Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Mr. Mancuso gave you two a chance, don't let him down."

Chris and Billy are editing partners who work together. They were brought in by Paramount to make a preliminary cut of the footage Ronald had shot.

"What happened to this hapless Ronald? Why is he now being denied access to the editing room?"

"I heard that he kept Mancuso from coming to power. After the accident, he was retaliated against. It's none of our business anyway, just do your own thing."

The two of them are purely technical. After getting the business, they began to move the demos that Ronald had shot, starting with the synchronization of audio and video.

"Is there some film missing? Why are there no main shots of the main story line?" Chris looked up and asked his partner Billy after watching more than 30 short rolls of film.

"It seems not, they are all here."

"How to edit this? It's all short shots of five seconds. There is no script or storyboard. We don't even know the story. Did they hide the main footage?"

"Don't worry, here are the scripts handed over by Ronald, as well as the shot logs and forms. You will find it if you search slowly."

"Is this the final version of the script? Why does it only have fifty or sixty pages?" Chris picked up the script and found that there were many blank spaces in it, especially the love scene between the Lone Ranger and Charlie, and some scenes of aerial combat. , there is neither detailed description nor shot drawings.

There is only a sentence like "The Lone Ranger was highly skilled in the air battle, launched an attack, and shot down three hostile MiG-28s", and then attached the time (three minutes) at the end.

"There is nothing missing. Indeed, the film is all here. The time and location of the shooting, the lens position used, and the special effects model of these lenses are also specially written with the word 'special effects' on the printing board, which is consistent with the record book." on."

Billy was also dumbfounded. If you say Ronald was playing tricks with the two producers, they did hand over all the scripts and dailies. If you tell them to be honest, their scripts are very simple. When shooting, they are only short shots of a few seconds, and there is no main shot to explain the overall plot of a scene.

For example, in that three-minute air battle, if there was a main camera that captured how the planes fought, how they approached, and how they got away from it from above, then they could have ideas for editing. Now all the plot is in the director's mind, and only he knows how to connect all the shots.

"What should I do?" The two editors suddenly realized that what they got was not an opportunity.

But a big pot.

"What the hell, let's just cut it according to our own imagination. Maybe the director is just a fool. He has a background in making exploitation films. He shot this kind of aerial combat. Maybe he didn't realize until now that he couldn't make it?"

"That's right, we have to come up with a first-cut version anyway."

The two editors decided to cut according to this script, since no one would watch the air combat scene anyway.

…

"Cindy told me that the MV you shot for her was edited by herself. I have an editing problem here that I need your help to solve." MJ was in the editing room of his "We Are One World" single MV , said softly to Ronald.

Ronald accepted MJ's invitation and went over to watch the MV for his new song "We Are the World" and discuss the editing of the TV special for this single.

Since recording the new song "We Are One World" on that day in January, the results of radio play and radio charts have been very good. The new song entered the top 20 in the first week of the chart, creating MJ's best performance for a new song since "Thriller".

On the night of the recording, MJ arranged for someone to shoot the entire night's material, from rehearsal to finalization, as well as the dozens of big-name singers who participated in the chorus, and their solos were all captured on tape by the camera.

"The main problem now is this. The lead singer with one line must maintain a balanced appearance time during editing, but some people are late, some people refuse to participate after arriving, and MJ's key position, you know."

MJ's manager Frank Dilio, a short, fat man of Italian origin, introduced the situation to Ronald. He also pushed for Ronald to be the one to solve the problem.

"Well, each person has about five seconds of appearance shots, and then they converge into MJ's solo section. That's no problem." Ronald moved back and forth on the editing table to look at the images taken at that time.

"That's where the trouble is back there." Frank DiLeo told him to keep looking.

“Isn’t this Bob Dylan?”

Ronald saw that after the singing parts of more than forty singers had passed, what was left was the singing of a single singer, Bob Dylan, who sang twice as many lyrics as other singers.

"What's going on?" Ronald looked at Dylan's material as if he was the only one in the studio. "And he seems to be a little out of tune?"

"Pfft!" MJ couldn't help laughing. Bob Dylan is an excellent songwriter, but his voice is actually not very good, and his basic singing skills are also lacking.

"So you want to adjust Dylan's singing to the same duration as everyone else, and then highlight the climax of MJ's singing. He is the core of the song, right?"

"You know your stuff." Frank DiLeo laughed and lit a cigar.

"In this way, you can still give each person a shot of singing one line, which is about three to five seconds long for each person. Then smoothly transition to MJ's four lines of lyrics, which appear twice. This part of Dylan's lyrics is supplemented separately. It was recorded, so there is no way to cut it up. We can use fades and picture-in-picture to get close-ups of several other well-known singers, so that we can maintain the balance of appearance time."

Ronald quickly found a way to cleanly solve the editing arrangement problem of more than 40 singers.

"How did you invite so many famous singers to sing at home?" Ronald was surprised. He included Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, and Lionel Lee. Qi and others were singled out for close-ups and given special treatment.

These singers have all been famous for a long time, and they are not necessarily from the same record company as MJ. Although his current album has broken sales records, it seems that inviting these people to come and say a word does not have such great appeal.

"This is a fundraiser for refugees in Africa. There was a severe drought in Africa last year and food shortages occurred in many places. Last year, British singers got together and sang a song called 'Do They Know It's Christmas?' and all proceeds went to the victims. Donate. So our American singers will also collaborate once.

Quincy Jones came up with this idea, let MJ take the lead, and invited Lionel Richie to produce. Then the team grew bigger and bigger, everyone wanted to come in, and finally a total of forty-five singers were invited to sing. "

"That's it," Ronald nodded after listening to Frank DiLeo's explanation. He was very quick and cut the seven-minute song MV.

"Now everyone is arranged according to their positions, distance and distance." MJ was very satisfied. He had four lyrics to himself and repeated them twice. He was the champion of all singers.

"Forty-two, forty-three..." Ronald counted the heads silently, "There are not forty-five people here?"

"Hahaha, Prince gave up on his own." Frank DiLeo laughed wildly. Originally, Prince and MJ were in a competitive relationship, and because he starred in the autobiographical movie "Purple Rain" last year, which was a great success, he has slightly surpassed MJ in the entertainment industry, so this time singing together is reasonable and reasonable. To invite him.

Frank DiLeo ordered someone to put a big sign at the door, "Please leave your ego at the door." Prince, who is known for his huge ego, turned around and left after seeing the sign. This allows MJ to sing alone with two very long lyrics.

"But will the audience be surprised that so many of us are singing together?" MJ became worried again.

"Indeed, I had the same feeling when watching it. I don't know what happened to bring all the popular singers in America together."

Ronald played it back and forth quickly twice, and he discovered that there was an acquaintance in it, Kenny Loggins, who had participated in the bidding for the "Top Gun" episode, and he also sang a solo in this song. Because he wore heavy rock makeup, I didn't recognize him before.

"What should we do?" MJ wanted to do things perfectly.

"You need a storyteller. This kind of short shot of three to five seconds for each person is difficult to naturally form a story that the audience can understand, so you either have to build it piece by piece based on the audience's perception, and slowly refine it until you can tell it. I know the ins and outs of the story, but you don't have enough material here.

Or be lazy and let someone tell the story of donating money to the African victims at the beginning, so that the audience can be immersed in the story. "

"So, what kind of person is better to find to narrate the story?" Frank DiLeo introduced Ronald in order to satisfy MJ's perfectionism tendency and to be more trusted in front of him. After hearing this, I quickly asked Ronald which candidate was better.

"I think you need a star with a good image, preferably a woman. Her public image is best and charitable, peace-loving, and can naturally arouse the sympathy of the audience. "

"Isn't it Jane Fonda you are describing? She is the embodiment of the goddess of peace. Those anti-war films she shot in the 1970s, tsk tsk."

"Ah, yes, she is a good candidate." Ronald agreed.

"Ms. Jane Fonda, I am Frank DiLeo, Michael Jackson's manager, and we would like to ask you to narrate this story at the beginning of a song calling for donations to victims of disasters in Africa."

"Why are you looking for me? I can't even sing." Jane Fonda did not refuse, but she was a little surprised.

"You've been highly recommended here."

"Jane, it's me, Ronald. This music video suits your image very well."

"Oh, hahaha, it's you, Ronald. Okay, I will go, you tell me the shooting address."

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