Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 596
The movie theater in the Miramar base was rented out by the crew to watch samples every night.

Ronald's habit is that he doesn't like everyone in the crew to watch the sample. In front of the sample without audio and video synchronization, and without post-editing, many people don't know the director's plan.Some opinions and opinions will be raised, but instead of being helpful, it will disturb the director's thinking and the next day's shooting.

Except for Ronald, Bruckheimer, director of photography Kimball, and Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Kelly McGillis, etc. who are stipulated in the contract to have the right to see the sample, only the consultant Pete Petty Gru is looking at the dailies from yesterday's shoot.

"Ronald, why does the Top Gun school still have a trophy? We are a flight school, not an Olympic Games, and we don't encourage this kind of individual heroism. Air combat is mainly about the cooperation of wingmen."

Pettigrew saw the dailies from yesterday's shoot and came to Ronald to protest.

"Jerry," Ronald asked Bruckheimer to explain to Pete, and he concentrated on talking to Val Kilmer's agent about the other party's opinion on his client's appearance time.

"Peter, imagine a couple in Oklahoma who own a mom-and-pop department store. They have three kids. For them, it's a race to win. Flight school is like a competition. If you score, you will be the first, and if you are the first, you will have a trophy..."

Bruckheimer tried to use metaphors that the other party could understand, and simply explained to the other party.

"Kimer's appearance, both in terms of time and seconds, is significantly less than that of Tom Cruise. Paramount's top producer, but praised Kimmer's performance, I think if you continue to favor Kimmer like this Ruth, I'm going to have to reflect on the CEO, Mr. Frank Mancuso."

Ronald knew that the other party was largely bluffing himself.The agent is very concerned about the performance of the client, and it is purely bragging to report to Mancuso. If Val Kilmer can pass through Mancuso, he will not come to act in this movie that he did not want to act in.

"I think you misunderstood. Yesterday's scenes were mainly about the Lone Ranger. Tomorrow there will be many scenes of your client's Iceman, and his rivalry with the Lone Ranger."

"I'll keep an eye on you", Val Kilmer's agent was very stubborn, and Kilmer was forced to play this movie by Paramount through a contract.But there are advantages and disadvantages, and there are many guarantee clauses in the contract. Fang Kimmer has a certain right to intervene in the crew, which is a disadvantage.

"It's up to you...I treat actors equally, and shoot according to their appearance needs. Besides, Tom is the leading actor after all, and his salary is higher than Kimmer's."

"Higher salary means higher responsibility."

Fang Kilmer did not participate in the discussion. After the quarrel with the agent, he walked out of the movie theater with him and returned to his hotel.

Of the actors in the movie theater, only McGillis and Cruise remained.

Tom Cruise heard all the content of the quarrel, he sat quietly in his seat and said nothing.Paula was beside him, whispering something with him.

"Aren't you going to the bar with them?" McGillis asked Cruise, who was about to exit to join the rest of the cast for a beer hour.

"I'm not going..." Tom Cruise doesn't want to be with the rest of the cast, he hears very clearly, Ronald and Val Kilmer are having fights over showtime and cameras, and there's an argument from Paramount executives pressure.

He knew that Ronald was under a lot of pressure on whether the film would be a hit, and he was in the same boat with him.

Paramount spent a total budget of 500 million, excluding what the Navy took and the initial preparation costs.He himself took the highest salary of 100 million, which is close to [-]% of the total investment, or more than one-third of the total salary of the actors.

Other supporting roles, including McGillis, can be filmed with a game mentality. Only Tom Cruise has the highest salary and the greatest responsibility in the crew.The success or failure of the box office is closely related to his stardom.

After taking 100 million, he has to take on the responsibility of being a hit. He still has a lot of preparations to do, and he is ready to appear on the set every day in his best condition.

"Today, you'd better memorize tomorrow's lines, but having fun with those supporting characters on weekends is also a good gesture of goodwill. I can help you set up a bar and invite everyone to drink." Paula is like a big sister Same, taking care of everything about the younger brother Cruise.

McGillis smiles, this "little boy" mentality is still very naive.The crew is full of little boys, I thought the director would be different...

"Kelly, wait a minute, I have something to see you later." Ronald came over and stopped McGillis who was about to go out.

"Oh, okay, I'll wait for you at the door."

Ronald went back to discussing it with Pettigrew.

"I don't understand why the classroom is moved to the Navy's airstrip? The class is not in the classroom, why should it be on the runway?

And this scene, the base has no public bathrooms and locker rooms, this is not a professional football team.After getting off the plane, the pilots always go back to their dormitory to take a shower. "Pete was dissatisfied with tomorrow's camera again.

"Think about Mom and Dad in Oklahoma," Bruckheimer was still on the sidelines trying to convince Pete, a consultant who saw Tomorrow's script and storyboard.

"Pete," Ronald held up his hand for Pete Pettigrew to look at.

"We paid Tom Cruise $100 million, Val Kilmer wasn't far behind, and I put up with my agent telling me what to do with my shoot, and I had to watch dailies with them every day, and it wasn't for them. Put on your aviator suit, go home and take a shower."

"But……"

"Damn it, $100 million you know? It's like the F-14 Tomcat isn't a show flight like a Cessna is, it's a battleground. We have to show them some muscle."

Seeing Peter Pettigrew's astonished look, Ronald continued, "This is actually a sports movie, not a war movie. The audience is watching a kind of sport, but this sport is called fighter dogfighting. "

"Since it is a sport, it naturally has a locker room and conflicts between teammates. This is a metaphor that can guide the subconscious mind of the audience. This is a game."

Pete thought for a while, and accepted Ronald's explanation, "But you don't want to further make him artistic. I don't want my old colleagues in the base to say that I am helping you make a musical or kung fu movie."

"Hahaha...", Ronald was also amused by him, Pete had obviously watched his first two movies, "No, I promise."

Ronald asked McGillis, "I'll buy you a drink."

McGillis and he came to the lobby bar of the hotel.

Ronald apologized for his faux pas that day.He is the director, and he has to master all kinds of things for the whole crew, and the time is tight that day.

"I understand," McGillis smiled.

"Then we..." Ronald also smiled, he wanted to continue what he hadn't finished.

"Without us," McGillis waved his hand.

She doesn't feel it anymore.

McGillis is an actor, and she can use a professional attitude in acting. It doesn't matter if she cooperates with Cruise according to Ronald's request.

But as a woman, putting her down to talk about work is an offense to her charm, and such a man who thinks about the work of the crew every day becomes very boring and not romantic at all.

"Okay, let's chat here, you graduated from Julia? I see that your first two movies have sold well. If we are lucky this time, you will have a triple hit."

"Hahaha, actually I didn't have high expectations for this movie, I'm just an actor who is interested in drama. I'm not in the MV."

Ronald understands that McGillis is implying that his movie does not have too much drama and has too many MV-style superficial plots.

"You are a very good actor, who did you learn from?"

"You may not believe it, but my acting skills were honed when I was a waiter in a restaurant..." McGillis finished his cocktail, got up to check out, and said goodbye to Ronald, and went to the base bar to have fun with the boys up.

Early the next morning, the props team set up the class at the airport before sunrise.Several rows of tables and chairs are arranged neatly, and an F-14A fighter jet and an F-5 fighter jet are parked on the runway behind.

The "clown" began to formally introduce the instructor Charlie.

"She's a civilian, so you don't have to salute her. But she can grade your theory and flying lessons, and you better treat her with some respect."

"Da da da……"

In the most beautiful moment of light at sunrise, Kelly McGillis puts on the outfit that Ronald dreamed about.

Beautiful legs, wrapped in a pair of black stockings with thick hair, from behind the students sitting, Charlie walked step by step to the blackboard in front of the F-14A.

The camera commanded by Kimball took a low position on the track, and several coolies of the camera crew slowly pushed the camera with the huge anamorphic widescreen, closely following the middle of the stockings on McGillis' legs. The black vertical line moved forward slowly.

"Oh..." The lone ranger played by Tom Cruise saw Charlie and recognized the beauty who hit up a conversation at the bar yesterday.Unexpectedly, today's outfit is more sexy and beautiful than yesterday.

Fearing that someone would come out, the Lone Ranger and Goose both wore Ray-Ban gold-rimmed sunglasses, and the huge lenses covered most of their faces.

"Cut!"

Ronald yelled at everyone with an electric horn, "Very well, let's change the angle and do another group."

McGillis looked over with a pair of wonderful eyes, "When he was conducting, he looked like an attractive man."

Kimball directed the camera crew and quickly changed the angle to shoot from a high camera position in front of the classroom.

The sun has just risen in the sky and the colors are so stunning.

"Action!" The moment he caught the magic light, Ronald immediately ordered to continue.

"Huh?" Ronald took a step back and looked at the audience. He immediately saw Barry Tabb, who played the role of the radar officer "Werewolf". He got a light yellow cowboy straw hat from somewhere and put it on his head. .

Ronald is not disgusted with this level of stealing the show.Everyone is wearing navy pilot uniforms and Ray-Ban sunglasses, and the camera looks almost the same.Barry Tabb's cowboy straw hat gave the audience some visual stimulation under the sunshine.

This is a great thing for commercial films to keep the audience's attention.

Ronald didn't make a sound to stop, and there was only the light motor sound of the camera at the scene.

"Captain, do you think I'm wrong?" Charlie, played by McGillis, mentioned that the aerodynamic feature of the MiG-28 is that it cannot dive at high G. Can't help but ask aloud.

"I have seen the MiG-28 dive with an acceleration of minus 4G, so your data is wrong." Tom Cruise wore sunglasses and showed a signature smirk.

"Can you tell me where you saw it?" Charlie insisted. It is absolutely intolerable for a professional to be suspected of being professional. "

"I can't tell you, this is confidential. After I tell you, I can only kill you."

"I have the highest authority of the navy, you can say it." Charlie said that I have seen a lot of pilot boys like you who pretend to be amazing.

"Well, I was on top of him. Saw it with my own eyes."

"Are you on top of him? How far away are you from him?" McGillis' Charlie chuckles with a catchy chuckle.

Ronald praised that McGillis' acting skills are very natural, and this kind of chuckle has the intellectual beauty of a professional woman, but also has a bit of mischievous taste.Intense red lips, light golden hair, and eyebrows that slant into the temples, a kind of sexy of a big American girl rushes towards her face.

"I'm about two meters away from him, right?" The Lone Ranger and the Radar Officer Dumb Goose confirmed.

"One and a half meters, I even took a photo." Dull Goose pretended to recall.

"Hehe, you are in the cockpit of the F-14, only two meters away from the MiG-28 below. How did you see it through the cockpit and the wing?" break.This kind of little boy really can't tell, he just wants to brag when he sees him.

"Because I'm flying backwards", the Lone Ranger played by Tom Cruise triumphantly revealed the answer just waiting for this moment.Before he came to Top Gun flight school, he used this trick to fly upside down and put it on top of the MiG-28 pilot's head, scaring him away.

So far so good.

Ronald looked at Val Kilmer.Next should be his lines.Iceman is a calm technical guy, he will question the Lone Ranger's statement, flying upside down like this, and it is an enemy plane following 4G acceleration, it is difficult for an ace fighter pilot to maintain a stable posture, let alone give the opponent pilot Take a Polaroid snapshot.

"Shit! (Bullshit)"

Ronald's heart skipped a beat, and Val Kilmer stole the show.

this actor.The scene grabbing is also very professional, not random grabbing.Val Kilmer didn't say the lines in the script, but a swear word had the same questioning effect as the lines in the script.

No, it's better than the lines in the script!

The supporting actors who played the pilots sitting here couldn't help laughing.

Ronald didn't stop. From an acting point of view, this impromptu line had a very good effect. He didn't want to spoil it, but raised his hand to ask the director of photography, Kimball, not to stop, and let the camera's motor continue to run.

"He really did it, and I saw it in the back seat." Anthony Edwards, who played the goose, reacted quickly, came out to save the scene, and improvised his lines.

"So, you flew upside down and caught up with the enemy plane maneuvering at minus 4G?"

McGillis' Charlie asks the camera with a puzzled expression.She came from a major and kept up with the rhythm of being messed up by Fang Kilmer.

"Yes, that's right," Tom Cruise held back the unhappiness in his heart, and also connected.

"Cut!"

Ronald called a pause, he did not comment on Val Kilmer's performance.

"Yeah, isn't my improvisation good?" Val Kilmer raised his chin, showing off to the surrounding supporting actors.

"It's really good..." Everyone replied one after another, which was a sincere compliment.

"I'll treat you to the bar tonight." Val Kilmer took the opportunity to win over supporting actors.

"This print, let's continue." Ronald ordered calmly, wearing sunglasses.

As a director, he can't be too biased towards Tom Cruise. A good performance is a wonderful performance. In terms of professionalism, favoritism will cause problems in the atmosphere of the crew. Now everyone is at least contributing to the performance.

At the end of the day's filming, everyone followed Val Kilmer to the bar for drinks, except Tom Cruise.

"Ronald, I have something to tell you."

Tom Cruise found the director alone.

"Tom, Kimmer played well. I believe you can accept his challenge. In the play, you are the opponents competing for the Top Gun trophy. I believe you can also defeat Kimmer."

"I'm not for this matter. I'm not worried about his few hits. He played well today, but I'm still the most important role in the scene. Tomorrow, I just want to steal the limelight back."

"It's a good attitude, so what do you want from me?" Ronald patted Cruise on the shoulder.

"I...I can't ride a motorcycle...Can you teach me?"

"You don't know how to ride a motorcycle?" Ronald was stunned, "Okay, then you and I come, just in time for your prop car to arrive."

A sturdy motorcycle stopped on the runway. Ronald took the key from the prop and started the motorcycle.

"Kawasaki Ninja 900, the fastest motorcycle in the world now. Like my GTO288, it is also the fastest, very suitable for the role of a lone ranger."

Ronald taught Cruise a few key points, then got him in the car to actually do it.Half an hour later, Ronald saw that he was good at maintaining balance and operating machinery, so he asked him to get in the car and try it out.

"Ugh..."

Cruise drove a back and forth on the track and everything went well.

"Very well, you can ride like this for the scene of chasing and racing with the F-14A Tomcat in the future." Ronald saw Cruise stop the car, turn up his helmet, and urged, "But you have to remember, You can’t drive on the road yet, I’ll find a coach to teach you systematically in the future.”

"It's a piece of cake", Tom Cruise liked the appearance of the motorcycle very much, and ran a few times on the track, "I will also buy one to drive in the future."

(End of this chapter)