Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 263 The script is the root of everything
This morning, the film from the first day was developed and sampled.Ronald, Matthew, Hekelin and other core members of the crew will watch the sample film together with representatives of producers Lin Sen, Azoff, and Tom Mount in Universal's screening hall.

With the jammed cassettes in hand, Ronald went to Universal with DP Matthew.Before seeing the dailies, the two went to the producer to complain.

"I said a long time ago that this pile of rubbish is not good, and now it has seriously affected the shooting." Ronald put the big film box on the producer's desk.

"Fortunately Matthew was careful, and we finished most of the shoot, but in the end it got stuck again. Ruined a box of film, and some of our shots."

"What's going on?" Asked the producers Lin Sen and Azoff who were going to watch the sample.

"Just like your secretary's printer often jams, the film jams in this UltraJam. It has happened twice. What if he jams during an important shot? I don't know. Dare to think."

Lin Sen's face was a bit ugly, this is a big problem, camera failure should not appear in Universal Cast's movie.If the crew shuts down due to a camera failure, then he, the producer, is also responsible, because he agreed to use the UltraCam brand machine.

Another producer, Azoff, knew very little about technical equipment, and at this time he tried to think of a way, "Can't we ask the manufacturer to repair it?"

"Of course, but the manufacturer of UltraCam...um." Lin Sen remembered the rumors he heard in the technical department.This camera is actually made by hand. The producer has some connections with the studio and wants to open up the market first and then improve the product quality.

Therefore, the quality of UltraCam cameras varies greatly between individuals, and some parts cannot be used interchangeably. The crew happened to be unlucky and got a camera with quality problems.

"Let's find the experts in the photography department, maybe they have a solution." Lin Sen asked a photography assistant to take the machine to see if there is any way to repair it.

"Let's find a spare camera and let Ronald and his crew use it first?" Azoff suggested again.

"It's not too appropriate. Different cameras have different lens optical path designs, and there will be subtle differences in perspective distortion. The shots shot by different cameras before and after the audience will see different styles." Director of Photography Matthew said.

"Let's watch the samples first, and when we're done here, the camera will almost have the results."

Today is the first day to watch the sample, and several producers and high-level representatives sat down one by one.Ronald also sat with the core members of the crew, next to Cameron Crowe, and Hekleen sat on the other side. She still felt that she was unique in directing actors and wanted to see the effect of the sample.

A white light came on, and a silent image lit up on the screen.

Both treatments of the same scene, shot by Hekleen and Ronald, and Ronald's rush shot of the kid haggling with the scalper Mike, are recreated on-screen.

After the samples were released, the lights came on.

The two producers didn't have any objections, and the high-level representatives didn't say a word, just taking notes.On the whole they seem to be happy with their first day of filming, with Ronald proving he can make at least one decent low-budget teen exploitation film.

Ronald looked at the blank screen, lost in thought, his brows were furrowed, as if he had found something wrong.He said to Cameron Crowe and producers Lin Sen and Azoff beside him, "Can you see it? It seems that the picture is a bit foggy?"

"Fog?" Azoff didn't see any difference.

"It's a little bit, about 20% of the film is a bit serious."

"Yes, this one is obviously different from the last one." Lin Sen is more familiar with filming than Azoff, and he can see it.

Heikelin came over and joined the discussion, "Ronald, Mr. Lin Sen, have you also found the problem?"

"Huh?" Ronald was awakened from his contemplation, "There are some problems, we have to go to the photography technical department later..."

Technical department? "Heikelin lowered her voice and said in Ronald's ear,

"I was referring to the scene where Linda is teaching Stacy, and you filmed the performance. Linda said that from the point of view of remembering her own experience, and you filmed it as a storytelling. I said no By challenging your authority, I just hope the movie gets better."

Heklin knew that she had little hope of replacing Ronald since Simberg and Spielberg took the stand for Ronald.Mount also has no plans to take further action, saying it will be a later date.

She has observed Ronald's every word and deed in the crew for the past two days, preparing for her own independent direction of the film in the future.

But after all, Judge Reinhold and Jennifer Jason Lee are all actors introduced by her relationship, and she doesn't want their acting careers to be delayed by the "fast pace".

Especially Jennifer, who turned down her father, Vic Morrow, for the role of "Officer and Gentleman", if Ronald misled her...

So she came anyway, and privately pointed out to Ronald what she felt was inappropriate.

Ronald reached out and asked Crowe for a script, with some pages pasted on it with post-it notes, without saying a word, and handed it to Heklein.This was originally what he was going to use to fight back against Heklin at the sample viewing meeting, but now she asked the question privately, showing that she had already conceded defeat, so there was no need to fight back publicly.

"what is this?"

"See for yourself, I asked Crowe to highlight all the relevant lines that Phoebe Cates' characters say."

Hekelin opened the script in doubt, and looked at the dialogue paragraphs that Crowe had marked with colored markers.It was Linda who recounted to Stacy the conversations she had with her boyfriend, Doug.

"If I hadn't had a perfect boyfriend in Chicago who worked in college...

Doug works for Chicago Air...

Doug averages 20-30 minutes...

Doug can do 30-40 minutes at a time…

……

"

"What? Every time she talks about Doug, the details are different? This boyfriend Doug is Linda's fantasy?" Heikelin shouted.

"Yes, look at Linda's performance in the swimming pool." Ronald pointed to the script.

Hekelin turned to the swimming pool scene.

Stacey and Mark and Mike are playing in the swimming pool together, Linda is wearing a red bikini, sitting with her head bowed by the pool...

"what do you mean……"

"Yeah, Linda has never had any experience with men and women, so she has a psychological barrier to playing water fight games with boys in the swimming pool, so she entered the room and saw Brad..."

Cameron Crowe explained to Hekleen in detail.

"Linda did this because...?" Hekelin suddenly had a new understanding of this role.

"Yeah, that's what teenage sex is all about. Everyone talks about it, but very few actually do it."

"Why? How did you find out." Hekelin was unprepared for these devils hidden in the details.

"It's my adaptation of the script. Linda's behavior and speech are inconsistent. It's very obvious." Ronald replied.

"Oh, thank you for telling me this." Hekelin closed the script and handed it back to Crowe.

"It seems that if you want to be a good director, you have to write your own script." Heikelin knew in her heart, "At least you have to communicate with the screenwriter about the details of each character."

"But I like your handling of Jennifer's call from a handsome customer. What is the reason for this slight fear?" Ronald turned back and asked Heikelin.After watching the sample, he himself felt that Hekelin's handling was more realistic than his own.

"Oh, you don't understand girls' psychology, Ronald. Before going out with a man for the first time, we are always nervous. You don't know what kind of person you are dealing with. What is his personality, temper? Well, will it be brutal, you know men are always stronger than women."

Heikelin replied, "Especially Stacy has no experience with men, she can't predict."

"That makes sense, thank you." Ronald thanked Heikelin and put on his sunglasses. "I'm going to the photography technical department. There are some problems with some of these samples. Would you like to go with me?"

"Is there a problem? Why didn't I find out?" Hekelin said to herself, "Wait for me, let's go there together."

Several people came to the photography technical department, and the photography assistants of the crew were anxiously waiting for their arrival.

"Matthew, Ronald. They haven't found out what the problem is. They simply checked the film winding motor and tried it several times. It doesn't look like a motor failure."

"It's not like?" Ronald was angry, and his words were a little heavy.Most of the time when shooting on location, there is no problem with the film jamming, but the one-night shooting has been reproduced twice.He has to find out why.

"Uh...uh, what I mean is that the technicians didn't rule out the problem with the motor, but after testing the machine, they didn't find any signs of problems." The photography assistant was startled by Ronald's tone.

"Ronald." Matthew, the director of photography, called Ronald, "Don't blame him, let's talk to the technical experts."

"Okay, this camera is really in trouble, I'm a little anxious." Ronald said to the assistant.

"Hi, Matthew, are you here?" The technical expert saw Matthew coming and greeted him.

"This is Ronald Lee, our director..." Matthew introduced everyone to him.

"What's the problem?" Ronald asked urgently.

"It could be a mismatch between the motor and magazine housing, it could be a problem with the gearing, or it could be the very rare case of the motor intermittently overheating."

"So you're not sure either?"

"I can't help it. The after-sales service of this manufacturer is extremely poor. I was opposed to buying their products at the beginning. What the film industry needs is stable quality assurance, not one or two technical highlights."

Seeing Ronald's displeased face, he looked like he was about to explode.The director of photography, Matthew, quickly interrupted the other party's self-complaint.

"Do you have any solutions? There is still 20% of the film fogging problem, how to deal with it?"

"We have no choice but to wait for someone from the manufacturer to explain."

"You!" Ronald was very angry at the attitude of the so-called technical experts, and he was about to spray if he took a step forward.

"We went to Alonso, he may be able to solve your problem." The technical expert was taken aback by his action, and quickly said a person's name.

"Who is Alonso?"

"John Alonso, a photographer, often went to various production crews to fight fires and solve problems that other photographers could not solve. Many times, he solved problems that ordinary people could not solve.

He is a descendant of Mexican immigrants in Texas, and many people say he has Mayan witchcraft. "The director of photography Matthew explained next to him.

"Okay, let's wait a little longer. If it doesn't work, we'll have shifts and rest, and we'll have to shoot at night. If the people from the manufacturer can't fix it, we'll replace it with Alai. At worst, we'll reshoot the previous two days."

(End of this chapter)