Exploiting Hollywood 1980

After hearing what Clint Eastwood said, Ronald inexplicably felt a sense of "really awesome". Big stars can threaten producers in person like this. After they have gained a certain status in Hollywood and become a box office guarantee for certain types of films, they can act according to their own wishes.

"Humph..." As a concert producer who has dealt with big-name singers such as Elvis and Frank Sinatra, Weintraub did not take this level of threat seriously at all.

"I think it's better to find a professional actor to play this Danny. Susan, you go and draft a list of young male actors who have become famous in recent years, and we will do it one by one. John, now you can slowly choose, and you will review all of them."

"Susan, call Steve McQueen's widow and ask his son to audition for the villain supporting roles in Cobra Dojo."

Weintraub arranged the next audition in a few seconds. He has completely changed his mind. The second generation of these stars can only play some supporting roles, and the main roles still need to be professionally selected according to the situation of the role.

This way, we can borrow the fame of the stars and attract media interviews without destroying the development of the whole story.

Ronald returned home and took a hot shower. All aspects of this movie are on the right track, and he can start thinking about his next directing project.

Ronald, who was drying his hair, wanted to call Niceta to make an appointment to talk about the new film. He helped to select several youth films from the invitations of various companies, including medium-sized productions from large studios.

The red message light on the phone was on again, indicating that someone had left a message, and Ronald pressed the play button.

"Ding...

Ronald, I'm Marlene, Marlene Jahan. Do you remember me? The materials you wrote for me to prove that I was a stand-in in "Flashdance" helped me get a formal actor contract. I played a supporting role in the crew of "Undercover". I wanted to call to thank you.

Well, then, your friend Diane Lane is also here. The filming progress here is very slow. Everyone is a little bored. If you have time, you might as well come to visit the set. Well, that's it."

Ronald scratched his head. "Undercover" has already started filming, and it sounds like the filming is not going smoothly. Diane is also working hard, so he went to visit the set to see how her new film is performing.

...

"Did you forget to tell Ronald to call to confirm the time for the visit yesterday?" Diane Lane was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, sitting and letting the hairdresser do her hair. Next to her was Marlene Jahan, who played a supporting role as a bar dancer in the movie.

"If you care about him so much, why don't you just call him directly?" As a hairdresser, Marin didn't understand Diane's mentality. "Is it your custom that American girls can't call boys?"

Diane waved her hand, and the hairdresser left with understanding.

"No, you don't understand. Ronald is a very special person. He is different from others."

"Others? Like Michael Pare?" Marin laughed. Pare, the actor of the male lead in the crew, has recently fallen in love with Diane and sent her flowers every day. Pare is also of hairdresser descent, and Marin thinks he is very handsome.

"Uh... Ugh..." Diane made a vomiting gesture, "This guy is very annoying. He makes a rustling sound with his folding knife every day."

"Hahaha", Marin and her laughed together. This former chef relied on women to get to the top, but he is actually a very shallow person.

Hair style, makeup, focus, and then a long wait for the lighting to be completed.

Diane sat in the lounge and listened to music, using the Sony Walkman that Ronald gave him.

Today is the first day of shooting the concert scene. Director Walter Hill hopes that the main actors can concentrate on rehearsing the movements and lip syncing. He decided to use a special lighting method to shoot this concert plot with an unparalleled sense of explosion.

In addition to the special arrangement of lighting, he also found a fashion designer to design a sexy rock singer costume for the heroine Allen Ann played by Diane.

Of course, neither of them is in place today. The main purpose is to let Diane, the male lead Michael Pare, and the villain William Dafoe do some rehearsals. This kind of live singing and dancing performance on the stage has not been filmed for many years since the golden age of musicals.

He would rather spend more time to let the actors get familiar with the movements on the stage, rather than adjusting while shooting. Most of the technicians who can shoot musicals have retired and aged, and the new team also needs rehearsals to run in.

"Diane, please come here, we can start rehearsing." Director Walter Hill took out the microphone and asked Diane to come to the stage in front of the studio to start rehearsing.

Sitting in a corner of the stage was the film's music director, Jim Steinman. He took his band and recorded a single in advance and put the tape into the recorder.

A burst of passionate drums sounded, followed by the sound of keyboards, and finally the electric guitar solo.

"Ahhh..." The voice of the backing singer sounded.

"Now!" Director Walter Hill gestured, and Diane walked up from the side of the stage.

"Lying in your bed, on a Saturday night

You are sweating profusely, not even hot.

But your brain has received the message

It is sending it out

To every nerve and every muscle of yours"

A deep and passionate female voice began to sing the opening theme song of the movie.

Diane held the old stage microphone, frowned, and pretended to lip-sync.

"Very good, it seems that you have memorized the lyrics." The director said with satisfaction, and signaled Jim Steinman to turn off the recording.

Walter Hill was about to continue to guide Diane, and the male lead Michael Pare ran up from the other side of the stage, playing with his butterfly knife in one hand and holding a large bouquet of flowers in the other hand, "Diane, you sang very well today."

Diane rolled her eyes at him, then took the bouquet and threw it into the trash can next to her.

"Puff" Marin Jahan couldn't help laughing, "Hey, brother, don't waste this bouquet of flowers."

"Move your ass to the audience." Director Walter Hill was very angry and helpless and scolded Pare.

"Okay," Michael Pare looked decadent. He was not afraid of the director. His lover was the executive producer of the film. As long as he didn't make too much trouble, the director couldn't do anything to him.

"Oh, here we go again." William Dafoe, who plays the villain, covered his face. He also has a scene here. After the song was finished, he rushed up from the stage and kidnapped Allen Ann, played by Diane, and carried her on his shoulders and snatched her away.

And Pal, who plays the male protagonist Cody, originally had no role today. But he was like a bull in heat in the crew, and he had already picked up several actresses in the crew. Only the heroine Diane was not polite to him, but this aroused his interest, and he came to attack every day.

This behavior also made the actresses he picked up jealous of Diane, and then other admirers of these actresses were also dissatisfied. The whole crew was a bit smoky, and everyone was fighting openly and secretly.

"Hi, Walter, did I disturb you?" Ronald and his agent Richard saw that the crew had finished rehearsing, so they walked in from outside, holding a bouquet of flowers in their hands and handed it to Diane.

"I wish you a smooth shooting," Ronald hugged Diane. Today she was still wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and she didn't look like a rock singer.

"Why, your costume hasn't arrived yet? When can you dress like a rock singer?" Ronald and Diane joked.

"The designer has let me try it on. He said the dress needs some adjustments. I look very good in it." Diane quietly pulled Ronald's arm and said with a smile.

"Oh, there is already a bouquet of flowers here?" Ronald found the big flowers in the trash can, which were much bigger than the ones he gave.

"I like the ones you gave." Diane was happy and turned to take the flowers Ronald gave into the lounge.

"Do you want me to order another one for you? Like the one you gave to Helen?" Agent Richard reminded from the side.

"Huh!" Diane collected the bouquet. She heard about Ronald giving flowers to Helen, and a feeling of irritation rose in her heart.

Diane hid in the lounge, closed the door, threw the bouquet on the table, and then began to pack her makeup bag. Lipstick, powder, mirror, Walkman...thrown into the bag one by one.

Seeing the Walkman, Diane poked her bag on the table again and pounded the table twice to vent her anger.

A feeling of grievance surged in her heart, and Diane buried her head deeply in her arms and lay on the table for a while.

Then she stood up and re-tidied her hair. The stubbornness of a New York taxi driver's daughter reoccupied Diane's chest.

In the crew of "Outdoor Urchins", "Fighting Fish", and even the current "Streets of Rage", Diane was surrounded by a group of outstanding male actors, and she was the queen that everyone wanted to pursue but couldn't get.

"It's time to wake up." Diane looked at her youthful face in the mirror, then ran to the stage and said to director Walter Hill, "You can start again."

Walter Hill was discussing some shooting techniques of musicals with Ronald. He knew that there were similar singing and dancing scenes in the movies Ronald shot, and Ronald had also written the script of musicals such as "Grease 2". The two chatted about how to operate the camera.

Hearing Diane's "order", Director Hill was slightly surprised, and then snapped his fingers at the music director Jim Steinman.

"You have so many dreams

You don't know where to put them

So you'd better let some of them out

Your body has a feeling that it's starting to rust

You'd better get it running and use it"

Diane sang loudly into the microphone, and a slightly hoarse female voice came out of the speakers very powerfully.

Ronald was very surprised by this song, as if someone was singing it live. The song had a three-dimensional and penetrating feeling, which made him feel like he was there. He couldn't help but look at Diane, trying to see if Diane was singing live.

When she was reshooting "The Magic Stains" before, it seemed that she didn't sing much?

Ronald looked carefully again and confirmed that it was not Diane singing live. Although her brows were tightened and her hands were holding the old floor microphone tightly, her core abdomen was relaxed. She didn't use the power of Dantian to sing, so she definitely couldn't sing such a powerful song.

"What do you think?" Walter Hill waited for Diane to finish lip-syncing and asked Ronald next to him.

"It's a really good song." Ronald looked at the music director Jim Steinman next to him, who smiled in return.

"I'm asking about Diane's performance," said director Hill.

"Uh", Ronald thought about it and said frankly, he also hoped that Diane could improve her acting skills and play the role like the person she is.

"I think it's very good, but there is still some room for improvement. Her singing posture is a little bit inferior to Sissy Spacek, who won the Oscar for Best Actress two years ago.

"How much do you know about singers?" Diane heard Ronald's words and choked him.

Then Diane walked quickly to the music director, took a guitar from behind him and handed it to Ronald, "Don't you know how singers should act? Come on, show me!"

Ronald looked at the angry Diane and felt a little regretful. After all, she was a girl who had just turned 18. His tone of voice might not be very good, which hurt Diane's self-esteem.

"I don't really understand..."

"I think you know a lot. If there is anything wrong, just tell me. "

Ronald's heart skipped a beat, knowing that Diane had an opinion of him. He had no choice but to take the guitar and put the belt on his shoulder.

He casually strummed the strings, and all the pitches were good.

Then Ronald covered the strings to stop the sound, and then he strummed the strings and began to sing the guitar singing that was taught by the original singer John Fogerty himself, "Who'llsthera"

"It has been raining since I can remember.

Mysterious clouds poured down on the ground, confusing.

Good people from ancient times to the present have been trying to find the sun.

I want to know, I still want to know, who can stop this rain? "

"Bravo!" Music director Jim Steinman was the first to applaud. This song is indeed 70% to 80% of the original singer Fogerty's level.

"Bravo! "Director Hill, Willem Dafoe, who plays the villain, and Marlene Jahan all applauded.

Diane looked at Ronald angrily, and then slowly softened her expression, with a slight smile on her lips.

"Actually, your performance is already very good. I'm just talking about a small detail from a singer's perspective," Ronald continued, seeing that Diane had returned to normal.

"Have you seen Sissy Spacek's 'Coal Miner's Daughter'? She sings live in the movie, you can find it and watch it. When she sings, her voice is relaxed, but her lower abdomen is very tight. This is a common feature of professional singers, abdominal breathing, and Dantian power."

"Is that so?" Diane began to learn from it.

"Yes, a little lower." Ronald looked at Diane's posture and said a few words.

"Anything else? Any other suggestions?" Diane looked up at Ronald, her eyes sparkling.

"Anything else? Let me think about it. Sissi plays a country singer, and you play a rock singer. The rock style should have a little anger, not as relaxed as the country style. "

Ronald racked his brains to think of some suggestions. Seeing Diane still touching her abdomen, as if she couldn't find the right position, Diane looked up at Ronald, as if seeking help.

"It's right here," Ronald held Diane's hand and gently placed it on the lower abdomen.

"Pah!" Diane slapped Ronald's arm hard.

"Ah," Ronald exclaimed softly, touched his arm with his hand, and asked, "What's wrong? Am I wrong?"

"Didn't you say you should be a little angrier?" Diane hit Ronald's arm hard a few more times.

"Uh..., yes, that's it. "Ronald felt that Diane had found the feeling, and quickly dodged. I don't know what acting style her father Bert belongs to, but hitting people hard like this is indeed very effective in finding the feeling of anger.

"Hmph," Diane walked to the center of the stage again, motioning Jim Steinman to play the recording again.

At the moment the prelude sounded, Diane looked back at Ronald, "Will you come to see me tomorrow? Tomorrow I will put on the costume and officially shoot this scene."

"Uh... OK, I will come." Ronald touched his arm. It seemed that this was Diane's important scene. She was still a little unconfident, and he should come to cheer her up.