Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 276 Bariatric Surgery
The Bed of Proclustes is an ancient Greek fable about the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea.opened an inn on the road to Athens.

There is an iron bed in the hotel, and any traveler whose height is longer than the iron bed will be shortened.If it is shorter than the iron bed, it will be forcibly stretched.The passengers who left the hotel the next day were all the same height.

What Walter Murch meant was to reverse the current editing process.Instead of subtracting time from the first-cut copy, first set a 90-minute time frame, divide the film into a three-act structure with beginning, middle, and end, and then fill it in with material to fill up the time period.

"George's 'Star Wars', that's what it does, and if you're lucky, you'll get an exceptionally good story, but there's a good chance it's going to be one that's missing an important part. Like those tall men in the fable , was chopped off by the innkeeper."

Ronald put the phone down and rethought this new method that Merch had taught.

Indeed, this is a completely different way of thinking from the original approach.The original method is like a fat man doing fitness, some insignificant fat can be eliminated through surgery.

The advantage of this method is that it will not cut out important plots, and maintain the integrity of the story and emotions of the whole film.

But therein lies the downside.Like a fat man losing weight.The beginning part is always fast, but after a certain weight is reached, it will be difficult to lose weight.

The method of "Bed of Proklustus" is like setting a goal of losing weight. If the target is not reduced, surgery will be performed to cut the fat.

Surgical cutting out the film will always achieve the goal of length, but if the operation is not careful, it will not be cut like the original story.

It seems that some people who have undergone weight loss surgery have removed the fat from their stomachs, but the skin is still the same size and wrinkled when squeezed.

After much consideration, Ronald decided to try the method of Proclustes' bed.This filling-in-the-blank editing method has also become a classic. Maybe there are some angles that were not thought of before, so that the material can tell a better story?
And what is imminent is that Universal executives will send a film director to check the edited film, and if the cut is less than 90 minutes, they will give someone another excuse.

Ronald kept wondering how he could take full advantage of this approach while maintaining the integrity of the story and mood.After all, this is a multi-protagonist story, each with its own beginning, middle, and end in three acts.

I tossed and turned on the bed and thought for a long time, but couldn't find a good solution.But Ronald couldn't give up looking for a suitable way to edit the movie.

This movie was filmed by myself, and there are really many levels.From reading Crowe's novels, to script preparation, to David Lynch's resignation of the director, and finally he and Heikelin competed for the director's position, step by step, he will not give in easily.

Suddenly, Ronald, who was half asleep and half awake in bed, remembered the card method he used when writing the script.

At that time, because there were so many characters and plots, I wrote the plots on forty cards and arranged and combined the plots on the pine board.

Immediately jumped out of bed, found the shoebox where the plot cards were placed, and Ronald dumped the cards on the table.

After several months of preparatory shooting, these plots have been turned into sections of film and audio tapes.After the actor's creation, some plots are completely different from my original intention at the time.

Relying on his memory, Ronald took out another stack of cards and wrote on it the plot of the finished film, some of his own feelings, and his evaluation of the performance.

After working all night, Ronald went to the editing room the next day, brought another whiteboard, and attached new cards one by one to the whiteboard with magnets.

"Eric, you look at this, I want to edit it in a different way. Let's start with a couple of protagonists' plotlines and fill them in with their plotlines."

"Oh, you came up with a new method so quickly?" Eric leaned over, and the names of the characters on the whiteboard were marked by Ronald with various colored highlighters.

For Brad's scene, it's painted green, for Stacy's it's pink...and finally Spiccoli's red, and Mr. Hand's blue.

Eric felt that the colors seemed to show a pattern, always appearing slowly at the beginning, then becoming more dense halfway through, and finally stopping abruptly after a scene.

"Did you find it?" Ronald pointed to these cards and said to the editor Eric, "These colors are like the beginning, development, peak, and end of a character's story. We must ensure that each character's story Complete. It's pretty intuitive that way."

"Then, do we fill the time with footage?" Eric looked at the cards on the wall that formed a winding track, like racing cars preparing to sprint around a NASCAR track.

"Yes, that actor did a good job, so we'll give her a little more time. If the performance can't impress the audience, we'll use editing techniques to supplement the plot. Do you think this is more convenient? At least it's better than the original way of running to lose weight. quick."

"You're such a genius..." Eric said, looking at the cards on the wall, and as he said that he picked up the snapshot of Romanus walking down the street into the mall at the beginning and pasted it under the first card.

Ronald had previously reprinted a photo for each shot to represent a shot.There is only one short shot, and two or three long shots.In this way, using a snapshot to represent a shot can correspond to the content on the card one by one.It is also easy to adjust afterwards.

"I keep the length of each shot in my notebook, and you write it on the snapshot." Ronald handed his notebook to Eric's assistant editor.

The editing assistant took a look, and there was a form in the notebook with the number of each shot and the length of the shot.

"We edited it later, you can count the time again."

After the female assistant agreed, she hurriedly checked the editing record list.

Soon, Ronald and Eric sat in front of the editing machine, looking at the camera from a new angle one by one.

"Stacy, you are much prettier than those cheerleaders." Linda on the monitor said to her best friend Stacy in the cafeteria.

"I know, but they have a lot of tricks. I'm afraid boys will dislike me."

"What trick? Don't you?" Linda asked.

"That's right, use your mouth..."

"What's so difficult about it, put the carrot in your mouth..." Linda boldly taught on the spot in the cafeteria.

"Good job!" Seeing Stacy imitating Linda, the male student put the carrot in her mouth and started clapping and whistling to cheer her on.

"Oh..." Stacey collapsed on the dining table laughing herself, and covered her head with embarrassing hands.

"Put this one up?" Eric asked Ronald.

"That's right. There's Linda and Stacy again. The plot of the two has developed to this point. It's actually a small second act. If you only watch Stacy's plot."

In fact, Stacy, played by Jennifer Jason Lee, is more skillful in the performance of this plot, and I can see the ups and downs of Stacy's emotions.However, compared with Linda played by Phoebe Cates, it is Phoebe Cates who lacks skill and is better.

"Maybe Phoebe and Linda's personalities are closer? Or maybe Phoebe has less experience, so the newcomer's reaction will be less routine, and the audience will like it more instead?"

Ronald thought to himself that he still has a shortcoming in directing actors to perform.He posted the snapshot on the whiteboard.

Next is the story of Linda.

In Brad's imagination, Linda, played by Phoebe Cates, woos herself under the sun and rain, leaving him intoxicated in a fantasy world that he can't extricate himself from.

Linda was swimming in the swimming pool, got water in her ears, went to the bathroom to get a cotton swab, and when she opened the door, she suddenly found Brad who was fantasizing about her and comforting herself.

A mixture of surprise, disgust, and fear appeared on Phoebe's face, and she hurried out of the bathroom.

"How did you direct this scene? The facial expression of this actress is so real." Eric asked, pointing at Phoebe on the monitor.

"Haha, I sent Jazzie Reinfeld, who plays Brad, to buy a fake toy and he picked the biggest one. Phoebe didn't know he had a toy hidden around his waist, and that look was totally real."

"It's really you." Eric also posted a snapshot of this scene.

Then there's the drama of Brad and trying to dump his girlfriend.

Brad saw a newspaper at home with a line on how to break up with his girlfriend.He recited it several times.When he wanted to ask his girlfriend to come home at night, he was rejected by his girlfriend who also worked in Hamburg across the United States.He wanted to say this declaration of breaking up, but he didn't say it when he saw his beautiful girlfriend.

Then Brad was fired by his boss because of a conflict with an annoying customer.He wanted to seek comfort from his girlfriend, but he didn't expect his girlfriend to say that part of the declaration of breaking up.It turned out that she also read the newspaper and wanted to break up with Brad.

"These two paragraphs are very good, creating Brad's image of a well-behaved old man." Ronald said to Eric.

"Yes, he is a typical type with more book knowledge than street knowledge." Eric nodded in agreement.

"Then keep it." Ronald reached out and pasted the snapshots of the two ends of the plot on the whiteboard, "Let's continue."

Brad himself quit his job at "Captain Hook's Fish and Chips" and came to work at a 71 convenience store. Today is his turn to work the night shift.

Spiccoli came shopping, and he took out a few coins, just enough to buy some sweets.

"Why don't you work like me?" Brad looked at Spiccoli, and now he doesn't have the same sense of superiority to Spiccoli as he did when he was the foreman in Hamburg across the United States. Now he is just an ordinary clerk.

"I don't need it," Spiccoli replied. "I just need to be able to surf! Do you have a bathroom here? I want to borrow it."

Brad pointed upstairs.Next a car stopped in front of the convenience store.A young man got out of the car and suddenly pointed a gun at Brad, "Give me the money in the cash register, quick!"

"Okay, right now." Brad turned back to get the key.

"Brad!" Spiccoli came out of the bathroom. "Do you have any tissues here?"

While the robber turned his head, Brad picked up a pot of hot coffee on the heater and poured it on the robber's head.

Then he rushed out of the counter and picked up the pistol that the robber had thrown away in pain, "You son of a bitch, compare me with a gun again?"

"You are really good, Brad." Spiccoli called from the side.

"This is the end of Brad, and the end of all character development." Editor Eric posted a snapshot of this scene under the penultimate card.

"Yes, after that is the end of all the characters." Ronald nodded, "One, two, three, four, five...there are five endings."

"Brad, Stacy, Nerd Mark, Scalper Mike, Stacy's best friend Linda, how come there's no Spiccoli?"

"He's a supporting character, like the black football star, who doesn't have his own ending," Ronald explained.

"But I always feel that Spiccoli is the protagonist. He has a lot of shots."

"Yes, Sean Penn's acting skills are very good. I gave him a chance on the spot. He can perform different surprises every time, so I added some scenes temporarily."

"Ronald, to be honest, I think Spiccoli deserves an ending. He's a star, he's very eye-catching, and if you don't give an ending, the audience will not agree."

"Really?" Ronald walked to the whiteboard and carefully read the paragraphs marked in red.Sean Penn's performance is indeed very real. He played this silly surfer very well. I have kept a lot of scenes with him. After calculating the proportion, he should indeed be the protagonist.

"It seems necessary to add an ending to him." Ronald thought.

(End of this chapter)