Exploiting Hollywood 1980

On Christmas Day, Ronald got up early. The snow season in New York is in January and February every year, and there are very few white Christmases. This year is the same, the weather is sunny and a bit warm, with temperatures above ten degrees Celsius, so just wear a coat.

After breakfast, Ronald followed Aunt Karen's instructions, took Diane and Donna, and the three of them took the ferry and went for a walk in Manhattan.

The slightly humid air was sucked into the lungs. Although today is a public holiday, department stores and several shopping streets are still open for business. Ronald was on the shopping street next to Fifth Avenue, accompanying the two girls to hunt for some bargains.

The store here is not big, but it is full of wholesale goods, from watches to diamonds, women's clothing to plush toys. Knowledgeable tour guides and hotel concierges will take customers here to shop, which is better than the boutiques on Fifth Avenue. Much cheaper.

Carrying large and small bags, Ronald held Diane and Donna in each hand, and the three of them started looking for a place to eat.

In addition to the large commercial streets, there are many small businessmen opening their doors in the community. The three of them found an Italian cafe with a lot of customers and ate some meatballs and spaghetti.

The shop owners are an old couple who live in a nearby community and are playing with their granddaughter holding a cat.

"Are you ready for the social studies class? This time, the teacher will be broadcasting the class live across the country, and children all over the country will be with you."

"Ready...hehe", the little girl hugged the cat and happily circled on the ground. Several regular customers commented on her beautiful cat and dress.

Ronald had not tasted this kind of life of ordinary people in New York for a long time. The residents of Los Angeles live very dispersedly, and the atmosphere in which neighbors know each other and help each other is not as strong as in New York. Opposite the Italian area is the Irish area, and on the other side is the Chinese area.

If you look at it from a helicopter, Manhattan looks very much like a colorful platter, with various ethnic groups living together but not mixed. They respect each other's culture but are culturally isolated from each other. In this case, it often takes the third generation of immigrants to slowly begin to integrate into mainstream values ​​and slowly forget the traditions of their own ethnic group.

For descendants of Chinese ancestors like Ronald, no trace can be seen in appearance or in the circles he interacts with. Only in his heart, there is still a preference for Chinese culture.

After eating, we walked to Fifth Avenue again. In the afternoon, the two ladies went shopping in a boutique. Sometimes, without buying anything, just looking at the price tags of the good things she bought in boutiques would keep Donna entertained for a long time. Diane also hugged Donna and laughed. She rarely enjoyed this kind of bargain shopping experience.

"a!"

"Um?"

Ronald, who was waiting as a porter at the door, suddenly heard someone outside calling for instructions for filming a movie.

He called the salesman and asked him to take a look at the pile of purchased items. He then took out his credit card and handed it to Donna, asking her to pay after she liked it. Go out on your own and see what crew is filming.

I didn't see the NYPD closing the road. There was only a small crew, diagonally across the road at the entrance of the Plaza Hotel, with a camera and a recording pole, and filming on their side of the road.

"Guerrillas." Ronald smiled.

When he was filming "Night of the Comet", he did not contact the municipal government because of tight budget, but secretly filmed it himself. Unexpectedly, there is someone doing this on Fifth Avenue, the most prosperous shopping mall in Manhattan, New York.

On Ronald's left side, a young blonde beauty with a black and white patterned silk scarf covering her hair, wearing a dark red V-neck dress, walked quickly to Ronald's right side.

"What's going on? Is anyone filming a movie?" Donna noticed the movement and came over to take a look.

Unlike Los Angeles, it is not very common to film TV dramas on the streets of New York. This was the first time for Donna to see this kind of live shooting. She leaned on the door and looked across, completely curious.

"It's probably a small crew filming, and there are no road closures." Dai An was experienced and could tell at a glance that it was a candid shot that had not been registered with the municipal government.

"Don't cross that line and ruin their shot," Ronald warned. Although it seems that the other party is using a close-up lens, and it is unlikely that he will enter the lens, but to be on the safe side, he still stands a little further away.

"Well, she is a beautiful woman. But it seems that I have never seen her play before." Diane commented on the actress.

"Maybe it's a small production, her debut."

"Cut!" The director opposite stopped the filming. "Linda, this scene is about Su suddenly discovering who her true love is, and then running to pursue it. So your twist needs to have some... Do you understand what I mean?"

Ronald took the opportunity to open the door and come out with Diana, ready to leave.

"Yo, I said man, do you want to be in a movie? Can you be a guest actor in our next scene? We need a tall guy."

The male lead of that crew, a man with a strange accent, saw Ronald and suddenly extended an invitation to them.

"Sorry, we have other things to do." Ronald carried the two beauties and prepared to leave.

"Hey, we are making a big-screen movie and it will be released in Australia. Don't you want to see your appearance on the screen?"

The male protagonist is from Australia and wears a crocodile leather jacket and a cowboy hat with a ring of crocodile teeth inlaid on his head. They came to New York to reshoot an ending, and saw that Ronald's height was just right for him, so they invited him again and again.

"Oh my god. That's Ronald, Ronald Lee." The blonde actress in a red dress was interrupted by the conversation here. After looking over, she found out Ronald's identity.

"Paul, this is a famous Hollywood director, Ronald Lee." The heroine named Linda took the hero's hand and asked him not to bother her anymore.

"Do you know me?" Ronald handed the shopping bag to one hand, then reached out and shook hands with Linda and Paul.

"Who doesn't know you?" Diane added beside.

"Oh, you New York is really full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. You can see big directors on the street." The hero Paul has a tough guy temperament. He invited Ronald and others to the Plaza Hotel to chat.

"Anyway, we have to take a break. Don't shoot for a long time to attract the attention of NYPD."

"Hahaha..." Ronald and these people are very compatible. If they don't have money to apply for filming, they will secretly shoot in a guerrilla style. This style of doing it first and then talking about it, and making sure to make a movie, makes him want to talk to them too.

"Great, I'll help you get your stuff."

The heroine Linda was also very happy to have the opportunity to meet Hollywood bigwigs, and hurriedly helped Diane and Donna pick up the shopping bags.

"Are you Diane? Diane Lane?"

When they arrived at the Plaza Hotel, Linda recognized Diane who had taken off her sunglasses.

"It's me. I didn't expect anyone would remember me."

Linda burst into laughter, "I've known you for a long time. I saw your performance when you were acting on Off Broadway. I was also acting in "Death of a Salesman" on Off Broadway two years ago."

It turned out to be a Broadway actor.

Several people sat down in the lobby bar, and the red-dressed girl Linda Kozlowski told Ronald the story of their crew.

It turned out to be an Australian film crew. They came to shoot an Australian country bumpkin who came to New York and encountered various interesting things caused by cultural conflicts.

The male protagonist Paul Hogan is also the screenwriter and financier of the film.

Paul Hogan has a complicated experience. He used to be a construction worker and later made his debut as a comedy on a Sydney TV station. When he was young, he had been to New York. It was like being in an alien world. In a metropolis of millions of people, he greeted everyone in the morning because he thought these people would go to a bar to drink in the evening.

"Will your movie be shown in America?" Ronald asked them.

"Not necessarily," Paul Hogan replied.

"Australia has not made a regular movie, like the commercial movies you are used to in Hollywood. No one has made a real, popular, successful, and entertaining movie."

"I plan to show it in Australia after the filming, and then try my luck at the film festival to see if it can be sold overseas. I feel that if I am lucky, I can make millions of Australian dollars."

"Oh? What is the story of your movie?"

"It is about a hunter in the great swamps of northern Australia. He was raised by the aborigines since he was a child. Once in a critical moment, he killed a big crocodile alone. Then he was interviewed by Sue Charlton, a newspaper reporter from New York." Paul Hogan hugged the heroine Linda Kozlowski.

"Then Sue suddenly had an idea to let this Australian savage come to New York to experience life at the center of the universe. This is a story with great contrasts. A female reporter from New York goes to the primitive wilderness, and then the savage goes to the most prosperous city."

"It sounds interesting," Ronald felt that the angle of the movie was very clever, like the first half of Tarzan plus the second half of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

"After your movie is made, you can come to me and I will help you see if there is any possibility of distributing it in America." Ronald thought this story was good and worth a try.

"That's great." Paul Hogan and Linda Kozlowski were overjoyed and quickly exchanged business cards.

"Since you haven't confirmed the Hollywood distributor, I guess it's not the production investment you got in Hollywood?" Ronald remembered something.

"Yes, we raised funds." Paul Hogan said proudly.

"Raising funds?" Ronald was puzzled.

Hogan explained. It turns out that in Australia, tax laws allow funds invested in film and other literary and artistic undertakings to get 200% of the tax payable as a tax refund. Although Australia does not have any famous film companies, it has many rock stars.

They also speak English and share a single language and cultural market with Britain, America, Canada, etc.

A rock band believed in Paul Hogan and took the lead in investing hundreds of thousands of Australian dollars. This led many singers to invest in crowdfunding, hoping that the movie would pay off. At the same time, they enjoyed a tax exemption of twice the investment amount, which was particularly attractive to rock stars with high incomes.

They finally raised 8 million Australian dollars and started filming. The investment was limited, and the entire crew was made up of talents from the Australian television industry. Only the heroine Linda Kozlowski was introduced from America.

After chatting for more than half an hour, the assistant of the crew came in to report that it was now calm outside, and the crowd of onlookers had dispersed. It was time to take another sneak shot.

"Do you think there is anything that can be improved in my performance in this scene?"

Linda Kozlowski was a little blind to Hollywood directors like Ronald. If there was a chance, she would ask him for acting skills.

Ronald is not really good at directing performances, but he knows what to say to cover up his weaknesses.

"Su suddenly realized that she was not in love with the general manager of the newspaper, but with this wild man from Australia. So she must be very anxious. You can consider using a small prop to express the anxious emotion of suddenly finding that her true love ran away."

"Hmm..." Linda Kozlowski thought it made sense.

When it was time to shoot, she decisively threw her two high heels aside after running for a while, and chased after him barefoot.

When leaving the set, Diane kept looking at Ronald secretly without saying a word.

Ronald knew that she was still thinking about being an actor, so he comforted her, "My current wealth is not enough to invest in a movie myself. I will help you see if there are any suitable opportunities after returning to Los Angeles. But if you are willing to start again with low-cost movies, there will be many more opportunities."

Diane hugged Ronald's arm tightly and said nothing. She was once a child star who attracted everyone's attention. She almost made it into the forefront of Hollywood teenage stars. She also experienced strikeouts and was cheated by selling nutritional supplements... Having seen too many of her, she knew that she didn't need to say too much at this time, just let Ronald remember it.