Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Hi, hello, thank you for your help." Ronald shook the hand of the marketing manager of Sherman Oaks Department Store and thanked him vigorously.

"No problem. You have helped us a lot. I hope your new movie will also be a box office hit."

"Night of the Comet" has scenes of two sisters dancing in a department store trying on all kinds of beautiful clothes, and there are also several scenes of shootouts between the two sisters and zombies in the department store.

Ronald tried to contact the Sherman Oaks department store in the Los Angeles suburbs that he had rented during the filming of "Fast Times" and got their permission to film here.

Sherman Oaks Department Store has become famous among teenage customers since the release of "Fast Times". Many people want to come and see the beautiful Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Leigh work here. The turnover is high for no reason. A lot.

When the manager in charge of marketing saw that it was Ronald, he agreed to their request for filming without hesitation. . The boss of the department store has long said that it will be open to film and TV crews frequently in the future so that they can get some free advertising.

The budget was not as sufficient as in the "Fast Pace" period, but "Night of the Comet" had no money, so we could only shoot here for one night, and we had to wait for the mall to get off work at nine o'clock before we could start setting up the scene.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Ronald clapped and urged the staff of the props team and costume team. A lot of furniture will be broken by gun battles, and a lot of clothes will be tried on by the two heroines like models.

So the props team ordered some fake furniture in advance and placed it next to the railing on the third floor, dressed up like a high-end fashion department.

"Thank you, thank you." Ronald snapped, shook the hand of the manager of the high-end fashion department, and handed over the two hundred dollars in cash. He is now becoming more and more skilled in doing this action.

The manager of the high-end fashion department smiled, put his hand in his pocket and touched it, "Follow me, be careful when you try on fur. If there are stains, it will be difficult to clean."

"No problem, we just borrowed it for a few dances, and we will change into our own costumes for the shootout afterwards."

"A!"

Kelly Maroney and Catherine Mary Stuart put on various high-end fashions and started a dress-up show.

"When the day's work is over

Oh, girls, they want to have some fun."

Ronald was humming the song "Girls Just Want to Have Some Fun" from his dream. It was much better than the Donna Summer disco that was playing now. Fortunately, the drumbeats of the two songs were the same. Just replace it later.

We just haven't found out who sang that song yet. Ronald plans to ask his agent to find out after the filming is completed.

The camera was placed under the stairs and shot upward.

"Ah... all these beautiful clothes are free." The two put on furs and started jumping up and down the stairs, using a small platform at the corner of the mall stairs as a high-end fashion catwalk.

"Cut!"

During a break in filming, Katherine Mary Stuart and Kelly Maroney spoke quietly.

"Tell me, is there something wrong with the director? Why does he keep patting our legs?"

"Do you feel the same way? I think it's either the director or the director of photography who has a problem. In the scene in the apartment, when we were talking in the apartment in the first scene, he put his camera behind me and patted my legs." Kelly Maroney also felt that she was a bit different from other directors by not taking close-ups of faces and always taking shots of legs.

"You see, in the scene where I was playing the game console at the beginning, he also took pictures of the socks and leather shoes I was wearing." The more Catherine Mary Stewart talked, the more she felt that there was something wrong with Ronald, and the two of them started taking pictures of his thighs together.

“The scene where I used a submachine gun to hit a car also included shots of my legs.”

"Yes, there's also footage of me in the apartment."

"Also, for the scene of me riding a motorcycle, he also wanted to shoot a scene of me pressing the accelerator with my foot on the car."

"Katherine, Kelly, we're going to prepare for the next shot."

"Okay, director." The two of them pushed each other, and I pushed you, carefully walked in front of Ronald, pulled down the skirt, and started to move.

"What's wrong with your feet? Are your feet feeling uncomfortable from dancing too much?" Ronald stuck his head out from behind the camera.

"It's okay, it's okay, we're a little tired." The two actresses quickly excused themselves.

"It's okay. Let's hurry up. We can't shoot after six o'clock in the morning."

Then Ronald went back to discuss with the director of photography, "Don't change the position of the camera lens. Time is tight. Let's just shoot an overhead shot and let them show off their fashions happily. The original overhead shot of them walking the catwalk has been cancelled." , they are not tall enough, and the cat walk is not professional enough. They should show off their youthful and beautiful legs.”

"You are the boss, and I think this is a good shot. Anyway, you are not aiming for an R-rated film. This level of nudity can attract the audience without being too naked."

Director of Photography Arthur Albert glanced at the viewfinder again, "To be honest, Ronald, you are also good at shooting erotic films. Although you didn't shoot any nudity, you are obviously very good at expressing youth and beauty. Girls’ sexiness.”

"I learned it from Adrian Lane." Ronald gestured "Stop talking nonsense." His positioning of the storyboard was partly inspired by the dream, but also partly a joke." Adrian Lyne's performance in "Flashdance".

Sexiness does not necessarily require frontal nudity. If the camera can show some plot and allow the audience to use their imagination to complete the entire picture, it is actually a more advanced technique.

Like the shot of Jennifer Beals wearing stockings on the table's thighs in "Flashdance." The part that is invisible to the camera does not prevent the audience from feeling excited about it.

"A!"

After filming the fashion show, several actors dressed as bad zombies found the department store through the radio and wanted to capture the two sisters with shotguns.

Samantha and Regina picked up MAC-10 submachine guns and fired at the gangsters. Finally, Hector, played by Kevin Costner, rushed in with scientists from the research base and rescued the two sisters.

"Cut!"

"Very good, that's all for today." Ronald looked at his watch. It was already six o'clock in the morning the next day. The whole team was exhausted from staying up all night, so it was time to finish filming.

The actors could leave first after signing, but Ronald had to wait for a while to watch them dismantle the set.

Kelly Maroney wears a nightgown over her cheerleading uniform to cover up her short skirt for her audition for TV's evergreen drama "One\u0026o Live."

"Ronald, I'm so sorry, but this audition means so much to me that if I get cast, you know, they might give me a recurring role, at least for this season."

"Tomorrow? Oh, it's already today. You only have a few scenes today, and there will be no scenes for you in the whole film. Can you change it to tomorrow when your scenes are over?" Ronald took out the shooting plan and carefully I watched Maroni's scene.

"Oh, please, Ronald. I auditioned for the first round before I came to do 'Night of the Comet,' and my agent just told me yesterday that they were calling me back for the second round."

"Okay, go ahead, I'll use a stand-in to shoot those scenes. I wish you good luck." Ronald hugged Kelly Maroney, who was small and in good shape.

Ronald was very satisfied with Maroney's performance. She came from Shakespeare's theater and acted quickly and made no mistakes. And she was going to audition for another small role in a daytime soap opera, and they probably didn't have the patience to change her schedule.

For Maroney, the opportunity could lead to roles in TV series. Ronald was just convenient for once.

"Thank you, thank you." Kelly Maroney happily put it aside and went to find the phone to discuss with her agent.

After everyone rested for a few hours, the large team moved to the studio again and began filming scenes inside the research base.

"Kelly Maroney went to audition, and I found a stand-in to play the part where she comes out of the elevator." The producer pulled over a stand-in girl who was about the same height as Kelly.

"Let her put on Kelly's shoes and try them on." Ronald looked up and down at the stand-in's legs, which looked similar to Kelly Maroney's, and nodded in agreement.

"We couldn't take a close-up of her face, so I thought of a way this morning." Ronald drew the lens settings on a white paper to the director of photography.

"We shot her legs and feet, wearing Samantha's socks and shoes, and the short skirt around her waist, so the audience knew it was Samantha coming out of the elevator and they could follow her from where she was. I recognized her in her cheerleading uniform.”

"What a genius idea, Ronald. In movies, basically when a character appears in an elevator, a full-body or upper-body shot is taken to show it. You have a close-up shot of your legs and feet. I have never seen anyone take such a shot before."

"Okay, let's give it a try."

"A!"

There was a "ting" sound, and the camera focused on the elevator door.

The studio staff used their hands behind the wooden doors that looked like elevator doors to pull the two doors hard, making it look like the elevator was reaching the laboratory below.

The stand-in, wearing Samantha's sky-blue skirt, pink socks and shoes, walked out of the elevator and walked to the left.

"Cut!"

Ronald asked the DP, "How was it?"

"It's very good. I think this will be a good shot. In the future, people in the industry will imitate your performance."

"Okay, get ready for the next shot."

"I told you, director Ronald has a special interest in girls' legs. This is the position he likes to shoot the most." Catherine Mary Stuart sat next to her and looked at the person next to her. Kevin Costner whispered.

"I have to say you're probably right," Costner smiled, "but Ronald is really good at photographing beautiful girls. You know what? It reminds me of those classical and Shakespearean plays, which often use the body Part of the description serves as a metaphor for female beauty.”