Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"I know Billy Wilder, and I almost bought the house next door to him." Ronald arrived at the airport and said to Cameron Crowe, who was returning to Los Angeles with him, "The Directors Guild will meet tomorrow to discuss the current situation for screenwriters. The deadlock of the union strike, if he comes, I will introduce you..."

Crowe was delighted; he was a big fan of Billy Wilder and dreamed of one day making films as cleverly conceived as Wilder's.

"Mr. Li, I have your phone number. It's urgent..." A stewardess in the terminal came over and interrupted the two of them.

"Who is it? Did you say your name?" Ronald asked. He was about to take a business jet back and he didn't want to answer the phone anymore.

"He said his name is Mr. Yan. Do you want to answer his call?"

"Okay." Ronald thought it might be Xiao Yan, who was studying in college in Staten Island. He took the long phone and put it to his ear, "Hello?"

"Brother Luo? I'm Xiao Yan. I know from my aunt that you are at the airport. I have something urgent to do with you. It's not convenient for my aunt to know."

"whats the matter?"

"Work on your garden site has been suspended. Today a group of people claiming to be the New York City Parks and Recreation Department came and said that your garden violated the original state of the New York City Hall Reserve and seemed to affect the migration of some migratory birds. Lao Wang They were almost finished, and they were very anxious now. They almost started fighting with the Parks Department people. Fortunately, I was there to stop them from fighting. America’s Park Management Department has law enforcement officers.”

"You did a good job..." Ronald was confused. Didn't the garden outside the house pass the assessment? Why are they harassing us again now, migratory birds are migrating? Why does the garden still bother the birds?

"You were right not to let Aunt Karen know about this. Do you have my cousin Donna's phone number here? Yes... you go to her, tell her what happened, and then ask Donna to call my personal attorney - —Lindsay Dole.

She will have full authority to handle my affairs. I will fly to Los Angeles soon. I will contact you when I arrive. "

After calling Richard in New York again, Ronald got on the plane and took out the eye mask and put it on, hoping to enter Heitian's dream without being disturbed.

However, this kind of messy things still affected his rest. Ronald's mind was filled with messy things like migratory birds, migration, gardens, and parks. Coupled with the low engine sound of the business jet, he was half asleep...

"We don't want real estate, we want wetlands..." The shot on the screen in the dream seemed to be taken from an excavator. In the frame were various people holding signs opposing the construction of houses.

"Is it too much? I'm not building a house. I'm also building a garden and making wetlands and lakes that won't affect you." Ronald thought to himself that this dream was as realistic as a movie.

"I'm reporting for you at the scene. Now many local residents are moved by the story of Amy and Dayan and come to support. But we haven't seen Amy or Dayan yet. They seem to have disappeared."

Is it really a movie? Ronald recognized the clip in the footage, not the news. Fortunately, he didn't let his house and garden be shown on TV. Otherwise, if it was exposed and caused trouble, would he still want to live there?

"According to zoning regulations, it's past five o'clock and the geese haven't migrated back yet. This place has become private property. Please leave immediately!"

A man with a thick neck who looked like a real estate developer stood on the forklift and faced

The worker behind him, prompted by him, turned on the engine of the excavator, moved the joystick up and down, the excavator began to roar, and the tipping bucket began to move up and down repeatedly, intimidating the residents at the scene.

Suddenly, the excavator began to move in, its tipping bucket gently scooping up the soil, and the protestors began to shout their objections.

"Please be gentle, otherwise we won't hear the sound of the little girl and the geese... The engine of the glider is very quiet..." A bearded man shouted to everyone. As expected, everyone was silent, and the excavator also stopped temporarily. .

"Buzz..." A soft engine sound came, and everyone looked up to the sky.

A glider that looked very much like wild geese, and a row of wild geese arranged in a herringbone shape, flew slowly over the lake and wetland.

This aerial shot from above is impressive and beautiful.

"Ronald, Ronald..."

"Ah? Are the migratory birds coming?" Ronald was pushed awake by Cameron Crowe. It turned out that the engine sound came from my own business jet, which was about to descend in altitude and land.

"What migratory bird?"

"It's nothing. There is a lake near my new house. They say that migratory birds and geese fly here every year."

…

The plane landed in Los Angeles, and besides Richard, he was also picked up by Joel Silver, the producer of "Die Hard".

"We might actually come up with something good," Silver said, dragging Ronald along to see the rough cut they had just produced.

The action scenes in "Die Hard" were incredibly complex to shoot, having shut down just two weeks before Ronald's own "Working Girl," and were just finishing rough editing and syncing sound and visuals.

"This is Cameron Crowe, my earliest movie partner." Ronald introduced Crowe to Joel Silver, saying that this was his friend, and they went to the editing room together.

"This is the real Bruce Willis sitting on top of the elevator car."

Ronald didn't have time to read all the samples, so he just picked out some action scenes and took a rough look at them.

"Is the fireball in the elevator shaft also shot on location?" Ronald saw an interesting scene, where a bomb was ignited in the elevator shaft, and the flames were almost catching up with the protagonist Bruce Willis. The smell of the explosion that hit him in the face was very shocking, and he had never seen such a shot before.

"We found a pyrotechnician and asked the photographer to shoot on it. Because we didn't know how fast the lens should be, we asked the poor director of photography De Bont to lie on the elevator car many times, and finally found a suitable one."

Joel Silver was very excited about this movie. He didn't expect it to be so exciting. Bruce Willis personally took most of the action shots, which added a lot of excitement to the movie. The villain Alan Rickman was also very exciting, playing a unique and highly intelligent criminal leader.

Looking at four or five explosion shots with similar angles, but with different explosion speeds, Cameron Crowe, who came with him, was amazed and excitedly wrote something in his notebook.

"It's interesting, isn't it? Movie shooting is like this. Many times we don't need to learn in advance, but in order to complete a certain shot, we try to invent a way to complete it."

Ronald patted Crowe on the shoulder. Directing techniques are not learned from textbooks and cases like in college. Many techniques are not used, and in fact, they don't need to be learned. Many great directors in Hollywood who set up cameras to shoot still shots also have many masterpieces.

For example, Howard Hawks, a great director who is as famous as Billy Wilder, does not have too many technical breakthroughs in his movies. He relies entirely on the actors' movements and ingenious designs to shoot masterpieces of different types that are successful in both box office and reviews.

…

"Mr. Wilder, is Howard Hawks really just shooting ordinary shots of medium shots?"

The next day, Ronald took Cameron Crowe to attend the meeting of the Directors Guild. Billy Wilder happened to come and was caught by his fan Crowe, who surrounded him and asked him many questions.

"Howard, oh, he's a genius. Before filming, he designed the actors' positions and reactions in each scene. In addition, he always chooses the most accurate and suitable actors, so he doesn't get the most money for filming. In many cases, it's to save filming costs."

Billy Wilder was very happy to hear such a young fan's advice. He is not an actor, and there are not many fans who come up to him for autographs. Only his peers in the industry respect him. But that was 20 years ago. Now that he has retired, Wilder still misses the moment when he was praised by his peers in the industry.

"Mr. Wilder, what is the Lubitsch touch you mentioned?"

Ronald shook his head. Cameron Crowe still has many unrealistic fantasies about filming movies. In fact, a new director needs those basic techniques, not the advanced techniques used by master directors.

But passion is also a good thing. Let's see if there are any low-cost scripts suitable for him to practice.

Ronald turned around and greeted Spielberg who had just come in.

"Ronald, what is the decision of the Directors Guild?" Spielberg asked right away. He is also a busy man.

"We will continue to cooperate with the Producers Guild and will not cooperate with the Writers Guild. However, they will remain silent and will not speak publicly about the strike." Ronald whispered to Spielberg.

"Very good. I just came from Nick Kuhnt, the president of the Producers Guild. Now the negotiator of the Writers Guild, Brian Walton... is inclined to accept our offer and settle the negotiation with about 50 million US dollars."

"Huh... finally it's done... my aunt called me to complain that the TV series in the evening are all reruns of old dramas, which are too boring."

"And talk shows and stand-up comedy..." Spielberg also laughed.

The pressure from the public is the greatest. Everyone is very frustrated that they can't watch new TV series. Now the Producers Guild has put forward conditions similar to the original ones, and the pressure is on the Writers Guild.

"I haven't congratulated you on your Oscar nomination yet. Do you know? This year, except for you, all foreign directors have been nominated for the Best Director Award." Spielberg seems to have stopped caring about his "Empire of the Sun" losing most of the heavyweight awards.

Ronald thought about it, it was true.

In addition to himself, the director of The Last Emperor, Bertolucci, was Italian, the director of Fatal Attraction, Adrian Lyne, the director of Hope and Glory, John Bowman, two British directors, and the Swedish director of Dog Face, Lasse Hallström.

"If it weren't for me, this would have become the best foreign language film." Ronald also joked.

"Hahaha..." Spielberg was amused. Those Jewish high-level officials really went too far. In order to suppress him, no one else made it so ugly.

"But they won't give me the award for this reason." Ronald also laughed. Spielberg was a liberal Jew who integrated into mainstream values ​​and did not respect Jewish customs too much. Many of his ways of doing things were still not in line with those people's tastes.

Spielberg got the news he wanted, stood up to leave, and Ronald saw him out.

"By the way," Spielberg remembered something, "you haven't seen the members of the Last Emperor crew this time, right?"

"No, I just arrived last night." Ronald didn't understand why he mentioned this movie. Speaking of Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun", the subject matter is actually a bit similar to "The Last Emperor", and many judges' attention was attracted by the more popular movie.

"I remind you to be careful when you see their crew at the party, especially the producer Jeremy Thomas."

"Huh? Why?" Ronald didn't know what was going on.

"You will find out the reason..." Spielberg patted his shoulder. This kid was nominated for the best director at such a young age, breaking his own record.

"I have to go first..." Ronald found Cameron Crowe who was still consulting Billy Wilder.

"Oh, I was just talking to Mr. Wilder. We used his fake ending method at the end..."

"Go on, don't bother me. I have something to do. I need to call my lawyer." Ronald held down Crowe and prevented him from getting up. "Thank you, Mr. Wilder."

"Ha... I'm just a retired old man. I'm very happy to hear that someone used my shooting method. It shows that there are still people who take movies seriously..."

Ronald also left the party of the Directors Guild and went to the party hosted by Michael Douglas. As the awards ceremony approached, Douglas held several parties in a row in order to win the Best Actor Award.

"Ronald..." Douglas was full of joy and hugged Ronald to welcome him.

The two talked about their recent situation. The guests around them all looked at them talking and didn't dare to interrupt. At this kind of Hollywood celebrity party, who can talk to whom has an implicit level.

"Michael... where are you?" A female star walked in from outside.

"Glenn is here. I'll go say hello to her. She's very nervous. This year is her best chance." Michael Douglas saw that it was Glenn Close, the heroine in Fatal Attraction, and said hello to Ronald and went over to greet her.

This year's "The Last Emperor" got all the nominations it could get, except for the best actor and actress, because the Chinese actors did not get nominated. Glenn Close lost her rival in the most exciting movie, The Last Emperor, which is really her best chance.

"By the way, you just returned to Hollywood. If a reporter asks you about The Last Emperor, don't answer..." Douglas also remembered something and turned back to warn Ronald.

"Why?" Ronald looked puzzled. Two people had warned him today.

Douglas didn't say anything, just gave him a strange smile and went to greet Glenn Close.

...

At around nine o'clock in the evening, Ronald finally arrived at the hotel. After saying goodbye to Little Bud, he fell asleep on the bed. I've been very busy these two days. It's really happy to touch the bed.

"Beep, beep..." The phone rang again.

"Hello?"

"It's me, Lindsay." It was his personal lawyer on the other end of the line.

Ronald sat up suddenly, "What's going on now?"

"This is a targeted attack. The representative of the Parks Department of New York City Hall directly ordered an investigation into the recent renovation project related to the public green space in Staten Island. Did you offend him there?"

"Interstellar exploration?" Ronald remembered the director of the Parks Department he met when filming the wedding scene.

"It seems that you really know him? Henry Stern has a lot of power in the political circle of New York. How did he target you?"

"I only met him once when filming, and I didn't say anything to him."

"What do you want to do? There are two options now, either go to court with the Parks Department, or suspend the project first and slowly clear it up. I guess he and you, a film director, have some misunderstandings."

"Help me deal with it, just stop the work first. I'm busy with the Oscars now and don't have the energy..."

"Okay, I'll help you suspend the project according to their notice and talk to you when you're done."

Ronald hung up the phone. What a mess. The high-thread count cotton sheets made Ronald not want to get up after sleeping.

"Beep, beep..." The phone rang again.

"Hello?"

"Ronnie, are you asleep? I just found out you're back in Los Angeles."

"Diane? How's your new movie going? I just went to bed, are you coming over? I'll wait for you."

"Let me come to see you, hehe, this movie was fun to shoot."