Exploiting Hollywood 1980

When rehearsing the script, Ronald used the trick he learned from Coppola and asked the actors to use a video recorder to record the entire rehearsal dialogue of the actors. Later in the evening, Ronald watched the video with the director of photography all night long, trying to figure out the problems that would be encountered during the actual shooting.

The problem with this movie is that the dialogue between the many actors must be coordinated. Drama films capture the audience's attention mainly by relying on the tension between the plots, making the audience unconsciously want to know what happens between the characters until the end.

Ronald watched the video overnight, and his biggest takeaway was that the more actors there are in a scene, the harder it is to arrange camera positions and direct the actors to give outstanding performances.

In a scene between two people, as long as the chemistry between the two is good and the emotions are in place, the audience will be moved. But in a scene between three people, there are six times more problems to deal with. The chemical reactions between a and b, between b and c, and between c and a must be in place.

Moreover, when the camera moves between the three characters, it has to be connected accurately, which makes Ronald feel dizzy just thinking about it.

Stanley Shanley, when he wrote the script, did not consider how the movie would present such a complex arrangement of actors. After all, this was his first movie.

Before, Ronald had only dealt with the complex scheduling caused by large props. Such as the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. That kind of machinery, as long as the manufacturer's engineers help, will always find a way to make the big toys move in the camera according to Ronald's ideas.

But the difficulty of managing people is much higher than that of huge machines. How to handle these multi-person scenes is a huge challenge that tests the director's ability.

Another problem is the setting of how many people are shooting. This movie has a lot of indoor scenes. When shooting indoors in a small space and there are more than two people, the shooting position cannot be determined until the scene.

For several rivalry scenes between two or three people, Ronald quickly discussed the appropriate shooting positions with the director of photography David Watkin based on the cooperation of the actors, and then shot the scenes at the scene shot by the art director Philip Rosenberg. Mark it in the photo.

In the entire script, more than 90% of the scenes can be completed with simple designs, but the remaining scenes are very difficult. Ronald, the director of photography and the art director all feel that it is very tricky.

Among them, the two group portrait scenes were the most difficult.

The first scene is a scene in which after her fiancé Johnny successfully proposes to Loretta, played by Cher, Loretta comes to the bakery where her fiancé's long-lost brother Ronnie works and invites him to the wedding. .

This scene is Ronnie played by Nicolas Cage;

Narrative appearance, here requires Nicolas Cage to have an acting breakthrough, so that the audience can quickly get to know the poor man who accidentally cut off half of his hand because he was distracted while talking to his brother.

In this way, the audience will understand his hatred for Ronnie and his sudden love for Loretta.

Not only must the audience fully fall in love with this messy-haired Italian young man, but they must also see that Loretta is very fond of his sudden burst of passion.

If this scene was not shot well and the audience just felt that Cage's Ronnie was boring, then the subsequent scene of Loretta having sex with him under the influence of the super moon would not be convincing.

Therefore, Cage’s almost crazy performance style was in perfect harmony with this scene.

But the difficulty of this scene lies in the fact that it is an open space scene. In the bakery, there is first a female salesperson played by Diane, who leads Loretta, the audience's sight, into the baking room of the bakery.

Then there were two old Italian couples who came to buy bread, and Ronald agreed to have Martin Scorsese's parents make a cameo.

The relationship between the many characters needs to be clearly explained, and the scenes between the two male and female protagonists need to be consistent. No matter in terms of camera movement, camera positioning, or performance, it all puts forward very high requirements.

"My bakery on the corner of 502 Henry Street in Brooklyn, as long as I make a few edits, visual continuity for the audience won't be a problem."

Even so, Ronald was still very worried about the connection and rhythm of multiple actors. He went to the real bakery and watched it through the director's viewfinder for a long time.

Several people were still blocked by several large bread baking ovens and bread fermentation equipment. But if the scene is set up in a studio, this real scene cannot be restored. Especially this shot, there is also a shot of the heroine pushing the door in from the outside in. Real shooting saves countless things compared to setting up the scene in the studio.

If this scene in the bakery only made Ronald worried. Another round table scene that ended with dinner in the kitchen of Loretta's house made Ronald worried all the time, and he was a little resistant instinctively and didn't want to deal with it.

This is 19 Cromberry Street in Brooklyn Heights, a common house in Brooklyn located at the junction of the Italian community and the Irish community. The two-story building, the red exterior walls, and the railings outside the twisted iron gate make it instantly recognizable as Brooklyn.

If Ronald had some ideas in the last scene, he had no ideas at all in this scene.

At first, only Loretta and her mother Rose were talking in the kitchen. Mother Rose saw her daughter falling in love and sighed.

Then the father joined in, and while talking to his daughter about her marriage, his lover was accidentally exposed.

Then Loretta's aunt and uncle came to see the cash she had taken yesterday and not deposited in the bank. The family first joined the extended family discussion, and then the family of Ronnie, who had watched the opera "La Bohème" with Loretta and was smitten with him, came to meet his girlfriend for the first time.

Finally, the old grandfather came down from upstairs and solved his son's affair problem.

Finally, everyone happened to meet Loretta's fiancé, Johnny, who was back from Italy. Because his dying mother regained health after seeing him, Johnny thought he was contaminated by Loretta's bad luck and wanted to break off his engagement with her.

Many characters will appear in the whole scene, many clues will develop here, and finally they will be solved in a super powerful ending.

"How do we arrange the camera position?" Ronald looked at the director of photography. The two looked at each other for a long time, confused.

This scene, and all the scenes, were written by screenwriter Shanley according to the rhythm of a Broadway play. But a movie is not a drama, and it is impossible for everyone to see the whole scene in one shot.

Ronald made sure to put in multiple cameras to capture close-ups of everyone, over-the-shoulder dialogue scenes, and some overall dialogue.

But if the camera angle is slightly wrong, it is inevitable to see other cameras through the camera. The angles are set strictly according to the design. If the actors improvise a little, they will come out of the camera or be brought to other cameras.

Ronald played the videotape of the rehearsal at the scene. He stood left and right, but could never find a suitable route that could take everything into consideration.

Moreover, there are so many characters in this group show, and it is impossible to follow the design strictly according to individual emotions.

If the actors are too concerned about their positioning and angles, the interaction between the actors and the particularly smooth emotions will be destroyed.

In short, are you willing to be a gangster for the sake of a good show? In order to ensure quality, we do not pursue the most believable performance method that is improvisational. Ronald must make a difficult decision.

Finally, David Watkin, the Oscar-winning director of photography for "Out of Africa," spoke.

"Ronald, I think you still need to find the actor's chemistry and the rhythm of the dialogue first, and then we can design the camera location."

"Reason?" Ronald frowned, squatting on the ground, trying to find a camera angle from the long Italian dining table that was parallel to the eyes of the actors sitting at the table.

"Well, this is life. We always have to find something that we can grasp first. Instead of pursuing the best of both worlds, it is better to find one first.

Anyway, your ending scene is mainly the result of the performance between the actors. "

"David, what you said makes sense." Ronald put down the viewfinder, and he understood that what Watkin said was the correct idea.

First, through on-site rehearsal, everyone can reach the best performance condition, and then according to their movements, different camera positions are designed.

However, Ronald's shooting method has always been to shoot through the dream scene and work backwards to the scene.

He always prepared the shots for each scene at the beginning of filming.

For him, this approach of not making separate shots first, but deciding on the shooting and editing details based on the actor's condition at the filming site, always felt a little unsafe.

"Listen to me, Sidney Pollack did this all the time when they were filming, Dustin Hoffman, and Jessica Lange; Meryl Streep, and Robert Redford, Countless times I have seen him shoot for half an hour before he has decided on the camera or location."

David Watkin mentions the two films directed by Sidney Pollack, "My Lady" and "Out of Africa", which were both box office and critical successes.

Neither of these two movies had a big concept, but the plot and the wonderful performances of the actors made the audience immersed in the scene, and finally won the Oscar.

"Just do it like this", Ronald had no choice but to do it. This was a scene beyond his directing experience. What did a wise ancient man say? "If you drive to the front of the mountain, you will definitely

In a blink of an eye, the day of filming began, and Ronald looked at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center at the intersection of Columbia Street and 61st Avenue.

Ronald rented the exterior streets here for a day and a half.

Xueer appears at the beginning of the movie. She is an accountant who works part-time everywhere and prepares taxes for people. In middle age, her husband died in a car accident. In Italian culture, widows are very unlucky, and men who have other choices generally will not have a formal relationship with a widow.

What she came to this time was a small company outside the Metropolitan Opera House, where she worked on filing tax returns for her boss.

The opening shot shows the exterior wall of the opera house with posters for the newly released opera "La Boheme". Trucks from the Italian-controlled Truck Drivers Union were unloading at the back door of the Opera House.

Loretta has gray hair and a weathered face. She looks like a single woman who has to work hard to support herself and has no time to dress herself up.

The part-time flower shop owner finally gave Loretta a bouquet of unsold red roses.

Loretta, played by Cher, looked at the red rose. Although her mouth was unforgiving, she still showed the unique smile of a woman seeing a red rose. She picked up the flower and smelled it first.

"cut!"

On the first day of shooting, Ronald did not arrange particularly difficult shots. He just asked the team and actors to start with easy shots to find out the feeling and get used to the team.

During a break from filming, Cher asked her personal hairstylist to rearrange her gray hair.

Others don't need to bring it, but the hairstylist must bring it.

Cher is proud of her long, black and shiny hair, which she enjoys being cared for by a personal hairstylist anytime and anywhere.

The hairstylist that Ronald hired could not get started. He could only inform the other party of the desired effect and let Cher's personal hairstylist arrange it. Only he can touch Xueer's hair.

Next, there is a transition to a shot of Cher walking on the road outside the opera house wall, like a withered old aunt.

The opera was "La Bohème," the famous opera by Pavarotti, whom Ronald knew. This was the opera that Loretta went to see with Johnny later.

Discover the way over the mountains. "

“David Watkin, Philip Rosenberg, set design.

Julia Taylor, on-set director.

…

Ronald Lee, lightning light operator. "

In addition to the big title "La Bohème" on the poster, the names of the crew also wrote on the poster of the opera in the movie.

Of course, this was an arrangement made by Ronald, so that the staff who could not appear on the scene had an opportunity to proudly point to the screen and shout to their families, "That's my name."

However, the work of these staff members on the crew has been turned into particularly important positions. Make their families happy.

In order to cooperate, Ronald also changed his position to the least noticeable "lightning operator".

While you are keeping quiet for a while, you can also promote your flagship product.

"Say, have you ever worked with Ronald before?"

Cher asked Olympia Dukakis, who plays her mother, during a break between takes.

"No, what's wrong?" Dukakis was surprised. The director's authority on Broadway was even greater, so he had never heard of anyone openly talking about the director behind his back on the set.

"I always feel like I've made a mistake. My last movie, Witches of Easttown, was with Jack Nicholson.

My next film has Liam Neeson and Dennis Quaid as leading actors, both handsome guys. In this drama, look at Nick’s chicken coop. "

"Hahaha..." Dukakis burst out laughing. Nicolas Cage's appearance really looked like a fool. He even wore dentures specifically for the character, typical Italian rotten teeth.

The two played sisters on the set. In fact, the age difference was only a little over ten years, so they got along very well.

"I said, have you acted in Ronald's movies before? I feel like he doesn't really guide our acting." Cher whispered to Dukakis. This was the issue she wanted to really explore. .

"No, but the director is the person who knows a script the most. We just need to cooperate with the director and play the character's reaction well." Olympia Dukakis is an old-school Broadway style, and the director is always right.

"I'm afraid that we made a bad movie. My performance is not as thoughtful as the last movie. Every shot has a special design. Here it seems that I acted casually and Ronald also shouted."

Dukakis shrugged helplessly. This was also where she was a little dissatisfied with Ronald. He didn't have every shot carefully crafted. It seems like just a casual performance can meet his requirements.

"It's very good. Your directing method is really natural. Cher hardly needs to act too much. Your casting is really great, and the effect of the true performance is very good."

On the other side, the photographer David Watkin praised Ronald highly, praising him as worthy of being a disciple of Scorsese. When making a movie, casting is a hundred times more important than acting.

This is Scorsese's creed. If there is no composite candidate, he would rather not shoot.

"Hahaha, I also think Julia Taylor's level is very high."

"Hey hey, this is a marble wall here, imported from Italy, tell your people to be careful," the manager of the Metropolitan Opera said when he saw Ronald's staff and started tearing off the posters on the wall. Mind you, the tape they used to secure the poster seemed to leave an ugly mark on the marble.

"How could this happen? Don't you know that different tapes need to be used on different walls to avoid leaving marks?" Ronald pulled the head in charge of the props over and asked him what was going on.

"The Metropolitan Opera is just making a fuss out of a molehill. That's what we've always done. If there's anything that needs cleaning, isn't it already included in the rent?"

"In this case, you make a phone call." Ronald suddenly had an idea in his mind, and he asked the head of the props team to find Daydream's prop expert.

In a hardware chain store, they discovered that different tapes were needed to deal with different materials. Anyway, this is a small market. As long as you purchase tapes with similar raw materials, produce specific tapes, and put your company's brand on them, movie studios like Hollywood will definitely like seeing the tapes classified into different categories.

In such a small market, one's own production capacity can be supplied to everyone, and the price is slightly higher, which can also make those high-purchasing managers happy.

Anyway, editing tape is also a tape, and prop tape is also a tape. Maybe it can be turned into a small monopoly business.

Soon, the staff of Daydream sent different labeled tapes with the logo cut out and divided into categories. After the props group used it, it turned out to be very easy to use. When dismantling the set, just peel it off.

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