Exploiting Hollywood 1980

In the small town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Coppola's second film adaptation of Hinton's "Betta" is in its final days of filming.

While waiting for the lighting, Matt Dillon saw Diane Lane reading a newspaper and asked, "What are you looking at?"

"The report of the interview with Ronald" Diane put away her smile, "Variety interviewed him. It also said that Nick has great acting skills."

"Oh, can you show me?" Nicolas Cage, who plays the second male lead in Douyu, heard this and took the newspaper and read it carefully. There was a 45-degree profile photo of Ronald, taken in black and white. Yes, there is a profound feeling.

"Even actors with small roles can achieve success in Hollywood." Cage looked at it for a while and finally found the part to praise himself, "This is the first time that someone has praised my acting skills in a newspaper. Can you give it to me? I want to collect it.”

"Take it, I have another one here."

"Do you have a crush on Ronald, Diane?" Matt Dillon suddenly asked. Diane had always been lukewarm to her since the days of "The Outlaws."

Although it does not prevent them from playing a couple in the movie, Diane always refuses to talk to him when he is sitting and waiting for the lighting. Director Coppola is very particular about lighting, and waiting for several hours every day is boring.

"You have such a vivid imagination. He is my best friend's cousin."

“This is the right age to date your friend’s brother,” muttered Mickey Rourke, the actor who played Dillon’s brother in “Betta.” Coppola asked him to mumble all his lines in the film, and no one could hear what he was saying.

"I wonder what Ronald is doing now?" Diane thought with her chin on her face.

In caa Niceta's office, Ronald was shaking hands with a fat man, and the two were having a good conversation.

"Ronald, it's a pleasure to meet you today. I like your movies very much, watched your interview, and know that you also like the San Francisco 49ers. I would like to invite you to watch their game together. Then they will I’ll give you two tickets when you come to Los Angeles to play the Rams on the road.”

"That's very kind of you, John. I'm looking forward to going to the game with you."

After the Variety interview was published, many Hollywood actors began to contact Ronald through his agent.

The person who came to see him today through his agent was Cameron’s fellow comedian John Candy (John Candy) from Canada. He is a frequent guest on TV comedy talk shows and TV series.

He is fat and very popular among Hollywood actors.

Ronald and he chatted about each other's acting careers, Candy's main focus being comedy. Ronald is intimidated by comedy, and he doesn't plan on taking up the genre anytime soon.

But this does not prevent Ronald and Candy from becoming friends. Candy's ability can actually lead to serious drama, and he has many friends in Los Angeles.

After sending John Candy away, Niceta asked the secretary to close the door. He wanted to get a business deal for Ronald.

"Don Simpson strongly invites you to come to his place. His 'Flashdance' is in trouble again. The director Adrian Lyne is a little dissatisfied with the heroine. He knows that you chose Jennifer Beals, so Simpson wants to Please go and solve it."

"It's none of my business. Mr. Eisner asked me to come up with an idea, and I just came up with an idea. I don't think I'm more optimistic about anyone."

"Don Simpson was originally dissatisfied with Adrian Lane. He wanted to invite Brian De Palma, but Palma dumped him to shoot the new movie 'Scarface'. So if I invite you to go this time, it depends on the situation. I mean, I want you to replace Ryan as director."

"Isn't that bad?" Ronald shook his head and refused, "When I was a director, what I hated most was that the producer asked other directors to replace me. Now that it's my turn, I don't want to do such a thing."

"I know," Niceta nodded. This kind of thing is actually very troublesome and may lead to disputes. "I have rejected Simpson for you. My client will not take over any director position before he fires the original director. .”

"But his problem is indeed related to you, so you'd better go and take a look. What Simpson means is that you can not be the director, but go to the set and be named an associate producer."

"oh?"

"I know you are still raising funds to shoot your 'Night of the Comet'. Even if it is an exploitation film, the science fiction theme requires an investment of more than one million, right? Simpson is very generous. If you can solve the director's problem, he will give you a prescription A salary of 100,000, plus the signature of an associate producer.

If I were you, I would agree. Having experience as a producer is good for your career development. Besides, the script of "Full of Energy" is still passing the test of several producers, so you might as well go and take a look. "

Ronald nodded. Dean Pitchford, who wrote the screenplay for "Full of Energy," sold the script to Daniel Melnyk, a former MGM executive and now independent producer. Melnyk then sold part of the production rights to Paramount, and several parties signed a cooperation agreement.

The movie wasn't actually entirely funded by Paramount. In addition to Paramount, the revised script must also be approved by Daniel Melnyk and another co-production company that participated in the investment - "Screen Partners".

Hollywood production contracts are complex. The agreement signed by Melnyk stipulates that he has the right to suggest and veto the script, so the script must be agreed by the producers sent by the three parties before filming can be greenlit.

This complexity of script property rights also creates a "planning hell" situation common among major studios. Before the filming of a script begins, the positions of all parties need to be coordinated. It often takes six months to a year of repeated planning before everyone agrees before the green light can be started.

"So what's wrong with 'Flashdance'?"

Ronald was still more interested in his own script. He was very interested when he heard about Don Simpson's generous treatment and that he could get money as long as he solved some practical problems in filming.

"In the final analysis, this matter is still related to you, so Simpson is willing to pay a high price to let you out." Niceta carefully explained the difficulties encountered by "Flash Dance".

It turned out that Ronald gave Eisner the idea to have the target audience vote for Jennifer Beals. But after Beers was cast, when she went to meet with director Adrian Lane to shoot some experimental scenes, Director Lane discovered that she couldn't dance.

If Jennifer Beals can't dance, it means that the entire film must use dance doubles extensively, and use clever editing to hide the fact that Beals can't dance.

"I don't think this is a big problem, right?" Ronald asked, "Some difficult dance moves can only be performed by professional dancers. It is quite normal for musicals to use stand-ins. Now is not the era when musicals are popular. , his original three candidates were not from dance background.”

Demi Moore and another candidate, Leslie Young, were not professional dancers, and Ronald could tell by looking at their bodies.

"It's said that Beales' dancing is particularly bad. You go and see it. I'll finalize a contract with Don Simpson."

"Ronald, thank you for calling me in advance."

Director Adrian Lyne is a British man with long blond shawl hair and a very artistic temperament. He is more modest than Alan Parker, another British director whom Ronald has dealt with, and speaks in a gentle manner, giving people the first impression of being a very cultivated person.

The prerequisite for Ronald to agree to come to the "Flashdance" crew to help was to first say hello to director Ryan, with whom he had already communicated on the phone before.

He said straight to the point on the phone that he had no intention of replacing him. He just heard that his idea caused inconvenience to the crew, so he came to see if the problem could be solved.

"No problem, they showed me the jeans commercial you did. I liked it."

Before Ronald came to the "Flashdance" preparation office, Niceta found a British jeans advertisement shot by Adrian Lyne. The very distinctive single light lighting and fast editing also made Ronald want to get to know this person. British director.

"I heard that my idea was to choose Jennifer Beals. Are you dissatisfied?" Ronald asked.

"I'm very satisfied with her acting ability. Beals is a current student at Yale University." Adrian Lane dug out a box of video tapes and put it into the VCR, and Jennifer Beals' audition video appeared on the TV.

Ronald also looked at the video.

Jennifer Beals did a crying scene. Her tears came quickly and her emotional intensity was good.

Then there is a scene of flirting with her lover. Beers lies with a man, facing the camera, she talks softly and relies on her eyes to communicate.

Finally, there is a close-up shot of Beals sitting on the ground in a T-shirt, speaking his lines, then naturally reaching into his clothes, taking off his underwear and putting it aside.

It’s all about Jennifer Beals’ emotional expressiveness. The most emotional scenes, the softest scenes, the most ambiguous scenes. Bills performed very well.

Ronald continued to read.

Jennifer Beals changed into her ballet clothes and did a pirouette before tripping over her own legs and falling to the ground.

Ronald covered his face with his hands. He couldn't do this action?

What follows is another series of dance tragedies.

"Jennifer Beals doesn't have any dance background, does she?" Ronald asked director Ryan, pointing to the dark-skinned beauty on the TV.

"She turned out to be a fashion model. She came to the audition to earn money to pay for college. She is very spiritual in acting. Although she is not good at dancing, she is indeed the best candidate to play the heroine Alex."

Adrian Lyne explained his decision to cast her.

"So you have no objection to Beals playing?"

"Of course I don't object. I found a good dance stand-in. Her figure is very close to Beals."

"So what's the problem?" Ronald felt that there seemed to be a misunderstanding in communication. Adrian Lane was already ready to use a substitute, so why should he be asked to solve it?

"Here's the problem." Director Ryan changed another video tape.

A chair appeared in the picture, with a beautiful woman sitting on it. There were red and blue lights on the background, passing through the smoky space, illuminating the picture very beautifully.

Ronald saw that this scene was somewhat similar to the lighting used by Director Lane in the Jeans video.

The beauty pulled the rope, and a bucket of water was poured on her. Then she started to dance, with water splashing in her hair. It was reflected under the red and blue lights, making it look like she was dancing.

"Is this the dance stunt double?" Ronald thought this girl had very good dancing skills.

"Yes, her English is not good. Do you see the problem? Ronald."

Ronald shook his head, "I only saw that you used smoke here. I saw this technique on the set of Alan Parker. Your British director of photography is very good at edge lighting with a single light, and then using Smoke or powder to enhance the atmosphere.

I personally like it very much, but the labor union here opposes its use. "

"That's right." Ryan tried to match Ronald's level. "That's the problem. I took this movie because I wanted to make the dance scenes more beautiful. Now the producer doesn't allow me to use smoke. So what? How to film a stunt dance scene?

If more lighting is used, the stuntman will have to relight every time he performs a new action, and there will always be flaws during editing.

Multi-point lighting is not as expressive as a single light and smoke. Moreover, the dance scene requires a lot of sports shots. If there is more lighting, the scheduled shooting schedule will not be long enough. "

"So you want me to help you convince Don Simpson?"

Ronald understood. It turned out that Simpson did have the idea of ​​replacing Adrian Lane. Releasing smoke at the filming site will arouse opposition from the labor union. If a lawsuit is caused, the producer will be in trouble. Once the filming is stopped, it means that money is wasted every day.

Director Ryan wanted to use Ronald's identity as a director to endorse his method of adding smoke and single-point light source lighting, and explain to the producer that the artistry of such lighting is far superior. Otherwise he would rather quit the project.

"I can't promise anything, but I'll talk to Don Simpson about it. The artistic expression of this method really suits your shooting and editing style."

"Thank you, I knew you could understand my thoughts." Adrian Lane showed a typical British sly smile.

"By the way, is the guy who plays the role with Bills the leading actor?"

"The one in bed with her in the audition? No, that was just the carpenter from Paramount. I gave him two hundred dollars to play with all the girls."

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