Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 285 Audience's Reaction to the Trial Screening

Diane Lane and Laura Dern were dubious about Ronald's claim that he could cut "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fantastic Stains" into theaters.

"Do you think he can really cut it out? Diane?" Laura and Diane went to the hotel that the Golden Globe Organizing Committee had booked for them to play together, still thinking about whether their first movie would be released.

The audience rating of the Golden Globe Awards was 15% last year, and the annual broadcasting fee is millions of dollars. Compared with the number of judges who are less than 100, the organizing committee can be said to have a lot of money.Therefore, Laura, who is the "Miss Golden Globe", also opened a big room in a five-star hotel, which is at the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel.

"I don't know, but you see that Jane Fonda respects him a lot, and even invited him to his home alone. Maybe he is really a bit of a genius?" Diane didn't know much about Ronald's director and editing skills, only that He won an Oscar for his lyrics.

"It also makes sense, artists can't use common sense to infer." Laura thought.

Coming from a family of performers, she knows that the level of a film artist does not depend on the accumulation of experience over time. It often happens in the film industry that a fledgling teenager beats the masters with one punch.

One of the series of film director biographies on her father's bookshelf was by the teenage prodigy Orson Welles.At the age of 23, Orson Welles directed the radio play "Martian Invasion of Earth", which fooled half of America into believing it was real.

"I have to call my mom and ask her to ask for me." Laura Dunn said that unlike Diane, she has several film works.Laura is still looking forward to the early release of her first movie.

A week later, Ronald finally waited for the test screening audience paid by Universal.In a Hollywood movie theater, more than 100 audience members were invited by the theater phone to participate in an anonymous "teen comedy" test screening.

"You go to the women's restroom and listen to the female audience's thoughts." Before the opening, Ronald hid at the door behind the theater and quietly instructed his manager Paula Wagner.

"The ladies' room?" Paula nodded in agreement.

"Can you help to see what they are talking about in the men's bathroom?" Then Ronald assigned a task to Richard Lovett, the youngest of the three.

"What kind of job do you assign me?" Rick Nisita, who had the highest status in CAA, looked at Ronald and asked with a smile.

"Didn't you ask me to talk about something? Oh..." Ronald came to his senses and quickly thanked Paula and Richard, "Please help me, I really don't have anyone to help, later I'm going to go to the foyer to hear the audience reaction. Thank you, thank you!"

Nisita smiled and pulled Ronald out of the screening room.

"Do you think Ronald is becoming a little..." Richard said to the rare Paula Wagner.

"Confident, sensitive, aggressive?" Paula smiled.

"Artists treat their own creations like this. They are full of confidence, but also afraid of criticism from others. This is Ronald's first directorial work, including his film Debut. It would be abnormal not to have this kind of ambivalence. How much do you think?" You know it when you’re dealing with an artist.”

With a sound of "wow", the theater's automatic door swayed twice, and finally stopped at the closed position. A globe symbol appeared on the screen, and the pre-screening of "Fast-paced Richmond High School" released by Universal began.

The brisk opening music quickly brought the audience into an ordinary department store in Southern California...

Richard and Paula stopped talking, took their seats too, and watched.

Nisita outside the door was talking to Ronald. He had something to ask Ronald.

"Paramount executives called in person and asked if you could help see their movie 'The Fantastic Stains'. The ending of this movie has never been cut. If you can't tell a story, you have to give up the release. It's locked in the library."

"Ah? Are they really looking for you?" Ronald was surprised. Laura and Diane passed on their words?

"Yes, but I don't recommend you take over the editing. It's okay to help look at the copy. But Lou Adler is not a simple director. He is also the boss of the record industry. We don't know what he thinks."

"Then you arrange for me to meet with him? If he really wants others to help, then it's not too late for me to act, otherwise, just look at other people's works."

"Don't you take a vacation? There are six months before the release, you can take a long vacation, and then start preparing for new projects. I know your hands are fast, six months is enough to write the script of the next movie ’” Nishita replied.

"Writing a script?" Ronald repeated. "I don't know, Rick. Stop and rest, always looking for something to do.

I seem to be used to sleeping less than five hours a day, filming, watching samples, editing, rewinding... this kind of fast-paced life.The movie brought my own pace of life too fast, and I felt uncomfortable when I stopped, but I was not in the mood to work on the script. "

"Why don't you take a trip abroad, Ronald? Many directors will fall into such anxiety after finishing a work. What they need is to find a girl and go to a resort together for two months.

I'm not expecting you to kill time during the holidays, but a break and adjustment is needed.If you want, I can also send you a few party invitations, as long as you don't indulge in indulgence..."

Nisita saw that Ronald had a tendency to be anxious, and became concerned about the client's mental health.

"I don't need to pay to find a girl to accompany me, hahaha." Ronald laughed and said haha, he doesn't like the kind of parties that Nisita said, drinking and playing can easily make people lose their minds.

And there is also a lack of real high-quality beauties there, who want to enter the entertainment industry but have no way to get in.

He went on to say, "Hey, I also know that I may have ordinary life syndrome. The fast and dramatic story rhythm in the movie assimilates me, and the ordinary rhythm in life makes me feel abnormal."

Ronald also vaguely felt that his mental state was a bit too excited, eager to work but unable to calm down to write scripts that required planning before and after.

As for the girls, they couldn't find a suitable short-term vacation partner for a while. After the filming, all the beauties in the crew scattered to find new jobs.Right now, the Miss Prosecutor who can skip the temptation and communicate directly is far away in New York, and the girl I want to date is also constantly auditioning in New York, and has no time to come to Los Angeles.

"I think I'll use work to adjust my status. Do you have any short-term job offers?" Ronald asked.

"Aside from Paramount's 'Stain Band' asking you to see if there was a way to fix the edit, there were a few sporadic script offers, but you said you couldn't get down to writing the script.

In fact, I don’t recommend that you invest in this kind of script commissioned by the studio right away. After your new film is released and has some good reviews, the asking price for this kind of commissioned script will be higher. "

"What about jobs other than screenwriting?"

"There is a job vacancy for a trainee director for Coppola's new film...but it needs to compete with many members of the directors' union. With your qualifications, it is actually a bit too strong. You have already directed a feature film, and you don't need to be in other directors' unions. Learn from your side to increase your qualifications.”

"Isn't Coppola's new movie out yet? That 'Old Love, New Love' with Natasha Kinski? So soon?"

"It's a long story, Paramount was planning to release his new film, but Coppola released his edited version in Los Angeles without Paramount's consent, and was terminated from the distribution contract.

Columbia, which was bought by Coca-Cola, took over distribution at the last minute.But because of this, Coppola also bears a heavy financial burden. He signed a gambling agreement with Columbia...

Now he can only take on new jobs continuously to solve his own bankruptcy crisis. "

Ronald nodded. If he had this opportunity at the beginning of last year, he would definitely fight for it. "How is the quality of the old love and the new love? Have you seen it?"

"No, but the premiere is coming soon, you can go and see for yourself. I heard that there is a breakthrough in technology, but the format is a bit old, it is an old-fashioned musical."

"Also, director Peter Bogdanovich wants to meet with you."

"Why is he looking for me? I don't know him?" Ronald wondered, the famous director who filmed "Paper Moon" back then. After his girlfriend Dorothy Stratten was killed some time ago, he frightened him. It was so bad that he disappeared in the circle for a long time.

"Maybe it's about his dead girlfriend Stratten. You used her poster in the movie. I heard that many of Stratten's portrait rights are now in his hands."

"Then let him talk to the producer, I'm not interested." Ronald had seen Bogdanovich's movies, but he didn't have a strong desire to communicate with him.

"Aren't you going to watch your own movie?"

"To tell you the truth, I've watched it hundreds of times in the editing room. I can't feel the charm of the movie itself when I watch it now. It's all about the scene when I shot and edited it. And it's dark inside. I don't know the expressions of the audience, I'm here waiting for them to come out and score."

"Okay, then I'll go in and have a look." Nisita carefully pushed the door of the screening room so that it wouldn't make a sound, and then got in.

Today is the first trial screening of Ronald's client's film, so all three of his agents from CAA came.

The name "Help" actually means evaluation. Look at Ronald's performance and potential, and then consider how much resources to invest in him and what kind of opportunities he will strive for.

Ronald waited at the door to finish, bought a pack of popcorn and a glass of Coke, and ate and drank by himself.

In the past six months, it was really difficult to let myself wait like this without doing anything. Every day I was thinking about how the box office would be after the movie was released.Just like a defendant waiting for the judge's decision, only when the gavel of the judgment falls can he stop worrying.

"If you don't have a job, go back to New York and help your aunt sell leg warmers. Maybe it will be better to be with your family." Ronald thought while eating.

More than an hour later, the door of the screening hall was pushed open with a bang, and many audiences who had finished watching the movie came out in a single file.

Universal's staff set up a small stall at the door.There is paper for viewers to write their ratings and comments.

Ronald leaned forward to help distribute and collect, and listen to the audience's feedback by the way.

"I think the most memorable episode? Linda is by the pool...haha."

"Where do you think the filming is not good enough? I think the plot of Stacy and Mark's love is not very good. Why did Stacy fall in love with him?"

"Am I willing to accept a call back? Yes, I will leave the number."

……

Ronald watched a lot of audience ratings, and many people gave relatively high scores. The average score may be between B+ and A-.

"What do you think?" When the two managers came back from the bathroom after listening to the feedback, Ronald hurriedly asked them what they had heard.There is a need to queue in the bathroom, which is often the moment when the audience reveals the truth.

"Girls generally appreciate Phoebe Cates' daydream episode very much. Although it is a nude scene, they don't feel disgusted." Paula Wagner said. "Maybe they also have a kind of fantasy complex, Ronald, you just happened to take pictures of the actor who played Brad in the dream scene very handsomely."

"What did they say about Stacy's footage?"

"I didn't mention that scene, maybe it was too real?"

Ronald nodded. In the scene of Stacy, the scalper Mike became the quick shooter, and finally Stacy became pregnant. The final ending of this plot was not very good.The audience may selectively forget.

"What do you say?" Ronald turned to Richard.

"A lot of people like Spiccoli, and the male audience is talking about how he ended up with Brooke Shields, and he was on Letterman's talk show, and asked Van Halen to sing for his birthday." Richard replied, "Maybe Everyone wants to be Spiccoli, get a high school diploma by playing all day, and be a winner in life."

"He was the only character who received applause at the end of the movie when he explained the ending of the character." Nisita added.

"Can I keep a copy of the phone numbers of the audience who left their phone numbers and can call back?" Ronald asked the Universal staff who was sorting out the scoring and evaluation papers after watching the audience leave.

"I need to organize these first and discuss them with the company's senior management. Then I can send a copy to you, Director Ronald."

"Can I leave your phone number? I'm his manager and I'll contact you when the time comes." Richard quickly took out his pen and wrote down his phone number.

(End of this chapter)