Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 736 Intensive Preparations

It was Walter Murch that Ronald took Emile to meet.

Murch hasn't found a new directing opportunity since "Return to Oz" failed at the box office.He himself had to raise a few children, so he started to take on the job of editing again.

Ronald has been very busy during this period, and several production crews have to follow up. All the big and small things in the "Dirty Dancing" project have to be reported to him, waiting for him to make a decision.

After filming the movie, he will immediately start the preparations for "Moonlight Sultry".So this time Ronald invited Walter Murch, who is also a teacher and friend, to be the editor and sound editor of "Dirty Dancing".

"You give too much, Ronald." Murch pulled Ronald aside and told him privately.

Murch saw the number on the contract given by Ronald. This price was the market price when he was a gold medal editor and sound editor before he became the director of "Return to Oz".He wasted two years preparing and directing this film, and now that he has returned to the professional market, he no longer has this market price.

"I didn't give it to you all at once, and you know that I'm a small production." Ronald pushed back the contract, "Now I can only give you one-third of the total price, and I have to wait until the release to pay back the cost." , to pay you the full amount. In this way, you will have to wait for a long time to get paid, so it is normal for the price to be higher than the market price.”

"Okay, I will do my best." Walter put away the contract and the prepaid check and put them in his bag. "Let's go and see the dancers now."

Walter Murch has a deep understanding of both editing and sound editing, so he usually only takes two jobs and hand them over to the project he is responsible for.

He is different from ordinary editors when he joins the crew after the filming is completed. At the beginning, he has to read the script, then the actors and locations, and get involved in the filming from the beginning.He believes that only in this way can the temperament and tone of the whole movie be grasped as a whole.

"Today they go to Palm Springs and the dance practice is pretty grueling, so let them relax."

Ronald picked up Murch and took turns driving with Emile to Palm Springs.

Gail Hurd is from Palm Springs. She helped to contact a company, because the director of "Top Gun" was coming, and she also offered a discounted price in the off-season.

"You should dance—yay!"

When they arrived at the resort hotel, the dancers had turned on the tape recorders and started playing the famous song "You Should Dance" by the Bee Gees, and a group of people started dancing disco.

The dancers had dance bugs and left the rehearsal place. They didn't want to dance the dirty dance based on Mambo, but picked up the less popular disco.

Ronald was beside him and jumped a few times with them.

"Oh yeah!" The group of performers began to yell strangely. The director's dance level is not bad. It seems that this movie will not mess around and regard those introductory dance steps as classics.

Walter Murch took out a stopwatch, compared the scenes in the script, began to watch the rehearsal of the dancers dancing, and picked up the stopwatch.

"What is this doing?" Assistant Director Emile asked Ronald in a low voice.

"This is Murch's working method. He is used to estimating the duration of each scene in the script before shooting. Then when he sees the finished film, he compares it with his own estimate. There is a big discrepancy. The major differences between the director and his own understanding of the scene need to be carefully considered."

Ronald explained.

"Yeah, that's it." Murch smiled when he heard Ronald's answer, "Emile, come and count time with me."

Ronald was happy to be alone, so he walked to the side, picked up a glass of juice drink, and drank it all in one gulp.

"What happened to that Richard yesterday?"

Seeing two main characters, Patrick Switz and Cynthia Rhodes, Ronald approached to chat with him, put down his drink and asked some private questions.

"As a director, it is very useful to know about the private life of actors. On the one hand, it can be used to guide emotions, and on the other hand, it is convenient and avoids trouble.

"It's Cynthia's suitor," Switz smiled, took a sip of his drink, and left, letting Ronald and Cynthia chat privately.

"He chased me very persistently, but I didn't want to be with him."

"Why? Looks like a nice guy." Ronald laughed.

"He's several years younger than me, and he's still immature." Cynthia shook her head and glanced at Ronald.

"You take care of it yourself, don't affect the shooting. It's okay to let him visit the set at that time."

Ronald also took a sip of his drink.

"Ronald, can you let them dance for me according to the music in the script?" Walter Murch came over to ask Ronald with a stopwatch in hand.

Ronald, who was interrupted, started looking for choreographer Ortega.

"The copyright of the song has not yet been obtained, and I am not sure what song will be the backup dancer in the end, so I always use a metronome to tune to the rhythm of swing dance in the 50s, and let them dance along."

Ronald suddenly became anxious, "Why hasn't it been done yet? Emil, Emil..."

He quickly called the assistant director loudly, "Go and make a call and ask Danny Goldberg, our music director, what song does he want me to use for the episode?"

When the choreographer Ortega saw that the complaint was successful, he immediately took out a tape, "We'll still play the tape of the screenwriter Miss Eleanor, although the sound quality of the dubbing is mediocre..."

Ronald waved him to do it himself, helping Murch to better estimate the time of each shot.

He found the phone himself and got a call from music director Danny Goldberg.

"Danny, how long are you going? The dance rehearsals here are going to end in a week. Do you want me to accompany them with a metronome when I start filming?"

There are many things to worry about. The first film that Ronald himself invested in, all kinds of unsatisfactory places, feel that they are magnified countless times compared with other people's films.

Every time there was a small setback, Ronald felt that his account numbers turned into bats and flew away.And every time I solve a small problem, I feel that the green bill is attracted by the movie again and flies back.

Ronald is now more able to feel the state of mind that Weintraub had when he asked himself to be the director of "Dragon Boy". Putting his own money into a film project is really stressful, and he will think too much when there is trouble. .

"Don't worry, I'm negotiating with major record companies now. What you want are the famous songs at that time, and the property rights are complicated. Our budget is not much, I don't want them to feel that we want these songs very much, so we can only slowly We can’t reveal our true purpose..." Danny Goldberg was still operating in a leisurely manner.

Ronald couldn't take it anymore, "I'm going to start filming soon, you can get it done as soon as possible. If you can't get it done, you can tell me earlier, so I can find someone who can do it..."

"Crack..." Ronald hung up the phone angrily.

"What's wrong? Is something not going well?"

The person who asked the question was Richard, another agent of Ronald. He had returned from "The Adventures of the Nanny" and was helping Ronald with his work.

There were some small problems with the investment in "The Adventures of the Nanny". The investment share of the second phase of the "Screen Fund" where George Jr. was the director was distributed directly to Michael Eisner.

The first issue before Little George's intervention was evenly distributed to HBO and British EMI production company.

Wall Street is riding high, and the Dow is up a lot from where it was a few years ago.The third phase of the Screen Fund began to be sought after by high-net-worth private investors.Roland Bates, who was in charge of issuing the fund, wanted to increase the financing amount of the third phase from 9000 million in the second phase to US$[-] million.

Faced with such a large sum of money, both HBO and Disney are fighting for the right to use the funds.

The condition given by HBO is that Screen Fund has the right to decide on the project.Disney's Eisner, on the other hand, demanded full control of the project himself.

The reason he moved out is that there are directors and producers with outstanding vision like Ronald working for Disney, Wall Street as capital, as long as they hide behind the professionals, let them decide the art and please the audience, and count the money after the release. .

Therefore, Eisner called Ronald and asked to start shooting "The Nanny's Adventures" on the day after New Year's Day next year.In this way, this Ronald-led movie with a high probability of being a blockbuster can enter the investment range of the third fund.

With this golden signboard, compared with investors' opinions on giving Disney the right to use the third phase of the Screen Fund, it will have the upper hand.

"Our music director, Danny Goldberg, has not yet negotiated the copyright of the episode. This time is enough for a pregnant woman to give birth to a child." Ronald began to sneer.

"Goldberger is a Jew, and I know him." Seeing no one around, Richard whispered in Ronald's ear, "These songs from the 50s have never been valued by anyone. Danny Such procrastination is to make this a big business.

If I'm thinking right, the next thing he says is that some singer-songwriters are dead and their relatives are more difficult to negotiate. "

"Huh? He did say that." Ronald looked at Richard Lovett. His agent was also Jewish.

"I'm not like them. I'm a Jewish boy who grew up in rural Wisconsin. There are only [-] Jews in the entire state. When I was a child, I went to public schools with Puritans and Catholics. Our family also celebrated Christmas. It has nothing to do with them. different.

These Jews who grew up in the Los Angeles area of ​​California did not realize that there are not only Jews in the world until they were adults...but they still used those Jewish business rules to treat customers from other cultural backgrounds.In their view, as long as they can make enough money, it is their own ability. "

Richard pushed his glasses and said.

Ronald nodded. Richard has always been very loyal to himself. In this kind of thing, he, his biggest client, is the biggest guarantee of his interests. He must be telling the truth.

Danny Goldberg's ineffectiveness should be one of his strategies. He wants to buy the copyright without delaying Ronald's affairs, but also pays a price that is not high or low to make a little money for himself. .

"Do you have any advice?"

"Dirty Dancing also has the plot problem of Jewish girls, so I suggest finding a non-Jewish agent to handle the copyright purchase of the episode." Richard moved closer, his voice lowered, "The key is , those who go to buy should buy as your company’s purchaser, don’t expose that you are the person behind the project, if you move quickly, it should be done soon.”

Ronald woke up like a dream, if he hadn't invested in himself, he would have directed a film project.Who gets excited when "Dirty Dancing" is just a $450 million non-trivial 50s high school girl romance flick?

For the songs of the 50s, no matter how famous they were at that time, as long as they can sell a little copyright fee, it would be thankful.

"I'll go to Weintraub and borrow someone." Ronald smiled slightly after he figured out the crux of the matter.

Danny Goldberg also wants to monopolize the benefits and eat at both ends.As long as Ronald pays attention to secrecy and beats the slow with the quick, he will get things done before he reacts.

(End of this chapter)