Exploiting Hollywood 1980

On the first day of shooting, Ronald found some relatively simple shots and began to find a state for himself and the entire crew. He first filmed the scene where the two protagonists performed simple dance steps, which was not technically difficult and helped to enhance everyone's confidence in the director and themselves.

In the morning, Ronald used a dance rehearsal room in Mountain Lake Villa as the setting for filming the classroom where Johnny teaches the baby to dance in the movie.

While setting up the lights, Ronald first asked Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Gray to put on their dance clothes and start rehearsing in the next room.

The weather was very hot, and air conditioning was not available. The crew had to put a lot of ice cubes indoors to cool down, and then used a large electric fan to start blowing in a position where the camera could not capture it.

The indoor lighting is relatively simple, with several large windows letting in direct sunlight. The lighting team used some curtains and screens to weaken and reflect the light, making the entire atmosphere ambiguous and warm.

Ronald now prefers to use this kind of natural light to shoot. Shortly after sunrise in the morning, the slanting sunlight gives people a feeling of comfort.

"You have to raise your hands and don't slump your shoulders."

As a dancer whose mother runs a dance studio, Sweets is very good at teaching girls how to dance.

But Jennifer Sweets is not a good student. She has no foundation other than good coordination. She often remembers this key and forgets that, and she is also ticklish. When doing some intimate actions with Sweets, she is often tickled by his gentle movements that make her laugh out loud.

"You have to pay attention to the distance between you and me. Keep a sense of distance. Don't be too far, don't be too close. Follow my feeling."

"Hehehe..." Jennifer Gray laughed again.

"Ah..." Sweets grabbed her hair and screamed. She had never seen such a sensitive girl. Gray is over twenty-five years old, nine years older than the baby in the script, but he still looks like a little girl.

"Are you ready?" Ronald walked in just in time. The lighting was already set and he was waiting for the two protagonists to pass by.

"Okay, director."

Gray stopped laughing, and while Ronald's back was turned, he stuck out his tongue to Patrick Sweets.

"Don't stick this kind of tape on the wall. Our contract with Shanhu Villa states that any damage to the equipment will be compensated according to the price. This kind of tape is suitable for sticking on wood. The wallpaper here is easy to tear. It was damaged when the tape was put on..."

The speaker was Eddie Cohen, general manager of Ronald Daydream Pictures. He had been handling chores for the crew in Los Angeles. He had just obtained the crew list, bought everyone's life insurance in Los Angeles, and hurriedly took the late red-eye flight to Virginia.

He arrived at the scene this morning. Regardless of his fatigue, he immediately helped manage the crew's trivial matters. In fact, he became an on-site production manager.

"Thank you, Eddie." Ronald thanked his old friend and clapped twice. "Everyone, please follow Eddie's instructions and don't destroy the wallpaper."

"These kinds of tapes you use, I just bought them from the hodepot supermarket in Hollywood. This kind is for wallpaper, this kind is for sticking on wooden furniture, this kind..."

Eddie took out rolls of tape from the box and threw them to various assistants.

They quickly and carefully tore off the original tape without leaving any traces, and then replaced it with the variety Eddie had brought.

Many of the props on the crew are actually fake and are temporarily fixed with tape so that they can be replaced later.

By the time they were done and retreated, another ten minutes had passed. Ronald asked Sweets and Gray to stand on the positioning tape stuck on the ground, and then began to tell them about the first scene of the day while the camera crew measured the focus.

"Johnny was here to teach the baby how to dance Mambo. The baby's level was average, so Johnny was dissatisfied when he was teaching. Then the resort owner's youngest son came over and saw the two of them hugging each other and dancing like this. Johnny hurriedly separated from the customer. This is not allowed. If the boss's son sees it, he may lose his job. "

After the focus was measured, Ronald asked the two leading actors to rehearse their positions.

"Love, love is strange

Many people regard it as a game

once you get it

You never want to give up, no no”

The famous song "Love is Strange" by the black group "Mickey and Sylvia" began to play repeatedly on the speakers at the scene.

Sweets raised his hand and waved it around, then put it against Gray's palm, and the two began to dance the mambo. This first shot happened to be the song the two danced to during their audition.

"Watch your arms and don't slump your shoulders." Sweets was still reminding Jennifer Gray.

"I know..." Gray enjoyed the artistic conception brought by this song, and she didn't want Sweets to just say these disgraceful words.

"Watch the distance, don't get too close to me, follow my guidance, my rhythm."

Gray jumped more and more carelessly, and her heart melted in Sweets' single-lidded eyes full of masculine charm.

"Don't look at your steps, look at my eyes, look here." Sweets was still teaching

"I know." Gray threw his hands away angrily. He was not a professional dancer like him, so why was he so strict and ignorant of style?

"Hey..." Sweets sighed, why is he so stupid at dancing? He fell to the ground in an exaggerated manner, looking up at Gray with a helpless smile.

Jennifer Gray was amused by him, and then she started practicing dance steps by herself, one tap, two taps. Twisting hips, turning heads.

The music was in the middle section, and the two singers did not sing a section, but used dialogue to speak out the dialogue between men and women.

Sweets became interested, and he lip-synced and sang the dialogue on behalf of singer Mickey.

"Sylvia?"

"Mickey" Jennifer reacted and lip-synced with Sweets, it seemed that the other party was still very interesting.

"How do you call your lover over?" Sweets continued to lip-sync while lying on the ground.

"Come here, loverboy" Gray waved to the lover on the ground.

"What if he doesn't answer you?"

"Oh, lover" Gray changed a teasing posture, and Sylvia in the record also began to seduce with a gentle tone.

"What if he still ignores you?"

"Then I have to say..." Jennifer Gray looked at Sweets on the ground, her eyes were filled with honey-like sweetness.

"Oh, my lover, my sweet lover," Gray also knelt on the ground, getting closer and closer to Sweets. The two began to get closer, lip-syncing, getting closer and closer.

"Hahaha..."

This kind of play diluted Sweets' dissatisfaction with Gray's dancing. The two laughed at each other, and the atmosphere of opposition finally eased into mutual appreciation.

This kind of chemical reaction is exactly what Ronald needs most.

"Have you turned on the camera?" Ronald was stunned. The two had not practiced dancing together for a long time since the audition. Ronald deliberately wanted to keep Gray in the state of a beginner.

But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Jennifer Gray's love for Sweets did not diminish at all, but became stronger because of this short separation.

This impromptu performance was like a little interest between real lovers, with sparks flying. The chemistry between the two exploded.

"No..." Director of Photography Jeff Zu shook his head. It was originally a simple rehearsal. Not only was the camera not turned on, but the recording rod was not set up.

"Oh, shxt", Ronald now truly felt the benefits of Jonathan Demme's advice to him about not rehearsing.

Afraid of missing the rehearsal time, the actors gave their best performances. Demme always rehearsed with the camera turned on, even if it wasted film.

This is because of the scene today.

"Perform your improvisation again, this time we turn on the camera."

Ronald quickly struck while the iron was hot, and while the two people's feelings had not disappeared and the gods of film suddenly favored them, he wanted to reproduce the performance just now.

"A!"

Ronald moved his head away from the monitor on the camera and instructed the two leading actors.

For this crew, Ronald also used a new toy, a small monitor on the camera, for the director to see the composition effect of the shooting.

The clarity of that thing was extremely poor, and Ronald still looked up at the actors performing on the spot to observe the details.

"Cut, let's do it again. We want the feeling you just rehearsed."

After all, this is a deliberate performance, and the feeling is natural, which is definitely not comparable to the improvisation last time.

After reshooting several times, none of them are as good as the rehearsal one.

"Very good, let's shoot here, lunch time"

Ronald slapped his head in regret. In order to save money, he delayed the wonderful shots, which was really not worth the loss.

The production cost of the movie is limited, and his own film is not enough. He originally didn't intend to waste it, but objectively shot more, and didn't get a good result.

"I want to add a sum of money, and I plan to shoot every rehearsal next time. This movie pays great attention to the tacit understanding between the dancers. Maybe the best one will appear in the rehearsal when both parties are still feeling particularly fresh. The actors are all experienced, and I don't want to give up this good opportunity to shoot a particularly tacit shot."

During lunch, Ronald took Eddie to discuss the budget of the filming.

"Your budget is very tight. If you shoot and rehearse, it will increase the film cost by about one-fifth, and you may need to use the reserve fund."

"I know. I'll talk to Douglas later. He should agree. This is the key to artistic level. This movie is not for rookie actors. A large number of supporting roles are very experienced actors. Their difficulty is to break away from the routine, so the first one is generally the best.

And the movie Dirty Dancing is not breakdancing. The screenwriter Eleanor strictly follows the story advancement of the three-act play. Therefore, the spark of the opponent's play is particularly important. The same is true for dance. It is very important to capture this improvisational spark."

"You are the boss, Ronald. I have no problem. I'll call Douglas later and let him talk to you."

On the first day of shooting, except for the dance scene, which was the most sparky but was not caught in the rehearsal, and the subsequent reshoot was slightly worse, everything else can be said to be smooth.

When Ronald was having dinner with the crew, he was talking to Douglas about adding part of the reserve fund.

"No problem, isn't this part of the money just in case? It's very suitable to be used here."

"Thanks, buddy."

There was no problem with Douglas Jr.

Ronald took a slice of pizza, picked up the Coke and ate it. He continued to meet with the crew to discuss various things.

"This is the interlude of various submissions I collected. You can listen to it when you have time..."

Music director Danny Goldberg was in a great sense of crisis because his purchase of the rights to old songs was robbed by broker Jimmy Lehner.

For the three interludes that needed to be newly composed, he worked very hard and dumped the deo tapes of dozens of songs that he had collected on the ground.

"Don't be free. We're going to listen now. Please come with Eleanor."

Ronald took a tape recorder and put the first one in.

Eleanor is the creator of this story. She is very familiar with the music style of that time and has a feel for the situation of each episode. Therefore, Ronald always calls her when choosing music.

The actors, after finishing their meal, originally wanted to start the disco party as usual, but were attracted by the sound of the recorded songs here, and they all gathered around.

"Is this an episode that the director plans to use in the movie?"

Many actors are asking privately.

Reels of tapes were put in and taken out. Ronald and Eleanor's brows slowly wrinkled.

These songs may be because I made them in a small way and did not add my name to them, so the songs I found were not very satisfactory.

"None of these are very satisfying. You have to keep looking." Ronald said to music director Danny Goldberg after listening to it.

"I'll fly back to Los Angeles right away and continue collecting..." Danny is working hard now, and he doesn't want to be fired now.

"Director, I have written a song. Isn't my character going to sing a song at the resort performance? I think this song is quite suitable."

After a while, Jane Brooke, who played the baby's sister Lisa Houseman, came over specifically to find Ronald with a tape in her hand.

"Hoola, hana... hoora, hana..."

The tape was put into the recorder. There was a very strange song in it, and Jane Brooke's voice kept repeating those few syllables.

"What song is this?"

Eddie couldn't hold it back and spit out a mouthful of Coke.

"Isn't it a witty song that suits Lisa Houseman's silly older sister character?"

"Hula, Hana, Allah, Hana, Huna, bla..."

Ronald nodded and smiled, "It's really suitable, and you sing very well." He looked at the screenwriter Eleanor and asked for her opinion.

"It's really good, but it's not suitable for the ending episode." Eleanor felt a little regretful.

"Then it's settled?" Jane Brooke successfully recommended herself and was very happy.

"You go and sign it with music director Danny Goldberg later, and I'll buy it."

"Yeah..." Jane Brooke is completely different from the character Lisa. She is actually a good actress, can sing, and can write her own words. In this movie, letting her play a girl who only knows how to dress up is actually a bit humiliating. .

"Congratulations!" Jane Brooke high-fived several supporting actors, and everyone congratulated her. If her lyrics and music can be used as an episode in the movie, she will receive a long-term residual dividend if the movie is a hit.

Patrick Thwaites was watching. He walked to the hotel room, picked up the phone and asked the front desk to dial long distance to Los Angeles.

It's wife Lisa Niemi at home on the ranch.

"Lisa, honey. Bring the tape of that song to Virginia Mountain Lake Villa. The movie still lacks a theme song... yes, that's the one..."