Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Thank you, thank you everyone. First of all I would like to thank the Academy's judges for awarding me the Oscar for Best Director,

I would also like to thank my first boss, Mr. Roger Coleman, for giving me my first chance to hold a guide tube...I want to thank all the crew...I want to thank my Kay Aunt Lun...

Finally, I would like to thank one of my fellow directors, I don't want to say his name, but I can get here thanks to him as an inspiration to me! "

Ronald finally stood on the Oscar podium and received his first Oscar for Best Director, in high spirits. Mara in a tuxedo smiles at him in the audience, fat Michael Cimino on the other side drooping...

"Ring bell bell..." The alarm clock rang at 6:30 on time.

With big dreams in mind, the road has to be walked underfoot. Ronald went to the New World Company early in the morning to see the preview of "High School of Rock".

"Ronnie, are you here? Help me move the copy." Director Allen stopped Ronald, who was standing at the door of New World Productions.

"Isn't it the afternoon preview?" Ronald picked up a plate of film and moved it to the van.

"Yesterday Roger temporarily changed the time to 10:30 this morning, saying that there are free trial audiences available." Allen showed a "you know" wry smile.

"Are there any free trial audiences too?"

"Yes, in fact, tickets are still sold." Joe Dante, who was on the side, said, "I heard that a scalper ticket can be copied for $5-10."

"What? A $10?" Ronald said in disbelief. Usually the ticket price of a movie is only 2 yuan and 50 cents. Can someone pay 10 yuan to buy an exploitative film like "High School of Rock"? "

"I'll just say you can't fool him, Joe." Director Allen laughed. "Ronald's price sensitivity is very much like Roger's."

Well, that's a nice word to praise yourself... right?

"So what's going on? Why is there a free preview available?" Ronald asked. "Why is it early in the morning?"

"It's Francis Coppola's new film, Apocalypse Now, which is also previewing this afternoon," explained Joe Dante.

Usually, before the movie is officially released, it will find some audiences for a test screening or two. Gather some feedback from the audience, and make final revisions based on that feedback before release.

Generally speaking, to hold a test screening, the filmmakers need to spend money and find people whose age, gender, income and target audience are as consistent as possible to watch. That way the feedback is more realistic.

The general screening method is to call the members of the theater and ask them if they want to watch a certain type of movie. Before the preview, the audience didn't know exactly which part to watch.

However, Francis Coppola is famous enough that the two "Godfather" films swept the world at the box office, and also won the Oscar for best director with the second part of The Godfather. One said that it was a Vietnam War type film released by United Arts, and most audiences guessed that it was his new film "Apocalypse Now".

The demand for watching the preview is very hot, and the feedback from the members who notified the theater by phone is very good. Some people even heard about the preview of "Apocalypse Now" and came to open a membership card to ask for tickets.

The 1,000 internal tickets for members were quickly distributed, and the theater took out the remaining 1,000 tickets for public sale.

Roger Coleman has also been invited to a preview of "Apocalypse Now," Coppola's To Film Insiders, and another dedicated screening.

He heard the popularity of the trial screening and the demand for tickets, and he immediately started to think. Those spectators who lined up to buy tickets and didn't buy tickets just happened to show them a "Rock High School" without spending money.

Isn't that killing two birds with one stone.

At 8 a.m., people were already lining up at the entrance of the theater, waiting to buy tickets. The all-pervasive scalpers found out and began to speculate on second-hand tickets.

Coppola decided to have only one public preview in Los Angeles,

Then I went back to the Diorama Company in San Francisco to continue editing and waited for the Cannes Film Festival.

When the van drove to the theater where the preview was being held, the queue at the entrance was very long, almost circling the theater. Although it is stipulated that one person can only receive one, the 1,000 test tickets for "Apocalypse Now on Sale" could not withstand the crowd. When Ronald and the others arrived, it was announced that they were sold out.

"Ugh……!"

Everyone sighed softly and gathered into a loud noise that swept the entire queue. The unwilling people make various movements, cover their faces and sigh, and beat their chests and feet...

There is also a female fan who may be a few places short of the line, and has already started to wipe her tears. Ronald looked a little fascinated, this is the style of a great director.

"I heard that the commander-in-chief specifically asked for a copy and sent it to the White House yesterday." Joe Dante and Alan Akush also looked envious. In 1979, Coppola, like one of the film's Olympian gods, descended to the earth, and the audience's admiration for him was incomparable.

The film started shooting in 1976, and the newspapers followed and reported it, but the starring was changed, the hurricane blew across the set, and there was a military conflict in the Philippines where it was filmed. After various accidents, the release date was bounced again and again.

The industry has given up hope for this film, and the newspaper even changed the title of the film to Apocalypse When? To ridicule Coppola for bouncing tickets.

However, movie audiences do not eat this set. In their eyes, Coppola is still the amazing director who made the two works of Godfather. Who else can shoot better than Coppola on the subject of the Vietnam War?

Although the tickets have been sold out, there are still many fans who are reluctant to leave for a long time. Some people take cardboard and write the words asking for tickets at a high price, hoping that someone will be willing to sell them.

Movie theaters quickly put away the "Vietnam War Movie Trials" sign and advertised "New Movie Trials - High School Girls, Rock Punk, Disco Dance, Must-See, Free Trials."

There are many disappointed audience members, in the mood that they have come here, they take tickets and enter the venue, but they can't see Apocalypse Now, and it is not bad to watch youth movies.

Ronald frowned. This doesn't seem to be the target audience for "High School of Rock".

The audience who came to see "Apocalypse Now" were either fans of Coppola, fans of war movies, and a few readers of the original novel "Heart of Darkness". Among these people, there are not many spectators who look like high school students.

"Ellen, Joe, is it okay for these test audiences? Can such test audiences reflect the real evaluation?" Ronald said to the two directors in the past.

"Don't worry, Roger is very experienced." Joe comforted Ronald with a serious face, maybe he was still comforting his good friend Alan Akush.

"Roger will get the feedback he wants from a small audience of teens," Allen said. "He doesn't look at the survey data at the time, he looks directly at the response of the target audience."

"Our cinema chains are mainly drive-in cinemas, late-night cinemas in cities, old cinemas, and cinemas in small towns, where the audience is not picky." Joe added.

The two of them seemed to be worried, absent-minded. Ronald understands that this is the creator's natural reaction, and he has experienced it himself, so he will not persuade him. The audience will judge whether he should be excited or anxious after the movie is released.

Helping to move the copy into the screening room, Ronald found a side seat in the theater. There are still 10 minutes before leaving the venue, the crowd is not full, there are about a hundred people. Ronald counted the sex ratio, and there are still more males, and only a quarter of the females.

As soon as the light dims, the movie officially begins. Ronald has watched this movie countless times in the editing room, and he has long lost interest in it. He only watched the phone booth scene where he appeared. He tilted his head most of the time, secretly observing the audience's reaction.

Some male audience members were very cool, shouting and blowing some loud whistles during the beautiful dance scene in the gymnastics room. The Ramones band entered the school, and the scene of the students rebelling also won their applause.

On the other hand, the rock music part, which had high hopes, didn't get much applause. Maybe they didn't listen to Ramones' music very much.

When the movie was over, Ronald went to the bathroom. Several of the men in it are still deliberately imitating the dance moves of the beauties in the movie. It seems that they like these scenes very much.

Washing his hands and drying, Ronald came to the foyer, and the voices of some women came from the other direction.

"I especially like Liv Randall. She's such an independent woman!"

"Yeah, if only I could be as brave as her."

"Alas, I'm very afraid of the principal of my high school. Few people can face the power and freedom of resistance like her!"

"Yeah, I'm terrified of my boss right now. He's like Principal Toga. He's an old-fashioned old man. He reads the Bible to us in the office every day."

Ronald looked sideways, it turned out to be several young women, waiting for a seat outside the bathroom, while chatting about the plot.

Unexpectedly, it turns out that the most attractive thing for female audiences to watch this movie is the rebellious and independent rock hot girl played by PJ Sols. Not handsome, not rock punk, nor dance, but the independent spirit of the protagonist Liv Randall.

The trend of women's independence makes young women generally envy those independent professional women, who can work and earn money by themselves, do not need to look at men's eyes to live, do not need to take care of children at home, and handle housework. Liv Randall is exactly what those independent professional women look like in high school.

Ronald returned to the entrance of the screening room. Director Allen was working with several staff members to distribute questionnaires to the audience to collect their feedback on the film. I took a few pictures in the past, and the ratings were not too high.

Ronald quietly pulled over director Allen and told him what he found in the bathroom. Alan was also a little surprised, and immediately went to discuss with Joe.

"Hey, Jim, why are you here?"

Ronald noticed a familiar figure flashing by, and Cameron was also in the theater.

"I came with Mr. Coleman, who had just officially promoted me as the head of the stunt model and was also responsible for the design of the stunt photography track."

Cameron, grinning, had just been promoted by boss Roger Coleman. He lowered his voice slightly:

"The method you mentioned last time is very useful. As soon as Roger entered the workshop yesterday and saw the completed model display, he was full of praise. He called me today and decided that I would be in charge of the entire model manufacturing department."

"Congratulations, Jim. You know, Roger is very cost sensitive." Ronald winked.

"Ronald, Jim, you guys take this." It was Roger Coleman who came over and gave each of them an envelope, "Coppola will be replaying it in the theater tonight for the industry insiders. One, you guys also go and see, it is very good for improving your artistic level."

Ronald took a look, it was United Arts' internal preview invitation, which started at 5:30 pm.

Roger Coleman went on to deliver tickets to the other employees.

"Roger told me that Coppola used to be his assistant." Ronald whispered gossip to Cameron.

"Oh, Roger is really well-connected..."