Exploiting Hollywood 1980

In 1979, the first day of work after the holiday.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, Ronald returned to the office building of New World Production. He immediately felt that his choice to give up the portrait photography business was correct.

Seeing the movie posters in the corridor, he was excited and wanted to get to work immediately. Sometimes people's rational thinking is not as real as the body's reaction.

As soon as he arrived at the office building of New World Production, Ronald felt that his body was eager to try. Something in his blood vessels was awakening, resonating with the film, and he couldn't wait to let them be exposed, developed, and played according to his wishes.

Or go to the second floor to the president's assistant to find out the news. Seeing Gail was already busy at her seat, Ronald hurried forward to say hello.

"Hi, Gail, Happy New Year. You look great."

Gail wore a new professional suit and still had a Sassoon bob. There were a few new photos on the desk, including her own solo photo, a photo with Cameron, and a photo of three people, all taken by Ronald.

She was very happy to see Ronald, "Ronald, you're here? How was your vacation?"

"Very good, how about you?"

Ronald and Gail chatted about the movements of their acquaintances.

After the filming of "Rock and Roll High School" was completed, the crew members immediately dispersed and went their separate ways. The actors had already gone to the next crew, as did the photographers, sound engineers and other technical personnel.

The actual filming time of the movie was not long. Only the director was involved in the entire preparation and the long work in the post-production. This is what the boss Roger Corman said, that filming is long at both ends and short in the middle. The filming part that costs more money should be done as soon as possible, and the post-production editing and mixing can be done slowly.

But this is just the philosophy of Hollywood. No, to be more precise, it is the philosophy of Roger Corman, the low-cost exploitation film tycoon.

Polanski filmed "Tess" for more than 6 months, and it is not finished yet. I don't know how he fooled the investors? And can the investors tolerate his slow work?

Continuing to chat about gossip with Gail, Ronald found that several of his acquaintances had also gone their separate ways.

Cameron went to a new sci-fi crew and started a new job of designing and manufacturing stunt models. Roger Corman named the new movie "Battle of the Stars". He was going to copy "Star Wars" and also do space opera.

PJ Soles went to the big production of Warner Bros., the crew of "Soldiers in the Sky" with a budget of $15 million. But unfortunately, she still didn't become the leading actress of a big movie. This time, she played a supporting role to the popular star, Oscar winner Goldie Hawn.

But the most surprising thing was Jenny, the script supervisor, who actually became a screenwriter and went to revise the script for the movie "Black Stallion". This was produced by Francis Coppola's "Zeper Show" company. It is said that it is very artistic and is directed by Coppola's senior brother, Carol Ballard.

"Wow", Ronald couldn't help but sigh, why didn't he have a share of such a good thing?

Gail saw the envy in his eyes and reminded him, "Jenny's last name is Rosenberg."

Ronald was stunned, and then reacted that Rosenberg is a common Jewish surname. It seems that Jenny has some family background and has connected with the most powerful Jewish circle in the film and television industry.

…

"Are you here to report to the editing room today? I'll take you there."

Gail knocked on the door of an editing room with Ronald. Director Alan Ekush was already inside. Seeing Ronald coming, he stood up to greet him, "Ronald, you are here, welcome."

Alan's height of nearly 2 meters made Ronald feel very stressed, "Hello, director, what do you need me to do, please tell me."

"Joe, Joe? Take Ronald to get familiar with the equipment, teach him how to load the film and tape into the machine, and then teach him how to synchronize the sound and picture." Alan asked Joe Dante to teach him the basics.

"Hi, Ronald. I'm glad you came to the editing room. We can continue to work together."

Joe Dante stroked his hair, revealing his receding hairline. He took Ronald to the film cabinet in the corner of the room and moved out a few reels of film. Then he found the synchronous recording tape according to the number on the film.

It was the first time for Ronald to see a movie tape. It was 35cm wide, just like a film, but it was empty in the middle and had some lines on both sides. These lines recorded the sound magnetically.

The recording of the tape would be added to both sides of the film in the lab, and the sound would be synchronized with the image when it was projected.

There was a table in the corner of the room. There were two spinning-wheel-like plates and a crank on it.

"This is the film reel. Put the film on it and shake the crank to pull the film up." Joe Dante demonstrated it to Ronald.

"Then put the tape on the second reel and put on the sound playback head. When you shake the crank, the image and sound will move forward together." Joe Dante motioned Ronald to try it.

"You'd better keep the speed of shaking the handle at 24 frames per second, which is the standard speed of movie projection." Joe reminded Ronald.

"Okay, stop here."

Ronald stopped shaking the handle, and the film and tape also stopped.

"Did you notice? This frame shows the script supervisor Jenny hitting the board, but there is no such sound on the tape. Do you know why?" Joe pointed at the picture on the film and asked.

Ronald still remembers that every time a movie was shot, the tape recorder was turned on first, then the camera, and finally the director called A.

"Because the recorder was turned on first, the recording is longer than the film."

"Yes, your job is to cut off the recording tape that has nothing recorded at the beginning and keep it in sync with the film."

Joe Dante didn't waste any words and immediately brought a bunch of tools.

"These are your friends at work, white tape, transparent tape, and guillotine. First, stick 10 feet of white tape on the beginning and end of the film and tape, and write the shot number and content."

Ronald did as he was told, picked up a pen and wrote "Rock High School Scene 2, Shot 3"

"Then put the film and tape on the roller, find the frame where the script clerk hit the board, and then find the "click" on the tape, and cut off the excess part in front. Do you understand?"

Ronald tried it, and he found it quickly, and immediately succeeded in the experiment.

"Throw away all the extra film and tape. Then connect the useful parts, use transparent tape for the film and white tape for the tape, to ensure the synchronization of the shots and sounds on the clapperboard. Very good!"

"I'll teach you how to use the connector, which is much faster than sticking the tape by hand."

Joe Dante took a small connector.

"Put this end of the film in this grid, stick the transparent tape, put the other connector here, stick the tape on the other side, and then..."

He said and pressed the connector's pressure bar down, snap!

Ronald picked up the film and saw that it was indeed tightly attached.

Then Ronald operated it several times himself with the waste film.

Joe Dante saw that Ronald got started quickly, and after observing him find the clapper point several times and connect the film several times, he let him be responsible for the synchronization of sound and picture.

Director Allen saw that Ronald was in working state and nodded with satisfaction. Before the synchronization of sound and picture was completed, the director had nothing to do in the editing room. After staring for a while, he went out to play with Joe Dante.

After synchronizing the sound and picture of a roll of film, Ronald handed the film to Larry, a senior film editor. Let's see how he does the initial editing.

Larry, the editor, cut the large roll of film that Ronald had synchronized one by one according to the shots, and rolled each shot into a small roll, so that it could be put on the editing machine and assembled into a movie later.

The film shot was 25 hours long and had a total length of 120,000 feet (38,000 meters). It was not a small project to synchronize the sound and picture of it. Repeating the same work every day was very boring. If Ronald hadn't wanted to learn the editing technology, he really couldn't stand it.

In the big studios in the golden age of Hollywood, the editing job was almost always done by women. The reason is that women are meticulous and make fewer mistakes. In this editing room, except Ronald, the other two assistants are girls.

Soon, Ronald found that he was not good at this kind of meticulous and repetitive work. Compared with the two assistants, he made more mistakes and his work efficiency was much lower. The editing assistants pay attention to three shifts, people rest, the machines do not rest, and work 24 hours a day.

Ronald was inefficient, so he had to work more night shifts instead of competing with the two female assistants for the machine. As a result, he was confused about his day and night.

After working for two weeks, his condition became worse. During one night shift, he made three mistakes in a row. Ronald finally couldn't stand it anymore, and asked Director Allen to take a day off to adjust his condition.

…

After a good sleep, he woke up naturally. Ronald went out to buy a TV. He needed to change his mind.

After a while, he brought back an old color TV from a second-hand electrical appliance store and put it on the cabinet in the living room.

After plugging in the power, pulling out the antenna, he changed several channels. The three major channels, BC and ABC, could be received, and the signal was not bad. There was also a public education TV station, PBS, which broadcast some science and education programs.

Ronald began to change channels randomly, enjoying the fun of watching TV alone.

"The riots in Persia continue to worsen. King Pahlavi and his family left Persia on a private plane and headed for England..." ABC's "International News Tonight"

"Persian National Petroleum Corporation announced the suspension of oil exports. International oil prices are expected to rise. Persian crude oil production accounts for 10% of the world's total production..." NBC's economic commentary

"Don't do this to me... JR, you are also a member of the Euhawk family." This is CBS's prime-time evening TV series "Dals".

Ronald stopped turning the channel dial and sat on the sofa to watch the TV series "Dals". It tells the story of the feud between the two oil tycoon families in Dallas.

Ronald basically didn't see any impressive shots. After watching too many film films, his taste is a bit picky. When watching TV series, he just watches beautiful actresses.

The plot is more exaggerated and the shots are a bit rough. Fortunately, there is a beautiful heroine. Ronald watched for half an hour until the end of this episode.

Yawning, Ronald got up and turned off the TV. If there is a TV, there are not many good programs. I still have to go to work tomorrow and continue my boring work.