Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"I don't have any experience, all I have are lessons..."

In the cutting room in Los Angeles, Cameron Crowe shook his head and smiled wryly as Ronald asked him about his advice on TV screenwriting.

Although he cooperated with CBS in 1986 to turn Ronald's directorial debut "Fast-paced Richmond High School" into a TV series, it was canceled after only seven episodes aired.

"Ha, is there anything I can understand?"

Ronald still knows this old partner very well. Crowe's first film has just been filmed, and he still has a lot to learn about post-editing and sound design. Now Crowe is in the process of being in awe of the filmmaking process. He will not get used to the requirements of directors in this industry until his first film is completed and released.

Even if you don't have confidence, act confident.

"Well, the biggest lesson is to put the most exciting content in the pilot episode. In my two pilot episodes, I took too much care of the whole and did not show enough content to attract fans."

Crowe paused the music on the editing table and came over to chat with Ronald about his failed TV series experience.

TV dramas are different from movies, usually filming and broadcasting at the same time. In this way, the progress of one episode per week cannot be relied on the production speed of the film at all. Therefore, the directors of each episode are usually different, and they are staggered from each other, so that there is enough preparation time for shooting and editing.

The screenwriters and directors of each episode are different, and the actors receive training from different scripts and directors. In order to produce a consistent style, someone must be in charge of the style of all the episodes, so as to ensure the consistency of the quality of the TV series.

Cameron Crowe played such a role in the fast-paced project of the TV version. But he was inexperienced and didn't have a lot of experience as a director, so he made a lot of mistakes. As a result, the ratings have been declining from the high point at the beginning of the broadcast, and the seventh episode was cut in half after the broadcast.

According to Crowe, the biggest mistake he made was not cramming the first two pilot episodes with the funniest stuff.

In this way, because of the movie version directed by Ronald, the audience flocked to find that the core of the character has changed, and they were very disappointed. Except for the surfer Spiccoli played by Sean Penn in the original version, none of the other characters are as distinctive as the movie version, and the show was abandoned after watching a few episodes.

But viewers of TV dramas who haven't watched the movie can still watch it. The TV series is more or less a gossip romance drama of high school students, with many interesting plots. But gradually after the fifth episode, the plot lacks many famous scenes in the movie version. The ratings dropped all the way and never rose again.

"I only realized after filming "Love to the Depths" that those actors are not bad at acting. For example, we played Linda in "Back to the Future" Marty's girlfriend Jennifer Parker's Claudia Wells... But several screenwriters and directors had conflicts with her role design, and the final performance before and after Separation..." After Crowe became a film director, looking back at his early work, he suddenly became more enlightened.

In short, when filming a TV series, I would rather be mediocre than polish certain moments like filming a movie. On the contrary, TV dramas should try to avoid arranging those more difficult single scenes, because this will cause the actors to perform poorly due to acting troubles, which will affect the already tense shooting schedule.

It seems that the production process of TV dramas and movies determines that the shooting of the two is not the same thing at all. Ronald felt that it was still necessary to find a professional to do this.

"Ronald, let me show you something..."

After talking about the TV series, Cameron Crowe took a tape from the drawer, and on the editing table, he rewound to a scene and showed it to Ronald.

A particularly beautiful picture appeared on the monitor. The actor played by John Cusack held up a Toshiba dual-card dual-speaker radio recorder with both hands, and played it in the yard in front of the heroine played by Helen Slater. Singing songs, trying to win back her heart.

"That's great, you shot it in the magic light moments before sunset? It's great," Ronald admired. Crowe has good taste in art and knows when it is a decisive moment, and he should invest more in order to win the hearts of the audience.

"Ronald..."

Just when Ronald and Crowe were discussing, Helen Slater's head flashed in from the door, "I heard Richard said that you are here, is it convenient for me to come?"

Ronald looked at Cameron Crowe. The editing room is the director's restricted area. Whether the protagonist can come in and watch his part depends mainly on the director's decision. Ronald definitely won't allow it, but all directors have their own ideas, so they can't be generalized.

"Helen, come in, I happen to be showing Ronald one of your best performances..."

It seemed that Crowe didn't mind this. He was still in the learning stage, and he didn't think it was offensive for Ronald and Helen to give him any opinions after watching the clips. On the contrary, it may still be very helpful feedback.

"Hee..." Helen walked quickly to Ronald's side, and sat down next to him. With the awakening of a woman's nature, Helen also began to use her own advantages to join the competition.

"I was talking to Cameron just now, this shot of holding up the tape recorder in the sunset is very beautiful..." Ronald said to her with his arms around Helen's waist, pointing to the monitor.

Then, Ronald seemed to remember something. He took a piece of paper from the table, tore it in half, and folded it into two sitting paper figurines, one tall and one short. Put it down on a table at a distance.

This is the method Walter Murch taught him. Folding two paper figures representing the audience according to the proportion can better find out the problem of the picture from the appropriate proportion of the screen projection.

"What is this? These two people are very interesting." Helen picked it up and looked at it. Ronald folded the paper figurines very lightly, and they looked like a man and a woman. This is the method of stacking paper that Ronald learned from Xujiahui Studio.

"Give it to me, okay?" Helen smiled and put the two paper figurines away and put them in her bag.

Cameron Crowe was watching from behind the paper figurine to see if there was any problem with his editing. He also felt that this method was very intuitive, but the monitor was too small, and he often forgot the size and ratio of the screen when editing.

"Of course, I stack two myself..." Crowe didn't mind, "By the way, Ronald, what do you think of this soundtrack?"

"I think it's very good. The lyrics match the plot quite well." Ronald listened to the rock music, looked at the name on the edited record book, it was the Blacksmith Shop band (TheSthereens), "a girl like you ".

"I just think it's too well-matched, it may spoil, and this scene, this song has no penetrating power." Crowe said, took out the tape just now, put it into the recorder on the post stage, and then Aligning the time, another piece of music was played.

"I love, sometimes I get lost

Days pass and this void fills my heart

When I want to get away, I drive away

but wherever I go

I always come back to where you are"

"This one is really better, what's it called?" Ronald asked Crowe.

"Peter Gabriel's 'In Your Eyes', Crowe's wife is a rock singer, he must have chosen the soundtrack well.

"Let's just use this one." Rona stood up and put his arms around Helen to leave.

"Wait, Ronald, this is what I asked you to discuss..." Crowe twitched a bit, but said the purpose, "Peter Gabriel is very concerned about his songs being used in movies. The price is too high, my budget for the soundtrack and the interlude is already exhausted, the money for this song is over budget, but I really feel that this song will take the movie up a notch...”

"How much more do you need?" Ronald understood that he was out of money, and asked him to increase the budget. Crowe was still a little tender, and asked someone to write a soundtrack in advance. The lyrics spoiled the plot, and he wanted a famous song by a popular singer To do an episode, there is no money again.

"One million dollars..."

"Hey..." Ronald almost laughed. For its own sake, Twentieth Century Fox invested in the movie and acted as a distributor. It was Crowe's first time directing a major commercial production, and he got the qualifications of a director who has several film experience.

The budget, fifteen million dollars.

In the end, there was not a penny left, and the soundtrack had to be a song worth a million dollars. You can spend more than me?

"Cameron, you may regard a movie as a work of art, but the movie itself is still a commodity. We also need to pay attention to the return on investment. It is not a good idea to spend more than 20% of the money on music in a movie."

Ronald has tried to be as tactful as possible, but the star Crowe is still hit. He regrettably took out the tape and locked it in the drawer. It is still his own inexperience. If so much time was not wasted during filming, he would have money now. best song ever.

"I see, I'll find a cheap and good episode..." Crowe still sent Ronald out the door.

...

"Ronald, why are you talking to Crowe like that..." Helen objected dissatisfiedly to Ronald when she got on the Ferrari sports car. "He's your friend, not your employee, Ronald."

"How did I talk?" Ronald didn't understand.

"You spoke to him as if the seniors were teaching the younger ones. But a few years ago, you were all newcomers to the industry and were filming together. I heard from him that you were fighting side by side against Universal's Vice President, I thought you were good friends."

"We are good friends, but business has its own rules..."

"Ronald!" Helen suddenly raised her voice in protest, "but the way you speak is not the way you treat a friend. You can say this from a friend's tone, and the harm to Crowe is also great." It will be much smaller."

"Gah..." Ronald stepped on the brakes and pulled the Ferrari that had come out to charge the battery to the side of the road. "Am I really treating him badly?" With an attitude of teaching Crowe.

"Movies are a commodity...not a good idea..." Helen Slater repeated what Ronald had just said.

"OK, thank you..." Ronald is also a director himself. When dealing with artists, respect is the most important thing, but it is also the most scarce. He unintentionally adopted the tone of a businessman, and unknowingly stabbed his old friend.

"What do you think of that song?" Ronald restarted the car, and he re-examined the expressiveness of this episode. Does it match the camera?

"Of course, this part is about the heroine being angry at the hero, and lying at home unwilling to communicate with him. The hero doesn't know what to do, so he has to use whatever method he can think of to get the other person's attention. What a romantic part... "

"Yeah..." Ronald was reminded by Helen, and felt that in the eyes of high school students, this episode was simply the ultimate romance.

There is an unpolished innocence in Cameron Crowe's films, but it's that innocence that gives power.

It's a typical first-hand feel of a gifted director. Although Crowe's grasp of business is not very smooth, some places may need more experience, and the ideal state has not been achieved.

However, Ronald is already very satisfied with this performance. This is more aura than Emile Adorino who shot the handsome man again, and John Waters who shot hairspray. Talent is simply overflowing.

"Thank you, Helen..." Ronald stepped on the accelerator, his money was getting more and more, and his status in the industry was getting higher and higher. It was very rare to have a friend who could communicate with him as straightforwardly as before.

[In view of the general environment,

Moreover, Helen often has high eyesight but low hands, and her own vision is not bad.

"Hee hee, that's what I love about you, Ronald, you must not become a businessman like Mr. Goldberg who only considers the return on investment."

Ronald found the company's music director, Jimmy Leiner, to share his thoughts. Laina immediately went to discuss with singer Peter Gabriel.

I heard that Ronald wanted it, and he gave the money very readily. The singer who was traveling in Europe agreed to Ronald's request and officially authorized the song.

The song is for the crew to use. However, he also asked the director to tell him the plot to ensure that there is no plot that does not match his song.

"Cameron, I came back and thought about it, and you may be right. The addition of this song to this scene, and even this movie, is a million immeasurable. You hurry up and call Gabriel Call, and if his quotation is right, I will make up the budget."

"Great, Ronald, I'll get in touch right now..." Crowe hung up excitedly. It's really lucky to have such a good friend to invest.

"Rick (Nisita), where are we talking?" Putting down the phone, Ronald said to Nisita and public relations consultant Michael Gray who came to talk about the Golden Globes.

"How did the judges of the Golden Autumn Awards bribe..." Nisita grinned.

The judges of the Golden Globe Awards are nominally members of the Foreign Media Press Association in Hollywood. Except for a small number of less than ten who are real professional journalists, most of the others are people who have taken up a quota and come to do an easy job to pay for their resumes, especially women.

These people don't necessarily need money in particular, but they do need respect. One of the privileges of the Golden Globe judges is to be able to get in close contact with the stars. This is why the Golden Globes are generally awarded to stars who agree to attend the awards ceremony.

"Well, then help me contact the working girl stars and see if any of them are willing to go over and chat with these reporters."

As a result, Harrison Ford has turned his attention to the latest Raiders of the Lost Ark, but Sigourney Weaver, Melanie Griffiths, and Joan Cusack (Sen) Even John Cusack's own sister holding the tape recorder) agreed to come and participate in the PR.

After arranging the work of "Working Girl" to hit the Golden Globes and sending everyone away, Ronald had the opportunity to live a two-person world with Helen.

Helen with blond hair was talking to two little paper figurines in the bedroom, "This is Ronald, and this is Helen... Ah, Ronnie, are you here?"

With a stride, Ronald threw himself onto the bed, hugged Helen tightly and kissed him. He was very grateful to Helen. If there is any special advantage of Helen, it is that this woman is very pure, and she adheres to principles in her views on things, and she will not follow Ronald's words just because of Ronald.

"Everything..." The hotel phone rang again.

"Hey...who is it?" Ronald said angrily.

"It's me, Crowe. Gabriel has already agreed. He said that he thought it was another movie, and they would also use this episode, but after hearing the plot of my movie, he didn't hesitate anymore. You gave us this song and got a 10% discount..."

"Congratulations...I'm looking forward to seeing your finished film..." Ronald simply unplugged the phone line...

"I'm coming..." Ronald lay down on the bed again. The two little paper figures were bounced up by Simmons, and then fell on the bed again, falling together.

Please remember the first domain name of this book: . :