Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 258 Chapter 2

October nineteenth at eight o'clock in the evening.

It was call time for the first day of filming at "fast-paced Richmond High."All actors and crew must arrive at the shooting location - Sherman Oaks department store before this time.

Director Ronald came to the shooting scene 10 minutes earlier.

The first assistant director, Al, has been working here for nearly an hour in advance.

Today is the first day of filming, and everyone arrived early to adapt to the unfamiliar working environment and personnel.

Ronald was taken by Al to the dressing room on the top floor of the shopping mall. It used to be the office of the department store. In order to cooperate with the shooting, 5 rooms were set aside as dressing rooms for actors, as well as warehouses for props, costumes, and other staff.

"Is everything okay?"

"All good, the actors will be in place shortly, the makeup and hairdo will start with makeup and eyelashes for the two leading ladies, actor Robert Romanus has arrived and is getting his hair done, and the costumes will be changed for him shortly."

"Very well, are the producers Lin Sen and Mr. Azoff here?"

"Mr. Lin Sen has arrived. He went to say hello to Jennifer. Mr. Azoff will come later. He came from the office of MCA Music. His secretary called me."

Ronald went through the departments and found Cameron Crowe at the location of the first shot.

Crowe and girlfriend Nancy Wilson watched as DP Matthew worked, their first time watching a film on set.

"Hi, Cameron, Nancy." Ronald greeted them, "Why didn't you see Hekleen?"

"She was still there just now, and she said she was going to pick up important people."

It was nothing more than inviting the upper platform, Ronald knew it well.He wasn't worried at all, except that he had hired someone to stand on stage, and it was also because Hekelin's behavior didn't comply with the set rules.

Making a movie is a large-scale operation involving hundreds of people, which is similar to fighting an army.The crew is a hierarchical society, and the director is the head of the crew, who pays attention to orders and prohibitions.

If someone disobeys the command and wastes a shot, it is a great loss of property and time.In a capitalist society, time is property.

For an extra day of filming, all kinds of people in the crew have to pay an extra day of wages.For a basic supporting role, the union minimum wage is $315. The "fast-paced" crew has many supporting roles, plus some resident extras, the salary of the actors alone is several thousand dollars.

So for a long time, Hollywood has formed a customary rule. Regardless of the struggle at the top, you have to obey the director's orders on the crew, even if you think he is a fool.

Heikelin wanted to replace her as director, so she fired herself with the reason that the quality of her samples was not up to standard, and then replaced her.It will take a few days to shoot before I can use this reason.

In the first few days, all she could do was to attract more actors and staff members to the crew, and to find fault with her director.

"Where's the car prepared by the stunt crew?" Ronald asked Assistant Director Al.

"Here, a Toyota Corolla, a Volkswagen Beetle." Al led him aside, where the stunt crew rested.

"The Corolla first drove by the lane close to the camera, and then the Beetle drove by the far lane, and stopped at the entrance of the mall halfway, where the positioning point was." Ronald ordered in a few words.

The stunt team (Stunts) during filming is not like some people imagined, doing lightsaber stunts like Star Wars, but generally refers to all actions that the actors themselves do not do.The more prominent is vehicle driving, which is usually done by stunt personnel.

One of the drivers on the stunt team was a rare woman in this business, Debbie Evans.She gave Ronald a thumbs up to show that she understood.Stunt personnel like to order specific directors in this way, they are easy to design operations.

"Matthew." Ronald returned to the position where the camera was, and called the director of photography, "This is the first shot, I want a fixed camera position, aiming at the gate of the mall for a panoramic view, and then the scalper Mike from the camera Rear entry, shoot him across the road and into the mall."

The director of photography expressed his understanding, "Did you hear it? The director has spoken, move."

"Very well, I'll go up and rest, and I'll be here before shooting starts at nine o'clock.

After ordering the photography team, Ronald went upstairs to the mall again, and in the small room specially provided for him, he opened the folding chair with his name on the back, sat on it and closed his eyes to rest.

It has been more than two years since I directed a film last time.Finally another chance to call the shots and direct a movie.

And this time, I am the official director, and I have a chair with my name on the back.

At 08:30, the crew assistant knocked on his door.

The scene to be shot today has been thought through several times in my mind.Ronald stood up, took his folding chair, opened the door and went out.

The crew assistant quickly took the chair from his hand, and handed over a metal thermos cup with Lipton black tea brewed in it.This is the refreshing drink ordered by the director.

When we arrived at the shooting site, the lighting had already been set up, and the light perception of the scene was restored very well, not very bright.There is a feeling of night, but the characters and background are illuminated again.

The range of darkness and light that a camera can detect is called the dynamic range, which is much narrower than that of the human eye.The job of the director of photography is to make the light that the camera shoots on the film negative into a comfortable feeling for the eyes.

This is a job that requires theory and experience, and Matthew does it well.

Called in Robert Romanus, who played Scalper Mike, and checked his attire and hairdo.

Ronald felt that there was no problem, and signaled to the first assistant director, Al, to start shooting.

At nine o'clock in the evening, the mall is usually closed at this time, but today the lights are still bright.Groups of pretend customers get ready to walk the streets.

The assistant director held the electric horn to ask all units to pay attention to the preparations for shooting.Immediately, the sound on the scene stopped, leaving only the faint sound of motors, which were stunt vehicles being prepared.

"recording?"

"opened."

"camera"

"Motor full speed"

"Action!"

Al repeats loudly through the electric horn, "Action!"

The camera is aimed at the entrance of the mall to take a panoramic view, and the passers-by and customers played by group actors walk on the road, or enter and exit at the entrance of the mall.

The stuntman drove a small white Toyota Corolla through the driveway in front of the camera.

Robert Romanus, who plays the scalper Mike, wears a slightly oversized light-colored suit with high shoulder pads, dark navy blue pants, a peaked cap, and leather shoes.Runs into the frame from the rear right of the camera.

He quickly ran across the road, waited for the Beetle to stop, walked around behind the car, walked on the opposite sidewalk, and walked into the mall door.

"Cut!"

Ronald looked at the director of photography, and after getting confirmation from Matthew, he said to the assistant director, "This print, we'll make another one."

After filming this scene, Ronald ordered the filming here to end. The camera crew disassembled the camera and prepared to move it to the top floor to shoot the rest of the scene today.

This shot that has just been shot is also the first shot at the beginning of the movie.This is not Ronald's intention, but a coincidence.

Because there is only this one shot outside the mall, the shots for the next week will be shot inside the mall. For the convenience of arrangement, I simply mentioned that it will be the first to shoot.After that, the mall can turn off the lighting equipment in front of the door and close the gate to ensure that the shooting will not be disturbed.

Ronald first went to the top floor, which was divided into two shooting areas.On one side is the movie theater, where the leading actor Mark, the ticket inspector, and the scalper Mike are shot.

On the other side is Perry's Pizza, shot with heroines Stacy and Linda talking about a handsome male customer.

Today the crew hired hundreds of extras to act as customers and staff.After the shopping mall closed, all the lights were turned on normally, and several fast food restaurants were still open, and their staff were still making French fries, pizza, and burgers for the actors and staff as supper.

In return, their store signs will be filmed as free advertising.The snack clerk was also able to mix a shot in the background.

Dan, the art director, is filling the mall with a fake Richmond's sign, plus pompoms and banners.

The director of photography, Matthew, stepped up to install the lights designed and adjusted in advance in the command lighting team to save time.

The lighting arrangement of an indoor play will consume a lot of time.

However, the art director and photography director know that Ronald is an expert and respect them very much.So I am going to sell some strength this time and show some real kung fu.

The two of them jointly designed a lighting system, hiding the lights in the position of normal shopping mall lighting, so that the light path is like the original lighting of the shopping mall.

But the brightness of the light is much brighter than the bulbs in the original shopping mall, which can fully illuminate the scene for shooting, so the main light is very stable.

The lighting engineer does not need to spend two hours to re-set up the lighting every time the camera angle is changed. He only needs to adjust some secondary lamps for the fill light, which saves a lot of time.

Ronald first stood here at Perry's Pizza, and then took the shot here first.

While shooting in the pizzeria, the lighting supervisor would go to the door of the movie theater to prepare the fill light for the next scene.After shooting this side, the light just finished filling up there.

Since the actors on both sides are different, lighting in this way can be done in parallel with the shooting on the other side, saving a lot of time.

This is a quick shooting method that Ronald discussed with the director of photography and art director.

It would be a great boon for the entire crew if we could get some shooting progress in the first week.

Ronald stood still while the camera crew was measuring the focal length, waiting to talk to Phoebe Cates, who was pulling the measuring tape.

"Remember the feeling I said, Phoebe. You're telling a story to Jennifer's Stacy."

"Okay..." Phoebe Cates nodded sharply.This Ronald director is much more relaxed than the previous director when filming "Paradise". He will tell the actors some scenes and inner activities of the actors, but he does not stipulate his own performance methods.

It also gave the actors a lot of time to prepare, allowing them to quietly brew their emotions without being disturbed.

Soon Jennifer Jason Lee, who played Stacy, was also ready. Neither of the two girls was a famous star, and they didn't have stand-ins. They were honestly waiting for the photographer to prepare.The make-up artist is still arranging false eyelashes for them.

Ronald was about to give Jennifer some points.

"Ha, Ronald. Nice to meet you," came a loud, nasty voice.It broke the actor's quiet emotional preparation.

Ronald recognized that it was Tom Mount, the president of Universal, and felt inconvenient.How can a president condescend to come to the crew on the first day of filming, so impatient?And I don't understand the rules of the set, talking loudly before shooting, which destroys the emotional preparation of the actors.

"Good evening, Mr. Mount." Ronald was about to hug him.

Mount held out his hand for a handshake.Ronald quickly changed his posture, shook hands with him, and maintained a peaceful appearance.

"I happen to be free, so I came over with Hekelin to see how the crew is doing." Mount took the initiative to explain.

"Okay, please bring a chair to Mr. Mount." Ronald ordered the assistant director Al, then grabbed him and whispered in his ear, "Go to Cameron Crowe and ask him to find out how Something happened."

Jennifer and Phoebe readjusted themselves, and the lights were in place.After communicating with the director of photography Matthew, Ronald and the director of photography thought that the shooting could start, so they announced the start of the first shooting of this scene.

The camera is behind Phoebe Cates, and it's an over-the-shoulder shot, pointing at Jennifer, and they're having a conversation.

"Do you think he's handsome?" Stacy said to Linda.

"Don't you think he looks like Richard Gere, look at that sexy little ass." Linda replied.

"Do you want to serve his table instead of me?" Stacy was a little shy, wanting to strike up a conversation but afraid of being rejected.

"What are you waiting for? If I didn't have a wonderful boyfriend in Chicago, I would fuck myself." Linda encouraged, "Go, just give him an order."

"Look him in the eyes after ordering, and then whenever he says any joke, pretend it's the funniest joke in the world and show him a big laugh.  … Well, then don't forget to smile."

"Hee hee hee..." Stacy smiled, still a little nervous.

Linda tidied up her clothes and hair and let her pass.

"Cut!"

Ronald thinks it is very good. Although Jennifer is already 19, she can easily play the role of a 15-year-old girl, expressing the emotion of being shy but wanting to meet a handsome guy very well.

Phoebe Cates fully listened to her guidance, and told Linda a lot about her experience in picking up a conversation, giving on-the-spot guidance.The way she talks, like she's telling a great story, is convincing.

"Matthew?" Ronald asked the DP.

"Yes." Matthew asked the operator of the camera, and there was no problem in the whole process.

"This print, let's do it again." Ronald ordered, planning to change the angle after shooting, and take another set of over-the-shoulder shots, this time focusing on Phoebe.

"Wait a minute, don't you think there's something wrong with Phoebe's mood?"

A piercing voice came, and the whole crew swiped and looked over.

It's associate producer Amy Heckling.

"I'm not interfering with your thoughts, the director, but here's a place to discuss." Heikelin lowered her voice, and walked over to talk to Ronald.

The whole crew swiped again and focused their attention on Ronald.

"I think Linda's tone here seems to be telling someone else's story. I think this should be a more mature Linda, like Stacy, who has no boyfriend, imparting her own experience, so it should start from her own experience. Said, there should be a kind of sweetness that reminds me of my boyfriend."

Hekelin talked eloquently.

Tom Mount also sat up in his chair and pretended to be listening attentively.

"What do you think? What do you think?" Ronald didn't discuss how Phoebe Cates should act with him in a matter-of-fact manner, but questioned that she shouldn't challenge her authority on the set.

"I think we should give it a try. What Hekelin said makes sense. Why don't we shoot one according to her idea and make a decision when we watch the samples tomorrow?" Mount said aloud and put forward his "suggestion".

"Why don't you come up with one yourself?" Ronald motioned to the assistant director Al to ask Hekleen to do the show, and he made way for himself.

Because he saw Crowe standing outside the crowd winking at himself, as if there was some news.

Hekleen starts lecturing Phoebe and Jennifer, and the crew and actors look at each other, not knowing what's going on.Who do you listen to?

Ronald took two steps and retreated to the outside of the circle, and Cameron Crowe approached, "I called Lin Sen's assistant, and Spielberg's box office statistics for last weekend showed that 'The Lost Ark of the Covenant' has Ascended.

Simberg went to ET's studio to celebrate his success.Mount disagreed with shooting ET at the beginning, but now he is a little passive and wants to do something to restore the impact. "

"So come to me for confidence?" Ronald thought.

"But Spielberg went to celebrate? He won't come today, right?" I reminded Spielberg's assistant Catherine during the day.

"It's okay. Even without Spielberg, I wouldn't have lost." Ronald's mind was racing, how would he refute Hekleen when he watched the samples tomorrow?How to get support from producers?

(End of this chapter)