Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Donna had to go back to New York after the weekend to prepare for the final exam. The family only had one day to play in Los Angeles. Ronald accompanied his aunt and Donna to go shopping and buy some gifts.

"Ronnie, I really want you to go back with us. You have been in Los Angeles for half a year. We miss you very much and hope you can go back to New York for Christmas. But you should still work hard in Los Angeles. After all, this is your first movie."

After watching the filming scene, Aunt Karen inexplicably felt a little awe for Ronald's work.

Directing the work of a crew of more than 100 people and giving orders is not a job that ordinary people can do. She didn't want to delay the editing work because Ronnie went back to New York for the Christmas holiday, and failed the efforts of all the actors.

"It doesn't matter. I was going to take a few weeks off anyway. Film editing requires a critical eye to look at the sample filming, just like a teacher of Donna's correcting her homework. If I go to the editing room now, my mentality has not changed from a director, I am afraid I won't be willing to delete a single one."

Ronald explained the work of filming to his aunt. The director has his own thoughts when shooting each shot, and some shots can only be shot after a lot of hard work.

But the idea of ​​editing is to cut out all the bad parts of the film and connect the good parts. Sometimes the effect of those casually shot films is better than the effect of more than 20 shots shot seriously and hard.

One thing Ronald learned from Walter Merzi is that after the shooting is completed, he should play for two weeks to empty his mind, and then sit in the editing room, so that he can forget the love that the director got from the shooting and regain the objective perspective of ordinary audiences.

"Okay, okay. I will stay in Los Angeles for another week to work hard, and then go back to New York to spend Christmas with you." Ronald looked at Aunt Karen's face with an expression of "you have to work hard", and smiled and agreed to go back to New York later.

"Let's go to the movies?" Donna suggested. After watching her cousin's directorial work, she became interested in movies and always asked Ronald how the shots of a certain movie were shot. Ronald guessed and said something, some of which he couldn't think of himself.

Sometimes a movie attracts more audiences because of some particularly interesting shots.

"Wait a minute, I'll write this postcard and send it out." Aunt Karen said.

Ever since the President miraculously survived the assassination, Aunt Karen has become his loyal supporter. She often writes him postcards to express her support.

According to her war widow friends, the current President is the chosen one. He was able to escape the assassination because God sent him to do something to save America. He is not allowed to die before he finishes it.

Recently, the leader of a small African country, Colonel Gaddafi, was rumored to want to assassinate the President. An NBC reporter went to interview him, and he was so scared that he had to call the White House during the live broadcast to personally clarify to the President that he had no intention of assassinating him.

A lucky female worker in the leg warmer factory also received a handwritten reply from the President, and she became the most powerful celebrity in the local area for a while. This made Aunt Karen more motivated to write letters.

This made Ronald admire her very much. The president randomly selects some people to reply to his letters on a daily basis, and does not report this matter in the national news media. However, ordinary people who receive the reply will spread the news in their local area. Once the local media reports, there are small groups of people in various places who support him.

When the tax cut bill needed to be approved by Congress a few months ago, the president called on the people to write to the senators of their state and the congressmen of their constituency, urging them to vote to pass the tax cut bill in Congress. Aunt Karen also wrote to the senators of New York State and the congressmen on Staten Island to urge them.

The most worrying thing for American congressmen is that the backyard will catch fire and lose the support of voters. This continuous pressure has changed the attitudes of many congressmen, and the tax cut bill has been passed smoothly.

Speaking of acting skills, the president's shrewd and calculating routine of inciting the people is much better than most Hollywood male stars.

The most amazing thing is that as the president of the Elephant Party, he has also won the support of most of the southern donkey party congressmen. That kind of masculine voice and humorous conversation really attract the love of southern housewives.

Even Joe, the senator from Delaware, a southern state with serious white supremacist forces, the chief member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (meaning he has served the longest in the committee), the weathervane of the party, voted in favor of the tax cut.

"What are you watching, Ronnie? Let's go to the cinema?" Donna saw that her aunt had finished writing the postcard, and couldn't wait to pull Ronald to go to the Huaguo Theater.

"The Lost Ark of the Covenant once again topped the box office charts and is expected to become the best-selling movie in the Christmas season of 1981"

This movie produced by George Lucas and directed by Spielberg has occupied the top three in the box office charts for half a year. As Christmas approaches, it has climbed to the first place again.

"Lights Out", starring Timothy Hutton and Tom Cruise, premiered last week. The box office can only rank fifth.

Ronald put down the weekly box office column in "The Hollywood Reporter" and went out with his family to the Huaguo Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

This is a famous theater in Hollywood. The gate is a Huaguo-style building with carved beams and brackets.

"Which movie should we watch?" Ronald saw that there were several movies to choose from at the ticket window.

"Watch 'Lights Out', Tom is in it." Donna's cousin still remembers that the cake sent by Tom Cruise tasted good.

Well, Ronald also wanted to see the quality of this 14 million production of 20th Century Fox. "Hollywood Reporter" said that the box office is expected to reach 3 million this week, which is not good news relative to the cost.

"Hahaha, look at my hands and Monroe's." Donna smiled and played in the celebrity handprint and footprint area at the entrance of the Huaguo Theater.

Among the more than 100 stars who left handprints or footprints, Monroe is the most popular among the audience. Her handprints are obviously darker than other handprints because they are touched the most times.

There is also a strong Huaguo style in the Huaguo Theater. The curtain on the stage is Huaguo red, with double happiness characters and some Chinese myths in bright yellow.

The curtain slowly opened, and Ronald sat in an old-fashioned chair and looked at the Fox logo on the screen. Watching movies here is really a different flavor.

"Lights Out" tells an absurd story. George C. Scott, who once played General Patton, plays a brigadier general working in a military academy, instilling the honor and responsibility of soldiers in the cadets.

When politicians and real estate businessmen want to bulldoze the military academy and develop real estate projects, the cadets take up arms to defend the school.

After the president came to power, the ideas of tradition and honor that conservatives insist on began to resurge. If it were three years ago, there would be no movies to give soldiers a positive image.

Aunt Karen was quite satisfied that the movie did not try to discredit soldiers. Donna thought that Tom Cruise was more handsome than the leading actor Hutton in it, which made Ronald laugh.

Indeed, Hutton's performance in the movie was formalistic and not as real as Tom Cruise's performance.

I heard from Niceta that Paula arranged a series of acting courses for Tom. Tom also worked hard. Every time he got a new role, he studied it for a long time and tried to leave a deep impression in the movie.

As for why Tom's performance felt more real than Hutton, Ronald was a little confused. To be fair, although Hutton and he didn't get along, his performance was not that bad, otherwise he wouldn't have won an Oscar.

But his performance in "Lights Out" always made people feel that it was not as real as Tom Cruise and Sean Penn's supporting roles. Maybe it's not that Hutton is bad, but that he met Tom and Sean, and the audience has an evaluation in their hearts after comparison.

Ronald felt that his main research direction in the future should also be on the acting skills of actors. As a director, he already knows a lot about the techniques of various types of work, and he can avoid being deceived by technicians.

But what the movie finally presents on the screen is still the performance of the actors. He can't tell the pros and cons of Hutton and Tom Cruise's performances now, and why. If he doesn't want to make exploitation films like Roger Corman for the rest of his life, acting is an area he must learn.

After sending his aunt and cousin away, Ronald began his vacation life in Los Angeles. Visiting the surroundings, soaking in hot springs, watching other people's movies, just no longer thinking about anything about "fast pace".

When he had time, Ronald also went to Little Venice where he lived three years ago to take a look, and it was still the same. There were many people surfing on the beach in winter, but Ronald knew he lacked talent, so he didn't try.

The karate gym where he practiced was not doing well, and it had been converted into a kickboxing gym. The owner of the gym who had fought with him was nowhere to be found.

Only the crowd of people dancing various dances on the street had expanded, and Ronald saw many people teaching, allowing interested boys and girls to learn various robot movements and ground movements. The dances were purely driven by interest, and there was no charge, and everyone danced very enthusiastically.

Of course, Ronald didn't forget his old friends. On this day, he invited James Cameron and Gale Hurd to drink beer and eat barbecue together.

"Congratulations to Ronald on completing the filming of his first directorial work." Gale suggested, cheering for Ronald.

"Thank you, and congratulations to you, Jim. Have you finished your movie too?" Ronald asked, otherwise Cameron would not have time to attend the party.

Cameron has returned from the tropical island of Jamaica, and directed some studio shots of "Piranha 2" in the studio in Los Angeles a few weeks ago.

"Shh, I don't want to be named in this unfortunate movie. Producer Assonitis is a jerk." Cameron cursed.

Ronald had noticed that Cameron was in a bad mood and thought that he was too busy with work and neglected his family, and had quarreled with his wife Sharon again.

Now it seemed to be about the filming of the movie, and he hurriedly asked, "What's wrong? Doesn't he give you the power to edit?"

The director does not naturally have the power to edit. Just like Ronald himself, after editing the 120-minute preliminary version, he had to discuss with the producer how to edit the final 90-minute version.

He did not have the power to decide the final length and whether to keep some shots.

"No, this bastard. He wanted to be a director himself. But he fired the director and signed his own name before, which was discovered by the Directors Guild. Any movie he directed was banned from being shown in American theaters. That's why he hired me to sign the director name to bypass the union."

"The previous director left because he knew his background. This bastard was optimistic about my stunt production ability, and I shot the piranha scenes in Jamaica.

But as soon as I arrived in Los Angeles, he criticized the daily dailies I shot for not meeting his requirements, and then gradually stripped me of my power. The staff were all Italian and spoke Italian, and finally kicked me out of the studio. "

"This..." Ronald didn't know how to persuade him. It would be very unlucky to meet this kind of producer.

"I think you should sign it. No matter how bad it is, this is still a movie released in American theaters. Directors of released works and directors of unreleased works are two completely different things from the perspective of the producer. Bio." Gale advised Cameron not to make fun of his byline.

"You're right. I spent a lot of effort to shoot those shots of piranhas jumping out of the sea and attacking humans from a helicopter. When I arrived in Jamaica, they didn't even do anything to make the scene look good." Cameron was told by Gayle Convinced.

"But Assonitis wants to take the original film back to his hometown in Italy for editing. What should he do to get the editing rights?" Cameron had a plan in mind and drank the beer in one gulp.

"Continued Cup."

Ronald poured him another beer and patted him comfortingly.