Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Weintraub invited Pat Johnson, the senior brother of Chuck Norris's karate club, to serve as a martial arts instructor and train the actors.

Pat Johnson was slightly bald, with a mustache and hair on his exposed arms, which made him look like he had a lot of testosterone.

After meeting him, Ronald told him about the two karate schools in his script. One was Chris's preemptive strike, taking no prisoners, and eliminating the opponent's ability to fight back. The other was Miyagi's, who didn't use martial arts to bully others, but struck back and only used it for self-defense.

Pat Johnson praised Ronald's ideas and shared his feelings. "Ronald, I have many students in Hollywood, and you are the first person in the film industry who understands the philosophy of martial arts. I heard that you have practiced it, so why don't we try it out."

"Okay," Ronald played with the opponent for a few times. The first two times, he was put down by the opponent at once, and the third time, he might have let Ronald win.

Ronald saw that he was better than Vidal and not as obsessed with his own ideas as Chuck Norris. He was an open-minded martial artist. He quickly talked to him about the action design of the two schools and how to make the audience tell the difference at a glance.

It turned out that Pat Johnson was a martial arts apprentice. He was originally a black belt in karate, and he followed Norris just to take advantage of his fame.

"My idea is that the audience should be able to see the obvious difference between the two schools of students as soon as they appear on screen. The students of the glasses dojo are intimidated by the coach and maintain an unnecessary aggressiveness in everything.

And the Goju-ryu of Mr. Miyagi is kind to others. You can't tell that he is a martial arts master at ordinary times, but he shows his edge at critical moments."

"Do your actors have a foundation in karate or other martial arts?"

"Except for Coach Chris who has practiced karate and practiced wrestling with the protagonist's opponent Johnny, the other actors probably don't have any martial arts training."

"Well, I will carefully design two training methods so that they will separate at the beginning of training and can't see each other's training content, so that they can practice karate with the ideas I instill in them."

"This method is good," Pat Johnson's idea reminded Ronald of Coppola. During the filming of "The Brats", he asked several young people to deliberately prank Diane Lane so that they could maintain a relationship similar to the characters in the movie in their lives.

"My requirement is that after they finish training, they will agree with the fighting concept of their characters in the movie script, so that when filming, they are acting in their true colors and the confrontation seems real."

"That's no problem. I need a month, five days a week, and they can shoot the movie in four weeks."

"I have a friend Darryl Vidal, who is also a karate coach. Let him cooperate with your teaching. Do you need anything else for action design?" Ronald likes this kind of professional talent. He can't beat him, and this professional level makes people feel at ease.

"I think you may need some professional stuntmen. Karate is different from other martial arts. If it's boxing, any stuntman can come and make a few moves. But the stuntman of karate, if he is not a professional player, can't make good moves. There is still a big difference between them and European and American fighting."

"Do you have a team?" Ronald has great trust in the opponent who can make him fall down.

"I don't want to use Chuck's team, he has his own things to do. I recommend a Japanese karate master, Fumio Demura, who has a large dojo in California."

Fumio Demura is a real Japanese, a fifth-degree karate master. He was one of the first people in America to promote and teach karate.

Interestingly, he himself has learned Ryukyu's Goju-ryu and Japan's native Ito-ryu. He happens to know both of the styles Ronald wrote about.

After meeting with his team, Weintraub was full of praise. It happened that Demura and Morita Noriyuki, who played Master Miyagi, were both short men, and he also signed a stuntman contract to let him replace Morita in shooting those fighting scenes.

After getting the action team, Ronald began to ask Weintraub to sign all the main actors and ask them to come to Los Angeles for training as soon as possible. He and art director Cassidy began to scout locations in Los Angeles.

"How about this apartment?" Art director Cassidy asked Ronald, pointing to a location he found.

"It looks like the apartment Daniel's mother could afford."

This Venice apartment has three palm trees at the door, a dry swimming pool, and is surrounded by three-story low buildings on three sides.

Ronald thought it was very interesting, a bit like the apartment he lived in when he first came to Los Angeles. The swimming pool in the middle was built by the developer, but because the maintenance cost was very expensive, the residents were unwilling to share it. Some people didn't want to swim and didn't want to go out, so in the end it was left there dry and unused.

Daniel's mother Lucille found a job as a secretary in a computer company and could afford to live in an apartment with maintenance workers, but she couldn't afford a more expensive one.

"Is there a maintenance room?"

The two found the maintenance room of the apartment, and it was very small when they walked in. Ronald felt that it was not enough for the scene.

"It's a pity that we have to find another maintenance room to shoot. It would be better if there was a big room here. The shots here are very concentrated. Shooting in different places will cause confusion." Ronald said.

"I've thought about it for a long time, come and see." Art director Cassidy took him to the back of the first floor.

谷堐

"Is this a garage?" Ronald saw a large space, which was as big as two apartments and could park four cars side by side. Most of the tenants of this apartment are low-income, so not many can afford to buy cars, so the garage is not big.

"Yes, let the set surround this place on three sides and make it a maintenance room for Master Miyagi to work. One side here can be used to place the camera."

"Very good, Susan, what do you think?" Ronald looked at Susan who followed him.

"You all agree, then let's decide."

Then it was the venue of the Cobra Karate Hall. Ronald and art director Cassidy went to the Miracle Mile next to the Museum Street in Los Angeles.

This is the most densely populated commercial street in Los Angeles, the most like New York, with many old buildings on it. There is a street-side store, and the current owner is preparing to cancel the lease.

Pushing open the door, a large space appeared in front of him. Ronald measured the open space from front to back and felt it was okay. Cassidy reminded him to look outside, which happened to be the street view of Miracle Mile.

Ronald, who was very satisfied, asked Susan if she agreed. After getting her consent, he had completed the selection of another location.

"When will this place be decorated? Our actors are still waiting for training." Ronald asked the art director Cassidy.

"It may not be soon. Negotiations with the owner will take some time. The most important thing is that their lease will not expire until two weeks later."

"That won't work. We have to start karate training as soon as possible."

"I know a place." Susan followed them to the location for a few days and admired Ronald's efficient work attitude. She remembered the female star she met at the party before.

"Is this the dance studio opened by Princess Leia that you mentioned?" Ronald came to the place Susan introduced. A large dance studio with mirrors and handrails for practicing.

"No, it was opened by Carrie Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds. She is now preparing to open a dance studio to accept students."

"So it hasn't opened yet?" Ronald thought to himself that this was not bad, and the rent could be cheaper. He walked around the wall. These mirrors can be covered with cloth so as not to hinder the training. There is also a small classroom next to it, which can be used to train two groups of people separately.

Debbie Reynolds made her debut in a musical film. Her debut work was the famous "Singin' in the Rain", in which she danced on the sofa with the king of dance Jim Carrey. Now she is no longer as beautiful as she was in the past, or she has never been that kind of beautiful type.

"Hello, Debbie, I have always been your fan."

"Now the director is really young. When I was making movies before, the directors were all middle-aged." Debbie Reynolds hugged Ronald and kissed him, "Thank you, dear, with this rent, I can start recruiting advertisements."

It turned out that Debbie Reynolds was still waiting for money to operate the dance studio.

All the actors also signed contracts with Weintraub. The actors who had action scenes were all summoned to Los Angeles to prepare for a month of intensive training.

Weintraub's funds began to be spent like water. All actors' training time must be paid according to the union minimum wage. There are also rentals for various venues and equipment. The cost of filming in Los Angeles is getting higher and higher.

Ronald stuffed Vidal into the training team and reported the progress to him every day. In his free time, he began to busy himself with other exterior and interior selections.

Action director Pat Johnson is really good. He immediately saw that Martin Kove was really capable, so he released him and made him the coach's assistant.

The training for Kove and his disciples, including William Zebka, and a group of second-generation stars, was very strict. Squats and bench presses every day made these young actors complain bitterly.

Fortunately, there were a lot of karate training content, kicking targets and hitting wooden boards every day, which made the teenagers brag to their friends, so they practiced very seriously, which made Ronald feel more at ease.

On the other side, there were only two students and one audience in the training class. The students were Morita Noriyuki and Ralph Mazzio. Their training content is completely different from that of the Cobra class. They train various flexibility and coordination. The audience is Elizabeth Shue, who took a semester off from Harvard to shoot. She also stayed with Ralph Mazzio every day to develop tacit understanding.

Action director Pat Johnson's idea is that since it is a counterattack, you must have more flexibility than the opponent, be able to avoid the opponent's punches and kicks, and then attack the opponent's weak points from the side.

So the two students, one old and one young, were made to scream every day by stretching. However, they were not asked to do too much strength training, but listened to Johnson's story about the origin and concept of karate.

So the three of them were full of a good impression of karate. In their view, karate is a martial art with more philosophical thinking than actual combat training.

"I think it's very interesting. When can you come and see it? Both sides are training karate, but the effects are completely different. I think it is very similar to what you want to show in your script." Vidal called Ronald again in the evening to report the progress of the training.

"Okay, Friday is the last day of the first week of training. I'll go and see the situation."