Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Roger..." Ronald saw Roger Corman coming out of the boarding gate of the civil aviation flight and waved to him happily.

"Ronald... Ha, I didn't expect to see you here. Jonathan said that an acquaintance would come to pick me up. I was still wondering who it was?" Roger Corman's complexion was still as good as it was ten years ago. He pulled the suitcase and walked towards Ronald.

"Ding ding..." Little Bud started the car. Roger Corman, who had just got off the plane, was very happy to see that it was Ronald who came to pick him up. He chatted with him all the way.

"You and Jonathan are still good to me. You let me play important roles in guest roles... Hahaha... Unlike Jim (Cameron), who only let me play a teacher..."

Roger Corman's new company now has a sharp decline in the number of films. He mainly relies on shooting some small productions directly for the videotape market, and cooperating with old friends like Ronald to shoot some medium-sized productions.

Compared with the peak period when he produced more than 40 films a year and directed two films himself, it is not the same. Moreover, the videotapes were shot to fit the size of a TV, which was far less interesting than shooting a big-screen movie…

In fact, with his wealth, he could have retired and enjoyed a comfortable life, but because of his love for movies, he still didn’t want to leave the film industry. Moreover, as he got older, he gradually fell in love with acting, and as long as there was a chance, he would not miss the opportunity of his old friends inviting him to make a cameo appearance.

“Jonathan also asked me to make a cameo appearance this time, but it was not as important as your role, I was very jealous…Why is your role so much more important than mine?” Ronald talked nonsense with Coleman in the car.

“Hehehe, because I was a classmate of Jack Nicholson in the acting class, that’s why…you have to learn more as an actor…”

Roger Corman’s role is really important. He plays a big shot: the director of the FBI.

Jonathan Demme made a lot of effort to invite Coleman to the FBI to shoot the real scene this time. Not only did they give Roger Corman the role of FBI director, but they also made an official photo of him with the Stars and Stripes as the background and hung it on the wall of the FBI headquarters office.

"Well, not bad... Ronald, let's lean against this wall and let them take a photo of us..."

Roger Corman was very happy to see the standard photo of himself as director hanging on the wall in the FBI office, and he also took a photo with Ronald in front of his photo.

Jonathan Demme also considered giving him the role of the highest official in the whole play. Roger Corman seems to have a special experience in playing this kind of bureaucratic role. Whether it is a congressman, a teacher, a government official, or the FBI director.

This was discovered by Coppola first. Coppola invited Corman to play a senator in The Godfather Part II. According to him, Corman looks like a political big shot: sanctimonious, but he has no idea about his job content and relies on pretense to fool people.

This time he plays the FBI director, and not to mention, there is a kind of friendly hypocrisy in the photo, which is very suitable for this kind of bureaucratic role.

"Hahaha, Ronald, what role are you playing?"

After admiring his own photos and rehearsing with the office twice, Roger Corman turned around and saw Ronald in his student uniform and laughed.

Ronald wore a sky blue T-shirt and a leather holster on his belt. There was nothing wrong with this outfit for an FBI student.

Jonathan Demme invited Ronald to play this small role because of his good looks. Ronald will have a close-up shot of him wearing student uniform, disassembling a revolver and wiping it, and there is also a line "Looks good..."

According to Jonathan Demme, Ronald has a well-proportioned figure, short hair, and a clean-shaven beard, and has a neat temperament of working in the disciplined forces.

If he had entered the acting industry back then, he would definitely be a good material for playing the role of the disciplined forces. Whether he plays a positive supporting role, who is killed by the villain not long after his righteous appearance; or plays a spy villain who infiltrates the good side, and is killed in a gunfight with the protagonist after being exposed, this face is very convincing.

This is Jonathan Demme's filming philosophy. The quality of a movie is often determined by these inconspicuous supporting roles. In a truly first-class movie, none of the supporting roles are out of place. In an average-level movie, the main character's role is often okay, but the supporting roles start to mess around...

...

"A!"

Jonathan Demme gave an order, and the camera was facing Ronald, gradually zooming out.

Ronald pulled the revolver, turned the cylinder with his fingers, and then poked a few times in a trajectory on the cylinder with a cleaning rod, and then said to the actor opposite, "It looks good..."

The camera continued to move forward, and Jodie Foster peeked in from outside, and Starling was summoned by her boss and came in wearing training clothes.

The camera passed Ronald's position, followed Jodie Foster into the front corridor, and then turned the corner to a leader's office.

The camera zoomed in, and two people who looked like leaders told Starling that the boss was busy and she could go to the boss's office next door to wait.

Finally, the camera follows her into the office, and on the opposite wall is a picture of Roger Corman.

"Cut!"

"Wow wow wow..." Everyone was very proud and applauded Ronald's performance. Ronald also applauded. The atmosphere on the set was good. Everyone's habit of applauding after the scene was shot showed that the crew was actually in good condition and Jonathan Demme had good control.

"Now it's your turn..." Ronald didn't take off his makeup and was still at the scene, waiting to see the wonderful performance of Roger Corman, the Oscar winner, Jack Nicholson's classmate.

"A!"

"Hannibal Lecter will be transferred to Memphis..." Roger Corman looked serious and lectured Starling's boss, Jack, on the phone.

"Transfer?" The actor who played Jack was behind the camera holding a mobile phone and playing with him.

"Did you let one of your trainees pass false news to Hannibal Lecter, saying that the senator would transfer him to a prison with better conditions? Now the senator (the mother of the kidnapped girl) is angry Crazy, here is Mr. Paul Klinder from the Department of Justice, he will go to the Memphis airport and take over everything..."

The camera jerked forward, and Roger Corman's politician's face became even more serious.

"Cut!"

"Bravo!" Ronald led the applause.

"Hahaha, how are my acting skills?" Coleman couldn't hold it in any longer. This role is big enough, and it's so enjoyable to play.

"As expected of Jack Nicholson's classmate..." Ronald gave him a thumbs up.

Jonathan Demme came over and gave them two T-shirts and baseball caps as souvenirs of their participation in the show.

Ronald gave him a thumbs up as well.

The pursuit of details is what Jonathan Demi has always pursued. In the front, Roger Corman’s photo of the director is hung on the wall, which is a lens language that echoes back and forth. This is the embodiment of Demi’s pursuit of details. Regardless of whether the movie "Silence of the Lambs" does well at the box office, one thing is certain:

That is, as a fan of this type of film, when you buy a video and watch it at home, you may discover some new details every time, instead of discovering misleading content, and then marveling at the director's skill.

In addition to Coleman's photo hanging on the wall of Starling's boss Jack's office, there is also a photo hanging on the wall of the director's office played by Coleman in this scene. It is none other than the founder of the FBI, Edgar Hu. Picture of Buddha.

This is also an echo of the plot happening in the camera. It was after Hoover's death that the FBI director was no longer the ruthless figure who had so much power over the United States that even the commander-in-chief had to avoid him.

The FBI after Hoover was placed under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice and was theoretically under the command of the Attorney General. This is why in the plot of the movie, the director of the FBI has to take orders from the special envoy from the Department of Justice sent by the senator, giving him full responsibility for the handling of Hannibal Lecter.

No matter what the real details are, this kind of handling at least makes it impossible for people who understand the power structure of the FBI and America to make any big mistakes. The concept of making every film into a masterpiece is also an important reason why Jonathan Demme can enjoy the hard work of directing.

…

Ronald and Roger Corman finished their cameos and took a business jet back to Los Angeles together.

"Ronald, why do you always use a business jet to travel? Do you know? One flight can allow many poor children to finish high school..."

Roger Coleman sat comfortably on the seat of the business jet. He took Ronald's plane without having to pay for it, which actually made him feel happy.

But at heart he is still a veteran from World War II, and he was influenced by the hippies. He has a strong feeling of doing something for the people at the bottom. Seeing that his disciple Ronald is now prominent, he will stop saying what needs to be said.

"My aunt told me that the secret to hard work is to sleep well. I always sleep well on business jets. If you sleep well, you will be more efficient. If you are efficient, you will make a movie smoothly, and you can save a lot of filming money..."

Ronald's series of absurdities made Roger Corman laugh.

"Besides, Sony gave this to me for free. I actually donated a lot of money to some foundations that support poor students..."

Ronald not only provided scholarships to poor children in Staten Island, but also established a scholarship in the name of Lao Yan for Chinese students coming to America. Every year, I use a little profit from Lightning Light, plus my own money, to support international students in the New York and Los Angeles areas.

I heard that because of their English problem, many of them can only earn living expenses by washing dishes in Chinese restaurants. The intensity of labor there and how much energy they have to study is a question. Ronald will try his best to help every one he can. Because Xiao Yan was also an international student, he helped Ronald take care of the charity funding.

"Good, work hard, have fun, give back to society, you are really good!"

Roger Corman treated the young people he supported equally and was very proud of their artistic achievements. But from the perspective of a producer and businessman, he still likes Ronald the most. Only talents who take both business and art into consideration can bring more job opportunities and better movies to Hollywood.

Ronald raised his mineral water bottle to show respect to Coleman.

"I agreed to the thing you mentioned. It's also a good thing to help you. Although I am Jewish, it is not a good thing for those people to monopolize opportunities in the creative industry... When I was young, Hollywood was not Now like this..."

Roger Corman sighed. Back then, there were drive-in theaters and low-cost film distributors like AIP, which could advance payments to Corman’s company to make movies, and they cultivated batches of highly educated film talents. It can be said to have completely changed Hollywood.

In today's Hollywood, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to make low-cost movies. When I made my debut in videotapes and TV movies, I had many bad habits due to the size of the screen. I saw that the art of big-screen movies was in danger of being lost.

Roger Corman is a man of insight. Although he has never been truly accepted and recognized by Hollywood, he can be regarded as a living fossil in the film industry and is quite worried about the current situation.

"I hope they won't embarrass you too much. They won't say you are a traitor among the Jews, right?" What Ronald asked Coleman to do was actually quite taboo for Jewish people. There is a general rule for Jewish people in Hollywood, which is to try to leave opportunities to people of this ethnic group.

"Hey, they actually don't see me as the same kind..." Coleman sneered, "I don't see them as the same kind either. Jews can only be successful if they integrate into mainstream society and don't see themselves as a special group. The way out…”

Roger Corman was actually a liberal Jew, and he also celebrated Christmas. The general trend of Jewish thought before the war was to integrate into mainstream American values. Until the impact of World War II, a large number of Eastern European Jewish elites came to America, completely changing the Jewish population composition and mainstream ideological trends...

"I'm going too far. I'm actually just a guest star in this matter. They won't do anything to me. But the friend you mentioned who really took action is under much greater pressure than me..."

Roger Corman had a general idea of ​​Ronald's plan and his mentality of wanting to get "other people's money" and the two "Forrest Gump" movies. This kind of thing is not so easy for some arrogant Jews. They would rather the script never get made than let a non-Jewish person try.

"Hehehe, don't worry about him, he has a special status, those Jews can't do anything to him..."

Ronald replied with a smile.

There are some things he hasn't told Coleman yet. Confucius said it well, "If a monarch does not know how to keep secrets, then he will lose his country. If a subject does not know how to keep secrets, then he will lose his life. If you do not know how to keep secrets, then you will not be able to do it. ”

Besides, this is for Coleman's own good. If he knows too much about the plan, he will be under great pressure after it is completed. It is better for everyone to maintain such a tacit understanding of knowing everything but not making it clear.