Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Diane Lane and Laura Dern were dubious about Ronald's claim that he could cut out the film "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Magical Stain".

"Do you think he can really cut it out? Diane?" Laura and Diane went to play in the hotel booked by the Golden Globes Organizing Committee, still thinking about whether their first movie could be released.

The Golden Globe Awards last year had a 15% viewership rate, and the annual broadcast cost was over a million dollars. Relatively few judges knew it, and the organizing committee had too much money to use up. Therefore, Laura, who is the "Miss Golden Globe Award", also opened a large room in a five-star hotel, in the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, where it was held.

"I don't know, but you can see that Jane Fonda respects him and invites him to the house alone to talk. Maybe he's really a genius?" Diane didn't know Ronald's level of directing and editing, but knew that He won an Oscar for writing lyrics.

"It also makes sense. Artists can't use common sense to infer." Laura thought.

Born into a family of performers, she knows that the level of film artists does not depend on the accumulation of experience over time. It often happens in the film circle that young teenagers beat the masters with one punch.

One of the film director biographies on her father’s bookshelf is a teenage genius named Orson Welles. Orson Welles directed the radio drama "Martians Invade Earth" at the age of 23, convincing half of America into believing it.

"I'll have to call my mom and ask her to help me," said Laura Dern, who, unlike Diane, already has several movie credits. Laura is still looking forward to the early release of her first film.

A week later, Ronald finally got the test audience that Universal had paid for. In a Hollywood movie theater, more than a hundred spectators were invited by the theater phone to participate in the preview of an anonymous "teen comedy".

"Wait until you go to the women's bathroom and listen to the female audience's thoughts." Before the opening, Ronald hid at the gate behind the theater and quietly instructed his agent Paula Wagner.

"Women's bathroom?" Paula nodded in agreement.

"Go and see what they're talking about in the men's bathroom?" Ronald then assigned a task to Richard Lovett, the youngest of the three.

"What job are you sending me?" Rick Nisita, who has the highest status in caa, looked at Ronald and asked with a smile.

"Didn't you ask me something to talk to? Oh oh..." Ronald reacted and quickly thanked Paula and Richard, "Please help, I really don't have anyone to help, wait a minute. I'm going to the foyer to hear the audience reaction.

thanks, thanks! "

Nisita smiled and dragged Ronald out of the theater.

"Do you think Ronald is getting a little..." Richard said to the rare Paula Wagner.

"Confident, sensitive, aggressive?" Paula smiled.

"This is how artists treat their own creative works. They are full of confidence, but also afraid of being criticized by others. This is Ronald's first directorial work, and it is his movie debut. It is not normal without this kind of ambivalence. You are too much. You know when you deal with artists."

With a bang, the automatic door of the theater swayed twice, and finally stopped in the closed position. A sign of the earth appeared on the screen, and the preview of Universal's "Fast-Paced Richmond High School" began.

The brisk opening music quickly brought the audience into an ordinary department store in Southern California...

Richard and Paula stopped talking, also sat down and watched.

Nisita outside the door is talking to Ronald, he has something to call Ronald.

"The top of Paramount personally called and asked if you could help see their movie 'The Fantastic Stain Band', the end of which has never been cut, and if you can't tell a story, you can only give it up Locked in the library."

"Ah? Did they really look for you?" Ronald was surprised, Laura and Diane passed their words?

"Yeah, but I don't recommend you take over the editing, it's okay to help with the copy. But Lou Adler is not a simple director, he's the boss of the record business. We don't know what he thinks."

"Then you arrange for me to meet him? If he really wants others to help, then I won't be too late, otherwise I'll just look at other people's works."

"Aren't you going to take a vacation? You're six months away from the release, you can take a long vacation before you start working on a new project. I know your hands are fast, six months is enough to write the script for your next movie. ." Nisita replied.

"Writing a script?" Ronald repeated. "I don't know, Rick. I've been so nervous lately that I can't write a quality script, and I'm completely uninspired. On the other hand, I can't fully Stop and rest, always looking for something to do.

I seem to be used to sleeping less than five hours a day, filming, watching dailies, editing, rewinding... this fast-paced life. The film has brought my own pace of life faster, and I feel uncomfortable when I stop, but I'm not in the mood to work on the script. "

"Why don't you take a trip abroad, Ronald? A lot of directors get into this kind of anxiety after they've finished a production. All they need is a girl to go to a holiday spot for two months.

I don't want you to kill time on vacation, but well-timed breaks and adjustments are needed. If you want, I can give you a few party invitations too, as long as you don't indulge in them..."

Nisita saw Ronald's tendency to be a little anxious, and was concerned about the mental health of his clients.

"I don't need to pay for a girl to accompany me, hahaha." Ronald laughed and laughed. He didn't like the kind of party that Nisita said. He drank and played too much, which could easily make people lose their minds.

And there is also a lack of really high-quality beauties, all of whom want to enter the entertainment industry but can't get in.

He went on to say, "Hey, I also know that I may have ordinary life syndrome. The fast and dramatic story rhythm in the movie assimilated me, and the dull rhythm in life makes me feel abnormal."

Ronald also vaguely felt that his mental state was a little too excited, eager to work but unable to calm down to write a script that required forward and backward planning.

As for girls, I couldn't find a suitable short-term vacation partner for a while. After the filming, the beauties of the crew scattered to look for new jobs. Right now, the prosecutor who can skip the temptation and communicate directly is far away in New York, and the girl she wants to date is also constantly auditioning in New York, so she has no time to come to Los Angeles.

"I think I still use my work to adjust my status. Do you have any short-term job offers there?" Ronald asked.

"Except for Paramount's 'Stained Band' asking you to see if there is any way to fix the editing, there are only a few sporadic script offers, but you say you can't calm down and write the script.

I don't actually recommend that you invest in this kind of script commissioned by the studio right away. When your new film is released and has some positive reviews, the asking price for this commissioned script will be higher. "

"What about work other than screenwriting?"

"There is a vacancy for a trainee director of Coppola's new film...but that requires competition with many directors from the director's union. With your qualifications, it is actually a bit too strong. You have directed a feature film, and you don't need to be in other directors. Learn around to increase your qualifications.”

"Isn't Coppola's new movie out yet? That Natasha Kinsky's 'Old Love'? A new movie so soon?"

"It's a long story, Paramount was going to release his new film, but Coppola released his edited version in Los Angeles without Paramount's consent, and was terminated from the distribution contract.

Columbia, which was acquired by Coca-Cola, took over the distribution at the last minute. But Coppola was also burdened with a heavy financial burden because of this. He signed a gambling agreement with Colombia...

Now he only has to take new jobs continuously and solve his bankruptcy crisis. "

Ronald nodded. If he had this opportunity early last year, he would definitely fight for it. "How about the quality of the old love and the new love? Have you seen it?"

"No, but it's going to premiere soon, you can see it for yourself. I heard that there is a breakthrough in technology, but the format is a bit old, it's an old-fashioned musical."

"Also, director Peter Bogdanovich wants to meet you."

"What is he doing with me? I don't know him?" said Ronald curiously, the famous director who filmed "Paper Moon" back then, after his girlfriend Dorothy Stratten was killed, scared him. Enough, disappeared in the circle for a long time.

"Maybe it's about his dead girlfriend Stratten. You used her poster in the movie. I heard that many of Stratten's portraits are now in his hands."

"Then let him talk to the producer, I'm not interested." Ronald had seen Bogdanovich's films, but he didn't have a strong desire to communicate with him.

"Aren't you going in and watching your own movie?"

"To tell you the truth, I've watched it hundreds of times in the editing room. I can't feel the charm of the movie itself when I watch it now, it's all the scenes when I filmed and edited it. And it's dark inside, so I can see it too. I don't know the expressions of the audience, I'm here waiting for them to come out and score."

"Okay, then I'll go in and have a look." Nisita carefully pushed away the people in the screening room, preventing him from making a sound, and then got in.

Today is the first time that Ronald's client's film has been screened in front of an audience, so caa's three agents have all come.

The name help actually means evaluation, to see Ronald's performance and potential, and then consider how much resources to invest for him and what opportunities to strive for.

Ronald waited at the door, bought a pack of popcorn and a Coke, and ate and drank by himself.

For the past six months, it is really hard to let myself do nothing and wait like this. Every day I wonder how the box office will be after the movie is released. Like a defendant waiting for a judge's verdict, only when the gavel of that verdict falls can the fear stop.

"If I don't have a job, I'll go back to New York and help my aunt sell leg warmers. Maybe it's better to be with my family," Ronald thought as he ate.

More than an hour later, the door of the screening hall was slammed open from the inside, and many spectators who had finished watching the movie came out in a row.

The staff of Universal set up a stall at the door. There is paper on it for viewers to write ratings and comments.

Ronald leaned in to help distribute and take back, and listen to the audience's feedback by the way.

"I think the most memorable episode? It's Linda by the pool...haha."

"Where do you think the filming is not good enough? I don't think the plot of Stacey and Mark's love is very good. Why does Stacey fall in love with him?"

"Am I willing to accept a call back? Yes, I'll leave the number."

...

Ronald has seen a lot of audience ratings, and many people have given relatively high scores, and the average score may be between b+ and a-.

"What do you think?" When the two agents came back from the bathroom after hearing the feedback, Ronald hurriedly asked them what they had heard. Queues are required in the bathroom, and it is often the moment when the audience reveals the truth.

"Girls generally appreciate the episode of Phoebe Cates' daydream, and although it is a nude scene, they don't feel disgusted." Paula Wagner said. "Maybe they also have a fantasy complex, Ronald, you just made the actor who played Brad in the dream scene very handsome."

"What did they say about Stacey's footage?"

"I didn't mention that scene, maybe it was too real?"

Ronald nodded. In that scene of Stacey, Mike the scalper became a quick shooter. In the end, Stacey was pregnant. The ending of this episode was not very good. Audiences may selectively forget.

"What did you say there?" Ronald turned to Richard.

"A lot of people liked Spiccoli, and the male audience was talking about how he ended up with Brooke Shields, on Letterman's talk show, and asked Van Halen to sing for his birthday," Richard replied, "Maybe Everyone wants to be a Spiccoli, play all day and get a high school diploma and be a winner in life."

"He's the only character who gets a round of applause at the end of the movie when the character ends," Nisita added.

"Can I keep a copy of the audience's phone numbers that I can call back?" Ronald said after watching the audience disperse and sorting out the ratings and evaluation papers.

"I have to organize these first and discuss them with the company's top management. I can send you a copy at that time, Director Ronald."

"Can I leave a phone number for you? I'm his agent. I'll contact you when the time comes." Richard quickly took out his pen and wrote down his phone number.

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