Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"This time, you have to sit in the same position and make the same body posture as in the last one, because this is related to the visual effects of the ghost, Ubbe, don't improvise... Our technology can't support your improvisation yet..."

"Okay, okay, how did I sit at the end of the last one? Like this, or like this?" Whoopi Goldberg wore a golden and gaudy costume and sat in a room with antique furniture to perform her main scene in the second act.

After contacting Sam and being disturbed by his very unpleasant singing of "Henry VIII", and having no choice but to meet Molly, the psychic Odme suddenly really gained her family's psychic ability. Now her small room is full of clients who come to ask her for psychic communication, and a room full of ghosts waiting to communicate with their families.

Communicate, while his wife only wants to ask where the deceased's life insurance policy is, and next to her is a legacy lawyer she hooked up with.

"Okay, let's start... A!"

After Van Fleet carefully measured the position of Whoopi Goldberg's hands and feet, Ronald began shooting the visual effects.

The lens was carefully restored to the original point, and the camera operator of Industrial Light and Magic repeated the movement trajectory of the lens in the last shot on a special track machine.

Only with two completely identical shooting scenes and the same camera movement can the shots shot several times be repeatedly exposed to a sample using Industrial Light and Magic's film printer.

"Cut!" Ronald looked at Odme rolling her eyes, as if she had fallen asleep, and her acting was excellent.

"Change people, everything must remain still..."

Ronald gave an order, and the first assistant director began to urge everyone to restore everything quickly. The black man who played Orlando jumped towards the chair where Whoopi Goldberg had just sat, and then sat steadily in her position, making a similar posture to Odme just now.

"Cut!"

Ronald waved his hand, and then everyone was busy again, restoring everything to the original state again.

"Otis, is that you? Where are you? I can't see you..."

Whoopi Goldberg's acting is excellent. His accent is easily transformed into the characteristics of a middle-aged black man. His movements and expressions seem to be possessed by the actor who plays Orlando.

"Orlando? Is that you?" The actor who plays his wife has short red hair and is excited.

"Yes, yes, this is Otis, she is here." The estate lawyer who came with her wife was excited. They came to the psychic just to ask where the life insurance policy that Orlando bought went. That's a lot of money.

Whoopi Goldberg's facial muscles changed rapidly, and his eyes were wide open.

Ronald couldn't help but applaud beside him. Although everyone can see that this is a woman in such a close-up of the face, the expression on her face is really like a man.

Maybe this shot will get her nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress... Ronald thought behind the camera that the supporting roles in the movies he directed are very outstanding, and there are four or five nominations.

Whoopi Goldberg is now the ghost Orlando. Her eyes are getting bigger and bigger. Suddenly, she seems to see the other person's face clearly. She asked in shock, "Otis, what did you do to your hair?"

"Ah, Orlando, do you like it? I asked a hairdresser to cut it specially. It's called the Autumn Dawn Hairstyle..."

"Cut!"

After Ronald called a halt, Demi Moore, who was watching them filming next to him, couldn't hold back any more, "Hahahaha, you did it on purpose, Ronald."

"What do you mean on purpose? I don't understand what you are talking about?" Ronald deliberately held back his laughter.

"Hahahaha..." Patrick Schweitzer, who knew the inside story, also laughed so hard that he fell backwards. This was a reappearance of Ronald's surprised look when he saw Demi Moore secretly cut her long hair before filming.

"Pfft, hahaha, I can't stand it..." Demi Moore also laughed and squatted on the ground and kept rubbing her belly. ”

Filming requires some small adjustments, especially for ghost films and romance films, which require long repetitions of a shot, and accurate bursts of emotions in a high-pressure environment. Everyone has accumulated a lot of pressure and resentment.

Such timely pranks and jokes help everyone relieve stress well.

…

After that, everyone got used to the visual effects shooting process, which was nothing more than shooting a scene twice. After shooting the shot of Odme being possessed by a ghost, we shot the shot of Whoopi Goldberg sitting on a chair with a painful expression and the shot of Orlando's actor jumping up from the chair and rolling out.

After that, in the special effects workshop, we used advanced computers, such as Photoshop, to create a new scene. , using the mask function to overlap the two parts of the image, and with the outline light, you can achieve the special effects of ghost possession and being bounced off the medium Odme.

After adapting to these new special effects shooting, the shooting progress became fast again. Ronald can go home on time every day to have dinner with Diane.

After four weeks, the scenes in the Paramount studio were completed very well. The entire crew moved to New York and began to shoot indoor scenes with street scenes and several scenes shot outdoors.

In general, there are several main scenes. One is the scene where Sam and Molly move into the apartment and hang a sculpture from the window, which allows the audience to understand the personality characteristics of Sam and Molly, as well as the villain Carl.

Second, Sam and Molly went to see a play on Broadway. On their way home, the two were grappling with major issues in their intimate relationship. When Sam didn't say I love you, and Molly felt insecure, a robber came over. Rob them, and in order to protect Molly, Sam is stabbed to death.

Third, after Sam turned into a ghost, Molly did not believe that what he had heard from the psychic Odmee was true. By chance, I saw a ghost on the subway one day who could move beer, so I pestered him to teach me how to do it. In the end, the unpleasant "Henry VIII" episode was used again to coerce Odmee to find Molly again, and moved the lucky coin with her mind in front of Molly's eyes, making Molly believe that her ghost still had something to say to her.

"Have a nice weekend, Ronald."

"Have a nice weekend, see you in New York on Monday..."

Several stars went home for the weekend. Ronald said goodbye to Diane in a hurry and flew directly to New York on the evening flight. He still had a lot of preparation work to do. He first had to make sure that the location in New York met the requirements.

"Oh, is this a one-to-one replica of the home of the installation artist Michel Oka Donner?" A beautiful blonde and blue-eyed woman asked, holding Ronald's arm.

"Yes, exactly the same..."

Ronald took out a lot of photos and slowly inspected the set accompanied by art director Polly Platt and art director Jane Muskie who came in advance. Sure enough, with the hard work of a top Hollywood professional team, all the sets and studio interior decorations were exactly the same.

Outside is the lower Manhattan neighborhood near Broadway, and not far away is the scene of the outdoor dance scene in "Famous," the first New York movie that Ronald participated in.

"As long as you pass the inspection, I have to go back to spend time with my children. Jane is also going to meet her husband Tony..." Polly said nothing to Ronald. After she and Ronald explained the matter, she took Ronald Nader reached the corner of the room.

"Don't make Diane sad..."

Polly Platt knew that the person who was accompanying Ronald now was his female companion Helen Slater in New York. Because she was abandoned by the famous director Bogdanovich, she was very sensitive to this kind of thing. , not like a Hollywood person.

"Hey... I won't..." Ronald knew that this matter could not be completely in line with the world's perspective.

"Don't make Helen sad either...don't let them be like me..." Polly Platt gave Ronald a look of pride, then said goodbye to him and left.

Because of her husband Bogdanovich's unfavorable relationship with Sybil Shepard, the all-round Hollywood heroine, Polly Platt once had a stressful day when she couldn't find a job and raised her daughter alone. When she was crying at home, it was Roger Coleman who reached out to help her and gave her a position to tide over the difficulties.

She has always admired Ronald, the spiritual successor of Roger Corman, and she will definitely not be as indifferent to the women around her as Bogdanovich.

"What are you and Polly talking about?" Helen came over and took Ronald's arm again. The two hadn't seen each other for a while. In the first few days of getting together, they seemed to stick together like honey mixed with oil.

"She said she wanted me to spend more time with you..." Ronald said with a smile.

Helen Slater and Patrick Dempsey co-star in the college comedy comedy Nora Ephron's directorial debut, which has been filmed. Ephron even called him specifically to ask him to come over and watch the samples and give him some editing tips.

Ronald refused them all. He didn’t want to see Helen acting as a couple with other handsome guys on the screen... no matter it was a project he invested in...

"Where are we going at night?" Helen didn't care about this, she just wanted to be with her lover. Anyway, it was unpleasant for the two of them to discuss acting skills, so no one mentioned those performances at all.

“Who are you going to vote for in this year’s mayoral election?”

"Does this matter?" Helen was surprised, "I don't want to vote for anyone."

"It's okay if you're not a die-hard Dinkins fan. We're having dinner with another candidate Rudy tonight. I'm going to ask him to help me shoot some exterior scenes in the subway for my movie."

"Huh? What's for dinner?"

"Japanese cuisine, recommended by Oga-san from Sony."

"That's more like it. I forgive you for being with the leader of the Xiang Party. You know my mother is a die-hard Donkey Party..."

…

"Mr. Rudy, thank you for taking the time to meet with me during your busy campaign..." Ronald and Helen greeted Rudy at the steps of the luxurious Japanese restaurant.

"Hello, Ronald, this is our honor. People in our disciplinary department all like your movies, unlike those who make movies that are incomprehensible. This movie is very related to the security of New York. , of course we want to support it.”

Rudy and Ronald shook hands vigorously, and they took off their shoes together and entered the tatami-covered room.

"I hope you won't be biased against me, Miss Helen Slater." After greeting Helen, Rudy took the initiative to mention his campaign affairs.

"You know, I did not run in the name of the Elephant Party, but I am more in line with some of the Elephant Party's political views than the Donkey Party, such as ensuring the safety of Manhattan. This year, with our strong crackdown, the crime rate finally dropped. "If people with policies like Dinkins come into power, I'm afraid there will be a repeat of the Central Park runner case."

This comes to Helen's biggest concern. Although he agrees with the Donkey Party on other matters, the law and order in Manhattan has recently deteriorated to the point that even the wealthy areas have begun to panic.

Although the Central Park Five case has been sentenced, the Democratic Party's mayoral candidate has made a big fuss about it, saying that this is a conspiracy against blacks and Latinos.

It's not that what he said is completely unreasonable. The five people who committed violent attacks in Central Park were all blacks and Latinos. But the solution to the problem is obviously not to introduce more blacks near Manhattan's Central Park, right?

Dinkins' so-called kaleidoscope policy is to introduce a lot of public housing in Manhattan, where property taxes are expensive, so that the cultures of various ethnic groups can blend with each other. He believes that this is the best way to achieve racial reconciliation and public security issues.

Everything else can be tolerated, but Helen and Ronald experienced being violently attacked in Central Park. The black child almost stabbed her lover.

Everything can be supported, but this is absolutely unacceptable. Helen talked about politics with Rudy for a while. Not to mention, his idea of ​​governing Hollywood with severe laws and protecting the poor and middle class from being exploited by rogue tycoons on Wall Street is quite in line with the values ​​of a traditional Democratic Party.

"Mr. Rudy, you convinced me. I think you won my vote. It makes sense that you don't run as an Elephant Party candidate. Although I like your strategy of improving public security, pursuing fairness, and severely punishing corrupt officials, I still have some psychological barriers if I tick a person whose name is followed by the letter R (Elephant Party) on the ballot."

"You are absolutely right, Miss Slater. My campaign consultant also told me the same thing."

Rudy was very patient with Helen and talked to her about many political views.

Of course, this was all for Ronald's sake, otherwise he would not have been interested in talking so much to a second-rate Hollywood actor.

The plot of Ronald's movie fits Rudy's campaign philosophy. The city's public security is so bad that even near the iconic Broadway, robberies can happen on the street, and the male protagonist is stabbed to death in the end.

The NYPD is loyal to their duties, but because there are too many vicious cases, they have no resources to investigate and solve the case.

In the end, the bad guys were punished. Carl, who did bad things, exploited legal loopholes in Wall Street banks, and laundered money, also had the stolen money transferred to the nuns in the church and donated to women and children in vulnerable groups.

These plots are very consistent with Rudy's campaign demands, safety, fairness, and a golden age of New York!

Ronald's filming is a perfect campaign aid. Just send a few news reports that Ronald's new film was shot with the cooperation of the NYPD, and then send a few more news reports to talk about the plot of the movie.

To be honest, as long as you are a female fan of Patrick Schweitzer, which one would like to see their idol die? Which male fan of Demi Moore would not be heartbroken to see the unscrupulous banker Carl trying to snatch her away?

A film shooting with its own media coverage can easily cause topics that are beneficial to one's campaign. What can Dinkins do then?

Because of this big favor, and because of the donation from Ronald's friend Douglas Jr., and their influence on Staten Island, Rudy readily agreed to all of Ronald's filming requests.

The NYPD specially isolated a block near Broadway for him to shoot the scene of Sam's assassination, and sent real NYPD to participate in the shooting to maintain order.

He also proposed to lend Ronald the NYPD's office in South Manhattan so that he could film on location.

He also handled the filming application in the subway. The platform of a Manhattan line that had been closed for a night could be lent to them for filming.

…

"I didn't expect that the Elephant Party members were not so unreasonable. I thought they were all like those evangelicals..."

After dinner, Helen had a good impression of Rudy, who paid Ronald. This man was a top student and had served as deputy attorney general. He was different from the Elephant Party politicians who watched evangelical TV stations every day in her impression.

Although New York is the center of the universe, there are many evangelical pastors and Elephant Party politicians who oppose the introduction of evolution into schools and require that creationism be taught in schools. Helen, a child who grew up in a liberal family, couldn't stand it.

Turn on the TV, there are many missionary TV stations in black communities such as the Bronx and Brooklyn, all of which require public high schools to teach creationism.

"It's terrible..." Helen tuned to a famous evangelical TV station, "Trinity Television Network (TBN)", where pastor Paul Crouch was preaching creationism.

"Fortunately, our children will not go to such a high school." Ronald thought that his children must go to a private high school.

"Our children? Hehe, wait a while, I am at the peak of my career now..." Helen thought Ronald was referring to "our children" specifically.

"Okay, I'll go get the safety measures..."