Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Cynthia Rhodes became very clingy, perhaps thinking of leaving the set tomorrow, and she almost had Ronald all to herself, dancing with him all the time.

Of course, Ronald's dancing skills are not as superb as Patrick Swayze's, but fortunately, Mambo is not a very difficult dance. Under Cynthia's active leadership, the two of them danced very well.

Emil, the assistant director next to him, carried a video recorder and started filming the behind-the-scenes footage of the two main creatives, Ronald Cynthia and Patrick Eleanor, who were dancing in the center of the crowd.

This is an additional task that Emil performs in addition to being an assistant director. He also had to shoot several detailed shots of the entire movie.

Nowadays, movie marketing likes to use talk shows or interview programs. With these tidbits, you can play the edited clips during the program to arouse the curiosity of the audience, and preferably also include some humorous passages.

"Bang...bang..." The fine champagne that Eddie brought from the city next door in a truck with a cold storage was opened bottle by bottle. Everyone danced, sang and drank, and everyone got high.

"Click", Ronald opened the door to his suite. Cynthia was beautiful in her arms, and her champagne-scented breath sprayed onto her face with heat.

Ronald had long been attracted by Cynthia's natural beauty. He didn't understand what this southern beauty was thinking about during the dance just now.

"Pa", Ronald turned on the light. Cynthia seemed a little embarrassed, and a natural blush climbed onto her cheeks.

"Don't turn on the light."

Ronald turned off the lights. Tonight, the hot spring resort hotel turned on all the lights to celebrate the completion of filming. The light from outside seemed to leak in through the window, illuminating a little of Cynthia's face.

"Um……"

Cynthia in real life doesn't seem to be like Penny in the movie. In other words, unlike a Hollywood actress who knows how to cater to men and women, Ronald found some of the feelings he had when he was a teenager, treated her gently, and suddenly the two of them were in perfect harmony.

An hour later, the lights outside the window finally went out, leaving only the faint moonlight shining through the window, which reflected Cynthia's white and shiny back beautifully.

Ronald gently put his hand on it, and Cynthia just hummed. She was so exhausted that she couldn't even open her eyes. Ronald took advantage of the situation and hugged her close to him, and the two hugged each other and fell asleep.

Early the next morning, Ronald's biological clock was still in filming mode. He woke up naturally at five o'clock in the morning.

Seeing Cynthia Rhodes sleeping soundly beside him, Ronald first went to the living room to make a phone call and asked the kitchen to deliver all the breakfast to the room at six o'clock. I put on my running shoes and went for a run.

After running and taking a hot shower, Ronald waited for the full breakfast delivered by the hotel. Cynthia finally woke up.

"I don't know what you like to eat, so I ordered everything." Ronald pushed the breakfast cart into the room, just in time to see her stretching on the bed, a pair of white legs together, her toes Straighten. Girls who dance ballet are always so graceful.

"Are you always so considerate to girls?" Cynthia smiled.

"Not always, only to pretty girls." Ronald joked.

"If there is a boy around me who is so considerate to me, I will marry him." Cynthia also smiled and rushed into the bathroom to wash up.

"Why, isn't there such a person yet?" Ronald asked her.

Cynthia's voice came from inside, "Yes, yes, but he is younger than me. I don't think we may be able to grow old together in the future."

"Oh", Ronald waited for Cynthia to finish, and went to the dining table with her. Ronald also poured her a glass of milk and himself a glass of orange juice.

"Sometimes, it's not good to think too much. I used to know a ballerina girl... It's rare for both of them to be moved by each other. Who can tell what will happen in the future?"

…

The two said goodbye immediately in the morning. The men and women in Hollywood are like butterflies and bees. When they have nectar, they gather together and then go their separate ways.

At the end of his last day in North Carolina, Ronald and Eddie, who was daydreaming, returned to Los Angeles with all the equipment and samples.

The film negatives were shipped directly from the labs in the east to the Paramount Film Production Department.

Paramount's photofinishing and printing plants have branches in several major regions across the country. Ronald relied on his relationship with Ned Tanin to get a good price. Not only were they developed at their labs in the Southeast, but they also ended up borrowing Paramount's film editing equipment and copy production lines.

However, before that, the important thing he still had to do was to visit Walter Murch with the newly released working copy.

"That's all? Your original film duration isn't very long."

Murch moved all the footage into the rented editing suite at Paramount, along with Ronald and assistant director Emil. Counting the number of reels of film, Ronald had less material than a director like Coppola.

"Yes, I used a new method this time. Many shots were started at the same time during rehearsal. Often the first time the effect is better than the actual shooting, so it is very rare to shoot more than ten times for one shot. Overall The film also saved some.”

Ronald opened a large bucket bag he brought with him and took out the "Murch Super Editing Tape" that Little Bud brought from the small factory on Staten Island.

Now all the new editing tapes are produced by the small factory that Ronald and Murch cooperated with. Even Murch himself had to ask Ronald for the goods.

This tape received a good response in Hong Kong. Jackie's demonstration effect there was very good. Once he used this tape, many studios also found that with this new tape, the edited copies could be directly previewed without having to make a new copy, which could save the money for a copy, so they all paid to buy it.

The demand increased, so Ronald could let those workers start work every day, produce slowly, store them in the warehouse during the off-season, and transport more to sell when the number of films increased.

In this way, starting work every day, the purchase of raw materials, labor costs, etc., are also reduced. The average cost can be reduced a lot. With the cost reduced, there is room for price reduction, so the sales in the local American market have also improved.

In America, the retail price of Ronald's tape has gradually reached only twice that of the old tape, and the wholesale price for production companies like Roger Corman can be reduced to a lower level.

Many studios shooting low-cost productions have also begun to switch to this tape because they want to save money on a copy.

Gradually, the reputation of "Murch Super Editing Tape" is not limited to the circle of a few high-level directors in America. Gradually, all practitioners have begun to purchase this tape.

"The quality of your factory's production is really good and stable. It is a little worse than my hand-made one, but it is stable. If I don't let that friend do it, the quality will be much worse." Walter Murch picked up several large rolls of tape and put them on the editing table.

"This year's dividends will be good, just consider it as a Christmas gift for my children," Ronald said with a smile, "Ah, this is not it, this is what I brought back from the crew. They use tapes of different materials to paste on the scene. It is very useful. This time I didn't lose money in two major locations."

Ronald put back several tapes for other uses.

Walter Murch shrugged, put the first tape on the editing machine, and began to compare it with the table of shot durations he estimated before filming.

"Your idea seems to be exactly the same as mine. The shot durations I estimated in advance are very close to the final shot durations you used."

Walter looked at it for a while and suddenly said to Ronald.

"Really?" Ronald also became interested and looked at the durations of more than a dozen shots. Sure enough, they were very close to Murch's estimates.

"Maybe you are deeply influenced by Coppola's school. I have worked with them for a long time and also use their methods to estimate the shot durations."

"Maybe." Ronald thought to himself, will the way he learns editing also affect the director's work in turn? After all, the little editing techniques he has are all taught by Murch.

After spending two days with Murch, the two went through all the materials. After watching all of them, it was the dance scenes at the beginning and climax of the climax shot by Ronald that had a large gap with Murch's estimated time.

"I didn't expect you to shoot like this." Murch was surprised. "Your dance scene is very different from your 'breakdance'. It is a bit similar to the original western cowboy movies and the fighting scenes in Hong Kong action movies.

It emphasizes tacit cooperation to show the beauty of the dance itself. In addition, the chemical reaction between the two protagonists is visible to the naked eye. This is also a good film technically."

"Why are you also watching Hong Kong movies?" Ronald laughed. He didn't think so when he was shooting himself. Maybe he subconsciously used some of the methods of those movies.

"Many people are watching it. They think their route is very interesting and very different from Hollywood. Many people say that the guy named Jackie is very similar to Buster Keaton in the early silent film period of Hollywood."

"Jackie? That's my buddy." Ronald laughed, "He is also the agent of our tape there. I will introduce you to each other if I have the chance."

"I will synchronize the sound and picture first, and then prepare the sound design. When you come back from vacation, we will start editing together." Murch nodded and said to Ronald.

"You can do the rough cut first. You don't have to wait for me to come back. You taught me all my editing techniques. Besides, you also said that our ideas are similar. I will make fine adjustments when I come back."

With Murch at the helm, Ronald was happy to have some free time. He left his assistant Emil in the editing room to study and went on vacation to relax.