Exploiting Hollywood 1980

A few weeks later, several students applied to transfer to other departments. The dozens of students who stayed were determined to pursue their dreams of film and television.

Perhaps some of them came from TV stations and studios, so they were not afraid of not finding a job after graduation. Ronald seemed to see something from the fashionable dress of several classmates.

Today's class is in the evening, in the screening room. In addition to undergraduates, there are also many master's students. The reason is simple. The lecturer is the popular Hollywood director, Martin Scorsese.

Scorsese is very interesting. He did not offer courses related to directing, but a classic old film appreciation course. According to classmates' gossip, the old man who persuaded him to quit wanted to take this course, but he could not compete with Scorsese and could only take film theory.

A short man came in with a big beard. He walked to the stage in front of the screening room, picked up the microphone and started speaking.

"I'm Martin Scorsese, and I'll be teaching you classic film appreciation this year. Because my new film was shot in Los Angeles, this class has been postponed for two weeks. I'm sorry. I have to finish shooting that film in New York. If there is a time conflict, my teaching assistant will come to show the movie. After watching it, you can hand in the review assignment to her."

"I have always believed that the shortcut to making movies is to watch more classic old movies. Don't just watch Ingrid Bergman and Grace Kelly, of course they are also worth watching."

The students laughed in response.

Scorsese himself laughed, "What I mean is that we have to start from the silent film era. The common techniques of movies were all established in the silent film era, so we must go back to that era. We must go through the process of directors from the beginning, so that you can have a deeper understanding of the current film techniques."

"Today is the first day, so I won't torture you. I chose a black-and-white movie with sound, "The Grapes of Wrath" shot by the great western director John Ford in 1940.

The reason for choosing this movie is to let you see that all the so-called director's rules can be broken for the purpose of expression. Of course, the premise is that you have mastered the rules to know when to break them.

I especially remind everyone to pay attention to the first minute. How did the leading actor Henry Fonda (Jane Fonda, and Peter Fonda's father) not say a word in this minute, but still attract the audience's attention."

Then Scorsese signaled the teaching assistant to start playing the movie in the projection room at the back.

Scorsese did not say any theory, but asked everyone to watch the movie and write a review after class. The real great director's lectures are always simple, without so many terms and theories to discourage the old man.

The students took advantage of the short time before the screening to discuss Scorsese's purpose. Some quoted the theory of "author film", thinking that Scorsese wanted to train their author consciousness.

A black student looked at them with disdain, put on his glasses, and looked around, as if he wanted to hear what others had to say. His eyes passed over Ronald and paused, and Ronald nodded to him friendly. The black student also nodded to him and began to look at the screen.

Ronald thought it was not so complicated. This is a practitioner who despises theorists. Scorsese also made commercial films, so of course he knew the importance of the beginning. Roger Corman put some beauties, violence, science fiction, and suspense at the beginning.

Scorsese is more advanced. He admires "The Grapes of Wrath", which must have some different techniques to attract attention, so he asked the students to learn from it.

The movie started, and a beam of white light hit the screen.

The old film copy has been played hundreds of times, and the film's sprocket holes are somewhat worn, causing the film to not be firmly stuck on the projector and shake back and forth. So the film screen is also a little shaky. There are also scratches and bursts caused by previous screenings, as well as some moldy spots caused by poor preservation.

The opening composition is relatively plain, with a static camera facing the telephone poles and the empty streets. A man is walking from a distance, he walks past the camera and looks to his left, the camera turns with him, the man continues to move forward, and a truck and an old house appear in the picture.

It really breaks a lot of rules. Ronald still remembers that Roger Corman told him that he must make the camera move as much as possible, not static shots, and try to stimulate the audience.

But in The Grapes of Wrath, there is no shot that stimulates the audience's senses in the first minute, and Ronald is still firmly focused until now. This may be because he is attracted to this man. Who is he? What is he doing here? Where does he want to go?

The film is two hours long, and Ronald feels very satisfied after watching it. It tells the story of a murder suspect who, after being paroled from prison, returns to his hometown of Oklahoma, just in time for the Great Depression. He and his family go to California to find a job and it is very difficult.

The misery and helplessness under various capitalist economic crises are fully expressed in the story. The economy has been bad in recent years, which is somewhat similar to the Great Depression. Ronald also resonates with the movie.

The movie was over, Scorsese had already left, and the teaching assistant began to distribute the course outline, homework requirements and other materials. Ronald ran into the black student with glasses again.

"Hi, how are you." Ronald stepped forward and said hello, "I haven't seen you in undergraduate courses. Are you a master's student?"

"Yes, I'm Sheldon Jackson Lee. I know you. You appeared in 'Rock and Roll High School'. I've read Cisco and Albert's film reviews."

Ronald couldn't help but smile. This relative, who also has the last name of Li, didn't mention his nickname "Sleepy Ronald". Hello, nice to meet you.

"Me too. You've been in the crew. I'm preparing my graduation film recently. Can you come to my crew to help?"

Students of the Tisch School of the Arts must shoot a short film as a graduation thesis to graduate. Ronald knew about this a long time ago. In order to save costs, many classmates help each other. You are my assistant director, I am your photographer, and so on.

But this black man has high requirements. He was willing to invite me only after he had been in the crew and had shooting experience.

"Of course, let me know when the time comes. I'm happy to help." The school understands the needs of students very well, so many courses are held in the evening so that they have time to shoot films during the day.

"That's great, let's exchange phone numbers." Sheldon took out a pen and paper and exchanged phone numbers. "What are you doing recently? Are you on any other crews?"

"I recently participated in MGM's "Famous", and now the filming is completed, it's just in time for me to come to school."

Sheldon was a little envious of his resume, "I also hope to be able to join the crew to learn, but my ultimate goal is to be a director and shoot black stories. So I hope to make my short film well and participate in the film festival, so that maybe there will be producers willing to invest in me."

"You will definitely succeed." Ronald said goodbye to him.

Back home, Ronald had some midnight snacks alone and poured a cup of black tea. Studying is still quite intense, with various homework, reading, and writing, and it is common to be busy until the evening.

Antonia is still doing newcomer training. I heard that Balanchine is quite satisfied with her and will give her a formal small role next year. So now she is fully devoted to practice. Both of them are very busy and only call to talk at night.

The video recorder made a sound and started recording automatically. Ronald set a timer to record the old late-night movies played by TV stations such as BC, and watch them repeatedly when he has time to study.

This is what Walter Merzi taught him in his reply. Walter was very frank and said that he was just a craftsman (), who knew some skills and art of picture and sound editing. Ronald asked him about the big question of film production and marketing, and he had no answer.

However, in the letter, Walter repeatedly reminded Ronald of the importance of old movies. Now, apart from the occasional old movies on TV, the only way for ordinary people to watch them is in the classroom of the film school. This is a stage that all masters have experienced, and they need to learn carefully.

Walter Merzi also told him that the film has experienced two major technological revolutions. The first was the change from silent to sound, and the second was the change from black and white to color. The consequences of the two revolutions caused the original technicians to lose their jobs on a large scale because they could not adapt to the new technology.

However, their techniques are not outdated, so the new generation of filmmakers after the technological revolution often repeat the process of inventing the old techniques of the previous generation. Many techniques that reached a high artistic level in the silent film and black and white film era were later lost.

Watching a large number of old movies with the eyes of the shooter is helpful to pick up these lost pearls and enrich your own arsenal of filmmaking.

Ronald heard Martin Scorsese say the same thing today, and he couldn't help but pay more attention to watching classic old movies. If there is a chance, he should also build his own video tape library and study it repeatedly.

"Ring, ring, ring..." The phone rang.

It was Antonia. Ronald picked up the phone happily, "Hi, dear."

"Ronnie, the leading actress of the American Ballet Company was suddenly injured. After the B-role took over, they didn't have a B-role. They asked me to try to dance the B-role, and I was selected!"

"Really? Congratulations! This is really great." Ronald was happy for Tonya from the bottom of his heart. This was the best career start.

"However, I will go on tour with them for half a year, and we can't see each other for half a year." Antonia said in a low voice.

"Don't be sad, Tonya, didn't we agree? You work hard to develop your ballet career, and I work hard to make money and try to buy your dance company."

"Puchi", Antonia on the other side was amused, "You always make me happy, Ronnie."

"I'll go to your place tonight, and you have to take me to the airport tomorrow, because I have to go to the West with the group."