Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Weintraub hired Pat Johnson, a senior at the Chuck Norris Tangate Hall, to serve as a martial arts instructor and train the actors.

Pat Johnson is slightly bald, has a mustache, and his exposed arms are full of hair, which makes him look like he has strong male hormones.

After Ronald met with him, he told him about the concepts of the two karate schools in his script. One is Chris's preemptive strike, taking no prisoners, and preemptively eliminating the opponent's ability to fight back. Another kind of Mr. Miyagi does not use martial arts to bully others, but only uses it to defend himself.

Pat Johnson greatly appreciated and sympathized with Ronald's philosophy, "Ronald, I have many students in Hollywood, and you are the first person in the film industry that I have met who understands martial arts philosophy. Listen. You said you’ve practiced before, why don’t we give it a try.”

"Okay." Ronald started playing with the opponent a few times. The first two times he was defeated by the opponent at once, but the third time he may have let Ronald win.

Ronald saw that he was more powerful than Vidal and not as obsessed with his own ideas as Chuck Norris. He was an enlightened martial artist. He quickly chatted with him about the action design of the two schools and how to make the audience feel the same. You can tell the difference just by looking.

It turns out that Pat Johnson is the master of karate. He was originally a black belt in karate, and he only followed Norris to take advantage of his reputation.

"My idea is that once the disciples of the two schools appear on the scene, the audience should be able to see obvious differences. The students in the glasses dojo are intimidated by the instructor and maintain an unnecessary aggressiveness in everything.

As for Miyagi-sensei's Goju-ryu, he is kind to others. He is not a martial arts master at ordinary times, but only shows his talents at critical moments. . "

"Do your actors have a foundation in karate or other martial arts?"

"Except for Coach Chris, who has practiced karate, and the protagonist's opponent Johnny, who has practiced wrestling, the other actors probably don't have any martial arts training."

"Okay, I will carefully design two training methods so that they are separated at the beginning of training and each other cannot see each other's training content, so that they can relate to karate with the concepts I instilled in them."

"This is a good idea," Pat Johnson's idea reminded Ronald of Coppola. During the filming of "The Kid", he asked several young people to deliberately prank Diane Lane, so that they could maintain a relationship similar to the characters in the movie.

"My request is that after they finish training, they will agree with the fighting concepts of their characters in the movie script. In this way, during filming, they will be acting in their true colors and the confrontation will appear real."

"That's no problem, I need a month, five days a week, and after four weeks they can shoot the movie."

"I have a friend, Darryl Vidal, who is also a karate coach. Let him cooperate with your teaching. Do you need anything else for action design?" Ronald likes this kind of professional talent, and he I can't beat him either. This level of professionalism is very reassuring.

"I think you may need some professional stuntmen. Karate is different from other martial arts. If it's boxing, any stuntman can do a couple of gestures. But in karate, if the stuntman is not a professional, he can't do the moves very well. They The difference between fighting in Europe and the United States is still quite big."

"Do you have a team?" Ronald trusted his opponents who could knock him down.

"I don't want to use Chuck's team. He has his own things to be busy with. I recommend a Japanese karate master, Demura Fumio. He has a big dojo in California."

Fumio Demura is a true Japanese and a fifth-dan karate master. He was one of the first people in America dedicated to promoting karate teaching.

Interestingly, he himself had learned Goju-ryu from Ryukyu and Ito-ryu from Japan. He happens to know both genres that Ronald writes about.

After Weintraub and his team met, they were full of praise. It just so happened that Demura was a small man like Noriyuki Morita, who played Master Miyagi. By the way, he also signed a stunt contract, allowing him to shoot those fight scenes in Morita's place.

With the action team secured, Ronald began asking Weintraub to sign all the main actors and have them come to Los Angeles for training as soon as possible. He himself and art director Cassidy began to explore the scene in Los Angeles.

"How about this apartment?" production director Cassidy asked Ronald, pointing to a location he had found.

"Much like the apartment Daniel's mother could afford."

This apartment in Venice has three palm trees at the door, a dry swimming pool inside, and is surrounded on three sides by three-story low buildings.

Ronald found it very interesting, a bit like the apartment he lived in when he first came to Los Angeles. The swimming pool in the middle was built by the developer, but because the maintenance cost was very expensive, the residents were unwilling to share it equally. Some people didn't want to get out if they didn't want to swim, so it ended up dry and left there unused.

Daniel's mother, Lucille, found a job as a secretary in a computer company and could afford to live in an apartment like this with maintenance workers, but she couldn't afford anything more expensive.

"Is there a maintenance room?"

The two found the maintenance room of the apartment, which was very small when they walked inside. Ronald felt there was not enough framing.

"It's a pity that we have to find another maintenance room for shooting. It would be great if there was a big room here. The lenses here are very concentrated. Shooting in different places will cause confusion." Ronald said.

"I've thought about it for a long time, come and see." Art director Cassidy took him to the back of the first floor.

Guquan

"Is this a garage?" Ronald saw a large space, which was as big as two apartments and could park four cars side by side. Most of the tenants in this apartment are low-income, so not many can afford a car, so the garage is not large.

"Yes, let the scenery surround this place on three sides and make it a maintenance room where Master Miyagi works. One side here can be used to place the camera."

"Very good, Susan, what do you think?" Ronald looked at Susan who was following.

"You all agreed, then let's settle it."

Then there's the Cobra Karate Gym grounds. Ronald and art director Cassidy went to the Miracle Mile next to Museum Row in Los Angeles.

This is the most densely populated commercial street in Los Angeles and most like New York, with many ancient buildings on it. There is a street shop, and the current owner is ready to quit the lease.

Opening the door, a large space appears in front of you. Ronald measured the open space back and forth and thought it was OK. Cassidy reminded him to look outside, which happened to be the street view of Miracle Mile.

Ronald, who was very satisfied, asked Susan if she agreed. After getting her agreement, he completed the selection of another location.

"When will this place be decorated? Our actors are still waiting to train." Ronald asked the art director Cassidy.

"I'm afraid it won't be quick. Negotiations with the owners will take some time and most importantly, their lease doesn't expire in two weeks."

"That's not possible. We have to start karate training as soon as possible."

"I know there is a place." Susan followed them on location for a few days and admired Ronald's efficient work attitude. She remembered the female celebrities she had met at parties before.

"This is the dance studio owned by Princess Leia you said?" Ronald came to the place introduced by Susan. A large dance studio with mirrors and handrails for practicing.

"No, it was Carrie Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds. She is now planning to open a dance studio to accept students."

"So it hasn't opened yet?" Ronald thought to himself that this was good, the rent could be cheaper. He walked around the wall. These mirrors could be covered with cloth so as not to hinder training. There is also a small classroom next to it, which can be used to train two groups separately.

Debbie Reynolds made her debut in musicals. Her debut film was the famous "Singin' in the Rain", where she performed a great couch dance with the King of Dance, Jim Carrey. She is no longer as beautiful as she used to be, or she has never been the glamorous type.

"Hello Debbie, I've been a fan of yours."

"Directors are so young now. When I used to make movies, the directors were all middle-aged." Debbie Reynolds hugged Ronald and kissed him, "Thank you, honey, for having this For less than the rent, I can start advertising for admissions.”

It turns out Debbie Reynolds was still waiting for money to run a dance studio.

All the actors have also signed contracts with Weintraub, and those who have action scenes were all summoned to Los Angeles to prepare for a month of intensive training.

Weintraub's money began to flow out like water. All actors' training time must be paid according to the union's minimum wage. There are also various venue and equipment rentals, and the cost of filming in Los Angeles is getting higher and higher.

Ronald inserted Vidal into the training team and reported progress to himself every day. In the time I had freed up, I began to busy myself with the selection of other exterior scenes and interior scenes.

Action choreographer Pat Johnson does have a double take. He immediately saw that Martin Kove had real ability, and he freed him to serve as the coach's deputy.

The training was very strict for Kove and his disciples, including William Zebka and Yiqianxing's second-generation supporting cast. Squats and bench presses every day make these young actors complain incessantly.

Fortunately, there is a lot of karate training content, including kicking targets and hitting wooden boards every day, which makes teenagers brag to their friends, so they practice very seriously, which makes Ronald somewhat relieved.

In the training class on the other side, there were only two students and one spectator. The students are Noriyuki Morita and Ralph Mazio. Their training content is completely different from that of the Cobra class. They train all kinds of flexibility and coordination. The audience is Elizabeth Sue, who took a semester off from Harvard to film. She also stayed with Ralph Mazio every day to develop a tacit understanding.

Movement director Pat Johnson's idea is that since you are attacking from behind, you need to be more flexible than your opponent. You can avoid the opponent's punches and kicks, and then attack the opponent's weak link from the side.

So two students, one old and one young, were made to cry and howl every day while doing Lajin. However, they were not asked to do too much strength training, but listened to Johnson telling the origin story and philosophy of karate.

So the three of them had a good impression of karate. In their view, karate is a martial art with more philosophical ideas than practical training.

"I think it's very interesting. When will you come and take a look? Both sides are training karate, but the effects are completely different. I think it is very similar to what you want to show in the script." Vidal called Ronald again in the evening to report the news , report training progress.

"Okay, Friday is the last day of training in the first week. I'll go check on the situation."

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