Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 617 Editing must have a story

"Mr. Mancuso gave you two a chance, don't let him down."

Chris and Billy, were editing partners who worked together.They were brought in by Paramount to do the first cuts of the material that Ronald shot.

"What happened to this hapless Ronald? Why is he deprived of the right to enter the editing room now?"

"I heard that he kept Mancuso from stepping down. After this accident, he was retaliated against. Anyway, it's none of our business, as long as we do our own thing well."

The two are purely technical, and when they got the business, they started to move the samples after Ronald's filming, starting from the synchronization of audio and video.

"Is there a lack of film? Why didn't you explain the main shot of the main storyline?" Chris looked up and asked his partner Billy after watching more than 30 reels of very short film.

"It doesn't seem to be there, it's all here."

"How do you cut it? It's all short shots under five seconds. There is no script and storyboard. We don't even know the story. Did they hide the main shot?"

"Don't worry, here is the script handed over by Ronald, as well as the shooting log and form. If you look slowly, you will find it."

"Is this the final version of the script? Why is it only fifty or sixty pages long?" Chris picked up the script and found that there were many blank spaces in it, especially the love scene between the Lone Ranger and Charlie, and some shots of the air battle , neither a detailed description nor a shot sketch.

Only a sentence like "The Lone Ranger was highly skilled in air combat, launched an impact, and shot down three hostile MiG-28s", and then appended (3 minutes) such time processing.

"There are no omissions. Indeed, the films are all here. The shooting time, location, camera positions used, these special effects modeled shots, and the words 'special effects' are specially written on the printing board, and the record book is all correct. up."

Billy was dumb too.You said Ronald and the two producers were playing tricks, they did hand over all the scripts and dailies.If you want to be honest with them, their scripts are very simple. When shooting, they are all short shots of a few seconds, and there is no main shot to explain the overall plot of a scene.

For example, in the 3-minute air battle, if there is a main shot, shooting from above how the plane fights, how it approaches, and how it escapes, they can have an idea for editing.Now all the plots are in the director's head, and only he knows how to connect all the shots.

"What should I do?" The two editors suddenly realized that what they got was not an opportunity, but a big pot.

"Fuck it, we'll cut it according to our own imagination. Maybe the director is a fool. He came from making exploitation films. Maybe it's only now that he realizes that he can't shoot this kind of air combat?"

"That's right, we have to come up with a first-cut version anyway."

The two editors decided to follow this script, since no one watched the air combat scenes anyway.

……

"Cindy told me that you edited the MV for her by yourself. I have a problem with editing and I need your help to solve it." MJ said in the editing room of his "One World" single MV. , said softly to Ronald.

Ronald accepted MJ's invitation to watch the MV of his new song "We Are the World" and discuss the editing of the TV special for this single.

Since recording the new song of "One World, One Family" that day in January, the effect of radio play and radio charting has been very good.The new song was on the list in the first week, and it broke into the top [-] of the list, creating MJ's best score for a new song since "Thriller".

On the night of the recording, MJ arranged for people to shoot the material for the whole night, from rehearsal to finalization, and dozens of big-name singers who participated in the chorus, and the solo sung by each person was recorded by the camera on the tape.

"The main problem now is this. The lead singer who sings one sentence must maintain a balanced appearance time when editing, but some people are late, some people refuse to participate after they arrive, and MJ's key position, you understand."

MJ's manager, Frank Dilio, a dumpy Italian, briefed Ronald.He was also the one who pushed for Ronald to be the one to solve the problem.

"Well, everyone has about five seconds of appearance shots, and then they will converge into MJ's solo passage, which is no problem." Ronald pulled back and forth on the editing table, looking at the video that was shot at that time.

"That's where the trouble comes in." Frank DiLeo told him to read on.

"Isn't this Bob Dylan?"

After Ronald saw more than 40 singers singing, what was left was a single singer, Bob Dylan, who sang twice as many lyrics as other singers.

"What's going on here?" Ronald looked at Dylan's material as if he was the only one in the studio, "and he seems a little out of tune?"

"Puff!" MJ couldn't help laughing. Bob Dylan is an excellent songwriter, but his voice is not very good, and his basic singing skills are also lacking.

"So you want to adjust Dylan's singing to the same length as everyone, and then highlight the climax part of MJ's singing. He is the core of this song, right?"

"You know what you're doing." Frank DiLeo laughed and lit a cigar.

"In this way, you can still give each person one line of singing, about three to five seconds long for each person. Then smoothly transition to MJ's four lines of lyrics, appearing twice. Dylan's part of the lyrics is supplemented separately. It was recorded, so there is no way to split it, we can use fade in and fade out and picture in picture to get close to the close-ups of several other well-known singers, so that we can maintain the balance of appearance time."

Ronald quickly found a way to cleanly solve the problem of editing arrangements for more than [-] singers.

"How did you invite so many well-known singers to join the chorus?" Ronald was very surprised, he put Bruce Springsteen, Cindy Lauper, Diana Ross, and Lionel Lee The close-ups of Qi and others were picked out and given special treatment.

These singers have been famous for a long time, and they may not necessarily be in the same record company as MJ. Although his current record has broken sales records, it seems that inviting these people to come and say a word does not seem to have such a big appeal.

"This is a fundraiser for refugees in Africa. There was a severe drought in Africa last year, and there was a shortage of food in many places. Last year, British singers sang a song of 'Do they know it's Christmas?' and all the proceeds went to the victims. Donate. So our singers in America have to cooperate once.

Quincy Jones had this idea, let MJ take the lead, invited Lionel Richie to produce, and then the team got bigger and bigger, everyone wanted to come in, and finally invited a total of 45 singers to sing. "

"So that's how it is," Ronald nodded after listening to Frank Dilio's explanation.With quick hands and feet, he cut the 7-minute song MV.

"Now everyone has been arranged according to the position, distance, and distance." MJ is very satisfied. He has four lines of lyrics for himself, repeated twice, and is the champion of all singers.

"42, 43..." Ronald counted the heads silently, "Aren't there 45 people here?"

"Hahaha, Prince gave up by himself." Frank Dilio laughed wildly.Originally, Prince and MJ are now in a competitive relationship, and because he starred in the autobiographical movie "Purple Rain" last year, he was a big success, and he faintly surpassed MJ in the entertainment industry, so this chorus is both emotional and reasonable. To invite him.

Frank Dilio ordered someone to put a big sign at the door, "Please leave your Ego at the door."Prince, who was known for his big ego, turned his head and left after seeing the sign.Only in this way can MJ enjoy two solos with super long lyrics.

"But will the audience be surprised that so many of us sang together?" MJ worried again.

"Indeed, I felt the same way when I watched it. I don't know what brought all the popular singers in America together."

Ronald quickly played it back and forth twice, and he found that there was another acquaintance in it, the Kenny Loggins who participated in the bid for the episode of "Top Gun", also sang a solo in this song.Because he painted a strong rock makeup, he didn't recognize it before.

"Then what to do?" MJ wanted to do things perfectly.

"You need a storyteller. This kind of short shots of three to five seconds for each person is difficult to form a story that the audience can understand naturally, so it is necessary to slowly adapt to the audience's cognition section by section until they can tell the story. You know the ins and outs of the story, but you don't have enough material here.

Either be lazy and let someone tell the story of donating to the victims of disasters in Africa at the beginning, so that the audience can immerse themselves in the story. "

"So, what kind of person is better to find to narrate and tell the story?" Frank Dilio introduced Ronald to satisfy MJ's perfectionism tendency, and he was more trusted in front of him.Hearing this, I quickly asked Ronald who was the better candidate.

"I think you need a star with a good image, preferably a woman. Her public image is best charitable, peace-loving, and can naturally arouse the sympathy of the audience."

"Aren't you describing Jane Fonda? She is the embodiment of the goddess of peace. Those anti-war films she made in the 70s, tsk tsk."

"Ah, yes, she is a good candidate." Ronald agreed.

"Ms. Jane Fonda, I'm Michael Jackson's manager Frank Dilio, we would like to invite you to come and do the opening narration of a song calling for donations for the disaster victims in Africa and tell this story."

"Why are you looking for me? I can't even sing." Jane Fonda didn't refuse, but she was a little surprised.

"Someone here strongly recommends you."

"Jane, it's me, Ronald. This MV fits your image very well."

"Oh, hahaha, it's you, Ronald. Okay, I'll go, you tell me the location of the shoot."

(End of this chapter)