Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The clip of "Moonlight Sultry" continues. When editing the sex scene between Nicolas Cage and Cher, editor Walter Murch also praised Ronald's directorial skills.

"You are really good at directing this sex scene. This scene should not only show the desire of a man and a woman to fall in love at first sight and be attracted to each other's bodies, but also have a bit of dramatic exaggeration, so that they can say that you have my heart, and your brother only wants to Being able to get my body is a line that would appear very gross and exaggerated in a movie.

What you directed makes people look very natural, without the goosebumps feeling. How did you do it? "

"Hehehe, this is a coincidence. It relies less on my on-site guidance and more on the casting." Ronald chuckled.

As Murch said, many places in this film have traces of Broadway plays. Such disgusting lines, if played by two actors, would make people feel fake and give people goosebumps.

Even the scene in the movie where Loretta and Ronnie went to see the opera "La Bohème" did not have such disgusting lines.

This drama allows the audience to watch the extremely exaggerated performances of the two actors without making people feel fake. To a large extent, it relies on the special acting skills of Nicolas Cage.

Influenced by his uncle, he highly admired the German expressionist film masterpiece "Metropolis" of the 1920s. Expressionism allows the audience to ignore the details of the performance and reach directly into the audience's heart through the cooperation of various lights, scenery, and actors.

In other words, this acting genre pays more attention to the actor's imagination. The actor can imagine himself as the character himself, and the audience will be directly brought into the actor's inner emotions by the performance of his subconscious in his movements and expressions.

In this case, once the audience can believe that this is a real person, no matter how exaggerated the lines are, there will still be a certain element of truth in their eyes.

What movie directors fear most is that when the audience sees a certain shot, they will suddenly jump out of the plot and realize that they are watching a play. Once there is such an out-of-the-box experience, it will be difficult for the audience to be brought into the plot again.

Therefore, the most difficult thing for such an exaggerated plot is to find suitable actors to play it. As for the on-site director and guidance, it will not play a big role.

You can't take an actor whose acting skills are average and can't bring himself into the situation, and say a few words on the scene, and then make him be convincing to the audience.

"Huh, Francis Coppola's nephew has great potential." Murch pointed at Cage on the small monitor and said.

"He is indeed a unique actor." Ronald nodded in agreement. Among a large group of actors in Hollywood who respect method actors, such an actor does not rely on analysis and skills, but relies on strong imagination to perform. , very different.

In fact, there was not a strong chemical reaction between him and Cher in this scene, but relying on his own excellent imagination, Cage believed in his role very much and brought Cher into the prescribed situation.

Many strange roles that are difficult for other people to play are actually easy in his hands.

"I have to leave first today. The son of my Chinese partner is coming to America today." In the afternoon, Ronald looked at his watch, said goodbye to Murch, and went to Los Angeles Airport to pick up the son of his partner Lao Yan. "

"Uncle Li!"

Ronald waited until Xiao Yan poked his head outside the cabin, looking at everything new.

"No, just like in Xujiahui, call me Ronaldinho. Or Ronald."

"My dad asked me to call him hehehe," Xiao Yan scratched his head in embarrassment. He didn't want to call this person who was about the same age as him uncle.

"I have arranged that you will stay in my apartment for two days, and I will ask my assistant Bud to take you to Los Angeles for two days. He will go back to Staten Island with you on the weekend. You are in Stann Island The admission procedures for Day Island Community College have been completed. You will first take a language class in New York and then wait for admission in the fall. "

Ronald arranged for Xiao Yan to go to a community college in his hometown. Xiao Yan's English level was average. He had been practicing with foreigners traveling on the Bund for a long time, but he still couldn't understand it well in the United States.

Staten Island Community College has just joined the City University of New York's public education system. As long as Xiaoyan can graduate with an associate's degree in two years, he can choose other schools in the city university system to continue his studies from junior college to bachelor's degree.

If he is unable to do so, Ronald is also ready to work in the Stanton factory. After he enters the factory to study for a period of time, he can go back to take over Lao Yan's class.

If he wanted to do something else, Ronald would help. I have to take care of this matter of my partner in the Minhang factory. The Chinese value mutual help between relatives and friends. With Lao Yan as a partner, we can find ways to do other cooperation in the future.

"Director Huang's application materials have been brought to me." Xiao Yan asked Xiao Yan to translate Director Huang's application materials for the Los Angeles Women's Independent Film Festival and bring them to Ronald.

"It's very good. Director Huang's film has caused a small sensation among female producers and directors in the industry here. They didn't expect that Xujiahui could produce such a pioneering work."

Ronald collected the materials and asked Xiao Yan to send a telegram to his family to report that everything was safe. Then he asked little Bud to accompany him shopping, completely transforming into a young man dressed as America.

Ronald brought Director Huang's application materials to Gail Hurd. She is now preparing a Hollywood Women's Producers and Directors Association with Director Martha Coolidge and others. It just happens to have dealings with the Independent Film Festival at the beginning of each year.

Ronald found them and added an award for emerging female directors at the Independent Film Festival. It is open to female directors from all over the world. It just so happened that there were not many applicants for the first session, so Director Huang's "human ghost love" was cheap.

Martha Coolidge, who was fired by John Hughes from the "Incredibles" crew and had her comedy ideas stolen by him, now curses the Chicagoan John Hughes whenever she sees him.

Ronald listened for a long time, but there was nothing new. Coolidge just kept cursing Hughes, while assuring Ronald that Director Huang's avant-garde and progressive film must be seen by more Americans.

Ronald knew that except for a small number of strange people, it was impossible for Americans to watch the story of a Chinese opera actress. So he just asked Daydream Company to contact movie theaters in Chinatowns in major cities.

There are many immigrants who have worked here for many years, eager to see more of their hometown's scenery and people to relieve their homesickness. So let "A Ghost Story" be released in these places first, and make money from the copies first.

Maybe Martha Coolidge's curse worked, or maybe Howard Deutch, who replaced her as the director of "The Incredibles", was not taken seriously within Paramount.

The day after sending Xiao Yan away, Ronald received a call for help from Paramount President Ned Tanin.

"That's what happened. I'm investigating. If someone is behind the scenes, I will definitely give him justice. But now that this kind of accident has happened, I can only ask you to help see if we need to reshoot the scenes.

Now the crew is scattered, and only you have the prestige to let the main actors come back for reshoots."

Ned Tanin watched the sample film with serious accidents in the screening room of Paramount with Ronald and director Howard Deutch.

The movie has been shot and edited. But when editing the negatives and developing the copies, a serious accident occurred.

A romantic outdoor scene between Eric Stoltz, who plays the male lead, and Lea Thompson, who plays the female lead, at the Hollywood Bowl, the largest open-air cinema in Los Angeles.

In this semi-open-air theater, in addition to showing movies, there are also various performances.

The male lead Keith wanted to impress Amanda Jones, whom he had been secretly in love with for a long time. Finally, in the room inside the Hollywood Bowl, he showed Amanda the portrait of her that he had spent several months drawing. In the end, Amanda was really moved and faced this poor but upright young man who dared to love.

On the screen, black edges and dark frames appeared around this scene, and the film had been damaged.

"Do you have any enemies, Howard?" Ronald asked Howard Deutch, the director who was sitting next to him and was extremely frustrated.

"I can't think of anyone who wants to harm me, unless"

"Martha? At most, she would curse you, and she couldn't do this in the laboratory."

Ronald sighed.

In the laboratory, every time a copy is made, a chemical solution specified in the formula must be used. This is the most important part of quality management. A good studio can print hundreds of copies without any difference to the naked eye.

But this time, for some reason, an accident occurred in Paramount's laboratory. There was a problem with the film, the chemical formula, or the water temperature control of these scenes, and the film was overexposed and yellowed around.

Fortunately, experienced old technical workers discovered and stopped the further expansion of the accident in time.

But it was very unfortunate that the damaged scene happened to be the scene that director Howard Deutch only shot in one take.

It costs a lot to rent a venue in Hollywood Bowl for filming. In order to save money, Howard Deutch only rented it for half a day.

As a result, the only satisfactory lens that could be used was damaged by the laboratory.

There were no extra copies to replace this scene. There were only two choices before him: either delete this scene or recall the two leading actors Eric Stoltz and Lea Thompson to reshoot.

Howard Deutch did not have such prestige to recall the actors and pay for the technical mistakes of the laboratory. Only Ronald, who had dealt with Stoltz's erratic mentality and persuaded Lea Thompson to take the leading role, could have saved their face.

Ronald didn't want to get involved in these rubbish.

But the movie was innocent, and the rest of the movie was shot very well. The interaction between the three protagonists, one man and two women, was very chemical, and it was obvious that they had put a lot of effort into their performances.

This scene was the scene where the two protagonists fell in love, and it was a key transition in the plot of the movie. If it was deleted, the story of the whole movie would collapse. Without the plot of Keith painting with Amanda as a model, the audience would be very confused when they saw this, why Keith and Amanda suddenly had a good impression of each other.

Looking at Howard Deutch's pitiful face, Ronald still agreed to give it a try.

The movie itself was flawless, with a cost of tens of millions of dollars and the efforts of hundreds of people for several months. Ronald didn't want the crystallization of everyone to be ruined by an accidental or intentional technical error.

"I watched the movie you filmed. It's very good, very good." Ronald arrived at the mansion in Beverly Hills. Leigh Thompson was packing up her house. Her house was about to be taken over by real estate agents and she was looking for a new home to view the house. .

The failure of "Howard the Duck" caused her expected income to plummet, and now she can no longer afford the mortgage on such a good house. After filming "Beautiful," Leigh Thompson got rid of the house as quickly as possible and prepared to move with her sister.

"Ha, I followed the guidance you gave me. I'm not pretty enough, so I made Amanda try harder to be kind." Leigh Thompson shrugged and looked at the house, still a little reluctant.

"I have to thank you very much. If this movie can do well at the box office, I may not have to sell my house. I like this house very much."

"Hey, actually, I came here to think about it." Ronald glanced at the director Dutch who was also here. Seeing that he didn't speak, he had to speak himself.

"Sister, your phone" her sister called from the room.

"Sorry, I'm going to go for a moment." Leigh Thompson said sorry to Ronald and went inside to answer the phone.

"You bastard, why do you say that? If you don't want to get engaged, I can cancel it."

After a while, the sound of a quarrel came faintly from the room.

Ronald and director Howard Deutch looked at each other and knew they had encountered something embarrassing again. Leigh Thompson and boyfriend Dennis Quaid are fighting again.

"Eric? Eric? I only have a relationship with him as colleagues, but you actually turned the tables and criticized me?"

Leigh Thompson hung up the phone and came out with a very bad expression.

"We have a scene that needs to be reshot." Howard Deutch was very concerned about Leigh Thompson. Seeing that her expression was not good, he comforted her for a few words and told her the purpose of his visit.

"I'm sorry, Howard, I'm not in a good state right now and I need to adjust. When will you reshoot?"

"Oh, the movie is scheduled to be released next month, preferably as soon as possible."

"Forget it, you need to rest for a few days. Howard and I are thinking about other options. The photo lab destroyed the negatives."

"Sorry, you asked me to adjust for a day. I can resume filming the day after tomorrow. Which scene is it?"

"It's the scene where Amanda finds out that Keith secretly painted his oil painting."

"Oh" Leigh Thompson covered her face in pain.

This scene requires a long time of preparation to show the mentality of two lovers who have broken through the barriers and progressed to the point of liking each other, but not yet officially falling in love.

Lea Thompson was accused by her boyfriend Dennis Quaid of having an affair with Eric Stoltz because of filming a movie with Eric Stoltz. It is estimated that it will be difficult to regain that subtle feeling in a short time.

"What happened? Did you make their drama come true?" Ronald asked director Dutch after coming out of the mansion.

"No, how could I do this?"

Romantic comedies, especially this kind of whole movie, rely on the chemistry between the leading actors and the script to impress the audience with true feelings. Some directors can't find that subtle feeling, so they take shortcuts and make the actors really of falling in love on set.

This is more convincing than acting.

But on the set, I filmed many falling-in-love scenes with beautiful women and dashing men. It was hard not to really fall in love on the set.

If the male and female protagonists do not work hard to get rid of their emotions after filming, they will easily fall into emotional distress.

"I won't do this. I just let them be together and discover more of the advantages in each other."

"This" Ronald scratched his head. Doesn't love start from discovering the advantages in the other person, this kind of small spark?

Now, on the one hand, there is Leigh Thompson's personal love life, and on the other hand, the movie requires her to use her acting skills again and pretend to be in love with Stoltz.

"Isn't this a moral dilemma?"

Ronald felt a little painful. The director's professional ethics should not intrude too much into the actor's private life. But the total cost of tens of millions before and after is missing a scene, which is more important?

"What should I do?" Howard Deutch was very painful. He thought about it for a long time. He had no choice between his work and the actor's private life.

"Take me to see the props and scenery and see if there are any other ways to remedy this."

The two came to Paramount's warehouse, where all the important props for "Wonderful" were kept.

"So, did Leigh and Eric really fall in love during the filming?" Ronald looked at the various props and remembered that when he saw the dailies again, the chemistry between the two was indeed very good, so he asked Howard.

"They must have dated once or twice. But I don't think Leigh Thompson necessarily likes Eric. She is looking for feelings.

But Mary Stewart Masterson, who plays Keith's neighbor girl Watts, is actually a bit tasteful. That's why the final confession scene between Watts and Keith was so beautifully shot. Mary Stewart Masterson cries beautifully. "

"Is this Amanda's oil painting prop?" Ronald turned over a framed oil painting and asked Howard Deutch.

"Yes, that's it." The woman above is somewhat similar to Leigh Thompson, but there is still a gap between her and the real person.

In fact, I should find a better painter. Ronald thought to himself that the audience actually didn't care whether Keith could draw very well. Such a portrait that didn't look like him would make the audience laugh.

"What is this?" Ronald finished looking at the portrait and found that there was a frame behind it.

"Uh?" Ronald found another portrait of Amanda.

"Where's this? And this one?" Jumping into the pile of props, Ronald found that there were seven or eight portraits against the wall behind them, all of which were painted after Leigh Thompson.

"Well, I didn't think I could draw well, so I found a lot of painters."

Ronald gave Howard Deutch a long look.

It seems that it is easy for the director to fall in love with the heroine. He thinks about the inner drama of the heroine every day, what are her advantages, and why the hero falls in love with her. After thinking more about it, doesn’t love sprout from this little place? ?

In fact, these paintings are all of the same level. Howard Deutch is also a little crazy, and he seems to be very obsessed with Leigh Thompson. I just don't know if he has discovered it himself.

"Okay, let's think of a solution and check on Li's condition tomorrow."

Ronald had no choice but to reshoot the matter.

"What's wrong with you? You seem to have something on your mind?"

Back in the editing room, Walter Murch could tell that something was on Ronald's mind.

"I served as a producer and facilitated a movie that had a big technical problem. When the film was developed, there was an accident and the scene had to be reshot. Also, because of the heroine's private love life, it was difficult to find the status."

Ronald told Murch about the dilemma he faced.

"How did you wash it?"

"It's the formula of the potion, time, and temperature. One of the three things went wrong. The four corners of the film turned black and the four edges turned yellow, making it unusable."

"You said it would be difficult to reshoot?"

"Yes, it's difficult. Leigh Thompson has had a big problem in her personal love life recently. I think she is a very good actress, but there are some things that she cannot control."

"If that's the case, you can go to Lloyd. He's been working in a photofinishing plant for forty years and he has a way."

"any solution?"

"Can this method work?" Ronald found Lloyd, who Murch said had worked at Paramount Printing Plant for forty years and was about to retire.

"It depends, you might lose a few frames."

Lloyd operated the machine slowly and unhurriedly.

"Okay, look at this section."

"Huh? Not bad." Ronald leaned against the monitor and looked at the picture that Lloyd was repairing.

"Come and see, Howard." Ronald gave up his position to director Dutch. This old-fashioned machine only allows one person to view the film through the monitor.

"Not bad, not much loss."

Howard Deutch watched it several times.

The four sides of the film were carefully cut, and the original long shot was cut off on all sides to become a medium shot.

Although a lot of lens arrangement and image quality have been lost. But I finally don’t have to reshoot anymore.

"That's it, it's good to be able to save a little bit."

Ronald feels that although the picture quality is a little rough, it is much better than reshooting the heroine who cannot find her condition.

"Thank you, Ronald." Howard Deutch admired this strange trick to solve the problem. If it weren't for Ronald, his second movie would have been terrible.

"It's okay, you have to be busy with marketing next. By the way, those portrait oil paintings, won't you just put them in the warehouse if you don't take them back?"

"I found one and gave it to Li."

"Hey, you don't understand." Ronald thought of the models who looked very similar to Likin Cattrall, the "sporty" one. "You don't know what those warehouse workers can do to the portraits of beautiful women. ”