Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Roger Corman left the set quickly. He had to go to the hospital to settle Allen's bill, and then take his lawyer to the police station to bail out Joe Dante. The life of a multimillionaire is always busy. However, the president's assistant Gail stayed at the scene.

Today is a sunny day, and the sun has risen high. The director of photography said that only close-ups and close-ups can be taken now, and reflectors can be used to fill in the light. Otherwise, the shadows on the face under the direct sunlight at a high angle will make the movie look like a Hitchcock thriller.

Ronald and Jim picked some suitable shots together, and the director of photography continued to shoot after approving.

These sets of shots are about the new headmistress Evelyn Toga (played by Mary Woronoff), who heard someone playing rock music on the radio and came to catch the perpetrator.

She took a pair of big scissors and cut the audio cable of Liv Randall's record player. Then she asked everyone who was the leader. As long as the leader was handed over, everyone else would be innocent.

Kate Lanbao, the good girl, stood up and said that she did it. Of course, Liv Randall was also indispensable. The two were punished by Principal Evelyn Toga by being ordered to stay after school today.

Ronald discovered that if the actors rehearse well and the crew cooperate well, filming is very rhythmic. Actors move, lighting, actors rehearse, live shooting, changing props, arranging cameras, actors move, lighting... repeating over and over again.

Maybe it's because Ronald has low requirements (he doesn't have guidance in his dreams, and doesn't know whether the filming is good or not), or maybe it's because he respects the opinions of the crew (he doesn't know if others are fooling him anyway), the crew's shooting speed today is actually three points faster than when Allen and Joe directed.

By 10:50 in the morning, most of the filming had been done. Only a few panoramas and long shots were left. It was impossible to fool the light with reflectors, so we could only wait for the magic light before and after sunset.

"The morning shooting is over. It's lunch time now. Everyone in the crew, take a 1-hour break." Ronald shouted with a bullhorn.

Daylight saving time has just ended, and the time in the Pacific time zone is still a bit strange. The sun rises at around 6 am and sets at around 4 pm. Lunch is set at 11 pm.

The extras ran back to the teaching building to eat. The principal of Van Nuys High School welcomed the crew to come to film. As a high school in the West Hollywood area, there are many artistic students among the students. They have been exposed to filming since childhood. They joined the drama club in elementary school and hope to enter the film industry in the future. If a crew comes to the high school to shoot, it will be a good thing for the school district's annual assessment and will also help attract students.

So the school treated us today, eating pizza and drinking Coke. This made the crew members who had ordinary meals very happy. The stingy crew did not have a large budget for food, usually only cheap hot dogs and instant coffee.

Ronald, Jim, and Gail sat together to eat Domino's pizza. This is a popular chain delivery recently. The taste is not amazing, but it is delivered very quickly and it is still hot when you get it. Ronald ate a few slices of pizza, drank a can of Coke, and patted his stomach with satisfaction.

Gail was much more elegant when eating. At first, she used a plastic knife and fork, but under Jim's guidance, she soon learned to eat directly, covering her mouth with her hands while eating.

I don't know what joke Jim told, but Gail was so amused that she giggled and shook her body.

Ronald took out a pair of sunglasses from his waist bag and put them on. Today, he was considered a senior member of the crew, so he sat in a better seat, and the chair had a backrest. He leaned back comfortably, feeling quite relaxed. There was basically nothing to shoot in the afternoon, so he organized a few actors to rehearse and try to get a pass around sunset.

The advantage of wearing sunglasses is that others can't see what your eyes are looking at. Ronald closed his eyes, breathed calmly, and closed his eyes to rest. Unlike most Americans, he likes to take a break at noon. However, in a country where physical fitness is proud of culture, taking a nap can easily make people think that you are not energetic, either in poor health or lazy, so Ronald wears sunglasses to cover it up.

Today he is a temporary director and is destined to not rest. Soon Jim came to ask about the secrets Roger Corman had taught him that morning. Ronald took off his sunglasses, took out a small notebook, and told him one by one. Jim nodded as he listened, "I wish I had known all this when I was making short films."

"You've made short films before?" Ronald didn't know he had this history. Gail knew a little bit about the situation, "Yes, Jim brought the short film over at the time, and Mr. Corman admired his talent and asked him to join the company to learn filmmaking."

"Oh, what's the subject? Do you still have your copy? When can I have a chance to see it?" Ronald became interested.

"It's a science fiction film, 12 minutes and 7 seconds. I transferred it to a VHS tape and will show it to you when I have a chance."

"There's no VCR where I live, but I'll still go to the company to see it when I have a chance. How much money did it cost to make that short film, and how did you raise the money?" Ronald was a little envious of Jim. He knew that Jim was definitely not a child from a wealthy family. Both of them secretly used McDonald's coupons for meals.

"24,000 US dollars. I found 12 dentists and persuaded them to raise funds for the film."

"Science fiction? That would cost a lot of money on props and special effects, right? You can make it with 24,000 US dollars, it's amazing."

"Ah, the main cost is the two machine models, the kind that people sit in and fight. It cost a lot of money, and the actors can't perform while squatting in them. I can only shoot separately, with the actors sitting in chairs pretending to drive the battle robots, and then shoot the scenes of the machine models fighting each other, and edit them together to create a feeling that the actors are driving the battle robots."

Jim started talking endlessly about his favorite science fiction movies. Ronald suspected that if "Rock High School" hadn't been a teen movie with lots of music and dancing, Jim would have been competing with him to be the interim director.

"New World seems to have made a lot of science fiction movies?" Ronald asked Gale.

"Yes. But last year's "Star Wars" by George Lucas raised the bar for science fiction films a lot. Mr. Coleman's original science fiction films that only used Piu Piu to shoot green light were not easy to sell." Er smiled and made a laser gun gesture with his hands.

"Ronald, can you still give us a close-up view?" came a voice from the side.

As soon as Ronald turned his head, two sexy dancing bombshells, Chris Sommer and Marla Rosenfeld, came to visit.

The two of them changed out of their costumes and were now wearing T-shirts and jeans, but they still couldn't hide the youthful look on their faces. One had blond hair, the other had brown hair, and two pairs of big eyes stared at the young interim director.

Ronald suddenly felt a little overwhelmed and put on his sunglasses, "Hi, Chrissy, Mara. My temporary director duties end today. The only scenes left today are the headmistress played by Mary Woronov. I can let you dance on the roadside as a background. I can’t add a one-man show for you.”

"Oh, thank you, I wish you were the real director."

"Yeah, I think your photos are better than Allen's."

The two beauties immediately started complimenting each other.

"Don't say that. You two are very photogenic (real) and the best dancers (fake). There will be dancing scenes in this movie. I think Siana will definitely recommend you."

Ronald quickly interrupted their complaints and gave them a break to ask the dancer who really had the authority to recommend them. The two beauties thanked her and went to find Siana.

"Pfft." Gale looked at the backs of the two beauties and laughed, "Ronald, you can be a diplomat."

"Well, I'm just telling the truth."

"The truth? You just selectively told them part of the truth." Gale saw clearly, "For such a low-cost movie, the director is the one who can ultimately decide their fate."

"There's nothing wrong with that. Mr. Coleman told me before that his movie audiences don't come to see stories, but to come to see young beauties dancing disco. They best meet the audience's expectations."

"It seems you understand them very well?" Gale wrinkled her nose and asked.

"Yes, I quite understand them. Movies are a magical art that can be seen by dozens or millions of viewers. As a public school student, being able to watch a movie with a few frontal shots is considered achievable. It’s a dream in my heart, isn’t it?”

Ronald stood up and put the finished pizza boxes and Coke cans into garbage bags. "The school is treating us today, so we finally don't have to eat hot dogs. I don't have to count people's heads to prevent outsiders from stealing them." As he said this, he and Jim laughed together. This was one of their usual important tasks, and Gail also laughed.