Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 767 New challenges brought by multi-person long shots
During the rehearsal of the script, Ronald resorted to the stunt learned from Coppola, and asked people to record all the rehearsal dialogues of the actors with a video recorder.Later in the evening, Ronald watched the video with the director of photography overnight, trying to figure out the problems that would be encountered during the official shooting.

The problem with this movie is that the dialogue between the many actors must cooperate with each other tacitly.Drama films grab the attention of the audience, mainly relying on the tension between the plots, so that the audience unconsciously wants to know what happens between the characters until the end.

Ronald watched the video all night, and his biggest experience was that the more actors there are in a scene, the more difficult it is to arrange the camera positions and guide the actors to make excellent performances.

In a scene between two people, as long as the chemistry between the two is good and the emotions are in place, the audience will be moved.But for a scene between three people, there are six times more problems that need to be dealt with. The chemical reactions between A and B, between B and C, and between C and A must be in place.

Moreover, when the camera moves between the three characters, it must be accurately connected, which made Ronald feel dizzy thinking about it.

When Stanley Shanley wrote the script, he didn't think about how the film would present such a complex cast, which was his first film after all.

Before Ronald, he only dealt with the complex scheduling caused by large props.Like the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet.That kind of machinery, as long as it has the assistance of the manufacturer's engineers, will always find a way to make the big toy move in the camera according to Ronald's ideas.

But the difficulty of managing people is much higher than that of huge machines.How to deal with these multi-person scenes is a huge challenge to test the director's ability.

Another problem is the setting of the camera position.In this movie, there are a lot of interior scenes.When shooting indoors in a small space, when there are more than two people, the location of the shooting camera can only be determined when they arrive at the scene.

For a few rival scenes between two or three people, Ronald quickly discussed with the director of photography David Watkin on a suitable shooting position based on the cooperation of the actors, and then at the scene of the filming by the art director Philip Rosenberg Marked in the photo.

In all the scripts, more than 90.00% of the scenes can be completed through simple design, while the remaining few scenes are very difficult. Ronald, the director of photography and art director all feel that it is very tricky.

Among them, the two group portrait scenes are the most difficult.

In the first scene, after the fiancé Johnny successfully proposes to Loretta played by Xue Er, Loretta comes to the bakery where the fiancé's long-lost brother, Ronnie, works, and invites him to the wedding. .

This scene is played by Nicolas Cage as Ronnie. In his self-reported appearance, Nicolas Cage is required to have a burst of acting skills, so that the audience can quickly get to know him. people.

Only then will the audience understand his hatred for Ronnie and his sudden love for Loretta.

Not only does the audience have to fully like this disheveled Italian youth, but Loretta also has a crush on his sudden outburst of passion.

If the scene was poorly filmed and the audience only felt that Cage's Ronnie was boring, then the scene where Loretta and him spend the spring night under the influence of the super moon will not be convincing.

So Cage's almost crazy acting style fits well with this scene,

But the difficulty of this scene lies in the fact that it is an open space scene.In the bakery, first there is a saleswoman played by Diane, who leads Loretta, the viewer's eye, into the baking room scene of the bakery.

Then there were two old Italian couples who came to buy bread, and Ronald agreed to let Martin Scorsese's parents play cameo roles.

The relationship between the many characters must be clearly explained, and the roles of the two protagonists must be continuous. Whether it is camera movement, camera positions, or performances, they all put forward high requirements.
“My bakery on the corner of 502 Henry Street in Brooklyn, as long as a few cuts are done, visual continuity for the audience will not be a problem.”

Even so, Ronald was still very worried about the connection and rhythm of multiple actors. He ran to the real bakery and looked at it for a long time with the director's viewfinder.

A few people were still blocked by several large bread baking ovens and bread fermentation equipment.But if you set up a scene in a studio, you can't restore this real scene.Especially for this shot, there is also a shot of the heroine pushing the door in from the outside to the inside. Actual shooting saves countless things compared to setting up the scene in the studio.

If only the bakery scene had worried Ronald.Another round table scene that ended up eating in the kitchen of Loretta's house made Ronald worry all the time, and instinctively resisted, not wanting to deal with it.

This is 19 Clonberry Street in Brooklyn Heights, a common house in Brooklyn at the junction of Italian and Irish neighborhoods.The two-story building, the red exterior wall, and the railings outside the gate made of twisted iron sheets make people recognize Brooklyn at a glance.

If Ronald still had some ideas in the last scene, this scene has no ideas at all.

At the beginning, only Loretta and mother Rose were talking in the kitchen. Mother Rose saw her daughter falling in love with her and sighed.

Then the father joined in, and when he was talking about her marriage with his daughter, his lover was accidentally exposed.

Then Loretta's aunt and uncle, to see the cash she took yesterday, which was not deposited in the bank.The family began joining extended family discussions, and then Ronnie, who had seen the opera "La Bohème" with Loretta and fell in love with him, came to see his girlfriend's family for the first time.

In the end, the old grandfather came down from upstairs and solved the problem of his son's affair.

Finally, the group happens to run into Loretta's fiancé, Johnny, who is back from Italy.Because the dying mother regained her health after seeing him, Johnny thought he was tainted by Loretta's bad luck and wanted to break off the engagement with her.

Many characters will appear in the whole scene, and many clues develop here in multiple lines, and finally they are all resolved in a super powerful ending.

"How to arrange the camera position here?" Ronald looked at the director of photography, and the two stared at each other for a long time, puzzled.

This scene, all the plays, were written by screenwriter Shanley to the rhythm of a Broadway play.But a movie is not a drama, and it is impossible for everyone to see the whole scene.

Ronald must put multiple cameras to capture close-ups of everyone, over-the-shoulder dialogue scenes, and some overall explanations.

But if the camera angle is slightly wrong, it is inevitable to pass through and see other cameras.And the angles are set strictly according to the design, and the actors will come out of the shot if they improvise a little, or bring them to other cameras.

Ronald played the rehearsal videotape on the spot. He stood left and right, but he couldn't find a suitable route and could take everything into consideration.

Moreover, there are so many characters in this group play, and it is impossible to follow the design step by step according to the individual emotions.

If the actors are too scruples and wrong their positions and angles, the interaction between the actors and the particularly smooth emotions will be destroyed again.

In short, for the good of the show, would you rather pass through?In order to ensure the quality, we don't pursue impromptu performances with the highest reliability.Ronald had to make a difficult decision.

Finally, David Watkin, the director of photography who won the Oscar for Best Cinematography for "Out of Africa", spoke.

"Ronald, I think you are here, you still have to find the chemistry of the actors and the rhythm of the dialogue first, and then we will design the camera location."

"Reason?" Ronald squatted on the ground with a bitter face, trying to find a camera angle parallel to the eyes of the actors sitting on the edge of the table from the long Italian-style dining table.

"Well, this is life. We always have to find something that we can hold in our hands first. Instead of pursuing the best of both worlds, it is better to find one first.

Anyway, your ending scene is mainly the effect brought out by the performances between the actors. "

"David, what you said makes sense." Ronald put down the viewfinder, and he understood that what Watkin said was the correct idea.

First, let everyone reach the best performance state through on-site rehearsal, and then design different camera positions according to their positions.

However, Ronald's shooting method has always been the shooting method of going back to the scene through the scene in the dream.

He has always done the sub-shots of each scene at the beginning of shooting.

In this way, without splitting the shots, when he arrived at the shooting scene, he came to the scene to decide the details of shooting and editing according to the state of the actors. For him, he always felt a little unsafe.

"Listen to me, Sidney Pollack does it all the time on set, Dustin Hoffman, and Jessica Lange; Meryl Streep, and Robert Redford, I have seen him countless times before filming for half an hour, and he has not yet decided on the location and location of the camera."

David Watkin mentions, Sidney Pollack's two box-office hits, "Tootsie" and "Out of Africa".

Neither of these two films has any big concepts, but with the plot and the wonderful performances of the actors, the audience is immersive, and finally won the Oscar.

"Just do it like this", Ronald couldn't do anything about it, this was a scene beyond his directing experience, what did a wise ancient say? "If you drive to the front of the mountain, you will definitely find a road across the mountain.

In a blink of an eye, it was the day when the filming started. Ronald looked at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center at the junction of Columbia Street and 61st Avenue.

Ronald rented a day and a half of shooting time for the exterior street here.

At the beginning of the movie, Cher appears on the scene. She is an accountant who works part-time everywhere and declares taxes for others.In middle age, her husband was killed in a car accident.In Italian culture, widows are very unlucky, and men who have other choices generally do not formally associate with widows.

This time, she came to a small company outside the Metropolitan Opera House to help the boss with filing tax returns.

The opening shot is the exterior wall of the opera house with the poster of the newly released opera "La Bohème".The truck drivers union dominated by the Italians, trucks are unloading at the back door of the Opera House.

With her gray hair and weathered face, Loretta resembles a single woman who has to work hard to support herself and has no time to groom herself.

The part-time flower shop owner finally gave Loretta a bunch of unsold red roses.

Loretta, played by Xue Er, looked at the red rose. Although her mouth was not forgiving, she still showed a smile that is unique to a woman when she sees a red rose. She picked up the flower and sniffed it first.

"Cut!"

On the first day of filming, Ronald did not arrange particularly difficult shots, but let the team and actors start with easy shots, find out the feeling, and adjust the team.

During the interval between filming, Cher asked her personal hairstylist to re-arrange her gray hair.

Others don't need to bring it, but the hair stylist must bring it.

Xueer is proud of her long black and beautiful hair, and she enjoys the care of her personal hairstylist anytime and anywhere.

The hairstylist Ronald found couldn't do it, so he could only inform the other party of the desired effect and let Xueer's personal hairstylist arrange it.Only he can touch Xue'er's hair.

Next comes the transition, a shot of Cher walking like a withered old aunt on the road outside the opera house walls.

The opera was La Bohème, the opera of Pavarotti's fame that Ronald knew.This was the opera that Loretta and Ronnie later went to see together.

"David Watkin, Philip Rosenberg, set design.

Julia Taylor, scene director.

……

Ronald Lee, Lightning Light Operator. "

In addition to the big title of "Bohemian" on the poster, the crew members also wrote their names on the poster of the opera in the movie.

Of course, this is an arrangement by Ronald, so that those staff members who are unlikely to appear on the screen have a chance to proudly point to the screen and shout to their family members, that is my name.

However, the work of these staff members in the crew has been turned into a particularly important position.Make their family happy.

In order to cooperate, Ronald also changed his position to the least noticeable "lightning operator".

While quieting myself, I also sell my top products.

"I said, have you worked with Ronald before?"

Cher asked Olympia Dukakis, who played her mother, during a break between shoots.

"No, what's the matter?" Dukakis was surprised. The director's authority on Broadway was more powerful. He had never heard of the director's behind-the-scenes discussion on the set like this.

"I always felt like I made a mistake. My last film, The Witches of Easttown, was with Jack Nicholson.

In my next play, the leading actors are Liam Neeson and Dennis Quaid, both of whom are handsome guys.This drama, look at Nick's chicken coop head. "

"Hahaha..." Dukakis laughed, Nicolas Cage really looked like a fool, and he also specially wore dentures for the character, typical Italian-style rotten teeth.

The two acted as mother and daughter in the film crew. In fact, the age difference was only a little over ten years, so they got along very well.

"I said, have you acted in Ronald's movies before? How do I feel, he doesn't guide our acting very much." Cher whispered to Dukakis, this is the question she wants to really discuss .

"No, but the director is the person who has the deepest understanding of a script. We just need to cooperate with the director and play the character's response well." Olympia Dukakis is an old-school Broadway style, and the director is always right.

"I'm afraid we'll act in a bad movie. My performance is not as thoughtful as the last movie. Every shot has a special design. It seems that I acted casually here, and Ronald called it out."

Dukakis shrugged helplessly. This is also where she was a little dissatisfied with Ronald, because there was no meticulous attention to every shot.It seems that just acting casually like this can meet his requirements.

"Very good. Your directing method is really natural. Xueer hardly needs to act too much. Your casting is really good, and the effect of the original performance is very good."

On the other hand, director of photography David Watkin praised Ronald vigorously, saying that he is worthy of being Scorsese's disciple. When making a movie, casting is a hundred times more important than acting.

That's Scorsese's mantra, and if there's no perfect candidate, he'd rather not make it.

"Hahaha, I also think Julia Taylor's level is very high."

"Hey hey, here is the marble wall, imported from Italy, tell your people to be careful", the manager of the Metropolitan Opera, when he saw Ronald's staff, started tearing up the posters on the wall, began to act Mind you, the tape they used to hold the poster in place seems to leave an ugly line on the marble.

"How did this happen? Don't you know that different walls require different tapes to avoid leaving marks?" Ronald pulled the head in charge of the props and asked him what was going on.

"The Metropolitan Opera is making a fuss, that's what we do all the time, is there anything that needs to be cleaned, isn't that already included in the rent?"

"Well, you make this call." Ronald suddenly had an idea in his mind, and he asked the head of the props team to find the daydream props expert.

In the hardware chain store, they found that to deal with different materials, different tapes should be used.Anyway, this is a very small market, as long as you purchase tapes with similar raw materials, and then produce specific tapes and put them on your own company's brand, Hollywood film studios will definitely like seeing tapes classified into different categories.

In such a small market, its own production capacity can supply everyone, and the price is slightly higher, which can also make those high-purchasing managers happy.

Anyway, editing tape is also tape, and prop tape is also tape, and maybe it can be a small monopoly business.

Soon, Daydream's staff sent a cut-out sign, different types of marked adhesive tape, once used for the prop group, it was really easy to use, and when dismantling the set, just tear it down.

(End of this chapter)