Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald went to the PBS TV station's office in New York again to meet Helen's father, Gerald Slater.

Gerald looked at the storyboard Ronald drew for Helen and asked his secretary Stella to inform him to come to the office to "discuss" the details of the advertisement with him.

"Mr. Slater." Ronald was led into the office by Stella and greeted Gerald.

Gerald Slater gestured to him to sit down, still on the phone:

"Yes, we PBS is an alliance of local educational stations, and of course we don't have as much control over the branches as NBC, ABC, and CBS. So when we shoot TV series, the branches are not active enough in ordering, and the budget we can come up with is not as high as theirs.

Yes, this makes it impossible to invest in large-scale productions. If we make TV series ourselves, the budget will be insufficient, and the ratings will probably not be too high, unless you find the next George Lucas.

... So I suggest introducing TV series from continental Europe, especially Britain, because they have more advantages in language.

And increase investment in shooting documentaries. Yes, this is our advantage. There are many documentary enthusiasts in the local educational stations under the alliance, mainly middle-aged men, with good spending power, and advertisers will like it..."

After ten minutes, Gerald finally finished the call with other senior executives and thought of Ronald who was sitting there doing nothing.

"I've read your shooting script and the storyboard drawings. You're good."

"Thank you for the compliment, Mr. Slater..."

Gerald Slater raised his hand to stop Ronald from continuing, "However, your script doesn't reflect Helen's strengths at all. What's the matter? I thought you would know her well."

Ronald was stunned, "Mr. Slater, that was the first time I met Helen that day, and I didn't know much about her strengths..."

"Pia later told me the details. You are not his date," Gerald raised his hand again to stop Ronald's excuse, "but so many days have passed, haven't you deepened your understanding of her?"

"I've been busy shooting the first version of the gum commercial in recent days..." Ronald saw Jay Rad was about to raise his hand again, and quickly said, "I will learn more about her specialty. I have been shooting a movie based on the performing arts high school for the past two months, and I am familiar with her high school teachers."

Gerald put down his half-raised hand and nodded with satisfaction, "My divorce from Helen's mother hurt her a lot. She was not happy living with her mother, a lawyer who specializes in promoting anti-nuclear and equal rights. I can only try my best to create conditions for her and let her do what she likes.

Letting her transfer from Great Neck High School to the performing arts high school in Manhattan is something I did for her. I know Helen likes acting and music."

Ronald nodded. Gerald's social status is higher than Elizabeth Sue's father, but he is willing to spend time on his daughter's affairs and is a good father.

"Give you a hint. Helen has received jazz training since she was a child. She plays the piano well and sings well."

Ronald took a pencil from Gerald's desk, drew a new storyboard sketch on the reverse side of the storyboard drawing, and then handed it to Gerald.

"I think Helen can play a young jazz singer, who picks up the gum from the piano and says the slogan after playing and singing a line."

Gerald looked at it and appreciated Ronald's urgency.

"In this way, she sits in front of the piano and faces the camera at a 45-degree angle, which can show her temperament. I don't know which side of her face is more photogenic. We can arrange the position of the piano at that time."

"Both sides are fine, but the left side is better." Gerald had already tested his daughter's talent in acting.

After finishing the business, Gerald pressed the intercom and asked the secretary to bring in two cups of freshly brewed coffee, "Try it, my friend gave me Brazilian coffee."

Ronald took a sip and it was indeed extraordinary. There was no sour taste of cheap coffee at all, and the aroma was rich and tasted good.

"I heard that you had some trouble at CBS?" Gerald asked suddenly while Ronald was tasting the coffee.

"Yes, Darcy Maguire, the creative director of BBDO who hired me, is a woman in pants. I seem to be involved in the power struggle within their company."

"Stressful? You can handle it, right?" Gerard took a sip of coffee, put the cup down, then spread his hands and pressed his fingers against the fingers of the other hand. He stared at Ronald with his eyes.

"Not a problem," Ronald said easily, "The more small moves the other party makes, it means that someone inside the competitor has discovered the excellence of my version of the advertisement. This is not a gap that can be made up by the level of shooting."

"They used a lot of tricks that were not on the table. I also need to find an absolutely reliable place to do editing and post-dubbing. I don't know if Mr. Slater..."

"You go to Stella, she will arrange it." Gerard picked up the coffee again, and with his other hand, he picked up the top of a stack of documents on the table and read it.

Ronald knew he had to leave.

In the editing room of the TV station that Stella helped to contact, Ronald, Spike Lee, and photographer Dixon were discussing the final editing.

"How about this voice-over narration, I specially asked the dialogue teacher in the department to help me dub it. Why does the gymnast Jenny stop eating the old CareFree chewing gum and start eating the new version of Chewels chewing gum?" Isn't it a bad price? ?

"It's worth every penny." Ronald was very satisfied with Spike's connections among black people, so the black script teacher charged him a friendly price, and his accent was completely indistinguishable from that of a black person.

"He can do a Shakespearean accent, a Cockney accent, a Brooklyn accent, no problem."

Ronald stood in front of the editing machine and practiced Walter Mersey's editing theory. The standing editing effect is indeed better. He has pressed the button three times in a row, and it all ended on the same frame.

The TV station's editing machine was different from the Moviola editing machine that Ronald used at New World Productions. Instead of physically cutting the film, he recorded the time code of the video master tape, and then cut the different time codes. The clips were re-recorded together.

Some movies also use this kind of editing machine, which first converts the film into tape mode, then edits it, and finally sends it to the lab with time code, so that the final negative editor can cut the real film.

The three of them produced the edited master tape, made a copy and placed it at Ronald's house, and sent the other copy to the creative director, Miss Maguire.

"These are two versions of advertisements with different lengths. This version is 15 seconds, with causes and consequences. This version is 5 seconds, with only two lines." Ronald played the advertisement on the video recorder in the office and gave it to Darcy Maguire I explain.

"I feel like your long version is similar to the short version ad, without much content." Darcy Maguire pointed at the TV screen and said.

"Yes, so I suggest that if you have 15 seconds, you might as well play the short version of the advertisement three times, so that the probability of being heard by the TV audience is higher." Ronald said with a smile.

"Okay, you can go to the meeting with me. The bosses have to review it in person before putting it out for testing." Darcy Maguire picked up the videotape and appeared in the company's largest conference room with Ronald.

"My dear Darcy, I heard that your editing had another accident? Why did you hire this kind of college student to shoot? When did BBDO not be able to afford a professional production company?" Competitor, another creative director Dan Heda Xi said after shaking hands.

"Because some people within the company do not respect the interests of customers and want to sabotage advertising production to win." Darcy Maguire did not show weakness, and his words were sharp, "It is a pity that this is in vain. Ronald has cooperated with PBS. We were able to get CEO Gerald Slater’s daughter to appear.”

"You..." Dan was hit by Darcy's accusation, and he stood up to refute.

"Hey, hey..." There was a voice clearing the throat from the top of the conference table. It was the partners speaking, "Don't worry, let's take a look at the advertising samples of both parties first."

Ronald also sat on the armchair, curiously looking at what the other party's advertisement looked like.

There was a flash of snow on the TV, and a large outdoor billboard appeared, and a painter was painting a print advertisement for Chewels.

Ronald saw that the lighting and art were very luxurious, and the cost was probably high. Unfortunately, the effect cannot be seen on a TV. If it were shot on film and put on the screen, it would probably be quite shocking.

An old man walked past and asked the advertising artist, "Why did you forget the word sugar-free?" Then he took out a piece of Chewels chewing gum and pointed it to the artist. The word "sugar-free" was on the package.

"Oh, because Chewels tastes so good, I forgot!"

The voiceover begins: "It's easy to forget that Chewels is sugar-free. It's the only sugar-free gum on the market with delicious flavors."

Ronald laughed. The idea was interesting and had a sense of humor.

The other director was the British Hugh Hudson of RSA. He saw Ronald smiling and nodded to him with a smile.

Ronald nodded in greeting. What’s on the TV now is the version I shot.

Elizabeth Sue climbed off the uneven bars and pulled out some old-fashioned CareFree sugar-free gum. jingle! Suddenly, like magic, I switched to Chewels new chewing gum.

The voiceover began to ask, "Why did gymnast Jenny stop eating the old CareFree gum and start eating the new version of Chewels gum?"

Elizabeth Sue faces the camera: "Because Chewels taste better!"

The joyful emotion of the sports girl was easily conveyed to the audience, and Ronald was very satisfied. Although Hugh Hudson has a better grasp of the details of the shooting, the lighting and performance are indeed better than him.

"Everyone can see that the pros and cons of these two versions of ads are very clear. Let's not waste time and just use Xio's version." Dan, the creative director of the other party, said with full malice, "There is no need to use your ad. "