Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Exploiting Hollywood 1980 Main Text Volume Chapter 58 Old Friends to the Rescue Once a talented and potential actor finds a suitable role, the creative state he stimulates is extremely valuable.

Ronald carefully took care of everyone's performance status. The biggest difference between the performance status of film actors and theater actors is that there is no way to get real-time feedback from the audience.

When a play is performed in a theater, the audience's reaction will clearly tell the actors how they performed today. He will adjust his performance skills accordingly.

But movie actors actually perform in front of the air. Even if a big company like 20th Century Fox shoots in New York, which has the second-best equipment in the country, you have to wait until the afternoon of the next day to see the developed samples. At that time When I saw something bad in the performance, it was too late to correct it.

The lighting, sound recording, and notes on the scene were all busy with their own affairs. The photographer was a little better than them and could see the performance from the viewfinder, but he had no idea how the scene would be presented in the editing room. There is no way of knowing how well an actor performs.

Only director Ronald, standing behind the camera, is almost the only audience in the world who can see whether the actors are performing well or not.

Therefore, the main actors such as Griffiths, Baldwin, and Cusack habitually looked at Ronald after each scene. As long as they saw him smiling and nodding, and then saying "Great, today" Their performance was great..." and the like made them feel very safe in their hearts, so much so that they didn't care too much about the meaning of "Let's change the performance method and add another insurance" that often followed. .

"Come here, have some baked cookies, my aunt's secret recipe." In order to keep the actors and staff in good condition, Ronald also asked his aunt to send baked cookies. During the break between shooting, share it with everyone.

For a moment, a scent filled the crew, and even the supervisory representative sent by the Screenwriters Guild couldn't help but come over to ask for a few dollars.

"I said, when will your strike plan end? What script are you writing? You can't write the script now, what will you do if you have no income?" Ronald handed the remaining cookies to the female screenwriter whose turn it was today.

The strike has entered its second week. Union members who volunteer to supervise the crew and TV stations will receive some subsidies, but now the TV crews who are writing and filming have basically stopped working.

The TV station took out some old dramas from the past to fill the most precious prime time slot in the evening, leaving only movie crews like Ronald that had already started filming. Therefore, the number of crews that need to be supervised is also very small. There are many people but few seats. New people are rotated in every day.

The female screenwriter is a TV screenwriter,

She swallowed the biscuit in one gulp and took a sip of hot coffee. "Before I went on strike, I had actually found a long-term job in a morning soap opera on NBC. If I continue, maybe this hard-earned job will come back again." It’s going to be wasted.”

"How long do you plan to strike? I think the attitude of the Producers Union has softened. The compensation of 300 million is a bit too much. Let's sit down and discuss a number, and then we will resume happy hours. I have movies to continue shooting, and so do you. Isn’t it great to work in a TV series?”

"Do you know? Director, it is actually illegal for you to discuss the strike with me like this. But your biscuits are delicious, so it doesn't matter if I tell you. Now we are riding a tiger," the female screenwriter said with a smile.

"Actually, I want to accept the conditions to end the strike. Rumor has it that negotiator Walton wants to accept your condition of $50 million in compensation, but many members were so inspired by his previous speech that they really believed that they could With a quota of 300 million, you can also have the right to decide on the casting and director of the script."

"Ah? I, Walton, have the right to decide whether to accept the conditions of the Producers Alliance?"

"In order to win the support of union members, he would not leave him alone until he got the best terms, and reached a private agreement, which stipulated that the union must agree with him before accepting the terms, but accordingly, he also agreed that the terms must be internally reviewed. It just needs to be voted on."

"Oh..." Ronald touched his head. This was troublesome. The lower-level union members were stirred up and really believed that they could get power in Hollywood that top directors and producers did not necessarily have. It seemed that There is no way to reach a compromise in the short term before everyone's energy is exhausted.

The scenes on Staten Island are being filmed here, and the set and props team, led by art director Polly Platt, is setting up the scene for Tess's new office on another floor of the World Trade Center.

Tess's colleague in the old company, the fat little manager Lutz, said that he introduced Tess to a manager in the hedging department who was looking for a new assistant. But in fact, Tess's suspicion was not wrong. This was just a sexual object for the manager.

The hedging department played the most important role in last year's stock market crash. They either made big profits or lost big, with hundreds of millions of wins or losses a day all occurring under the extreme conditions of the stock market crash. For example, the Jew Solo of Tiger Fund almost lost the fund. Later, I used the gossip about the adjustment of the Japanese yen exchange rate to recoup part of the money.

These people are often perverse and violent, and their ups and downs in life make them exaggerated in the relationship between men and women. In search of dopamine, they can do weird things.

According to Ronald’s friend Bannon, these people are more chaotic than Hollywood.

Bob Spike's manager in the script is such a character. The casting director, Julia, finally found an actor who played a recurring supporting role in a prime-time soap opera, which often has characters with facial makeup, and he played a pervert.

After the weekend, filming moved to Manhattan for the new week, and Ronald received bad news. As the Writers Guild's strike continues into its third week, the Federation of Television and Radio Artists, one of the two major actors' unions, is encouraging actors to take a break or seek a second career because TV drama scripts are out of schedule and there are no films to film.

America's TV series are usually filmed and broadcast at the same time, and the scripts are fine-tuned and revised based on weekly audience feedback. Whichever character is popular, write more plots for him. Guest actors can also become recurring supporting actors.

The general strike of the Screenwriters Union has completely bankrupted this shooting model, but the TV drama actors still have contracts, and they do not want to be stuck in a TV series that cannot be filmed, and cannot find other livelihoods.

The Producers Union does not want the other two of the three major unions and the Writers Guild to force themselves to make concessions. The two sides hit it off immediately, and each network announced that the actors could take a leave of their own choice and return to filming after the writers' strike was over.

All of a sudden, all the TV drama actors from the three major public television stations ran away. Some go to theater stages, some go to foreign countries for filming, and many more start working part-time, teaching drama to children in schools or communities.

The actor chosen by Ronald and Julia Taylor was a British man. He happened to get a supporting role in a soap opera in his hometown through connections. He threw away Ronald's guest role here and ran back to work in the camp.

Ronald, who is sitting on the wax here, quickly found Julia Taylor. "Is there anyone else there who is suitable to play the role of a pervert? There's a fire here, hurry up..."

"How about that Kevin talking about stand-up comedy in the bar? Kevin Spacey?"

"Spacey?" Ronald thought of the actor chatting with Alec Baldwin and Alan Rickman next to Broadway's Candy Box Theater. He openly flirted with the waitress in the bar, which was fine in appearance.

"I'll tell him directly what his phone number is." Anxious Ronald didn't even call Kevin Spacey's agent and directly called the actor himself.

"Guesting as a hedge investment manager? I'm very interested. But I'm currently preparing for a play, and the shooting time..." Spacey heard that there was a movie role, and there was nothing he wouldn't do. He is currently preparing to rehearse a new Broadway play and is afraid that he will not be able to spare the time.

"It will only take half a day. I will ask my driver to pick you up and bring you the script. Just tell your agent and ask him to sign the contract for you." Ronald said without waiting for Spacey to speak. Finalize the casting.

The scene was shot in a car, a rented stretch limousine that was set up on Long Island. Renting a stretch luxury car is not only to show the luxury of the hedging department, but also to facilitate the placement of cameras.

I chose Changdao, which is relatively affluent and quiet, because there is less traffic here, making it suitable for repeated travel and shooting. If this scene were shot in Manhattan, the drivers of other vehicles would have to yell at them to stay out of the way, making it impossible to film.

"Cameron, this is your pass." When filming the location, Ronald called Cameron Crowe to the scene to come up with ideas.

Today is an outdoor shooting, so Ronald is not afraid of being caught by the Screenwriters Guild. The Writers Guild, which has been on strike for more than two weeks, has yet to reach an agreement. Those who took the initiative to supervise the crew in the first place have begun to become discouraged. When we were on location today, they didn't follow us.

"This section needs to be modified for the lines of the manager Bob Spike. I need a particularly marginalized character. He is the kind of manager who the audience knows will do obscene and inappropriate things. You can follow the instructions of Tiger Fund Make it up like Luo."

The actors were changed, and Ronald decided to have Crowe rewrite his lines to be more suitable for Kevin Spacey's dapper pervert. He is different from the soap opera actor. He looks gentle on the surface, but when he opens his mouth, he realizes that he is a pig.

"If it's a pig, you have to hump it..." Cameron Crowe was inspired and wrote a paragraph in pencil on his writing pad and handed it to Ronald.

"Hahaha, just do it like this..." Ronald was very satisfied.

The luxury car was already in place, the two cameras were set up inside the luxury car, and the recording and lighting were ready. The recorder took out a small slate and tried to type in the car. The clapperboards for close shots and close-ups are specially made, and the actors have to make the clapperboards themselves. Because although the interior of the luxury car is larger than that of ordinary cars, after stuffing the camera crew and sound recording crew, there is no room to cram another recording crew into it.

Everything is ready except actor Kevin Spacey.

"Bud, where have you been?" Ronald was anxious and found a phone to call his driver.

"We are stuck on the road, it will take about twenty minutes." Little Bud replied on the car phone.

"Twenty minutes, you said twenty minutes just now. Hey, hey..." Ronald gave up hope on the traffic in Manhattan.

"I'm about to enter the East River Tunnel. I'll call you back later." Little Bud's intermittent voice came, and then completely stopped.

Ronald didn't know if the traffic jam would extend to Long Island, so he walked around the set anxiously. This kind of temporary change of actors is really annoying. The staff on the set were a little afraid to speak. It was the first time since the filming started that Ronald was so angry.

"Director, don't worry, should we make another backup plan?" Today, only Melanie Griffith and the crew came to shoot, and everyone else was on holiday. As an actor in the crew, she was the only one who dared to come up and persuade her.

"Backup plan?" Ronald repeated her words, but the anxiety in his heart had not subsided. "Cameron, come on. I remember you were an actor?" Ronald looked around. Only Cameron Crowe, who came to the rescue to change the script, had not appeared in the scene, and his appearance matched the script. image of.

"Me? I did become an actor." Cameron Crowe saw Ronald actually mentioning his name. He didn't dare to say that he had only been an actor in the university drama club, and his subsequent career as an actor was a complete failure.

In order to save the scene, he couldn't say more. He couldn't help but have a wonderful fantasy about the profession of director. He could decide the fate of everyone on the set. If he was chosen by him as a screenwriter, he could act.

"That's good, I won't tell you about the play. You wrote the script yourself, and you will definitely act it. Costume, costume, come and try on Cameron!" Ronald called the costume designer, Crowe's figure It's a little taller than Spacey's, so I need to get a new one.

"This one won't work. Mr. Crowe is too tall." After a while, Crowe fixed his hair, put on his clothes, and came out to show Ronald. The costume designer looked at the effect and found that this suit didn't look like that on him at all. The feeling of a powerful person.

"Go buy it, borrow it, see if there are any boutiques around." Ronald was anxious, and time was passing by little by little.

"Squeak..." There was an urgent brake, and Kevin Spacey, whom Little Bud picked up, finally arrived.

"Sorry, sorry, I just finished rehearsal. There was a traffic accident in Manhattan today. We were stuck in traffic for a long time."

Kevin Spacey quickly apologized to Ronald and the rest of the staff. He came today to do Ronald a favor. It would be bad if it caused trouble instead.

Ronald didn't say anything, but pointed at the suit that the costumer had just taken off Crowe, and asked Spacey to put it on.

The makeup artist and hairstylist rushed over to put makeup on Spacey. On the other side, Ronald handed over a two-page script and asked him what he wanted to ask.

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"Everything is OK." Spacey read it quickly and made a no problem gesture.

"Working Girl Scene . She picked up the clapperboard, typed it at the camera, and then put it under the seat.

"What qualities do you think a good hedging and arbitrage investor needs?" Tess said to manager Bob.

"Well, we went to the hotel room to discuss that." Kevin Spacey lay half-lying, and then twisted the wire on the champagne bottle cap.

"Hotel room?" Tess realized that she was not a real interview assistant. There was a hint of disappointment in Melanie's tone.

"Yes, the company has a long-term private room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. When there are no customers, we can go there... party... oh wow..."

Kevin Spacey's explosive power was so strong that he let out a strange scream and the champagne cork jumped out with a bang when he shook it. He deliberately pushed forward the champagne foam that sprayed out, and it fell on Melanie's clothes.

"Ahh..." Melanie's reaction was also great. Her decent outfit was soaked with champagne... But she couldn't blame the other party, so she could only quickly sweep away the foam with her hands.

"Oooh, sorry, sorry," comes Kevin Spacey's thespian's ability to improvise, as he helps Tess' character start blowing those bubbles. He put his hand on Melanie's abdomen, and then like a fat pig, he used his mouth to push it up.

"Bob!" Tess yelled, which was over the line.

Seeing that Melanie was about to have an attack, Kevin Spacey quickly let go of his mouth, then brought the champagne bottle to his mouth and took a sip, and immediately went back to the words, "Sorry, you know, hedging arbitrage The department has made a simple introductory textbook for training business school graduates. Why don't I play the videotape if you have any questions..."

"That's good..." Tess thought to herself, maybe Bob was just a little impatient and still wanted an assistant...

"Ah...ah...", the videotape that Spacey put into the car TV began to jump out of the screen. The above is not a hedging arbitrage textbook at all, but a confession video, in which a man and a woman are having sex in an outdoor swimming pool...

"Hahahaha...that's the wrong video, unless of course you want to see this..." Spacey's frantic borderline temperament came into play, and the serious financial elite who was just now turned into a pervert in an instant.

"Bob, are you really looking for an assistant?" Melanie Griffith's tone made the audience feel that this was not the first time she had encountered this kind of harassment.

"Well... not now, but I will always open the door to those who are hungry, as long as they are willing..." The Bob played by Spacey is indeed and suitable for his own temperament, he can talk nonsense, and he is very Can make people believe him.

"Bob, I'm very horny, but not that kind of horny..." Tess doesn't want to exchange her body for opportunities. If she is willing, it's not like she has never done so before. She wants to truly be a manager and have the ability to do a good job. kind of position, not a vase of vassalage for a man.

"I'm sorry, can you pull over here?" Griffiths said to the camera. When the audience sees this segment, they will feel that she is talking to the driver.

Then Griffiths picked up the champagne and shook it several times. Champagne foam spurted out and sprayed all over Spacey's face.

"Hahaha, your party, Bob."

"Cut!" Seeing Spacey's embarrassment, Griffiths was about to open the door and go out, but Ronald stopped.

The two actors performed this scene very well. Ronald didn't want to shoot it again because Spacey's suit was soaked and his hair and makeup were ruined by champagne. It would take a lot of time to shoot it again.

"Thanks, Kevin, it was a great show today."

"I had a great time playing it. I'll give it a bigger role next time..." Kevin Spacey laughed. It's always good to let Ronald owe a favor.

Ronald owed more than one favor, and the actress originally scheduled for the next scene also left. Ronald immediately had to ask for help from his old friend Olympia Dukakis, who played the mother in "Moonlight".

Dukakis was in Boston, heard the call, and without a word came in to play the role of manager of an employment agency.

"Why are you in Boston? I thought you were in Los Angeles for public relations?" Ronald was puzzled that she did not continue public relations for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and came to the east.

"Didn't you read the newspaper? My cousin Michael, the governor of Massachusetts, has announced his candidacy for the office of governor. I'm here to give him a platform and gain some space."

"Huh? Oh", Ronald really didn't know this. In fact, this cousin Michael Dukakis and Olympia are not the kind of cousins ​​who are close. Michael Dukakis is the second descendant of Greek immigrants in the United States to become governor.

After he took office in 1983, the Massachusetts economy experienced a strong recovery. The unemployment rate dropped from more than 12% in 1975 to less than 3%. Tax revenue also increased due to the incubation of high-tech enterprises at Harvard and MIT. A great increase.

But unlike Deputy Commander George, his cousin is the governor of the Donkey Party.

"Whatever, I won't let go of any exposure opportunities now. I would rather overdo it than regret it." Olympia Dukakis understands very well that this may be the best opportunity in her life to win the statuette. .

"It's hard to say Oscar, but you have my vote." Ronald was still very satisfied with the actor.

"Tess, Tess, Tess, you don't get a promotion by calling the manager a pimp." Olympia Dukakis' makeup is completely different from that of the housewife in "Moonlight", who is dressed up Her hair was blond and had a very professional hairstyle. Two earrings set with black stones set in gold, paired with bland lipstick and light spots, and a white shirt with large lapels are another typical powerful outfit, a favorite of professional women.

"But he is just a pimp." Griffiths felt that he was wronged.

"Look, this is the third time I've found a job for you in six months." Dukakis acted like a senior manager of an employment agency.

"I'm thirty years old. I spent a long time getting a night school diploma. I can do this job well. Ask my previous managers, or even Lutz, can they say that Tess made a mistake at work? ?”

"I don't think they will say anything good for you." Dukakis shook his head slightly. The character of Tess is very interesting. Although she is thirty years old, she is still very childish in some places.

She looked at the computer on the other side and pretended to type a few keys, "There is a job here. The manager has just been transferred from Boston. The M\u0026A department is called Parker. He will work on Monday."

"Thanks"

"Tess," Dukakis handed over the information and emphasized, "You go home and calm down. This is the last time I can help you. If you mess up again this time, you will strike out." ”

"Cut!" Ronald was really satisfied with the performances of these theater actors, which were smooth once they were familiar with how to perform in front of the camera.

"Hahaha, I will vote for you." Melanie Griffiths and Dukakis have a great sense of acting together, and their reactions to each other are great regardless of time and emotional intensity. "You want to Please order some biscuits, the director’s secret recipe is delicious.”

"Oh, that's right. The last time I filmed for him, they didn't have this." Olympia Dukakis ate several cookies that Ronald brought.