Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 351 Chapter 3 Crazy Legs
"Gloria, you're always running away now
chase someone, you have to catch him somehow

I think you gotta slow down before you start bragging
I think you're heading for a meltdown, so be careful not to show it"

At an ice rink in Pittsburgh, Laura Branigan's hit "Gloria" is playing.The song is such a hit that it's now at No. [-] on the charts, behind Lionel Richie's new song "Truly."

Sunny Johnson plays the heroine Alex's friend Jenny, who is participating in the figure skating competition in Pittsburgh, trying to advance to a higher level of competition.

A beam of spotlights fell from the ceiling, illuminating Sunny Johnson as she slid across the ice.

"Swipe...swipe..." The ice skates rubbed against the ice surface of the skating rink to make a pleasant sound, "swipe..." After a double jump, Sunny's skating double landed firmly.

"Cut!"

"Ronald, they're here." Producer Don Simpson walked into the ice rink and called Ronald out during a break between shots.

"The breakdancing experts have arrived, they are the New York dance group 'Rock Steady Crew', a breakdancing group in the Bronx. Heard that white people in the crew will dance their dances and want to see them. "

"Hahaha, they are the professionals."

Ronald walked out of the ice rink, and there were three emaciated dancers standing in the open space in front of him.

"Crazy Legs, Prince Ken Swift, Frosty Freeze."

Don Simpson introduces the "nicknames" of the three dancers.The first two are Latino whites, and the latter is black. It's hard for him to remember such a tricky nickname so clearly.

Ronald greeted them, and it turned out to be a dancing boy from the Bronx, just like the boys who were breakdancing on the street when he went to find his uncle's son Bud. , the same unruly.

"I heard you can dance our dance?"

"Yeah, I learned from my black brother, they dance a lot in the Bronx, New York." Ronald said, doing a few "window cleaning", "pull the rope", and "moonwalk".

"Oh yeah, Baby." Seeing that Ronald could also break dance, the three dancers got excited and began to do more professional dance steps.

The three of them started chatting with Ronald. The Bronx people's recognition of white friends is so simple. As long as you show respect to their culture, they will recognize you.

"Hey, are you Hollywood finally going to bring our dancing and music to the silver screen?" The trio was led by a Latino white dude with the nickname "Crazy Legs."

"At least from here, you have a demonstration of dancing in the street, and then the heroine will see your dance, learn it, and finally incorporate break dancing into the ballet and get admitted to the Pittsburgh Ballet Academy."

"Oh, that's not bad."

"Crazy Legs" approves.American dance is still traditionally respected by the ballet of the European continent, plus the jazz dance developed by itself.Street dances like break dancing are unrefined.

Although The New York Times interviewed the Manhattan branch of the Rock Steady Crew, led by Crazy Legs, little is known of their fame among mainstream Americans.

The three dancers were introduced to the choreographer, and Ronald was retained to share ideas with them.

In addition to the choreography of the three of them dancing on the street, there is also the dance of the heroine Alex's final audition for the ballet academy. The dance steps of the break dance must be incorporated into the ballet-style dance, and the style must be unified and not divided. .

Their own street dancing is very simple, all three are masters, and they mainly show two major categories of break dancing:
"Lockin' (robot dance)" means that the joints of the whole body are locked, and different parts dance separately.It dances like a robot.

"Breakin' (floor dance)", on the smooth ground, with the back, hands, and other parts as the center, make various rotations.Or use your hands and feet to land on the ground separately, doing gymnastic pommel horse movements.

Alex's final audition dance moves were a bit troublesome. In the end, the choreographer and they choreographed a set of dances that started with basic ballet moves and gradually incorporated more and more breakdancing elements.

First some classic ballet spins, jumps, and then a sudden rhythm change, with the singing of "What a Feeling", from the soothing ballet love song rhythm of the verse, through a long-span jump, the transition to the intense chorus , going up to a disco rhythm.

It ends with a breakdancing floor dance, ending with a "helicopter" spin on the back.

"awesome!"

In the evening, director Adrian Lane and producer Don Simpson, who watched the choreography together, applauded loudly.

The novel dance and ingenious choreography made Adrian Lane very excited.

"Ronald, we have to get this final climax scene done. I've already chosen the location. It's in the research institute at Carnegie Mellon University. There's a room with four floor-to-ceiling windows, and we Shooting in the morning when the sun is rising and the sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows can be very beautiful..."

"Adrian, have you ever thought about it? Jennifer Beals doesn't have any dancing ability, and this time it was shot in daylight, and it's hard for the dance double Marlene to stay uncluttered. You can't just give her medium shots and long shots without any Don't tell me?"

Ronald asked a practical question.If the dance moves do not include the facial shots of the actors at all, the audience will always look at the panoramic shots, and they will not be able to blend in at all.If the close-up shots of Jennifer Beals are interspersed in the dance shots, the audience will feel awkward jumping back and forth.

"What do you think?" Adrian Ryan asked Ronald again, this time he really didn't think about it.

"I thought it would be possible to do a fast-paced choreography and have the final breakdance part, with Alex in front of the four judges taking a close shot. Keeping Marlene's face in front of the camera for a short amount of time, so the audience doesn't actually have time to tell the difference." Is the actor actually Jennifer Beals?

The previous ballet movements were mainly shot in medium shots, so Ma Lin's face couldn't be pierced. "

"In addition, the referee's chair can be replaced with a high-back seat, and the camera seats are arranged behind the chair and follow Marlene to move on the slide rail from left to right.

When shooting close-up shots like this, every time Ma Lin reached out to the referee to make movements, the camera would be blocked by the back of the high chair, covering the most vulnerable places. "

Ronald studied the shooting clips in the dream many times, and finally cracked the method for him to shoot the dance continuously without wearing clothes.

Adrian gestured a few times at the position where the referee was sitting, "Very good, what you said is right. This dance scene, Ronald, you will help me design it."

"what……"

Unexpectedly, he got a job for himself, so Ronald hurriedly invited the choreographer, three breakdancing experts including "Crazy Legs", and Marlene, who was acting as a dance stand-in for Jennifer Beals, and together they gave Adri Director Ann Lane performs their choreography.

Marlene put on the black fluffy wig of the same style as Jennifer Beals, put on a black ballet suit and black leg warmers on her feet, and danced from beginning to end to the music of "What a Feeling" again.

Director Ryan watched Marlene dance through the director's viewfinder from behind the referee's seat.

"Well, this big jump with a change in rhythm doesn't have enough height and distance in the air." Director Ryan said something wrong, "And the last floor dance movement, the rotation is not fast enough. Not only is it not strong enough, it may also pass through."

"Director, I'm a ballet and jazz dancer, and that jump is already at my limit. And this spinning 'helicopter', I need to practice."

"I don't have time to practice for you. The weather forecast is sunny the morning after tomorrow, so we're going to shoot."

Adrian Ryan looked over and asked him what to do.

"Then we have to use other stunt actors to replace Ma Lin in those two actions." Ronald replied.

Sometimes on the screen, the audience thinks that the dance is performed by one person, but when filming, two or three people may perform the dance.In the end, they were spliced ​​together through editing techniques, so that the audience could not see the flaws.

Ronald sometimes feels that the director's job is like a magician, misdirecting the audience's attention elsewhere, and then quickly stuffing a rabbit in the top hat.

"That jumping action may require a gymnast to complete, and a high-level one must be found." Ronald looked at the producer Don Simpson.

"Okay, let's go find the champion of the NCAA College Gymnastics Championship."

"As for the 'helicopter'" Ronald looked at the three Rock Steady Crew dancers, "Or Crazy Legs, come on? Only your height and Bills near."

Break dancers are generally short in height, and two of the three are small. Only "Crazy Legs" is about the same height as Bills, and the dancers are thin, wearing ballet suits and leg warmers, Pretending to be a girl can't be seen.

"Don't want me to play a girl." Crazy Legs made the strongest protest!

"I'll give you an extra salary as a stand-in dancer, and let all three of you have credits." Don Simpson revealed the most attractive conditions for them.

"Crazy Legs" was persuaded by his companions and signed a stand-in contract.

On the morning of two days later, the four actors put on the same black leg warmers and black ballet bodysuits, and started filming the final dance scene of the film.

First up was Jennifer Beals, doing some scenes talking to the judges.

Then there was her dance double, Marlene Jahan, who did most of the dance moves in Beers' place.

The third is the four-time individual gymnastics champion of the NCAA National Collegiate Gymnastics Championships and the all-around champion Sharon Shapiro, who completed a high and floating jump in place of Bills.

Sharon Shapiro won all the women's gymnastics championships today, and she is also a strong contender for the American delegation to the Los Angeles Olympics the following year.

"Shxt! That's impossible, you want me to shave my legs?"

"Crazy Legs" yelled in the dressing room, and the makeup artist wanted to shave his legs so he could pretend to be a girl and do a "helicopter" spin.

"Come on, you signed the contract. Besides, the hair on your legs will grow back if you shave them." Don Simpson half threatened and half persuaded him to shave his legs.

"The hair on the legs can be shaved", Crazy Legs discussed with the two members for a long time, and could only agree, "But it is impossible to shave the beard. I also want to shoot a PBS documentary and a documentary film, shave off the beard, and grow into This will take at least half a year.”

"Then...grow a beard?" Ronald stepped forward to look at his mustache, it was really hard to grow.

"The helicopter action is a fast spin on the back. If the camera is right, the audience can't see his beard. And who would pay attention to whether Alex has a beard for no reason? At that time, the audience's attention was on this unprecedented spin action."

"Crazy Legs" with shaved legs, put on a black curly wig, and then did a floor dance move, transitioning to landing on his back, he gathered his hands and feet, and spun faster and faster..."

"Cut!"

The director stopped, "Very good, this is a print."

"Did you see the beard?" Director Ryan asked Ronald softly while watching the samples one day later.

"I searched carefully, and there probably isn't one." Ronald stared at the daily samples on the screen several times without taking his eyes off the beard of the stuntman.

"That's it, we don't need to reshoot." Director Ryan was very satisfied and patted Ronald on the shoulder.

"Okay, Adrian. Everything is on track here, and it's time for me to go back to Los Angeles with the producers, Don and Jerry."

(End of this chapter)