Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"This studio is the small one, and the one next to it is the big one. They are used to shoot the night scenes of Chicago's South City." A man with a fat head, big ears and a thick neck took Ronald to visit the "Streets of Rage" studio.

The man speaking was Streets of Rage producer Joel Silver, who was enthusiastic about Ronald. I heard that Ronald came to visit the crew today, so I immediately rushed from the office and took Ronald to visit the film studio.

What Joel Silver was talking about was the studio where Diane filmed the concert. It was decorated into an old-fashioned auditorium from the 1950s, a bit like the one where Ronald went to see Motown's 25th Anniversary Concert. Kind of like.

Except for a stage and no seats under the stage, only standing tickets, it is a completely familiar configuration. Turning to the back of the stage, Ronald was surprised to find that the entire backstage of the stage had been restored.

"Is this stage decorated like a real one?" Ronald touched a few switches, which were used to turn on and off the lights on the ceiling. This kind of old-fashioned auditorium usually allows lighting engineers to climb to the top loft and use spotlights to light stars. .

"It cost me one million dollars, and I copied it exactly according to the previous drawings." Joel Silver said proudly. Ronald Lee's new film "Night of the Comet" has reached a box office of 20 million US dollars, with a box office/production cost ratio of nearly 20 times. This made him realize that this young man is likely to become the next independently produced film. The object that filmmakers compete for.

Joel Silver was very proud to introduce to Ronald the meticulous decoration everywhere. No director does not like the exquisite restoration brought by high investment. Ronald has made two small productions under three million US dollars, which is definitely I am yearning for the supporting facilities that are only available for these large-scale productions.

"How many scenes are going to be filmed here?" Ronald touched the old-fashioned microphone on the stage. The one that Diane touched just now during rehearsal. The crew very accurately restored the stage technology of fifty years. This kind of microphone is all It cannot be removed from the stand and held in the hand.

"There are two concerts in total. The female singer at the beginning of the concert was snatched away, and Ellen Ann, who regained her freedom at the end, sang a new song."

"Two scenes." Ronald touched the microphone, mentally estimating how much it would cost to recreate it. The cost of setting the two scenes was enough for him to make an exploitation film.

"Please come over here." Joel Silver took Ronald to the big studio again. In order to facilitate filming, the crew spared no expense in renting two studios at the same time.

"What is this?" Ronald watched as the Universal film was wrapped in a light-colored canvas outside the largest studio in Hollywood.

"This is the tent. In order to shoot night scenes, we specially customized this canvas tent.

The entire studio was covered.

"How much will this cost?"

"Two hundred thousand."

“Well, Ronald stopped talking.

"Come in, watch the ground." Joel Silver led the way and turned on the studio lights.

"Oh, what is this?" Ronald exclaimed like a movie fan visiting Universal Studios. The dim light in the studio actually came from a lamppost that looked like a street lamp.

After his eyes adjusted to the light, Ronald discovered that the set in this large studio seemed to be the bottom of an elevated highway.

"This is what we copied from the South Side of Chicago. It was originally a viaduct where several interstate highways converged in the South Side of Chicago."

"Holy shxt!" Even though Ronald had seen many crews of big productions, he was also shocked by this generosity. Several pillars of the viaduct were made into cement color, and some steel pillars were made to look rusty, which is very restored.

"Why don't you go to the real location to shoot?" Ronald couldn't understand.

"Two reasons. First, the security situation in the South City of Chicago is not very good. If our crew shoots there for a long time, it may be dangerous."

Seeing that Joel Silver was silent, Ronald turned around and asked, "What about the second one?"

"Secondly, because I can."

"Okay..." Ronald didn't know what to say. In the film industry, if you have money, you can really do whatever you want, as long as the movies you make make money.

"At that time, the male protagonist Cody will stand in this place and shoot at the motorcycle gangsters next to the viaduct pillars, blowing up a motorcycle with one shot." Joel Silver told Rona De introduced the scene shot in reverse time.

"Isn't this a little cartoony?"

"Very accurate, Ronald, very accurate. In fact, the director Walter Hill and I wanted to make a cartoon-like movie. At the beginning of the film, we would add two lines of white text on the black screen, 'Another time, another place'."

Joel Silver gestured with his hand to show how the subtitles would appear.

"Like the beginning of Star Wars, 'A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away'?" Ronald asked.

"Haha, that's right."

Joel Silver and Ronald walked and visited all the way. The entire movie set resembled the old-fashioned neighborhood atmosphere of the 1950s. It seemed that they wanted to show a semi-fictional cartoon story.

"How was it? What do you think of this movie?" Joel Silver took Ronald around and finally returned to the small studio. He asked his assistant to make two cups of coffee and sat under the stage. Start chatting.

"Well, I don't know. I don't have experience in such a big production. Everything is new to me."

"Hahaha, I know you are a capable director. Don't worry. I just want to hear your opinion. We can chat freely. If there is any inspiration, that would be the best."

"In this case," Ronald saw Joel Silver looking very open-minded, "I have a question, why did the male protagonist Cody not be with Ellen Ann in the end? Instead, he had to arrange for him to wander around the world by himself. Let the heroine An be with that agent boyfriend?"

Ronald expressed the biggest question in his heart. From the casting point of view, Diane is absolutely the heroine. Although she is not the kind of charming woman like a blooming flower, the image of a girl is also very good.

The audience will always hope that she and the handsome guy who plays Cody will end up together, rather than the deliberately selected thin, glasses-wearing agent who smells like copper at first glance.

Director Walter Hill also specially found comedian Rick Moranis to play the agent's current boyfriend. No audience will like this kind of man, so let him be with the heroine.

"Good question, hahaha." Joel Silver replied, "Because Walter and I have discussed it many times. This movie does not win with plot, but with an atmosphere. Today's teenage audiences may not necessarily No matter how much they like this cliche ending, maybe a decadent hero will make them like it even more.”

"Hey, turn on the lights and look at Ronald." Joel Silver waved his assistant to turn on the lights of the small studio, and several neon lights lit up on the background of the stage. Then a spotlight hit the stage.

Sitting below, Ronald felt that the whole place was very dark except for the bright spots on the stage.

"Dong dong dong dong..." A drumbeat sounded. It was the drummer of the band brought by music director Jim Steinman. Infected by the atmosphere, he started playing drums.

"Wow..." Suddenly, several very bright lights flashed in front of the stage, illuminating the entire auditorium.

Ronald felt his pupils shrink, "Oh, this effect is great."

Just like a real rock concert, the lighting and the rhythm of the songs work together to give the audience a very live atmosphere.

"If you come tomorrow, our million-dollar lighting engineer will make the atmosphere even better." Joel Silver also extended an invitation.

"I will definitely come." Hearing that the lighting engineer also cost a million dollars, Ronald decided to come to the scene to open his eyes.

"Not only that, but tomorrow Diane will also wear the most fashionable clothes, which are also the work of a million-dollar designer."

"Well, you're getting me interested." Another million-dollar-salary position. This movie is really rich in style. This kind of story probably doesn't have any expensive special effects. All 30 million US dollars were spent on the dance, makeup, art, and costumes.

"Then it's settled, you can just hang around here." Joel Silver thought the effect was very good, and Ronald Lee must have been impressed by his financing capabilities and full support for the director. He patted Ronald on the shoulder and left the studio.

"Hey, Ronald, did John Fogarty teach you the song 'Who Can Stop the Rain' you sang?" Music Director Jim Steinman saw the producer leaving and immediately came over to ask Ronald Nader.

"Yes, I met him in a cowboy bar in San Francisco, and he was cursing his manager for cheating him of his money." Ronald recounted the incident of meeting the lead singer of the band CCR.

"You may not believe it. Although his music style and mine are at opposite extremes, I like his simple style very much. So as soon as you played three rhythms on the acoustic guitar, I immediately recognized it from the tiger's footprints. Out of him."

Ronald chatted with Jim Steinman. Steinman is a person who is very obsessed with music technology. He has long flowing hair and talks endlessly about people he likes, but he doesn't bother to say a word to people he doesn't like.

Ronald didn't know much about his music. After listening to his self-introduction, he learned that "total eclipse of the heart" sung by Bonnie Tyler, who is currently ranked No. 1 on the American Billboard charts. ", and "making love out of nothing at all" by the second-ranked band Air Supply, two golden songs, both written and composed by Steinman.

Gradually, Jim Steinman's team gathered around, listening to the boss's rare comments about today's influential figures in the music industry.

Jim Steinman's music style is regarded as the Wagner of rock music. Various instruments and themes are all progressive and elaborate. The John Fogarty whom Ronald had met was exactly the opposite. He was known as the troubadour in rock music, with a guitar and extremely simple melodies and lyrics.

But both of them are very special songwriters in today's music scene. Their songs are often unable to be imitated by others, and the most popular singers have to lower themselves to please them and write songs for themselves.

"I don't understand why the theme song that Diane lip-synced just now has a stereo effect. You obviously only have one speaker here." Ronald took the opportunity to ask his doubts.

"That's the wall of sound technology," a beautiful singer brought by Steinman answered Ronald's question.

"Wall of sound?"

"Let me introduce you," Steinman said to Ronald, "this is Laurie Sargent, the real singer of "Nowhere Fast" that Diane lip-synced.

Wall of sound is a recording technique where we ask singers and musicians to sing in an echo-rich basement, and then send the songs to the recording studio above through brass pipes.

In this way, the singer's voice will have a special effect, as if it stands out from the background. You hear a lot of early records that used this technique. "

"Yeah, Wall of Sound, you made us record it more than 70 times before it was qualified. My voice is almost broken." Laurie Sargent complained.

"There is no way. The sound wall technology requires repeated recording, allowing you to completely polish off the individual performance of your voice and instruments, and finally the combined effect can be achieved.

Ronald chatted with the band for a while. It was also their first time to participate in a movie shooting and they were interested in everything.

Laurie Sargent suddenly asked, "Are you the director? Can you tell me why the story of this movie is so strange?"

Ronald scratched his head, "Actually, I don't know. Maybe director Walter Hill has other plans. He said that the focus of this movie is not the story, but the atmosphere, and your music is also part of the atmosphere. I guess the movie will be released If it sells well, your band and lead singer will also become famous."

"Really? We will also be famous?" Another blonde beauty singer suddenly interjected.

"This is Holly Sherwood," Steinman introduced. "They are two backup singers I often collaborate with. They have done backup vocals for Bonnie Tyler, Meat Loaf, etc. I brought them here this time. I also want to fulfill their dream of releasing a record.

Holly Sherwood will sing the song at the end of the film, a cover of Bruce Springsteen's song of the same name, "streets of fire."

"Then you will definitely become famous. Nowadays, it is very common to have a movie with the same name as a hit song. As long as it is successful at the box office, your record will also be successful." Ronald picked up some of the beauties' favorites and said.

"I'm fed up with it. This story is already very strange. They also changed the partner of the male protagonist Cody and turned it into a woman." Laurie Sargent suddenly said.

"What woman?" Ronald didn't know why.

"Originally, the script said that Cody's partner was a wrestler named McCoy. Who knew that the producers saw an actress who came to audition for other roles and changed Cody's partner into a woman."

Ronald clicked his tongue, but he didn't expect that except for the ending, the director and producer also didn't respect the script. Instead, they changed it as the filming went. Even the gender of the second most positive character was changed at any time. This actually makes Cody's role a little unclear.

When Cody didn't get together with Ellen Ann in the end, was it because he felt he wasn't good enough for her, or was it because he fell in love with his partner? This arrangement is not a good one.

"Ronald, if it were you, how would you write this story?" Holly Sherwood asked him, leaning on the back of the chair.

"Me? I might arrange for a martial arts master like Bruce Lee to help Cody defeat the bad guys, uncle, uncle!"

"Hahaha" everyone laughed.

"Huh?" Ronald suddenly felt a familiar feeling, as if he had heard this story somewhere before? Is it a similar movie that I watched in my previous life, or some old Hollywood movie that I watched in this life?

With doubts on his mind, Ronald returned home.

If he had watched the movie in his previous life, he would have dreamed about it, right? Diane is an actor that I am familiar with, and I guessed the plot casually. Could it be that Diane's movie was also a big hit?

Ronald took a hot bath and then did some Jane Fonda exercises. Go to bed early and look forward to what you will dream about.

There was a loud noise, and Ronald vaguely heard many boys talking loudly.

"Why are you so hyped? Videos are being played in the video room. Why are you still talking so loudly?"

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