Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 275 Universal Wants to Send Someone to Check

"Hahaha..." Eric, the editor, looked at the picture on the monitor and couldn't help laughing.

"Your screenwriter is a genius. Although I have watched it many times, I still laugh out loud every time I see it."

Ronald couldn't help laughing too, it was Stacy's older brother Brad on the screen.He was fired by All American Burgers because of a dispute with a customer. In order to repay the installment loan of his beloved four-door luxury car, he had to go to the competitor "Captain Hook Fish and Chips" fast food to work.

On the way to deliver food to IBM, the store manager asked him to wear a full Scottish skirt and a big-brimmed hat with a pirate logo.

At a red light intersection, on a convertible sports car next to him, a beautiful woman with blond hair and blue eyes, wearing a purple and pink two-tone cashmere sweater, kept smiling at him.

At first Brad thought that the beauty was looking behind him, but the constant smile and sizing made him think that the beauty fell in love with him at first sight, so he responded with a smile showing his teeth, and winked at the beauty.

The beauty found him more and more ridiculous, she couldn't help laughing and covered her face, and when the green light came on, she stepped on the gas and left.

It was only then that Brad realized that he had misunderstood. He looked at his pirate hat in the rearview mirror, and angrily grabbed it off and threw it out of the car window.

"That's the girlfriend of screenwriter Cameron Crowe, Nancy Wilson. The guitarist of the women's rock 'Hearts'." Ronald pointed to the beautiful woman in the freeze-frame picture on the screen and said, "If you watch MTV If so, their MV music video is currently being broadcast.”

"No wonder she looks familiar." Editor Eric laughed.

Editing has been going on for two weeks, and Ronald and Eric are a little out of touch with the real world, soaked in the editing room from morning till night, immersed in the fantasy world depicted in the film.

"Would you like a cup too?" Ronald picked up the thermos and poured black tea out, and asked Eric.

"Okay, I'll have a cup too, I see you drinking this every day, don't you drink coffee?"

"Coffee is like usury, it refreshes you for a few hours, and you will get it back with double sleepiness a few hours later. Black tea is more like an installment loan, smoothing the peaks and valleys of your concentration."

The two drank a cup of black tea, and then threw themselves into hard work.

"Fast-paced Richmond High School", the recent editing work has encountered a bottleneck, and the progress is not fast.Ronald made the first cut, and each character in the complete story has a vivid image and emotions in place. The only big problem is that the duration exceeds 115 minutes, which is more than 90% longer than the 20 minutes required by the producer.

After watching the first-cut version without the soundtrack, the two producers decided to release it in 115 minutes to persuade Universal's top management.But after a little testing, it was found to be impossible.

It's the type of teen comedy that Universal uses to fill out the annual slump.After the end of the summer vacation, it is the period with the lowest box office of the year. During this time, few viewers go back to the cinema to watch a feature film of about two hours.

Only light-hearted comedies have a market.The theater chain hopes that the length of the film will be controlled within 90 minutes, so that it is convenient to line up one more show at prime time every night and increase box office revenue.

To reduce the 115-minute film length by 20% without affecting the original story and emotion, this posed a great challenge to Ronald, who was editing a feature film for the first time.

“Here, you can actually cut out a shot of Brad driving the car, and let the shots of Brad and Nancy Wilson intersect, which would have made the audience feel like the two are communicating back and forth.

After Nancy drove away, there was no need to show the shot of Brad starting, just cut to him looking in the rearview mirror and seeing himself as ridiculous as a clown. "

Editor Eric suggested to Ronald.

Ronald thought for a while, and indeed the audience should not have any obstacles in understanding.Today's Hollywood movies no longer follow the requirement of continuity in time and space. For movies before the 50s, this time-space continuity was a rigid rule.

For example, in reality dramas at the time, we often saw shots of characters entering skyscrapers.

Under the dogma of time-space continuity, it is necessary to cut a series of shots of getting on the elevator, closing the elevator door, the elevator indicator light continuously showing that the floor is rising, the elevator on the top floor stops with a ding, the elevator door is opened, and the character walks out of the elevator to explain the character's flow in time and space.

However, the new wave of Chinese people created a new method of editing, and after it spread to Hollywood, it also deeply influenced American movies.

Hollywood directors suddenly discovered that as long as the plot is coherent, after entering the building, cut out all the elevator shots, and directly let the characters open the office door and walk in, the audience will not have any incomprehension.

They automatically omit the unimportant parts in the middle, and light a light bulb in their minds.Oh, and this guy came into the building, went into the office and talked to people.

The continuity of time and space has since been abandoned by Hollywood, and among the six editing principles given by Murch, it is also ranked the least important.

"I think it's okay, let's give it a try." Ronald replied to Eric.

"Okay." Eric operated the editing machine and subtracted that shot.

The editing assistant came over and wrote down the time when the scissors were cut this time, as well as the numbers of the front and rear shots, then picked up the tape, and quickly connected the front and rear shots on the machine.

In the end, she carefully put away the cut film and put it in a plastic bag for record keeping, so as to prevent the director from going back on his word in the future and reconnecting the original shot again.

Ronald and Eric went over the edited footage, and the story and mood were as expected, unaffected.

"Very good, this saves another four seconds." Just like this, the length of time of the film is advancing hard towards the 90-minute mark.

"Hi, Ronald. How's today's progress?" After lunch time, producers Lin Sen and Azoff came to the editing room on time for a "accidental walk".

During this period, they came more and more frequently, sometimes twice a day, once for a walk after lunch, and again after dinner.

Generally speaking, directors are full of love for the film they shoot, and cutting off any part is like cutting off the hands and feet of their beloved with a scalpel.

Recently Warner Bros. produced "Blade Runner (Blade Runner)", the producer, the star Harrison Ford, and the director Ridley Scott fell out because of the length of editing and the plot, and the two sides have arrived to fight To the point, the grapevine is everywhere in Hollywood.

Ronald wasn't biased about the editing, but the slow pace of progress lately had both producers concerned.

"Not bad, cut off about five seconds in the morning."

The two producers were tense, and the editing speed hadn't increased for several days. This progress may be seriously delayed, and the editing speed will be slower as it goes further. It is likely that the editing speed will not be less than 90 minutes by then.

The two exchanged glances, and it was still Lin Sen who said, "Ronald, we all trust you, but Universal's executives don't know the excellence of this movie, and they will definitely use the 90-minute total length in the contract to restrict it." your."

"I know..." Ronald also had a bit of a headache, "I tried to cut without compromising the story and emotion, but it was difficult, and the speed couldn't be picked up. This is not the kind of farce, every character and story With foreshadowing and highlights, it is difficult for me to cut the whole plot with scissors, and I can only cut the time of each shot."

Azoff couldn't help it a little bit, "You know what, Ronald. There is a voice from Universal executives saying that your movie is not a comedy, but a drama that reflects social reality, or even a tragedy with crying scenes. They also said that you are holding Universal money plays by itself.

Tom Mount is going to send an experienced director to check the progress, and if it is not satisfactory, he will intervene. "

Ronald frowned, and he didn't know who spread the out-of-context rumors.

There was indeed a crying scene during filming, but that's when Phoebe Cates' Linda, after being unable to conjure up an imaginary Chicago boyfriend to her prom, cried and explained to her friend Stacy, Obviously a humorous comedy scene, nothing to do with tragedy.

As for reflecting social reality, this is a modern teenage comedy. Is it normal to reflect some social reality?
Like Stacy getting pregnant unexpectedly, going to a free clinic funded by Women's Liberation of California.For example, Brad worked in a 71 convenience store and was robbed at gunpoint by teenage robbers.

But these plots are all told in the background of light comedy, and there is no such heavy atmosphere as "famous all over the world". "Fast-paced" as a whole will make the audience laugh from time to time.

"Okay, I see, I'll speed things up."

Ronald was angry in his heart, this Mount was always making trouble for himself, and now he has to send someone to check, this kind of thing is the most taboo in artistic creation.Could it be that when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine frescoes, the church would let Leonardo da Vinci come to check his artistic ability halfway?

As a last resort, Ronald had to work two more hours of overtime every day, but this exhausted the editor Eric and the two editing assistants, and the editing efficiency plummeted.

Seeing that the progress was getting slower and slower, Ronald suppressed the irritability in his heart and gave Eric and his assistant a day off.

He himself also had the opportunity to reorganize his thoughts and at the same time let his restless mind relax.

But Ronald had few friends in Los Angeles.Jim Cameron couldn't bear it anymore, he borrowed some money from himself, scraped together and bought a plane ticket, and flew to Rome, Italy. He couldn't stand his film being cut randomly, so he went to negotiate with the producer up.

Gail Hurd is getting more and more busy, and now oversees four crews at the same time. She seems to have a chance to be promoted to vice president.

Ronald had no friends to tell his distress, so he had to watch TV at home to amuse himself.Fortunately, MTV gave him a lot of joy, and the various wonderful editing methods there made people brain-opening.

MTV didn't have enough footage, and after a few minutes, it was repeated again. Ronald picked up the remote control and changed to a news station.

"In the San Francisco community, a mysterious disease has been found to be prevalent, usually among gay men, and local doctors say there is no evidence that the disease is contagious."

"San Francisco?" Ronald was taken aback. He hadn't contacted Walter Murch for a long time. He is an Oscar-winning editing expert. If he encounters difficulties in editing, why don't he ask him for advice?

After Merch left Diorama, he didn't do any film editing or sound design.Ronald didn't have his phone.

After many inquiries through the brokerage company, he got a phone number of a house in the countryside where he lived with his wife and children.

"Hi, I'm looking for Mr. Walter Murkey. I'm his friend Ronald."

"Daddy, someone is looking for you." The person who answered his phone seemed to be Murzi's youngest daughter.

"Hi Ronald, long time no see, how are you now?"

"I'm shooting a small youth film for Universal. I encountered some problems in editing, so I have to ask you for advice."

"Oh, look, Ronald, you have finished your directing work, and I am still in the script preparation stage."

"That's different. Yours is a big production, but mine is an exploitation film."

"Haha, there is no difference between big and small movies."

Merch chatted with Ronald for a few words, and then listened to Ronald describe his predicament.

"It's like cooking tomato sauce when making spaghetti. There is no shortcut for editing. You can only slowly collect the juice, cut a little here, cut a little there, and finally boil out a bowl of delicious sauce."

"I think so too, but Universal is not satisfied with my progress, and some rumors are spreading on the upper echelons, they may send another director to check my editing progress, I am also a little anxious."

"Well, if you really can't help it, try the 'Procrustean bed', which is also an editing method. I wouldn't do it myself, but George Luca This is how Adams edited the film, you can try it.”

Seeing that Ronald was in trouble from above, Walter Murch thought of a trick for him.

(End of this chapter)