Exploiting Hollywood 1980

“Yeah!”

Diane jumped onto the bed happily when she heard the price of the two advertisements that Ronald had negotiated for her, kicking her legs straight up to the sky.

Ronald had never expected that the Japanese merchants… no, actually an Israeli diamond jewelry company Camelia (meaning camellia) and a Polish entrepreneur founded a cosmetics company in the United States, Axfactor, would offer Diane a sky-high endorsement fee.

Although the Japanese have experienced an economic miracle, they still look up to the American pop culture. When it comes to high-end consumer goods, they still prefer imported brands.

The “Undercover” starring Diane Lane has set off a fashion trend in Japan. Even in the most popular comics industry in Japan, there are many of her fans.

Some use Diane as a prototype to add a Western character to their comics, and some directly open a new comic based on Diane in the world view of “Undercover”.

Diane’s biggest fan is still the senior in the comics industry, Mr. Osamu Tezuka. He has always admired Diane's performance. In a newspaper interview, he said that her singing was like a fusion of the most popular rock music today, and each segment was shot very beautifully.

Because of Diane's special status in the minds of young people in Japan, the two trading companies offered a very high price. Each company quoted 50 million yen for shooting an advertisement. The advertisement shot in two days can make Diane earn a salary equivalent to 400,000 US dollars.

This price is almost five times the price Diane received for endorsements in China, which made her very happy.

"Originally, Bert didn't let me take the advertisement, but who cares? Anyway, it's broadcast in Japan and America can't see it." Diane jumped on Ronald's back again and hugged Ronald to express her happiness.

"Originally, I shouldn't say this, but you have to be careful about the money you made this time. You can deposit it in the bank or buy some blue-chip stocks. Don't spend it all at once."

"Well..." Diane took out Ronald's platinum credit card from her bag and gave it back to him.

"You can keep using it. There are many places in Japan that need money. When you get paid, you can pay me back."

Camelia means camellia. Diane's light blonde hair, which was dyed for the "Cotton Club" shooting, just fits the Japanese imagination of the American beauty. She was wearing a golden evening dress and holding a bunch of camellias.

The camera zoomed out, and the diamond necklace on Diane's neck shone brightly. On the dark street behind, a group of men wearing leather jackets and black sunglasses rode motorcycles back and forth behind her.

"Camelia, diamonds," Diane said the lines in English to the camera as required.

"Cut!"

The supervisor in charge of shooting called a halt, and the assistant brought a folding chair and bowed to Diane to indicate that she could rest. Little Bud pulled out the folding chair for Diane and asked her to sit down.

"Should we shoot another one? To be safe, supervisor?" The shooting assistant came over to ask the shooting supervisor of the advertisement.

"Forget it, I think Miss Diane's performance is very good. She has already brought the girl to the Camelia diamond ring and agreed to marry the suitor. She performed very well." The supervisor was a middle-aged man. He looked at the little Bud behind Diane and stood straight to protect her.

This posture is obviously from the military. I don't know what kind of background this Miss Diane's boyfriend Ronald Sang has. He can still call on the retired US military, who is regarded as a grandfather by the Japanese. It's better to respect her.

This small scene is a small case for Diane. The style, temperament and lighting of the entire advertisement are plagiarized from "Raging Street". She sat in a chair, thinking about Ronald's visit to the Japanese "Movie Emperor" Kurosawa Akira, and she didn't know what they would talk about.

...

Ronald was standing outside the shooting site at this time. He and the senior executives of Toho came to the hillside near Tokyo Chengtian Airport to see Director Akira Kurosawa, who was directing the new film "Ran".

"Ran" is a script adapted from Shakespeare's King Lear and the story of Maori Motonari, who left the three arrows in the traditional Japanese legend.

On the hillside, Nakadai Tatsuya, who plays Ichimonji Hidetora, is wearing gorgeous Japanese ancient costumes and a hat, preparing for the banquet.

The actors who play his sons are riding horses, carrying bows and arrows, standing still.

Ronald and his party were received by Kurosawa's script supervisor, Miss Nogami Teruyo. She told Ronald and others in advance that Kurosawa hated to be disturbed by others. So Ronald could only stand far away from the shooting site, waiting for Kurosawa's work.

"It seems that there is no hope for a while." The lighting engineer of the crew covered his eyes with a magnifying glass, looked at the sky for a long time, and finally said a helpless word.

"Then... rest", the tall Kurosawa Akira wearing sunglasses, shook his head and announced, "Teruyo, Teruyo, didn't you say that there are guests from America coming? Invite him over."

Miss Nogami quickly stretched out her hand and motioned Ronald to follow in. For this picnic scene, the crew has been waiting for three days, but has not waited for the right clouds.

"It seems like today is not going to work either," Teruyo Nogami looked up at the sky, not a single cloud in sight.

"Is Master Kurosawa so strict?" Ronald asked through the translator. In Hollywood, only Francis Ford Coppola, before his failure, would stop the crew for several days just to wait for the right natural light.

"There are fewer and fewer of them. The crews nowadays are just making do. Only the crew of Director Kurosawa still maintains this tradition of waiting for the arrival of the clouds."

"Hello, Director Kurosawa," Ronald stepped forward and bowed slightly to Akira Kurosawa in a proper manner. This is a director that several big Hollywood directors admire, and he is called the director's director and the movie emperor.

"Ronald? You are here. Please sit down. Please sit down." Akira Kurosawa is very tall, more than six feet tall. His figure stands out among the Japanese. He kindly asked Ronald to sit down and spoke like an old man next door.

"I have watched the videotape of "The Karate Kid" given to me by Toho Company. After watching the first fifteen minutes, I knew that there is another great young director in America."

"Oh..." Ronald didn't expect Kurosawa to praise him right away, "You are too kind."

The translator of Toho Company was busy passing the message to the two.

"I know very well that a great director has a design for every scene, and an expert will know it at a glance." Kurosawa waved his hand, "For example, this scene."

Kurosawa pointed to the camera's framing, as if to test Ronald.

"This is a medium shot, explaining the background of the characters and letting the audience quickly enter the plot?" Ronald took a look and saw a very conventional lens setting.

"You are right," Kurosawa nodded with satisfaction. A director who can think of the effect on the screen is undoubtedly an expert.

"You can see that it is getting more and more difficult to shoot costume films now." Kurosawa stood up and pulled Ronald to the front of the camera.

"If I move my camera a little to the left, I can see the terminal building of Narita Airport. If I move my camera a little to the right, I can see the Sony billboard. Neither of them belongs to the Warring States Period."

"Costume films nowadays can only be shot slowly and intermittently. Toho Company did not give me full support, otherwise I would have built a studio."

Kurosawa Akira took Ronald's hand and said to the translator next to him, "I want to make a few more movies, but I can't find investors in Japan. Fortunately, Lucas and Spielberg contacted 20th Century Fox for me, so I don't have no movies to shoot."

"No, your scripts are always interested in people. Recently, I asked Cannon Company to buy your "Runaway Train" script. It's a pity that you can't go to America to direct it yourself."

Ronald mentioned "Runaway Train". To be honest, even if Kurosawa Akira is not a supervisor, his level of screenwriting is very high.

"I know, Dalang told me." Kurosawa Akira nodded after listening to the translator's retelling. I almost went to America to shoot this movie. If I could have done it, maybe my career would have been very different.

"It was also because of the heavy snowstorm that year." Ronald repeated the reason he heard from Kurosawa's eldest son.

"It's not the snowstorm," Kurosawa shook his head with a wry smile, "I was just fired from the Japanese supervisor position of the "Tora Tora Tora" crew by the Hollywood studio. That "Runaway Train" was also shelved.

"I heard from my eldest son that you persuaded the people of Cannon Pictures to buy it. I hope you can succeed in filming it in America."

"It wasn't me who filmed it. I asked Goncharovsky of the Soviet Union. The train scene was too difficult. I was not sure."

"What's so difficult? I wanted to use an airplane to shoot the train moving across the snow. The supervisor is to shoot the picture in his mind. Even if the budget is not enough, you have to find a way. If the train doesn't work, you can still use a car. "Kurosawa was a little dissatisfied with Ronald's fear of difficulties and gave him a few words of advice.

"Don't compromise. Ten years ago, a director in Japan filmed a movie called "Shinkansen Big Bang" based on my script. I was very disappointed. It didn't capture the feeling of a train moving forward in the wilderness at all."

"If you want to film it, I will authorize it for free." Kurosawa looked at Ronald, like a magician, tempting the young man to film the script he had written with great effort.

"I am not a very talented person. I have come to this day by relying on my persistence in my dream. You have to work hard too, Ronald-san. "Kurosawa patted Ronald on the shoulder at last, urging the young man not to slack off.

Holding the banner with the Chinese character "Effort" written by Kurosawa, Ronald said goodbye to the old director and returned to the hotel.

Directors like Kurosawa who grew up in the golden age of movies all have strong autocratic thinking. On his set, all decisions on lighting, photography, costumes, and actors must be made by him before they can proceed.

Unlike Hollywood, where television has occupied a large audience, directors there have to work with many professionals and actors, and all decisions must be discussed with them. Even if there is a little power of decision-making, it is earned by their past success.

"I shot a diamond ring commercial today, and I will continue to shoot Max Factor lipstick and mascara tomorrow." Diane came up to report to herself.

"Ah, then you work very hard."

"To make money, the people here are very good to me, and I have to give 100% of my condition. They said that the effect of the sample film is very good, and they want to invite me to shoot a new version next year."

"That's great, you come here to shoot commercials, just like a vacation. "

Soon, the group ended their trip in Japan and boarded Weintraub's private plane back to Los Angeles.

"I will find a screenwriter to fill in the script of The Karate Kid, but I still hope you can direct it." Weintraub got a big investment and began to persuade Ronald to direct the sequel.

"I still have Top Gun to work on."

"Don't worry, I'm going to wait until next April at the Las Vegas Film Fair to promote this sequel to cinema buyers and try to get a good release date. You can come with me then."

"Okay, after the Oscars, right?" Ronald remembered that he had never been to a blockbuster ordering conference and wanted to go and broaden his horizons.