Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The saved time allowed Ronald to shoot a few more shots. Assistant Director Al tried to move the shots originally assigned to the next two days, as long as they involved two female protagonists or two male protagonists, forward as much as possible.

"Cut!" Ronald finished shooting another clip, and after confirming with the Director of Photography, Ronald called the next one.

Not hearing the expected answer from the assistant director, Ronald looked back. It was the resident representative of the union, standing behind him and pointing at his wrist.

"Oh, it's almost five in the morning." Ronald suddenly realized that actors can only participate in shooting for 8 hours a day, which is the iron rule of the Actors Guild. In Los Angeles, there will be union representatives on site to supervise.

After discussing with Assistant Director Al, the crew announced that the shooting was completed, and everyone began to gradually leave with the notice of tomorrow night's shooting.

The lighting team took out a headlight to illuminate the ground at the downstairs entrance, so that the actors and staff who left would not trip because they could not see the steps clearly.

These are all methods that experienced technicians have used in other crews to shoot night scenes. Ronald handed them over to the assistant director team for coordination.

Ronald watched the camera crew himself, unloaded the film from the machine, carefully loaded it, and locked the box, and asked the professional film runner to send it to the printing factory to be printed into positive film. Tomorrow, you can see the sample film shot today.

In the first week of the start of filming, Ronald specially rented a cinema in the mall to show daily samples, so that every actor can see the moving images he shot yesterday on the spot.

"Ka... Ka..." A young man in the camera crew was struggling with the camera. The manufacturing process of this ultraca movie camera is really not good, and it takes a lot of force to disassemble the parts.

"Be careful," the director of photography went up to give instructions.

"This is the shooting plan for tonight," the second assistant director, a female staff member handed Ronald the shooting plan for the next day.

"There's Sean Penn in the video arcade, and the scenes with All-American Burger, as well as Judge Reinhold and Eric Stoltz." Ronald glanced over the shooting plan and called a crew assistant to ask, "Has Sean Penn arrived in Los Angeles? When did he fly in from Chicago? Go check it out."

All the shooting equipment has been packed up, and the crew has gradually withdrawn from the shooting location. The props team is packing up some posters that were temporarily posted during the shooting, and the remaining second assistant director has to stay to count. She can get a high allowance of one hour a day for this.

Ronald greeted Al, Matthew and other team leaders who were sorting out the equipment, and then left the mall.

A red sun is rising, and the morning in Los Angeles is beautiful. Everything is a new day.

Ronald, who had slept for five hours, appeared in the shooting office of the mall on time that afternoon. Filming a movie is a high-intensity job, and there is very little sleep every day, especially for the boss of everyone in the crew - the director.

Only by using the quality of sleep can you make up for it, and you can take a vacation after the shooting is over.

"Hello, Sean. Welcome to the crew. Your part tonight is..." Ronald handed the shooting plan to Sean Penn, who had just flown to Los Angeles from Chicago the day before.

"Call me Spicoli." Sean Penn said to Ronald in an exaggerated tone.

"What?"

"My name is Spicoli, man, and I will win the Grand Prix this year." Sean Penn answered in the tone of the character in the play.

"Very good." Ronald praised that Sean Penn's acting was very vivid. He portrayed a high school student who often smoked and dreamed of winning the surfing award all day long in just a few words.

And he looked a little silly, with his eyebrows deliberately frowned, as if he was doubting his life, which was very similar to the character in the script.

"Very good, Sean, keep it like this." Ronald told his assistant, "Let the hairstylist come and put the wig on him again to see the effect."

Sean Penn seemed not to hear Ronald's words, still immersed in the role, looking around at the surrounding furnishings, "Hey, man, do you have fries here?"

"Yes, during the filming, the fast food restaurant staff will go to work and provide midnight snacks for the crew."

"French fries, hahaha, delicious."

Ronald smiled, this Sean Penn is quite dedicated.

Soon the hairstylist came in with two wigs, "This is a full-wear type, this is a two-piece combination type, with hair pieces on top and wigs around."

"Sean, please let the hairstylist try your makeup for you." Ronald was very polite to the crew members, always saying please and thank you.

Sean Penn ignored him at all, as if he didn't hear it.

"Sean, Sean?" Ronald called several times, turned back to look at the hairstylist, and found that she didn't know what was going on.

"Sean!" Ronald raised his voice and called again.

"Call me Spicoli, man."

"Spicoli?"

"Yes, what do you want me to do?"

"Please try these two wigs." Ronald asked tentatively.

"All right!" Sean Penn sat down cooperatively, and the hairdresser worked on his head.

"This one has a wig on top, which increases the amount of hair on top of his head. It's a set, and it's going to tie up Sean's real hair."

"Which one do you find more comfortable, Sean?" Ronald felt that the effects of the two wigs were acceptable.

Sean Penn showed a silly expression again and didn't say anything.

"Spikoli? Which wig do you feel comfortable with?"

"This one makes my head wrap very tight, but this one is more comfortable." Sean Penn said, pointing to the two-piece wig.

"Take him to his dressing room, thank you." Ronald said to the hairstylist.

Sean Penn walks out with his hairstylist.

"Huh..." Ronald sighed. Isn't this Sean Penn confused because he used his method to get too deep into the scene? On the set, he was not allowed to be called by his real name, but by his character name.

If other technical staff perform poorly, they can use the authority of the director to decide whether to criticize or replace them.

Only actors, the movie needs their performance, it is not easy to offend them and act randomly. Actors are sensitive and fragile creatures, and in order for them to perform well, sometimes they must be coaxed.

"The name of this dressing room is wrong. My name is Spicoli."

Ronald heard Sean Penn's voice again and walked out of the office to take a look. Sean lost his temper at the door of the dressing room, tore up the paper with "Sean Penn" printed on it, then made a piece of paper for himself, wrote "Spicoli" with a pen, and posted it on the door.

"Hey," Ronald sighed, covering his face. It's not a big issue anyway, let him make trouble.

Finally it was time for the evening shoot. Today’s shooting scene was in the electronic game arcade on the third floor of the mall. It was filled with extras of kids and teenagers, and everyone was having fun and playing games for free.

"The camera is on this Missile Commander (Issileand) game, Sean, no, Spicoli takes off his shirt and looks at kids with change playing here."

"Missile Commander" is a popular arcade game developed by Atari. As a missile commander, the player must counterattack the SR nuclear missiles flying in the sky. As the game progresses, more and more incoming missiles will come, and in the end there will be only destruction.

Ronald specifically picked this most popular game to feature.

"O...k..." Sean Penn still replied in that drawn-out tone.

"You grab him from behind and ask him to pay back the 25 cents that Spicoli lent you." Ronald said to the young actor playing opposite Sean Penn.

"Then you, Si... Piccoli, pointed at his chest as if to threaten him, and then made a joke with him. You are a poor guy, not a villain who bullies elementary school students. Okay?"

"o...k..."

"Recording? Camera? a!"

The recording pole stretched over and recorded the music of the arcade game and the explosion of the player destroying the incoming nuclear missile.

Sean Penn's performance is authentic. When the child pulled him from behind, his reaction was natural. He was surprised at first, then wanted to have an attack, and finally returned to a state of indifference after seeing that it was a child, which made Ronald very satisfied.

"Very good, let's print this one again."

"Spikoli, try another way of acting."

Sean Penn made an OK gesture to express receipt.

This time his performance was different. When he was pulled by a child, he still looked down at the screen of the game console and didn't care much. He saw the child who had "borrowed" a coin from him and showed no trace of disbelief. A good-natured look.

Then he pointed his hand at the child's chest, making a threatening gesture. Finally, he moved his finger up, pressed the child's nose, and then ruffled the child's hair with his hand.

The child actor's reaction was brought out by him. While showing a smile, he reluctantly said to him, "Hi, eon" and held Spicoli's hand with his hand to prevent him from rubbing it.

"Cut!" Ronald was more satisfied with this one.

"These method actors, although they have many quirks, can perform something new every time."

Actors mainly act out their reactions based on the reactions of their opposite actors. If you perform according to a certain formula every time, every time after the first time, the reaction will be more and more deviated from reality.

Because you have already predicted what actions the other party is going to make.

Spicoli... no, the great thing about Sean Penn is that he can perform different feelings in each scene, and it also inspires natural reactions from the actors opposite him.

The audience is very sensitive to unnatural and contrived performances. Ronald is very satisfied with this kind of actor who can perform natural reactions. He gives him one more line every time and thinks of adding more scenes to him in the future.

"Very good, let's all take a 10-minute break while the photography team re-assumes the machine.

Ronald gave the order and today's shooting progress went smoothly.

"Bah bang bang..." Everyone clapped.

It seems that they were inspired by yesterday's applause. Now every time a shot is completed with high quality, the staff and actors will spontaneously applaud to congratulate them.

This is because it boosts morale and makes the actors who have completed the filming feel that they have done something great and feel more confident and relaxed about their performances. Ronald did not intervene, which became a routine for the "fast-paced" crew.

"Recording? Camera? a!"

After setting up the camera, Ronald called the start command again.

Sean Penn started playing the game on the game console, and the camera started filming his game from the side and behind.

"cut!"

Sean Penn called a halt.

"What's the problem? Spicoli?" Ronald popped up from behind the camera.

"Who is that? I can't meet unrelated strangers while filming."

"Sorry, sorry, I just wanted to come and watch a movie." A mall security guard apologized and withdrew from the crowd.

"I'll arrange it next time when there are other scenes. You step aside first." Ronald was still friendly to the mall security.

"Clear the scene, Spicoli. There are no strangers now. Can you start?"

"ok..."

Ronald shook his head. These method actors are very capable and have many quirks. Sean Penn is still good. No matter what, he must satisfy this requirement.

These quirks of his are also for getting into the role. It is easy to lose the role when there are irrelevant people present. Not allowing people to call him by his real name is also for getting into Spicoli's state at any time.

These harmless quirks, Ronald can tolerate.

"Recording? Camera? A."

Spicoli started playing "Missile Commander" again, and the game console made a biubiubiu sound.

"Cut!"

This time it was the director of photography Matthew who called a temporary stop.

"What's wrong?"