Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 329 Studying with Coppola

Turn the clock back several months ago, Ronald became Coppola's special assistant in order to learn how to tune actors' acting skills. The performance in "Fast Tempo" was not very realistic, and he took the initiative to steal from Coppola's "Urchin" crew.

He met Diane Lane, who was chosen to play the heroine Cherry, and her father Burt at the airport, and they all flew from various places to the small town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to film Foreign urchins".

This is the hometown of SE Hinton, the author of the original novel. She studied in high school here. She wrote "The Urchin Outside the World" when she was 15 years old. After a year of revision, it was published when she was 16 years old and became a bestseller. Book.

“The Grand Hotel in Tulsa.”

Ronald saw the sign and knew that it was the hotel booked by the crew, so he went to check in with several actors in the same car.

"See you later, Ronald." Bert said goodbye to Ronald, and went to find a room in another hotel.

Burt was worried about his daughter this time, so he came to Tulsa to accompany his daughter on the shoot.But he is not an official member of the crew, so he has to find a hotel to live in by himself.

Hinton helped find the hotel where the crew stayed.In fact, there is no need to look for it. Only this big hotel near the shooting location can hold all the members of the crew.

There is a large fountain at the entrance of the hotel, and there is a cheap replica of ancient Greek sculpture in the middle, which is neither fish nor fowl.The water in the pool is still relatively clean, which contrasts sharply with the dust on the sculpture, perhaps it was changed temporarily to meet the great director Coppola.

The main building of the hotel is a five-story building. Some technicians in the early stage have already checked in with various equipment, props, costumes, etc. The actors and creators who came today arrived almost at the same time, and they are checking in at the front desk. .

A group of young actors who play two of the film's two major teenage gangs are waiting to get their keys to their rooms.The first assistant director started shouting with the room assignment list.

Tom Cruise, 104; Patrick Thwaites, 105; Emilio Estevez, 110;

Matt Dillon 202;

Diane Lane 305; Michelle Mellink 306;

Leif Garrett 503; Darren Dalton 504;

"Everyone has half an hour to rest, and then come to Room 101 to collect today's pocket money."

Ronald himself lived on the first floor, in the room at the far end of the corner. He opened the door, put down the package, and rested for a while.

Interesting to know if this room arrangement was decided by Coppola.

The actors playing the gang of rich sons lived in suites on the fourth and fifth floors.The actors playing the role of the poor oil head gang are all in the low-grade rooms on the first floor.The middle floor is home to several teenage actresses, including Diane Lane.

They are all young actors in their teens. In the movie, they played two opposing gangs, and Diane played Cherry, who caused the two gangs to fight, and happened to live on the third floor in the middle.

"Ronald, come and help me." The first assistant director saw Ronald tidy up and go out, and immediately pulled him in to work.

"This is the script, you can bind it with iron rings for me."

Ronald stepped forward to help with the binding, checked the page numbers of the copied script, added a plastic cover, punched holes with a punch machine, threaded them with iron rings, and stacked them one by one on the table in his room .

"Why are your scripts different?" Ronald finished his own pile of scripts, and then began to help other assistants with their scripts.

This pile of scripts is different binding materials. After punching, instead of using cheap iron rings, they are threaded with copper rings, plus a cowhide cover, with the name of the film in gold and everyone's name on it, holding it in hand It feels good inside, like an old fashioned hardcover book.

"This is for the actors of the Young Master Gang."

"Even the script should be treated differently?" Ronald was a little surprised. Director Coppola even considered these details? "why is that?"

"You still have a lot to learn, Ronald. Come here now." Francis Coppola walked in to check the situation, just in time to see Ronald, and called him to his room.

"Ronald, you know that the budget of this film is not high, and we need to save a little on Warner's money. I can only give you [-]% of your salary in advance."

"No problem, I told my agent that even if I pay, I still have to come to the set to study with you. If there is anything else, please ask." Ronald was a little nervous about money, and quickly expressed that he didn't care.

Coppola's diorama company had some financial problems.But Ronald is here to learn to direct actors' acting skills, and this is a small problem.

"I don't want you to come here for work, but for your opinion, Ronald." Coppola was actually not very satisfied with his offer to help with chores, and Coppola wanted more or less assistants who did chores.

"It turns out that when George was in my crew, he gave me advice every day. If this is wrong, there is something wrong. If you can give me a useful opinion every day like him, I will be satisfied."

Did George Lucas have so many opinions on Coppola every day when he was Coppola's younger brother?Ronald overheard some gossip.

"Well, I may not have more opinions than Mr. Lucas, but one a day is not too much of a problem."

"Good boy. Now go and help the photography team prepare for tomorrow's rehearsal." Coppola patted Ronald on the shoulder.

It turns out that I still want to be a handyman, but a handyman who can give advice.

Ronald walked to the camera crew's room, and when he passed the door, he saw a large group of actors gathered at the door of the first assistant director's room on the first floor to collect the pocket money for the day.

Huh?Ronald, who was watching the excitement at the door, found out that he was treated differently.

The actors in the Young Master Gang are all teenage idols, they are accompanied by managers, and they have a lot of pocket money.The actors of the Oil Head Gang are not accompanied by managers, and they only have two dollars a day in pocket money, which is only enough to buy some snacks in this remote and backward town.

Ronald stroked his beard, Coppola was really interesting.

On the first day of reporting, he started training actors?Give different treatment to actors who play different roles. Is this to let them experience the living conditions of the characters?

"Ronald? Nice to meet you." The director of photography pulled Ronald, "The rehearsal will start tomorrow. Francis asked us to record all the videos. The camera crew has not arrived yet. If there is a need for multi-camera shooting, you can also help Use a VCR."

"No problem." Ronald tried the Sony BetaCam video recorder in the room, which he was already familiar with during the audition.He has spent a lot of time in the film crew, so it is not a big problem to work part-time as a cameraman who uses a video camera.

Ronald, who was out of the room, planned to go for a stroll in the town, and happened to see Tom Cruise going out with a handsome guy who was very handsome.Ronald recognized Rob Lowe who played "Soda Pop", the second brother of the protagonist "Ma Boy".

"Hi, Tom, Rob." Ronald happened to be out with them.

"Where are you going? Ronald, we're going with you."

"I haven't been to Tulsa either, but I know Ms. Hinton, the author of the original novel. She is a local. Have you seen her? You can ask her."

Several people found the author Hinton, who also lived in the hotel. The chubby Hinton warmly embraced several actors and Ronald.

"Are you going to go shopping in the town? There are movie theaters and restaurants. By the way, that movie theater is the one I wrote about at the beginning of the novel after watching the movie. It hasn't changed in decades."

Ronald took the lead, and it seemed that there were no entertainment facilities in this small town.

"Hey, oil heads. Want to go to dinner with us?" Leif Garrett, the young star who played the role of Bob who was stabbed to death at the end, smiled strangely at the actors here, "But you I don’t have enough pocket money, hahaha.”

"Oh, Shxt." Tom Cruise looked at the two dollars in his hand, and put the money in his pocket angrily.

Rob Lowe also rolled his eyes, "How did you survive these two months?"

"It's okay, I have money." Ronald took out a few twenty-dollar bills from his pocket

Thanks to the reminder from agent Nisita, Ronald himself brought a lot of cash to Tulsa, a backward town.There is no entertainment here, and there is nothing to spend money on.There is a small shop in the hotel where you can buy some snacks and coke, and the department store in the town doesn't sell much.

But now money has good food.

"I don't want to eat with those gangsters, just buy some Coke and snacks here." Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe walked into the small shop of the hotel, picked some cakes, Coke and snacks, forget it After counting the money, I threw the other snacks back.

"It's okay, come to Xinton's mother, I have delicious food here." The chubby author Xinton, seeing all this, quickly greeted Tom Cruise enthusiastically, and Rob Lowe came in to eat what she had prepared delicious.

"Is this trick very useful?" Ronald couldn't help admiring it.

Just divide the two parts of the actors into hotel rooms of different grades, use different bound scripts, and then divide the grades into pocket money, and they will automatically regard themselves as different types.

It costs nothing to do this, but it works surprisingly well.The two gangs of teenage actors are already turning against each other on day one.

"Ronald, come too."

Ronald also walked into Hinton's room. She secretly took out a large bag of snacks and opened them for the actors to choose.

"Oh, you still have this here." Both Tom and Rob were delighted. "Thank you, Mama Hinton."

"Don't worry, if you have any questions, just come to Mama Hinton."

Ronald was amused, and Hinton liked these actors to perform her own novels. She also signed up as the screenwriter of the crew and would play a guest role as a nurse. In fact, she came to spoil these beautiful little actors.

There are positive and different treatment, and Hinton is asked to give them some convenience.The crew are all teenage actors. It is estimated that the two gangs will really take shape among the actors soon.

The old house of the hotel is made of wood, and the carpets in the corridors upstairs are very worn out, and the sound insulation effect is very poor when stepped on.

Ronald, who slept in his room until midnight, was awakened by the sound of thumping.

Picking up the watch beside the bed, it was only two o'clock in the morning.Ronald was so noisy that he couldn't sleep, so he got up to see what happened.

A thin figure, wearing a tank top and jeans, walked non-stop in the corridor with his arms folded.

"Who is it?" Ronald called out.

"It's me, Ralph. Ralph Mazio."

It turned out to be Ralph Mazio, who played the protagonist's horse boy friend.Although he is 20 years old this year, he is considered older among many young actors, but he still doesn't open his eyes, and looks smaller than Tom Cruise and others.

"Why don't you sleep and walk here?" Ronald asked strangely as he saw him walking around.

"I don't have a room."

(End of this chapter)