Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Natasha Kinski was very satisfied with the photos and was very easy to talk to. Ronald asked to keep a copy of her photos and display them in the studio. She glanced at the terms and signed the authorization form. She also insisted on giving Ronald two sets of black and white and color audition photos for $80.

In this way, Ronald's portrait photography studio opened with the photo of a future female star as an endorsement, which was a great sign.

Carrying a camera bag and a tripod in his left hand, Ronald opened the back of the Volkswagen Hare with the key in his right hand. The back of the hatchback can be opened, and there is a hidden trunk underneath, which can hold a lot of things. Ronald put the camera bag in and closed the back.

A lid automatically covered the trunk, which was flush with the backrest of the back seat, and it was impossible to see the trunk from the outside.

European small cars are rarely seen in the United States. Everyone likes large displacement and large cars. Therefore, few people know the location of the trunk of the Volkswagen Hare. Ronald can safely put his valuable camera in it without worrying about someone prying the window.

The economic situation is getting worse and worse, and some theft and robbery crimes have increased. The president also made a televised speech, saying that Americans should get used to mediocrity, and that America, which has lost its moral advantage, is no longer great.

Aunt Karen doesn't like him very much. Under his governance, the American economy has suffered from severe inflation, and the mortgage interest rate has risen to more than 10%. Aunt Karen is under great pressure to support Ronald and Donna.

According to economists on TV, America has fallen into a phenomenon called stagflation. The economy is stagnant, and everyone is suffering from high unemployment and high inflation.

Ronald drove all the way to Wells Fargo next to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, parked by the side of the road, took out a few 25-cent coins and stuffed them into the parking meter, and then walked quickly into the lobby.

After waiting in line for a while, it was Ronald's turn.

Approaching the counter, Ronald took out the $130 in cash he had just received, counted out $50 in change and put it back in his pocket, and handed the remaining $80 plus a $200 check, which was the salary for the second director of the New World Company, to the teller.

"Ronald Lee, deposit the check into my checking account, and the cash as well."

Banks in America generally open two types of accounts, one is a cash account, similar to a current account in China. The other is a checking account, from which you can write checks to others. If there is no money in the account and you still write checks, it is the so-called bad check.

Wells Fargo is more friendly to small and medium-sized customers. As long as you have a fixed salary every month, you can open an account with $25. Ronald does not have a fixed monthly salary, but fortunately his deposit balance is more than $200, so he can also open an account and is exempt from management fees. So he opened an account soon after he came to Los Angeles.

He took the form handed over by the teller, filled it out, took out his driver's license, and handed it in together. The economy is bad, and check fraud has increased under the current president. Now banks have regulations that cashing checks requires a photo ID.

After depositing the money, Ronald ran out of the bank quickly. A fat policeman was already waiting next to the parking meter, holding a ticket in his hand and ready to issue the ticket when the time came.

"He's here, he's here!" Ronald hurried forward and started the car and drove away before the parking meter expired, leaving the fat policeman, who was annoyed, to wait for other cars.

After driving back to the apartment, Ronald took out his checkbook and wrote a check for $80 to Aunt Karen. He took out an envelope, sealed it, put a stamp on it, and put it in the mailbox of the apartment.

This was what I agreed with my aunt before I came out, that a quarter of the money I earned would be sent back home. Although it was not much each time, it could help my aunt reduce some of the burden.

The efficiency of the US Post Office was low and the delivery was very slow. Ronald didn't have much money, and the handling fee was too high to use Western Union to remit money, so he didn't care about the slow speed of the post office. If it is an important document that needs to be delivered immediately, most people will choose FedEx now.

Ronald couldn't help but think of the college application form that Gail sent for him, which was sent by FedEx. I wonder what the situation is?

…

FedEx delivery vehicles are Ford vans with round headlights that look very cartoonish. The two applications sent to UCLA and UCS were directly delivered by vans in the city.

This purple FedEx van first drove to UCLA. A few days before the deadline, there were a lot of application letters. UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television was no exception. The staff of the admissions office opened the application letters, sorted them out, and sent them to the desk of the admissions director.

"Ronald Lee, Stanton South Shore Totville High School. Well, the recommendation letter was written by a small studio owner and a high school teacher. Who is Roger Corman? Is he the one who made trashy exploitation movies? It was so short, and it was obvious that he was not satisfied with the applicant and deliberately made trouble." Ronald's application was thrown into the pile that failed the pre-screening.

USC is a little further south of Hollywood. The FedEx van drove another 20 minutes to the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

The admissions director here had a much better impression of Ronald. Roger Corman is good at discovering talents, but the recommendation letter is too short, and I don’t know how much of it is sincere.

The other two recommendation letters are from a high school English teacher and a physical education teacher. They are a little weak for applying to a film school.

Besides, Totville High School in Staten Island, New York, is not a performing arts high school in Manhattan.

"How many applications did we receive this year? ... Oh, then the expected admission rate is only 10%."

Ronald is most likely to be put on the waiting list. He will only be able to fill in if the students who were admitted before him do not go to USC for some reason.

Another FedEx truck drove to Los Angeles International Airport, and two other applications sent to two universities in New York were loaded onto a purple FedEx cargo plane. The plane landed at the FedEx headquarters in Memphis, and then took off again, flying directly to New York LaGuardia Airport.

The Columbia University School of the Arts is located on Manhattan Island, in the northwest corner of Central Park. The neighborhood is full of so-called high-end communities, and even non-white people who want to buy a house here will be rejected by the homeowners' committee.

Columbia University is accustomed to recruiting students from expensive private high schools. Students from public high schools must go through more severe competition to get in.

With a background in public high schools, mediocre experience, and incomprehensible recommendation letters, Ronald's application letter was put aside in the first round of screening, waiting to be stamped with the "Rejected" stamp, and then attached with a tactful but polite rejection letter.

The letter will tell Ronald, who failed the admission, that his application was rejected after careful evaluation by the admissions office. Columbia University has limited enrollment quotas this year, and the competition is very fierce. Other applicants have stronger backgrounds and resumes. As the president, he must choose based on excellence. He regrets that Ronald cannot be admitted and wishes him good luck in his studies.

The last application was sent to the Department of Film and Television at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Tisch School is on the other side of Manhattan Island, downtown. It is close to Chinatown. Not far to the south is the coast, where you can see the Statue of Liberty and the ferry to Ronald's home, Staten Island.

The atmosphere in the admissions office of New York University is more equal. Several admissions assistants and the admissions director are opening and reading application letters together. An assistant opened Ronald's application letter.

Take a year off after graduating from high school to find a new direction and calibrate your life goals? This application letter is well written, and the high school grades are also very good. Then I opened a recommendation letter from the coach of the high school wrestling team. He has a tough personality and a flexible mind...

We are a film and television school, and we don't need recommendation letters from sports teams. Well, this one was written by the president of New World Productions.

The recommendation letter is sealed, and in theory, the applicant Ronald does not know what the recommender wrote in it. Of course, only some old-school people still strictly abide by this tradition.

After opening the envelope, the admissions assistant saw a very short recommendation letter.

"Why is there such a short recommendation letter?" The assistant hurriedly asked the supervisor, "Is this letter written wrong?"

The supervisor took the recommendation letter and saw that the main body of the letter only had two sentences

"

To the relevant parties:

In many years, Ronald Lee is the second newcomer I can entrust the director work with full authority. He has never made any commercial films before.

The first one is Mr. Martin Scorsese, a professor at your school.

Yours faithfully,

Roger Corman

"

The admissions director picked up the phone:

"Hey, Marty, guess what I saw..."