Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"When I was young, I listened to the radio

waiting for songs I liked,

and when they played, I would sing along

and it made me smile."

"Karen Carpenter is a rare talent in this century. No matter how critics criticize her, she has always been a regular in the top 40 of the charts and is by far the most played singer on all easy listening radio channels in the country."

The host of the MTV program was introducing Karen Carpenter, the lead singer of the band The\u0026ers, who unfortunately passed away last month. This is her memorial program, and her most popular songs are constantly rotated on MTV.

Ronald stood up and turned down the volume, and then continued to discuss his "Terminator" audition candidates with Cameron. Cameron was very concerned about his real debut and pulled Ronald to help him choose the right actors. .

"This is Michael Biehn, this is Arnold Schwarzenegger, they both auditioned for the role of Kyle Reese, a human resistance fighter, and the father of John Connor, the future resistance leader."

"Why did he play Kyle Reese? Don't you think he is the best candidate for the Terminator?" Ronald picked out a photo of Schwarzenegger, who was the actor of the Terminator in the sequel he dreamed of. Now, his muscles are even more explosive than in the dream.

"I think so too, hehe." Cameron moved his chair to a comfortable position, "but Schwarzenegger's agent doesn't like this villain role and hopes he can play a positive character. You know he played 'Conan the Barbarian' before, so he has some bargaining chips. "

"Actually, sometimes agents can't decide the will of their clients. Sometimes many agents actually make decisions for their clients without authorization. I think you can talk to him directly. "

"Is that so? "Cameron doesn't have an agent. He was cheated by agents before, so he is not familiar with the strange operations of these agents.

"Anyway, he is going to interview the resistance fighters. Agents cannot enter the audition room at that time. Just tell him directly."

"Okay, let's do it. Actresses, please help me take a look."

Ronald picked up a bunch of actresses' audition photos. The competition among actresses in this industry is much more intense than that of actors.

"Jodie Foster, Diane Lane, Tatum O'Neal..." Familiar names floated by one by one.

"Your audition director is bluffing you. Judy has refused to perform in domestic movies for more than a year. Diane is about to join the crew to perform a big production, which will take a long time, and Tatum... um, you have to check her mental state." Ronald made a gesture of pinching half of his nose and inhaling.

"Ah?" Cameron took the photos and put them aside. "But in the script, Sarah is an 18-year-old cafe waitress. These... are a bit old. "He pointed to the remaining photos, all of which had the actors' resumes on the back.

"It doesn't matter, the actresses are beautiful anyway, and they look young on camera. Also, mature actors are easier to shoot, they have rich experience and can easily understand your intentions."

"I'll listen to you," Cameron took the remaining actor photos, "Sigourney Weaver, Diane Keaton, Kathleen Turner..."

"Okay, take your time to pick."

Ronald looked at the TV again. The MV of "What kind of feeling is this (;a Feelg)" of the theme song of "Flashdance" appeared on MTV. This song has been played on MTV recently and is very popular. Even the radio station is often requested.

The song ended and changed to a close-up of Jennifer Beals, who was talking:

"You walk there, the music starts, and you can feel its rhythm. Something in your body is awakened, and it breaks out with a click."

The camera switched to the shot of Alex, the protagonist of "Flashdance", dancing a seductive wet dance in a bar.

"Is this a trailer?" Ronald thought, and stood up to turn up the volume.

"Her name is Alex, and she works in a male world..." The narration sounded.

"It's really a trailer." It was the first time Ronald saw a trailer for an upcoming movie on MTV. "This is a good publicity channel."

"Flashdance, if you have a dream come true, it can change your life." The narration ended, freezing on the Paramount logo, and the subtitles below, "Premiering on April 15th."

"I have something to deal with, let's talk later." Ronald rushed out of Cameron's apartment and drove to Atlantic.

"Today I saw the trailer of Flashdance on MTV. I think this is a good publicity channel. Can we add some marketing budget to this channel?"

Ronald explained his idea to the distribution and marketing manager of Atlantic.

"I really want to do this, Ronald. But now we are still waiting for the box office of Valley Girl. If it can be a big hit, we can add some. But..."

"But what?" Ronald asked eagerly.

"But Portrait Records has agreed with us that they hope to focus the MTV channel's resources on their music videos, so even if we can release trailers, there won't be many time slots. And you know, the box office returns of Valley Girl are not fast, so we may have to take out a loan."

"Okay, I'll go talk to the manager of Portrait Records first."

The manager of the Portrait Records Los Angeles office received Ronald. "It's not a big problem. Actually, Atlantic doesn't have much budget for advertising. If you have extra budget, we can give up some resources. Anyway, we have also watched your trailer, and basically used the song Girls Jt ;to Have Fun as background music."

"That's great. I'll go to Atlantic to talk about it. If it doesn't work, I can personally pay for some of it. Now the movie audience is younger, and there are few TV stations like MTV that focus on young audiences. The effect of advertising must be good.

Besides, Flashdance has also launched trailer ads on a large scale. I believe those two producers are not fools."

"Okay, I'll contact the manager of MTV who is responsible for advertising, and we will discuss how to allocate the time and density of advertising."

Soon the manager of MTV also rushed to the office, and the three of them watched the trailer shot by Ronald together.

"We have no objection in principle. Your trailer and the original MV are both based on the same song. We have already had a similar cooperation with the movie 'Flashdance' on the joint broadcast of MV and movie trailer. Even our contract does not need to be changed, as long as you two have a supplementary agreement on the release time."

"That's great." Ronald was happy, and he planned to go back and talk to the people from Atlantic about additional investment.

"By the way, Ronald, you are a new director in the film industry, I have something to ask you." The manager of MTV stopped Ronald.

"Please go ahead."

"It's like this. Our MTV channel now broadcasts 24 hours a day, but the ratings late at night are too low. Most teenagers don't listen to music videos late at night because they are too noisy and affect their family's rest. So we want to try playing movies, which won't be too noisy.

But we can't afford to buy them too much, so I want to ask you if there are any channels to buy some cheap movies, preferably those related to music, but not too old musicals."

"Hmm? When you say that, I think of a movie called "Rock and Roll High School". Have you seen it?" Ronald suddenly had an idea and remembered this old movie.

"Ah, I have seen it. It's very good. Liv Randall, the rocker..." The manager of MTV has seen this movie and is impressed by the heroine "Rock and Roller" played by the lead actor PJ Soules.

"You know what? I participated in the filming of this movie, and I also know the producer and the owner of the copyright of this movie, Mr. Roger Corman. He is a great man in Hollywood. Coppola and Scorsese both made their debuts with him."

"Ah? Really? That's great. We contacted New World Productions, but they said they no longer own the copyright of the previous movies."

"Wait for me to call him and you guys to talk."

...

"Thank you, Mr. Corman. I didn't expect to be able to buy so many movies that teenagers love. You are really a treasure trove here. Let's start with the five movies of "Rock High School" to try the effect of broadcasting teen movies late at night."

"Of course, it's a pleasure to cooperate. Working with a TV station like you that focuses on teenagers always reminds me of when I made my first movie. At that time, I was less than 30 years old."

A few days later, Roger Corman and MTV signed a package agreement to sell the television broadcast rights of the New World movie copyrights he owned. If the effect is good, they will continue to cooperate.

"Let's celebrate." Ronald skillfully took out a bottle of wine from Corman's cabinet and poured a glass for all three of them.

"Cheers"

"Ronald, you always bring me good luck. I am very happy, happier than I make money from selling these movie rights. I am very happy to see that Jim and Gail are all in the film industry. Hollywood needs more talents like you, not those high-ranking executives."

"Then please make me happy, Mr. Coleman." Ronald laughed. He could get a lot of benefits for this matchmaking.

"Okay, we will give you a 10% commission as agreed before." When Roger Corman talked about the numbers, he lowered his voice and whispered in Ronald's ear.

"Thank you, Roger." Ronald smiled. Compared with Coleman, this deal had no cost. It was just to convert the old film into tape format and sell it again. So he could give a more generous commission.

After leaving Coleman's office, Ronald asked the film purchasing manager of MTV to go to the manager's office of the MTV advertising department. He was the one who introduced Ronald.

"I have some ideas. If you can make this deal happen, you will give me some commissions, but the amount is not large. Can I not take your commissions, but exchange them for some time slots on MTV to play the trailer of my "Night of the Comet"? I don't care about the time slots, as long as the frequency can be guaranteed two weeks before the release.

The two MTV managers exchanged ideas. This approach actually allowed the two to get benefits. It was nothing more than using their power to give Ronald more unsold airtimes during garbage time. Many times, early mornings and late nights were gifts to customers.

"No problem, we can decide on this."

"Thank you." Ronald relied on his brain to get some advertising time slots for "Night of the Comet" and went home alone to enjoy himself.

"Hey, Ronald, I talked to Schwarzenegger using your method, and he is willing to play the villain of the Terminator. Anyway, his English is not standard and he has an Austrian accent. If he plays the leading actor, the lines will be a big problem."

"That's great. Congratulations on confirming the two leading actors."

In the evening, Cameron called again to announce the good news. The agent really refused Cameron's invitation without telling Schwarzenegger.

"When will you start shooting?"

"That's a problem. I have to wait for about ten months. Schwarzenegger also has to shoot the sequel of "Conan the Barbarian", "Conan the Destroyer". We have to wait for him."

"Why? Can't you change an actor?"

"That's it, Ronald." Gail took over the conversation next to him.

"Remember the plagiarism project I told you about last time? They are still preparing to start the project and remake Jim's script to start filming. We are now targeting Schwarzenegger as an actor. After all, he is a small star with a hit movie and has some appeal.

The other party knows that the movie they shoot will not be as popular as Jim's original, so they will give up plagiarism. In order to get Schwarzenegger to participate, we have to postpone the start of filming for ten months.

In addition, we also hope that Schwarzenegger will bring some exposure to the movie. If his Conan the Barbarian is a hit, it means we have picked up a bargain."

"Ah, then I wish you and Jim all the best. If there is anything I can help you with, feel free to contact me."