Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"At noon on Saturday, several creators from the 'Fast Richmond High' crew arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. In this city, they will meet actors Sean Penn and Judge Reinhall who arrived earlier. De and others gathered to attend fan meetings in various theaters in New York.

The movie, which had early screenings on Thursday and was officially released on the East Coast on Friday, had explosive box office sales. This made Universal's distribution department very happy and regretful.

If this movie could be released simultaneously across the country instead of using this old regional distribution model, what would the box office performance be now?

The budget applied for by the marketing department is almost running out. The fan meeting in New York was very effective. They plan to increase the budget and hold two more meetings in New York.

'Fast-paced Richmond High' continues to be a hit on the West Coast and has become a hit with fans on the East Coast...

We will interview Jennifer and Phoebe, who play the two female leads. "

"Hurry up, this cut scene has been filmed. Let's go to the Ziegfeld Theater." The host urged the cameraman to get in the car quickly and go to the theater where the fans were active to continue filming.

Globo New York sent a small crew to capture news footage of "fast-paced Richmond High" becoming a hit in New York, preparing it to be shown to cable TV subscribers as part of the film's marketing.

Small TV stations don’t have many resources. A host does his own makeup and a cameraman and recorder can do it all.

They use Sony's new BetaCa camera. Although the picture quality is not very good, a microphone can be plugged into the camera, and one photographer can do the work of two people. It is very suitable for such a small cable TV network.

"Let's go to the Ziegfeld Theater too." Ronald and the road show group walked outside the airport, where many taxis were parked.

He couldn't help but think of the time when he came back from Los Angeles to go to college. He was also waiting for a taxi here and met Diane's father, Bert, who drove a taxi.

Arriving at the Ziegfeld Cinema, Ronald was surrounded by Sean Penn and Judge Reinhold, who had arrived earlier, and came up to hug him tightly.

"Director, I didn't expect this movie to be so popular when I made it!" Judge was very excited, and his eyes were full of gratitude when he hugged him. His agent has obviously received more script invitations and phone calls recently, more directors have recognized his acting skills, and producers have also recognized his market value.

"No one expected it. I thought it was just a simple teen exploitation movie." Sean Penn took out the Spicoli costume and put it on again, and was stopped by many fans at the entrance of the cinema asking for autographs.

For a young actor, being recognized by movie fans on the street for the first time is a unique experience.

Sean Penn was obsessed with method acting. He did not expect to become a star, but the image of the magical boy who seduce Brooke Shields in "Fast Times" made him suddenly become the idol of high school boys across the country.

The fan meeting mainly allows several main actors to interact with the audience before the movie is screened, answer some plot questions, and talk about some gossip during the filming.

The work cycle of an actor is much shorter than that of a director. The director is involved in a movie from the project establishment, script, shooting, post-production, and promotion. A movie usually takes more than half a year to a year and a half.

Most of the actors are only involved during the filming period. At the same time, they may have filmed two to three movies.

So by the time a movie is released, for actors, it is often already the last movie they shot, or the last movie they were in.

Fortunately, most of the actors in "Fast-paced Richmond High" are new actors. They don't have so many script invitations, so most of the actors still have fresh memories of some things during the filming that have not been diluted by the new movie.

Therefore, they interacted with movie fans and answered questions in a decent manner.

"How did you get along with Brooke Shields during filming?" one male fan was particularly interested in Brooke Shields' cameo.

"Oh, Baby, she's really beautiful." Sean Penn deliberately used the character Spicoli in the play to answer this question, causing a burst of laughter.

"Phoebe, we like you! Where are you from?"

Phoebe Cates had very little nudity in this film, but it aroused several times the public response than the previous film, "Paradise." The boys began plastering large posters of her on the walls of their rooms.

"Thank you for liking me. I am a New Yorker."

"Oh oh oh..." A burst of cheers followed by several loud whistles made Phoebe very happy.

Judge Reinhold and Jennifer Jason Leigh, who play brother and sister, also had their fans raise some questions.

Seeing that the time for interaction was coming soon, the host came on stage to announce the end of the interaction and started to show the movie.

Most of the audience just watched some clips played when Bobbi Wygant and Brooke Shields were on the show. This was the first time they watched the film in its entirety, and the audience immediately began to quiet down.

This kind of interaction with movie fans has nothing to do with the director. The marketing stage is more of a stage for actors and other front-of-house staff.

Ronald was sitting in a seat in the back row against the aisle arranged by the Universal Marketing Department, quietly watching his first theatrical feature film with his family.

Cousin Donna has always admired her eldest cousin's artistic level and is waiting to see his performance like "Rock High School". Aunt Karen is more pleased to see Ronald successfully direct a movie, she herself does not like to watch movies of this theme.

An hour and a half later, accompanied by the ending song "Goodbye, Goodbye" sung by the band Ogo Bogo, the endings of various characters began to cross the screen.

Brad put on a suit and became the manager of the 7-Eleven convenience store.

Stacey and Mark fell in love, which they have not done yet.

Linda really dated a university professor as her boyfriend.

"Hahaha..."

The audience's favorite is still the ending where Spicoli saves Brooke Shields.

"Is this song imitating the scene at the end of "Actalax" played by Ingrid Bergman?"

"Yes, just like at the end of "Actalax", the Queen Mother said to the distinguished guests that the show is over and go home. It's a pun."

Ronald heard someone asking him a question and answered it casually.

"Hi, Helen. So glad you're here." Ronald smiled. It was Helen Slater, whose face was as red as an apple.

"My dad, Gerald, gave me the ticket." Helen waved to him.

Ronald pulled Helen over and hugged her.

Helen tucked her dark brown hair behind her ears. "You did a great job. I regret not acting in this movie."

"That's because Gerald said you were not yet an adult. Our filming schedule was very tight. Teen actors would be subject to union regulations, so we might not be able to invite you to act." Ronald replied.

In this exploitation film, the heroine had a stripping scene. Ronald was not very willing for Helen to act in such a scene. If it was a guest role, it might be good.

"Hi, Karen, Donna." Helen went to the leg warmer shop to buy a lot of goods and greeted Ronald's family.

"How is your TV series going?" Ronald remembered that after Helen was not selected for Coppola's "The Little Rascals", she returned to New York to film an ABC TV series.

"It's finished, and it will be broadcast this weekend." Helen Slater touched her face. The air conditioning in the theater didn't seem to be cold enough. Her face was a little hot and must have turned red.

"Then I'll wait and see."

"Don't watch it. It's boring." Helen was a little shy. She felt that the TV series she filmed would definitely not be as exciting as today's movie, and the requirements for TV performances were much more relaxed.

"These are all roles chosen for me by my father Gerald. I don't really want to play such roles."

"What bad things are you saying about me again?" Gerald ended the greetings with his colleagues from Global TV and came to pick up his daughter.

"Mr. Slater." Ronald greeted him.

"Well done, the young people in our TV station are all talking about your movie. Congratulations."

"You have a lot of people waiting?" Gerald pointed behind Ronald, and many people were waiting to talk to him. "We'll leave first. Congratulations again."

Gerald stretched out his arm, and Helen circled it obediently, and the two walked out of the theater.

"Telephone contact" Helen turned around and made a phone gesture to Ronald, and then said silently with her mouth.

"Call me." Ronald also lip-synced and said goodbye to her with a smile.

"Hi, Ronald, congratulations!" CAA's agent Richard jumped in front of him.

"Why did you come from Los Angeles?"

"Of course, although this is not a premiere, it is the first time that the movie shot by my client is shown at the Ziegfeld Theater, so I should come."

"Thank you, come back with me for a drink?" Ronald invited.

This is not a premiere after all, and there is no subsequent party. So except for a few actors who came from other places, they will go to the hotel to rest with the people from Universal. Like Ronald, Phoebe Cates, and several New York locals, they are all going to go home after the end.

"No, you should be with your family this evening. I'll call you tomorrow." Richard also made a phone call gesture to him, "You have several scripts and director invitations, let's talk tomorrow."

"Ronald, Ronald!"

After dealing with the group of people who came up, both acquaintances and strangers, insiders and outsiders, Ronald said goodbye to several actors and staff, and accompanied his aunt and cousin to the parking lot of the Ziegfeld Theater to pick up the car and go home.

Aunt Karen drove her SUV and took Ronald back to the apartment to rest.

Ronald returned home, looking at the familiar furniture, a familiar smell entered his nose, he felt very comfortable back to his family.

"Do you still like my movies?"

"It's pretty good, but those people don't use grammatical structure when speaking. I think the education level of public high schools in California is really average."

Donna began to complain about the valley accents of the cheerleaders in the movie, "Why do you say that all theaters start with "literally" and replace all verbs with "like?"

Ronald laughed. Donna went to a key high school, where the students were all highly intelligent, and they definitely didn't like the money-worshiping girls like the valley girls.

"Donna, you should go to bed. Ronald, come here, I have something to tell you." Aunt Karen urged Donna to go to bed, and then made a cup of black tea for Ronald.

"What's wrong, Aunt Karen? Don't you like my movie?"

"I can't say I like it, nor can I say I don't like it. I'm past the age of liking movies." Auntie also took a cup of black tea and drank it.

"You are a director now, and your movies are a hit. When can you go back to New York University to continue your studies?"