Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"DiDi..." Ronald's pager rang.

Despite the breakup with Michelle Pfeiffer, Ronald felt the need for a communications device that would not delay news from his agent and numerous friends.

After comparing AT\u0026T's $1,000 answering machine that could store only 10 messages, and Motorola's $400 pager that had signals all over New York City, Ronald decided to buy a Motorola "pageboyii" type pager.

The long pager has a clip that can be clipped to the belt. Ronald felt inconvenient after holding it for two days, took it off and threw it in the briefcase he was carrying.

Diane Lane, who was borrowing from Aunt Karen's house, was lying on the sofa reading a novel and glanced at her mouth, "You deserve this, I thought you were a resident doctor?"

Indeed, in New York, many young doctors have such a thing, which is convenient for hospitals to call when there are emergency patients.

Ronald ignored the rebellious girl and called the service center. "My pager number is..., there is my message... Lawrence Wang? Okay, thank you."

It turned out to be his accountant, Lawrence, and Ronald made a phone call.

Lawrence said on the phone that he had a plan for his tax treatment of $350,000, and he would make an appointment with him for a door-to-door interview. Ronald informed his aunt's address and asked him to come and talk.

Donna was looking for herself today, so Ronald came to Aunt Karen's house. Donna was very happy after getting the Walkman she gave. There are many geniuses among her classmates, who are proficient in electronic equipment and taught her some transcription skills. This time, she said that she had a gift to give back to Ronald.

"Ronnie," Donna took out a small box wrapped in gift paper from the room and handed it to him.

Ronald, as a result, disassembled it in person, and there was a tape inside. A line of words "Donna's Pick - Nice Music Collection vol.1" was written in pencil on the tape box

Turning over the back of the box, I also carefully recorded the selected playlists, all of which are popular music that Ronald prefers, including r, beegees, airsupply...etc.

Ronald was delighted, "Thank you, Donna, so I can listen to my favorite songs directly without having to keep changing records."

"You're piracy, Donna." Diane Lane shifted on the sofa and lay down.

"No, I've checked the relevant laws in the library. As long as it's a record or tape I've bought, it's not a violation of intellectual property laws to transcribe a single. It's different from Budd Jr., who transcribes an entire album and sells it."

"Forehead……"

Ronald also laughed when he saw that Diane was at a disadvantage with Donna.

Put the tape in the big tape recorder and press the play button. What came was a beegees-style song, and a singer with a slightly younger voice, but clearly belonging to the beegees family, was flowing in the living room.

Ronald turned over the box and saw that it was sung by a singer named andygibbs, and his last name should be the younger brother of the three brothers in the beegees band.

for so long

It's been so long since you and I found each other

I feel so strong for you, girl

When Ronald saw the title of the song, it was "I just want to be your everything ()"

"Uh... old-fashioned." Diane Lane was quite scornful about her listening taste. She also went into the room and took out a gift and threw it to Ronald, "This is my gift."

Ronald took it apart and took a look. It was a set of novels - "Se Hinton Youth Fiction Series" was written on the girdle.

There are four novels including "the outsiders", "this time, this time", "rublefish" and "tex".

"It's a very popular novel, it tells the story of a small town youth in Oklahoma, you can read it and improve your taste." Diane Lane said.

Ronald opened it and turned it over,

It's all about half-teens, drinking, picking up girls, fighting, riding horses, gang fights and stuff like that.

"The author is very powerful. The characters in the four novels are all strung together. The protagonist of this novel is the supporting role in the lower part."

"Really?" Ronald felt that the story was more contrived, and the characters were all aggressive teenagers. Although it was written in the 1950s and 1960s, social security has been bad in recent years, and schools have also been invaded. It seems that this kind of story has quite a market among teenagers.

"Of course, now it's the most popular youth novel, staygold." Diane said a line from the urchin.

Ronald didn't understand and looked at Donna.

"It means to maintain the state of mind of a teenager." Donna knew that Ronald had never read novels, so she didn't know the meaning of this sentence. "Her books are really popular, and my classmates are reading them."

"She? A female author?" Ronald flipped through the back cover, and it turned out to be a chubby female author. Se Hinton's pseudonym doesn't tell a man or woman.

"Ring, bell, bell..."

It was accountant Lawrence Wang knocking on the door.

Ronald welcomed him in, and the two chatted softly at the small table in the corner of the living room.

"The commander-in-chief announced a tax cut last year, and individuals with an annual income of more than $220,000 only need to pay 50% of the federal personal income tax."

"50%? Only?" Ronald's voice suddenly rose, attracting the attention of the two girls.

"Sorry, let's talk somewhere else."

"No, Diane, let's go talk to the room." Donna pulled Diane closer to the bedroom.

"This is already the number after the tax cut bill, before the top tax rate was 70%."

"Then the script I worked so hard to write was remade after I sold it to Colombia, and most of it will be handed over to the federal government?" Ronald was angry.

"It's not like this. The part of your annual personal income above $220,000 needs to pay a 50% tax rate, and the part below is 38.5%, and then it goes down in steps, and the part below 3400 is not taxed."

"That's a lot." Ronald was very angry. The results of his struggles were all working for the Federation?

"So that's my first suggestion to you, set up a company just to accommodate the screenwriter's income," Lawrence said.

"The corporate income tax also adopts a progressive tax rate. Your business model is very simple and there is not much room for accounting, so it is better to separate different businesses so that you can enjoy a more favorable tax rate."

"Okay, then register another company."

"In addition, I suggest that you buy stocks with your income. As long as you hold it for more than a year, the investment income is not subject to personal income tax, but capital gains tax, which is much lower. After the chief commander cut taxes last year, it was only 33.8%. "

"Can't I buy a house?" Ronald doesn't understand stocks, but I heard that the ups and downs are very strong, at least the house will not suddenly evaporate 90% of his wealth.

“There is a property tax on a house, which is high in New York State, and you have to pay it annually. If you buy in Los Angeles, that’s one of the highest in the nation. And it’s a state tax, and you don’t live there. If so, you will not be able to enjoy many services brought by the tax.

For example, the simplest public education tuition fee reduction and exemption, if you have not yet started a family and have no children, you cannot enjoy this part of the subsidy. It's not too late to buy real estate until you have kids. "

"Okay, then you can help me open a stock account. What stocks should I buy?"

"Your purpose is to avoid taxes, so don't buy stocks that are expected to rise in price. My suggestion is to buy some blue-chip stocks. The stock price is stable for a long time. You can hold it for a long time without selling it, so you don't have to pay capital gains tax. There is also a quarterly Dividends are considered living expenses.”

"What are blue chips?"

"It's companies that are well-run, long-term, and have stable profits," Lawrence said in a language Ronald could understand. "Like Coca-Cola, Kodak, ib or something."

"Okay, then you can help me design it, and set aside all the spare money to buy these three stocks in addition to the tax."

"You make quick decisions, Ronald, don't you think about it?"

"I don't have so much time to learn investment. Your point is clear and reasonable. Big companies won't collapse so quickly, as long as they are safe."

"DiDi..." The pager rang again. Lawrence said goodbye and left.

This time it was Spike Lee.

"I heard Bigelow got a $750,000 investment to start shooting her first feature film?"

"Yes, Douglas Jr. helped her find a private investor in Georgia and invested $750,000 for the production, and Katherine has approached it and brought in some MoMA artists to do free labor. She Ready for a big fight."

"She's so lucky." Spike was very envious.

"It's hard to tell. You've seen her script. The $750,000 is only enough for the filming. She asked me to split the scene, and it was calculated that it must be completed within 20 days, otherwise the budget will be overrun. This shooting speed can catch up with Roger Coe. Mann."

"Then who did her publisher find?"

"No distributor is willing to release her film. I suggest that she choose a foreign film festival. There are many buyers at the film festival. Maybe she can find a company willing to buy it."

"Anyway, she is lucky, I have no investors willing to invest in my films. I can only get a little money and shoot a little." Spike Lee hung up the phone enviously.

"DiDi..." The pager reminded again.

Ronald called the service center.

"There is a message from you, please call Nisita from caa, who has a screenwriting business."

Ronald's heart skipped a beat, is this business coming?

"Hello, Mr. Nisita, this is Ronald."

"Hi Ronald. What do you know about Broadway musicals?"

"Musicals? I've only seen some of them, but I don't know much about the screenwriter and production."

"It doesn't matter, just read it. I'm not asking you to write the script for a musical. You are famous all over the world and you have the characteristics of a musical. Universal is looking for a screenwriter who understands teenagers, musicals, and musicals. Would you like to? Two months of hard work and $100,000?"