Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 779 Chapter 4 Nothing Can Stop Us Now
Ronald is very busy now. After shopping, he came directly to the editing room, where Walter Murch is editing Ronald's second film "Moonlight".

"How about the sample this time?" Ronald handed Murch a cup of coffee, like a promising student who always wants to hear the teacher's appreciation.

"Very good, very good. I saw a very good drama, here, and here." Walter Murch pointed out several scenes to Ronald, expressing that he liked them very much and they were very interesting to watch.

Ronald saw that it was all at the dinner table.It seems that this kind of table show is really a test of the skills of the school's actors and directors.Murch, who has led many film editing and sound design, is well-informed and straightforward, so this praise has a high gold content.

"Are you still going to play that Dean Martin's 'That's Love' at the beginning?" Murch put the first roll of film on the editing table. edited.

"Yes, do you have any suggestions?" Ronald, of course, followed the soundtrack in his dream, and found Jimmy Reiner, a music broker he met during "Dirty Dancing", and asked the record company to buy this old song right to use.

"Not my idea, your DP David Watkin said it to me in Toronto. You know, David is a classical music lover, and he thought the opera 'La Bohème' should open" The aria of your cold little hands.

It just so happens that this is also the music when the male and female protagonists are in love. When they went to the opera together, they couldn't help being overwhelmed by the performance, and only then did they confirm that they were the right person for each other. "

"OK, what do you think?" Ronald asked Walter Murch to put on a Bohemian chorus, then closed his eyes and thought about it, comparing it to "That's Love."

"I think from an artistic point of view, the Bohemian is more relevant. The opera scene behind the music will be heard again by the audience. This is a repeated process in the symphony. Sometimes a movie is like a symphony. You Repetitions and variations on themes are required."

"Well, but I worry about the audience's reception, not as much as that Dean Martin song is a household name."

"You're the director, you make the decisions. Dean Martin's song is good too, but not as structurally complete as 'Your Little Cold Hand'."

"Or, let's make one of both versions, and let's see the reaction during the test screening."

Editing work is very boring, looking at those materials back and forth, the two of them can cut five or six scissors a day, and the rest of the time is spent discussing and trial and error.

"I think it's not too difficult to edit your film. You seem to know the effect of your final film before shooting. Some directors are not like this. They often don't know what story they want when they shoot.

When I was editing for Coppola, I basically only cut the scissors once or twice a day. "

"What about your own 'Back to Oz'?" Ronald asked Murch back.

"I didn't direct the clips of the film myself. Generally speaking, I still prefer free play. Clay animation takes up too much of the proportion, and I don't have any confidence in the results of shooting."

What Murch is talking about is actually two main schools of directors.

At one extreme is Hitchcock.He extremely dislikes the improvisation of actors on the set, and once said that he should treat actors like cattle and horses.

All the scenes, he had planned well before shooting.Once an actress felt that her performance was not good, so she proposed to make a new one.Hitchcock couldn't help but agree, but he didn't even open the lens cover of the camera, just let the actress walk through it.

After the actress found out, she was very angry with Hitchcock, and she was still dissatisfied with the performance and just wanted to improve.

And Hitchcock said, for herself, her performance has been completed in the one just now.

Many directors, including Stanley Kubrick and John Ford, favor this approach.

At the other extreme is Francis Coppola.This dude can temporarily write tomorrow's script on the set, and when shooting, he also encourages the actors to improvise in different ways.

So when Murch edited for him, each piece was a different performance.They can be matched together, and the final cut plot can even be completely opposite.

Ronald, like most directors, is somewhere in the middle of two extremes.He mainly shoots commercial films, so the performance of the actors is not that important. This "Moonlight Sultry" can already be regarded as a film that he attaches relatively great importance to performance.

……

The clip continued, and one day, Joseph Farrow, the vice president of Twentieth Century Fox, called Ronald out of the blue and asked him to come over and have a chat.

"Mannequin is scheduled to be released on NO.12 next month. Our distribution budget is not much. Now we have a chance to get some free popularity, but we need your help."

Joseph Farrow got straight to the point, and the audience test results of "Spirited" were not bad, but the film critics had a bad impression, and they were full of curses.

Seeing this situation, [-]th Century Fox dismissed the idea of ​​hyping the film in the media and turned to relying on word of mouth from the audience.

"Absolutely bad, a depressing movie for anyone who remembers what movie comedy is supposed to be."

Ronald picked up the film review that Farrow had put on the table and read it.These film critics have already gone through the public relations of [-]th Century Fox and watched the film critics' special show.

It's just that the movie hasn't been released yet, and the content of the movie reviews hasn't been published in the media yet, but only circulated within Fox.

"Is this author, Leonard Martin, against you?" Ronald looked up at Farrow.

"No, but the American media has the right to report freely. We can only invite them to write film reviews. As for what to write, we have no control."

Joseph Farrow took a puff on his cigarette, and he was also very dissatisfied with the failure of the marketing department. CEO Barry Diller is turning his attention to television, and he has a lot of work to do with his new boss.

Fox's film department is now leaderless.Everyone is going their own way, and they all only care about finding their own interests in it.

If the marketing department hadn't spent some budget and wanted to find some film critics to write film reviews, the most likely reason for this "high-spirited" film was to be ignored by film critics.Instead of what it is like now, there are a bunch of very negative film reviews.

"Bullshit, you didn't give away some vacation vouchers, sponsor the annual meeting of the Film Critics Association or something?"

"That's Eisner's strong point. We at [-]th Century Fox respect the media." Joseph Farrow was still stubborn.

But seeing Ronald's disdainful smile, he stopped pretending.

"Fxck, if I were the president, I'd have to get rid of the crap in the marketing department."

"This movie is made by fools, for fools, and about fools." Ronald continued to watch, this is the film review of the Washington Post.

"As co-writer and director Michael Gottlieb, 'Smug' is the best example of what it means to be half-hearted."

Here's the New York Times review.

"Damn, you Fox sucks too. I know these people. When they were in Paramount and Universal, they were all taken care of properly."

Ronald read a bunch of scolding movie reviews, all of which had nothing good to say throughout.Fortunately, I was named as a producer, so I wasn't scolded.

Finally Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

"A lot of bad movies, but they have a lot of life.

But this "Spirit" is dead through.The audience kept vigil for it for an hour and a half, and then they could finally end the ceremony and leave the funeral ceremony.

In fact, halfway through, I was ready to have someone, lead us to turn the rosary, and start mourning to it.

The film stars Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall.

They are actors I have admired before, and will undoubtedly appreciate again.

Years from now, they may look back on the project with a mixed smile and shrug, the same way we remember Paul Newman's trash 'Silver Cup'.This bad film did not detract from our love for them, it just appeared in memory as a joke.

In 'Spirit', McCarthy plays an incompetent young man who gets fired from job after job, while Cattrall plays an Egyptian princess who is reincarnated as a dummy in a Philadelphia department store window..."

"Is there nothing better?" Ronald watched halfway, and threw Albert's movie review on the table.

These movie critics are so bad.

Such unanimous scolding of a commercial film is not artistic, the actors' acting skills are not good, and the story has loopholes. This is to deliberately belittle the film by telling part of the truth.

Commercial movies do not pay so much attention to the integrity of the details of the story and the harmonious play of acting skills.

Such unanimous criticism, needless to say, must be a certain movie in the same period. They spent a lot of money to buy their praise, so much so that they have to step on the production of a big company for comparison.

"Here's a good article."

Joseph Farrow threw over a bound magazine sample.

"Philadelphia is a great city, once the capital of our republic..."

"Isn't this a film review?" Ronald read the previous paragraphs, all talking about Philadelphia's economic recovery, capital is entering the suburbs of the city, and business activities are active.

"Look down," said Joseph Farrow without further ado.

Ronald then scrolled down.

At the end of the article touting the city, the author finally remembered this movie, and mentioned that the new Hollywood film "Spirited" was filmed in Philadelphia with Philadelphia as the background.

"Spiritually this movie, clumsily as it is, is the greatest movie story ever set in 1980s Philadelphia. Really, it's the most exhilarating movie ever made about the city."

"Hey..." Ronald smiled wryly. This was a touting article made by the magazine of the filming city. The black mayor of Philadelphia attached great importance to the filming in Philadelphia, but that's it, and he only said it at the end A few nice words about the movie.

"Don't talk about this, what do you want to do?" Ronald put all the film reviews and asked Joseph Farrow.

"The Starship Band is the band that sings the ending song of the movie. Now nothing can stop our band, and they are more satisfied with this song. The lead singer Grace Slick wants to give herself a happy memory before leaving the team.

So their record company is willing to pay Grace Slick to make a version of the MV, so that we can take advantage of the popularity of this song. "

Joseph Farrow talked about his plan. He didn't have any resources to rely on. He just saw that Ronald's "Top Gun" and the theme song "Take My Breath" complemented each other and brought a lot of sales to each other. I want to imitate it.

"How much are they going to pay?" Ronald understood that this was due to his company's MV shooting ability. "Take My Breath Away," filmed in a Navy and Air Force aircraft graveyard, didn't cost much and worked well.

"This number," Joseph Farrow held up three fingers.

"It's so small, then we can only use the scenes of the movie to intersperse and edit. Are you Fox willing?"

"Yes, but don't use too many shots of the male and female protagonists."

"Okay, you can let the lead singer of the Star Trek band dress up as the image in the movie and shoot some reshoots." Ronald thought of an idea to save money.

Let the lead singers play the plot of the movie, interspersed with real movie scenes, which not only saves money, but also can be used as a trailer and broadcast on MTV.

"Then I'll let them find you." Joseph Farrow was satisfied.He and Ronald cooperated tacitly in this movie, and they tacitly made money from each other.You can also send a few of your own people into the crew to act as leading actors.

Isn't that why I worked hard to become an executive of the company?

"By the way, Starship, do you plan to release the original soundtrack of the movie?"

Ronald asked Joseph Farrow.

Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer are already working on a Top Gun soundtrack.In addition to a few episodes and theme songs, there are also some atmosphere-enhancing soundtracks that are also planned to be included.

Ronald didn't know how this kind of soundtrack was operated, so he just asked Joseph Farrow, who was a vice president in the studio, and he must be very clear about these things.

"What does it have to do with the band? The soundtrack of the movie is produced by the film company, and has nothing to do with the record company. They just publish the copyright and wait for the money.

It seems that this movie will not have any good reviews, and I don't plan to release a record. "

Joseph Farrow was amused by Ronald's ignorance.I don't want to make this kind of record, it's something that just loses money.If it is reflected in the financial statements, isn't there another handle?
Still honestly, stop losing money on this movie.Anyway, almost everything that needs to be reaped has been reaped, and the market does not recognize it. No one knows whether the movie will be a hit, and the executives of the film company can't predict the future, can they?

"Is it led by the film company? I thought it was produced by the record company?"

Ronald was a little puzzled.Movie soundtracks are also records, right?Why not a record company?
"Whoever takes the risk gets to take all the surplus. That's the iron law of the business, Ronald."

Joseph Farrow pointed at the director and producer with the cigar in his hand. The young man was still a little inexperienced, and he could just teach him.

After listening to Joseph Farrow's explanation, Ronald realized that the distribution rules of the original soundtrack of this movie should indeed be dominated by the film company.

Most of the movie's interludes are old songs, some of which use singers to re-sing a new version, and some directly use the old version of the recording.

For example, Ronald's "Dirty Dancing", due to the limited production cost, directly mixed the soundtrack of the old record.

When a record company wants to release a record, it depends on how many consumers can pay for it.Depending on the capacity of the market, determine the scale of distribution, the number of productions, and the marketing budget.

As for the original soundtrack composed of movie episodes, this kind of collection of old songs and new songs, how much it can sell depends entirely on the box office of the movie.

Record companies can only predict the market around singers or bands. No one in the record company can predict the sales of this kind of derivative records accompanied by movies.

In line with the principle that who knows the market better, whoever is the boss, the original soundtracks of movies in history were all published by film companies.

Of course, in the late 70s, "Grease" and "Saturday Night Fever" started the trend of record companies entering the film market, and some record company bosses invented the method of using movies to promote new records.

Robert Sternwood, Jerry Weintraub and other record industry moguls also completed their transition to Hollywood.

But the box office of movies is even more unpredictable than the sales of records.

These few tycoons quickly lost their magic and lost a lot of money in the film industry.By the second half of the 80s, record labels had given up on movies.

They are only satisfied with relying on the authorization of songs to get a little benefit from the original soundtrack of the movie.At least this way, there is little risk.

Old songs can be sold again, and they can earn a lot of copyright fees.Soundtracks don't sell, and they have nothing to lose.

After learning about the production process of the original soundtrack, Ronald began to think about it.Rights broker Jimmy Reiner bought those old songs about "Dirty Dancing" for nothing.

If the box office of this movie is good, relying on the cheap copyright of these dozens of episodes, it will be profitable to release the record, right?I don't know if fans who like movies will buy another record and listen to it at home?
Thinking about his thoughts, Ronald left Joseph Farrow's office.After walking a few steps, I heard a magnetic female voice calling myself.

"Ronald."

Ronald looked up and saw the official "spirited" heroine, Kim Cattrall.

"Why are you here."

"I heard about the movie review, so I came to ask about it."

Cattrall's face was not very good. She heard that the film critics collectively gave the lowest score.I didn't get a real heroine until I was 30 years old, and I was about to be ruined by these film critics.

"Don't worry, this kind of small production actually has little effect from movie reviews." Ronald embraced the unhappy Cattrall and went downstairs with her.

"Is that so? I really don't know anything right now, Ronald. Can you tell me? I really don't know..."

Cattrall frowned, hearing what Ronald said, it seemed that he had found a life-saving straw.

She is really tired.

Since she was a child, she wanted to be an actress and a star, but no one has really treated her well and carefully planned her career.

I was deceived many times, and it was over thirty before I really became a heroine with enough roles in the scene.

"Of course, the film's film reviews and marketing only determine the box office of the opening. Such a small production, anyway, it is impossible to spend a lot of money to get a good opening result. It still depends on the audience's word of mouth."

Ronald has a lot of experience in small-scale film productions. He knows very well that film marketing and film reviews can give you a good opening weekend box office, but in the end, it depends on the quality of the film itself.

"Really? I believe you right now, don't lie to me. I can take anything, I just want to know the truth." Cattrall was also hit a lot, and she was more open to lies than to failure hate.

"I'm not going to lie to you. You still remember Diane's cameo movie 'Demons in Chinatown'. The reviews were good. I remember you appeared on many TV shows and gave interviews. What happened to the final box office?"

"Really?"

"Of course, Joseph Farrow told me that the audience test scores are good, with a B+ level. CinemaScore's ratings are more objective, but not much different. This kind of romantic comedy has this audience reaction, it can't be worse. Where did you go?"

Ronald's confidence in the box office is not bad, and he can probably recover the cost and make a small profit.

Seeing Ronald's solemn assurance that the movie was not as bad as the critics said, Kim Cattrall felt better.

"Which hotel are you staying in? I'll accompany you." Cattrall has nothing to thank now, only to give himself as a gift to this man who always helps him at critical moments.

"You don't have to do this, we are friends." Ronald knew that the contractual relationship between the two had ended, and there was no need to force others.

"Occasionally, between friends..." How could Cattrall let it go, he got into Ronald's Ferrari and didn't leave.

Ronald got into the driver's seat and drove back to the hotel.

"What do you want to drink?" Ronald opened the door, took out the champagne in the refrigerator, and poured a glass for Cattrall and himself.

"Well, Ronald." Seeing that the other party wanted something romantic, Cattrall took a sip from the wine glass, leaving a red lip mark on the glass.

She turned on the TV station in the past, tuned to the channel dedicated to old songs, put down the wine glass, took Ronald's hand, and danced cheek to cheek with him.

"Do you love me?
I can really dance.

Do you love me?

I've gotten into that dance..."

The cable channel, which was playing black music, happened to be the soundtrack to the dance that opened in "Dirty Dancing."

Ronald was hugged by Cattrall, feeling her amazing charm.

Suddenly, it seemed that some inspiration appeared in his mind. Ronald tried to catch it, but ran away again.

"Hmm..." Seeing that Ronald was absent-minded, Cattrall quickly took Ronald's hand, placed it on his hip and waist, and then slipped into his arms.

"Come dance, don't think about other women."

Ronald's blood surged from the friction, he didn't care about the inspiration, and just started dancing with Cattrall.

"I'm working hard.

You always drive me crazy.

don't be lazy
Let's dance together..."

This song "Do you love me?" is very rhythmic. Ronald and Cattrall danced very vigorously.

Following the rhythm of the swing dance, Kim Cattrall squatted down twisting and turning, then stood up and resumed a half-squat position. She reached out to Ronald's waist, and with a snap, the metal buckle was released.

"Shxt!" Ronald was so comfortable that his mind shuddered, "I thought of it. I thought of it."

Cattrall looked at him puzzled, "What did you think of?"

"I thought, if 'Dirty Dancing' comes out with an original soundtrack, the audience will buy it not to listen to the song, but to learn to dance."

Ronald suddenly figured this out, and he was in a good mood.

He bent down and hugged Cattrall vigorously.

"Ah...hahaha...Ronald, you are too strong."

"Uh... ah... ah..."

Cattrall was ecstatic, as if he had lost his senses, and with the accompaniment of the strong rhythm of the dance music, his consciousness was blurred, as if he had gone to the place of bliss.

(End of this chapter)