Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The shooting went very fast.

On this day, the heroine Cher finally changed her hairstyle.

Loretta, played by Cher, was a dull, boring, and conservative widow in the first half of the film. She often wore black, and her hair was a little gray, but she didn't dye it. She just had a hairstyle common to Italian old ladies.

Her clothes were also very conservative, with black as the main color, and her shoes were also black boots. She looked not feminine at all.

But after a night of passion with Ronnie, who was full of passionate and male hormones, her instinct as a beautiful woman awakened.

Ronnie was unwilling to let go and let Loretta and Johnny get married and never contact each other again.

The next morning, he expressed his thoughts, but was slapped in the face by Loretta.

Ronnie, played by Nicolas Cage, still asked to continue dating Loretta, but was slapped in the face by Cher again.

"Wake up."

The momentary passion can never beat the rational thinking of a middle-aged woman the next morning.

Loretta felt that she couldn't face Johnny and tell him what happened. She didn't think that Ronnie, who was much younger than her, could be her life partner. She wanted to wake him up and let this night be a sweet memory for the two of them.

But Ronnie didn't want to let go. He proposed to invite Loretta to watch Puccini's opera "La Boheme".

As long as Loretta agreed to go with him, he would agree to let go and attend her and Johnny's wedding, as if nothing had happened.

Ronnie was confident. Watching opera is a very formal social activity for Italians, and watching opera can cause very dramatic emotional reactions. Some people are romantic by nature. After watching opera, they are passionate and will do things that they would never do normally.

Others don't react too strongly to opera. They listen to it as ordinary classical music and don't have any emotional reactions beyond daily life.

Italians have this romantic and crazy gene in their culture, and they often belong to the former.

Although Loretta knew that this was unreliable, her female intuition still made her agree.

As an Italian, watching opera is a big deal. Loretta saw a hair salon on the road and walked in.

This is a very interesting transformation scene. Ronald thinks that in romantic love movies, there needs to be such a process, so that the ugly duckling who is not so conspicuous can become a white swan with the help of friends and professionals.

Because at the beginning, the audience's impression is also fixed with the makeup and dress of the protagonist. This process of transformation not only makes the male protagonist Ronnie amazing, but more importantly, it makes the audience feel amazing.

"I have to use my own hairstylist, Ronald. And nails and makeup." After Cher arrived at the scene, she began to make many requests.

"But here we need to perform. Can your hairstylist act?" Ronald is also confused by the strict requirements of this star on his appearance.

You can't say Cher's requirements are excessive. She has sacrificed her image and made herself ugly in the first half for the artistic effect of the movie.

This transformation does not allow her to dress up beautifully according to her own preferences, which is a pity for the painstaking efforts of inviting her to be the heroine, which was originally for some of Cher's fans to see.

However, her request is a bit troublesome in operation.

This scene requires Loretta to dye her hair, perm her hair, do her nails, trim her eyebrows, put on makeup, and so on. Some of the hair and makeup processes are to be shown in front of the movie camera.

Cher must have a special team to do it, so it will be very troublesome to split the screen during shooting.

"So, I will give you a close-up, only shoot the left half of your more beautiful face, and the camera will only shoot three-quarters of your face, and then let your official makeup studio and hairstylist take care of it, so that they only have their hands on the screen, and they will not ruin the shot because of nervousness.

As for the other shots, let these confirmed actors play them. I will cut them together through post-production editing."

Cher discussed with her private team and agreed with Ronald's method.

She first made her hair back to its original black color, and then asked her favorite private hairstylist to start steaming her hair to restore the big wavy hairstyle.

Ronald and the director of photography David Watkins were watching from the side. They were good friends in private. With a glance, they both went out to smoke and complained about the stars’ excessive demands.

“You are very lucky. Cher is one of the stars with relatively few demands. I once filmed a romantic love film. The heroine showed a wrong attitude after she came. The director and I thought something had happened to her. Maybe she had a falling out with her husband, who was a film producer, and wanted to divorce and quit the crew.

She stayed in the trailer for two hours and still couldn’t find her state. The director and I went to see the situation and whether we could shoot that day.

As a result, the female star said that it was because her dog suddenly died last night.”

“That’s because you didn’t see her before.” Ronald spit out a puff of smoke. Cher made a scene on David Lettman’s evening talk show. When rehearsing the script reading, she also brought a boyfriend who made bagels, which almost angered a group of Broadway supporting actors.

“Fortunately, I rejected her new boyfriend’s coming to Toronto through MGM, otherwise our situation would be several times more difficult than it is now.”

"We have been shooting in Toronto for several weeks. I think the filming is very boring. There are only a few long shots and close-ups, and there are no more dramatic conflicts with other characters. So far, the most impressive dramatic conflict I have is the two slaps I gave to Nic Cage."

In the studio, in the indoor scene of the hair salon, Cher was also chatting with Olympia Dukakis, who played her mother, complaining that director Ronald was not paying attention to her role.

"And Ronald never guided my acting skills. He never told me how to act. He always let me find my own feelings. Then he would say, you acted very well. Now let's try another way of acting and do it again."

"That's because he respects the performance of the actors. After all, the role is to be performed by the actors." Olympia Dukakis curled her lips. She had an opinion on Cher's acting skills, but she also knew that she was just a supporting role compared to the other party, and she should not bring her personal opinions into the professional work of the crew.

Ronald is a good director who can tolerate and understand actors. After all, Cher has not made many movies. She doesn't know how difficult it is to have such a director.

Cher's previous two films were both co-produced with famous Hollywood directors. One, "The Skewers," was directed by Michael Nichols, who had directed "The Graduate." The other, "The Mask," was directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

The two directors knew that Cher's character was a weakness in acting, so they often personally directed how to act in some scenes. If that didn't work, they would use short shots to edit Cher's performances.

But Broadway requires a play to be performed from beginning to end, without the convenience of pausing for another take. Cher's acting skills still need to be trained if she wants to act in a drama.

Ronald's special advantage as a director is that he gives actors some room for improvisation. Under conditions that suit the situation, they can have some inspiration, and Ronald always encourages them.

Acting according to the script without moving may get 80 or 90 points, but to stimulate the real reaction of the opponent actor and get full marks, there must be a little improvisation.

Actors are very sensitive people. Ronald never criticizes them. He always carefully protects the actors' self-confidence. Only when they feel comfortable can they have room for extraordinary performance.

Cher's rigid requirements for Ronald are a reflection of her own poor acting skills.

Real actors, like those who have worked hard on Broadway for many years, can analyze characters and come up with appropriate performance methods by themselves after receiving the script. Why do they need specific guidance from the director?

"Everyone says Ronald is very good, but I don't see it at all." Cher was a little skeptical about Ronald. Can this movie really become a successful work as he said?

"Did we shoot it wrong? No one will watch this movie after it is released, right? I can imagine what the critics will say."

"No." Dukakis was angry at what she said. He had a lot of fun acting in this movie, and it will definitely be good.

"A!"

Finally, when it was ready, Cher's head was covered with a steaming white towel, and then her personal hairdresser uncovered the towel, and her straight long hair covered Cher's forehead. The hairdresser parted her hair and began to comb her hairstyle.

A super close-up shot was taken on Cher's more beautiful left face. His hairstylist used a pair of tweezers to pluck out a few stray hairs in the middle of Cher's eyebrows one by one.

"Ah" Cher kept shouting in pain.

"Cut!"

"Very good, very good. Let's try another way now, let's try another one."

"Oh" Cher really had two eyebrows plucked and returned to the chair.

The shooting continued. Except for Cher's part, the cooperation of others became more and more tacit.

Ronald knew that Cher's acting skills were not enough compared to Dukakis and others. She could not be the core of the drama.

Although she was the protagonist of the movie, she was a supporting role in the dramatic conflict. The whole family was actually centered around the role of Rose, the mother played by Dukakis.

But he couldn't let Cher act recklessly, otherwise the shots of her and other supporting roles would appear very abrupt. A person with average acting skills suddenly appeared among a group of old actors, and many rhythms and subtle emotions could not be connected, which would drag down the whole movie.

Ronald had no choice but to separate Cher's shots as much as possible. He tried to reduce the number of shots of her and other family members in the same frame. He then used editing techniques to make up for it.

"You can't do this. What will you do for the last scene?" David Watkin was a little worried about Ronald's approach.

"I can't do it either. There is pressure on the shooting cycle. I can't stop and wait for Cher to train her acting skills. I can only use what I have."

This approach made Cher more suspicious of Ronald's level. She always faced the camera alone most of the time. Cher felt that this shooting method was too simple.

A long shot of walking, followed by a medium shot, cut to a close shot, then a close-up reaction, and then cut back to the over-the-shoulder shot of the dialogue.

Compared with the two great directors Cher had worked with, Ronald's approach did not seem so distinctive.

Peter Bogdanovich always quoted some classic clips from movies and TV to guide his acting. Michael Nichols was good at letting people perform naturally. What about Ronald? There were quite a lot of cut shots.

"Oh my" Cher walked out of the hair salon, and two young Italian extras whistled at her. After dressing up, especially with long wavy hair, high heels and skirts, Loretta's feminine charm finally began to radiate.

The shooting went on day by day, and finally reached the final stage. This is the most important group scene in the movie. All the clues are heading towards a point of no return, and they must be completely resolved in a breakfast of the big family.

In this way, we can't use tricks. Cher must be with others and enter the frame at the same time.

Ronald's pressure is getting greater and greater. This long breakfast table scene is the most important scene in the whole film. If it is not shot well, the movie will collapse.

"A!"

"Cut, Cut, you are in the frame."

"Cut, Cut, it's not your turn to move yet."

"Cut, the recording rod is coming in."

When it came to the morning scene of shooting this shot, it didn't work after several shots.

This scene is a showdown for everyone. The center of the drama is from Loretta confessing that she loves her brother Ronnie, to Ronnie coming home to meet the family, to Grandpa forcing his father Cosmo to pay for his daughter's wedding.

Then, mother Rose reveals that her father has a lover outside. Just when everyone has dealt with the conflict, Loretta's fiancé, Ronnie's brother Johnny, comes back from Italy.

No one knows how to tell him that Loretta doesn't want to marry him. Johnny actually said he wants to cancel the engagement first!

The center of the drama is constantly cruising between several characters. After the actors enter the role, they play very unrestrainedly. The original camera positions and split shots have problems and do not match their performances.

After shooting several shots without success, Ronald decided to stop and let everyone rest for half an hour, "You go out first, let me think about it here alone."

After all the actors and staff left, Ronald lowered his head and sighed, how to shoot this?

This kind of group portrait drama that requires precise control of movement, Ronald knows why directors regard the dinner table scene as the biggest challenge as soon as he shoots it.

The tension between multiple characters needs to be expressed in a long shot. In addition to the actors not making mistakes, the director's scheduling ability is also tested.

"If it doesn't work, use a short shot to cut close-up." David Watkin stayed in the room and said to Ronald, who looked frustrated.

"No, the overall tone of this movie is a medium-length shot of a few seconds to more than ten seconds. The climax at the end suddenly got the editing rhythm excited, and the audience would be distracted." Ronald covered his face with his hands. He encountered a big challenge in his directorial career. For the first time, he didn't know how to shoot on the spot.

"If you want to shoot well, there is only one way." David Watkin is a British who has seen many drama performances in the West End of London.

"You have to direct this scene like a drama, let them rehearse until they are proficient before shooting. In this way, I can re-arrange the storyboard on the spot according to their most comfortable movement, so that the camera and the actors will not interfere with each other."

"Rehearse, rehearse," Ronald muttered to himself for half a minute, "That's it!"

Ronald called everyone in and announced his decision.

Rehearsal, after everyone's emotions are in place and everyone is familiar with the positions, then set the position of the camera and the storyboard according to their most comfortable route.

First rehearse this scene as a play, and after it is passed as a play, introduce the camera to shoot.

"Wait, it's already late today, let's end here and continue rehearsing tomorrow morning."

The rehearsal lasted a whole day, and Ronald was close to despair. He even considered Watkin's first suggestion, using the editing method of the movie to get it over with.

During the rehearsal, Cher asked a lot. She had worked with Oscar-winning directors such as Peter Bogdanovich and Michael Nichols, and was not used to Ronald's concept of not giving performance guidance but focusing on the actors' own understanding and performance.

Throughout the play, she often interrupted the rehearsal and asked Ronald to "guide" her on how to act.

Ronald explained patiently, but often after resuming the rehearsal, Cher stopped again and continued to ask for acting guidance.

Those Broadway character actors were also exhausted. Especially Fedor Chaliapin, who played the old man, needed a rest at the age of 81.

Ronald had no choice but to end the rehearsal.

This was the first time since he entered the industry that Ronald fell behind schedule when filming a movie.

The next morning, after the actors arrived, they continued to rehearse.

Cher's dissatisfaction with Ronald was already on her face. She felt that her acting was not good, mainly because Ronald's guidance was not enough.

The Broadway character actor supporting group headed by Olympia Dukakis supported Ronald and felt that such a director, who only talked about the effect he wanted to achieve, but did not determine the performance method, and gave the actors a certain amount of room to play, was the best.

The stars and the actors actually quarreled over whether Ronald was a good director.

Olympia Dukakis was very dissatisfied with Cher's repeated disrespect for Ronald. When it was almost noon, she couldn't help it and directly accused Cher:

"Even if Ronald is a rookie who is directing a movie for the first time, as an actor, you should respect his position. What's more, he is a very gifted and talented director. He is the type of director that actors most want to meet, and it is our luck to meet him.

You can't say such condescending words to a director like this."

"Hmph, do you think I haven't filmed under the hands of a famous director? Let me tell you, my first two movies were directed by Oscar-winning directors, and it's not that I haven't seen good directors. Moreover, movies are the art of stars, and this is not a Broadway theater."

"Hmph"

"Hmph"

Both actresses were angry, and they began to quarrel about acting, professionalism, and what it means to respect the director.

"Aren't you going to stop them?" Director of Photography David Watkin quietly pulled Ronald.

"I don't want to stop them, they will quarrel sooner or later anyway", Ronald has seen that the two have long disliked each other. This is essentially the different attitudes of actors and stars towards the film industry.

"If we don't come to a conclusion today, I won't feed you." Ronald couldn't stand the rehearsal that continued without progress. No matter what, whether they quarreled or talked it out, they had to reach a consensus on the dialogue and performance of this scene before they could continue filming.

"Okay, I'll go eat first, then go to sleep. When they're done quarreling, you can call me again." David Watkins walked out leisurely.

Several Broadway male actors just handed water to the two female actors. They were used to quarreling because of artistic differences on Broadway. Such intense exchanges were actually a good thing if both sides put drama first.

Nicolas Cage spoke for Ronald the day before and was choked by Cher. Now he didn't say a word and just watched from the side.

Now the two sides quarreled more fiercely, and everyone had their own opinions on this scene.

However, the two didn't seem to stop, but seemed to have a real fire.

Cher was told that her acting skills were not good, and she blurted out that Dukowski had not played the leading role in all these years on Broadway. Meryl Streep, who entered Broadway later than her, played the leading role with Cher in the previous "Scrubs". She was already a famous actress who had been nominated for an Oscar.

Dukakis was so angry that he retorted that Cher was just an outdated female singer and did not have a deep understanding of filming. A movie only needs to take one good shot. After watching her scene in "Scrubs", it was cut into many short shots. Didn't director Bogdanovich tell you that this is because your acting is bad?

Fedor Chaliapin, who played the grandfather, was severely deaf, but he could read the mouth shape of the speaker.

He couldn't stand seeing the two women quarreling more and more fiercely.

In his long career, he had seen many quarrels and even fights because of artistic differences. In this movie, everyone was shooting happily, and the two women got along well. It was unnecessary to get to this point.

Fedor Chaliapin stood up and stretched out his hand to signal the two to stop.

No one listened to him.

Fedor Chaliapin had no choice but to slam the table, and everyone stopped.

"We should fight, not fight with arms."

Cher and Dukakis were startled by the loud noise of Fedor Chaliapin's slamming the table. After hearing the old man's words, they stood still and stopped arguing.

The two looked at each other. They were originally discussing how to perform this scene, but somehow, they started to argue more and more fiercely.

The words of the old actor in his eighties still had to be listened to. The two sat down at the table and looked at each other.

The two quarreling parties were stopped by the old man's words, and the other actors were speechless at once.

Suddenly, everything stopped.

Ronald suddenly had an idea, and he immediately felt that the current situation was very similar to the plot of the breakfast scene.

Everyone revealed the deepest secrets of each other's hearts at this breakfast table.

Shocked that others actually knew their secrets, each family member apologized for their past.

Then they forgave each other, and the big family finally united again. This is the way the Italian family resolves family conflicts. Let's talk about everything at the dinner table.

Family members all have weaknesses, and they are cut apart at the dinner table, but in the end, eating the food made by their mother, everyone still has to trust each other and move on.

"David!"

Ronald suddenly shouted, "David, David, come quickly."

David Watkins ran in after hearing the news.

"Hurry up, this state is just right now, it's too late to draw the storyboard, don't waste this state, you quickly set the camera position.

Lighting!, recording!, script supervisor!, makeup!"

Ronald called everyone back loudly, start shooting immediately!