfied that the movie did not desperately smear the military. Donna thought Tom Cruise was more handsome than the lead actor Hutton in the movie, which made Ronald laugh out loud.

Indeed, Hutton's performance in the movie is just a formality and not as real as Tom Cruise's performance.

According to Niceta, Paula arranged a series of acting courses for Tom, and Tom worked very hard. Every time he got a new role, he studied for a long time, trying to leave a deep impression in the movie.

As for why Tom's performance felt more authentic than Hutton's, Ronald was a little confused. To be fair, although Hutton has nothing to do with him, his performance is not bad, otherwise he would not have won the Oscar.

But his performance in "Lights Out" always feels less real than the supporting roles of Tom Cruise and Sean Penn. Maybe it's not that Hutton is bad, but that after meeting Tom and Sean, the audience will judge him in comparison.

Ronald feels that his main research direction should also be on actors' acting skills. As a director, I already know a lot about the techniques of various types of work, so I can avoid being cheated by technicians.

But what ultimately appears in the movie on the screen is the performance of the actors. He couldn't tell now why Hutton and Tom Cruise's performances were good or bad. If you don’t want to spend your life making exploitation films like Roger Corman’s, acting is an area you must learn.

After sending away his aunt and cousin, Ronald began his vacation life in Los Angeles. Tour the surrounding areas, soak in hot springs, watch other people's movies, and just stop thinking about anything about "fast pace".

When he had time, Ronald visited Little Venice, where he lived three years ago, and it was still the same. There were many people surfing on the beach in winter, but Ronald knew he lacked talent and stopped trying.

The karate gym where I once practiced has been turned into a kickboxing gym due to poor business. The owner of the hall who had a fight with him back then was also missing.

Only the number of people dancing various dances on the streets has expanded. Ronald also saw many people teaching, allowing interested boys and girls to learn various robot movements and ground movements. There is no charge for dancing purely out of interest, and everyone dances very enthusiastically.

Of course, Ronald didn't forget his old friend. On this day, he invited James Cameron to drink beer and eat barbecue with Gale Hurd.

"Congratulations to Ronald on completing his first directorial feature," Gale suggested, cheering Ronald on.

"Thank you, and congratulations, Jim. Is your movie finished?" Ronald asked, otherwise Cameron wouldn't be free to come to the party.

Cameron has returned from the tropical island of Jamaica and spent the past few weeks directing some studio shots for "Piranha 2" at a studio in Los Angeles.

"Shxt, I don't want to put my name on this unfortunate movie. The producer Assonitis is an asshole." Cameron cursed out.

Ronald had long noticed that Cameron was in a bad mood, thinking that he was too busy at work and neglecting his family, and he had another quarrel with his wife, Sharon.

Now it seemed that it was because of the filming of the movie, so I quickly asked, "What's wrong? Doesn't he give you the power to edit?"

Directors do not naturally have the power to edit. Just like Ronald himself, after editing the 120-minute preliminary version, he has to discuss with the producer how to edit the final 90-minute release version.

He did not have the power to decide alone the final duration and whether to retain some shots.

"No, this bastard. He wants to be a director himself. But his previous behavior of firing the director and signing his own name was discovered by the Directors Guild, which prohibited any films he directed from being released in American theaters. That's why he hired I signed myself as director and bypassed the union.”

"The previous director left because he knew his background. This bastard was optimistic about my stunt production ability, so I shot all the piranha scenes in Jamaica.

But as soon as I arrived in Los Angeles, he criticized the daily dailies I shot for not meeting his requirements, and then gradually stripped me of my power. The staff were all Italian and spoke Italian, and finally kicked me out of the studio. "

"This..." Ronald didn't know how to persuade him. It would be very unlucky to meet this kind of producer.

"I think you should sign it. No matter how bad it is, this is still a movie released in American theaters. Directors of released works and directors of unreleased works are two completely different things from the perspective of the producer. Creature." Gale advised Cameron not to make fun of his byline.

"You're right. I spent a lot of effort to shoot those shots of piranhas jumping out of the sea and attacking humans from a helicopter. When I arrived in Jamaica, they didn't even do anything to make the scene look good." Cameron was told by Gale Convinced.

"But Assonitis wants to take the original film back to his hometown in Italy for editing. What should he do to get the editing rights?" Cameron had a plan in mind and drank the beer in one gulp.

"Continued Cup."

Ronald poured him another beer and patted him comfortingly.

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