Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Ronald is very busy now. After finishing shopping, he went directly to the editing room, where Walter Murch was editing Ronald's second film "Moonlight".

"How is the sample this time?" Ronald handed Murch a cup of coffee, like a promising student who always wanted to hear the teacher's praise.

"Very good, very good. I saw a very good drama, here, and here." Walter Murch pointed out several scenes to Ronald, saying that he liked these scenes very much and they were very interesting to watch.

Ronald took a look and found that they were all scenes at the dining table. It seems that this kind of dining table scene really tests the skills of actors and directors. Murch, who has led the editing and sound design of many films, is knowledgeable and speaks more directly, so this praise is of high gold content.

"Are you still going to play Dean Martin's "That's Love" at the beginning?" Murch put the first roll of film on the editing table. He has already synchronized the sound and picture, and can start editing slowly with Ronald.

"Yes, what do you suggest?" Ronald, of course, followed the soundtrack in his dream and found Jimmy Rainer, the music broker he met during "Dirty Dancing", to ask the record company to buy the rights to use this old song.

"It's not my idea, but your director of photography David Watkin told me in Toronto. You know, David is a classical music lover, and he thinks the opening should be played with the aria of Your Cold Hands from the opera "La Boheme".

It just so happens that this is the music when the hero and heroine fall in love. When they went to the opera together, they couldn't help but fall for the performance and confirmed that they were the right person for each other."

"OK, what do you think?" Ronald asked Walter Murch to play a aria from La Boheme, then closed his eyes and savored it, and then compared it with "That's Love".

"I think from an artistic point of view, La Bohème is more relevant. The audience will hear the opera scene after this music again, which is a repetitive process in a symphony. Movies are sometimes like symphonies, you need repetition and variation of themes."

"Well, but I am worried that the audience's acceptance is not as well-known as Dean Martin's song."

"You are the director, you make the decision. Dean Martin's song is also very good, but in terms of structural integrity, it is not as good as this song "Your Cold Hands."

"Or, let's make two versions and see the reaction when we preview it."

The editing work is very boring. After watching the materials back and forth, the two of them can cut about five or six times a day, and the rest of the time is spent on discussion and trial and error.

"I think the difficulty of editing your film is not too great. You seem to know the final effect of the film before shooting. Some directors are not like this. They often don't know what story they want when they shoot.

When I edited for Coppola, I could basically only cut one or two times a day."

"What about your own "Return to Oz"?" Ronald asked Murch.

"I didn't edit the film I directed. In general, I prefer to play freely. Clay animation accounts for too much of the filming, and I have no idea what the results will be."

What Murch said is actually the main schools of two directors.

One extreme is Hitchcock. He extremely hated the improvisation of actors on the set and once said that he would treat actors like cattle and horses.

He had planned all the scenes before shooting. Once an actress felt that her performance was not good and asked to reshoot. Hitchcock couldn't resist and agreed, but he didn't even open the lens cover of the camera, but just let the actress walk through it.

After the actress found out, she was very angry with Hitchcock, saying that she was still dissatisfied with her performance and just wanted to improve it.

And Hitchcock said that for him, her performance was already completed in the previous take.

Many directors, including Stanley Kubrick and John Ford, prefer this method.

The other extreme is Francis Coppola. This guy can even write tomorrow's script on the spot. When filming, he also encourages actors to improvise in different ways.

So when Murch edited his film, each take was a different way of acting. They can be matched together, and the final cut can even be completely opposite.

Like most directors, Ronald is in the middle of two extremes. He mainly shoots commercial films, so the performance of the actors is not that important. This "Moonlight" can be regarded as a play that he attaches relatively much importance to acting.

...

The editing continued, and suddenly one day, Joseph Farrow, the vice president of 20th Century Fox, called Ronald and asked him to come over for a chat.

"The Arrogant Annequ is scheduled to be released on the 12th of next month. We don't have a large distribution budget. Now there is an opportunity to get some free popularity, but we need your help."

Joseph Farrow got straight to the point. The audience preview of "Arrogant Annequ" was not bad, but the critics had a bad impression and were criticized.

Seeing this situation, 20th Century Fox gave up the idea of ​​promoting the film in the media and turned to relying on audience word of mouth to succeed.

"An absolute wretch, this film will be frustrating to anyone who remembers what a movie comedy is supposed to be."

Ronald picked up the film review that Farrow had put on the table and started reading it. These film critics had already gone through the public relations of 20th Century Fox and watched the film critics' special show.

It's just that the movie has not been released yet, and the content of the film review has not yet appeared in the media, but has only been circulated within Fox.

"Does this author, Leonard Martin, have a grudge against you?" Ronald looked up at Farrow.

"No, but the American media has the right to report freely. We can only invite them to come and write film reviews. As for what they write, we can't control it."

Joseph Farrow took a puff of cigarette. He was also very dissatisfied with the negligence of the marketing department. CEO Barry Diller is turning his attention to the TV station. He and the new boss still have a lot of running-in work to do.

Fox's film department is now in a state of disarray. Everyone does their own thing and only cares about finding their own interests in it.

If the marketing department hadn't given some budget to find some film critics to write film reviews, this "arrogant" film would most likely be ignored by film critics. Instead of a bunch of very negative film reviews like now.

"Nonsense, why don't you give some vacation vouchers, sponsor the annual meeting of the Film Critics Association or something?"

"That's Eisner's strength. We at 20th Century Fox respect the media." Joseph Farrow was still stubborn.

But seeing Ronald's disdainful smile, he stopped pretending.

"Fuck, if I were the president, I would have to fire those rubbish in the marketing department."

"This movie is made by idiots, for idiots, and about idiots." Ronald continued to read. This is a film review from the Washington Post.

"As co-writer and director Michael Gottlieb, 'Arrogant' best shows what perfunctory work means."

This is a film review from the New York Times.

"Damn, you Fox guys are too bad. I know these people. When they were at Paramount and Universal, they were all taken care of."

Ronald read a bunch of scolding reviews, none of which had any good words in the whole article. Fortunately, he was listed as a producer and was not scolded.

The last one was Roger Ebert's from the Chicago Sun-Times.

"Many bad movies have a strong vitality.

But this "Swing" is completely dead. The audience kept vigil for it for an hour and a half, and then finally they could end the ceremony and leave this funeral ceremony.

In fact, halfway through, I was ready for someone to lead us to turn the rosary and start mourning for it.

The film stars Andrew McCarthy and Kim Cattrall.

They are actors I admired before and will undoubtedly admire again.

Years later, they may look back on this project with a mixed smile and shrug, just like we remember Paul Newman's garbage film "Silver Cup". This bad movie does not detract from our love for them at all, but only appears as a joke in our memories.

In "Swing", McCarthy plays an incompetent young man who is fired from one job after another, and Cattrall plays an Egyptian princess who reincarnates as a mannequin in the window of a Philadelphia department store..."

"Is there anything better?" Ronald watched half of it and threw Ebert's review on the table.

These critics are so bad.

Such unanimous criticism of a commercial film for its poor artistic quality, poor acting skills, and loopholes in the story is a deliberate attempt to belittle the film by telling partial truths.

Commercial films do not pay so much attention to the completeness of the details of the story and the harmonious performance of the acting.

Such unanimous criticism, needless to say, must be from a certain film in the same period, which spent a lot of money to buy their praise, so that it has to step on a production of a big company for comparison.

"Here is an article that says good things."

Joseph Farrow threw a bound magazine sample over.

"Philadelphia is a great city, once the capital of our United States..."

"Isn't this a film review?" Ronald read the first few paragraphs, all of which talked about Philadelphia's current economic recovery, capital is entering the suburbs of the city, and commercial activities are active.

"Read on." Joseph Farrow said nothing more.

Ronald continued to flip down.

At the end of the article praising the city, the author finally remembered the movie and mentioned the new Hollywood film "Swimming", which was set in Philadelphia and filmed in Philadelphia.

"Although the movie is clumsy, it is the greatest movie story ever set in Philadelphia in the 1980s. Really, it is the most exciting movie ever about this city."

"Hey..." Ronald smiled bitterly. This was a flattering article made by the magazine of the city where the movie was shot. The black mayor of Philadelphia attached great importance to the filming of the movie in Philadelphia, but that was it. He only said a few good words about the movie at the end.

"Let's not talk about this. What do you want to do?" Ronald put all the film reviews aside and asked Joseph Farrow.

"Starship, the band that sang the ending song of the movie, and now nothing can stop us, is quite satisfied with this song. The lead singer Grace Slick wants to give herself a perfect memory before leaving the band.

So their record company is willing to pay for Grace Slick to shoot a v version, so that we can take advantage of the popularity of this song."

Joseph Farrow talked about his plan. He had no resources to rely on. He just saw that Ronald's "Top Gun" and the theme song "Take My Breath Away" complemented each other and brought a lot of sales to each other, so he wanted to imitate it.

"How much are they going to pay?" Ronald understood that this was because they were interested in his company's v-shooting ability. "Take My Breath Away" was shot in the aircraft graveyard of the Navy and Air Force. It didn't cost much and the effect was very good.

"This number", Joseph Farrow held up three fingers.

"That's a small amount, then we can only use the scenes of the movie to intersperse and edit. Are you willing to do that at Fox?"

"Yes, but don't use too many shots of the male and female protagonists."

"Okay, you can let the lead singer of the Starship band dress up as the image in the movie and reshoot some shots." Ronald thought of a money-saving idea.

Let the lead singers act out the plot of the movie and intersperse real movie scenes. This will not only save money, but can also be used as a trailer and broadcast on TV.

"Then I'll let them find you." Joseph Farrow was very satisfied. He and Ronald cooperated well on this movie and made money tacitly. I can also send a few of my own people to the crew to play the leading roles.

I worked hard to become a senior executive of the company, isn't it for this?

"By the way, Starship, are you going to release the soundtrack of the movie?"

Ronald asked Joseph Farrow.

Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer are already preparing to publish the soundtrack of "Top Gun". In addition to a few interludes and theme songs, some soundtracks to set the atmosphere are also planned to be included.

Ronald didn't know how this soundtrack was operated, so he just asked Joseph Farrow, who was the vice president of the studio, he must be very clear about these things.

"What does it have to do with the band? The soundtrack of the movie is released by the film company, and it has nothing to do with the record company. They just release the copyright and wait for the money.

This movie doesn't seem to have any good reviews, I don't plan to release the record."

Joseph Farrow was amused by Ronald's ignorance. He didn't want to release this kind of record, which was purely a money-losing thing. If it was reflected in the financial statements, wouldn't it be another handle?

It's better to be honest and not lose money on this movie. Anyway, we have almost made what we should make. It's just that the market doesn't approve of it. No one knows whether the movie will be a hit or not. The executives of the film company can't predict the future, right?

"Is it led by the film company? I thought it was released by the record company?"

Ronald was a little puzzled. The soundtrack of the movie is also a record, right? Why is it not released by the record company?

"Whoever takes the risk can take all the surplus. This is the iron law of this business, Ronald."

Joseph Farrow pointed at the director and producer with the cigar in his hand. The young man was still a little inexperienced, so he could teach him.

After listening to Joseph Farrow's explanation, Ronald realized that the distribution rules of the soundtrack of this movie should indeed be led by the film company.

The interludes of the movie are mostly old songs. Some singers sing a new version, and some just use the old version.

For example, Ronald's "Dirty Dancing" is directly mixed with the soundtrack of the old record because of the limited production cost.

When a record company wants to release a record, it depends on how many consumers can pay for it. The market capacity determines the scale of release, the number of productions, and the marketing budget.

As for the soundtracks composed of movie interludes, this collection of old and new songs, how much they can sell depends entirely on the box office of the movie.

Record companies can only predict the market around singers or bands. For this kind of derivative records accompanying movies, no one in the record company can predict the sales.

Based on the principle that whoever knows the market better will be the boss, the soundtracks of movies in history have been published and released by movie companies.

Of course, in the late 1970s, the trend of record companies entering the film market, which was opened by "Grease" and "Saturday Night Fever", also allowed some record company bosses to invent the method of using movies to promote new records.

Robert Stewart, Jerry Weintraub and other record industry tycoons also completed the task of transforming to Hollywood.

But the box office of movies is even more difficult to predict than the sales of records.

These tycoons soon lost their magic and lost a lot of money in the film industry. By the second half of the 1980s, record companies had already kept their distance from movies.

They were only satisfied with getting a share of the profits from the movie soundtracks through the authorization of songs. At least this way, there was no risk.

If the old songs could sell well again, they could earn a lot of copyright fees. If the soundtracks didn't sell well, they wouldn't lose anything.

Ronald learned about the production process of the soundtracks and began to think about it. Speaking of the old songs of "Dirty Dancing", the copyright broker Jimmy Lina didn't spend much money to get them.

If the box office of this movie is good, relying on the cheap copyrights of these dozen interludes, it will be profitable to release the record, right? I wonder if fans who like the movie will buy another record to listen to at home?

Thinking about his worries, Ronald said goodbye from Joseph Farrow's office. After walking a few steps, he heard a magnetic female voice calling him.

"Ronald."

Ronald looked up and saw the "sprung" heroine, Kim Cattrall.

"Why are you here."

"I heard about the film review, so I came to ask about it."

Cattrall didn't look too good. She heard about the film critics, who collectively gave it the lowest possible score. I only got a real heroine role when I was thirty, and I was about to be ruined by these film critics.

"Don't worry, for this kind of small production, film reviews actually don't play a big role." Ronald hugged the unhappy Cattrall and went downstairs with her.

"Is that so? I really don't know anything right now, Ronald. Can you tell me? I really don't know..."

Cattrall's brows furrowed together, as if he had found a life-saving straw when he heard Ronald say this.

She was indeed tired.

She has wanted to be an actress or a star since she was a child, but no one has ever really treated her well and planned her career seriously.

I was deceived many times, and it was only after I passed my thirties that I finally became a heroine with enough acting roles.

"Of course, the reviews and marketing of a movie only determine the box office. For such a small production, it is impossible to spend a lot of money to achieve good opening results. It still depends on the audience's reputation."

Ronald has a lot of experience in small-scale film productions. He knows very well that film marketing and film reviews can give you a good opening weekend box office, but the final outcome depends on the quality of the film itself.

"Really? I believe you now. Don't lie to me. I can bear anything. I just want to know the true situation." Cattrall has been hit hard. She is more interested in lies than failure. Hated.

"I'm not going to lie to you. You still remember the movie 'Monsters in Chinatown' in which Diane guest-starred. The reviews were pretty good. I remember that you appeared on many TV shows and gave interviews. How was the box office in the end?"

"real?"

"Of course, Joseph Farrow told me that the audience test screening score was good, with a B+ level. The company's score is more objective, but it won't be very different. This kind of romantic comedy has this audience reaction, and it won't be bad. Where did it go?”

Ronald's confidence in the box office is pretty good. It will probably be able to recoup the cost and make a small profit.

Kim Cattrall felt better after seeing Ronald's solemn assurance that the movie was not as bad as the critics said.

"Which hotel are you staying in? I'll accompany you." Cattrall has nothing to thank him for now. He can only treat himself as a gift to the man who always helps him at critical moments.

"You don't have to do this, we are friends." Ronald knew that the contractual relationship between the two was over and there was no need to force others.

"Between friends, you can occasionally..." Cattrall couldn't let it go, so he got into Ronald's Ferrari and stopped leaving.

Ronald got into the driver's seat and drove back to the hotel.

"What would you like to drink?" Ronald opened the door, took out the champagne from the refrigerator, and poured a glass for Cattrall and himself.

"Well, Ronald." Seeing that the other party wanted something romantic, Cattrall took the glass and took a sip, leaving a red lip mark on the glass.

She went over and turned on the TV station and tuned it to a channel dedicated to playing old songs. She put down the wine glass, took Ronald's hand, hugged him and danced side by side.

"Do you love me?

I can really dance.

Do you love me?

I've entered that dance..."

This cable TV channel was playing black music, which happened to be the soundtrack to a dance at the beginning of "Dirty Dancing."

Ronald is held by Cattrall and feels her amazing charm.

Suddenly, some inspiration seemed to appear in his mind. Ronald tried his best to catch it, but he ran away.

"Well..." Cattrall saw that Ronald was a little absent-minded, so he quickly took Ronald's hand and placed it on his hips and waist, and then crawled into his arms.

"Come dance and don't think about other women."

Ronald's blood surged from the friction. He ignored the inspiration and just started dancing with Cattrall.

"I'm working hard.

You always drive me crazy.

Don't be lazy,

Let's dance wildly together..."

This song "Do You Love Me?" is very rhythmic. Ronald and Cattrall danced very energetically. They both danced with a good rhythm. As they danced, their bodies rubbed against each other, making their whole bodies feel more and more heated.

Following the rhythm of the swing dance, Kim Cattrall squatted down and then stood up again to resume the half-squatting position. She reached for Ronald's waist, and with a snap, the metal buckle was released.

"shxt!" Ronald felt so comfortable that his mind was spinning, "I thought of it. I thought of it."

Cattrall looked at him with confusion, "What did you think of?"

"I thought about it. If 'Dirty Dancing' released a soundtrack album, the audience would buy it not to listen to the music, but to learn how to dance."

Ronald suddenly figured this out and felt great.

He bent down and picked up Cattrall with a strong force.

"Ah...hahaha...Ronald, you are too strong."

"Uh...ah...ah..."

Cattrall was in ecstasy, as if he had lost his senses. Accompanied by the strong rhythm of dance music, his consciousness was as if he had gone to the place of bliss.