Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 157 Chapter 1 Responsibilities of the First Assistant Director

"That's it?" asked the Fedex courier in purple overalls.

"That's all." This is Ronald's script in the copy shop. After punching the copy, he bound it with two 1.25-inch No. 5 copper nails. 96 pages plus the front and back covers, the copper nails are still longer than the photocopy.

Ronald used two washers to increase the thickness, and then used a hammer to flatten the heads of the copper nails so that readers would not cut their hands.

I sent three copies to the headquarters of CAA, which was more expensive than long-distance faxing, but the advantage was that the text was clear, and it would not be difficult to read in some places like a fax.

Then Ronald first sent Michelle Pfeiffer to the fitness center to exercise. Since returning to a balanced diet, Pfeiffer has attached great importance to maintaining her body. The next day, she went to the gym for aerobic training and did yoga at home. .

Ronald did not practice in the fitness center today, but was invited by director Zeffirelli to go to his office to discuss the preparations before shooting.The Italian began to enter the filming state and stayed in the office on Saturday to prepare.

Polygram had set aside part of the New York record company's offices for the film department, and Zeffirelli worked in the building on Eighth Avenue.

When Ronald entered the door, he saw a poster of the band's signing last month. On the poster were four band members, each holding up a face mask to cover their own faces.This is the KISS band discovered by Polygram's Casablanca Records. The members have always been shown with heavy makeup painted like cats. Fans don't know what they look like.

After finding Zeffirelli's office, Ronald knocked on the door and entered.

"Ha, Ronald, glad you're here." Zeffirelli kissed him.

"I've seen the storyboards of the plots related to Miss Pfeiffer you drew. How about it? Do you want to be my first assistant director?"

"This?"

Ronald was a little surprised. The first assistant director is the director's right-hand man, one of the few candidates selected by the director, and the producer can't comment on the key position.

Before the filming starts, he is like the director's secretary, doing a lot of preparatory work. After the filming, he is like the director's arm, carrying out the director's will on the set, and managing dozens or hundreds of people in a large filming set in an orderly manner.

At Ronald's young age, it is not suitable to be the first assistant director. Generally, he starts as the assistant of the second assistant director, then the second assistant director, and then he is qualified to be promoted to the first assistant director.

"Of course, you are only responsible for the plot decomposition before the filming. My assistant director Robert Girolami, because the filming of Stallone's "Nighthawk" was postponed, is temporarily unable to make it through. You can help me with the work of dividing the script scene in the early stage. .”

This is the first assistant director's first important job on the crew, and it usually starts in the penultimate week before the filming starts.The so-called plot decomposition is to separate each scene in the script and group the scenes in the same scene to facilitate shooting planning.

For example, in "Endless Love", there are many scenes in the home of the heroine Jed, and there are many scenes in the script from the beginning until the hero David sets fire to the house.

And these scenes will be shot in one time period to facilitate the carpentry decoration, prop layout, and lighting of the crew, which can greatly reduce the cost of shooting.

Only a few rich and powerful crews will shoot each scene in the order of the script in order to make the actors' performances more accurate. The shooting budget of "Endless Love" is 800 million US dollars, which can only be regarded as a medium production in Hollywood, and it was shot according to the principle of concentrated shooting of scenes.

"You not only have to divide the script from the marks on the script, but sometimes the screenwriter may not be accurate, such as here." After the director Zeffirelli and Pfeiffer shared an agent, their attitude towards Ronald was much more friendly, which can be regarded as half-hearted. own person.

"For example, this scene, Jed is coming down the stairs, and you see the lover sleeping in front of the fireplace in the living room. If you capture it on camera, what would you do?"

"I'd put a solid shot of Jed coming down the stairs, and follow Jed down the stairs. Then cut to the reaction shot of the hero, David."

"Very good, but there is a problem here. The screenwriter only marked the interior, night scene, and night. And the two shots you just mentioned had to be lit twice, and Jed had to walk from the top of the stairs all the way down. Here we In fact, it can be divided into two scenes, the wooden staircase, and the living room in front of the fireplace."

Zeffirelli began teaching Ronald some techniques for segmenting scenes.

"Then in the decomposed scenes, you put all the same scenes together, and you get a shooting schedule."

Ronald nodded, and began to look at the markings of each scene in the script, marking the highlights with a highlighter.

"In the shooting schedule, you also need to pay attention to which scenes are marked, which require different makeup, props, vehicles, or special shooting methods."

"Like the scene where Jed's house was set on fire?"

"Yes, you are very smart. This kind of shot needs to be re-planned. We only have one shot, and safety is also very important. Here is a scene cut sheet of Romeo and Juliet script that I shot in the early years. You can use it as a reference. Do Show me when you're done."

"I'll wait for you to do this later. Chat with me now. Can you drink espresso?" Seeing Ronald nodding, Zeffirelli got up and went to the coffee machine to press the button. The 190-degree high-pressure heat Water, rushing through the ground coffee, instantly extracts two cups of Espresso.

After thanking Ronald, he took the small cup and drank it down. Espresso is an espresso, a small cup of refreshing effect can be worth a large cup of undrinkable Americano.

"Is the heroine Brooke Shields or Meg Ryan? Mr. Zeffirelli?" Ronald asked.

"Meg Ryan, I've already made a default appointment, and I'm just waiting for the contract." Zeffirelli also drank his share of coffee, which is the standard Italian way of drinking, "Don't mention work during the break."

"Mr. Zeffirelli, how did your English have no accent? Most Italians in New York always speak English with an Italian accent." Ronald asked a flattering question.

"Call me Franco." Zeffirelli was still savoring the taste of Espresso. "This is actually quite legendary. You won't believe me when I tell you."

Ronald pretended to be listening.

"It started when I was a child. My father and mother, not husband and wife. My father, Cosi, may they rest in heaven, a Florentine silk merchant, my mother, a housewife, and I was the illegitimate child .”

Zeffirelli began to recall the past, and now he can talk about his childhood experiences relatively calmly.

"In Italy, illegitimate children cannot use the father's surname, so my mother came up with Zeffiretti as my surname, which means "Little Sea Breeze" in Mozart's opera, but the employee who was in charge of the registry, spelled it wrong. Zeffirelli."

"My mother died when I was six and my father got me tutors in England, and I grew up in the British expatriate community, a bunch of old British women left over from the First World War. old maids and widows in Italy, the Florentines call them the Scorpions."

"During World War II, they also visited Mussolini and had afternoon tea with him, keeping the British expatriate community from being destroyed by the Italian army. After the Allied forces logged in, I also relied on the English I learned from them, Interpreter and guide for the British and American troops."

……

After listening to director Zeffirelli's youth experience with relish, Ronald took the script and left, and went home to break down the script.

"Ring ring ring ring..."

"Ronnie, there's a girl named Helen looking for you." Donna called from the dance supply store.

"Helen?"

"Is it you, Ronald, I'm here to buy my leg warmers. After your movie was released, the acting students all frantically wanted to buy your leg warmers."

It turned out to be the daughter of PBS Vice President Gerald, Helen Slater.

"Of course, you can pick whatever you want. Two pieces are free, and the rest will be [-]% off for you." Ronald said on the phone.

"Aren't you coming? My mom saw your ad for my version of the Carpenter song and brought you a thank you gift."

"Ah, thank you. Well, I'll be right there, soon." Ronald walked to the RTKD dance supply store.

"What is this?" Ronald took a huge package from Helen Slater.

"Open it and have a look." Helen smiled a little.

"Okay," Ronald opened the package vigorously, and it turned out that there was a big placard inside, which read "Eliminate all human nuclear weapons."

"My mother is an anti-nuclear pro bono human rights lawyer." Helen giggled.

"This gift is quite unique." Ronald put the placard in the store, looked at his watch, "I invite you to have dinner with Donna, Helen."

"Why don't you invite us to watch a movie, I haven't watched Fame before."

"Uh, please forgive me. I can't bear to watch my image on the screen many times, and I always feel so contrived." Ronald felt that Gerald didn't want his daughter to see all kinds of negative things in the acting school , maybe using the R rating as an excuse, the daughter is forbidden to go.

"Okay," Helen Slater said sullenly.

"Why don't we watch the fifth part of Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back, have you seen it?" Ronald suggested.

"Okay, I haven't seen it yet." Helen became happy again.Teenagers are always in a good mood.

The large bag of leg warmers that Helen liked was free for two pieces, and the rest was [-]% off. Ronald took Helen and Donna to the cinema not far away.

The "Empire Strikes Back" that was released not long ago is still popular. Although it is the morning show, the seats are still quite full.

"The Empire Strikes Back" had a much bigger budget than the fourth "A New Hope," and the special effects were even more stunning.Ronald watched it very enthusiastically, and some shots felt a little familiar, maybe he had seen it in his previous life.

Helen and Donna couldn't take their eyes off the space chases of the X-fighters and TIE fighters, Master Juda's funny flip lines, and the space monster that almost swallowed the Millennium Falcon.It caused the audience to scream in surprise.

The plot came to the scene where Skywalker Luke and Darth Vader used a lightsaber duel in the spaceship. Luke was forced to stand at the end of the spaceship, and one hand was cut off by Darth Vader with a lightsaber. broken.Luke yelled angrily "You killed my daddy."

Darth Vader steps forward, and Ronald somehow pre-utters the line, "No, I'm your daddy!"

"I'm your father!" The Black Lord on the screen also said the same line, and while Luke yelled "No...", he fell and was caught by the Millennium Falcon.

Helen and Donna looked at Ronald in unison:

"How did you know?"

"So how on earth do you know?" When the three of them were eating lunch, Helen asked Ronald again why he could call out the reversed line in advance.

"At this point in the plot, according to the usual development route, it has entered a dead end. Only an unexpected reversal can make this scene the climax of the movie.

I was wondering what I could do as a screenwriter.There is only one way, Vader is Luke's father Anakin, so he can't help shouting. " Ronald explained to the two.

Donna looked disbelieving, "Did you sneak a look first?"

"No, I think he was quite surprised when he saw Han Solo being carbonized." Helen said.

"Is your father busy recently?" Ronald didn't know how he blurted out, and changed the subject.

"Yeah, he's been very busy recently, and he can't even make an appointment by calling his secretary." Helen replied.

"Really? What's the matter?" Ronald asked.

"I don't know, my dad didn't mention it."

After sending Helen and Donna back to the store, Ronald walked home alone and continued to break down the script.

(End of this chapter)