Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The camera was focused on a brick wall. The Boogaloo shrimp used a can of spray paint that had been sprayed and pressed the nozzle against the wall.

"Tsk..." The spray paint can with very little internal pressure could not make much sound, and the microphone on it continued to move downwards.

"Zoom, zoom," the camera handheld urged the focus operator, slowly zooming the part within the safe area of ​​the red frame of the viewfinder, and gesturing to the recording team again and again, "Your microphone can't be lowered anymore, otherwise you will be in trouble. "

"cut!"

Director Ronald finally stopped filming. This part is the last shot of the entire movie, which is the opening credits. Ronald decided to use a special effects machine in post-production to add a layer of artistic calligraphy, so that each person's subtitles would look like they were sprayed out of a spray paint can.

"I announce that the filming of 'Break Dance' is packed. Mr. Minahan Golan has arranged a party for you. You can go by bus."

"Ouch..." A group of hip-hop boys heard that there was a party and pressed the dual-card four-speaker recorder as a prop on the spot, singing and dancing to Ice T's rap song "reckless".

Ronald ignored them, and several of the main actors in the crew had already left. Boogaloo Prawn and Falcon went to Michael Jackson and began to design and improve the moonwalk method for him.

He said goodbye to Minahan, climbed into the editing van, and started working with the two editors.

This work lasted until dawn. Ronald yawned and got up to go home. All audio and video synchronization and shot segmentation have been completed, and then the formal editing can begin.

After returning home, Ronald fell asleep all day. In the evening, he seemed to suddenly remember something important in his dream and sat up straight.

"I forgot to buy Walter Mersey his special editing tape." Ronald jumped out of bed, found the phone number of Mersey, his editing mentor, and dialed it.

"Going to England? Oh... Preparations for his 'Return to Oz' have finally begun? Congratulations." It was Angie, Mrs. Mersey, who answered the phone. After repeated arguments, Merz finally got the green light from Disney at the end of last year. Recently he went to the countryside of England to look for locations.

"Me? I called and wanted to buy some Walter's special editing tape. Yes, I want a bit more this time.

There are two movies waiting to be edited. OK, I'll send you a check. "

After hanging up the phone, Ronald called Minahan again, and the next Monday he officially began editing "Break Dance" in the Cannon's editing room.

Cannon's office was still messy, so Ronald specially picked a larger editing room and occupied it alone. He has two editors, four assistant editors, and Minahan who often comes to check on the situation.

Cannon Pictures is a European capital, so their equipment is the most advanced horizontal editing machine in West Germany. Unlike the locally produced Moviola vertical editing machine in America, this editing machine imported from West Germany is more like a video recorder.

Each roll of film is about ten minutes long. Several editing assistants load it, and then Ronald searches for the necessary shots. Sometimes when searching for the shots he needs before and after, new inspiration will appear in Ronald's mind and he will think of another editing method.

This kind of editing machine is relatively more conducive to the editor's inspiration. Of course, this requires someone like Ronald who has been trained by a master, and he has to edit while standing to have a steady stream of inspiration.

"Just cut it here, Ronald." Minahan looked at it for a while and began to put forward his own opinions.

Ronald fell on deaf ears, his head now filled with new inspiration.

"Here, here, oh, that place just now was a wonderful editing point, it's the same as the one in Flashdance..."

"Bang..." Ronald pressed the stop button and wrote down the time in his notebook.

The film was shot in such a rush that no more footage was shot to choose from. In other words, the original film shot, except for the number of repeated strips, was cut to a length of about ninety minutes. If there is a segment that is not filmed well and cannot be connected in the editing process, it will be a disaster and we will have to continue to cut some content to further shorten the duration.

The main actors have all gone to MJ's place, and it is impossible for them to reshoot the film themselves.

"What does this place mean?" Minahan pointed to the freeze frame on the monitor. That was the scene when Ma Da and Tornado left in frustration when they were defeated by a team of two men and one woman because they lacked Kelly as their female partner.

"This is where the whirlwind ends," Ronald replied casually, without looking at Minahan. This is when the whirlwind dances better than the opponent, but no female dancer is forced to fail. This feeling of frustration starts from being announced as defeated by ice, and continues to pant violently, until the close-up is pushed up, five seconds later The audience's emotions also reached the end with the whirlwind.

"What? Emotional points?" Minahan didn't understand Walter Mersey's modern editing theory at all, and began to argue endlessly, "But I feel that if it were placed later, just when he turned around and left, the explanation would be more complete. ?"

"No, no matter how long it takes, the audience will blink." Ronald knew what Minahan meant. Classic Hollywood editing theory pursues that every action of the character echoes back and forth. Here he turns around and goes out, and in the next shot he drives away. Only in this way can the character's actions be explained in a coherent manner.

But after the Chinese New Wave, Hollywood gradually began to learn from European theories. As long as the characters' emotions are complete, some details in the middle, such as turning around and going out, do not need to be explained at all. The next scene is a whirlwind driving away, and the audience can figure out the middle parts by themselves. After patching it up, it still feels very smooth.

"Blink? What do you mean?" Minahan asked, blinking.

"That is to say, it is a complete thought. If it is longer, the audience will think about other things and their attention may not be on the movie."

"What? Can you accurately predict the audience's thoughts? Accurate to one frame?" Minahan didn't believe it at all. How could anyone have this ability? It would be impossible for an experienced editor to do it, not to mention Ronald's young age...

"Let's make a bet. If I can stop on the same square every time, you'll stop talking."

"What if you can't?"

"Then I will refer to your opinion."

"Okay!" Minahan himself edits the movies he directed, so how could he believe this. If Ronald hadn't really been a better director than he was, he would have squeezed him away with his big butt and shouted "Snip, snip, snip!"

Ronald found a marker, marked the box, then turned the knob to rewind the film. Press the play button again.

Tornado looked at the trio of three opponents who were in high spirits, and felt uncomfortable in his chest. He only had Kelly on his side, but firstly, Kelly couldn't break dance, and secondly, she looked down on herself a little and turned a blind eye to her own hints.

Various emotions surged up, his chest rose and fell gradually, and his eyes were full of unwillingness.

Gu He

"Now!" Ronald pressed the stop button again with a snap.

Minahan rushed up to check the gap that exposed the film. The mark on that film was the letter V that Ronald had just drawn, his middle initial.

"How did you do that?" Minahan muttered, "Coincidence?"

Ronald glanced at him, rewinding the tape again, and bang, he pressed the button without checking. This time it feels really good, definitely on the same page.

This time the two editors went up to check first. They looked at each other as if they had seen a ghost. Who knows this technique? I have never heard of it.

"All the old editors in Hollywood know it. I trained with Walter Mersey." Ronald explained lightly, "Believe me, Minahan, I won't cheat you."

"Hahaha, I'll make you some coffee." Minahan laughed. He had found a treasure. He quickly turned around and headed to the coffee machine.

"I just want espresso, double." Ronald's voice came from behind.

The editing work continued smoothly. Ronald's inspiration was endless and the editing progress was rapid. The four editing assistants were moving film and making editing records when they had nothing to do. Seeing that the pile of unedited films is getting smaller and smaller, the pile of edited films is getting higher and higher.

"Have some lunch." Minahan knew that Ronald didn't like Chinese food packaged in pagodas and thought he was too greasy. Every time I buy a sandwich or pizza in person and bring it to the editing room.

"What, are you having trouble?" Minahan asked the editor next to him, seeing Ronald frowning and looking at the monitor.

"Not technically, Ronald was hesitant to keep Kelly and Tornado's hug and kiss scene."

Ronald cut to the end when the threesome won the championship, and the three people's emotions reached a climax. There should have been a scene that hinted at the ending, so that Kelly and Tornado finally recognized each other's good feelings, hugged warmly and then made a kiss. of.

"What's wrong, Ronald?" Minahan asked him.

"I'm not sure how receptive the current audience is to this interracial love." Ronald looked at the camera repeatedly.

"America seems to be a lot more tolerant of these things now. I heard that the laws prohibiting interracial marriages have been repealed."

"No, America is a country with outstanding state rights." Ronald knew that the Israeli was using Los Angeles to represent the entire country. "Each place has a different view. Some southern states even prohibit dancing."

Ronald thought about "Full of Energy" that he almost directed, which was based on a real event a few years ago.

"There is another place where Kelly's friend introduces him to Eton of Tornado and Motor. He is a cover." An editor also put forward his own opinion.

"If you think interracial love is too much, then same-sex intimacy is even more controversial. Especially now that it is said that the super... is spread among men and is a violation of immoral behavior God’s punishment.”

"What disease?" Ronald couldn't understand.

"It's what they call male...disease."

"Oh, let's delete them all." Minahan heard that it might affect the minds of some viewers, and he urged that these scenes be deleted.

"But this way, there will be no emotional climax." Ronald stroked the short beard on his chin and thought about it.

"It's better not to leave any positive results, just some hints, so that the audience who can accept it can naturally see it, and the audience who doesn't accept it will feel that it didn't work in the end."

"That's great!" Minahan now thinks whatever Ronald says is an advanced move.

In the end, Ronald's love affair with Kelly and Tornado only left some room for ambiguity, allowing viewers who sensed his hint to retain a sense of hope, while those who were not aware of it slipped away quietly.

At the end of the editing, I added ice t and some music with a strong rhythm as the soundtrack. Anyway, their music licensing is not expensive, and Ronald took care of it one by one.

In the final working copy, some ambiguous plots were deleted, leaving only eighty-seven minutes.

"Just right. With the end credits, we can make up ninety minutes. It just meets the theater requirements." Ronald stretched.

"The subtitles take more than a minute? Why? Isn't one minute enough?" Minahan didn't understand.

"How can you finish it in one minute?" Ronald didn't understand either.

"Producer, director, starring, then the main technical work director of photography, art director..., and the main supporting roles." Minahan counted with his fat fingers.

"What about the casting director, the members of the various technical teams, and the extras? For example, the hand man Eddie Rodriguez..." Ronald also felt strange that these people were not wanted.

After communicating for a while, Ronald finally understood that unlike the situation in Hollywood where there are many labor unions, Israeli and European films generally only list the main creative personnel, and ordinary staff are not included in the list.

"This is not okay," Ronald insisted on putting everyone's names on the list. He recalled the feeling when he saw his name on the subtitles for the first time. All these staff members would watch the subtitles intently when watching a movie.

"Also, I would like to express my special thanks to MJ. He is not an actor, so his friendly guest appearance can only be included in the special thank you gift. The hand man must also be on the list. Without him, I would not have proposed filming this movie."

"It's all up to you." Minahan agreed to all the conditions.

The low-budget production didn't have the money to hold previews, so critics from all over the country were invited to watch an internal preview. Ronald simply asked Minahan to recruit a group of students from universities in Los Angeles to directly test the results as an audience.

7017k

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