Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The Bed of Proclus is an ancient Greek fable about the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea. A hotel was opened on the road to Athens.

There was an iron bed in the hotel, and any guest who was longer than the iron bed would be shortened. If it is shorter than the iron bed, it will be lengthened by force. The passengers who left the hotel the next day were all the same height.

What Walter Mersey meant was to reverse the current editing process. Instead of reducing the time from the first cut, set a 90-minute time frame first, divide the film into a three-act structure of beginning, middle, and end, and then fill it in with material to fill up the time period.

"George's 'Star Wars,' that's what it does, you get a really good story if you're lucky, but there's a good chance it's going to be a story that's missing important parts. Like the tall man in the fable , his feet were chopped off by the innkeeper.”

Ronald put down the phone and rethought this new method taught by Mercy.

Indeed, this is a completely different idea from the original approach. The original method is like a fat man doing fitness. Some insignificant fat can be eliminated through surgery.

The advantage of this method is that it does not cut out important plot points and maintains the integrity of the story and the emotions of the entire film.

But therein lies the downside. Like a fat man losing weight. The beginning is always quick, but after reaching a certain weight, it becomes difficult to lose weight.

The "Bed of Procrusteus" method is like setting a weight loss goal. If the target cannot be reduced, surgery will be performed to remove the fat.

Surgical cutting of the film will always achieve the duration target, but if done carelessly, the cutting may not look like the original story.

It seems that some people who have undergone weight loss surgery have had the fat removed from their belly, but the skin is still the same size and wrinkles when pinched.

After much consideration, Ronald decided to try the method of Proclus Bed. This kind of fill-in-the-blank editing method has also resulted in classics. Maybe there are some previously unimagined angles that can help the material tell a better story?

What's more, what's imminent is that Universal's top management will send a film director to check the edited film. If the cut is not reduced to 90 minutes, another excuse will be given.

Ronald has been thinking about how to take full advantage of this method while keeping the story and emotion intact. After all, this is a story with multiple protagonists, each with their own beginning, middle, and end.

I tossed and turned in bed thinking for a long time,

Haven't found a good way either. But there was no way Ronald would give up on finding the right way to edit the film.

This movie was shot by myself, and there are really many levels. From watching Crowe's film, to script preparation, to David Lynch's refusal to direct, and finally to competing with Heckerling for the director's position, step by step, I will not give in easily.

Suddenly, Ronald, who was half asleep in bed, remembered the card method he used when writing scripts.

At that time, because there were so many characters and plots, I wrote the plots on forty cards and arranged them on a pine board.

Ronald immediately jumped out of bed and found the shoebox where the plot cards were placed. Ronald poured the cards onto the table.

After several months of preparation and filming, these plots have been turned into pieces of film and audio tapes. After the actors' creation, some plots were completely different from their original intentions at the time.

Based on his memory, Ronald took out another stack of cards and wrote on them the plot of the finished product, some of his own feelings, and his evaluation of the performance.

After a busy night, Ronald went to the editing room the next day, brought another whiteboard, and used magnets to attach the new cards to the whiteboard one by one.

"Eric, come on, look at this. I want to use another way to edit. We first define the plot lines of several protagonists, and then fill them in with their plots."

"Oh, you came up with a new method so quickly?" Eric came over, and Ronald marked the names of the characters on the whiteboard with various colored highlighters.

The scenes with Brad were painted green, Stacey's were painted pink...and finally Spicoli's red, and Mr. Hand's blue.

Eric felt that these colors seemed to show a pattern. They always appeared slowly at the beginning, then became more dense halfway through, and finally stopped abruptly after a scene.

"Have you noticed?" Ronald pointed to these cards and said to the editor Eric, "These colors are like the beginning, development, peak, and end of a character's story. We have to ensure that each character's story Complete. That makes it intuitive.”

"Then, we fill these times with footage?" Eric looked at the cards on the wall, which formed a winding track, like racing cars, preparing to sprint on a NASCAR track.

"Yes, that actor performs well, so we will give her a little more time. If her performance fails to impress the audience, we will use editing techniques to supplement the plot. Do you think this is more convenient? At least it is better than running to lose weight. quick."

"You are such a genius..." Eric said, looking at the cards on the wall. As he said this, he picked up the snapshot of Romanus walking across the street and entering the mall, and pasted it under the first card.

Ronald had previously given each shot a photocopy to represent a shot. There is only one shot for the short one, and two or three shots for the long shot. In this way, using a snapshot to represent a segment of footage can correspond to the content on the card one-to-one. It is also convenient for adjustments afterwards.

"I have the length of each shot in my notebook, and you write it on the snapshot." Ronald handed his notebook to Eric's editing assistant.

The editing assistant took a look and saw a table on the notebook with the number of each shot and the length of the shot.

"We edited it later, you can count the time again."

After the female assistant agreed, she hurriedly checked the editing record sheet.

Soon, Ronald and Eric sat in front of the editing machine and looked at the footage from a new angle one by one.

"Stacy, you are much prettier than those cheerleaders." Linda on the monitor said to her best friend Stacey in the cafeteria.

"I know, but they know a lot of tricks. I'm afraid boys will dislike me."

"What tricks? Don't you know how?" Linda asked.

"That's it, use your mouth..."

"What's so rare about this? Put the carrot in your mouth..." Linda taught boldly on the spot in the cafeteria.

"Good job!" The male students on the other side saw Stacey imitating Linda, put the carrot in her mouth, started applauding, and whistled to cheer her up.

"Oh..." Stacey herself laughed so much that she collapsed on the dining table, and then covered her head with her hands in embarrassment.

"Will you put this section up?" Eric asked Ronald.

"Yes, there is Linda here and there is Stacey. The development of their plot to this point is actually a small second act, if you only look at Stacey's plot."

In fact, Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance of Stacey in this plot is more skillful, and you can see the ups and downs of Stacey's emotions. However, compared with Linda played by Phoebe Cates, Phoebe Cates, who lacks skills, is more brilliant.

"Perhaps Phoebe and Linda have similar personalities? Or maybe Phoebe has less experience, so the newcomer's reactions are less clichéd and more endearing to the audience?"

Ronald thought to himself that he was still lacking in directing actors' performances. He posted the snapshot on the whiteboard.

Next is Linda's plot.

In Brad's imagination, Linda, played by Phoebe Cates, woos him under the sun and rain, making him intoxicated in an illusory world and unable to extricate himself.

Linda was swimming in the swimming pool and got water in her ears. She went to the bathroom to get a cotton swab. When she opened the door, she suddenly found Brad who was fantasizing about her and comforting himself.

Phoebe's face showed a mixture of surprise, disgust, and fear, and she quickly escaped from the bathroom.

"How did you direct this scene? The actress's facial expressions are so real." Eric asked, pointing to Phoebe on the monitor.

"Haha, I asked Brad Judge Reinfield to go buy a fake toy and he jumped on the biggest one. Phoebe didn't know he had a toy hidden around his waist, and that look was totally real."

"It's really yours." Eric posted a snapshot of this footage.

Then there’s the drama of Brad and his girlfriend who wants to get rid of him.

Brad saw a newspaper at home with lines on how to break up with his girlfriend. He recited it several times. When he wanted to invite his girlfriend to his house in the evening, he was rejected by his girlfriend who also worked in Hamburg. He wanted to say this breakup declaration, but he didn't say it when he saw his beautiful girlfriend.

Later, Brad was fired by his boss because of a conflict with an annoying customer. He wanted to seek comfort from his girlfriend, but he didn't expect her to say the breakup declaration intact. It turns out that she also read the newspaper and wanted to break up with Brad.

"These two paragraphs are very good, and they create the image of Brad as a good old man who follows the rules." Ronald said to Eric.

"Yes, he is a typical type who has more book knowledge than street knowledge." Eric nodded in agreement.

"Then keep it." Ronald reached out and pasted the snapshots of the plot at both ends on the whiteboard, "Let's continue."

Brad himself quit his job at "Captain Hook's Fish and Chips" and came to work at the Seven-Eleven convenience store. Today it is his turn to work the night shift.

Spicoli came to buy something. He took out a few coins, just enough to buy some candies.

"Why don't you work like me?" Brad looked at Spicoli. Now he didn't have the same sense of superiority toward Spicoli as he did when he was the foreman at All-American Hamburg. Now he is just an ordinary clerk.

"I don't need one," Spicoli replied, "I just want to be able to surf! Do you have a restroom here? I'd like to use it."

Brad pointed upstairs. Next a car stopped in front of the convenience store. A young man got out of the car and suddenly took out a gun and pointed it at Brad, "Give me the money in the cash register, quickly!"

"Okay, right away." Brad turned back to get the key.

"Brad!" Spicoli came out of the bathroom, "Do you have any tissues here?"

When the robber turned around, Brad picked up a pot of hot coffee from the heater and poured it over the robber's head.

Then he rushed out of the counter and picked up the pistol that the robber had thrown away in pain, "You son of a bitch, are you pointing a gun at me again?"

"You're so awesome, Brad." Spicoli called from the side.

"This is the end of Brad and the end of all character development." Editor Eric posted a snapshot of this footage under the sixth-to-last card.

"Yes, after that it's the end of all the characters." Ronald nodded, "One, two, three, four, five... and there are five more characters."

"Brad, Stacey, Mark the nerd, Mike the scalper, Linda, Stacey's bestie, why isn't Spicoli?"

"He is a supporting character, just like the black football star, who does not have his own ending." Ronald explained.

"But I always feel that Spicoli is the protagonist. He has a lot of scenes."

"Yes, Sean Penn's acting skills are very good. I gave him a chance on the scene, and he can perform different surprises every time, so I added some temporary scenes."

"Ronald, to be honest, I think Spicoli deserves an ending. His performance is so eye-catching that if you don't give it an ending, the audience will not agree."

"Really?" Ronald walked to the whiteboard and carefully read the passages marked in red. Sean Penn's performance is indeed very real. He plays this silly surfer very well. He retains many scenes with him. Calculating the proportions, he should really be a protagonist.

"It seems necessary to add an ending to him." Ronald thought.

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