Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Before the sun rose, against the dim background of the aircraft carrier deck, a few streaks of white steam drifted past, and the head of an F-14A slowly crossed into the monitor from the left side of the screen.

The music from the "Top Gun" theme slowly began to play on the soundtrack, and bells began to ring in the background.

"Pa", Ronald pressed the pause button, "It happens to be this square, I think this cut is right here."

Chris and Billy glanced at Ronald. During this period of editing, they had long been accustomed to Ronald's unique trick of stopping on one frame every time.

They saw this trick a few days before editing, and immediately knew that Ronald was also an expert in editing, and they no longer dared to rely on his editing skills to show off his seniority. Seeing that Ronald gave the editing instructions, one went to mark the editing machine, and the other went to move the film reel to be connected next.

"When...when...when...", the opening bells of the theme song rang one after another, and the sound of the lead guitar cut in, repeating the melody that the piano sang softly at the beginning.

On the screen, several navy deck officers began to be busy in the increasingly bright sun and the vast white steam. The nose of the second fighter also begins to cut into the lower left corner of the screen.

"Bang!" Ronald pressed pause again, "This frame will be cut here."

The piano and lead guitar repeat the main melody more excitingly. It seemed that the awakened deck crew and two fighter jets, just in time with the strengthening of the melody, slowly appeared on the left side of the monitor.

Both Chris and Billy found it very interesting. This was a real editing of the movie according to the editing v method.

Rather than using images to tell the story, the images are used to dance along with the melody. Every cut in the picture corresponds to the break of the melody. A melody of three to five seconds can be edited with one knife.

The melody of the theme song is high-spirited and fits perfectly with the image of the sun rising and the soldiers going from stillness to getting busy.

This short shot and high-frequency editing method places high demands on the director. It turns out that Hollywood’s classic construction method usually uses a main camera to capture the characters and environment in the entire scene, and first explains to the audience the location, characters, time, and the logical relationship between the several characters.

Then use a mid-shot over-the-shoulder shot to explain the character's dialogue, and finally use a close-up and close-up shot to show the reaction after hearing other characters speak.

Ronald's editing completely abandoned the classic Hollywood techniques. Starting from the beginning, the audience was first moved by the beauty of the close-up steel behemoth aircraft carrier and the very graceful steel eagles.

Then in the slowly brightening steam, the petty officers on the aircraft carrier deck loomed. This is exactly V's editing method, which is combined with the jump cuts of the new wave of China. There are many places in the middle that require the audience to use their imagination to connect them.

Chris and Billy started chatting quietly again. They couldn't believe it when they encountered this new film editing method. v is three to five minutes in length, and the audience mainly listens to the mood of the song. Is it feasible for movies released in theaters to use this stream-of-consciousness editing method?

Ronald had known for a long time that the two of them were discussing his own editing. "There is no doubt that today's audiences have been influenced by the new wave of editing methods for many years. Now I just put the past ten years of Hollywood in fragments. The editing methods used throughout the film are uniformly used throughout the film, so the audience will not miss our story at all.”

"But why do we always lose the rhythm when we want to imitate your cutting method?" Chris and Billy asked humbly. When Ronald was resting, they also tried to find editing points by themselves. , but it’s not as natural and smooth as Ronald’s cut.

“My teacher Walter Murch taught me that editing is about anticipating where the audience’s thoughts are going and then being there a little before they arrive.”

"Oh," Chris and Billy suddenly realized that they indeed lacked this ability to predict.

"Hehehehe..." Ronald chuckled in his heart. Such a theoretical statement would definitely make the editor feel that he was very powerful. In fact, he had only shot and edited many commercials and videos.

An advertisement of more than ten seconds and a video of several minutes have much more time constraints than a movie.

When Ronald was filming those scenes, he had more repeated training on how to use fast shots and editing to piece together the audience's thoughts in a limited time than Hollywood practitioners.

When can the camera jump cut and let the audience fill in the gaps themselves? When to set the stage soothingly so that the audience gradually understands the whole story, he learned it from the commercials and Vs he shot.

Just take out the finished product and skip the training session in between. It was like a magician pulling a rabbit directly out of a hat, which really surprised the two editors.

"Get that 'Danger Zone' tape and load it up."

Ronald held his head and directed the editor to take action.

The opening interlude "Danger Zone" was sung by several singers, but none of them was ideal. Famous rock singers care more about their own music style. They may have to sing interludes like Cyndi Lauper, a newly debuted singer, so that they can interpret it exactly according to the filmmaker's ideas.

So Ronald discussed with the two producers and gave a chance to Kenny Loggins, a has-been singer who participated in the chorus of "We Are the World" and who was also self-aware and wrote the episode of the beach volleyball scene.

Sure enough, in order to return to the spotlight of popular music, Kenny Loggins cooperated very well, regardless of the pain in his voice, and sang this interlude with a very tense feeling of flying a fighter jet.

Loggins, who had no hope at first, unexpectedly got a chance to sing the main interlude.

"Change the song here," Ronald instructed two editors to change the two interludes when the tail nozzles of the two engines of the F-14A on the deck of the Enterprise emitted orange-red flames one after another.

Change the rhythm of the theme song that gradually wakes up the audience, to the passionate and upward rhythm of "Danger Zone" that is about to hunt prey.

The catapult ejected the sturdy fighter's front landing gear, and the rhythm of the deck officers' movements suddenly accelerated.

"Start your engine,

Listen to her roar.

The metal is in a tense state,

Begging you to touch it.

We are heading to the danger zone..."

Kenny Loggins' hoarse voice sounded...

Ronald squatted on the ground with Sony's monitoring headphones.

His eyes were fixed on the two paper figures he had folded on the editing table. The size ratio between them and the monitor was exactly the ratio of two adults, a man and a woman, sitting in front of the big screen.

The aspect ratio of 2.35 was much wider than the movies Ronald had directed before.

The flames from the tail of the F-14 fighter jet under the theme song could only burn more than half of the screen. There was still a small space on the left half of the screen to show the steam catapult of the aircraft carrier and the actions of the deck officers.

The plane rose from the deck, and the long tail flame only covered half of the screen that Ronald imagined, and the other half was left blank.

"Very good, the rhythm of the editing should be accelerated next." Ronald sat back in his seat.

The rhythm of the interlude "Danger Zone" was supposed to be faster, and Ronald added a lot of shots taken on the Enterprise aircraft carrier.

The deck officers discussed together, moved the arresting cables, made gestures to allow takeoff, and then happily twisted dance moves after takeoff.

Ronald particularly likes this dance. This was captured by a petty officer on an aircraft carrier who was happy that day. Ronald cut it into two parts and used it repeatedly.

The camera switched every one or two seconds.

The camera on the deck was not enough, and Ronald reused the material in many places. Finally, at the end of the song, Ronald added two three-second shots.

One was the subjective takeoff shot that "Stupid Bozo" shot at the San Diego Naval Base afterwards. He flew away from the docked aircraft carrier deck, and then rolled 360 degrees with his superb flying skills.

The subjective shot was shot backwards, as if the aircraft carrier and the sea surface and the sky turned around and moved to the sky, while the sky moved to the position of the sea surface. After a short pause, it turned back.

The second shot was the shot of the aircraft landing on the aircraft carrier.

An F-14A landed from the air to the aircraft carrier deck in the sunset, and was stopped by the arresting cable.

This was also shot by "Stupid Bozo" in San Diego.

Aircraft carrier pilots have different technical levels. It is not easy for the F-14A to make such a standard roll. It also takes repeated practice to land smoothly and neatly at one time.

"Stupid" is indeed the elite level of the naval aviation.

The editing is going on every day, and Ronald is very fast.

Val Kilmer was not cooperative during the filming, and when Mancuso was making things difficult for the crew, he also stood on the side of the CEO.

His shots were intentionally or unintentionally deleted by Ronald. Anyway, these cool shots will not affect the plot if one is missing.

Tom Cruise does not need a villain in the traditional sense, but a competitor who sets off his wisdom and bravery. And Tom Cruise has always stood on Ronald's side and faced various difficulties together.

He accompanied Ronald to shoot various special effects shots in the cockpit on the ground, and then reported to Martin Scorsese's new crew to shoot against his idol Paul Newman.

In this way, Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis's romantic scenes were retained a lot.

Anyway, the sports car and motorcycle chase shots shot by the two of them were full of emotional tension because Cruise himself almost had an accident. Ronald could not overdo it.

"Very good, although I knew that using V's fast editing would have the effect of stirring up the audience's emotions, I didn't expect it to be so good. After I saw it, it seemed that my adrenaline secretion was accelerated by 200%."

Producer Don Simpson came to appreciate the work samples edited by Ronald, and he praised it very much. This fast rhythm is very consistent with his idea of ​​a perfect high-concept movie.

"Have you recorded the song 'Takey Breathaway'?" Ronald didn't flatter him and reached out to ask him for the most important interlude. This was used when the hero and heroine were in love.

"I can't make up my mind. Now there are two versions. Come and listen to them together." Don Simpson put the two master tapes on the table.

Ronald plugged in the recorder, put on headphones and started listening.

"This is the tall version, and that one is the short version," Bruckheimer explained to Ronald. "We think each has its merits. You decide which one is more suitable for the image."