Exploiting Hollywood 1980

On the morning of the first day of shooting the big scene, less than two hours after starting the filming, the crew lost the camera operator.

Director of photography Michael Seresin had to go into battle himself and became the camera operator, which some people call the camera operator.

The director ordered it to be restored to its original state in preparation for the second official shooting.

In the chaotic reversing scene, the American camera puller slipped out of the set and made a phone call.

At ten o'clock in the morning, everything on the scene returned to preliminary testing status, and Allen was ready to announce the second shooting.

"Recording? Camera?"

"Stop! This has to stop."

It was the representative of the International Cinematographers Union in a suit who loudly stopped the filming at the scene.

"I received another report that the director of photography of your crew also served as the cameraman. This is expressly prohibited by the union charter." The proud union representative handed director Alan Parker a stop-work order.

"Hey, man, you can't do this, we stopped ground transportation in half of Midtown Manhattan, we have a time limit, we can't stop work," the DP yelled.

"I'll give you two hours." The union staff were not completely unreasonable. "If it exceeds two hours, we must re-hire a camera operator with union qualifications."

"I'm not going to accept a fucking union clerk telling me how to fucking make a movie!" Alan Parker angrily rushed to him.

"Okay! As you wish," the union staff took back the 2-hour grace, "Now we have to stop work until you find a suitable camera operator."

Ronald was chatting with a few people in white T-shirts on the corner of the street. They also saw the farce.

"Why can't the director of photography also be an operator?" Ronald asked one of the older men in a white T-shirt.

"I heard that in the early years of Hollywood, the director of photography was the person who took the shot, so that he could see whether the shot was in line with his intention. But the International Photographers Workers Union strongly intervened in the division of labor among the crew in the 1970s, and imposed rigid regulations on photography. The director cannot direct the camera and must hire a dedicated camera operator.”

"Since then, in places with strong labor unions, such as New York and Los Angeles, photography has been divided into two types of work. The advantage is of course that there is an extra position out of thin air, hahaha." Bai T-shirt smiled happily, he is also a labor union one of the beneficiaries.

"What's the downside?" Ronald asked.

“With one more person, many subtle artistic ideas will inevitably be distorted.”

…

"Ronald, come here." Producer David da Silva waved him over.

"Hello, David."

"Did you see that little man in the peaked cap? He is the new operator we hired. Your task is to ensure that he does not touch the camera or hinder the filming, and only gets paid."

The producer agreed to the union representative's blackmail and hired one of his connections.

"Is this your first time on a movie set, buddy?" Ronald greeted the cap.

"Ah, yes, it's the first time. My cousin said he could arrange for me to be the photographer."

"Do you know what the best thing about photographers is? It's light metering! Very few people can accurately measure the intensity of light at once." Ronald took a mechanical light meter and handed it to Cap,

"Every time the director shoots, you have to calibrate the intensity of the sky light. Whether we can capture every shot depends on how well you meter the light. If the pointer is less than zero, you have to immediately ask the director of photography to pause. ”

"Can I trust you, man? Whether our entire team can get good shots depends on you."

"Oh, yeah? Of course you can trust me. How do I do this?" the peaked hat asked hurriedly.

After Ronald taught the peaked cap to meter the sky, he walked to the photographer until he was next to Michael Seresin and said, "Michael, before every shot, you have to take a look at that peaked cap. After he nods, you can start shooting as usual. ”

Director of photography Michael Seresin glanced at Cap inexplicably, and the other person excitedly waved the light meter in his hand and nodded vigorously to him.

"Camera?" director Alan Parker confirmed before shooting.

"Full speed." Michael Seresin looked back and focused on the next shot.

"A!"

The convoy headed by Cadillac cars slowly drove from the crossroad into 46th Street.

The music of "Hot Stuff" started playing again, and Ronald stood with the cap to prevent him from making any moves that would ruin the shot.

Each time the dancers rush down the street with all their might, dancing differently from the last time.

This time, they were a male dancer and Lucy who rushed ahead and stopped the Cadillac that was braking suddenly. Lucy climbed onto the roof of the car and started dancing to the disco beat.

The Italian driver, this time still followed the director's instructions and wanted to come up with some tricks to surprise the dancers and make real reaction expressions and movements.

After he stopped the car, he waited for the dancer to climb onto the roof of the car, then gently pressed the accelerator, and the car sped forward.

The dancers on the roof of the car were greatly surprised by this unexpected movement, and several dancers fell on the roof of the car.

Lucy was squeezed by other dancers and pushed from the side.

She brought down other dancers on the ground next to the car. Several people sat on the ground together, including Antonia, who was also taken down to the ground.

Seeing the fall, Ronald rushed forward.

Lucy sat on the ground, holding her ankles.

"How are you, Lucy?" Ronald asked, squeezing through the circle of dancers.

"I twisted my ankle, but it doesn't seem too serious." Lucy struggled to stand up on one foot, holding onto the cart and hopping twice on one foot.

"Don't move, I'll help you." Gene, who was also from Harlem, held up one of Lucy's hands with his shoulder, and accompanied Lucy to hop to the side to rest on one foot. The resident doctor hurried over to check Lucy's ankle.

Antonia was shocked. She had been admitted to the New York City Ballet, and if she was injured, it would be bad. She sat on the ground, still a little frightened.

Ronald walked over and squatted, asking Antonia about her injury with his eyes.

Antonia moved her hands, feet, neck, and waist, "I'm fine, I saw Lucy fall and dragged other dancers, and I fell to the ground on my own initiative to avoid them." She struggled to stand up.

Ronald saw that there was a large stain on the buttocks of her dance clothes, and it seemed that this fall was not easy. So he stepped forward to stop Antonia. He squatted down and let Antonia wrap her arms around his neck. He held her waist with one hand and lifted her knees with the other hand and picked her up.

Ronald carried Antonia for a few steps and put her on the chair next to the resident doctor.

After the doctor examined Lucy, she sprained her ankle and needed to rest. She basically said goodbye to the filming of the movie. The black-skinned, always open-minded girl cried sadly.

The doctor examined Antonia again. He asked a lot of questions. Antonia was lucky not to be injured. She just supported herself with her hands and scratched the skin at the base of her palm.

Ronald breathed a sigh of relief and leaned over to watch the doctor apply medicine to Antonia's palm. Then he stood up and turned around and walked to the Italian driver.

A group of dancers and the Italian drivers had already started to confront each other. This time was different from the previous two times. The group was injured. The dancers refused to give in and insisted on getting rid of the driver who drove the Cadillac in the first place. Some black dancers even shouted that they wanted to beat him up.

Ronald separated the crowd. Everyone had some trust in this young man who invented leg warmers for dancers and sought cooling measures, so they let him walk in front of the driver.

Ronald stared at the driver's eyes for more than ten seconds without saying a word. The other party finally began to avoid his sight. At this time, Ronald suddenly spoke:

"Why did you do that dangerous action that suddenly started?"

"The director hinted to me..." The driver said half a sentence, then realized something was wrong and stopped talking.

Everyone was in an uproar. Some people didn't believe it and accused the driver of talking nonsense. Some people listened to the warning of the operator uncle and believed it privately...

Ronald looked back at the director who was talking to the producer in the distance, and then turned back to say to the drivers: "In any case, you are not suitable to continue driving in the crew..."

The representative of the actors' union also came over and said to everyone: "Don't be afraid, kids, you have all received the wages stipulated by the union, and the film actors' union will protect your legal rights."

...

"Alan, you can't do such dangerous actions for the performance effect." The producer had just finished negotiating with the people of the actors' union. "We pay the dance group the minimum wage stipulated by the union. In theory, they can regard themselves as members of the union and even go on strike."

"I didn't ask him to start the car suddenly, David. I just asked him to do some special actions to surprise the actors."

"Don't treat me like a child, Alan." The producer was a little angry, ignored Alan, and walked towards the group.

After Alan finished shirking responsibility, he seemed to realize that someone was looking at him, and turned his head to look at the group dance, and happened to meet Ronald's eyes.

…

"No more dangerous sudden movements, the driver is not allowed to work on the crew, apologize to the injured dancers, pay the actors involved an extra week's salary, and then give the injured Lucy and the other two people one face-showing shot in the future."

Ronald reported the actors' demands to producer David Da Silva.

"That's all?"

"That's all, do you think it's okay? If you agree, you can resume filming." Ronald replied.

"The representatives of the actors' union over there are launching a strike for extras. But the extras actually just want more wages and more shots, and the strike has no special benefits for them. If you agree, there will be no strike."

"Of course, I can agree to let them resume filming. I owe you one, Ronnie." The producer breathed a sigh of relief, fearing that the delay in filming a large scene would greatly overspend.

Apart from anything else, just contacting the city hall to block the road is not something that can be done in the short term.

Ronald pulled the driver who caused the accident, apologized to everyone, and then took him away from the extras and escorted him out of the set.

The driver also thanked Ronald. If both sides had not reasoned with each other today, he would have been beaten severely.

"Don't blame me, brother. Your director told me to do this." The driver was still explaining along the way.

"What did the director tell you? Did he personally ask you to suddenly start the car?"

"He said he liked my performance and gave the actors a real reaction. He asked me to do another unexpected action in the official shoot, and also said, be careful not to do dangerous actions..." The driver's voice became lower and lower as he spoke.

"He hinted but didn't leave any evidence. He is really a director who will do anything to meet his own filming requirements." Ronald looked back at Alan Parker again, remembering what the taxi driver Bert had reminded him, that this director didn't allow the actors to take a shower during filming.