Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 757

The vacation continued for a while, and Ronald finally adjusted his mental state.

On this day, he received a call from Walter Murch. The rough cut and first assembly of the film had been completed, and he could go to the editing room to discuss the details.

"Walter, how is my new film? I feel that this is the film with the most harmonious cooperation of actors in my career. What's your opinion?"

Ronald saw Murch in front of the editing stage, and couldn't help asking him what he thought of the movie he invested in.Since Murch taught himself editing in San Francisco, he has shot a lot of blockbuster movies. It's time for Murch, who is like a master, to evaluate whether he has made progress in the past few years.

"The dance scene is very good, never seen before. The casting of the actors is probably one of the best I have ever dealt with in a movie, except for Coppola's 'Godfather'", Murch saw Ronald coming. He happily stood up and hugged him, then gave up a seat and let Ronald sit in front of the editing table together.

"However, the movie editing for you is a little less interesting, so I really hope you come over and discuss with me."

"Fun?" Ronald asked.

"The rough cut version of the whole film is two hours and 10 minutes long.

Every shot you shoot is actually similar, and I don’t have many options, unlike some directors’ films, the rough cut will more than double the final length.

And for many shots, only the first one is the best. Editing for you is like completing homework for high school students, all of which are multiple-choice questions. "

"Ha...", Ronald laughed, "Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"

"From the producer's point of view, this shows that the director has his own vision for the finished film and can complete the shooting on time. From the director's point of view, some actors may be less free to play on the set. But from the editing point of view , I think it is a little less challenging. Unlike when I edit other directors, I often have to push the limits and cut seemingly impossible pieces together."

"Hahaha, I'll take it as you praise me."

The two were joking, starting at the beginning and watching all the shots slowly.

After two days, Ronald gradually entered the state and began to express his thoughts to Murch on the processing of certain shots.

The two are in the same line in the methodology of editing, and they can quickly agree with each other in many cases.Only in sound design, Ronald didn't know much, and Murch led the work, and even found time to give Ronald extra lessons.

The daily editing work is slowly advancing at a speed visible to the naked eye, discarding one or two seconds of cut-scenes and using a more interesting connection method.The length of the film also gradually decreased from more than two hours to one hour and five and ten minutes, and gradually moved towards the scheduled target of one hour and four and 10 minutes.

One afternoon, the two were discussing a shot in the editing room. Ronald and Walter Murch both insisted on their own ideas. The two discussed for a long time without any results, so they took a break to supplement caffeine.

Murch asked Ronald, who was drinking a strange drink like wolfberry black tea, a question he had wanted to ask for a long time.

"I heard that those high-ranking Jews are looking for trouble with you?"

"Yeah, and they got Michael Douglas to come to me for an interview. Actually they didn't want a rich Jewish girl to fall in love with a poor Irish boy, and finally give up the rich second generation of Jews to come together with a dancer .”

"So what are you going to do? In our current version, there are many intimate scenes of Baby and Johnny, as well as scenes where they finally clear up their misunderstandings and look forward to the future together."

"I have my way." Ronald smiled and replied to Murch.

"You don't want to do things secretly, do you? That's not okay, it will cause big problems."

"Ronald," Murch pulled Ronald to the side of the table, "You are still very young. When you entered the industry, those Jewish forces in Hollywood have already retired from the stage and behind the scenes. You may not understand their brutality.

If you fool the old jews with the idea of ​​making a yin-yang copy, you will have big problems later.Not to mention anything else, the MPAA, which deals with film ratings, is also a place where Jewish people are piled up.They can stick you there and give you a bad rating.

Even if you get a good rating from the MPAA, or find a way to bypass them and find a theater to release it yourself, it is very risky. Don't forget, it is the son of the Douglas family who is looking for you. "

"What happened to the son of the Douglas family?" Ronald did not answer Murch's question, but was curious about his evaluation of Michael Douglas' family, as if there was some gossip.

"Well, I haven't caught up with the days when the Jewish gangsters were rampant in Hollywood. I heard from my predecessors that before the 60s, Jewish gangsters had a more terrifying reputation than Italians. It is said that Michael's father, Kirk, was the Jewish gangster in Hollywood. Spokesperson.

Do you know the actress Natalie Wood who tragically passed away a few years ago? "

"Of course, I saw him at the Golden Globes," Ronald replied.

"Legend has it that she was coerced by Kirk Douglas in her early days in Hollywood. He was a Hollywood 'sexual predator'."

"No way?" Ronald raised his brows when he heard such gossip.He is also familiar with Hollywood, and the actresses are all what you want, and then communicate through the agent, everyone gets what they want, never heard of such coercion happening?Do you want to make it so ugly?
Unless it is those projects that are not registered by the union, some small production companies, and the films that are directly released to the video tape market, I have heard of such things.

It turned out that at Weston Pictures, Michelle Cannold, the distribution director of Daydream Pictures, who was hired by Ronald, talked about the chaos of those small projects.Weston Films used to shoot NC-17 content video tapes exclusively.

"Hollywood is a new place now. But when I was in college, it was still a chaotic hodgepodge. Many actors didn't have makeup artists and had to do their own makeup. Actresses often had brothers as assistants. The set protects itself.

I've also heard... When Kirk Douglas was in Hollywood in the late 40s, she impregnated a young actor named Jean Spangler on the night she met Kirk for negotiations. disappeared.

Later, his body and handbag were found on the way from her house to Kirk Douglas' house, and there was an unfinished note with Kirk's name on it. "

"Really?" Ronald had never heard of these gossips. "Then why do people think of the Italian Mafia when it comes to gangsters? No one mentions Jewish gangsters?"

"You can figure it out yourself. There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, Jews are gradually occupying the upper class of Hollywood, and they are unwilling to make movies and TV series about Jewish gangsters. On the other hand, Italian directors like to shoot gangster story.

Most of the people in America now have stereotypes about ethnicity from film and television dramas.This kind of movie has been made more, and it has gradually become a symbol of Italians, and many ignorant Italians are still very proud..."

It is true.

Ronald touched his ears. After Coppola filmed The Godfather, many mafia in the movies were of Italian appearance.Although "The Godfather" is essentially a family film, but with the background story of the mafia, many gangsters have begun to learn from the film.It further deepens the stereotypes of other ethnic groups against Italians.

Thinking of this, Ronald smiled at Murch.The other party obviously cared about him very much, so he would gossip.

"It's all right, Walter, I've got my senses. When I put my money into this movie, I thought about it. Old Jewish men won't say anything about this movie."

Ronald attached to Walter Murch's ear, and said his thoughts again.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure that if the Jewish people continue to trouble me, any action they make will deepen the audience's impression of the Jewish girl's story. So the best way is to pretend not to see it."

……

Another period of time passed.The rough cut of the film had been completed, and after the film was assembled for the second time into a complete copy, Ronald called and invited Michael Douglas, who had helped deliver the message, to let him see what the finished film looked like.

"You were filming in Virginia before this movie, right? I happened to be filming 'Fatal Attraction' in New York at the time, and I returned to Hollywood at about the same time as you." Michael Douglas was still dressed like a nobleman, very energetic, and came in immediately Hugged Ronald.

"Oh, how about working with director Adrian Lane? I've been on his 'Lightning Dance' crew, he's a very talented guy."

"Great, just fantastic. He's such a good 'casting director', he doesn't put too much constraints on us, as an actor, he's the most comfortable working with a director like him. Glenn often said to me , How lucky to be working with Adrian."

"Glenn?"

"It's the lead actress, Glenn Close, and she's a great actress, playing a crazy lover who's trying to destroy my family. Have you met her?"

"Oh, it's her. Met it once, at the 'The Big Chill' party. Kevin Costner had a lot of footage that ended up being cut..."

Ronald chatted with Douglas for a while, then invited him to the screening room, and watched "Dirty Dancing" with the music already set with him.

"Boom...boom..." Mambo's drumbeat reminded me, what appeared on the screen was an old-fashioned dance picture, a few dancers were dancing in the basement, full of seductive shots, in the form of slow motion, displayed on the screen.

"Is this the 'dirty dance' you said?" Douglas touched his chin, as if interested.

The duration of the copy is one hour, four and 10 minutes, and the final subtitle sheet has not been added.

Michael Douglas, who watched the whole movie, looked over at Ronald.

"You changed the ethnicity of the heroine Baby? Or more accurately, you hid it, right? I didn't hear anyone say they were Jewish throughout the whole movie.

And Johnny's ethnicity was not mentioned too much, it was only mentioned when the two embraced and danced in the crowd at the end.

If you cooperate like this, I think those old men will have no problem.But does this hinder your creative freedom? "Michael Douglas was very polite and asked Ronald.

"Michael, you lived in Los Angeles when you were young, right?" Ronald didn't answer, but asked the other party instead.

"No, after my parents divorced, I lived with my mother in New York. I went to school there when I was young, and I didn't go to New Jersey until college. What?"

"Then why don't you know that the Kellerman Resort Hotel in the movie is based on the Catskills? Aren't those resort hotels exclusively for Jews brought by you called borscht?
The food that appears in the movie also includes borscht, which is a resort hotel that only Jews go to.Any Jewish kid there would be able to tell, right? "

"Oh, actually my mother is not Jewish, she is of Irish descent. So when I was a kid, I didn't go to those Jewish-only resorts. Our holidays were all on Long Island in New York."

"Pfft..." Ronald almost didn't laugh, no wonder Michael Douglas didn't respond to his ethnicity hidden in the background of the story.

This kind of treatment of not saying it, just hinting at the ethnicity of the character is a way Ronald came up with to deal with the Jewish forces.

There is no mention in the movie from beginning to end that Baby's Hausman family is Jewish.And among the actors he chose for the Hausmans, Barbra Streisand didn't have a particularly pronounced Jewish nose.

Even lead actress Jennifer Gray has a much smaller nose than another candidate, Sarah Jessica Parker.

Unless you are a Jewish audience, you can find a little familiar background from the clues.They'll notice Jennifer Gray's unobtrusive but fully ethnic nose.

In the entire movie, Ronald did not mention a word of Jewishness, but the background of the story tells the story of a Jewish person everywhere.

Then, the audience will be divided into two parts, one part is non-Jewish, without realizing it.Part of the Jewish people, know is to tell their own story.

This is the so-called knowing and knowing, and those who don't understand can't understand.

If the high-level Jewish people want to make trouble for themselves, then they must mention Ronald's anti-Semitic tendencies in the media, deliberately photographing Jewish girls who don't know how to love themselves, and lose their dignity to the dirty Irish.

Whenever they bring up this meaning, the audience who didn't feel that Ronald was telling the story of a Jewish girl would suddenly understand.

The entire American society doesn't have a good impression of Jews. These old conservative Jewish men dare to come out to promote this outdated and racially discriminatory concept.It will definitely be attacked by the mainstream media.

So Ronald's ingenious way of telling actually puts those old diehards who oppose making this story into a movie into a dilemma.

If your media only hints, then people will not understand what you are talking about.If it is stated clearly, it will arouse more people's resentment.

It's better to close your eyes and let it go. As long as the media marketing doesn't deliberately publicize that this is a Jewish story, then there will be no problem.

"So, in terms of marketing, you won't intentionally mention that this is a Jewish story, right?" Michael Douglas thought about Ronald's handling and nodded in appreciation.Then ask Ronald to give a guarantee.

"I'm not a fool, why would I deliberately challenge the cognition of the old men?
Besides, Jewish people only account for less than 3% of the youth population in America. I made this movie with my own investment. Of course I want to make money. I don’t have to give up a bigger market, right? "

"You convinced me," Michael Douglas nodded in agreement.

Ronald laughed, and took out a cigar given to him by Ned Tanin, the president of Paramount, from the side of his seat. After cutting it, he gave it to Douglas graciously.

I didn't know that Michael Douglas's maternal line was of Irish descent.This makes it easier to talk.He also lived with his mother after his parents divorced, and would have less objection to such a plot than to being closer to Irish blood.

"I'll bring you a message, and then I'll say something nice for you." Michael Douglas took a puff on his cigar, and then slowly exhaled the smoke, "It's a good guy."

"It's a Dominican Fuente Hemingway series from a friend." Ronald took out a new wooden box and handed it to Michael Douglas. "Take it for me to try on the quality. I know you are an expert."

"Thank you, I will," Michael Douglas received in his arms, "but those old men will be more stubborn. They don't understand the current situation in America. In their view, everyone should respect Jewish culture and religion.

They may not understand that most American people do not know that the Catskills are an exclusive resort for Jews.

If you had better evidence that audiences wouldn't find out that it was a Jewish story, I think they'd be more reassured. "

"I'll hold a trial screening and then do a survey of the audience, what do you think?" Ronald asked after thinking about it.

"I think it's ok, you get it done, and send the results to my agent. I'll make an appointment with my father."

"very good!"

Ronald was also very satisfied with Douglas' help, narrowed his eyes, and started puffing away together with him.

"Then I'll go first, it's really interesting to chat with you." Michael Douglas enjoyed it for a while, got up and left.

"I'll see you off," Ronald got up to see him off.

"Also," Michael Douglas turned around at the gate and said, "The last scene, the scene where Johnny and Baby are looking forward to the future, can you delete it? I thought about it, and this might be the only place where I An uncomfortable place for old men."

"Why? I didn't say that Baby is Jewish? I just said that she joined the Peace Corps, and Johnny was going to be a dance group performer. The two have no confidence in their future in their long-distance relationship."

After hearing this request, Ronald was a little confused.

"Um... I just think that the old men are not happy with the rich girl and the poor boy, not because of their short-term love, but because they have long-term plans. You know, they are all rich people, and they may not be happy about this kind of thing. The ethnic gap is even more worrying.”

"Oh, I'll think about it." Ronald frowned.It turns out that these old men think that there are not only ethnic conflicts, but also conflicts between the rich and the poor.

But this movie itself is a love story that crosses ethnicities and classes. If there is no happy ending, will the audience still feel unsatisfied?
"Also, we shouldn't be handcuffed by Baby's ethnicity, but on the other hand, don't bring stereotypes of Irish-poor people into movies, what do you think?"

"Um……"

It turned out that Michael Douglas himself had thought about it. He didn’t want his mother’s Irish ancestry to be labeled as a poor person. He could only make money by physical strength and physical ability, such as going to dance, but not the stereotype that he could make money by his brain.

Ronald's mind was thinking fast, and now he needed Michael Douglas as an intermediary to deliver messages to the Jewish old men.Besides, this is really not a necessary plot.

"From another point of view, maybe leaving the future of Baby and Johnny blank is also a good way to deal with it. This way, the audience can still have a suspense..."

"Hahaha... Yes, you can still make a sequel. You are such an interesting person. We will keep in touch in the future. I will call you when there is a party."

Michael Douglas is also a producer, and as soon as Ronald said that, he knew he wanted to make a sequel.

……

"So, you want to delete this scene that tells the future story of the hero? Well, it's almost 20 seconds."

Walter Murch sat in the editing room and heard Ronald's new idea.

"What do you think? I got feedback from Michael Douglas. The theater may have some concerns about this section. I'm wondering if I should leave it blank to avoid controversy."

"Leave it blank?"

Walter Murch cut the passage, then went back a few minutes and re-watched the entire sequence several times.

"Leaving blank is a good way. Baby and Johnny may face the future together. It may also be that Johnny came back to give her a well-deserved dance in order to give Baby a good memory. After making her the focus of everyone, Break up again.

This processing is a more advanced method.This allows the audience to participate in the creation of the film as well. "

Walter Murch said another set of his film theories.

After several creations of script, performance, shooting, editing, etc., the director loses control of the film.In the end, whether the audience likes the movie depends on their impression of it after watching the movie in the movie theater.

In many cases, about 10% of the content of a movie is a combination of the audience's imagination and impressions, which may not necessarily exist in the movie.

"Very well, we will cut it like this, and then organize an internal test screening, do an audience survey, see how many of them recognize that this is a Jewish story. There needs to be a reference for distribution.

Then we can send it to MPAA for rating. "

Ronald hopes to get a PG-13 rating.With ratings like this, all teens can go see for themselves.Plus the name "Dirty Dancing", is it crazy?
"Hahaha..." Ronald laughed out loud in the editing room as he thought of his joy.

The internal preview is scheduled for a few days later.

All the test screening participants were recruited by Ronald from high schools and colleges near Hollywood.

He didn't really believe in the method of asking the secretary of the film company to go to the test screening of the movie. These people were all part-time workers in the company, and they might be suspected of saying good things for the sake of the boss's face.

It is better to choose from the identified target customers, which is more in line with the real situation.

Ronald called his publishing team, Michelle Cannold's team, general manager Eddie, and two agents to the scene.

The audience's reaction, let these people who will have a direct relationship with the distribution marketing work have an intuitive impression, which is a very good thing.

Sometimes, no matter how good the audience rating data is, it is not as shocking as seeing the audience clapping like crazy at the scene.It can make these people more confident in the results of their work.

Ronald still remembers that he filmed "Breakdance", that's it.After seeing the enthusiasm of the audience after the release, he learned how to break dance on the spot, and stopped the actors to let him go crazy, Minahan Golan took over the distribution work with confidence.

"Boom... boom..."

The familiar rhythm sounded, and the audience looked at the deliberately old-fashioned picture, and the loving dance moves on it made the young people cry out "ohhh".

It opens with the Housmans going to the Kellermans Resort.The audience was quickly substituted into the plot by the brisk rhythm.

When Baby saw the tacit cooperation between Johnny and Penny at the ball, he strayed into the resting place of the dancers and saw their blushing and heartbeating dance.The audience was silent, except for a lot of swallowing noises.

As the story continued, Baby and Johnny gradually fell in love with each other. They practiced lifting movements in the lake, which made both male and female audiences "tsk tsk" envious.

Finally, Johnny broke through the barrier, returned to the Kellerman Hotel, and invited Baby to dance on stage.

Seeing this, the audience could no longer hold back their passion, and began to whisper to each other.The dance music "I've Found the Time of My Life..." blared, and some people were already clapping to the beat.

In the end, Baby completed a shocking leap and was lifted up by Johnny like a bird.

The audience's emotions were provoked for more than an hour and a half, and they couldn't bear it anymore. Seeing this kind of scene, they all began to explode, and they began to applaud desperately.

A female audience member in the front row disliked that her applause was too soft, and began to stamp the floor vigorously.

Immediately, this stomping action triggered a chain reaction, and all the audience began to imitate, stomping the floor of the auditorium.The manager of the projection hall thought something was wrong and rushed in to check.

"Thank you, please fill out a questionnaire for us, we have a gift for you."

At the exit, Michelle Cannold's team started handing out questionnaires to the audience.There are many problems above.

How would you rate this movie?
Would you recommend this movie to a friend?

Do you know what ethnicity Baby is?
Do you know what ethnicity Johnny is?
Do you know what's wrong with Penny?
……

After collecting the questionnaire responses from all the audience, Michelle Cannold was very excited and came back to report to Ronald.

"The rating of the movie is A, 94% of the audience said they would recommend it to friends, and 92% of the audience said they would like to watch it again if they have the opportunity."

"That's right, what about the cognitive part?"

"Less than 20% of the audience discovered that Baby is of Jewish descent. In fact, some people only remembered it when they saw other people answering the question.

Only 30% of the audience knew that Penny was pregnant. Our filming was relatively cryptic. If there were no familiar people who experienced pregnancy, or had similar experiences themselves, most of them just thought that Penny had a stomachache and thought she had appendicitis. The proportion is higher than pregnancy. "

"Very good, send a copy to Michael Douglas." Ronald ordered his agent Richard to handle the matter.

"Where is Nisita?" Ronald asked seeing that Nisita was not around.

"Rick was talking to the marketing manager at Procter & Gamble, and he insisted on seeing the whole thing."

"Oh", Ronald saw Nisita in a light-colored suit in the distance, and he and another man in a suit and leather shoes were talking about something.

"You are needlessly worrying. We have handled it very well. You can go to the market research report there." Nisita insisted to the manager of Procter & Gamble opposite.

"I don't think so, the two ladies sitting next to me, both said that word clearly."

"What's wrong?" Ronald asked Nisita as he went over to join the discussion.

"This is the marketing manager of Procter & Gamble... He thinks there is an abortion plot in the movie. Their acne cream product is mainly aimed at teenage women. He doesn't want to take a risk and withdraw the placement advertisement."

"What?" Ronald didn't expect this to happen, "We handled it very carefully, sir. You see, in the market research we just did, less than 30% of the audience found Penny The physical problem is..."

"I understand, Director Ronald. I personally support the Roe v. Wade case, the Supreme Court's decision. But our product target market is teenage girls. I can't risk that after this movie is released, some conservative forces will organize protests." Activities, linking our company's name to...

This is the consistent policy of Procter & Gamble, please understand. "

"But you signed a contract with us."

"But there is a force majeure clause in the contract." The other party insisted.

"If I understand correctly, force majeure refers to natural disasters such as earthquakes, it does not belong to force majeure." Ronald retorted.

"Hehe", the other party smiled, "Procter & Gamble's legal team is composed of elites from all over America, and we also have top ten law firms in several major cities across the country, who are ready to hire services for us, so we, P&G, believe that this belongs to force majeure."

"You! Shxt!"

Ronald was so angry that he couldn't speak. His daydream was a small company without a strong legal team. It would be a disadvantage no matter how you look at it to fight such a lawsuit with a multinational company.

"Then I'll go first, Director Ronald. Procter & Gamble's legal department will submit the contract termination document to you, and we will pay the liquidated damages according to the terms."

"Damn Jew", looking at the other's big and curved nose, Ronald cursed in his heart.

"Sorry, Ronald, I didn't expect them to have such an idea." Nisita came over to apologize.

"It's okay." Ronald shook his hand, indicating that it has nothing to do with Nisita.

It's nothing more than embezzling part of the distribution budget to fill in P&G's withdrawal of advertising placement money.

In the future, I will not accept any advertisements for Procter & Gamble acne cream!It touches their rival Unilever can consider.

"You need to find me some advertising business, the short and quick one." Ronald pulled Nisita aside and said quietly.

"Are you financial?"

"There is no problem now, but the distribution fee..."

"I'll make arrangements right away and ask those regular customers about their intentions."

The money was suddenly short of hundreds of thousands, and Ronald had no choice but to temporarily pick up the advertising business that he didn't really want to take.

I hope to come to two well-paid advertisement productions, and the filming can be completed in a short period of time, so as to replenish my bank account.

(End of this chapter)