Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 12 Crew Lunch

  Roger Coleman soon left the set, he had to go to the hospital to check out Allen, and then take a lawyer to the police station to bail Joe Dante. The life of a millionaire is always busy. But Gail, the assistant to the president, stayed on the scene.

Today is a sunny day, the sun has risen high, the director of photography said that we can only take some close-up and close-up shots now, and use a reflector to fill in the light, otherwise, under the direct sunlight from a high angle, the shadow on the face will make the film look like Hitch Kirk's thriller.

  Ronald and Jim picked some suitable shots together, and continued shooting after the director of photography approved it.

   These sets of shots say that the new headmistress, Evelyn Toga (played by Mary Voronoff), heard someone playing rock music on the radio to catch the perpetrator.

   She took large scissors and cut the audio cable of Liv Randall's record player. Then ask everyone who is the leader. As long as the leader is handed over, everyone else is innocent.

  Cate Lambo, a good girl, stood up and said she did it herself. And of course, Liv Randall. The pair were released from school today by Principal Evelyn Toga.

   Ronald found that if the actors were well rehearsed and the crew cooperated tacitly, the filming would be very rhythmic. Actor positioning, lighting, actor rehearsal, live shooting, changing set props, arranging cameras, actors positioning, lighting...the cycle goes on and on.

Maybe Ronald's requirements are low (he has no guidance in his dreams, and he doesn't know if the filming is good or not), or maybe he respects the opinions of the crew (anyone else doesn't know about him), today's filming speed of the crew is unexpectedly high. Three points faster than when Allen and Joe directed.

   It was 10:50 am and I had already shot seven, seven and eight. There are only a few panoramas and long shots left. There is no way to fool the light with a reflector. You can only honestly wait for the magic light before and after sunset before shooting.

   "The morning shooting is over, now it's lunch time, everyone on the crew, rest for 1 hour." Ronald shouted with an electric horn.

  Daylight saving time has just ended, and the time in the Pacific time zone is still a bit weird. The sunrise is at 6:00 in the morning, and the sunset is after 4:00 in the afternoon. Lunch time is set at 11:00.

  The group members ran back to the teaching building to eat. The principal of Van Nuys High School welcomed the crew to film. As a high school in the West Hollywood area, there are many literary students among the students. They have been fascinated by filmmaking since childhood. They joined the drama club in elementary school and hope to enter the film industry in the future. If a film crew comes to the high school to shoot the scene, the annual assessment of the school district is a good thing, and it is also conducive to attracting students.

   So the school treated guests today, eating pizza and drinking Coke. This makes the food crew happy too. The stingy crew has a small budget for food, usually only cheap hot dogs and instant coffee.

  Ronald and Jim and Gail sit together and eat Domino's pizza. This is a relatively popular chain delivery recently. The taste is not surprising, but the delivery is very fast, and it is still hot when you get it. Ronald ate a few slices of pizza, drank a can of Coke, and patted his stomach contentedly.

  Gail is much more elegant to eat. At first, he used a plastic knife and fork, but under the leadership of Jim, he quickly got started, covering his mouth with his hand while eating.

  I don't know what joke Jim told, making Gale giggle and quiver.

   Ronald took out a pair of sunglasses from his pocket and put them on. Today, he is a senior member of the crew, so he sat in a better seat, with a chair with a backrest. Leaning back comfortably, my heart is still very relaxed. There was basically nothing to shoot in the afternoon, so I organized a few actors to rehearse and try to have one before and after sunset.

  The advantage of wearing sunglasses is that others cannot see what your eyes are looking at. Ronald closed his eyes, breathed evenly, and closed his eyes. Unlike most Americans, he likes to take a break at noon. But in a country that prides itself on being physically fit, naps tend to be thought of as a sign of lack of energy, either bad health or laziness, so Ronald wears sunglasses to cover it up.

   Today he is the temporary director and is destined to not rest. Soon Jim came over to inquire about the secrets Roger Coleman had taught in the morning. Ronald took off his sunglasses, took out a small notebook, and told him one by one. Jim nodded as he listened, "If only I knew this when I made the short film."

   "You've also made short films?" Ronald didn't know he had this history. Gail knew something, "Yes, when Jim brought the short film over, Mr. Coleman admired his talent and let him join the company to study filmmaking."

   "Oh, what's the subject? Is your copy still there? When will I have a chance to look at it." Ronald became interested.

   "It's a sci-fi film, 12 minutes and 07 seconds. I transferred it to a VHS tape, and I have a chance to show it to you."

"I don't have a VCR where I live, so I might as well go to the company to watch it. How much did it cost to make that short film, and how did you get the money?" Ronald envied Jim a little. He knew that Jim was by no means a child of a wealthy family. Both surreptitiously used McDonald's coupons to eat.

   "For $24,000, I found 12 dentists and persuaded them to raise money for the auction."

   "Sci-fi? That's going to cost a lot of money on props and special effects, right? You can make it for $24,000, which is amazing."

"Ah, the main part that spends money is two machine models, the kind where people sit and fight. It cost a lot of money, and the actors can't perform while crouching in them. I can only shoot separately, and the actors sit in chairs and pretend While driving the battle robot, I took pictures of the machine models fighting each other, and edited them together to create a feeling that the actors were driving the battle robots.”

   When it comes to his favorite sci-fi movies, Jim starts gushing. Ronald suspects that if "High School of Rock" hadn't been a teenage movie with lots of music and dance, Jim would have competed with himself to be the interim director.

   "New World seems to have made a lot of sci-fi movies?" Ronald asked Gale.

"Yes. But last year's "Star Wars" by George Lucas raised the bar for sci-fi films a lot. Mr. Coleman's original sci-fi films that only shoot green light from PiuPiu are not selling well." Gale Laughing and making a laser gun.

   "Ronald, can you still give us a close-up view?" A voice came from beside him.

   Ronald turned his head, and two dancing **** bombs, Chris Soma, and Mara Rosenfeld came together to visit.

  The two changed their costumes and are now wearing T-shirts and jeans, but they still can't hide their youth. A blond, a brunette, with big eyes watching the young interim director.

Ronald felt a little overwhelmed and put on his sunglasses, "Hi, Chris, Mara. My temporary directorship ends today. The only thing left today is the role of the headmistress played by Mary Voronoff. Let you dance on the side of the road as a backdrop. I can't give you a one-man show."

   "Oh, thanks, if only you were the real director."

   "Yeah, I think your shots are better than Ellen."

   The two beauties immediately complimented.

   "Don't say that, you two are very photogenic (really) and dance the best (fake), and there will be dance scenes after this movie, I think Siana will definitely recommend you both."

  Ronald hurriedly interrupted their complaints and let them have the air to ask for the dancing fingers who really had the right to recommend them. The two beauties went to Maizhi Siana with thanks.

  "Puchi", Gail looked at the backs of the two beauties and laughed, "Ronald, you can be a diplomat."

   "Uh, I'm just telling the truth."

   "The truth? You are just selectively telling them part of the truth." Gale could see clearly, "It's the director who can ultimately decide their fate in such a low-budget movie."

   "There's nothing wrong with that. Mr. Coleman told me before that his movie audiences didn't come to watch stories, but to watch young girls dancing disco, and they were the most expected of the audience."

   "Looks like you understand them well?" Gail asked, wrinkling his nose.

"Yes, I understand them quite a bit. Movies are a magical art that can be seen by tens of millions of audiences. As a student in a public school, it is also possible to have a few positive shots in the last movie. A dream in my heart, isn't it?"

Ronald stood up and put the finished pizza box and Coke can into the garbage bag, "Today's school treat, I finally don't have to eat hot dogs, and I don't have to count the heads to prevent outsiders from stealing it." As he said that, he and Jim laughed together, which was one of the important tasks of the two of them, and laughed with Gail.

   The English shorthand in the previous chapter is generally incomprehensible, so I added the omitted vowels:

   If you can read this message,

   Youtoocandoubleyourincome

   withspeedwriting

translate:

   If you can read this message, you can also learn shorthand and double your salary.

   (end of this chapter)