Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Ronald, the guest role you asked me to play is interesting. Coppola and others were unwilling to give me a few lines, but I was able to go tit-for-tat with the protagonist in your movie and have a lot of fun. You don't know, I was in When I was in acting school, one of my classmates was Jack Nicholson.”

Roger Coleman was sitting in a dressing room set up in a corner of the California State University gymnasium, putting on his makeup.

Ronald asked him to make a guest appearance as a judge in the final dance competition, and he had a lot of lines.

"Oh? Now that you are retired, you can develop your career as an actor, and maybe you can even get nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor." Ronald smiled and handed over a cigar.

"Ha, this is a good thing, a sign of a successful person." Roger Coleman took the prop, picked up the match, struck it and lit it slowly.

Ronald remembered his promise that every time he made a movie, he would always ask his former boss to make a cameo if there was an opportunity. This final dance competition also has such a judge, who just suits Roger Coleman's gentle look.

In addition, he wears gold-rimmed glasses, speaks in an organized manner, and has a more elegant temperament. I really don’t know how he managed to make so many plasma horror movies despite his majestic appearance as a university professor.

Roger Corman put on his makeup and took his seats behind the table with several actors playing judges. The entire set is somewhat copied from the "Flashdance" set-up, except that all the sets and props were downgraded two notches to fit the budget of an exploitation film.

But Roger Coleman obviously liked the tune. When he lit the cigar again, a puff of smoke came out, and Ronald got all the departments ready to start.

"A!"

Franco, the teacher of Kelly's jazz dance training class, is played by Ben Lodge, who looks very feminine and bad. He and his team had just finished dancing, retreating from the judges and running headlong into the trio of Motor, Tornado, and Kelly.

Franco saw that with the help of their manager, they had overcome his own obstacles and came to compete anyway. He immediately went back to the dance competition to protest against the judges played by Roger Corman.

"They are street dancers and are not eligible to participate in this dance competition. Do you want them to go to Broadway to perform in musicals and dance those black dances?"

"There is no problem with your qualifications, but the purpose of this dance competition is to select actors for a new Off-Broadway musical. You..." Roger Corman looked at the registration form and found the names of the trio, but He also kindly advised them not to waste time.

"Okay, next one! Let me tell you what kind of dance you will perform." The judge, played by Roger Corman, saw that the trio was speechless by this accident and thought they wanted to quit.

"I'm next, Tornado!" Tornado, played by Sabado, finally got angry. Why can't blacks and Latinos perform musicals on Broadway?

He pulled hard on the suit he was unwilling to put on to participate in the dance competition, and two sleeves were torn off by him, "What I want to perform is street dance-break dancing!"

"Cut!"

Ronald raised his head and glanced at the director of photography, who said OK. Roger Corman has always played this type of role with ease.

"Take care of the table here." Ronald called the assistant director and led the assistants to clear up the documents and chores on the table, leaving a lot of space.

"Sounds!" Ronald asked the recording department to turn on the recorder that played the soundtrack, and the music of "Nothing Can Stop Us" came out.

"A!"

The camera shot from the side, and the leader was Roger Corman. The trio began to dance a very rhythmic break dance. The judges had never seen this kind of dance before, and they all started tapping their feet in surprise.

Franco was angry, "You promised me not to let them compete!"

"Get out of the way!" Roger Coleman waved his hand in disgust, telling him to get out of the way and not to hinder him from watching the dance of the trio.

"Okay, in that case, I'm withdrawing from the competition." Franco thought that he was forcing the other party, and the dance competition did not have his own dance troupe to support the scene. The jury persuaded him to keep him and expel the Kelly trio.

"Yeah!" The trio quickly ran over from behind. The three of them used their strength at the same time to jump onto the judges' table, and then jumped up while standing on the table.

The director of photography motioned to the coolies to move the camera slightly, and then zoomed in. The entire lens was filled with Kelly's pantyhose-clad thighs dancing in front of Roger Corman.

The yoga clothes with high slits and the most suitable ones make her look happy. She really looks like a sanctimonious university teacher.

"Cut!"

Valley haze

"Where's that iron arm?" Ronald yelled to the director of photography, "Quickly, let him come."

The camera operator, who had strong arms and was carrying a camera similar to a Steadicam, was called over.

"...Remember everything? You control the speed yourself." Ronald gave instructions.

"A!"

The trio of Tornado, Motor, and Kelly, who received the highest scores, hugged each other in the middle of the dance floor.

The iron arm held the camera, photographed it from a low angle, and began to rotate around the three people.

The effect of shooting in this way is as if the trio is the center of the circle, and the camera is like the audience's gaze, drawing a circle.

"Cut!" Ronald saw that the iron arm operator was still very tired and shook his arm repeatedly. "Take a break for ten minutes and let's do it again."

This kind of lens is prone to problems, and I still feel uneasy if I don’t shoot it a few times. This is when the advantage of a TV camera comes into play. You can use the videotape to play back at any time, and you can see whether the effect is good or not very quickly.

Movie cameras don’t have this ability, and you must trust the photographer.

The judge played by Roger Corman awarded them the trophy. But after the award ceremony, he also told them directly that Broadway cannot accept them as the protagonists now. Maybe in another ten years, they will have the opportunity to enter the highest art hall.

The important thing is not to conquer Broadway now, but to promote the form of breakdancing. America is a commercial society. As long as someone likes to watch it, there will be greedy businessmen to use it to make money.

After shooting this morning’s shots, most people had no other plans in the afternoon, but everyone stayed where they were. The news that Michael Jackson was coming was leaked somehow. Everyone wanted to stay and meet the most popular singer in America now.

"MJ!" The crowd suddenly cheered, and a group of people walked in from outside the gymnasium, surrounding this thin black man.

Michael Jackson was still wearing a dress studded with diamonds and sunglasses. When he saw Ronald, he took the initiative to come up and hug him.

"Let me introduce you, this is Buffalo Shrimp, this is Falcon..." Ronald took him to meet the main members of the crew, and the most important thing was the two choreographers who were very accomplished in breakdancing.

MJ first chatted with Buffalo Shrimp and Falcon. The two dancers were very excited. They dragged their coats off the stage and danced their best moonwalk and popular robot dance.

Michael Jackson's eyes lit up. There were two shortcomings in his dance steps at the Motown concert. The first was the backward dance step of the moonwalk, which was more powerful than cool. The second was that the upper body movements were too stiff. With the help of the two choreographers, wouldn't it be more exciting?

Michael Jackson nodded to the assistant who came with him, and someone went to discuss cooperation with the two choreographers.

MJ just had time to sign autographs for the fans at the scene. He signed dozens of copies one by one until the assistant came out to announce the end of time.

The group went to the nearby beach, and Ronald directed the camera to the walkway leading to the dance battle venue.

MJ walked over from there, and was filmed twice in a row for easy editing. Then there was a close-up shot, MJ took off his sunglasses and said to the camera, "You dance very well, can you join us?"

"Cut!"

Michael Jackson is a star who often faces the camera, and he plays himself here, so it is not difficult to shoot. Just wait for the editing afterwards, so that his appearance will become the real ending of the movie. Finally, let the audience's emotions be aroused.

"Is it that simple?" MJ came over and asked Ronald in a soft voice, "When I filmed a movie last time, I had to rehearse and shoot every shot several times."

"Because you are playing yourself, MJ. Acting in your true colors means acting naturally, and your acting skills are also very good." Ronald replied, "I heard that you are going to shoot a TV commercial for Pepsi? When will it start shooting?"

"At the end of this month, we are going to shoot abroad, and I have written part of the script." Michael Jackson was very proud of this matter, "It is to use the Billie Jean single I mentioned last time as the background music."

"That's great", Ronald knew that the trend of adapting popular pop music into movies is very strong now, and many record companies have made a lot of money by entering the film industry. Many people are thinking about this and changing the track to make another fortune.

"I also want to adapt this Billie Jean single into a movie script. My agent told me about this and it sounds very interesting. Can you come to help me when the time comes, Ronald?"

"Of course, I will help you look at the script when I have time." Ronald agreed immediately. This is the song that MJ sang at the Motown Memorial Concert, and it was also the first time he performed the moonwalk breakdance. Ronald wanted to see what kind of story he would adapt the song into.