Exploiting Hollywood 1980

After a night of thinking and a long-distance phone call with lead agent Richard, Ronald finally agreed to give up writing the "Grease" sequel in favor of an adaptation of "Fast-Paced Richmond High School."

Hollywood reality is the main reason for being objective. But Ronald, who has been kicked out of the set twice, is more aware of the importance of participating in the power of filming. If your dream is only to write a few screenplays, then of course hold on to the big-budget and big-star grease sequels.

But his dream is to make classics and even make a name for himself in film history. Then the real participation in the shooting from start to finish, and post-editing, is the most needed way at present.

However, he kept his mind open and asked CAA to specify in the new contract that the plot of the two versions of the grease sequel he wrote should not be used in the final revised version requested by Timothy Hutton.

Ronald has the right to pursue responsibility and ask for attribution if it exceeds the upper limit of plot "borrowing" set by the Screenwriters Guild.

A few days later, the contract reviewed by Lindsay Dole's lawyers was sent back, and Ronald and Cameron Crowe got on the phone and the script revisions officially began.

The first job is to cut characters.

There are many characters in Cameron Crowe's original novel. But the movie can't hold that many people. As a typical teen exploitation film, Ronald asked Universal executives and learned that the studio would only give the movie 90 minutes.

This kind of exploitative film does not have much marketing investment. When young audiences go to the cinema, they see the poster and decide to watch it temporarily, which is the main source of audience for exploitative films. Then compressing the length of the film and allowing the cinema to line up one more game every day is a more favorable way to increase the box office.

It's not like a blockbuster with a big star, or a sequel. For those movies, the audience will go to the cinema specially to watch the blockbuster. Those movies are usually 120 minutes long, which is too short for the audience to enjoy.

As a rule of thumb, Ronald calculates that each character needs at least 20 minutes to have a full story. In addition, the scenes between different characters have the same frame, so the movie can only accommodate up to 6 main characters.

Ronald starts with the two central figures.

Brad and his sister Stacey are the opening and ending characters of the novel. The roles of many other characters are all strung together by him, and they are characters that cannot be omitted.

Brad Hamilton is an 18-year-old student at Richmond Middle School in Southern California. He usually works part-time in a Burger King fast food restaurant. Because he is conscientious and responsible as a foreman, he earns a good salary.

He used the mortgage to buy a 1958 Buick Sabre. The shock absorption of this old-fashioned car is very soft,

Coupled with the full-size car length and high-horsepower engine, it attracts the attention of girls.

He has a girlfriend Lisa, but he wants to break up with Lisa and enjoy the "freedom" of his final year of high school, trying to live with different girls.

Unexpectedly, he conflicted with the refund because a nasty customer thought the burger for breakfast was not delicious, but refused to fill in the form, and was finally fired by the boss.

In order to secure the last few installments of the car mortgage, Brad had to join the "Captain Hook" fish-fried fast food, donning a ridiculous pirate costume hat to deliver meals...

...In the end, Brad found a job as a cashier in a convenience store. During a robbery on a night shift, he wisely picked up hot coffee and poured the robber all over, and was appreciated by the boss and was promoted to the store manager. .

Ronald begins writing Brad's character synopsis on a typewriter. A short summary is a 2-3 minute long picture in a finished film. Ronald wrote more than 30 paragraphs at once, and the plot was greatly overrun.

Not knowing that those plots should be cut off, Ronald simply went to CAA's New York office, faxed these pages of Brad's plot to Los Angeles, and asked novelist Cameron Crow to reference it.

Along the way, various cheering signs for the upcoming election came into view. Ronald had watched the video of the debate and had already decided to support the former California governor. He did the math. According to the governor's tax cuts, he could pay about half of his taxes. .

"Please cast... a vote and let's make America great again, Let's MAGA!"

Along the way, there are many volunteers canvassing votes, taking advantage of the last few days of canvassing opportunities to win more voters. In addition to door-to-door phone calls and door-to-door visits, in some lively neighborhoods, there are also volunteers canvassing votes on the street.

Ronald took a look. In addition to the volunteers for the presidential election, there were also some volunteers for the New York State Senator election, and some volunteers for the House of Representatives election. This year coincides with the need for a new senator from New York State. The old senator refused to align himself with the values ​​of California's governor, while his challenger insisted on being governor.

"I won't vote for you if I don't support tax cuts," Ronald thought to himself.

Cameron Crowe's phone call came quickly, and the two argued on the phone for a long time. The author of the novel was even more reluctant to delete his beloved characters. I also don't want to delete any part of the characters.

"Cameron, the film is only 90 minutes long. This is not deleted, and that is not deleted. We can only make TV series. That can accommodate all the plots in your novel." Ronald joked.

"Ronald, you know, this novel was written by me undercover for a whole year. All the character archetypes are friends in my life. I don't know how to cut them out. It's up to you to decide."

Well, Cameron Crowe throws the tough job back on Ronald.

Ronald's adaptation work has encountered a bottleneck. The characters and plot are not a single unit play, but an organically linked mass. If the plot of this character is reduced, it will affect the growth of that character.

If he spends more time on this character, the role of his opponent will be underdeveloped again, and it will not be right.

This group drama is also based on other people's novels. Ronald felt tied up everywhere, completely lacking the fun of his own creation. It was the first time that I wrote such a group drama, and the difficulty exceeded Ronald's imagination.

Strictly speaking, "Famous in the World" is also a group drama. But at that time Ronald was only concerned with improving the lines of certain clips and making the plot of a certain character more reasonable, which was based on the modification of the original screenwriter's structure.

This time, it is necessary to plan the story development of the six protagonists from a global perspective. Building the skeleton, and developing the details, are not the same thing at all.

Not only must everyone have a beginning, middle, and end, but also the other six or seven supporting characters in the original work should be inserted into the original work.

Ronald wrote at the typewriter many times, each time overwriting the characters' plots by a large margin.

Early that morning, Ronald had to interrupt the slow-moving script adaptation, because it was November 4, America's quadrennial election day for the Grand Commander.

Because the voter was registered on Staten Island, Ronald picked up Aunt Karen and went out early in the morning to vote in the town of Totville, Staten Island. In addition to the commander-in-chief, there is also a New York state senator and congressmen from the district to be elected.

His aunt taught him how to select candidates, and after the two had drawn their votes, they lined up to put the votes into the box.

"You really don't ask who I picked?" Ronald asked Aunt Karen.

"Citizens should have the right to choose, unless you want to tell me."

"I chose the former actor from the Elephant Party."

"Me too, the Elephant Party advocated ending the Vietnam War. If the impeached liar had come to power sooner, maybe there would not have been that war," said Aunt Karen.

The two returned to their Manhattan apartment and started watching NBC live, usually in the evening, and Aunt Karen cooked some steaks to eat together when Donna returned.

"My God, even Massachusetts is turning red." Aunt Karen exclaimed, and the state of northeastern New England was the first to announce the results.

Massachusetts has always been the bastion of the Donkey Party, but this time it has become a red state.

"There are only more than 3,000 votes left, and a recount is needed." Ronald pointed to the subtitles and said, but this may have nothing to do with the overall situation. The Northeastern New England states where the Donkey Party has been operating for decades have chosen the governor of California. The leader is expected to lose the election.

In their state, New York, the Elephant Party candidate won by 2.67%, with more than 160,000 votes.

On the map of the NBC studio, the grids are filled in red, and the governor of California is estimated to have passed half of the final 538 electoral votes.

After 8 p.m., NBC took the lead in using data from the exit polls to announce that the Elephant Party candidate, the 69-year-old former California governor, had won.

Aunt Karen switched to CBS and ABC, which are still waiting for official data, not announced. But their hosts also knew about the exit polling data NBC used, and they started talking about the upcoming new leader.

Ronald looked at the map, America was not a direct election. The winning candidate in each state will receive all the electoral votes given by that state based on population. The candidate then won by more than half of the 538 total electoral votes.

Ronald moved in his heart, as if he had found some inspiration that could solve the problems of too many characters and plots.

If I can't cut from the plot, it's better to start with the total length. Like an election, the story that can fill the total length wins and stays.

Ronald took out a piece of paper and began to write and draw.

Before 10 p.m., the incumbent leader declared his defeat and congratulated his rival for winning the election. He only got 5 states, including the hometown of himself and the deputy commander, and the DC Capital District. Never before has the current commander been defeated so badly.

"Is there a big stationery store here?" Ronald asked his aunt suddenly.

"It's near our school." Donna didn't sleep either, watching TV and answering Ronald's question.

I'll check the phone and have them deliver the goods to my door tomorrow. Ronald thought to himself.

The next day, Ronald wrote the characters in the novel on sorted cards. Then for each plot, write the synopsis on the card.

"Ring, bell, bell..."

The next afternoon, the doorbell rang, Ronald took off the intercom, and two delivery workers were at the door of the apartment downstairs. The secret weapon he ordered had arrived.

Two workers carried up a huge pine board. Ronald, who had paid, found a spot, nailed the wall, and installed the large pine plank on the wall.

Then he took out a box of pushpins and pressed the character cards of Brad Hamilton and others on the top of the pine board.

Then he took out a ruler and used a pencil to draw on the pine board four horizontal lines running through the board. Place the plot card in the space marked out by the four horizontal lines.

The cards are like racing cars, and the horizontal lines on the pine boards are like racetracks. Each track can hold 10-12 cards.

The scene and plot of each card, about 2-3 minutes after film editing. So to fill the 90 minutes, Ronald can only fill in about 40 plot cards at most.

This way you can adjust the plot and characters.

With an intuitive feeling, Ronald really felt that the job of cutting characters became easier.