Exploiting Hollywood 1980

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The "Fast-Paced Richmond High School" movie is officially approved. Universal Pictures set this youth film to be released next year, after the summer of 1982, around late July.

There is no exact release time, this is because the schedule of small productions depends on the situation of large productions.

Big productions with big-name stars will be scheduled for next year at the film trade fair held in Las Vegas every April. Major producers and theater buyers will find a suitable arrangement there, so that the major productions of major studios will not collide in time.

Smaller productions like "Fast-Paced Richmond High School" will see gaps between big productions and flexibly adjust their schedules based on their box office performance.

Because the schedule is not very certain, the studio will leave enough time margin for production work.

Pushing back three months, that is, early April next year, the studio will hope to complete the final editing and small-scale test screening of the entire film at this time node. According to the test screening results, make some final fine-tuning, and then Make feature copies for rent to theaters.

On this basis, push it forward three months, that is, before the Christmas holiday in 1981. The movie must be packed and shut down at this time.

Set aside 3 months to complete the initial and fine editing of the film, wait for the top management of the film studio to find audiences for an internal preview, and then decide whether to make major revisions to the finished film. This is the so-called final editing right.

Two months ahead, it's time for filming and production.

In 1980, the average production cost of the eight major studios was $8 million. A small production of $3 million is a very shabby configuration. Every day during filming is burning money, it is impossible to drag the filming cycle for a long time and let you take your time.

But the 90-minute film length made it impossible to save a lot of time even with Roger Coleman-esque shooting methods. Therefore, the "fast-paced" shooting time was set at 8 weeks.

After deducting the Christmas and New Year holidays, it means that the crew will start the production by mid-October this year at the latest.

And before that, in September, all the cast and technical team had to be in place. Including but not limited to photography crews, recording crews, lighting crews, makeup, clothing, and hairstyles. The crew has officially entered the operation stage.

In the next few months, Ronald, as the director, will work with the producers to determine the candidates for key positions. Photography director, art direction. These two key people work with the director to determine the tone of the film and the style of the set.

After determining the key candidates, the director will also work with them to survey the film and find the location needed in the plot. Determine the shooting location, cost, and if the budget is not enough, revise the relevant scenes of the script.

During this period, another major job of the director was to audition for the main actors with the producers, and the film had a lot of main actors.

In short, during this period of time, Universal also kindly gave more margin, allowing the "fast-paced" production office to be established a little earlier.

All in all, a "small production" should be prepared for almost a year from the release date. And that's not counting the previous script writing and iterative revisions, waiting for studio executives to agree to green-light the project.

Of course, these are just schedules on paper. In actual operation, many things can be accommodated, and problems need to be handled flexibly. Small productions do not receive much attention from the studio executives, and the director still has a lot of decision-making power.

Before Ronald started work, Universal would set up a production office, which was placed in a row of bungalows next to Universal Studios. There were a dozen or so vacant offices here, waiting for the arrival of the new crew and those who bid farewell to the old crew. leave.

Ronald went to see, he was assigned to the innermost office, next to the bathroom. There are two desks in the great room, facing each other, belonging to Ronald and the executive producer. On the other side is the accountant's desk.

In the preparatory stage, the office of the "fast-paced" crew consisted of only these three people. no secretary,

Tea and coffee have to be brought by yourself.

The executive producer for the day-to-day stuff hasn't been in place yet, and the accountant hasn't come. After Ronald familiarized himself with the environment in advance, he flew back to New York, because there was one important thing waiting for him to deal with, which was to take a break from school.

Aunt Karen wasn't too happy. Ronald was a first-generation college student in the family, and her siblings were all looking forward to Ronald's future. Now I take a break in second grade halfway through school to shoot a movie.

There is no guarantee for the future. Regardless of whether the film is successful or not, Ronald will not necessarily be able to obtain a bachelor's degree.

She talked to Ronald very seriously, "Ronnie, it's your parents' wish to send you to college..."

"I know, so I'm just going through the suspension procedures, and I can come back and continue my studies when I'm free in the future."

"Have you thought about your future? If your directing career is not going well and you're going to come back and find a decent job, a college degree is essential."

"My ability is absolutely enough to find a job editing in the film industry. You don't have to worry about it. There is a leg warmer factory that can make money. As for education, Donna can definitely be admitted to the Ivy League."

"But you're a man, running a women's dance business, it's always a little weird."

"Don't worry, my film will definitely sell."

After persuading his aunt, Ronald drove to New York University and went to the office building to go through the suspension procedures.

Then he swerved and went to the house of Scorsese, the teacher who had made an appointment in advance.

Isabella prepared him black tea. Scorsese was half lying on the sofa with a blanket over his lap. Valley

Although he did not win the Oscar for best director, the praise of "Raging Bull" in the film critics has made him once again gain the trust of the studio, and the new film is in preparation.

"Ronald, you are very good. Among the several students I have taught, you may be the first to direct a film independently. A youth film? Very good, the first film should have a certain overlap with your own life. part."

"Thank you." Ronald was drinking black tea and saw Isabella go to the kitchen to bring them meatballs.

"Marty, what is the theme of your new film this time?"

"Ahem, I hope to make a movie about Christ Jesus, with Robert De Niro playing Christ himself." Scorsese coughed twice and replied, "I'm not feeling well recently, and De Niro is also Not interested in playing him, we might turn to comedy."

"It's always been Marty's wish to make a movie about Jesus Christ in the last moments." Isabella briefly warmed up the hot meatballs in the kitchen and brought them to Ronald and Marty.

"Thank you, Isabella." Scorsese's wife, in fact, has a good image and is suitable for making movies or commercials, but she has always only played the role of a housewife and occasionally appeared on TV.

"Your mother, is Ms. Bergman all right?" Ronald asked.

"She was recovering in London and she hasn't been in good shape since the surgery."

Ronald got up to leave after eating the meatballs, and Scorsese stopped him, "Cough, I have a present for you, Isabella, hand me that box."

"What is this?" Ronald asked curiously.

"open to take a look."

When Ronald took it apart, it turned out to be a small director's viewfinder.

"This is what I used when I was filming when I was in trouble, and I gave it to you. It can help you see the frame range of different focal length movie lenses when scouting. It has no depth of field but is light enough to run around."

"Thank you, Marty." Ronald hung the viewfinder around his neck and said goodbye to go home.

Donna at home had already returned from school, and when they met, she asked Ronald, "Why don't you use the Commoda computer that Diane and I gave you? I saw it when my aunt and I went to your apartment to clean the room two days ago. "

"It's not that I don't use it, but that tape machine takes a long time to start and save to disk. It's inconvenient for me to take it to a print shop, so the last time I went to Los Angeles, I brought a typewriter with me."

"I knew it, here it is for you." Donna took out another box, "It's convenient to use this."

Ronald looked at it and saw that it was a machine bigger than a Walkman, with another long gap on it, and he didn't know what it was for.

"This is called a floppy drive. This is a floppy disk. It is very convenient to use this to start the typing software Wordstar." Donna handed him a few more floppy disks.

Just like the name, the 5-inch floppy disk is really soft. Ronald took it and inserted it into the floppy drive, just to put it down.

"Okay, it's much more convenient this way, I'll take it with me this time."

"I bought it for you this time with Diane, too."

"Oh, thank her for me." Ronald put away the floppy drive. "Where is she now? I haven't seen her come to the house since Oscar."

"She's back on a new set, and this time it's like a racing movie 'Six Pack' with singer Kenny Rogers."

Ronald nodded. For an actor, the time to participate in a movie is very short, and there is no need to participate in the preparations in the early stage and the editing in the later stage. The rehearsal and shooting time usually add up to 2-3 months, so that they can participate in a lot more films each year than the director.

If they can get enough film deals.

"Have you edited her last movie about punk girls? When will it be released?" Ronald asked.

"I heard that there was a problem with the editing, and the director couldn't cut the complete 90-minute video. Diane called a few times to ask, and each time he said it was going to be fine."

"Oh, that's really unfortunate." Ronald knows this kind of thing. Inexperienced novice directors sometimes don't shoot movies according to editing considerations. They just follow their own interests and shoot as many scenes as they like. Take a picture if you are interested. Sometimes there is not enough material when editing, and it often gets stuck like this.

Either make up, or rewrite the script, cut the existing material into a 90-minute finished film and pull it down.

Although I have the editing skills and a few scenes I dreamed for reference, I still can't be careless and take every day's shooting seriously.

If you accidentally made such a low-level mistake, it would be a real joke. If you lose the trust of the studio, it will be difficult for you to go forward as a director.