Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Cut! The rhythm is not right, let's do it again..."

Ronald was still celebrating his natural advantage in casting, as actors usually get into the groove in the first take. Who knew that the filming would come to a standstill the next day.

After Harry and Sally went to bed, they had different perceptions of the matter. Sally held traditional values, and she believed that going to bed was something that happened naturally after the relationship reached a certain level. Affection and love are inseparable. Harry and she went around in circles and finally became a couple because both sides naturally developed affection and love because of their understanding.

Harry was the opposite, and he believed that affection and love were two different things that could be completely separated. Sally's smile, as if she had found her home, scared him and made him want to escape as soon as possible.

The next morning, Sally woke up and found that Harry was already getting dressed. She hurriedly left Sally's house under the pretext of going home to take a shower. Both of them noticed each other's misalignment, and in a hurry, they had to call their best same-sex friends, Mary and Jess, who were already married.

There had been problems with shooting phone calls before because of asynchrony. Ronald installed three scenes in the studio.

In the middle of the studio is a large bed, which perfectly replicates the bedroom of the house where Jace and Mary live. Bruno Kirby, who plays Jace, and Carrie Fisher, who plays Mary, lie on the bed in their pajamas.

On the left side of the studio is a replica of Sally's room. Meg Ryan lies on the bed and calls Mary for help. She is eager to figure out what is going on.

On the right side is a pay phone. Harry just left Sally's house and called his best friend Jace. He was also confused and needed help from his friends.

The three scenes are actually very close, but there are three cameras shooting separately. They look like three completely unrelated places in the lens.

The recording of the three scenes uses a set of equipment. Four telephones (Mary and Jace each have a number on their own bedside table, which is a common telephone line arrangement in working women's homes) all have props and are really connected, giving the actors a real performance experience.

Because the recordings of the three scenes were recorded together, this kind of shooting is actually equivalent to three groups of people recording together in the studio.

Just like the song sung by MJ and the stars, the sound of their voices are all recorded by the radio equipment, but each can hear the voices of others, and the coordination is like a live performance.

In the script, this phone call scene takes up three and a half pages. But there is only one long shot (actually shot by three cameras, but synchronized in time). This brings great difficulty to the shooting.

Because the special tacit rhythm of the romantic love drama is required, editing cannot be used. The lack of dramatic plot requires all the details to fit together like mortise and tenon, and 0.1 seconds cannot be wrong.

Therefore, the introduction of any editing will make this scene easy for the audience to play. For the box office and viewing experience of the movie, Ronald decided to challenge the high difficulty.

"Cut! Cut!... Carrie, you said it too early, let Bruno say this sentence first."

"Sorry, my bad..."

In this line, Carrie Fisher's line grabbed half a beat. Harry and Sally both thought there was another person talking on the phone, so they asked if it was Mary and Jace's significant other who was also answering a call from a friend.

At this time, Jace would lie and say it was Jane Fonda in the fitness video. Mary would lie and say it was Bryant Gumbel, the host of NBC's morning TV show.

These two sentences are both manifestations of quick wit. In the early morning, in order not to make their good friend sad, Mary and Jace made up a name of a person who was likely to make a voice of the opposite sex during this time period.

The audience should smile knowingly when they see this. So the two people's words cannot overlap, and one person must just finish speaking and the other must take over the rhythm half a beat.

"Let's do it again..."

"Cut! Cut! Bruno, you didn't take it this time."

Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal both faced the camera alone, and their dialogue was also easy to solve without any difficulty. Bruno Kobe and Carrie Fisher were very troublesome, and their rhythm could not be wrong at all.

Ronald spent a lot of time explaining to them this rhythm of invading each other's speaking space just now, but just missing it. The two actors found it difficult to understand, as this kind of approach to lines is rare in Western dramas.

Ronald himself could not demonstrate the lines that only two people could perform. Kobe and Fisher just memorized Ronald's ideas, so they often made mistakes.

"Everyone take a break..." Ronald had already shot twenty takes, but the four actors still couldn't finish it smoothly once.

This was the first time such a difficulty had occurred in the filming of this movie. Ronald didn't care, and the four actors were also very irritable, which made the filming more difficult.

Ronald had to stop and asked the assistants to bring hot coffee and sweets to appease the irritability of the actors and staff who were exhausted.

The key to the problem was to demonstrate to the actors the effect Ronald wanted. Otherwise, they would be groping in the dark and it would only get worse.

"Just like some duet bands, their voices will cooperate with each other..." Ronald took out his treasured biscuits and gave them to the leading actors.

"It's like harmony, right?" Carrie Fisher's boyfriend Paul Simon is a member of the Simon and Garfunkel band. This band has sung many classic movie interludes...

"It's not harmony, it's a kind of mutual... How should I explain it to you?" Ronald couldn't explain it, so he simply drew a picture on paper, using short lines to represent the rhythm of the two people talking. The short lines before and after each short line overlapped with the short lines of the other person's speech. "

"Got it..." Everyone nodded to show their understanding.

"A!" The break was over, and Ronald's Auntie's biscuits were all eaten. He ordered to continue filming.

"Cut! Cut! There are too many overlapping parts, and the audience can't hear clearly. "After just a dozen seconds of filming, Ronald called a halt again.

This method of handling lines is rarely seen in Western operas, musicals, and plays (at least Ronald didn't know it). The actors said they understood it, but in fact they still had a big problem grasping the rhythm.

After filming intermittently for a day, by dinner time, Ronald had filmed 35 takes, but still didn't achieve a satisfactory effect.

The director of photography next to him had already suggested that they solve it in the editing room. But Ronald rejected it.

This is already the third act of the movie. After this scene, Harry and Sally have inevitably discovered that they are not in sync with each other. They have no room for compromise, and the plot has entered a fast lane with no forks.

Either the two of them break up completely and can't even be friends. Or they accept each other and stay together forever. When the audience watches it, the experience is like stepping on the accelerator to accelerate. After this scene, they will have to speed up at 120 miles per hour and drive all the way to the end.

So the rhythm of this play is very important The audience should subconsciously accept this accelerated arrangement. If the editing destroys this rhythm, the audience will fall into a state of being out of the play from this scene to the end. Ronald felt that this was a key point based on his experience and refused to compromise.

After returning home, Ronald turned over various videotapes and records, trying to find a suitable demonstration. There is actually a name for the shooting method of this scene, called in-camera editing.

In other words, the rhythm of talking and hanging up the phone originally needs to be created in the editing room, repeatedly comparing before and after.

But Ronald is equivalent to scheduling the actor's speech speed and pauses, and wants to get a natural editing effect in a long shot. The actor's performance naturally forms a kind of editing effect. Therefore, this shooting method is also called editing without editing.

After picking over and over for a long time, Ronald still couldn't find a suitable demonstration. Just when he was dozing off in the videotapes and records, the phone rang.

"Ronald, am I not disturbing you? I'm tired of reading the script in the office. Can I go to your crew for an internship? "It was Ang Lee who called. Ronald was the only one who could tell him what he wanted.

"Of course, come tomorrow and be my assistant director." Ronald thought that the other party could take the initiative, which was great. "By the way, in your Chinese art, do you have lines that chase each other..."

"Yes, our Peking Opera often has such treatments." Ang Lee happened to be a graduate of Huagang Art School. Sometimes his classmates would perform singing segments. He knew the unique performance method of this Peking Opera - fish biting tail.

...

"You and I are separated by thousands of miles of marriage. If you have any secrets, just speak out."

"Xiao Tianzuo set up Tianmen and the two countries went to war. My mother came to Beifan with food and grass. ”

The next morning, Ronald played the Peking Opera videotape "Silang Visits His Mother" that Ang Lee had obtained overnight to several leading actors in the studio. The lines sung by the two main characters, Yang Silang and Princess Tiejing, in the sitting palace were in line with Ronald's requirement of stepping on each other's lines a little, but not affecting the audience's understanding.

Although the actors did not understand Chinese at all, they had a common performance method and they quickly understood the rhythm scale required by Ronald.

It's like two ornamental goldfish, chasing each other and biting each other's tails, shaking and biting, but not biting completely. It's a dynamic balance.

"Do you want to come over for breakfast? "Fisher and Kobe finally finished their lines perfectly.

"No, I don't really want to go", Kristo's last line was also completed smoothly.

"No, I feel terrible..." Meg Ryan's line was also completed smoothly.

Bang...Bang...Bang...Bang...

The four sounds of hanging up the phone were also very rhythmic, and Ronald smiled.

"Oh...God..." Carrie Fisher was tired of Harry and Sally's emotions.

"I..." Bruno Kobe suddenly couldn't remember the lines, he was stuck.

"Shxt...", Ronald Looking at the shot that was almost finished, he cursed in his heart. "It's 'Fortunately we don't have to go through this again', idiot..."

"Sorry, sorry, I forgot the words..." Bruno Kobe also jumped out of bed and apologized to the actors.

"It's okay, let's do it again"

...

Finally, when shooting the 51st shot, the four actors finally completed this difficult performance.

"Huh... Let's print this shot, everyone has a day off today..." Ronald saw that everyone on the scene was exhausted and had no extra energy to shoot the rest of the shots.

"Filming is really hard..." Ang Lee sighed beside him. It was his first time to come to the shooting site of a Hollywood commercial film. He saw that an experienced director like Ronald would shoot a shot 51 times, and he almost collapsed.

"It's just not going well. We did it all in one take a few days ago..." Ronald patted his shoulder, "Your videotape of Si Lang visiting his mother was a big help. Why didn't you show me such wonderful art before?"

"Hey... This play was not allowed to be performed a few years ago. I found the mainland version. I heard that they also didn't allow it to be performed for a long time..."

"Oh..." Ronald probably read some of the singing segments and knew that it was because of missing his mother. The story of the general breaking through the defense line and running to the enemy camp to visit his mother was not easy to perform... Both sides.

...

After resting overnight, the subsequent shooting went smoothly again.

The crew shot a lot of Harry's scenes. At the wedding of Mary and Jess, he realized the harm his actions had caused to Sally. He called Sally every day, apologized, gave gifts, and tried everything, but the other party just didn't want to talk to him.

The practice of going to bed and then leaving in the morning with an excuse is too classic. Sally felt that she had seen through Harry and didn't want to be hurt again.

Finally, on New Year's Eve, Mary took Sally to the New Year's party again. Everyone watched the live broadcast of the New Year's countdown in Times Square in the ballroom.

Harry walked alone on the street and saw everyone reunited. Suddenly, a very deep feeling emerged in his heart. He rushed to the street to hail a taxi, but no car would stop.

Finally, Harry couldn't stand the feeling of not being with Sally, and ran to the venue of the New Year's party by himself.

"I can't stand the thought of no one kissing me on New Year's Day. I'm going back first."

Sally's date was really bad. She didn't want to stay here until the New Year when everyone kissed and hugged. Last year, Harry was here and kissed her like a friend, like a consolation prize.

"Don't be like this, Sally, please stay. There are only ten minutes until New Year's Day. If there is no one, I will kiss you." Jace, played by Bruno Kobe, felt that Sally was very sad.

Mary stopped her husband. She knew that if Sally stayed and watched the couples, she would probably be even more sad.

"Cut!" Ronald really recovered the high efficiency of filming. This made Ang Lee feel that he was amazing and he would never catch up.

"It's the last scene. How are you preparing?" Ronald asked Billy Crystal.

The other party made an OK gesture. He had been preparing for a long time.

"A!"

Harry ran to the door of the hall and saw Sally who was leaving.

"I love you, Sally."

"How do you want me to reply to you?" Sally didn't want to talk to him more.

"You love me too, how about it?"

"Harry, this won't work. You can't just appear in front of me and tell me that you love me, and I can forget everything."

Meg Ryan's eyes were misty and her voice began to tremble. The audience will definitely fall in love with Sally like this. She is sincere in her feelings, unwilling to compromise, and expects the other party to be sincere to her.

"Then what do you want to do?" Billy Crystal also played very well. A man can finally face his inner feelings. He has always loved this girl, but he didn't know it himself...

"I don't know, but it's definitely not like this..." Sally turned to leave, she didn't want to cry in front of Harry.

"How about this?" Harry was anxious and grabbed Sally.

"Nine... eight... seven... six..." The people around began to count down.

"I love that you can catch a cold even if it's 70 degrees outside (Fahrenheit), I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich, I love the wrinkles on your nose when you think I'm a fool, I love that I can still smell your perfume after spending a day with you, I love that I'm the last person to talk to before I go to bed..."

Billy Crystal's lines were fast and exciting.

Meg Ryan's reaction was also great. Sally was surprised by Harry's confession. She didn't expect Harry to remember a series of details of their relationship so clearly. Her eyes were misty again.

"I say this not because I'm lonely, nor because it's New Year's Eve, but because if a person has figured out that he wants to spend the rest of his life with another person, then he must hope that the rest of his life will come as soon as possible..."

A happy smile appeared on Meg Ryan's face. She was enjoying such a romantic confession. Wasn't this the kind of confession she had been looking forward to? Sweet and gentle...

Then her expression changed again, "Look, you're always like this. Every time you say something like this, I can't hate you... I... I hate you..."

Harry looked at Sally affectionately...

"I hate you..." Sally's words were much softer than the previous one, and her eyes turned to happiness.

"I really hate you..." A teardrop fell from Meg Ryan's face.

"I hate you..."

Billy Crystal's expression was full of sweetness, and suddenly, the two kissed each other.

The camera began to slowly pull away. The New Year arrived, countless fireworks fell from the ceiling, and everyone in the camera was dancing happily.

Finally, in the center of the picture, there was a pair of happy couples kissing each other, it was Harry and Sally.

“Cut!”

Ronald raised his hands and clapped loudly.

Everyone started to applaud. Everyone felt that this scene was very warm and well shot.

More importantly, the main part of the film has been shot.

"There is a party in the evening, and then we have to pay attention to the weather forecast." Ronald finally said to the two protagonists.

The main shooting scene is the plot of Harry and Sally spending Christmas in the heavy snow. This depends on the weather.