Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The vacation continued for a while, and Ronald finally adjusted his mental state.

One day, he got a call from Walter Murch, the rough cut and first assembly of the film had been completed, and he could go to the editing room to talk about the details.

"Walter, how about my new film. I feel that this is the film with the most tacit cooperation between the actors since I started my career. What's your comment?"

Ronald saw Murch in front of the editing station and asked him what he thought of the film he had invested in. Since Murch taught himself editing in San Francisco, there have been a lot of blockbuster movies. It's time for Murch, who is like a master, to evaluate whether he has improved in the past few years.

"The dance scene is so good, I've never seen it before. The casting of the actors is probably one of the best I've ever dealt with outside of Coppola's 'Godfather'", Murch saw Ronald come He happily stood up and hugged him, then made a seat and let Ronald sit in front of the editing table with him.

"But the movie editing for you is a little less interesting, so I really hope you come over and discuss it with me."

"Interesting?" Ronald asked.

"A rough-cut version of the entire film, running at two hours and ten minutes.

Every shot you shoot is pretty much the same, I don't have a lot of options, unlike some director's films where the rough cut will more than double the final length.

And many shots, often only the first one is the best, will be edited for you, just like completing the homework of high school students, they are all multiple-choice questions. "

"Ha..." Ronald smiled, "Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"

"From the producer's point of view, this shows that the director has his own imagination for the finished film and can complete the shooting on time. From the director's point of view, some actors may be less free to play on the set. However, from the editing point of view , I think it's a little less challenging. It's not like when I cut for other directors, I often have to push the envelope and cut together seemingly impossible pieces."

"Hahaha, I'll take it as you compliment me."

The two were joking, starting at the beginning and slowly looking at all the shots.

After two days, Ronald gradually entered the state and began to express his thoughts to Murch on the processing of certain scenes.

The two are in the same line in the editing methodology, and many times they can quickly agree with each other. Only in sound design, Ronald didn't know much. Murch led the work and took time to give Ronald a supplementary lesson.

Every day, the editing work is moving slowly at a speed that is visible to the naked eye, discarding a second or two of cutscenes and using a more interesting connection method. The length of the film has also gradually decreased from more than two hours to one hour and fifty minutes.

And gradually move toward the one hour and forty minute reservation goal.

One afternoon, the two were discussing a shot in the editing room. Ronald and Walter Murch both insisted on their own ideas. The two discussed for a long time without results, so they took a break to replenish caffeine.

Murch asked Ronald, who was drinking a strange drink like wolfberry black tea, a question he had wanted to ask for a long time.

"I heard that those high-ranking Jews are looking for trouble for you?"

"Yes, they also asked Michael Douglas to interview me. In fact, they just didn't want a rich Jewish girl to fall in love with a poor Irish boy, and finally gave up the rich second generation of Jews and came together with a dancer ."

"So what are you going to do? Our current version has a lot of intimacy shots of baby and Johnny, as well as the scene where they finally clear up their misunderstandings and look forward to the future together."

"I have my way," Ronald smiled and replied to Murch.

"You don't want to do things secretly, do you? It won't work, it will cause big problems."

"Ronald," Murch pulled Ronald to the table, "You are still very young, and when you entered the industry, those Jewish forces in Hollywood have retreated from the front and behind the scenes, and you may not understand their ferocity.

If you fool those old Jewish men with the idea of ​​making copies of yin and yang, you will have big problems later. Not to mention anything else, the mpaa, which handles movie ratings, is also a place where there are piles of Jewish people. They can jam you there and give you a bad rating.

Even if you get a good rating from mpaa, or find a way to bypass them and find a theater release yourself, it is still very risky, don't forget, it is the son of the Douglas family who is looking for you. "

"What happened to the son of the Douglas family?" Ronald didn't answer Murch's question. Instead, he was curious about his evaluation of Michael Douglas' family, as if there was some gossip.

"Well, I haven't caught up with the days when Jewish gangsters were in Hollywood. According to my predecessors, before the 1960s, Jewish gangsters had a more feared reputation than Italians. Legend has it that Michael's father Kirk was the Jewish gangster in the Hollywood spokesperson.

Do you know the actress Natalie Wood who passed away tragically a few years ago? "

"Of course, I saw him at the Ballon d'Or," Ronald replied.

"The legend goes that she was coerced by Kirk Douglas in her early years in Hollywood. He was a Hollywood 'sex predator'."

"No way?" Ronald raised his brows when he heard this gossip. He is also familiar with Hollywood, and the actresses are all yours and I will communicate with each other through the agent. Everyone gets what they need. Haven’t heard of such coercion happening? Do you want to make it so ugly?

Except for those shooting non-union filings

For example, some small production companies have heard of such things when they launch movies directly for the video tape market.

It turned out that at Weston Pictures, Michelle Cannold, the distribution director of Daydream Pictures who was dug up by Ronald, talked about the chaos of those small projects. In the past, Weston Pictures was specializing in shooting nc-17 content video tapes.

"Hollywood is a new place now. But when I was in college, it was still a chaotic hodgepodge. Many actors didn't have makeup artists and had to do their own makeup, and actresses often asked their brothers to be assistants. The set protects itself.

I've also heard... Kirk Douglas, in Hollywood in the late 1940s, had a young actor named Jean Spangler impregnated on the night she went to see Kirk to negotiate, just disappeared.

His body and handbag were later found on the way from her home to Kirk Douglas' house, along with an unfinished note with Kirk's name on it. "

"Really?" Ronald had never heard of the gossip. "Then why do people think of the Italian mafia when they talk about the gang? And no one mentions the Jewish gang?"

"You can figure it out yourself. There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, Jews are gradually occupying the upper echelons of Hollywood, and they are reluctant to make movies and TV series about Jewish gangsters. On the other hand, Italian directors like to shoot. Gangster stories.

Most people in America now have stereotypes about ethnicity from movies and TV shows. This kind of film has been made more, and it has gradually become a symbol of Italian descent, and many ignorant Italians are still very proud..."

It is true.

Ronald touched his ears. After Coppola filmed The Godfather, many of the mafia in the movies were of Italian descent. Although "The Godfather" is essentially a family film, but the background story of the mafia, many gangsters began to learn the style of the movie instead. It further deepened the stereotype of other ethnic groups against Italians.

Thinking of this, Ronald smiled at Murkey. The other party obviously cares about himself very much, so he will talk about these gossips.

"It's alright, Walter, I'm measured. I thought about it when I invested in this movie. Old Jewish men, I won't say anything about this movie."

Ronald whispered his thoughts to Walter Murch's ear.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure that in this way, if the Jewish people want to trouble me, then any action they actually do will deepen the audience's impression of the Jewish girl's story. So the best way is to pretend to be invisible."

...

Another time passed. The rough cut of the film had been completed, and after the second assembly of the film into a full print, Ronald called and asked Michael Douglas, who had been helping to spread the word, to see what the finished film would look like.

"You were filming in Virginia before this movie, right? I happened to be filming 'Fatal Attraction' in New York at that time, which was about the same time that you returned to Hollywood." Michael Douglas was still dressed as a nobleman, very spirited, and when he came in, he just came in. Hugs Ronald.

"Oh, how was the work with director Adrian Lane? I was on the set of his 'Lightning Dance' and he was a very talented guy."

"It's amazing, it's simply amazing. He's a great 'cast director' who doesn't put us too much of a bind, and as an actor, it's most comfortable to work with a director like him. Glenn tells me a lot , how lucky to work with Adrian."

"Glen?"

"It's the heroine, Glenn Close.

close), she's a great actress, playing a kind of nerdy lover who's going to destroy my family. have you seen her? "

"Oh, it's her. I met once, in the 'Great Cold

big

chill)’ party. Kevin Costner used to have a lot of shots that ended up being deleted..."

Ronald and Douglas chatted for a bit of gossip, then invited him to the screening room to watch "Dancing Hot" with him to the music.

"Boom...dong..." Mambo's drumbeat recalled that what appeared on the screen was an old-fashioned dance scene. Several dancers were dancing in the basement, full of tempting shots, in the form of slow motion, displayed on the screen.

"Is this what you call the 'spicy dance'?" Douglas touched his chin, as if interested.

The length of the copy is one hour and forty minutes, and the final subtitle table has not been added.

Michael Douglas, who was watching the full movie, looked over at Ronald.

"You changed the ethnicity of the heroine baby? Or to be more precise, hiding it? I don't hear anyone saying they are Jewish in the whole movie.

And Johnny's ethnicity is not mentioned too much, only when the two finally embraced and danced in the crowd, he only mentioned one sentence.

If you cooperate like this, I think those old men will have no problem. But does this hinder your creative freedom? ' asked Michael Douglas politely to Ronald.

"Michael, you lived in Los Angeles when you were young, didn't you?" Ronald didn't answer, but instead asked the other party.

"No, after my parents divorced, I lived with my mother in New York, where I went to school since I was a child, and went to New Jersey until college. What?"

"Then why don't you know about Kellerman in the movie

Resort hotels, is based on the Catskills? Aren't those resort hotels dedicated to Jews called borscht?

The food that appears in the movie also has borscht in it, and it's a resort hotel that only Jews go to. As long as it's a Jewish kid there, you can see it, right? "

"Oh, actually my mother wasn't Jewish, she was of Irish descent. So I didn't go to those Jewish-only resorts when I was a kid. We spent our holidays on Long Island, New York."

"Pfft..." Ronald almost didn't laugh, no wonder Michael Douglas didn't respond to his ethnicity hidden in the background of the story.

This kind of handling of the character's ethnicity without saying it is just a way of dealing with the Jewish forces that Ronald came up with.

There is no mention of a word from the beginning to the end of the movie, the Hausman family of the baby is Jewish. Moreover, the actors of the Hausmans he chose did not have the particularly obvious Jewish nose of Barbra Streisand.

Even lead actress Jennifer Gray has a much smaller nose than another candidate, Sarah Jessica Parker.

Unless it is a Jewish audience, you can find a little familiar background from the clues. They will notice that Jennifer Gray's nose is not obvious, but it also fully reflects the ethnicity.

Ronald did not mention a Jewish word in the entire film, but the background of the story tells the story of a Jewish person everywhere.

Then, the audience will be divided into two parts, one part non-Jewish, and no one notices it. Some Jewish people know that they are telling their own stories.

This is the so-called understanding of natural understanding, do not understand can not understand.

If the high-level Jewish people want to make trouble for themselves, then it is bound to mention in the media that Ronald has any anti-Semitic tendencies, deliberately shooting Jewish girls out of self-love, and losing their lives to the dirty Irish.

Whenever they mention this, those viewers who didn't feel that Ronald was telling the story of a Jewish girl would suddenly realize it.

The entire American society did not have much affection for Jews. These conservative Jewish old men dared to come out and promote this outdated and racially discriminatory concept. It must be attacked by the mainstream media.

So Ronald's clever way of telling it actually puts the old die-hards who were against making this story into a dilemma.

If your media only hints, then people will not understand what you are saying. If it is stated clearly, it will arouse the disgust of more people.

It's better to close your eyes and let it go. As long as the media marketing does not deliberately promote the story of a Jewish person, then there will be no problem.

"So, in marketing, you wouldn't deliberately mention this as a Jewish story, would you?" Michael Douglas nodded in appreciation after understanding Ronald's handling. Then ask Ronald to give a guarantee.

"I'm not a fool, why do I deliberately provoke the cognition of the old men?

Besides, Jews only make up less than 3% of America's teenage population. I made this movie by investing myself. Of course, I want to make money. I don't have to give up the bigger market, right? "

"You convinced me," Michael Douglas nodded in agreement.

Ronald laughed, took out a cigar given to him by Paramount President Ned Tanning from his seat, cut it, and served it to Douglas graciously.

It was not known that Michael Douglas's maternal line was of Irish descent. This makes it easier to speak. He also lived with his mother after his parents divorced. Compared with being closer to Irish blood, he would not object to this kind of plot.

"I'll bring you a message and say something nice for you." Michael Douglas took a sharp puff of his cigar, then slowly exhaled the smoke, "It's a good thing."

"My friend gave it from the Dominican Fuente Hemingway series." Ronald took out a new wooden box and handed it to Michael Douglas. "Take it and try it out for me. I know you are an expert."

"Thank you, I will," Michael Douglas took it in his arms, "but those old men will be more stubborn, they don't know much about the current situation in America. In their opinion, everyone should respect Jewish culture and religion.

They probably don't understand the fact that most Americans don't even know that the Catskills are a Jewish resort.

If you had better evidence that the audience wouldn't find out this was a Jewish story, I think they'd be more reassured. "

"I'll hold a preview and then do an audience survey, what do you think?" Ronald thought for a while and asked.

"I think it's okay, you're done, send the results to my agent. I'll make an appointment with my father."

"very good!"

Ronald, also satisfied with Douglas's help, squinted his eyes and puffed with him.

"Then I'll go first, it's really interesting to chat with you." Michael Douglas enjoyed a while and got up to leave.

"I'll send you off," Ronald got up to send him off.

"In addition," when he reached the gate, Michael Douglas turned around and said, "The last scene, Johnny and baby looking forward to the future together, can you delete it? I thought about it, this may be the only one An uncomfortable place for the old men."

"Why? I didn't say baby was Jewish? Just said she was in the Peace Corps and Johnny was going

When the dance group performed, the two were in a long-distance relationship and had no confidence in the future. "

Ronald listened to this request and was a little puzzled.

"Uh... I just think that the old men will not be happy for a short-term relationship with a rich girl and a poor boy, but have a long-term plan. You know, they are all rich, and it may be better than this kind of thing. Racial disparities are also a concern."

"Oh, I'll think about it." Ronald frowned. It turns out that these old men think that there are not only ethnic conflicts, but also conflicts between the rich and the poor.

But this movie itself is a love story that spans ethnicity and class. If there is no happy ending, will the audience be left unfulfilled?

"Also, we shouldn't be tied down by the ethnicity of the baby, but on the other hand, don't bring the stereotype of the Irish poor into the movie, what do you think?"

"Um……"

It turns out that Michael Douglas has also thought about it himself. He doesn't want his mother's Irish blood to be beaten as a poor man. He can only make money from his physical strength and physical ability, such as going to dance, but not the stereotype that he can't make money from his brain.

Ronald's mind was racing, and he still needed Michael Douglas as a middleman to deliver messages to the Jewish old men. Then again, this really isn't a necessary plot.

"From another point of view, maybe it would be a good way to leave the future of baby and Johnny blank. This way, it can leave a suspense to the audience..."

"Hahaha... Yes, you can still make a sequel. You are really an interesting person. We will keep in touch in the future. I will call you when there is a party."

Michael Douglas is also a producer, and as soon as Ronald said that, he knew he wanted a sequel.

...

"So, you want to delete this scene explaining the future story of the male protagonist? Well, it's almost twenty seconds."

Walter Murch sat in the editing room and heard Ronald's new ideas.

"What do you think? I got feedback from Michael Douglas that the theater may have some concerns about this paragraph. I was wondering whether to leave it blank to avoid controversy."

"Blank processing?"

Walter Murch cut this segment out, then stepped back a few minutes, re-reading the entire sequence several times.

"Leaving blank is a good way. Baby and Johnny may face the future together. It may also be that Johnny came back to send her a deserved dance in order to give baby a good memory, and after making her the focus of everyone, Break up again.

This processing is a more advanced method. This allows the audience to also participate in the creation of the film. "

Walter Murch gave another set of his film theories.

After several times of writing the script, acting, shooting, editing, etc., the director loses control of the film. And in the end, whether the audience likes the movie or not, it depends on their impression of it after watching the movie in the movie theater.

In many cases, about 10% of the content of a movie is a combination of the audience's imagination and impression, not necessarily in the movie.

"Fine, we're going to cut it like that, and then we'll do an internal preview and do an audience survey to see how many of them see it as a Jewish story. There needs to be a reference there.

Then we can send the mpaa rating. "

Ronald hopes to get a pg-13 rating. With ratings like these, all teens can see for themselves. Plus this "dirty dance"

dancing)" name, can't you be crazy?

"Hahaha..." Thinking of the joy, Ronald laughed in the editing room.

The internal preview is scheduled for a few days.

All of the audition participants were recruited by Ronald from high schools and colleges near Hollywood.

He doesn't really believe in the test screening method of letting the secretary of the film company go to the movie. These people are all part-time workers in the company, and maybe they are suspected of saying good things for the boss's face.

Or choose from the identified target customers, which is more in line with the real situation.

Ronald called his distribution team, Michelle Cannold's team, general manager Eddie, and two agents to the scene.

It is a very good thing to have an intuitive impression of the audience's reaction to those who will have a direct relationship with the distribution and marketing efforts.

Sometimes, no matter how good the audience rating data is, it is not as good as seeing the audience applauding like crazy at the scene, which is shocking. It can give these people more confidence in the results of their work.

Ronald remembers the "breakdance" he shot, and that's it. After seeing the enthusiasm of the audience after the release, learning to break dance on the spot, and keeping the actors from leaving, Minahan Golan was confident enough to take over the distribution job.

"Boom... boom..."

The familiar rhythm sounded, and the audience looked at the deliberately outdated picture, and the loving dance moves on it made the young people cry out "oh oh".

It opens with the Hausmans going to the Kellermans Resort. The audience was quickly absorbed into the plot by the lively rhythm.

When the baby saw the tacit understanding of Johnny and Penny at the dance, she strayed into the resting place of the dancers and saw their blushing dance. The audience was silent, except for a lot of drooling sounds.

Therefore

As things went on, baby and Johnny gradually fell in love with each other. They practiced lifts in the lake, making both male and female audiences make "tsk tsk" envious sounds.

In the end, Johnny broke through the obstacles, returned to the Kellerman Hotel, and invited the baby to dance on stage.

When the audience saw this, they could no longer hold back their passion, and began to whisper to each other. The dance music "I have found the time of my life..." sounded, and some people were already clapping to the rhythm.

In the end, the baby made a shocking leap and was lifted up by Johnny like a bird.

The audience's emotions were stirred for more than an hour and a half, and they couldn't bear it anymore. When they saw this scene, they all started to explode. They began to applaud desperately and applaud.

A female audience member in the front row disliked her applause being too low and began to stomp the ground hard.

Immediately this stomping action triggered a chain reaction, and all the audience began to imitate, stomping the floor of the theater with a thumping sound. The manager of the screening hall thought something was wrong and rushed in to check.

"Thank you, please fill out a questionnaire for us, we have a gift for you."

At the exit, Michelle Cannold's team began handing out questionnaires to the audience. There are many problems above.

How would you rate this movie?

Would you recommend this movie to a friend?

Do you know what ethnicity the baby is?

Do you know what ethnicity Johnny is?

Do you know what's wrong with Penny?

...

After collecting the questionnaire responses from all the viewers, Michelle Cannold was very excited and came back to report to Ronald.

"The movie is rated a, 94% of viewers said they would recommend it to friends, and 92% said they would like to watch it again if they have a chance."

"Yes, what about the cognitive part?"

"Only less than 20% of the audience found out that the baby was Jewish, and some people actually remembered it after seeing other people answering the question.

Only 30% of the audience knew that Penny was pregnant. We filmed it rather obscurely. If it wasn’t for someone familiar with the pregnancy, or someone who had a similar experience, most of them just thought that Penny had a stomachache and that she had appendicitis. are higher than in pregnancy. "

"Very good, send Michael Douglas a copy." Ronald told his agent Richard to deal with this matter.

"Where's Nisita?" Ronald asked when he saw that there was no Nisita around.

"Rick was talking to the P\u0026G marketing manager, and he insisted on seeing the full movie."

"Oh," Ronald saw Nisita's light-colored suit in the distance, and he and another man who was also in a suit were talking.

"You are unnecessarily worried. We handled it very well. You can go to the market research report there." Nisita insisted to the manager of the Procter \u0026 Gamble Company opposite.

"I don't think so. The two ladies sitting next to me clearly said that word."

"What's wrong?" Ronald asked Nisita, who joined the discussion in the past.

"This is the marketing manager of Procter \u0026 Gamble...he thinks there is an abortion in the movie, and their acne cream products are mainly aimed at teenage women, and they don't want to take the risk of withdrawing the placement."

"What?" Ronald didn't expect this out. "We handled it very carefully, this gentleman. You see, we just did a market research, and only less than 30% of the audience found Penny. The physical problem is..."

"I understand, Director Ronald. I personally support Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision. But the target market for our product is teenage women, and I can't risk that after this movie is released, some conservative force will organize a protest. activities, which associated our company's name with...

This is the consistent policy of Procter \u0026 Gamble, please understand. "

"But you signed a contract with us."

"But there is a force majeure clause in the contract." The other party insisted.

"If I understand correctly, force majeure refers to natural disasters such as earthquakes, which are not force majeure." Ronald retorted.

"Haha", the other party smiled, "Procter \u0026 Gamble's legal team is composed of elites from all over America, and we also have the top ten law firms in several major cities across the country, which are ready to hire services for us, so we at P\u0026G believe that this belongs to force majeure."

"You! shxt!"

Ronald was so angry that he was speechless. His daydream was a small company without a strong legal team. It would be a disadvantage to fight such a lawsuit with a multinational company.

"Then I'll go first, Director Ronald. Procter \u0026 Gamble's legal department will send you the documents to terminate the contract. We will pay the liquidated damages according to the terms."

"Damn Jew," Ronald cursed inwardly, looking at the big, crooked nose of the other party.

"Sorry Ronald, I didn't expect them to think that way." Nisita came over and apologized.

"It's okay," Ronald shook his hand, indicating that it was none of Nisita's business.

It is nothing more than diverting part of the distribution budget to fill in the money that P\u0026G withdraws from the placement of advertisements.

In the future, I will not accept any advertisements of P\u0026G acne cream! But their competitor Unilever can be considered.

"You've got to find me some advertising business, the quick and easy kind." Ronald pulled Nisita into a room.

aside, he said quietly.

"Are you financially?"

"There is no problem now, but the issue fee..."

"I'll arrange it right away and ask those old customers about their intentions."

The money was suddenly short of hundreds of thousands, and Ronald had to temporarily pick up the advertising business he didn't really want to take.

I hope to make two lucrative commercials, which can be finished in a short period of time, to supplement my bank account.