Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Saab is a car brand in Sweden, a Nordic country. The company was originally a defense supplier to Sweden, manufacturing fighter jets for the Swedish Air Force.

In 1969, Saab's automotive division merged with another Swedish automaker, Scandinavian Automobile, to form Saab Automobile. In 1978, with the new Saab 900, a best-selling model, it successfully became one of the top automakers in Europe.

The people of this Nordic country are known for being punctual, valuing commitments, and liking simple designs. Ronald met two marketing managers of Saab in the CAA office. They spoke with a Nordic accent and planned all the key points of the interview with Ronald in advance.

"Mr. Ronald Lee, you may wonder why we want you to shoot the advertisement for the new Saab 900 model for us?" The male of the two managers said straight to the point.

"To be honest, I'm a little surprised. I didn't expect my name to be known by friends in faraway Sweden. I feel very honored."

"Actually, you were recommended by our distributor in the United States. He sent us the gum advertisement you shot before." The male manager stood up and took a folder out of his briefcase and spread it flat on the table.

"Oh, yes." Ronald saw a printed image, which was exactly the moment when Elizabeth Sue jumped down from the uneven bars in her gymnastics suit.

"It was this advertisement that made us interested in you. We don't like the creativity of those advertising companies on Madison Street in New York. They made a simple thing too complicated."

Ronald raised his eyebrows and said nothing.

Seeing that her colleague was always making a rigid argument, the female manager quickly changed the subject:

"Ronald, on the first day we arrived in America, we watched your new film "Night of the Comet" in the cinema, which gave us a lot of confidence. In that movie, you shot the scenes of the heroine Regina riding a motorcycle and driving a car in a poetic and powerful way. We need this style, and you can definitely shoot a very good TV commercial for us."

"Are you talking about the scene where Regina is on the road and speeding on the empty streets? That is indeed Ronald's idea, and it is very shocking and beautiful." Richard saw that the people from Saab had told Ronald why they asked him to shoot, and he quickly started to flatter him.

The female manager liked the scene where Regina was driving and nodded in agreement.

Ronald patted Richard on the shoulder and told him not to be too sure.

"What kind of car commercial do you want to shoot? I only know that you don't like the American advertising method. Do you have any ideas in mind?" Ronald asked.

"Our idea is very simple. This new model uses a new turbocharged engine from Saab. We want to show this sense of power. We want to use another flagship product of the Saab Group to highlight the surging power of this new car."

"Excuse my ignorance, what is the other product of the Saab Group?"

The two Saab managers smiled at each other and took out another image.

"It is the Saab 37 Viggen jet fighter from our Saab Defense."

Ronald took the image. It showed a very beautiful fighter, with air intakes on both sides of the cockpit and a triangular tail. What is particularly interesting is that there is a pair of smaller wings above the air intakes on both sides of the cockpit.

"This is the canard, the exclusive symbol of the Swedish Air Force Saab fighter." The male manager introduced to Ronald enthusiastically, "With this pair of small wings, the Thor fighter can climb faster, reach supersonic speed faster, and can also take off and land quickly on short runways like American Navy aircraft."

"Compare Saab's car with a jet fighter?" Ronald was stunned. How can this be compared? The speed of a fighter is so fast that it is difficult for a camera to capture it, and the power of the engine cannot be seen without a reference object when flying in the sky. The car can reflect its powerful horsepower from various angles.

"Then what do you think? From what angle do you want to compare the two?"

"This is what you need to consider, Ronald. We are very confident in you and will definitely see a satisfactory solution."

"It seems that they are very optimistic about you." After sending away the two Saab managers, Richard said to Ronald who was sitting on the sofa.

Ronald has already started to study the materials they brought.

"Oh? Why do you think so?"

"They ignored so many advertising companies in London and New York and finally found you to realize their ideas. Isn't this the greatest affirmation of you? And they also promised that as long as you sign the contract, they will give you a new Saab with turbocharging and fuel injection functions."

"It's not easy to do," Ronald handed a few photos of Saab's new models to Richard. You see, the car is parked on the ground, and there are many ways to shoot its powerful horsepower. But how about a jet fighter?"

Ronald took a photo of Saab 37 in his hand and quickly slid it from left to right, "Woo..." It flew over like this, and the camera took less than one second of footage at most.

"This is what you should consider, Ronald." Richard also imitated what the manager said just now.

"So it's not easy to make money." Ronald thought for a while, "You have to find out for me whether there have been any movies or military documentaries shot in Hollywood before. Then look around. You can see real jets there. Fighter flight."

"Leave it to me." Richard was very happy. This was the first time he had found business for Ronald.

The next afternoon, Richard brought a bunch of tapes to Ronald's apartment.

"Here are two recent jet fighter-related films, here are some documentaries from the Air Force and Navy, and here are some older propeller fighter battle scenes."

Richard divided the tapes into three piles. "I thought maybe you could all refer to them."

"So these are the only two movies that show jet fighters?" Ronald frowned. It seems that jet fighters are difficult to film, unlike old-fashioned propeller plane air battles, which have been over-filmed in Hollywood.

"Yes, one is 'Firefox' directed and starred by Clint Eastwood. The entire movie cost 21 million US dollars, 20 million of which were spent on the special effects of the aerial combat."

"Oh?" Ronald took Firefox first and put it into the video recorder.

Various scenes of Eastwood being cool appeared on the TV, and then he got into a weird fighter jet. This fighter jet was produced by the Soviet Alliance and could only be started in Russian. He drove the plane and flew in the air. Dog fights Russian pilots who come to intercept.

"Is that the only thing?" What Ronald saw was the trailer of "Firefox". In a few minutes of footage, there were only a few scenes of two jet fighter dog fights.

"Yeah, it didn't do well at the box office, so Warner Bros. isn't going to put it out on video."

And then there’s that “Final Countdown.” Ronald switched.

This videotape is also a trailer of only a few minutes, and it is even more exaggerated. The story tells that the "Nimitz" nuclear-powered aircraft carrier traveled through a wormhole during a routine mission in 1981 and traveled to the 19th century. 41, the day before Pearl Harbor.

A total of five thousand naval soldiers and many jet fighters also crossed over with the aircraft carrier.

The commander realized that this was a good opportunity to beat the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, so he ordered fighter jets equipped with the latest radar to take off and shoot down the Japanese Zero fighter with air-to-air missiles.

Soon, the trailer was finished. Ronald discovered that there were quite a few stars in this movie, including Martin Sheen, Kirk Douglas and others.

"I feel like this is a real shot?" Ronald saw in the trailer, there were some shots of jet fighters taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier. The color grading of these shots is obviously different from the rest of the film. The film used is not from the same batch, or even from the same brand and model.

"Yes, I asked Martin's agent, and he said that this part of the footage was provided by the Navy. It turned out to be a news documentary shot by the Navy."

"Hmm, interesting."

Ronald held the remote control in his hand and kept moving forward and backward between the shots of planes taking off and landing on the aircraft carrier. Then rewind and watch it again.

"There are some more here, do you want to see them?" Richard asked, picking up other video tapes.

"No, I think these shots have given me enough inspiration." Ronald murmured.

He pressed the pause button, then picked up the drawing board and pencil, and began to sketch based on the camera on the TV.

"So, this is what I thought, the storyboard effect of the shooting." Another day later, Ronald met the two managers of Saab again.

He handed the storyboard of the pencil sketch he had drawn to the other party.

Then he picked up the pen and explained his ideas to them on another, larger sketch that was spread out.

"I understand where you're coming from, and I think it's a great idea to compare a turbojet engine in a jet aircraft with a turbocharged engine in a Saab car.

What you want to compare is the strong power of the two engines, so as to give consumers a strong impression. If someone who builds airplanes builds cars, the power must be very good. "

The two managers nodded slightly, and Ronald's summary hit the mark.

"But the difficulty in shooting jet engines is that they are too fast. I looked at all the images of jet fighters that I could find. Unless a camera is placed on another plane next to it, it is difficult for us to capture more than one second. fighter jet shot.

So... I moved the contrasting location from the air to the ground. "

"On the floor?" the female manager asked.

"Yes," Ronald pointed to one of the drawings, "I pulled the Saab car onto the runway of the Saab 37 Thor fighter jet. In this way, both are on the ground, and we can easily express the two slowly. Fast and powerful.

You think, a car can compete with jet fighters on the runway, and they both belong to Saab! "

"Wonderful!" The two managers were very satisfied with Ronald's way of realizing the idea. "We will report your design to the headquarters. If the headquarters is also satisfied, we will invite you to the Swedish Saab headquarters and the Swedish Air Force to go on site. Check out the filming locations.”