Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 665 Movie guerrillas from Australia

On Christmas Day, Ronald got up very early.The snow season in New York is in January and February every year, and there are very few white Christmases.It's the same this year, the weather is sunny and a little warm, and it's over ten degrees Celsius, so just wear a coat.

After breakfast, Ronald followed Aunt Karen's instructions and took Diane and Donna to take the ferry for a walk in Manhattan.

The slightly humid air was sucked into the lungs. Although today is a public holiday, department stores and several shopping streets are still open for business.Ronald accompanied two girls to find some bargains on the commercial street next to Fifth Avenue.

The store here is not big, but it is full of wholesale goods, from famous watches to diamonds, women's clothing to plush toys, knowledgeable tour guides and hotel concierges will bring customers here to shop, which is better than the boutiques on Fifth Avenue. Much cheaper.

Carrying big and small bags, Ronald carried Diane and Donna in his left and right hands, and the three began to look for a place to eat.

In addition to the big commercial street, there are also many small businessmen in the community who are opening their doors to do business.The three found an Italian cafe with a lot of customers and had some meatballs and spaghetti.

The owners, an elderly couple who live in a nearby neighborhood, are playing with their granddaughter, who is cuddling a cat.

"Are you ready for the social class? This time, the teacher will broadcast the class live across the country, and all the children from all over the country will be with you."

"Ready...hehe", the little girl hugged the cat and happily circled on the ground.Several regular customers commented on her beautiful cat and dress.

Ronald hadn't tasted this kind of life of ordinary people in New York for a long time.Residents of Los Angeles live scattered, and the atmosphere of neighbors being familiar with each other and helping each other is not as strong as in New York.On the opposite side of the Italian ghetto is the Irish ghetto, and on the other side is the Chinese ghetto.

If you look at it from a helicopter at a high altitude, Manhattan looks like a colorful platter, with various ethnic groups living together but not mixed.Mutual respect for each other's culture, but also culturally isolated from each other.In this case, it often takes the third generation of immigrants to slowly integrate into the mainstream values ​​and gradually forget their ethnic traditions.

The descendants of Chinese descendants like Ronald, no matter from the appearance or the circle of contacts, can no longer see any traces, only the preference for Chinese culture still exists in the heart.

After dinner, I walked to Fifth Avenue again.In the afternoon, the two ladies went shopping in boutiques.Sometimes when I don't buy anything, just looking at the price tags of the good things I bought in boutiques can make Donna happy for a long time.Diane also put her arms around Donna and laughed. She rarely enjoyed the experience of buying cheap goods.

"Action!"

"Ok?"

Ronald, who was waiting at the door as a porter, suddenly heard someone calling the password to make a movie.

He called the salesperson and asked him to look at a bunch of purchased items, then took out his credit card and handed it to Donna, asking her to settle the bill when she saw it.Go out by yourself to see what crew is filming.

I didn't see the NYPD closing the road. There was only a small crew at the entrance of the Plaza Hotel diagonally across the road, with a video camera and a recording pole, and they were filming on the road on their side.

"Guerrillas." Ronald smiled.

When filming "Night of the Comet" before, because of budget constraints, he did not contact the municipal government, but filmed secretly by himself.I didn't expect that in the most prosperous shopping mall in Manhattan, New York, on Fifth Avenue, there would be such a thing.

On Ronald's left side, a young blonde beauty with a black and white patterned silk scarf covering her hair, wearing a deep red V-neck dress, walked quickly to Ronald's right side.

"What's the matter? Is someone making a movie?" Donna noticed the movement and came over to watch.

Unlike Los Angeles, it is not very common to shoot film and television dramas on the streets of New York.It was the first time for Donna to watch this kind of live-action shooting. She leaned on the door and looked towards the opposite side, full of curiosity.

"It is estimated that a small crew is filming, and there is no road closure." Di An has rich experience, and he can tell at a glance that it is a candid film that has not been registered with the municipal government.

"Don't cross the line and ruin their shot," Ronald cautioned.Although it seems that the other party is using a close-up lens, it is unlikely that I will enter the lens, but just to be on the safe side, I'd better stand away.

"Well, she's a beautiful woman. But I don't think I've seen her play before." Diane commented on the actress.

"It may also be a small production, her debut."

"Cut!" The director on the opposite side stopped the shooting. "Linda, this scene shows that Su suddenly finds out who her true love is, and then runs to pursue it. So your turning point needs to be a little... Do you understand what I mean?"

Ronald took the opportunity to open the door with Diane Donna, ready to leave.

"Yo, I said man, do you want to do a movie? Can you have a cameo in our next scene, we need a tall guy."

The male lead of the crew, a man with a strange accent, saw Ronald and suddenly extended an invitation to them.

"Sorry, we have other things to do." Ronald was about to leave with two beauties on his shoulders.

"Hey, we are making a big screen movie and it will be released in Australia. Don't you want to see your face on the screen?"

The leading actor is from Australia, wearing a crocodile leather jacket and a cowboy hat with a ring of crocodile teeth inlaid on his head.They came to New York to reshoot an ending, and saw that Ronald's height was just right, so they invited him again and again.

"Oh, my God. That's Ronald, Ronald Lee." The blonde actress in a red dress was interrupted by the conversation here, and after looking over, she discovered Ronald's identity.

"Paul, this is a famous Hollywood director, Ronald Lee." The heroine called Linda took the male protagonist's hand, telling him not to pester him any more.

"You know me?" Ronald handed the shopping bag to one hand, then reached out to shake hands with Linda and Paul.

"Who doesn't know you." Diane added next to her.

"Oh, New York is really Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. You can see great directors anywhere on the street." The male protagonist Paul has a tough guy temperament, and he invites Ronald and the others to the Plaza Hotel for a chat.

"Anyway, we have to rest for a while, and don't shoot for a long time, which has attracted the attention of the NYPD."

"Hahaha..." Ronald and these people have a good appetite. If he doesn't have the money to apply for shooting, he will shoot secretly like a guerrilla. This kind of style of doing first and then talking, and making a movie must make him want to chat with them too. chat.

"Great, let me help you get your things."

The heroine Linda was also very happy to have the opportunity to meet the big shots in Hollywood, and quickly helped Diane and Donna pick up the shopping bags.

"You are Diane? Diane Lane?"

In the Plaza Hotel, Linda recognized Diane who had taken off her sunglasses.

"It's me, I didn't expect anyone to remember me."

Linda burst out laughing, "I've known you for a long time. I saw you when you were acting off-Broadway. I was in 'Death of a Salesman' off-Broadway two years ago."

It turned out to be a Broadway actor.

Several people sat down in the lobby bar, and Linda Kozlowski, the girl in red, told Ronald the story of their crew.

It turned out to be an Australian film crew.They came to film an Australian hillbilly coming to New York, and the various cultural conflicts that occurred caused interesting stories.

The lead actor, Paul Hogan, is also the screenwriter and financier of the film.

Paul Hogan had a complicated life, working as a construction worker before making his comedy debut on Sydney TV.He used to come to New York when he was young, it was like coming to an alien world, in a metropolis of millions of people, saying hello to everyone in the morning, because he thought these people would all go to a bar at night to drink.

"Will your movie be shown in America?" Ronald asked them.

"Not necessarily," replied Paul Hogan.

"Australia hasn't made a proper movie, the kind of commercial you're used to in Hollywood. Nobody's made a real, popular, successful, entertaining movie."

"I plan to release it in Australia after filming, and then try my luck at film festivals to see if it can be sold overseas. I think if I'm lucky, I can earn millions of Australian dollars."

"Oh? What's your movie about?"

"It's about a hunter in the swamp in northern Australia. He was brought up by the aborigines. Once in a critical moment, he killed a big crocodile by himself. Then he was interviewed by Sue Charlton, a newspaper reporter from New York." Paul Hogan hugged lead actress Linda Kozlowski.

"Then Su had a whim and asked this Australian savage to come to New York to experience life in the center of the universe. This is a story of great contrast. The female reporter in New York went to the primitive wilderness, and then the savage went to the most prosperous city."

"Sounds very interesting", Ronald felt that the angle of the movie was very clever, like the first half of Tarzan, plus the second half of Mr. Smith going to Washington.

"After your movie is finished, you can come to me, and I'll help you see if it's possible to distribute it in America." Ronald thought the story was good, and it was worth trying.

"That's great." Overjoyed, Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski exchanged business cards.

"Since you haven't identified a Hollywood distributor, it must not be the production investment you got from Hollywood?" Ronald remembered one thing.

"Yes, we raised funds." Paul Hogan said proudly.

"Fundraising?" Ronald was puzzled.

Hogan explained.It turns out that in Australia, the tax law allows funds invested in film and other literary and artistic undertakings to get 200% of the tax payable as a tax refund.Although there are no famous film companies in Australia, there are many rock stars.

They also speak English and share a monolingual cultural market with Britain, America, Canada, etc. in the world.

A rock band, INXS, believed in Paul Hogan and took the lead in investing hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars.This has led many singers to invest in crowdfunding, hoping that the movie will pay off.At the same time, enjoy the tax-free amount of twice the investment amount, which is especially attractive to rock stars with high income.

They ended up raising $800 million and filming began.The investment is limited, and the entire crew is a talent from the Australian TV industry, only the heroine Linda Kozlowski is imported from America.

After chatting for more than half an hour, the assistant of the film crew came in to report, and now the outside is calm again, the original crowd of onlookers had dispersed, it was time to take another sneak shot.

"Do you think there is anything I can do to improve my performance in this scene?"

Linda Kozlowski is a bit blind to a Hollywood director like Ronald.Ask him for acting skills when you have the opportunity.

Ronald is actually not good at directing performances, but he also knows how to say to cover up his weaknesses.

"Su suddenly found out that what she loved was not the general manager of the newspaper, but this wild man from Australia. So she must be very anxious inside. You can consider using a small prop to express this kind of sudden discovery that true love ran away , with anxiety in my heart."

"Hmm..." Linda Kozlowski thought it made sense.

When it was time to start shooting, after running for a while, she decisively threw the two high-heeled shoes aside, and ran forward barefoot.

When leaving the set, Diane kept watching Ronald secretly.

Ronald knew that she still wanted to be an actress in her heart, so he comforted me, "My current wealth is not enough to cast a movie by myself. When I return to Los Angeles, I will help you see if there is any suitable opportunity. But if you are willing to start from a low-cost If the movie starts again, there will be many more opportunities."

Diane hugged Ronald's arm tightly and did not speak. She was once a much-anticipated child star, and she almost entered the forefront of Hollywood teenage stars. She knows that she doesn't need to say too much at this time, just let Ronald keep it in mind.

(End of this chapter)