Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Saab is a car brand in Sweden, a Nordic country. This company was originally a Swedish defense supplier, manufacturing fighter jets for the Swedish Air Force.

In 1969, Saab's automotive division merged with another Swedish car manufacturer, Scandinavian Automobile Company, to form Saab Automobile. In 1978, relying on the new Saab 900, a best-selling model, it successfully became one of the top automobile manufacturers in Europe.

People in this Nordic country are known for their punctuality, commitment, and preference for simple design. This is how Ronald met the two marketing managers of Saab in the CAA office. Speak with a slight Nordic accent and plan all the key points for your interview with Ronald in advance. .

"Mr. Ronald Lee, you may be wondering why we want you to shoot an advertisement for our new Saab 900 model?" the male of the two managers said straight to the point.

"To be honest, I'm a little surprised. I didn't expect that my name would already be known by friends in faraway Sweden. This makes me deeply honored."

"Actually, you were recommended by our distributor in the United States. He sent us a chewing gum advertisement that you had shot before." The male manager stood up, took out a folder from his briefcase, and spread it flat on the On the table.

"Oh, yes." Ronald saw a printed image of Elizabeth Shue jumping off the uneven bars in her gymnastics uniform.

"It was this ad that got us interested in you. We don't like the creativity of those Madison Street advertising agencies in New York. They make a simple thing too complicated."

Ronald raised his eyebrows but said nothing.

The female manager saw that her colleague was always reasoning hard, so she quickly ended the conversation:

"Ronald, on the first day we arrived in America, we watched your new movie "Night of the Comet" in the cinema. This gave us a lot of confidence. In that movie, you rode the heroine Regina. The shots of motorcycles and driving are full of poetry, and very powerful. We just need this style, and you will definitely be able to shoot a very good TV commercial for us."

"Are you talking about the shot of Regina on the road, speeding on the deserted streets? That was indeed Ronald's idea, and it is very shocking and beautiful." Richard met Saab's people and told them what they asked Ronald to do. Nader quickly started touting the reasons for the shooting.

The female manager liked the scene of Regina driving very much and nodded in agreement.

Ronald patted Richard and asked him not to talk too much.

"What kind of car advertisement do you want to shoot? I only know that you don't like the American advertising method. Do you have any ideas?" Ronald asked.

"Our idea is very simple. This new model is the Saab 900 turbo, which uses a new turbocharged engine. We want to show this sense of power. We want to use another flagship product of the Saab Group to set off this new car. The surging motivation.”

"Forgive me for being ignorant, what is Saab Group's other product?"

The two Saab managers smiled at each other and took out another image.

"It's our Saab 37 Thor jet fighter (saab 37 viggen) from Saab Defense."

Ronald took over the image. It showed a very beautiful fighter jet, with air intakes on both sides of the nose cockpit and a triangular tail. What is particularly interesting is that there is a pair of smaller wings above the air intakes on both sides of the cockpit.

"This is a canard wing, the exclusive symbol of the Swedish Air Force's Saab fighter jets." The male manager enthusiastically introduced to Ronald, "With these small wings, the Thor fighter jet can climb faster and reach the super speed faster. With the speed of sound, it can also take off and land quickly on a short runway like an American Navy aircraft."

"Comparing Saab cars with jet fighters?" Ronald was stunned. How could this compare? The speed of a fighter jet is so fast that it is difficult for a camera to capture it, and there is no reference object in the sky to see the power of the engine. The car can reflect its powerful horsepower from various angles.

"Then what do you think? From what angle do you want to compare the two?"

"This is what you need to consider, Ronald. We have great confidence in you and we will definitely see a satisfactory plan."

"It seems they are very optimistic about you." After sending away the two Saab managers, Richard said to Ronald who was sitting on the sofa.

Ronald has already begun to study the information they brought.

"Oh? Why do you see it?"

"They ignored so many advertising agencies in London and New York, and finally found you to realize their creative ideas. Isn't this the greatest affirmation for you? And they also promised to give you a turbocharged and fuel-powered car as long as you sign the contract. The latest Saab 900 turbo with injection function.”

"It's not easy to do." Ronald handed several photos of Saab's new models to Richard. You see, there are many ways to capture the power of a car while it's parked on the ground. But how do jet fighters perform? "

Ronald held a photo of a Saab 37 in his hand and quickly swiped it from left to right. "Wow..." It just flew by. The camera took less than a second of footage at most.

"This is what you should consider, Ronald." Richard also imitated the manager's statement just now.

"So it's not easy to make money." Ronald thought for a while, "You have to find out for me whether there have been any movies or military documentaries shot in Hollywood before. Then look around. You can see real jets there. Fighter flight.”

"Leave it to me." Richard was very happy. This was the first time he had found business for Ronald.

The next afternoon, Richard brought a bunch of tapes to Ronald's apartment. Gu Jun

"Here are two recent jet fighter-related films, here are some documentaries from the Air Force and Navy, and here are some older propeller fighter battle scenes."

Richard divided the tapes into three piles. "I thought maybe you could all refer to them."

"So these are the only two movies that show jet fighters?" Ronald frowned. It seems that jet fighters are difficult to film, unlike old-fashioned propeller plane air battles, which have been over-filmed in Hollywood.

"Yes, one is 'Firefox' directed and starred by Clint Eastwood. The entire movie cost 21 million US dollars, 20 million of which were spent on the special effects of the aerial combat."

"Oh?" Ronald took the Firefox first and put it into the video recorder.

Various scenes of Eastwood being cool appeared on the TV, and then he got into a weird fighter jet. This fighter jet was produced by the Soviet Union and could only be started in Russian. He drove the plane and flew in the air. Dog fights Russian pilots who come to intercept.

"Is that the only thing?" What Ronald saw was the trailer of "Firefox". In a few minutes of footage, there were only a few scenes of two jet fighter dog fights.

"Yeah, it didn't do well at the box office, so Warner Bros. isn't going to put it out on video."

And then there’s that “Final Countdown.” Ronald switched.

This videotape is also a trailer of only a few minutes, and it is even more exaggerated. The story tells that the "Nimitz" nuclear-powered aircraft carrier traveled through a wormhole during a routine mission in 1981 and traveled to the 19th century. 41, the day before Pearl Harbor.

A total of five thousand naval soldiers and many jet fighters also crossed over with the aircraft carrier.

The commander realized that this was a good opportunity to beat the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, so he ordered fighter jets equipped with the latest radar to take off and shoot down the Japanese Zero fighter with air-to-air missiles.

Soon, the trailer was finished. Ronald discovered that there were quite a few stars in this movie, including Martin Sheen, Kirk Douglas and others.

"I feel like this is a real shot?" Ronald saw in the trailer, there were some shots of jet fighters taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier. The color grading of these shots is obviously different from the rest of the film. The film used is not from the same batch, or even from the same brand and model.

"Yes, I asked Martin's agent, and he said that this part of the footage was provided by the Navy. It turned out to be a news documentary shot by the Navy."

"Hmm, interesting."

Ronald held the remote control in his hand and kept moving forward and backward between the shots of planes taking off and landing on the aircraft carrier. Then rewind and watch it again.

"There are some more here, do you want to see them?" Richard asked, picking up other video tapes.

"No, I think these shots have given me enough inspiration." Ronald murmured.

He pressed the pause button, then picked up the drawing board and pencil, and began to sketch based on the camera on the TV.

"So, this is what I thought, the storyboard effect of the shooting." Another day later, Ronald met the two managers of Saab again.

He handed the storyboard of the pencil sketch he had drawn to the other party.

Then he picked up the pen and explained his ideas to them on another, larger sketch that was spread out.

"I understand where you're coming from, and I think it's a great idea to compare the turbojet engine in a jet with the turbocharged engine in a Saab car.

What you want to compare is the strong power of the two engines, so that you can give consumers a strong impression. If someone who builds airplanes builds cars, the power must be very good. "

The two managers nodded slightly, and Ronald's summary hit the mark.

"But the difficulty in shooting jet engines is that they are too fast. I looked at all the images of jet fighters that I could find. Unless a camera is placed on another plane next to it, it is difficult for us to capture more than one second. fighter jet shot.

So... I moved the contrasting location from the air to the ground. "

"On the ground?" the female manager asked.

"Yes," Ronald pointed to one of the drawings, "I pulled the Saab 900 turbo car onto the runway of the Saab 37 Thor fighter jet. This way both are on the ground and we can easily express it slowly. Both are fast and powerful.

You think, a car can compete with jet fighters on the runway, and they both belong to Saab! "

"Wonderful!" The two managers were very satisfied with Ronald's way of realizing the idea. "We will report your design to the headquarters. If the headquarters is also satisfied, we will invite you to the Swedish Saab headquarters and the Swedish Air Force to go on site. Check out the filming locations.”

multiple copies

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