Exploiting Hollywood 1980

In the small town of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Coppola's second film adapted from Hinton, "Fighting Fish", has been filmed for the last few days.

While waiting for the lighting, Matt Dillon saw Diane Lane reading a newspaper, so he asked, "What are you reading?"

"An interview with Ronald," Diane put away her smile, "Variety interviewed him. It also said that Nick is a good actor."

"Oh, can you show it to me?" Nicolas Cage, who plays the second male lead in Fighting Fish, took the newspaper and read it carefully. There was a 45-degree side photo of Ronald on it. The black and white photo was well taken, with a deep feeling.

"Even some actors with small roles can achieve success in Hollywood." Cage looked at it for a while and finally found the part that praised himself, "This is the first time someone praised my acting skills in the newspaper. Can you give it to me? I want to keep it."

"You can take it, I have another one here."

"Are you secretly in love with Ronald, Diane?" Matt Dillon asked suddenly. Since the crew of "The Untamed", Diane has always been indifferent to her.

Although it didn't prevent them from playing lovers in the movie, Diane always didn't talk to him while they were sitting and waiting for the lighting. Director Coppola was very particular about lighting, and waiting for several hours every day was boring.

"You have a rich imagination. He is my best friend's cousin."

"At this age, it's just right to date a friend's brother." Mickey Rourke, the actor who played Dillon's brother in "Fighting Fish", muttered. Coppola asked him to say all the lines in this movie vaguely, and no one could hear what he was saying.

"I don't know what Ronald is doing now?" Diane thought.

In the office of CAA Niceta, Ronald was shaking hands with a fat man, and the two were talking happily.

"Ronald, it's nice to meet you today. I like your movies very much. After reading your interview, I know that you also like the San Francisco 49ers. I would like to invite you to watch their games. When they come to Los Angeles to play away games against the Rams, I will send you two tickets."

"You are very polite, John. I look forward to watching the game with you."

After the interview was published in Variety, many Hollywood actors began to contact Ronald through Ronald's agent.

The person who came to see him today through his agent was Cameron's fellow countryman, Canadian comedy star John Candy (John bsp; He is a frequent guest on TV comedy talk shows and TV series. He is fat and very popular in the Hollywood actor circle.

Ronald talked to him about each other's acting career. Candy mainly performed comedies. Ronald was afraid of comedy and he didn't plan to step into this genre in the short term.

But this did not prevent Ronald and Candy from making friends. Candy's ability can actually act in serious dramas, and he has many friends in Los Angeles.

After sending John Candy away, Niceta asked the secretary to close the door. He wanted to get Ronald a business.

"Don Simpson strongly invites you to visit him. His "Flashdance" encountered trouble again. Director Adrian Lane was a little dissatisfied with the heroine. He knows that you chose Jennifer Beals, so Simpson wants you to solve it. "

"This is none of my business. Mr. Eisner asked me to give an idea, and I just gave an idea. I personally don't have any preference for anyone."

"Don Simpson was originally dissatisfied with Adrian Lane. He wanted to invite Brian De Palma, but Palmer dumped him to shoot the new film "Scarface". So this time he invited you to go, and he also wanted you to replace Lane as the director if the situation was not harmonious."

"Isn't this bad?" Ronald shook his head and refused. "When I was a director, what I hated most was that the producer asked other directors to replace me. Now it's my turn, I don't want to do such a thing."

"I know," Nicita nodded. This kind of thing is actually very troublesome, and it may get into a dispute. "I have rejected Simpson for you. My client will not take over any director position before he fires the original director."

"But his problem is indeed related to you, so you'd better go and see. Simpson means, You can stop being a director and just go to the crew and be an associate producer."

"Oh?"

"I know you are still raising funds to shoot your "Night of the Comet". Even if it is an exploitation film, a science fiction film will require an investment of more than one million, right? Simpson is very generous. If you can solve the problem of the director, he will give you a salary of 100,000, plus the signature of an associate producer.

If I were you, I would agree. Having experience as a producer is good for your career development. Besides, the script of "Football" is still going through several producers. You might as well go and take a look."

Ronald nodded. Dean Pitchford, the scriptwriter of "Football", sold the script to Daniel Melnick, a former MGM executive and current independent producer. Then Melnick sold part of the production rights to Paramount, and the parties signed a cooperation agreement.

This movie is actually not entirely invested by Paramount. In addition to Paramount, the revised script must also be approved by Daniel Melnick and another co-production company involved in the investment-"Screen Partners".

Hollywood production contracts are complicated. The agreement signed by Melnyk stipulates that he has the right to suggest and veto the script, so the script must be agreed by the producers sent by the three parties before filming can be greenlit.

This complexity of script property rights also creates a "planning hell" situation common among major studios. Before the filming of a script begins, the positions of all parties need to be coordinated. It often takes six months to a year of repeated planning before everyone agrees before the green light can be started.

"So what's wrong with 'Flashdance'?"

Ronald was still more interested in his own script. He was very interested when he heard about Don Simpson's generous treatment and that he could get money as long as he solved some practical problems in filming.

"In the final analysis, this matter is still related to you, so Simpson is willing to pay a high price to let you out." Niceta carefully explained the difficulties encountered by "Flash Dance".

It turned out that Ronald gave Eisner the idea to have the target audience vote for Jennifer Beals. But after Beers was cast, when she went to meet with director Adrian Lane to shoot some experimental scenes, Director Lane discovered that she couldn't dance.

If Jennifer Beals can't dance, it means that the entire film must use dance doubles extensively, and use clever editing to hide the fact that Beals can't dance.

"I don't think this is a big problem, right?" Ronald asked, "Some difficult dance moves can only be performed by professional dancers. It is quite normal for musicals to use stand-ins. Now is not the era when musicals are popular. , his original three candidates were not from dance background.”

Demi Moore and another candidate, Leslie Young, were not professional dancers, and Ronald could tell by looking at their bodies.

"It's said that Bills' dancing is particularly bad. You go and see it. I'll finalize a contract with Don Simpson."

"Ronald, thank you for calling me in advance."

Director Adrian Lyne is a British man with long blond shawl hair and a very artistic temperament. He is more modest than Alan Parker, another British director whom Ronald has dealt with, and speaks in a gentle manner, giving people the first impression of being a very cultivated person.

The prerequisite for Ronald to agree to come to the "Flashdance" crew to help was to first say hello to director Ryan, with whom he had already communicated on the phone before.

He said straight to the point on the phone that he had no intention of replacing him. He just heard that his idea caused inconvenience to the crew, so he came to see if the problem could be solved.

"No problem, they showed me the jeans commercial you did. I loved it."

Before Ronald came to the "Flashdance" preparation office, Niceta found a British jeans advertisement shot by Adrian Lyne. The very distinctive single light lighting and fast editing also made Ronald want to get to know this person. British director.

"I heard that my idea was to choose Jennifer Beals. Are you not satisfied?" Ronald asked.

"I'm very satisfied with her acting ability. Beals is a current student at Yale University." Adrian Lane dug out a box of video tapes and put it into the VCR, and Jennifer Beals' audition video appeared on the TV.

Ronald also looked at the video.

Jennifer Beals did a crying scene. Her tears came quickly and her emotional intensity was good.

Then there is a scene of flirting with her lover. Beers lies with a man, facing the camera, she talks softly and relies on her eyes to communicate.

Finally, there is a close-up shot of Beals sitting on the ground in a T-shirt, speaking his lines, then naturally reaching into his clothes, taking off his underwear and putting it aside.

It’s all about Jennifer Beals’ emotional expressiveness. The most emotional scenes, the softest scenes, the most ambiguous scenes. Bills performed very well.

Ronald continued to read.

Jennifer Beals changed into her ballet clothes and did a pirouette before tripping over her own legs and falling to the ground.

Ronald covered his face with his hands. He couldn't do this action?

What follows is another series of dance tragedies.

"Jennifer Beals has no dance background, right?" Ronald asked director Ryan, pointing to the dark-skinned beauty on the TV.

"She turned out to be a fashion model, and she came to the audition to earn money to pay for college. She is very spiritual in acting. Although she is not good at dancing, she is indeed the best candidate to play the heroine Alex."

Adrian Lyne explained his decision to cast her.

"So you have no objection to Beals playing?"

"Of course I don't object. I found a good dance stand-in. Her figure is very close to Beals."

"So what's the problem?" Ronald felt that there seemed to be a misunderstanding in communication. Adrian Lane was already ready to use a substitute, so why should he be asked to solve the problem?

"Here's the problem." Director Ryan changed another video tape.

A chair appeared in the picture, with a beautiful woman sitting on it. There were red and blue lights on the background, passing through the smoky space, illuminating the picture very beautifully.

Ronald saw that this scene was somewhat similar to the lighting used by Director Lane in the Jeans video.

The beauty pulled the rope, and a bucket of water was poured on her body. Then she started to dance, with water splashing in her hair. It was reflected under the red and blue lights, making it look like she was dancing.

"Is this the dance stunt double?" Ronald thought this girl had very good dancing skills.

"Yes, her English is not good. Do you see the problem, Ronald?"

Ronald shook his head, "I only see that you used smoke here. I have seen this technique on Alan Parker's set. Your British cinematographers are very good at using a single light for edge lighting, and then using smoke or powder to set off the atmosphere.

I personally like it very much, but the union here is against it."

"That's right," Ryan tested Ronald's level, "That's the problem. I took on this movie just to make the dance scene more beautiful. Now the producer doesn't allow me to use smoke, so how can I shoot this stand-in dance scene?

If you use more lighting, the stand-in actor will have to re-light every time he does a new move, and there will always be flaws in the editing.

The expressiveness of multiple lighting is not as good as that of a single light plus smoke. Moreover, the dance scene requires a lot of moving shots. If there are more lighting, the scheduled shooting schedule is not long enough."

"So you want me to help you convince Don Simpson?"

Ronald understood that Simpson did have the idea of ​​replacing Adrian Ryan. Putting smoke on the set will lead to opposition from the union. If a lawsuit is filed, the producer will be in trouble. Once the shooting is stopped, it means wasting money every day.

Director Ryan wants to borrow Ronald's director status to endorse his method of lighting with smoke and single-point light source, and explain to the producer that the artistic quality of this lighting is far superior. Otherwise, he would rather withdraw from the project.

"I can't guarantee anything, but I will talk to Don Simpson. The artistic expression of this method is indeed very suitable for your shooting and editing style."

"Thank you, I knew you could understand my idea." Adrian Ryan showed a typical British cunning smile.

"By the way, is the one who plays with Beers the male lead candidate?"

"The one lying on the bed with her in the audition? No, that's just Paramount's carpenter. I gave him two hundred dollars to play with all the girls."