Exploiting Hollywood 1980

But if you want to please the audience, strengthen Sean Penn's role, and give him an ending treated as a protagonist, you must first cut out the less outstanding scenes of other people.

For example, after Stacey and Linda cleaned up the pizza shop, they took the stairs to the basement parking lot. The two were discussing how to take the initiative to call the handsome audio salesman. At this time, a working girl from another school came and asked Linda for advice.

"Linda, I'm...from high school, and Judy said I could ask you something."

"Yes, you ask." Linda turned to Stacey and said, "I know Judy."

"My boyfriend and I want to..." The girl looked down, as if the question she asked was very embarrassing, "We want to... um..."

Then the girl covered her mouth with her hands and spoke in Linda's ear.

"Okay, are you an adult?"

"Yes."

"You go to a place called a free clinic and tell them you're with your boyfriend regularly, two or three times a week. You need those little pills."

"They won't tell my family, right?"

"No, if you are over sixteen, they won't tell your family."

After the film was played on the monitor screen, the editor suggested to Ronald, "This section can actually be deleted without affecting the overall subsequent story. There are fifty-seven seconds in total."

From the perspective of everyone's story development, this scene of Stacey and Linda talking is used to explain the background story. In fact, deleting most of it will not affect the development of the plot. "

"But the existence of the free clinic is explained here, which foreshadows Stacey's unexpected pregnancy in the future." Ronald hesitated, "If we don't explain it here, and the concept of a free clinic suddenly appears later, will the audience find it awkward? .”

"Hahaha, Ronald, you finally talk like a movie director." Editor Eric laughed endlessly.

"What's the meaning?"

"I have worked with many directors, and they always come up with various reasons to keep their scenes. Only you feel more like an editor to me, without a lot of emotional reluctance to delete scenes. But today you finally feel like an editor The director thought that way.”

"Hi. I'm not afraid that the audience won't understand.

Not all American viewers are familiar with the concept of free clinics in California. In many conservative states in central and southern states, such clinics are often vandalized, and doctors and nurses are beaten.

Two days ago, CBS TV station also reported on a case in Texas, where a free clinic providing contraception and abortion was burned down. "

Although the Supreme Court's "Roe v. Wade" decision in 1973 gave women the right to be responsible for their own bodies according to the Fourteenth Amendment, and their privacy should not be violated.

However, the jurisprudence of America's highest judicial authority does not automatically take effect in each state. Each state needs to enact separate legislation on elder protection. Some conservative states can also use other legislation to offset it.

Southern states with strong religious and conservative forces have tried their best to pass various state laws. In Texas, where the Roe v. Wade case occurred, ordinary teenagers are not familiar with the concept of free clinics.

"Forget it, can they understand the concept of freedom and openness in California with just these fifty seconds of footage?" Editor Eric said.

"It makes sense, let's cut this section out."

Ronald was no longer insistent. In fact, the name Free Clinic hinted at a lot. Free also means freedom in English. Moreover, although there are no medical fees at free clinics, medicines and other expenses are not cheap either.

They chose this name deliberately to use semantic puns to evade state legislative provisions and give women a safe haven.

You must know that in some particularly conservative places, such as the South where Catholicism is prevalent, women cannot even be prescribed simple contraceptives.

A doctor writes a prescription to someone's wife, and it doesn't take long for it to spread throughout the town. Strong social pressure will make women give up any measures, and the result is to have children one after another.

It is impossible for viewers in these places to have an in-depth understanding of the big city of Los Angeles that they have never been to through a conversation. But the hint of a name is enough to make young women think that Los Angeles is a place where they have freedom over their bodies.

This fifty-second shot is actually about the same efficiency in conveying stories and emotions as the name "Free Clinic."

Although movies are created by artists, artists must also pay attention to efficiency. What can be delivered in one second, there is no need to schedule it for one minute.

"Remove this section and remember it." Seeing Ronald's agreement, the editor asked his assistant to record the number of this shot.

"Let's go ahead." Then the editor took a roll of film and loaded it himself.

The next scene shows that after some time, the handsome guy from the stereo sales department stopped asking Stacey out. Distressed, Stacey spoke to Linda again.

"My 'stupid' mom answered his call, told her I was still in high school, and he never called me again. What should I do, should I go to the audio store to find him?"

"Don't be stupid, Stacey. He's just a stereo salesman. What do you want to do? Marry him and give him children?"

"From now on, I have to say that I am eighteen years old. If I am still in high school, it will not be easy for me to cheat."

After reading this section, the editor said to Ronald, "Let's delete this section too. Stacey was dumped by a handsome guy. Everyone can guess it from the subsequent story."

"No, this section cannot be cut." Ronald shook his head.

"The audience just saw Stacy going on a date with the handsome guy from the audio store, and the handsome guy even sent flowers to Stacey's house. If we don't explain it, the audience will find it strange later."

"But then didn't Stacey date nerdy Mark again? Viewers would have guessed that she and the hottie from the stereo store didn't move on."

"Yes, that's why I want to keep this scene. The audience agrees that Stacey is a girl who values ​​emotions more than men and women. There must be an explanation here, otherwise Stacey and the bold girls of the cheerleading team What's the difference? How can she justify her ending up with Mark?"

"But isn't that superfluous?"

"No, you, like me, have read the story a dozen times. We all already know exactly what kind of person Stacey is. But those viewers who have not read the original book will know Stacey on the screen for the first time. Akane, they are the ones the movie wants to please.

I didn't want them to think Stacey was weird and take away from the story. "

"Okay, you're the boss. This section only lasts ten seconds anyway. Just keep it."

Decisions like this lasted for several days. When finally assembling the entire film, Ronald discovered that he had unknowingly cut out about 20% of the footage. There are only ninety-six minutes left on the film's set.

Ronald and the editor watched the ninety-six minutes of film in its entirety through a horizontal editing machine.

"Do you feel it? The rhythm of the six characters' appearances is a bit unsmooth." Editor Eric took the initiative to start the conversation.

"Yes, you are right. Moreover, the actor's performance lacks the foreshadowing of other scenes, and the intensity of the emotion is a bit inconsistent." Ronald also agreed with the editor.

This "Bed of Proclus" style editing method is very efficient in cropping shots. It took two days to complete the cutting time that would have taken twenty days.

But at the same time, it also brings many side effects.

An important side effect is that the proportion of each character's appearance is somewhat messed up.

Take the nerdy Mark, for example, who originally had a crush on Stacey because of his shy nature. The first time he had a date with Stacey, he went to her house. After kissing Stacey, Mark was very uncomfortable with the progress between himself and his crush goddess and ran away from Stacey's house.

After that, it took a long time before Mark appeared again. This is Stacey who got unexpectedly pregnant with her good friend Mike the Ox. During a visit to the hospital in biology class, Stacey remembered her surgery and ran out to vomit.

Mark went up to comfort her. His gentlemanly behavior made Stacey understand that what she wanted more was a stable and mutually supportive relationship.

But for several minutes in the middle, Mark did not appear in the plot. His sudden disappearance and reappearance would make the audience forget about the plot of this character.

"We have to add a little drama to Mark. Or cut out the early plot between him and scalper Mike and move it a little to the middle."

Ronald knew exactly what editor Eric was thinking. He walked over to the whiteboard on the wall and started looking for it.

But he found nothing. The scenes of the six protagonists were crammed into a ninety-minute scene, and everyone's plot was reduced to a very small amount.

There was a plot in the past where the nerdy Mark forgot his wallet on a date with Stacey and asked Mark to send money. Later, there was a scene where she learned that Mike stole his girl and had a fight with him in the locker room.

However, the logic of these shots and the plot before and after is very strong, and it is impossible to cut and move the part in the middle where Mark does not appear.

"What do you think of this?" Eric watched the opening scene over and over on the editing machine, and finally found a scene of Mark being embarrassed.

This was originally the scene where Mark was introduced to the role at the beginning. Mark awkwardly avoided the two girls.

"We add that to the Central Prep and Lincoln High football game prep pictures?" Ronald asked.

"Yeah, there's also a scene where Linda and Stacey are talking about Mark running away in the middle of the date, so we'll add that as well."

On the monitor, Linda and Stacey are applying facial masks to themselves.

"For boys like Mark, you have to take the initiative and take the first step." Linda said.

"I took the initiative. Not only did I take the first step, but I also took the second and third step." Stacey complained, "Mark doesn't like my type at all."

"If you add this section, it adds more than one minute. And Stacey's role in these ten minutes is too heavy, and we have to delete other scenes."

Editing is such a way to move the whole body. Move the weight to one side of the scale, and the other balance will be destroyed. Ronald and Eric, the editor, were playing this delicate balancing game.

After playing with permutations and combinations in the editing room for several days, the two finally cut out a version with a relatively balanced character and story.

Ronald moved the position of the camera on the whiteboard, and used a colored highlighter to paint over the intensely emotional character scenes to make the color appear darker.

Then he took a few steps back and looked at the various cards on the whiteboard forming a picture. Just like a Mondrian painting, it's just a line segment made up of lines of various colors.

However, the colors represented by the character's emotional intensity may be darker or lighter, and the character's appearance may represent more or less colors. Each character appears occasionally in light colors at the beginning of his story, then appears intensively in dark colors, and finally has his own ending.

The pattern of their appearance on more than forty cards is also evenly distributed.

The six colors represent the six protagonists, Brad, Stacey, Linda, Mark, Mike, Spicoli, and an American history teacher, Mr. Hand.

Ronald picked up the primary imaging camera and took a picture of the whiteboard. The Polaroid spat out the black photo. Ronald pulled it off and shook it in the air. After a while, a photo appeared on the photo.

The colors on the whiteboard cards are arranged into a modernist painting. The colors represented by each character are like musical instruments with different timbres, telling their own stories.

There's the nerdy Mark and his crush Stacey who finally become a couple.

Brad was fired from his job as foreman at All-American Burger, and was promoted to store manager because he accidentally captured a robber.

There is scalper Mike who borrowed money everywhere to pay for Stacey's surgery, so someone spray-painted the word "liar" on his car.

Because Linda couldn't become the "perfect boyfriend" in her imagination, she had no choice but to cry to her best friend at the dance that her boyfriend dumped her.

Also, after Stacey had sex with several men, she finally found out that she liked Mark, and the two returned to the normal high school love relationship.

Of course, Teacher Hand, who had a battle of wits and courage with Spicoli, finally relented and went to Spicoli's house to tutor him in history, and let him go to graduate.

There is also the confused Spicoli. His car was destroyed but he showed off his power to defeat the black football star Jefferson of Lincoln High School. He was almost dumped by Brad and finally dumped Brad's girlfriend Lisa...etc. More than a dozen vivid supporting characters.

The various colors represented by the stories of these supporting characters and protagonists are scattered and scattered, and finally converge into a grand symphony in the photos.

Editor Eric also came over and looked at the snapshot in Ronald's hand, "This is really a beautiful picture. I think we can connect the working films together and give the producer a complete screening."

"Yeah, how long has it been?"

"The current total length is eighty-seven minutes and thirty-four seconds." The editing assistant reported to Ronald with a notebook.

"Please pick up the working copy." Ronald tapped the photo with his hand. The red part representing Spicoli is still a little missing. Are you considering taking more pictures? Give him an ending?

In the end, Spicoli saved the life of award-winning guest Brooke Shields who accidentally fell into the sea during a surfing competition and received a large bounty. He also spent money on the rock band Van Halen to celebrate his birthday, but in the end he was still broke.

"If we want to film these, we have to increase the budget. We should let the producers take a look first. If they are satisfied, we can start lobbying." Ronald thought.

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . :