Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 550 Is it okay to shoot like this?
Ned Tannin sent an assistant to accompany Ronald to Chicago.

The two end up at an abandoned public high school, Glenbrook North High School, where John Hughes' "The Breakfast Club" was filmed.

Since Ronald entered the industry, the number of births in America has continued to decrease. The interior decoration and facilities of this Glenbrook North High School are still very new, but the lack of students still crushes it.

The library, which is about to be demolished, has become the main location for John Hughes.

The movie "The Breakfast Club" is very peculiar, and the story takes place in this library.Five middle school students were locked up for different reasons. On Saturday morning, five people who usually do not interact with each other were forced to write a review together.

Over the course of a long day, they go from hating each other to getting to know each other and finally becoming close friends and lovers, but maybe after the weekend, they return to their high school social circle and become strangers again.

John Hughes' movie actually tells the story of such a day.

"Hi Ronald, welcome."

John Hughes was lying on the ground next to the camera to direct.

His previous commercial production "Sixteen Candles" was not bad at the box office, but this movie is actually what he wants to make the most, so the degree of investment is much deeper than before.

"Hi, John", Ronald stepped forward to greet him, seeing that he couldn't get up, he simply squatted down to talk to him.

"Are you used to sitting on the floor? Why don't you ask the assistant to prepare a chair for you?" Ronald looked around, but he didn't see a chair. This was the first piece of Roger Corman's movie secret.

"It's more convenient for me to sit on the floor and watch the performances of the actors." Hughes didn't take it seriously, he didn't have the airs of a director at all, and he was like friends with those actors.

"Hi John."

Hughes' sweetheart and muse, the redheaded Molly Ringwald, plays a rich girl "princess."

Like good friends, they sat on the ground and chatted about pop music.

"After the Beatles went solo, which song do you think is the best?"

"It was undoubtedly John Lennon's 'imagination'"

Followed by Anthony Michael Hall, who plays a "nerd" who, like Ringwald, is 16, the only two of five actors who are actually in high school.

This method of quickly classifying the characters in teenage movies by labeling is the first time it has been used in Ronald's "Fast-paced Richmond High School". Because the effect is good, the audience can immediately assume who is who. , so now teen movies are widely used.

"Ellie, Emilio," Ronald saw two actors coming from behind, one was Emilio Estevez who played the wrestler, his old acquaintance.

The other is Ali Sheedy.Ronald once met, she was the girlfriend of Eric Stoltz who was expelled from "Back to the Future", and she used to make money on Ronald's "Dragon Boy" crew.

Emilio played the role of "athlete" and Ellie played the role of "crazy". One of them is physically strong and good at sports, the other is beautiful but has no family warmth, and the whole person is autistic and sloppy.In the end, after the character played by Ellie was groomed by the "princess", everyone was amazed, and she and the "athlete" became lovers.

Dragging in at the end is Judd Nelson, who plays the "criminal," the kind of troublemaker whose teachers see him as a thorn in the side.

"Okay, everyone is here, let's start." Director John Hughes saw that the five main actors had arrived, and ordered to start.

The scenes of this movie are limited. After a few days of shooting, the lighting team only needs to continue the previous plan, and the photographer has no room for creativity. He shoots the five people in the middle and watches them improvise their lines.

"Action!" John Hughes lay down on his side again, watching the five people begin to perform.

Ronald glanced left and right, but he couldn't see the chair, so he had to sit cross-legged and watched the camera and recording crew start to move.

"Hey, I'm still inexperienced." Ronald shook his head.

John Hughes was already on his second film, and he still forgot to make the cue board, and the scene was wasted.

Ronald resisted the desire to speak out. On the set, the authority of the director needs to be carefully maintained. Even if he is wrong, he can only discuss it separately later.

Judd Nelson's "criminal," at his most roguish, twists and turns at Molly Ringwald's "princess," and keeps messing with him.

"Stop making trouble." Molly Ringwald turned her head and reprimanded angrily.

"It's a very real reaction," thought Ronald.It seems that Hughes still has some ability in directing performances.

He looked at Judd Nelson. This actor might also be a methodist, and he was quite involved in the play.

"Cut!" John Hughes called to stop the filming.

Actors started discussing in their chairs.

"I think the reaction I just acted was okay."

"You reacted well when you were startled by Judd."

Two 16-year-old actors are discussing with each other.They all acted in the director's last film "Sixteen Candles", and they are a small gang.

"Yeah," Ringwald's hair was pulled out by Judd Nelson.

She turned around and hit Judd.

"Sure enough, Judd Nelson is the kind of Sean Penn, Eric Stoltz-style method, and he stays in the role after the shutdown." Ronald smiled.

"Okay, let's do it again." Hughes didn't talk to them, and called the second one directly.

"Action!"

"No", Ronald put down his outstretched hand, this Hughes didn't follow the director's routine, just another one like this?Don't you talk about the gains and losses of the performance?

And he didn't hit the board on this one.

Ronald reminded himself that he had to say it next time, otherwise it would be trivial to waste film, and it would be troublesome to waste a wonderful performance, and the actors might not be able to perform the same wonderful performance again.

"Cut!" Hughes stopped the second rule, and still let the actors discuss and play by themselves.

Ronald found that the actors spoke different lines in the two shoots, and they were still discussing what the characters should say to suit their personality.

"John, did you forget to hit the board?" Ronald couldn't bear it, and whispered in Hughes' ear.

"I don't want to play the board. After the board is played, they will act according to the script. Only by shooting without playing the board can they catch their improvisation." Hughes changed his posture, and he said to Ronald, "Sometimes I don't tell them it's on, so the reaction is the most authentic and believable."

"This……"

Ronald hesitated a little in his heart.

Hughes certainly had his own way, with actors improvising rather than copying lines from scripts.

Ronald also saw the effect of this directing method. It was unexpectedly very real, and it was more in line with the habits of high school students than the lines written in the script.

This method of improvisation requires good actors and tacit cooperation.

Ronald felt that the whole film relied on improvisation so much that he couldn't do it himself.

But in Hughes, the effect is not bad?
Just shoot like this, and finally edit it. When it comes to finding which scene this shot belongs to, or where the shot of that scene is, it will be fatal.

"I think you do a surprisingly good job filming it this way, John."

Ronald took advantage of the gap between shooting and pulled Hughes to chat.

"I'm learning your method. Every scene is filmed in the order of the script. After I lost to you in 'Sixteen Candles', I specially studied your shooting method."

Hughes replied with a smile.

This sequential shooting method is not expensive, because most of the scenes in the whole film are in one place.And the actor is better able to understand the character's reaction, and the intensity of the emotion.Ronald expressed his understanding.

"What I'm saying is, how are you going to edit it then?"

"Clip?"

Hughes has no experience in operating an editing machine by himself. He always asks the editor to cut the combination he wants.I never thought that a film without a board would be a nightmare in post-editing.

"Okay, I'll think of a way." Ronald felt that it would be inappropriate to change Hughes's creative method hastily, but after shooting like this, I'm afraid even Hughes himself couldn't remember clearly, so he couldn't start editing.Couldn't even find the film.

Ronald walked out of the filming location, found a phone, and called Ned Tannin.

"Congratulations, Ned, you've discovered a directorial genius. Yes... yes... he's doing a great job...but you'll have to send the editor ahead of time."

Ronald explained the situation here, this kind of shooting is rare, don't try to correct the genius creation, just send an experienced editor to assist Hughes, and make a mark for each scene.

"Oh, why did you hit me?"

"You fucking... hit you..."

Ronald, who returned to the shooting location, suddenly had a conflict when he saw a few actors who were fine just now.

Emilio Estevez, and Judd Nelson, two actors, surround John Kellers, who plays the cleaner, and are beating up.

"Why did you hit me? I only said a few words for your own good." John Kellers was beaten inexplicably, "Oh..."

Seeing that Emilio Estevez gave him a hard blow, his scalp was bleeding.

"Stop, stop hitting."

Ronald rushed forward, tried his best to separate several people, and then dragged John Kellers, who was covering his head, out of the circle.

"What's the matter? Why did you beat him?"

"You let the son of a bitch speak for himself!" Estevez pointed at Kellers, and still pointed his finger at the other's nose and cursed.

"What did you say?" Ronald looked around, only one assistant stepped forward cleverly, and took a towel for Kellers to cover the wound.

"I saw that they discussed too heatedly and didn't pay attention to rest at all. I kindly reminded them that when Martin Sheen was filming 'Apocalypse Now' before, he had a heart attack because he worked continuously without rest."

"How dare you fucking say it? See if I don't beat you to death." Estevez stepped forward and wanted to beat you.

"Oh, hey," Ronald put his hand against his chest, Estevez was playing a wrestler, not like a real wrestler himself.

John Hughes was originally an otaku who worked as a creative director in an advertising company, and he could only stare blankly when encountering such a thing.

Fortunately, several assistants stepped forward to help Ronald separate from the crowd again.

"Mr. Kellers," said Ronald to the beaten wretch, "you have to apologize to Emilio. Mr. Martin Sheen is Emilio's father. You shouldn't use him as an example."

"Ah? I don't know..." Kellers was dumbfounded. He didn't know that Martin Sheen was a stage name. Emilio, the eldest son, did not inherit the stage name of Xin, but the second son Charlie used it.

"You have to apologize to him", Ronald knew that Martin Sheen nearly died of a serious heart attack while filming "Apocalypse Now".

"I solemnly apologize to you!" Kellers covered his head, the blood had already stained the towel red, but he kept apologizing, begging for forgiveness.

"You @#%, be more careful in what you say in the future." Estevez pointed out arrogantly, and walked away with Judd Nelson behind him, and the two continued to make fun of Kellers' stupidity.

Ronald looked at John Hughes.This kind of hooliganism in the crew requires the director to stand up and distinguish right from wrong, and let the perpetrators restrain themselves, otherwise the crew will be in chaos in the future.

Hughes shrugged. "His character in the movie is a person who uses his body to solve problems."

Of the two young actresses, Molly Ringwald tossed her red hair, but she couldn't bear it either, and turned back.

"Ronald, director Hughes pays more attention to entry and improvisation."

Another acquaintance, Elle Sheedy, came over and tried to explain.

"I understand that every director has a different approach." Ronald looked at the beauty, painted black eyeshadow, and covered her beauty.

"I'm sorry about what happened to Eric," Ronald told Siti about the incident that led to Stoltz's firing.

"It's okay, we are not together anymore, he is in love with the heroine Xueer in the last movie." Ali Siti waved her hand, saying that she couldn't talk to herself.

"Xue'er?" Ronald was taken aback by the thunder, "She debuted in the 60s, and now she's around [-]?"

"It's almost forty." Seeing that Ronald seemed to be counting Cher's age, Ellie Siti laughed.

"Okay, be careful yourself, don't conflict with Emilio, he has quite heavy fists." Ronald felt that this kind of actor who didn't fit at all should be careful, so he reminded the other party.

"It's okay, I know how to deal with people like him, Ringwald is the director's muse, he dare not."

In the evening, Ronald met the editor sent by Ned Tanin.

"What alarmed you, Ms. Allen?"

Ronald was also surprised to see this lady with large tortoiseshell glasses.

Dee Dee Allen is a veteran editor in Hollywood. She edited "The Heist" which pioneered new Hollywood, Sydney Lumet's "Hot Afternoon" and Warren Beatty who won the best director Award for "Reds".

She was also mentored by Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" editor and "West Side Story" director Robert Wise.

Ronald watched her edits a lot in his college classes.

"Didn't you say that this is a work of genius that needs an experienced editor to cooperate? I am very interested in genius."

Didi, a very kind lady, talked with Ronald about Hughes' shooting methods.

The next day, Didi was also shocked when he saw the chaos filmed by Hughes and the wonderful performance of the actors.

"You've got to get me a Sony camera and I've got to film it myself or no one will be able to find out where the lens is."

Didi quickly got the portable camera that Ronald bought. She pointed at the place where the actors were. Hughes filmed, and she also filmed. on the notebook.

"This is indeed a piece of genius, but the director is a complete jerk!" Even Dee Dee Allen, who is experienced, was also confused by Hughes' shooting methods.

(End of this chapter)