Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1196 Cutting method of cutting feet to fit shoes

In the past two days, Ronald's main job has become a proud father.Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, Roger Corman and his wife, Cameron, Tom Cruise and others all came to congratulate Ronald on the birth of his eldest son.

Aunt Karen decided to stay here for a few weeks to help Ronald.My aunt highly recognized the experience of the domestic helper Wang Ma, saying that white people used to have a family tradition of grandmothers imparting experience in raising children, but now most children form small families, and this tradition has basically disappeared on the east and west coasts.

However, Diane felt that the Chinese custom of staying indoors for a month after giving birth and not getting out of bed was very unscientific. She had already started walking and doing yoga a few days after giving birth.

"Aha, Jonathan... come and see my son Roger... Kurosawa said he is very photogenic..."

On this day, Jonathan Demme was in the Bahamas, completing the final shots of "The Silence of the Lambs" with Anthony Hopkins, and brought the entire film to Los Angeles for printing.

"Aha, she's just as cute as Romona when she was born..." Demi's eldest daughter happens to be over two years old, at a stage where she is not very good at talking, gets angry easily, and is very curious.

The two fathers exchanged their parenting experiences and then started talking about the Silence of the Lambs project.

"How is the situation at Orion?" Jonathan Demi was very satisfied with the project he had just completed. However, as soon as he arrived in Los Angeles, he heard his agent talk about the recent rumors circulating in the industry that Orion's boss, John Kluge, had been affected. Enough of Orion's constant loss of money, the company needs to be sold.

"There is no problem for the time being. This matter has not been announced yet. Please don't spread it... Recently they signed a big contract, 500 million..."

Ronald quietly told Jonathan Demme about a big deal that Orion had struck with Sony during this time.

Before Mike Medavoy resigned, he secured the last big deal for his old club. After repeated bargaining, the deal was finally concluded.Columbia Pictures, owned by Sony, signed an agreement with Orion Pictures to pay Orion Pictures US$1.75 million to buy out the ownership of their films and TV shows distributed overseas.

With this income, Orion, which had not had a single hit movie for two consecutive years and had lost all money, finally began to turn the numbers on its financial statements into black.

However, there are still many twists and turns in this matter.Columbia CEO Peter Guber really wanted to turn this incident into his first important political achievement in Colombia.His disputes with Jon Peters and Warner Bros. made him less popular within the new company.

The legal dispute ended after Sony paid a considerable price to exchange many television stations, film assets, and studios in Burbank with Warner Bros. for a complete studio in the suburbs.

However, an interview with the Wall Street Journal reported that Sony may have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the long run (estimates range from 3 million to 10 billion, depending on the attitude of those analysts towards Sony).Guber desperately needed a good deal to silence the gossips within the company.

Although Jon Peters treated Ronald very badly and tried to persuade him that this was not a good deal.But except for the olive branch extended by Ronald's people and former Orion president Mike Medavoy, Columbia Pictures has no projects that can immediately achieve effects of this magnitude.

In the end, Mike Medavoy went to TriStar Pictures to manage film production and distribution, assisting Frank Price. This allowed Guber to quickly agree to the asking price insisted on by Orion's boss, the richest man Kluge.

“So, the distribution of your film, and Costner’s Dances with Wolves , can proceed as normal.

In fact, there is an extra insurance cushion. Samsung Pictures will coordinate overseas distribution. In this way, the financial pressure on Orion's distribution work will be much less. As long as you focus on building a reputation in the domestic market, you don't have to worry about overseas distribution. "

"That's very reassuring..." Jonathan Demi was still not reassured, but he didn't want to be too harsh on Ronald.After all, without Ronald's strong support, this film would be much inferior.

"Actually, Orion has returned to the path they relied on for success in the past, and the wrong blockbuster strategy has been abandoned..." Ronald told Demi the last bit of Orion's internal information he knew through Mike Medavoy. .

When the financial market relaxed, Orion also joined the competition for blockbusters. Like Cannon, they began to play the game of big stars, big productions, and big investments.It gave up the usual practice of mid-range productions that relied on the past and relying on the joint efforts of the artistic team to win the box office.

But after boss Klug defeated the acquisition war launched by Viacom's Redstone and topped the rich list, he began to pay special attention to the reputation of his business investment.The big investment in Orion is no longer supported, so as not to bear the reputation of being taken advantage of and destroy the wise image of the richest man.

After two consecutive years of large-scale production failures, Orion returned to its original medium-sized route, and rediscovered Dennis Hopper, the director of "Easy Rider" who fired the first shot of the New Hollywood movement, and gave him the role for the TV series "Miami" Don Johnson, the actor of "The Storm" fame and husband of Melanie Griffith, and the hope of a Jewish actress, the young Jennifer Connelly, filmed a "Hot Spot"

In addition, there is a two-part medium-sized production of "Fate" starring two obviously promising actors, Sean Penn and Ed Harris.In this way, in terms of cash, this year's Orion is the most generous in three years.

"Dances with Wolves" and "Silence of the Lambs" won't be a drag on the release of the two films as long as those two movies don't turn out to be huge flops.

"Don't worry, Jonathan, if it doesn't work out, I'll still have my back. Mike Medavoy and I have already left a clause in the contract. If Orion cannot be released, I will get the distribution rights. Don't worry... "

"I still hope that there will be no problems with Orion. We will handle the distribution ourselves. After all,..."

"I hope so...I'm very confident." Ronald also knew that without the release schedule that Orion had negotiated in advance at the Western Film Exhibition in Las Vegas, the film would still be greatly affected.

But the richest man Kluge has already made money through the Colombian contract, and his business reputation has been preserved. As long as he is willing, his pockets are bottomless...

After seeing off Jonathan Demme, Ronald sighed and called Kevin Costner again.

Unlike Demi, who has very high artistic standards and doesn't need to worry about the later stages of the film, Kevin Costner's first time as a director, not only did he have many beginner problems during filming, but there were also many problems in the later stages. trouble.

The length of the film that Ronald and he had set was 180 minutes, but after Costner cut the five-hour version, the progress was slow and he didn't know how to edit it.

Costner fell into a common trap of novice directors, thinking that here and there would be good, and unwilling to cut out any scene that had been painstakingly shot.

Editor Neil Travis, who kept in constant contact with Ronald, also called Ronald and asked him to come over and give Costner some pointers.

After making an appointment, Ronald came to Orion's editing room in Burbank.

"Kevin, I heard that your editing progress is slow. Let me take a look. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Oh, Ronald, it's great that you're here. I'm stuck in a weird circle now. I don't dare to cut any scene, for fear that if I cut it wrong, it will affect the overall situation..."

It was much better than expected. Costner still realized that he had a problem and did not reject Ronald's opinion.

"Tell me, why can't this be cut?" Ronald saw a long shot playing on the editing machine. The pictures were full of woods on the mountains, which were very beautiful.

If Ronald were to edit, he might keep this section for a few seconds to give the audience a very favorite visual image, and then cut the rest because he could no longer provide the audience with extra stimulation.However, he did not express any opinions rashly, but wanted to listen to the director's opinions first. "Dunbar and Kicking Bird ride through a beautiful forest in the Grand Teton Mountains, only to discover that the area is filled with dead trees and dead animals left behind by white trappers..."

Costner pointed to the monitor. The two small dots on the screen were Dunbar, played by himself, and the Indian Kicking Bird on horseback. They didn't look particularly eye-catching in the long shot.

Ronald fast forwarded a section and found that the rhythm of the entire movie was completely different from the commercial films he was good at...The length of the lens was about twice as long as the current Hollywood lens, and it even felt like a 50s movie. rhythm.

But these pictures are a kind of nature rarely seen in recent movies. At a glance, they can give rise to an empty and wild mood, which is very unique.

"Oh, God, this movie is really unique..." Ronald fast forwarded many times and found that he couldn't cut it either.

"Yeah, yeah, look here." Costner found another scene on the editing machine, which was a bison hunting scene. There were two bison in it. Under the lighting conditions of the magic time of the sunset, they seemed to be happening with the camera. some special chemical reactions.

The Indians wanted to hunt bison, but they did not waste it, but only took what they needed for life. After shooting the bison, they would pray for them and thank them for dedicating food to themselves.

This is similar to the scene just now. The white colonists killed a bunch of animals in the woods, but only took the most valuable fur parts and wasted the other parts of the animals in nature, forming a distinct Compared.

The problem is that in order to achieve this feeling of empathy for the audience, to spontaneously identify with the Dakota Indians' philosophy of harmonious coexistence with nature, and to be disgusted with the cruelty and waste of white industrialization, these lengthy scenes are necessary. Less.

In other words, the inherent rhythm of this movie is slow and lyrical.Rather than dramatic conflict, quickly.

Ronald also fell into deep thought. To achieve such a feeling of empathy from the audience, three hours is really not enough...

If he were given longer time, there is no doubt that no cinema would be willing to give it many screens.But if it is edited like an ordinary Hollywood movie, it is better to keep the original editing rhythm, or even only retain half of the plot, which will be more touching than random editing.

"Huh?" Ronald figured out something.

When he was studying with Walter Murch, Murch once taught him that in addition to the usual editing method of editing according to the rhythm and direction of the material itself, there is another editing method that can be tried.

"Well, I have a way here, you guys try it..."

With that said, Ronald put on the first editing tape, then turned the big dial to the fast forward position.

"Zi..." The motor drove the editing tape forward rapidly, and at the 10-minute mark, Ronald clicked to the pause position.

"Here, it's the first 10 minutes. If you want to have a small climax that makes the audience fully immersed, what do you think is here?"

"Well...it's the scene of Lieutenant Dunbar rushing into the enemy's position in order to win the war..." Costner saw a close-up of a cavalryman on the monitor. It was his own character Dunbar rushing into the battle.

"Well, write it down..."

Ronald pressed fast forward again and advanced to 10 minutes, "What is this?"

The picture shows a common caravan in the Western era. This is a shot of Lieutenant Dunbar getting the most remote border outpost, giving him the order to advance, finding the only coachman who would go there, and setting out on the road to the western frontier. .

"Well, this is good, it's just a turning point in the plot..."

"Zi..." He fast forwarded to 10 minutes, "What is this?"

The picture shows Dunbar carrying a bucket and fetching water from a lake. He sees the skeleton of a deer in the lake and discovers that it is full of dangerous scenes.

"This point is the scene that prepares Lieutenant Dunbar for entering the most dangerous outpost infested by Indians..." Costner thought he had found Ronald's idea and took the initiative to write it down in his notebook.

"This doesn't work, keep going, Zhi... Zhi... Hey, what is this?" Ronald fast forwarded and found a shot of three Indian warriors with their faces painted in red and white patterns. .

"It was the savage Comanche warriors who killed the coachman so that no one would know where Lieutenant Dunbar was..." Costner replied.

"Well, the 10-minute mark is right here. You need to cut out the middle shot so that this point falls on this scene..."

"Okay, I'll write it down." Costner also understood that since the method of starting from a rough cut of five hours and then slowly editing downwards, it is like when cooking pasta, slowly reducing the sauce. The slow-boil method won't work.

Then just do it the other way around and start from scratch.First decide on a few time points that the movie needs, and then fast forward there to see if there is a logical connection between the shots.

If you can, then find a way to make up that time with film in between.If it doesn't work, then keep moving forward until you find a shot that matches the current time point, and then cut off the middle shot to match the time.

In other words, normal editing is like a tailor custom-making a suit for someone, taking the measurements, and then slowly making the pattern. After trying it on a few times, adjusting the details, the final result is a suit that fits perfectly.

But the rhythm of movies now is different, like clothes made by a person with strange proportions of hands, feet and torso, and a different length than ordinary people.If we use this tailor-made method, the tailor has no experience and the efficiency is too low.

Ronald simply brought over a piece of ready-made clothing, and then cut off the weirdo's hands and feet according to this model, forcing him to wear normal clothes. It didn't matter whether the exciting part was cut off or not.

"That's it. It seems that you have mastered the method. I will give you another month. Then we will take the three-hour version for a test screening..."

Ronald demonstrated a few scenes and then turned the editing over to Costner and the editors.

"Aren't you going to continue? I feel that with you here, our efficiency is much higher..." Editor Neil Travis felt that with Ronald's authority, Costner would be easier to talk to.

"I have to go back to spend time with my wife and son..." Ronald chuckled. How can I go home and enjoy a happy family life with you rough old men?

(End of this chapter)