Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The camera was pointed at a brick wall, and Buffalo Prawn used a can of spray paint that had already been sprayed, and pressed the nozzle on the wall.

"Shh..." The spray paint can with very little internal pressure did not make much sound, and the microphone on it continued to move down.

"Zoom, zoom," the camera operator urged the focus puller to slowly zoom in on the part within the red frame safety zone of the viewfinder, while making gestures to the recording team, "Your microphones can't go down anymore, otherwise it will be exposed."

"Cut!"

Director Ronald finally stopped filming. This part is the last shot of the entire movie, which is also the opening subtitle part. Ronald decided to use a special effects machine in the later stage to add a layer of handwriting written by the artist, so that the subtitles of each person would be like sprayed out of the spray paint can.

"I declare that the filming of 'Breakdance' is packed, and Mr. Menahan Golan has arranged a party for you, and everyone can take the bus."

"Ah..." A bunch of street dancers, hearing that there was a party, immediately turned on the dual-card four-speaker recorder used as a prop on the spot, and sang and danced to Ibsp;T's rap song "Reckless".

Ronald ignored them, as the main actors of the crew had already left. Buffalo Shrimp and Falcon went to Michael Jackson and began to design and improve the moonwalk for him.

He said goodbye to Minahan, got into the editing van, and started working with two editors.

This busy work lasted until dawn, and Ronald yawned and got up to go home. All the audio and video synchronization and shot segmentation have been completed, and the next step is to officially edit.

After returning home, Ronald fell asleep for a day. In the evening, he seemed to suddenly remember something important in his dream and sat up straight.

"I forgot to buy Walter Merzi's special editing tape." Ronald jumped out of bed, found the phone number of his editing mentor Merzi, and dialed it.

"Going to England? Oh... His 'Return to Oz' has finally started the preparatory work? Congratulations." It was Mrs. Angie who answered the phone. After repeated arguments, Merzi finally got the green light from Disney at the end of last year. Recently, he went to the countryside of England to look for locations.

"Me? I called to buy some of Walt's special editing tape. Yes, I want a little more this time. There are two movies waiting to be edited. OK, I'll send you a check."

After hanging up the phone, Ronald called Minahan again. Next Monday, he will start editing "Breakdance" in the editing room of Cannon.

The office of Cannon is still messy. Ronald deliberately picked a larger editing room and occupied it alone. He has two editors, four editing assistants, and Minahan often comes to check on the situation.

Cannon Pictures is European capital, so their equipment is the most advanced horizontal editing machine in West Germany. Unlike the Moviola vertical editing machine produced in America, this West German imported editing machine is more like a video recorder.

Each roll of film is about ten minutes long. Several editing assistants load it, and then Ronald looks for the required shots in it. Sometimes when Ronald is looking for the required shots, new inspiration will appear in his mind and he will think of another way of editing.

This editing machine is relatively more conducive to the editor's inspiration. Of course, this requires a person like Ronald who has been trained by a master and must edit while standing to have a constant flow of inspiration.

"Just cut here, Ronald." Minahan looked at it for a while and began to put forward his own opinions.

Ronald turned a deaf ear to it. His mind was full of new inspirations.

"Here, here, oh, that place just now is a wonderful editing point, and it is exactly the same as the one in Flashdance..."

"Snap..." Ronald pressed the stop button and wrote down the time point in his notebook.

The filming of this movie was very hasty, so there was no more material to choose from. That is to say, the original film, except for the repeated strips, is about 90 minutes long. If there is a section that is not shot well and cannot be connected in editing, it will be terrible. We can only continue to cut some content to further shorten the length.

The main actors have gone to MJ's place, and there is no possibility of reshooting.

"What does this place mean?" Minahan pointed to the freeze frame on the monitor. It was the first dance battle in the basement when Motor and Tornado were defeated by the opponent's two men and one woman because they lacked Kelly, a female partner, and left in frustration.

"This is the stopping point of Tornado's emotions," Ronald answered casually without looking at Minahan. This is when Tornado's dancing skills are better than the opponent, but there is no female dancer who is forced to fail. This depressed emotion started from being declared defeated by Ibsp;T, and he kept panting violently. When the close-up shot was pushed up, the audience's emotions also reached the end with Tornado five seconds later.

"What? Emotional point?" Minahan, who had no idea about Walter Merz's modern editing theory, began to argue. "But I think if it was put a little later, just when he turned around and left, wouldn't it be more complete?"

"No, if it's longer, the audience will blink." Ronald knew what Minahan meant. The classic Hollywood editing theory pursues that every action of the character should echo each other. Here, he turns around and leaves the house, and in the next shot, he drives away. Only in this way can the character's actions be explained in a consistent manner.

However, after the New Wave of the United States, Hollywood gradually began to learn European theories. As long as the character's emotions are complete, some details in the middle, such as turning around and leaving the house, do not need to be explained at all. In the next shot, he drives away in a whirlwind. The audience can fill in the middle part by themselves and feel it is very smooth.

"Blink? What do you mean?" Minahan asked, blinking.

"It means that here, it is a complete thought. If it is longer, the audience will think about other things and their attention may not be on the movie."

"What? You can accurately predict the audience's thoughts? Accurate to one frame?" Minahan didn't believe it at all. How could anyone have such ability? Even experienced editors can't do it, not to mention Ronald is so young...

"Let's make a bet. If I can stop at the same frame every time, you don't have to say anything more."

"What if you can't?"

"Then I'll refer to your opinion."

"Okay!" Minahan himself edited the movies he directed himself, so how could he believe this? If Ronald wasn't really better than him as a director, he would have pushed him away with his big butt and shouted "Cut, cut, cut!".

Ronald found a marker, marked the frame, and turned the knob to rewind the film. Press the play button again.

Tornado looked at the trio of opponents who were in high spirits, and felt uncomfortable in his chest. He only had Kelly on his side, but first, Kelly couldn't breakdance, and second, she looked down on him a little and turned a blind eye to his hints.

Various emotions surged up, his chest rose and fell gradually, and his eyes were full of unwillingness.

Gu Yu

"Now!" Ronald pressed the stop button again with a snap.

Minahan rushed to check the gap that exposed the film. The mark on the film was the letter V that Ronald had just drawn, the initials of his middle name.

"How did you do it?" Minahan muttered, "Coincidence?"

Ronald glanced at him and rewound the tape again. Snap, he pressed the button without checking. This time it felt very good, it must be on the same frame.

This time the two editors went up to check first. They looked at each other as if they had seen a ghost. Who can do this technique if they haven't heard of it?

"Old editors in Hollywood can do it. I trained with Walter Merzi." Ronald explained lightly, "Believe me, Minahan, I won't cheat you."

"Hahaha, I'll make you coffee." Minahan laughed. This was a treasure. He turned around and went to the coffee machine.

"I just want espresso, double." Ronald's shout came from behind.

The editing work continued smoothly. Ronald's inspiration was endless and the editing progress was fast. Four assistant editors were moving films and making editing records. The pile of unedited films was getting smaller and smaller, while the pile of edited films was getting higher and higher.

"Have some lunch," Minahan knew that Ronald didn't like the pagoda-packaged Chinese food because it was too oily. He would go to buy sandwiches or pizzas in person and bring them to the editing room.

"What's the matter? Is there any difficulty?" Minahan saw Ronald frowning and looking at the monitor, and asked the editor next to him.

"It's not a technical problem. Ronald is hesitant about whether to keep the hug and kiss scene between Kelly and Tornado."

Ronald edited to the end, and the trio won the championship. The emotions of the three reached a climax. There should have been a shot hinted before the conclusion, so that Kelly and Tornado finally recognized each other's affection, hugged each other warmly and then kissed.

"What's wrong, Ronald?" Minahan asked him.

"I'm not sure how much the current audience can accept this cross-racial love." Ronald looked at the camera again and again.

"Now America seems to be more tolerant of these things. I heard that the laws prohibiting interracial marriage have been abolished."

"No, America is a country with prominent state rights." Ronald knew that the Israeli was using Los Angeles to represent the entire country again. "Each place has different views. Some southern states even prohibit dancing."

Ronald remembered "Football" that he almost directed. It was adapted from a real event a few years ago.

"There is another place where Kelly's friend introduced him to Eton of Tornado and Motor. He is a guy." An editor also expressed his opinion.

"If you think interracial love is too much, then intimacy between same-sex people is even more controversial. In particular, it is now said that super... is spread between men... and is a punishment from heaven for immoral behavior."

"What disease?" Ronald didn't understand.

"It's what they call male...disease."

"Oh, then delete them all." Minahan insisted on deleting all these shots when he heard that it might affect the thoughts of some viewers.

"But this way, there will be no emotional climax," Ronald stroked the short beard on his chin and pondered.

"Why not just leave no positive results, just some hints, so that the audience who can accept it will naturally see it, and the audience who can't accept it will think that it didn't work out in the end."

"That's good!" Minahan now thinks that whatever Ronald says is a high-level trick.

In the end, Ronald only left some ambiguous space for Kelly and Tornado's love affair, so that the audience who felt his hint would retain a hope, and the audience who didn't notice it would quietly slip away.

After the editing was completed, Ibsp;T and some music with strong rhythm were added as the soundtrack. Anyway, their music license was not expensive, and Ronald got it done one by one.

The final working copy deleted some ambiguous plots, and only 87 minutes were left.

"Just right, with the end credits, we can make up 90 minutes. It just meets the requirements of the theater." Ronald stretched.

"The subtitles need more than one minute? Why? Isn't it one minute?" Minahan didn't understand.

"How can it be played in one minute?" Ronald didn't understand either.

"Producer, director, starring, and then the main technical workers, the director of photography, the art director... and the main supporting roles." Minahan counted with his fat fingers.

"What about the casting director, the members of the technical team, and the extras? For example, Eddie Rodriguez, the hand man..." Ronald also felt strange that these people were not wanted.

After a while of communication, Ronald finally understood that, unlike the situation in Hollywood where there are many unions, Israeli and European films generally only list the names of the main creative staff, and ordinary staff are not on the list.

"That won't work," Ronald insisted on putting everyone's name on the list. He remembered how he felt when he saw his name on the subtitles for the first time. All these staff members would stare at the subtitles when watching the movie.

"Also, MJ must be thanked specially. He is not an actor, and his friendly guest appearance can only be put in the special thank-you gift. The hand man must also be on the list. Without him, I would not have proposed to shoot this movie."

"It's up to you." Minahan agreed to all the conditions.

Low-cost productions don't have money to hold previews, so they invite film critics from all over the country to watch an internal preview. Ronald simply asked Minahan to recruit a group of students from universities in Los Angeles to directly watch the results as audiences.