Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Oh...oh..."

At New York's Giants Stadium, Ronald gathered about twenty extras to act as spectators in one side of the seats, surrounding Billy Crystal and Bruno Kirby, who played his best friend Jess. .

In a place that cannot be captured by the camera lens, a huge speaker is playing various live sounds recorded during the game.

The shooting conditions given by the Giants are still very harsh. They cannot interfere with the game broadcast and can only shoot during the broadcast commercial period. And it is impossible for the on-site audience to fully cooperate. During the short shooting time, if the audience finds out that the film is being filmed and watches, the entire filming will be ruined.

Therefore, Ronald thought about it and came up with the Roger Corman shooting method. The second team was asked to take some overhead shots of the game and shots of the audience having sex in their seats.

The current shooting is to use a medium shot to cleverly integrate the scene where the protagonists Harry and Jess are watching the Giants game, talking about Harry's divorce, into the lively atmosphere of watching the game.

"Oh..." came another voice, and all the extras stood up one after another. Harry and Jess also stood up and did the Mexican wave that is very popular in sports competitions.

Unlike the surrounding audience who were eagerly paying attention to what was going on inside the field, Harry and Jace's focus was not on the game, but on the conversation between them.

Harry recounted his wife Helen's carefully planned divorce move. The day after Harry's birthday, Helen packed her things in the morning and told Harry she no longer loved him.

What was even more annoying was that immediately after Helen said this, three workers from the moving company came to ring the doorbell. After repeated questioning, Harry learned that his wife had booked a moving date a week ago.

After asking why she didn't bring it up earlier and why she wanted to attack suddenly, Helen told Harry that she just didn't want Harry to have a happy birthday.

Helen said she could move into a friend's vacated apartment and they would be considered separated during this time. Harry didn't believe these words and followed the moving company quietly. Sure enough, Helen finally went to the house of a tax lawyer. She had already moved on to another man, and the man was still bald!

This was a scene designed by Ronald. While everyone was watching the game enthusiastically, Harry was the one who couldn't fit in at all and felt lonely and sad.

The saddest sadness and loneliness is not to cry quietly at home alone, but to pretend that you are the same as everyone else in a place where everyone is busy, but in fact, you are closing your wounded heart.

This kind of shooting method,

It does not directly give the audience a feeling of loneliness, but creates a scene that is beyond reality and allows them to feel how pitiful Harry is.

In real life, it is impossible for us to discuss these emotional issues with friends while the audience is enthusiastically having sex. The decibels at the scene make this kind of discussion impossible.

But this is a romantic comedy movie, which allows some plots to be slightly larger than life. The audience will not delve into these details, but will convey what the creator wants to convey because of this slightly dramatic arrangement. The character's state of mind and feel comfortable.

"Cut!"

Ronald was very satisfied with the performance of both actors. He shot a few more shots, and asked the extras to try a few more cheers and waves to accumulate material for editing.

As for the real game scenes and the cheers from the audience for the Giants' offense, Ronald was handed over to Emil Adolino to shoot.

Emil had completed the preliminary editing of "The Reincarnation of the Pretty Man" and came over to help Ronald with the second-unit shooting. It was a bit difficult for an ordinary second-unit director to shoot such scenes, so he took the initiative to come over and help complete a few scenes.

Ronald took Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan with him to film the next two-person scene. On the shooting list, the next few weeks will be full of scenes between the two of them.

Harry and Sally, two old friends who were both facing the breakup of their long-term partners, met again by chance. This part of the play will allow the audience to accumulate a good impression of the two protagonists while watching it. They are both sincere people who are sincere to each other and truly accompany each other when they are sad.

Therefore, the two talked about everything, on the phone, meeting on weekends, listening to each other's vents, etc...

The relationship between the two quickly became intimate, but there was no desire between men and women, and they became rare intimate friends of the opposite sex.

…

"I still feel it's not synchronized here, we have to reshoot..."

To show that two men and women have a mutual affection for each other on the screen, the audience can feel that they are a couple full of tacit understanding. The most important thing is not the expressions or the lines, but the synchronization of the actors' rhythm.

Human beings are born with the talent to distinguish the opposite sex with whom they have a mutual affection. They can also use intuition to judge whether two men and women have an intimate relationship with high accuracy. It relies on a kind of mirror neuron in our brain, which can sense and imitate the rhythm of the other party.

Maybe it's just a few tenths of a second, the synchronization of the two people's movements, the closeness and inseparability of their relationship, all the audience can feel it on the screen.

Moreover, this is not a TV series, but a big-screen movie. The synchronization between movements, expressions, lines, and even postures is magnified countless times.

Whether "When Harry Met Sally" can win the love of the audience depends largely on whether the two protagonists are in sync for a few tenths of a second.

What was filmed today was a scene where Harry and Sally talked to each other before going to bed at night. This kind of phone call scene dates back to the late 1950s, when the famous actress Doris Day and the male star Rock Hudson, who died of an illness caused by a mysterious virus a few years ago, starred in "Pillow" Talk)", there is a standard shooting method.

It means splitting the screen left and right, and then shooting each character holding a phone separately. Finally, using editing, the close-ups of the two characters are spliced ​​together on one screen.

Ronald also adopted this method at first, shooting a front-reverse shot without an over-the-shoulder shot. While Meg Ryan was lying in bed talking on the phone, Billy Crystal was standing on the other side of the room talking to her, and vice versa.

But with this method of shooting twice, there will always be subtle differences between the two performances. As mentioned before, after the splicing, the synchronization between the two protagonists in a few tenths of a second was broken.

When Ronald looked at the dailies, he found that he couldn't achieve complete synchronization, so he had no choice but to reshoot this section.

The props department took care of the set and took advantage of the filming weekend to build the same bed and floor in the studio as the interior of the apartment where Harry and Sally lived.

Fortunately, Ronald's previous filming went smoothly and he didn't waste too much time on this reshoot. Meg Ryan went back to reunite with her boyfriend, while Ronald spent the weekend with his family in their Fifth Avenue apartment.

Going back to Staten Island was a waste of time, so both Aunt and Donna came to Manhattan to have dinner with Ronald.

"Ding dong..."

The doorbell rang, and Ronald opened the door and saw little Douglas.

"Why are you here again?" This guy keeps running to his family gatherings recently.

"Donna, Karen..." Little Douglas greeted the two of them and pulled Ronald aside.

"Did you see tonight's campaign ad?"

"no, what happened?"

It was Donna again, who took the remote control and turned on the TV, tuning to the NBC New York local channel.

“Did Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis veto minimum sentences for drug dealers?

Was it vetoing the death penalty (stopping executions in Massachusetts)?

Does his "revolving door" policy allow those felons who are not eligible for parole for life to go home for the weekend?

Since the adoption of this policy, a total of 268 serious criminals have escaped from prison. Many of them have committed serious crimes such as rape and assault outside the prison, and some are still being hunted.

Dukaski said he wanted to do what he did for Massachusetts again for people across the United States.

The people of America don’t want this…”

"Is this true? Let these felons without bail go home for the weekend?" Even Aunt Karen felt outrageous.

Ronald and Douglas Jr. went to the study and hung up the phone with George Jr.

Little George on the other end of the phone told the truth, "This is Jeb's final attack. In fact, it's not that simple. This policy was not adopted by Dukakis, and he abolished it before the primary election." .

It's probably similar to the previous attack and won't have any effect. The communication-themed advertisement led by Roger Ailes and I will be launched next week. Then you will see how your strategy helped my father win the election. "

"Let me tell you, how could Dukakis be so stupid? What if you let the murderers out for the weekend and they run away to commit other serious crimes?"

"Indeed, the governor shouldn't be so stupid," said little Doug.

It was getting late, so Douglas Jr. found a room in Ronald's double-story high-rise villa to spend the night.

The next morning, Ronald, who got up early, had Aunt Karen's loving breakfast. The love of his family turned into a familiar taste, which made Ronald feel very happy. It was much more comfortable than those expensive breakfasts in five-star high-end hotels.

"Good morning, Ronnie... Morning, Doug..." Donna, who yawned, also got up to have breakfast, and greeted little Douglas across the corridor who had also just gotten up.

"George and Dukakis' attitude toward crime:"

When the morning news on the TV reached the commercial break, a campaign advertisement appeared on the screen. American voters saw this advertisement for the first time.

“George took a tough-on-crime approach and supported the death penalty for first-degree murder.

Dukakis not only opposes the death penalty, but also gives murder criminals weekend vacation passes...

One of them was named Willie Horton..."

A typical mug shot of a black man with a thick chin appears on television. At first glance, it looks like it was taken when one was arrested and imprisoned.

As a photographer, Ronald also saw that the contrast of this photo was adjusted in the darkroom, and the black shadows were deliberately enhanced, making the person named Willie Horton darker and with a full beard. has some aggressive characteristics.

"Willie Horton killed a gas station clerk and stabbed him 19 times. He should have been in prison for life, but Dukakis gave him a ten-time weekend getaway card. He took advantage of the weekend getaway and escaped to Maryland, where he attacked a couple, stabbed the husband and raped the wife, such was Dukakis' attitude toward crime..."

Ronald and Douglas Jr. looked at each other... Is there really such a stupid thing?

"This is so disgusting. How can such criminals be allowed to leave jail for the weekend without supervision? This kind of murder has human rights, so who is going to protect the rights of the poor wife and what about the safety of women?"

Now even Donna, who originally supported the governor of Massachusetts, couldn't help but oppose him.

"I'm going to Washington, D.C...." Little Douglas knew that this was a moment of major change, so he quickly picked up the orange juice, took a sip, and took his coat to leave.

"Here you go, take the sandwich with you and eat it..." Donna handed over a sandwich made by her mother.

"Is this true?" Ronald later asked private attorney Lindsay Dole for confirmation.

"Yes, what happened last year was that the state of Maryland finally sentenced Willie Horton to two life sentences and rejected the extradition request from Massachusetts. This matter actually had a big impact in the legal community and involved extradition between states. case, but the public did not know much about it before.

Only the "Lawrence Eagle" in Massachusetts reported this case in series, and finally won the Pulitzer Prize..."

Ronald hung up the phone. It turned out that Dukakis canceled the weekend arrangements for felons to go home during the primary election because of these Eagle News reports.

Now George Sr.'s strategy is likely to work, and Dukaski's approval rating may plummet. But little George is not going to be happy. In the competition for favor, he will now clearly lag behind Jeb.

However, Ronald put himself in his shoes and thought about it. Once this kind of thing gets fermented, the opponent's support rate will drop, but it is still uncertain whether Old George's support rate will rise.

Attacking the other party can only lower his approval rating and make voters who might have voted for Dukakis not vote. If you want to win, you have to win over voters who are likely to vote for George Sr.

After all, America’s general election does not require voters to vote. These attack ads affect voters who are undecided about whether to vote for Dukakis. It is very likely that even if they do not vote for Dukakis, they will not vote for George Sr.

Ronald had no time to care about the ups and downs of the election, so he continued to shoot the rearranged bedtime phone scene.

This time, Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan were lying on their own beds, separated by a wooden board, and a camera was pointed at them.

They were both talking on the phone, but could actually hear each other's voices.

“Ingrid Bergman, she’s a low-maintenance girl.” Harry said.

Sally and Harry, both suffering from insomnia because their partners left them, were watching the late-night broadcast of "The Spy" on the TV station and were discussing the role of Ingrid Bergman.

"Low maintenance?" Sally didn't understand.

"Yes, there are two kinds of girls, one is very demanding and the other is not demanding."

“Is Ingrid Bergman low maintenance?”

"Absolutely low maintenance"

"What kind of person am I?" Sally wondered.

"You are the worst kind. It is high cost, but you think it is low cost."

"Really? I don't think so" Sally didn't believe it.

"You don't think so? I want a chef's salad, but not the standard dressing. I want balsamic vinegar and olive oil, but don't put them in beforehand, put them on the side of the salad..."

"Um……"

…

The two actors no longer perform separately, but enter the camera at the same time, so that they can be very synchronized in rhythm. The two talked about their respective emotions and why Ingrid Bergman didn't stay with Humphrey Bogart at the end. Sally's views have changed a lot from her ten years ago. She no longer believes that Ingrid Bergman should be the first lady of the Czech Republic, but should be with her beloved.

"Good night……"

The two actors put down their phones almost simultaneously, and a smile appeared on Meg Ryan's face.

"Cut!"

"This is perfect." Ronald was very satisfied with this "low-tech" shooting method, and the two finally got in sync.