Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Confirmed as the director of "Boxing King", he stayed in Los Angeles to audition actors intensively.

Ronald only attended the audition for the male lead, who was set to be an officer of the overseas army of the country of Mao. After hearing that his master's beloved son participated in the martial arts competition and was beaten to death on the spot by the villain played by Yang Si, he escaped from the army and went to Hong Kong to participate in the new martial arts competition to avenge his master.

"Who do you think is more suitable?" Ronald still respected the director's opinion on such matters.

"From the perspective of action, Jean Claude is more suitable. His karate is more about light leg skills. Few people can do the flying turn and sweep kick as beautifully as he does.

There are many Bruce Lee-style martial arts philosophies in the script. The male protagonist has to blindfold himself to learn the kung fu of listening to the wind and then kicking according to the opponent's punches. Jean Claude is also better at this kind of kicking in a standing position.

Lundgren's karate is more practical, and it is not as cool as Jean Claude in terms of action."

Ronald nodded. He had just come to Hollywood and he was not sure which actor he wanted to take the position. So the answer was only analyzed from a technical perspective, so that even if Ronald preferred Lundgren, there would be room for modification.

But Ronald agreed with him. It's not just about whether the action is good or not, there is also the problem of acting. These two are not really trained actors, and the expression of emotions is very problematic. They can only make do with close-up shots of facial expressions.

From the results of the audition, Lundgren could not do it well even when making simple expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness in front of the camera. His facial muscles are relatively stiff, and he is nervous and can't make a good expression when facing the camera.

Jean Claude Van Dam's expression is also very dull, but at least it is relaxed enough, and the audience will not be confused whether he is crying or laughing.

After confirming the male lead, he talked a lot with Ronald about the background temperament in his mind. He hand-painted many movie scenes, all of which are traditional Chinese wooden structures. This pure Chinese style of flying eaves and brackets is rarely seen in China.

Ronald liked this sketch very much when he saw it, and the audience felt a sense of mystery of the ancient oriental country when they saw it. This has a preemptive rendering for the creation of a master of Chinese martial arts like Yang Si, making people feel that the person who practices in such a place must be a peerless master.

"Are there any studios and ready-made buildings in Hong Kong?" Ronald tapped the table with his fingers. He also worked at the bottom of the crew. Wood is very expensive, and wooden buildings are even more expensive. If someone wants to tamper with the accounts, just ask the truck to pull a few more trips of wood.

"No, Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong also builds scenes temporarily for this kind of film, but don't worry, I have found a very good real-life location."

He took a map and showed it to Ronald with the real-life photos he took before coming here, "Look, this place is between Kowloon Bay and the opposite Xin'an County. There are many empty houses here, and the interior and exterior are very suitable for filming."

"Kowloon Walled City?" Ronald looked at the traditional Chinese characters on the map and tried to read them out.

It turned out that the real-life location he was looking at was the former Kowloon Inspection Office of the Qing Dynasty. This is the most densely populated place in the world, more than nine times that of Mong Kok, which Ronald had been to. Because it is a no-man's land, as long as the local residents are agreed, the cost of filming is very cheap.

"After the return is confirmed, the two parties negotiated to gradually demolish the walled city. The first batch of residents who agreed to the demolition this year have received special subsidies to live in new houses with running water in Kwun Tong, so we can find many places.

Brother Long has a relationship with the leaders of the local residents' meeting. They promised to shoot at the ancient buildings left over from the Qing Dynasty, Longjin Charity School, and Kowloon Inspection Office." Pointing to the two quaint buildings, he said to Ronald.

"It seems that you have been prepared for a long time. I am very satisfied." Ronald looked at the photos taken before coming and felt that he had found the right person. Longjin Charity School was the imperial examination hall of the Qing Dynasty. The bluestone floor and wooden corridor column structure are suitable for the interior of the martial arts conference. The Inspection Office is suitable for shooting exterior scenes. ”

…

“Knock knock…”

After talking about the preparations for the movie, there was a knock on the office door.

“Come in,” Ronald replied, and the person who pushed the door in was Rachel Tara, the production director of “Hairspray”. She followed the filming process of Hairspray throughout. Ronald was very satisfied with her, and now promoted her to be the producer of “The King of Fighters”.

“This is Rachel, she will go to Hong Kong as a producer with Secretary Chen of the company.” Ronald introduced Rachel Tara. The two got to know each other, and then began to arrange the filming schedule.

Secretary Chen was taking notes nearby. She could speak Mandarin and Cantonese, and this time she was there to serve as a translator and do daily clerical work.

“Hey, why are you still here?”

After the meeting, Ronald pushed the door open and found that Jean Claude Van Dam was still in the company. “We will inform your agent of the results of the audition. It’s useless for you to be here. "

Ronald knew that he wanted this role very much. Unlike Lundgren, Jean Claude had never played a major role in a serious movie. After his audition, he squatted in his daydream and waited for several hours, wanting to know the result as soon as possible.

"You can practice your flying kick..." Not knowing the rules of Hollywood, he let it slip when he saw Jean Claude coming out of the office.

"In Hollywood, the audition results must be notified through the agent." Rachel Tara came to make up for it immediately.

"Okay, go back and wait for the official notice, there's nothing to do here." Ronald grinned. This is the difference in culture between the film practitioners in the two places. Hollywood has to follow rules for everything, but in Hong Kong, as long as the boss says a word, it can be settled.

"I'm still your bodyguard now. I'll be your driver later. Where are you going?" Jean Claude knew that the more times like this, the closer he should be to the boss. Before the official contract is obtained, anything can happen.

"Okay, I have a driver, so you don't have to drive. You drive the director and talk more on the way."

Ronald called Rachel Tara to get in his car, and the two cars drove to the editing room rented by Daydream. The editing of "Hairspray" has been completed, and today he wants to see the final look.

The car soon arrived at the editing room of Warner Bros., and Ronald got off the car and saw that Jean Claude was chatting happily with the two.

"Ronald, I gave Jean Claude a Chinese name, so it will be convenient for him to film there. It's called Jean-Claude Van Damme."

"Not bad, this name is very poetic." Ronald smiled. In addition to being released in America, this movie is expected to be sold to distributors in Asia and Europe. There will be a Chinese subtitle version at that time. Giving him a Chinese name is a good little publicity trick. Foreign actors in Hong Kong usually do this.

Several people came to the small internal screening room, and Ronald met the director of "Hairspray", John Waters again. He was still so energetic and never put down a cigarette.

"John, I'm waiting to see your finished film."

"Ronald, I promise it's great." John Waters hugged Ronald, and then ran to the back to let the projectionist start.

"Hahahahaha..." Ronald watched with great interest. John Waters is really good.

This movie can basically be seen as a copycat version of "Dirty Dancing". The story itself and the plot development are not similar to "Dirty Dancing". But the rhythm and tone of the whole story are almost the same as "Dirty Dancing".

But the audience generally can't see the imitation, because the heroine of this "Hairspray" is not a beautiful girl, but a fat girl with ordinary looks.

The tone of the story is not a romantic love drama (although there is a love story line in it), but an old-fashioned farce.

In addition to the good performance of several protagonists, several supporting roles are also very colorful and eye-catching. Including Cher's ex-husband Sonny Bono plays a funny and shrunken parent. And drag queen actor Dive plays the mother of the heroine who runs a laundry.

The most interesting thing is that Dive and Ricky Lake, who plays the heroine Tracy, are both fat, with similar face shapes, and the rhythm of walking and talking looks like a family. I don't know how director John Waters trained them.

"Hey? What is this?" Ronald saw the middle and suddenly found a very disgusting plot. At school, Tracy was teased by her classmates, who took a cockroach and put it in her hair, which eventually made a mess.

"Ugh..." Secretary Chen, who was watching the movie with him, almost vomited.

Ronald glanced at John Waters, who was enjoying the movie.

Ronald remembered that the director had previously shot very low-cost movies. Perhaps because the budget was too low, he could only shoot some disgusting plots so that the audience could see things that they couldn't see in normal movies, which could also attract some curiosity lovers.

Ten minutes later, there was another very disgusting shot in the movie. The drag queen actor Dive vomited a lot on the ground. John Waters also gave a disgusting close-up shot.

"Ugh..." Secretary Chen couldn't help it this time, and ran outside to vomit.

But after vomiting, Secretary Chen ran in again. She thought the plot was quite interesting, and she wanted to see if Tracy won the TV dance competition in the end.

...

"How about it? Ronald, can it be shown like this?" John Waters asked proudly after the movie was over. He also noticed Secretary Chen's reaction. She was in a hurry to come back after going to the bathroom. This was a good sign that the movie was recognized by the audience.

"Not bad, better than expected," Ronald recognized the quality of the film. The director was very good to be able to shoot a movie of this quality with a budget of more than two million, and he certainly didn't take the money.

But... "What's wrong with you, John? Why do you insert these disgusting clips in the movie? We are shooting a musical romance, not a horror movie."

"Isn't this a great reaction?" John Waters still didn't understand. From his past experience, he felt that making the audience vomit in this way could also become a kind of curious word-of-mouth publicity.

"I say, come on. Have you shot too many movies for hundreds of thousands of dollars? This is a theater movie that will be shown in hundreds of theaters across the country. Cut it out, cockroaches, vomiting, cut it all out for me."

Ronald was made to laugh and cry by the director. The movie Daydream has been scheduled to be released in the box office off-season in February next year, and a marketing budget has been prepared. This is not the pitiful movies that John Waters shot before, which can only be shown in some old midnight theaters in New York and Los Angeles. This is a normal release movie that can enter the box office rankings.

It would be a huge joke if there was news that audiences vomited after watching a romantic musical.

"I didn't have any problem with this before, did I?" John Waters used to have vomiting scenes in every movie, as well as scenes of cockroaches, rats and other disgusting animals. He really didn't think there was anything wrong with this kind of highly cost-effective word-of-mouth publicity.

"I really admire you. Cut all these scenes for me." Ronald made a gesture of cutting film with scissors. "You cut it today, send it to Paramount's printing factory, and find audiences for previews around Christmas."

"Okay, okay... I'll listen to you." John Waters was a little unhappy when he heard that these "beloved" scenes had to be cut.

Ronald went over and patted Waters on the shoulder, "Don't be unhappy, your filmmaking skills are sophisticated, and I expect this movie will make money. If you modify it according to my opinions, after the movie is released, you don't have to work for me anymore. There are many people who will invest in you, and you can make it as disgusting as you want."

"Hahaha..." Everyone laughed.

"Okay, okay... I'll make the changes according to your suggestions. Anyway, your movie has a high box office... No one knows what the audience wants to see better than you." John Waters laughed and figured it out. Which Hollywood producer would not make suggestions for changes to the finished film?

Ronald was very kind to only edit two shots. Besides, he had a good intuition about movies, so it was better to listen to him for such changes.

"I'll go to the editing room to make the changes right away. It is expected to be sent to the photo processing factory tomorrow." Waters took out a new Marlboro, lit it with the butt of an old cigarette, took a few puffs, and then went into the editing room and couldn't smoke again.

Ronald smiled and got up and left with everyone. This movie looked very likely to be a hit.

"Hey, you

"Hey, why don't you leave?" Ronald looked at Jean-Claude Van Damme, who was dawdling. Just now he had to be his bodyguard and driver, and now he was looking at John Waters.

"Hey, I want to learn editing from Director Waters, so that if a shot is cut in the middle, how to connect the original front and back films. ”

"Oh? How come you are addicted to learning editing? "Ronald looked at Jean-Claude Van Damme in surprise. Seeing that he looked sincere and talked about his understanding of the two shots, it seemed that he had really learned well from Walter Murch and had a good grasp of the basic principles of editing.

"I like editing very much. I used to think that the performance of the actors was the most important. After studying with Mr. Murch for a while, I found that the performance on the screen was actually created by editing."

"Okay, you should learn from Mr. Waters." Ronald called for his car and asked Little Bud to take him back to the hotel first.

Ronald entered the editing room himself and watched Jean-Claude Van Damme expertly go through the editing log and help find the shot number. He took out the edited film, opened it expertly, hung up the editing machine, and then pressed the button to move to the part that Ronald indicated to be cut.

"Here is a shot of about 20 seconds. If the front is cut, what about the shot of Tracy screaming in fear of cockroaches in the back? ”

Jean-Claude Van Damme entered the state, much like an editing assistant, doing all the tedious work, and then waiting for John Waters to make a decision.

"This part of the shot is coherent, if you want to cut it, you have to cut it all, but the shot after that is Tracy's return home, and her mother puts down the iron to comfort her. I think about what to do, there is no extra material here..." John Waters also scratched his head. The plot that was originally coherent, how to let the audience connect after cutting it, he still needs to use his brain.

"Let's do a jump cut, find this frame, Tracy's big head is in a similar position on the film, directly from being bullied at school, transferred back home to be comforted by her mother." Ronald gave instructions.

"You heard it, just cut it like this. This is the master's brushwork..." John Waters knew it was feasible as soon as he heard it.

"Okay...", Jean-Claude Van Damme neatly cut off the unwanted part, and then took out the patented editing tape made by Daydream, and after sticking it on, he snapped it twice on the editing machine, and both sides were firmly stuck.

"Huh... It seems to be better than the original effect. "Jean-Claude Van Damme put the film back into the machine, looked at it through the monitor, and then looked at Ronald. Is his editing level so high?