Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Iron your clothes, press your pants."

Early the next morning, Ronald got up and ironed his shirt and trousers. Talking about ironing tips from Aunt Karen. Shirts should be dragged back and forth with the iron; iron pants should not be dragged back and forth, but should be fixed in one place and pressed for ironing.

Putting the iron aside, he picked up his trousers and slipped them on, and looked in the full-length mirror by the living room door. The trousers were neatly lined. Ronald put away the iron, a movable ironing board fixed to the wall at one end, and the ironing board bounced back into the closet and became part of the wall.

The design of this apartment is mainly for young couples who have just started a family, and the living facilities are complete. However, this kind of ironing is usually done by housewives in America, and it is still a bit strange for a big man to do it. Aunt Karen had to go to work every day, and Donna was very young, so she taught Ronald to do housework.

Take a hot shower after exercising in the morning, shave, take sliced ​​bread from the fridge and throw it in the toaster. Now that the bread is baked and pops out, Ronald is served with sliced ​​tomatoes, a few slices of pickled cucumbers, squeezed with salad dressing, and cut the bread into two triangles.

Touching his smooth chin, Ronald tucked his shirt into the belt. Ronald still hopes that there will be a gentle and beautiful woman to do this for himself in the future.

It doesn't taste as good as Aunt Karen's, but it's better than freshly made, and it's not worse than the $1.50 McDonald's breakfast with black tea. After eating two sandwiches that I made myself, I tidied up my appearance and set off to watch the demo at New Century Productions.

The office of New Century Productions is in North Hollywood, not far from the Walk of Fame. Ronald drove into the company.

The office is a small two-story building. The exterior walls on the left and right sides of the gate are painted brick red and ivory white respectively, which is very elegant. There are four metal numbers 1607 on the gate, which is the house number of the company.

Maybe the boss is trying to save money, and there is no company logo or name, indicating that this is a peculiar company that produces 15 low-cost exploitative films a year and makes money.

After saying hello to the beauty at the front desk, Ronald went to the assistant to the president, Gail. I knocked on the door of the best office on the corner of the second floor.

Gail, who was sitting in the secretary seat outside, was chatting with Jim, looking up to see Ronald, Gail happily walked out from behind the desk: "Ronnie, you seem a little different today, you look a bit like the movie Superman, handsome. Roger will be late, I'll watch your dailies with Jim later."

Jim winked at him from the side.

"No, it's because I came early." Maybe it's because of shaved, so handsome? Ronald thought.

Ronald motioned for Gail and Jim to continue without greeting him, and then went around the company by himself. Go out the door and look around along the corridor. After filming started, it was the first time I came to the office. Ronald used to work in the writer's room on the first floor and rarely went to the second floor.

On the walls on the second floor are various movie posters directed or produced by Roger Coleman. Ronald quickly found what Roger had said yesterday, his only loss-making film, "Invaders." A white man with a big head and a thick neck was looking in the mirror in front of a cigarette vending machine. Ronald looked a little familiar, and he looked for it in the starring column below the poster, and it turned out to be William Shatner. Captain Kirk of the spaceship Enterprise on the hit sci-fi TV series "Star Trek."

Continuing to walk forward, I saw a movie poster "Death Speed ​​2000" with the very name of killing Matt, the poster with its mouth crooked, holding a machine gun and killing, isn't it a phenomenal movie from the previous year, " Rocky" actor Stallone?

Ronald couldn't help laughing out loud. This kind of exploitative film, which looks like a low-cost movie, must have been made before Stallone became famous, otherwise Roger Coleman couldn't afford it. But his ability to find talent is really great. If this movie is released now, Stallone's fame alone will make a lot of money.

The doors of the rooms on both sides were closed.

Inside is the editing room. Ronald knew that the two editing studios were staffed 24 hours a day, almost 365 days a year. With 15 films a year, the editing workload was huge.

Turning the corner, just as he was about to go down the stairs, an unfamiliar voice came over.

"Roger, we've paid $2,500 for the rights to a remake of 'Midnight,' so we can start shooting our airplane comedy."

"Wow, that's pretty cool. You finish the second set of 'High School of Rock' and you're ready to look for investment."

This is the voice of Roger Coleman. Ronald stopped, it was a little rude to eavesdrop on someone else's speech. But the man really spoke quickly and urgently, as if he was going to quarrel with Roger, and Ronald was a little embarrassed to go out now.

"Hey, Roger, find someone else to do the filming, we've already got the investment, and we're going to make a movie at Paramount, one of the eight major studios." The unfamiliar voice got excited, "You know yesterday we were in Who did Paramount meet? Michael Eisner. Michael Fxcking Eisner. And his general Jeff Katzenberg."

"Paramount will give us money, big budget. Do you know how much it can be? Three hundred, Fxcking, half a million. More than the 12 films of New World combined in a year."

"There's absolutely no need to yell, Jerry. A contract is a contract. I don't understand why you're in such a hurry to go to Paramount, the prep period for the big studios is going to be long. As long as you shoot for me for five more days, you'll be fine. Finish the second set of photography, and then you'll never have to make a movie for me."

"Okay, okay, Roger. You see, David, Jim, and I, we've been working on this movie for 5 years, and now that Michael Eisner has nodded, we also need to work with their writers, in Rewrite the script in two weeks until Katzenberg gives the green light."

"Can you imagine? Me and David, Jim, this is the moment when our three dreams come true, you won't let us kiss our five-year dream goodbye?"

"Then who will complete your filming tasks? Jerry, this is a matter of principle, and you should learn a little from it, to respect the spirit of the contract."

"Why not let Joe Dante do it? He's always with Alan, and you could have him take over the second set. Please."

"Okay, I'll think about it, let's see last week's dailies first."

"OK, Roger, we've done a lot of shooting for the second set, and there's only a little bit of finishing touches in the end..."

Ronald heard the footsteps of Roger Coleman and the man named Jerry leaving and went to the left, which should be the direction of the conference room on the first floor. So he went downstairs slowly.

After drinking a cup of instant coffee at the front desk, I finally saw Roger Coleman walking out with that Jerry, ready to go to the screening room on the other side.

"Good morning, Mr. Coleman."

"Ah, you've already arrived, just in time, help me move the dailies to the screening room." Then Roger picked up the front desk phone and dialed Gale, "Gail, come to the screening room, we're about to start."

Ronald and the projectionist took the dailies into the first-floor projection room, which was followed by a narrow staircase that led to a small projection room. Ronald hurried downstairs as the projectionist put the film into the projector, turned it on, and the cooling fan hummed loudly.

When I came out, I saw Roger talking to a middle-aged beauty in a professional suit.

"Ronnie, let me introduce, this is my wife Julie. Julie, this is the talented young man I told you, Ronald Lee."

"Hello, Mrs. Coleman." Ronald hurriedly stepped forward to say hello.

The proprietress Julie Coleman is also a producer of New World. Like Roger, she is a highly efficient producer. I heard that she manages 5 production crews and has to take care of 3 children at home. Iron Lady.

The couple sat down on the sofa in the middle of the screening room. Ronald took a seat behind Roger's side.

A few more people walked in, Gail and Jim, who took a seat behind Ronald. Then there's the "High School of Rock" producer, who takes the seat right in front of Ronald and the vacant seat on the other side of Roger.

Roger Coleman moved closer to the producer, and the two began to whisper, and Ronald heard a little,

"...I haven't seen Mr. Eisner at all...3.5 million is real"

Another small man came in, and he sat on the other side, far from Roger Coleman, on purpose.

"Who is this?" Ronald asked Gale.

"The second-team director of Rock High, Jerry Zucker."

It turned out that he was Jerry Zucker, the same Jerry who had just argued with Roger Coleman. He and the producer of "High School of Rock" went to meet with people from Paramount yesterday to discuss the new film cooperation. They were not on the set, otherwise Ronald would not have come to film.

Joe Dante came in last, and he closed the door.

Ronald and Joe said hello, Joe smiled and nodded, it seemed that he was in good spirits, and the coffee at the police station was okay.

"Show yesterday's dailies first," said Roger Coleman.

Gale motioned to the projectionist to start the show.

The lights went out, and a strong light shot out from the projection room behind. Ronald couldn't help but sit up straight, feeling uneasy. It was the first time he saw a clip of himself on the screen.