Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald and Jim began to look at the shooting materials of the second group. The two made a plan for which shots to take in the next five days.

Gail helped contact the photographer and agreed to meet at 5:30 am tomorrow, Monday, to go to Mount Carmel High School to shoot the opening shot.

The next morning, Ronald met the photographer, a British photographer commonly seen in Hollywood. Ronald deliberately switched to the accent of the "New Concept English" recording, with a bit of British BBC broadcast accent.

The photographer laughed happily and told some jokes about his drunken embarrassment to get closer.

The three of them quickly became familiar with each other and cooperated to prepare for the shooting.

"I want a still shot, about 3-5 seconds, with a ray of gentle sunlight shining on the teaching building."

"Wait, wait, gentle sunlight? How do you want me to shoot gentle sunlight?" The photographer protested.

"Shoot normally. The sunlight after sunrise is naturally gentle, right?"

"Well, I'll adjust the parameters and make the aperture smaller. This Kodak daylight film is an old model. It is estimated that it has been in the factory for 1 year. It will be slightly white, so that the yellow sunrise can be 'gentler'."

"I'll do as you say."

"Roger Corman gave us the garbage left over from the previous crew again." Jim complained.

Cut!

The end.

"Where are we for the next shot?"

"Wait, under a big sign with the name of the school written on it."

"That means there is no such thing. Let's get in the car and look for a suitable one nearby."

The camera was removed from the bracket, and the three of them packed up and got on the crew's van.

"Do you know where there is a big sign like that? We want to take a close-up shot." Ronald asked the driver.

"Big sign? Well, there is a billboard on the back wall of the school. Do you think it's okay?"

The driver stepped on the accelerator and the car came to the back of Mount Carmel High School. It was originally the stadium, and the weeds grew half a person tall. The stadium is surrounded by barbed wire, just next to the road, and there is a big billboard on the roadside, at the perfect height.

"Very good, you have a very good vision, and you chose a good place."

"Put up the school name that Jim drew."

The four people took down the folding ladder and put it on the billboard. Ronald and the driver were on each side, and Jim was directing from below, "A little higher on the left, a little higher, good, just right."

The billboard was pasted with "Vince Lombard High School" in green letters on a yellow background.

Vince Lombard is the most famous football coach, who won two consecutive Super Bowls. He coached the military football team and emphasized discipline. It is similar to the philosophy of Principal Toga in "Rock High School". Or in other words, Principal Toga's personality was created to imitate Vince Lombard.

The photographer confirmed OK through the viewfinder.

Ronald took out the clapperboard, filled in the scene number, and tapped it in front of the camera with a click, then looked at the watch, "One, two, three, four, five..., OK, Cut!"

The shooting of the second group was scattered and trivial. They only needed to shoot one or two shots in one place. Most of the time was spent waiting for light, assembling and disassembling cameras, and arranging scene props.

Ronald completely understood Roger Corman's teaching that he should focus on the scene. Shooting one shot in one place was too slow.

The three of them had some experience and cooperated well. In three days, they shot most of the shots that Jerry Zucker planned to shoot.

Jim also directed a motorcycle scene. He rode the motorcycle himself, and the photographer sat in front of him and held the camera to shoot a subjective shot. According to the photographer, the audience will see the scene as if they were racing on a motorcycle.

This was of course Jim's idea. He used the old method of slowing down the shooting. The motorcycle was running slowly at 20 miles per hour, and he shot the feeling of racing.

After the shooting that day, Ronald and his team sent the finished film to New World Studios, waiting to be sent for printing, and happened to meet the boss Roger Corman.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Corman."

"Oh, Ronald, how is your shooting going?"

"We have completed most of the second group shooting. We will go to Mount Carmel High School tomorrow. Director Allen will shoot the explosion scene with two cameras. There will be a telephone booth scene the day after tomorrow. We have to wait for the two protagonists PJ and Dai Yang to finish the gymnastics class scene, and then the shooting of "Rock High School" can be packed up (). "

Packing up is Hollywood jargon, equivalent to the Chinese word "killing the final", which refers to the end of the shooting stage. Everyone packed up the cameras and films to indicate that the shooting is completed.

"Very good, I like your work style very much, fast, accurate, and artistic." Roger praised him twice.

"I have written your recommendation letter and asked Gail to send it out along with your application. When you graduate from college, don't forget to come and make a movie for me."

"Of course, Mr. Coleman. Not all Hollywood bosses give newcomers like me and Jim opportunities like you do." Ronald thanked Roger Corman from the bottom of his heart. The boss was very generous with the talents he recognized, so Ronald had the opportunity to be a solo director.

"Where is Jim? Let him come to my office to find me. I will let him report to the stunt department of the new film. This kid's mind is full of stunts and models. He has come to me several times."

"He seems to be waiting for you at Gail's place, Mr. Coleman. You can see him when you go up."

Roger Corman nodded and walked into the office.

After hearing that his application had been sent out, Ronald couldn't help but look forward to college life. Which is better, Columbia University in the Ivy League or New York University in Manhattan? The sunshine in Westwood, Los Angeles is also very good, and UCLA located there is also very suitable, close to Hollywood.

Ronald stood at the front desk, drinking instant coffee while imagining his college life.

After drinking about two cups, Jim came down from upstairs and shouted to him with joy,

"I'm going to be a stunt model, Ronnie!"

"Congratulations!" Ronald hugged Jim tightly. After all, it is worth celebrating for people to realize their dreams and turn their hobbies into jobs.

"When do you go to work?"

"After Christmas vacation"

"That's perfect, we can also attend the packing party of 'Rock High School' together."

Jim's excitement hadn't subsided yet, and he suddenly remembered:

"By the way, I brought my short film, shall we watch it together later?"

"Okay, do you want to wait for Gail to join? Has she seen it?"

"She said she only watched the last minute and didn't watch the whole thing."

"Then you go and call her, I'll ask the photographer to prepare the VCR in the conference room." Ronald really didn't know how to connect the VHS VCR to the TV.

After a while, the four people in the conference room started watching Jim's short film.

The clarity of this VHS tape was very poor, and the title "Xenogenesis" appeared at the beginning.

The letters appeared on the screen like typing on a typewriter, and Jim also added some electronic sound effects, a bit like the popular Atari game console.

Then there was the cast list, the Sony TV was only 21 inches in size, and the subtitles were not clear. Ronald and the other two had to distinguish them carefully.

The subtitles were long and boring. The opening subtitles in black and white took up one minute of the 12-minute short film. Fortunately, the director's name finally appeared, and Ronald knew that the subtitles were finally finished.

Hollywood convention, the last item in the opening subtitles is the director. It is an American habit to put the most important people at the end of the list.

Director:

Then the letters spelled out a name one by one.

James Cameron (Jas).

"This James is you, right, Jim?" Jim is the short name of James, and Ronald has never asked Jim's full name.

"Yes."