Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald spent half a day watching all the footage. The sound and picture synchronization was done very well, and Ronald thanked Eric and his two assistants.

"Shall we start editing, Ronald?" The two producers next to them, Lin Sen and Azoff, were already waiting a little impatiently.

When Ronald was watching the synchronized audio and video footage, he would often pause and then take out his notebook to jot down the number of a certain frame on the film. He often turned over a film book and looked at it several times without knowing what he was doing.

It doesn't seem to take that long if you just check Eric's work.

"Where do we start? Ronald." Eric has worked with many directors and knows that each director has his own method. Ronald is not particularly out of the ordinary.

Some old-school Hollywood directors have their own quirks. For example, veteran director Fred Zinnemann, who had shot "High Noon", was particularly disgusted with the main camera.

In addition to taking as few main shots as possible when shooting on location, the first thing in the editing room is to throw away the film for the main shots.

Maybe Ronald has a similar quirk of excluding shots he doesn't like before using the scissors?

"You still have to wait for me. I need to turn these numbered positives into negative copies and take them to the Kodak printing shop for printing. It will probably take a few hours. When I get the photos, we can start .

After finishing speaking, Ronald said sorry to everyone, and then went busy with the number in his hand.

Lin Sen and Azoff looked at each other, confused. Lin Sen asked the editor Eric: "What method is this? I have never seen a director do this before?"

"This is also the first time I've seen it." Eric shrugged and replied to the two producers, "Maybe it's Ronald's habit?"

The few people couldn't figure it out, so they went out for lunch first and came back after Ronald finished his work.

Ronald was on the equipment on the other side of the editing room, searching for footage by shot number.

He spent a whole afternoon selecting the most representative and decisive moment for each camera position and shot. For some longer shots, two or three were selected.

Then based on these numbers, he took a negative with a sensitivity of only 2 for each decisive moment. Ronald reprinted all the shots based on the appropriate exposure times figured out by Walter Mersey.

Then he took the film,

I drove to a Kodak One-Hour Printing Store and had all the photos developed there. Looking at the finished film, Ronald was quite satisfied. Using the parameters given by Merzer, the color balance and contrast of the photo were close to the effect of film.

By the time the two producers and several editors returned to the editing room, Ronald had already posted all the photos on the whiteboard on the wall.

"Ah ha, this method is much more intuitive." Eric in the editing room couldn't help but admired as he looked at the photos on the whiteboard on the wall.

"This method is really good. I have to learn it and use it when I become a director in the future." Lin Sen was also pleasantly surprised. He had directed a movie before and knew that when editing, he had to find his inner thoughts in many shots. The one you want is a particularly waste of time.

Many times, by the time you find it, the inspiration in your heart is gone. This makes it easier to capture inspiration and make editing more efficient.

Azoff had no experience shooting movies, but he also found this approach intuitive. He looked at the photo of Spicoli getting high from smoking, taking Vans shoes and hitting him on the head with all his strength. The scene I watched in the morning immediately popped into my mind.

He couldn't help but think to himself, "This young man named Ronald has some ideas."

Ronald was writing a number on each photo and transcribing the duration of the shot into a table in his notebook. "Fast-paced Richmond High" is a group drama with six protagonists. How to balance the roles of many people is the key to film editing.

Therefore, trial and error is essential for the arrangement and combination of various lenses. In this way, using one photo to represent a segment of footage can be easily arranged and combined.

"I've already transcribed it. If you don't mind, you can start."

Ronald asked the two producers, Linson and Azoff, to sit down next to the editor, Eric, and then stood behind them.

"Hey, Ronald, come and sit down, you're the director."

When Lin Sen and Azoff saw him standing, they both stood up and offered their seats to him. It is good for young men to respect their seniors. However, according to Hollywood rules, the producer only provides opinions on the editing results and cannot completely replace the director in giving editing instructions.

At least not until the director makes a poor first cut, fails to get approval from the producer, and is stripped of editing rights by the studio.

"You're welcome, I'm just used to standing and editing." Ronald took two steps to the side and stood next to the editor Eric.

He tore off a piece of paper from his notebook, cut it in half, and then folded out two small sitting figures. Based on the length and width of the editing machine monitor, he calculated the size ratio of the screen to him, and compared them. Shrunk down to the height of a villain.

Ronald folded the little figure representing the female audience again to make her shorter, then placed the two little figures in front of the monitor and said to the two producers, "This is our audience. Looking at a standard screen with an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, sit at the approximate distance of the golden position.

In this way, we can refer to the approximate picture that the audience sees on the screen, and we will not take into account the problem of shifting the audience's attention because the monitor is too small.

"You are very well prepared." Azoff was completely relieved. Ronald seemed to be an expert in editing.

"I wonder what the editing level is like?" Lin Sen looked at Ronald's decent work and became curious about his actual editing level.

The opening shot in the storyboard of the movie happens to be the first shot of Ronald's first day of shooting. It is Robert Romanus who enters the frame from behind the camera, then avoids two cars, runs to the other side of the road, and finally approaches. Shot of walking through the door of a department store.

"The first one is better, the actors' performance is more natural." After watching several film clips, editor Eric expressed his opinion.

"I also think it's because the cars are driven by stuntmen and there are certain rules. Romanus' reaction in the first one was more natural. In the subsequent ones, he was prepared and mentally prepared, and his actions were done in advance. The preparation is not as tight as the first one.”

Ronald pointed at Romanus's movements on the monitor. Before he spotted the approaching Toyota Corolla, he had slowed down and twisted his shoulders to look to the left.

"What do you think?" Ronald turned to ask the two producers for their opinions.

"Yes, I also think the first one is good."

"Do as you wish."

Seeing that the two producers agreed, Eric turned back and asked Ronald, "Where is the cut?"

"Wait a minute." Ronald turned the turntable of the horizontal editing machine and rewind the film to the beginning at double speed.

Then he turned the turntable back to normal speed and Romanus crossed the street again on the monitor.

"Pop." Ronald pressed the stop button, then he picked up a pen, found the middle frame of the film in the specially vacated space in front of the editing machine, and lightly drew A V-mark.

"It's good here. It just connects to the black screen below and is close to the scene inside the mall." Eric also agreed.

"I'll try again." Ronald turned the control dial again.

Eric expressed his understanding that the director was often hesitant when editing. Especially at the end, there is an open shot where the actors continue to move. There is no definite end point of the action, which makes different people feel that it should be cut here.

Just like this shot of scalper Mike entering the mall door, how close does actor Romanus go to the inner door to cut off the scissors? In fact, it can be cut and then cut to the next shot. Where do you think the best place to cut is? There is no conclusion.

Ronald moved the film back to the beginning and started playing it at 24 seconds per second. When Mike, the scalper played by Romanus, bypassed the second Volkswagen Beetle that pulled over and walked towards the main entrance of the mall, Ronald once pressed the stop button.

"Snapped!"

Eric leaned forward and looked at the film in the middle, trying to write down the number this time. After seeing the number clearly, he suddenly said "holy shxt!"

"What's wrong?" Producer Lin Sen looked over at Azoff, fearing that something might go wrong with the production.

Eric pointed to the gap in the middle of the editing machine. On the film in the middle was the V mark that Ronald had just drawn with a pen.

"How did you do it?" Eric became very curious. There are twenty-four frames of film per second. One frame of film only appears here for twenty-fourths of a second. The probability of stopping on the same frame twice is Very small.

"Is it a coincidence?" A question emerged in the minds of the three people present.

"Is it the same frame?" Ronald asked, then put the film back. "It seems that while watching it this morning, I have gradually mastered the rhythm of this movie."

Ronald said, glancing at the reproduction print of Mondrian's painting placed against the wall on the editing table.

Sometimes things like rhythm are difficult to describe in words, but once you catch it, you catch it. Your body will replace your brain and use your intuition to make decisions for you.

"Snapped!"

Ronald pressed the stop button for the third time, and his intuition did not disappoint him. The film stopped steadily at the same frame.

Neither producer believed Ronald could stay on the same page. They stood up at the same time and looked towards the gap exposed by the editing machine.

Sure enough, under the light, a small yellow V-shaped mark was on the centermost frame of film.

The two of them looked at each other in disbelief. I had never heard of anyone in Universal Productions having such skills.

"How did you do it?" the two asked Ronald.

Ronald opened the thermos cup he brought, poured a cup of black tea and tasted it slowly, "Do you believe I said it was intuition?"

The two producers, Lin Sen and Azoff, looked unconvinced and did not continue to ask. Maybe this is Ronald's unique secret recipe?

"I think I heard someone say that there was an editor who could do it before." Eric seemed to remember something.

"Yes, this is what Walter Mersey from Peep Show Pictures taught me. You should have heard of him, and I'm not lying to you. It's really based on intuition. Otherwise, people wouldn't be able to react so quickly and stop several times. On the same grid." Ronald said the master's name.

"It turns out it's him." The two producers and Eric in the editing room suddenly realized that they had all heard the name of Walter Mersey, an expert in film editing and sound processing.

He is an Oscar-recognized expert in editing and sound design for Francis Coppola's two "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now"

So they nodded and stopped asking how Ronald could do it. As if it was a given that he could do this.

Eric asked his editing assistant to come over and write down the number on the frame of the work feature. As the editing point for the first shot, and then waiting for Ronald to give the order.

"Let's go ahead," Ronald said softly.

After a while, the two producers were very satisfied with the progress of the editing and left the table, saying they would check on the progress tomorrow.

Ronald smiled and continued editing with Eric.

He knew in his heart that the reason why he was able to stop on the same frame several times was because he spent a lot of time in the morning looking at the shots repeatedly and then selecting the decisive frame in each shot.

With this approach, photography director Matthew's lens grammar has been slowly implanted into his subconscious. In fact, it was his subconscious that helped him make the decision where to stop. In addition, when you edit while standing, you can make full use of human intuition evolved over millions of years to achieve this effect.

As the editing continues, his subconscious digests and absorbs more of the footage, and his editing can become more accurate and reasonable.

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