Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Phoebe Cates signed a special filming contract smoothly. Her father agreed after reading the description of the swimming pool scene in the script. He also encouraged her that if it was a high-grade shot, it would increase the actress's praise.

As for Robert Romanus, he was from a low-income family. He signed the contract without any hesitation and proudly declared that he would let the national audience see the cannon from the Bronx.

The crew smoothly moved to Van Nuys High School to shoot the scenes inside the school and classroom.

The principal and the dean of Van Nuys High School were still the same two people in "Rock High School". But the students have changed. Ronald stood on the roof of the teaching building and looked down. The filming process at that time was still vivid in his mind.

It's just that this time there were no two dancing hotties like Mara, but a group of new high school beauties watching the filming.

This time it was a formal project of Universal Pictures, and Ronald no longer had to write a fake script to fool the school. He had his own professionals to negotiate with the school and arrange everything.

The filming time was still in the semester, and students came to school every day. For this reason, Ronald and the school have agreed that students can watch the filming, but they cannot make noise to interfere. If they are interested in participating, they can go to the crew to sign up and serve as background extras.

Standing on the roof of the Van Nuys High School teaching building, Ronald used an electric horn to direct the crew to rehearse the movements.

Today, we shot the appearance shots of several protagonists. Brad drove his own luxury car that he paid for in installments. Many girls greeted him along the way. A good car always attracts girls' attention.

After planning the route for the car to enter the venue and the extras who had lines and showed their faces along the way, Ronald started shooting the main shot after two good rehearsals.

The camera set up on the roof shot downward. A royal blue four-door car entered from the left side of the screen and then drove out from the right side.

"Very good, another one." Ronald, standing on the roof, picked up the electric horn and pointed it at

Stunt driver Debbie Evans, came out of the car door, gave Ronald a thumbs up to indicate that she heard it, and then reversed the car to the starting position and started again. For this kind of shot, the stunt team helped drive unless necessary.

The reason for not letting the actors drive is to prevent any accidents that might affect the subsequent filming. Driving may seem harmless, but Hollywood has long established a set of standard practices that have their own logic. There have been precedents of actors jumping off tables and breaking their bones.

This set of shots is to show that Brad, who works in a fast food restaurant, feels superior to his classmates after working hard to make money.

He saw that there were many beautiful girls in the new school year, and he had the idea of ​​dumping his girlfriend Lisa, who also worked in a fast food restaurant, and really finding a "girlfriend" to enjoy his last year of high school life.

The shots were taken very well, and Ronald signaled Debbie to pass.

"Fix the camera in the back seat of the car and shoot the beauty over there through the window."

Ronald then arranged the next shot.

"Hi, Brad." A girl greeted the photographer in the back seat. Of course, if the other shots were edited, the audience would think she was talking to Brad.

"Cut, good, next."

This time Brad had a close-up shot, which was not suitable for a stunt double, so he got in the car himself and drove on the prescribed route.

The camera was placed on the passenger seat and fixed with a bracket. The photographer and the focus puller sat in the back seat to operate it. The focus puller connected an extension cord to the focus knob and half-lying in the back seat to adjust the focus. The focus depth of this close-up shot is very shallow, and it will be out of focus if you are not careful, which is a test of the focus puller's skills.

After practicing twice, the director of photography Matthew signaled Ronald to be ready.

The crew had two cars to shoot Brad's shots. One was a real royal blue four-door luxury sedan for shooting the car's panoramic view.

The other was the ordinary sedan now, with the passenger door removed to prevent interference with the large film box behind the camera. It was mainly used to shoot the interior of the car.

"Recording? Camera? A!"

Judge Reinhold, who played Brad, took out a small clapperboard and tapped it lightly at the camera.

The framing range of the close-up shot is very narrow, so the clapperboard is also a special small board, only slightly larger than the palm of your hand.

The space inside the car was narrow, so it was inconvenient for the script supervisor to get in and clap the clapperboard every time. Actor Reinhold clap the clapperboard himself, then put the clapperboard next to the chair where the camera couldn't see it and started the car.

Brad replied to the girl who greeted him, "Hi."

Then he continued to drive forward, muttering to himself to rate the girl, "Ah, have you grown up? Have you become more beautiful?"

"Cut!"

"Very good, another one."

This one was not so good, but Ronald always said it was good, so that the actors would not have psychological burden when shooting the next one. This was a trick he came up with.

"Famous" director Alan Parker was unhappy when he was not satisfied with the shot, which put a lot of pressure on the actors, which was actually not conducive to their performance.

"When you turn your head and talk to the camera, you should have the feeling of a boss inspecting the company. Brad is inspecting the beautiful girls in the school. He is now the foreman of the American Hamburger, and he has a superior mentality towards his classmates." Ronald said to Judge.

"Cut!" Ronald shot again, "This time it's better than the last time. Let's do it again, and this time we will change to a different way of acting."

Brad is a celebrity in school. Many people admire him for being able to become a foreman of a "big company" like All-American Burger in the 12th grade. When he arrived at the parking lot, his younger brothers helped him open the car door.

"There are still 6 episodes, and this four-door luxury full-size cruiser will belong to me." Brad high-fived his younger brothers after getting off the car.

"Cut!"

After Brad's entrance shot was shot, the next one was the entrance shot of Mike, the scalper played by Romanus. Both of them appeared in the school parking lot.

The part about working in the mall during the summer vacation is the entrance of several characters. At about seven minutes, Ronald arranged for them to appear in the school. A good entrance shot can let the audience know what kind of person this character is in a few tens of seconds.

Then, the audience will understand what kind of story will happen to them and how they interact with other characters.

So Ronald attaches great importance to the entrance shot and strives for perfection. The progress of shooting is not as fast as in the mall, but to try to get the actors to perform accurately.

Anyway, after a week of shooting in the mall, it was completed one day ahead of the shooting plan. The two producers were very satisfied with the progress and quality of their work. Ronald had the capital to spend more time here at Van Nuys High School to fine-tune it.

"I'll give you four tickets for the fifth row, the lowest price is $140 in total." Romanus was speaking to several customers, hoping to trick them into buying high-priced tickets.

"Did you see that sports car? That's Jefferson's car. He was a linebacker on our high school football team. An alumnus wanted him to join his university, so he gave Jefferson a sports car when he was in the 10th grade. I helped him choose it at that time.

Charles Jefferson, the football star played by Forest Whitaker, drove a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro z28 sports car past the scalper Mike and parked in the parking lot.

"This is a good car." The two customers exclaimed.

"Yeah, haha, he and I are old friends." The scalper Mike wanted to show off his power and walked up to greet Jefferson.

"Hi, Charles, how are you today? It's a really nice car. You've taken good care of it."

"Don't fucking dirty it." Jefferson didn't give Mike the scalper any face.

"Look, he's really a man with personality." Mike's face changed, and he immediately turned around and flattered Jefferson in a different way.

"Really," said the customer, and for a moment it seemed that Mike was really a man with many connections and great powers.

Forest Whitaker is very tall, but not much taller than Robert Romanus, who plays Mike.

In order to create a dramatic effect, Ronald asked the props team to put an apple box on the side of the car. Let Whitaker stand on a 20-centimeter-high wooden step when he got off the car.

Then the camera shot from the side of Mike. When Whitaker got out of the car and stood up, he was suddenly much taller than Romanus. Romanus only reached his chest, and he instantly looked like a giant.

"Cut! Very good, change the camera position and do it again. "Ronald was very satisfied with the lens design of the director of photography Matthew. This kind of Charles Jefferson is the genius that the university did not hesitate to send alumni to send cars to attract him to join the school to fight in the NCAA.

The second camera position was shot from behind Whitaker. The camera was fixed on a bracket and raised to the back of Whitaker, shooting from top to bottom. The camera operator and focus puller squatted on a small platform above the camera bracket.

"A!" Ronald ordered.

"Don't fucking dirty it." Whitaker repeated this line.

Romanus stood in front of him. As Whitaker stood up on the apple box, Romanus had to look up and talk to him.

The distortion of the lens made the scalper Mike played by Romanus look even smaller, which was a bit funny.

The director of photography Matthew, who climbed up and stared at it himself, was very satisfied with this shot and gave Ronald a thumbs up.

"Very good, let's shoot it again from the side. ”

Filming is actually so complicated, boring, and tedious. Soon the students watching couldn't stand it anymore. After waiting for 20 minutes and shooting for 20 seconds, there was no effect.

But once these shots were cut together in the editing room, they could smoothly express complex emotions and stories, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the world created by the director.

The scene of the encounter between Mike the scalper and the football star Jefferson, cutting together the front, back, and side shots, can show Jefferson's physical talent and impulsive and irritable personality.

The background of Mike the scalper's good bragging and taking advantage of the bottom poor family is also clearly visible.

However, the interest of high school students cannot be eliminated in one go.

When it came to shooting the indoor shots, that is, the scene where Spicoli was late and was kicked out of the history class by Mr. Hand, a group of Van Nuys High School students were still standing outside the classroom door, peeking in to see the secrets of filming.

"Spicoli, this shot will be aimed at your face and Mr. Walston's face. I need a close-up with full emotions. "

Sean Penn nodded to Ronald, indicating that he was ready.

Ray Walston, who played Mr. Hand, was a veteran actor in Hollywood. He played Uncle Martin on Mars in the TV series "My Favorite Martian" and was a household name on TV.

"Record, camera, a!"

"Mr. Hand...cut!"

Sean Penn stopped talking halfway through his lines.

"What's wrong, Spicoli?" Ronald asked.