Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Gloria, you're always running away now

To chase someone, you have to catch him somehow

I think you need to slow down before you start bragging

I think you're heading for a breakdown, so be careful not to show it."

At an ice rink in Pittsburgh, Laura Blanigan's hit "Gloria" was playing. The song is so popular that it is currently ranked No. 2 on the charts, behind Lionel Richie's new song "Truly."

Sunny Johnson plays Alex's friend Jenny, who is participating in a figure skating competition in Pittsburgh, trying to advance to a higher level of competition.

A spotlight shines down from the ceiling, illuminating Sonny Johnson as she slides on the ice.

"Swipe...swipe..." The skates made a pleasant sound as they rubbed against the ice of the rink, "swipe..." After a double jump, Sunny's skating double landed steadily.

"cut!"

"Ronald, they're here." Producer Don Simpson walked into the ice rink and called Ronald out during a break in filming.

"Experts in break dancing have arrived. They are the New York dance group 'Rocksteady Crew', a break dancing group in the Bronx. I heard that there are white people in the crew who will dance their dance. I want to see it."

"Hahaha, they are the professionals."

Ronald walked out of the ice rink, and there were three skinny dancers standing in the open space in front of him.

“crazylegs, prswift, frostyfreeze.”

Don Simpson introduces the "nicknames" of three dancers. The first two were white Latinos, and the latter was black. It was difficult for him to remember such tricky and weird nicknames so clearly.

Ronald greeted them. Sure enough, they were dancing boys from the Bronx. They were dressed like the boys he saw break dancing on the street when he went to see Little Bud, the son of his uncle's comrade-in-arms. , just as unruly.

"I heard you can dance our dance?"

"Yeah, I learned it from my black brothers, they used to dance in the Bronx, New York." Ronald said and did a few "window cleaning", "pulling the rope", and "moonwalk".

"Oh yeah, baby." When the three dancers saw that Ronald could also break dance, they became more excited and began to do more professional dance moves.

The three of them started chatting with Ronald. The recognition of white friends in the Bronx is so simple. As long as you show respect for their culture, they will recognize you.

"Hey, are you Hollywood finally going to put our dance and music on the screen?" The three were headed by a white Latino named "Crazy Legs".

"At least from here on, you will have a showcase of dancing in the street, and then the heroine will see your dance, learn from it, and finally incorporate break dance moves into the ballet and get admitted to the Pittsburgh Ballet School."

"Oh, that's not bad."

"Crazy Legs" expressed approval. American dance is still traditionally based on ballet from the European continent, plus jazz dance developed by itself. Street dances such as break dancing are not considered elegant.

Although the "New York Times" interviewed the Manhattan branch of the "Rocksteady Crew" dance group led by "Crazy Legs", few mainstream Americans know their reputation.

The three dancers were introduced to the choreographer, and Ronald was retained to come up with ideas with them.

In addition to the choreography of the three of them dancing on the street, the heroine Alex's final audition for the ballet school is to incorporate the break dance steps into the ballet style dance, and the styles must be unified and not separated. .

Their own street dance is very simple. The three of them are all masters. They mainly show two major categories of break dance:

“lo’ (robot dance)” means that the joints of the whole body are locked and different parts dance individually. The dance feels like a robot.

"Break' (floor dance)" involves making various rotations on the smooth ground with the back, hands, etc. as the center of the circle. Or put your hands and feet on the ground respectively and do gymnastics pommel horse movements.

Alex's final audition dance moves were a bit troublesome. In the end, the choreographer and they choreographed a dance that started with basic ballet moves and gradually incorporated more and more break dance elements.

First there are some classic ballet spins and jumps, and then suddenly the rhythm changes, with the singing of "What a wonderful feeling", from the soothing guava love song rhythm of the main song, through a long-span jump, to the intense chorus of the chorus. , similar to a disco rhythm.

It ends with a breakdancing floor dance, ending with a "helicopter" spin on the back.

"marvelous!"

In the evening, director Adrian Lyne and producer Don Simpson watched the choreography and applauded loudly.

The novel dance and clever choreography made Adrian Lane very excited.

"Ronald, we must shoot this last ** scene well. I have already chosen the shooting location, which is in the research institute of Carnegie Mellon University. There is a room with four large floor-to-ceiling windows. We will shoot in the morning when the sun rises. The sunlight shining through the floor-to-ceiling windows will become very beautiful..."

"Adrian, have you ever thought about it? Jennifer Beals has no dancing ability, and this time it is shot in daylight. It is difficult for the dance double Marin to keep it out of the way. You can't just give her medium and long shots without explaining anything, right?"

Ronald raised a practical question. If the dance movements are completely without the actor's facial shots, the audience will always see the panoramic shots, which will be a little difficult to integrate. If Jennifer Beals' close-up shots are interspersed in the dance shots, the audience will feel awkward to jump back and forth.

"What do you think?" Adrian Ryan asked Ronald again, and this time he really didn't think it through.

"I think we can use fast-paced dance choreography, and let Alex take a close-up shot in front of the four judges for the final breakdance part. Let the shot of Marin's face facing the camera be kept for a very short time, so that the audience actually has no time to distinguish whether the actor is Jennifer Beals.

The previous ballet movements were mainly shot in medium shots, so that Marin's face would not be exposed."

"In addition, the judge's chair can be replaced with a high-back chair, and the camera position can be arranged behind the chair from left to right to follow Marin on the slide.

In this way, when shooting close-ups, every time Marin reaches out to the judges to make a move, the camera will be blocked by the high chair back, covering the most exposed places."

Ronald studied the filming and editing in dreams many times, and finally cracked a method for him to shoot dance continuously without exposure.

Adrian gestured a few times at the referee's seat, "Very good, you are right. Ronald, you will help me design this dance shot."

"Ah..."

Unexpectedly, he got a job. Ronald quickly invited the choreographer, "Crazy Legs" and three other breakdancing experts, as well as Marin, who was a dance stand-in for Jennifer Beals, to perform their choreography for director Adrian Ryan.

Marin put on the same black fluffy wig as Jennifer Beals, a black ballet dress, and black leg warmers on her feet. She danced from beginning to end to the music of "What a Wonderful Feeling".

Director Ryan was behind the referee's seat, watching Marin's dance with the director's viewfinder.

"Well, the jump with the rhythm change is not high enough and far enough." Director Ryan complained, "And the last floor dance move is not fast enough. Not only is it not strong enough, it may also be a mistake."

"Director, I am a ballet and jazz dancer, and that jump is already my limit. And this rotating 'helicopter', I need to practice."

"I don't have time to practice with you. The weather forecast is sunny the day after tomorrow morning, so we have to shoot."

Adrian Ryan looked over and asked him what to do.

"Then we have to use other stand-ins to replace Ma Lin to do those two moves." Ronald replied.

Sometimes on the screen, the audience thinks that it is a dance performed by one person, but during the filming, two or three people may be replaced to dance. Finally, it is spliced ​​together through editing techniques so that the audience cannot see the flaws.

Ronald sometimes feels that the director's work is like a magician, misleading the audience's attention to other places, and then quickly stuffing a rabbit into the hat.

"That jump may require a gymnast to complete, and we have to find a high-level one." Ronald looked at the producer Don Simpson.

"Okay, let's go find the champion of the NCAA College Gymnastics Championship."

"As for the 'helicopter'," Ronald looked at the three actors from the Rocksteady Crew Dance Troupe, "How about Crazy Legs? You're the only one whose height is close to Biles."

Breakdancing actors are generally short in height. Two of the three are short, and only Crazy Legs' height is similar to Biles'. Moreover, dancers are thin, and wearing ballet clothes and leg warmers, it's hard to tell that they are pretending to be girls.

"Don't even think about asking me to play a girl." Crazy Legs protested the most strongly!

"I will give you an extra salary as a substitute dancer, and let all three of you appear in the end credits." Don Simpson showed them the most tempting conditions.

"Crazy Legs" was persuaded by his companions and signed the substitute contract.

Two days later in the morning, the four actors put on the same black leg warmers and black ballet tights and started filming the last dance scene of the movie.

First was Jennifer Beals, who filmed some scenes talking to the judges.

Then came her dance double, Marin Jahan, who performed most of the dance moves for Beals.

The third was Sharon Shapiro, the four-event gymnastics champion and all-around champion of the NCAA National College Gymnastics Championships, who performed a high and floating jump for Beals.

Sharon Shapiro won all the women's gymnastics championships today, and she is also a strong contender for a spot in the American delegation at the Los Angeles Olympics next year.

"Shxt! This is impossible, you want me to shave my legs?"

"Crazy Legs" yelled in the dressing room. The makeup artist wanted to shave his legs so that he could pretend to be a girl and do a "helicopter" spin.

"Don't do that. You signed a contract. Besides, leg hair will grow back after shaving." Don Simpson half threatened and half persuaded him to shave his legs.

"You can shave your legs." Crazy Legs discussed with the two members for a long time and could only agree, "But you can't shave your beard. I still have to shoot a PBS documentary and a documentary film. If I shave my beard, it will take at least half a year to grow it back like this."

"Then...keep the beard?" Ronald stepped forward and looked at his mustache. It was indeed difficult to keep it.

"The helicopter action is a fast rotation with his back to the ground. If the lens is suitable, the audience will not be able to see his beard. And who would inexplicably notice whether Alex has a beard? At that time, the audience's attention was on this unprecedented rotation action."

"Crazy Legs" shaved his leg hair, put on a black curly wig, and then did a floor dance action, transitioning to the back to the ground, he put his hands and feet together, and rotated faster and faster..."

"Cut!"

The director called a stop, "Very good, this one will be printed."

"Did you see the beard?" A day later, when watching the sample, Director Ryan asked Ronald gently.

"I looked carefully, there should be no." Ronald stared at the daily sample on the screen, watched it intently for several times, and indeed did not find the beard of the stuntman.

"That's it, we don't need to reshoot." Director Ryan was very satisfied and patted Ronald on the shoulder.

"Okay, Adrian. Everything is on the right track here, and I should go back to Los Angeles with producers Don and Jerry. "