Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Thank you, thank you everyone. First of all, I want to thank the Academy judges for awarding me the Oscar for Best Director.

I also want to thank my first boss, Mr. Roger Coleman, who gave me my first opportunity to hold a guide tube...I want to thank all the members of the crew...I want to thank my Kai Aunt Lun...

Finally, I would like to thank one of my fellow directors. I don’t want to say his name, but I am able to get here because of his encouragement! "

Ronald finally stood on the Oscar podium and received his first Oscar for Best Director, feeling very high-spirited. Marla, wearing an evening gown, smiled at him in the audience, while fat boy Michael Cimino looked dejected on the other side...

"Ring ring ring ring..." The alarm clock rang at 6:30 on time.

With big dreams in mind, the road still has to be walked at your feet. Ronald still ran to New World Company early in the morning to watch the preview of "Rock and Roll High School."

"Ronnie, are you here? Help me move the copy." Director Allen stopped Ronald who was standing at the door of New World Production.

"Isn't it an afternoon preview?" Ronald picked up a reel of film and carried it to the van.

"Roger temporarily changed the time yesterday. It was changed to 10:30 this morning. He said that free preview audiences were available." Allen gave a "you know" wry smile.

“Are there free tickets for trial audiences?”

"Yes, we actually sell tickets." Joe Dante on the side said, "I heard that scalpers can get 5-10 US dollars per ticket."

"What? Ten dollars a piece?" Ronald looked unbelieving. Usually the ticket price for a movie is only 2 yuan and 50 cents. How can anyone pay 10 yuan for an exploitation movie like "Rock of Ages"? "

"I'm just saying you can't fool him, Joe." Director Allen laughed, "Ronald's price sensitivity is very much like Roger's."

Well, this is a nice way to praise yourself... right?

"So what's going on? Why are there free preview audiences available?" Ronald asked, "Why did it arrive early in the morning?"

"It's Francis Coppola's new film 'Apocalypse Now', which was also previewed this afternoon." Joe Dante explained.

Usually before a movie is officially released, it will find some audiences for one or two test screenings. Collect some audience feedback and make final revisions based on this feedback before release.

Generally speaking, to hold a test screening, the film studio needs to spend money and find people whose age, gender, income and target audience are as consistent as possible to watch the film. The feedback you get in this way is more real.

The general screening method is to call theater members and conduct a telephone survey to ask them if they want to watch a certain type of movie. Before the test screening, the audience does not know which movie they want to watch.

However, Francis Coppola is famous enough that his two "Godfather" movies took the box office all over the world, and he also won the Oscar for Best Director for the second part of "The Godfather". When it was said that it was a Vietnam War-type film released by United Artists, most viewers guessed it was his new film "Apocalypse Now."

The demand to see the preview screening was very strong, and the feedback from theater members who called the theater was very good. Some people even heard about the preview screening of "Apocalypse Now" and came to open a membership card to ask for tickets.

The 1,000 internal tickets for members were quickly distributed, and the theater put the remaining 1,000 tickets for public sale.

Roger Corman was also invited to a test screening of "Apocalypse Now," and Coppola spoke to film industry insiders, and there was another exclusive screening.

He heard about the popularity of the preview screening and immediately became interested. For those who queued up to buy tickets but didn't get one, a "Rock and Roll High School" show was played for them at no cost.

Isn’t this killing two birds with one stone?

At 8 a.m., people were already queuing up at the entrance of the theater, waiting to buy tickets. The all-pervasive scalpers knew about it and started speculating on second-hand tickets.

Coppola decided to hold only one public test screening in Los Angeles, and then return to the San Francisco Peep Show Company to continue revisions in preparation for the Cannes Film Festival.

The van drove to the theater where the trial screening was held. The queue at the door was so long that it almost circled the theater. Although it was stipulated that one person could only receive one ticket, the 1,000 preview tickets for "Apocalypse Now" were still unable to withstand the flow of people. When Ronald and the others arrived, they were declared sold out.

"well……!"

Everyone's gentle sighs converged into a loud noise that swept through the entire queue. The unwilling people made various actions, covering their faces and sighing, beating their chests and feet...

There was also a female fan who was probably just a few spots short of getting in line and was already wiping tears. Ronald looked a little fascinated, this is the style of a great director.

"I heard that the Commander-in-Chief specially requested a copy and sent it to the White House yesterday." Joe Dante and Alan Aikush also looked envious. In 1979, Coppola was like one of the Olympian gods in the movie, descending to earth to possess him, and the audience's admiration for him could not be higher.

The film started shooting in 1976, and was followed by numerous newspaper reports. However, the lead actor was changed, a hurricane blew across the set, and a military conflict broke out in the Philippines where the filming took place. After various accidents, the release date was repeatedly postponed.

The industry has given up hope for this film, and newspapers even changed the title of the film to Apocalypse When? To ridicule Coppola's delay in filming.

However, movie audiences don't accept this. In their eyes, Coppola is still the magical director who made two parts of The Godfather. Who else could film the Vietnam War better than Coppola?

Although the tickets were sold out, many fans were reluctant to leave. Some held cardboards with high-priced tickets written on them, hoping that someone would be willing to sell them.

The cinema quickly took away the sign of "Vietnam War Movie Preview" and put up an advertisement of "New Movie Preview - High School Girls, Rock Punk, Disco Dance, Must-see, Free Preview".

Many disappointed audiences came to the theater with the mood of coming here, and they took tickets to enter. If they couldn't see Apocalypse Now, it would be nice to watch a youth film.

Ronald frowned. This didn't seem to be the target audience of "Rock High School".

The audience who came to see "Apocalypse Now" were either Coppola's fans or war movie enthusiasts, and a few were readers of the original novel "Heart of Darkness". Among these people, there were not many high school-looking audiences.

"Alan, Joe, are these preview audiences okay? Can such preview audiences reflect real evaluations?" Ronald went over and said to the two directors.

"Don't worry, Roger is very experienced." Joe comforted Ronald with a serious face, perhaps he was also comforting his good friend Allen Akush.

"Roger will get the desired response from a small number of young audiences." Allen also said, "He will not look at the questionnaire data at the time, but directly look at the response of the target customers."

"Our theaters are mainly drive-in theaters, late-night theaters in cities, old theaters, and theaters in small towns. The audiences there are not picky." Joe also added.

The two looked a little worried and absent-minded. Ronald understood that this was the natural reaction of the creators. He had experienced it himself, so he didn't persuade him. Whether he should be excited or anxious after the movie was shown, it was up to the audience to judge.

After helping to move the copy into the projection room, Ronald found a seat by the side in the theater and sat down. There were still 10 minutes before the show was over, and the crowd was not full, about a hundred people. Ronald counted the gender ratio, and there were still more men, with only about a quarter of women.

As the light dimmed, the movie officially began. Ronald had watched the movie countless times in the editing room and had lost interest in it. He only paid attention to the telephone booth scene where he appeared. He turned his head away most of the time, secretly observing the audience's reactions.

Some male audiences enjoyed it very much. They shouted and whistled loudly during the beautiful girl's dance scene in the gymnastics room. The scene where the Ramones band entered the school and the students rebelled also won their applause.

However, the rock music part, which was highly anticipated, did not receive much applause. Maybe they didn't listen to the Ramones' music very much.

After the movie, Ronald went to the bathroom. Several men in the bathroom were still deliberately imitating the dance moves of the beautiful women in the movie. It seemed that they liked these scenes very much.

After washing and drying his hands, Ronald went to the lobby. The voices of some women came from another direction.

"I like Liv Randall very much. She is such an independent woman!"

"Yes, I wish I could be as brave as her."

"Alas, I am very afraid of my high school principal. Few people can face power and resist freely like her!"

"Yes, I am very afraid of my boss now. He is almost like Principal Toga. He is old-fashioned. He has to read the Bible to us in the office every day."

Ronald looked sideways and found that it was a few young women waiting for seats outside the bathroom, while they were still discussing the plot.

I really didn't expect that what attracted female audiences the most when watching this movie was the rebellious and independent rock chick played by PJ Soules. It was not the handsome guy, not the rock punk, nor the dance, but the independent spirit of the protagonist Liv Randall.

The trend of female independence makes young women generally envy those independent professional women who can work and earn money by themselves, live without looking at men's eyes, and do not have to take care of children and handle housework at home. Liv Randall is exactly what those independent professional women looked like in high school.

Ronald returned to the entrance of the screening room. Director Allen and several staff members were handing out questionnaires to the audience to collect their feedback on the film. He went over to take a few photos and saw that the ratings were not very high.

Ronald quietly pulled Director Allen over and told him what he found in the bathroom. Allen was also a little surprised and immediately went to discuss with Joe.

"Hey, Jim, why are you here too?"

Ronald found a familiar figure flashing by, Cameron was also in the theater.

"I came here with Mr. Coleman. He just officially promoted me to be the head of the stunt model and also responsible for the design of the stunt photography track."

Cameron smiled and was just promoted by his boss Roger Coleman. He lowered his voice slightly:

"The method you mentioned last time was very useful. When Roger saw the finished model display in the workshop yesterday, he praised it highly. He called me here today and decided to let me be in charge of the entire model manufacturing department."

"Congratulations, Jim. You know, Roger is very sensitive to costs." Ronald winked.

"Ronald, Jim, take this." The person who spoke was Roger Corman, who walked over and gave each of them an envelope. "Coppola will show the film again for industry professionals at the theater tonight. You should go and see it. It will be very helpful for improving your artistic level."

Ronald took it and saw that it was an invitation to the internal preview of United Artists, which would start at 5:30 in the evening.

Roger Corman then went to deliver tickets to other employees.

"Roger told me that Coppola used to be his assistant." Ronald whispered gossip to Cameron.

"Oh, Roger really has a wide network of contacts..."