Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 173

  Francis Coppola's ZoetropeStudio is located on Carney Street in North Beach, San Francisco, in the famous Sentinel Building. Completed in 1907, the building was one of the first high-rise buildings in San Francisco. The green exterior walls are very bright.

   Ronald entered the building, most of the building was rented by the diorama company, and there was a large studio. Ronald finds Walter Murzy on the upper floor, ready to start his apprenticeship, learning editing techniques under Murzy's tutelage.

  Walter Murkey is remixing the movie Dragon Slayer. This is a film co-produced by Paramount and Disney. After the success of the co-production of the live-action version of "Popeye Pope", the two companies continued to jointly produce the second live-action animation story.

  Mercie was sitting in front of the mixing desk with several tapes on it. He saw Ronald coming, smiled like an old friend, and motioned Ronald to wait a moment.

The so-called remixing is to remix the tapes of the live radio, post-dubbing, soundtrack, etc. with multiple tracks in the mixing room, adjust the loudness of each track, eliminate the noise of the live sound, and add to the soundtrack. The sense of presence, etc., works to form the various sounds, dialogue, and soundtracks that we hear in movie theaters.

  Walter Murkey is one of the few who can do not only film editing, but also sound editing. At the 52nd Academy Awards in the first half of the year, he was nominated for Best Editing and won the Best Sound Oscar.

   Apparently, after winning the award, orders for his sound editing started pouring in. This "Dragon Slayer" is also named and asked him to do the knife.

   "I'm busy making sound effects for this fire-breathing dragon, you can wait here, I'll come back to you later," said Walter Murky.

   Ronald nodded and walked out the door himself. During this time Francis Coppola was not in San Francisco, but in New York. He brought in his little brother George Lucas and gave their idol Toyo director Akira Kurosawa as a guarantee. The movie "Shadow Warrior" invested by 20th Century Fox was a big hit at the Toyoung box office, collecting 2.3 billion yen.

  Eastern Ying people began to recall the honor this "movie emperor" once brought them, and they began to report on the American people's worship of him.

  Coppola was also invited to be interviewed, and he was optimistic about the box office release of Kurosawa Akira historical blockbuster "Shadow Warrior" in America. His diorama company was also involved in a small part of the distribution. Coppola wanted to use this oriental film as a test of the diorama's foray into the film distribution market.

   Soon Walter Murkey walked out of the mixing room and found Ronald. "You're welcome, I'm busy making sound effects for the fire-breathing dragon. You're here to help me sort out the original film of Apocalypse Now."

   It turned out that Coppola decided to put all the film of Apocalypse Now into the desert for storage. He felt that the film was a treasure for mankind, and the humidity and temperature in the desert were just right. He found a cave and stored all the negatives in it, hoping that people fifty years from now would be able to see the masterpiece.

   "You have to help me look at the pile of working film and find out the parts that don't belong in Apocalypse Now, when we discarded too much raw material in the warehouse. It was mixed with the used film over the years."

  Walter Murky said, and took Ronald to a warehouse downstairs, which was filled with reels of film.

"This is where the film of Apocalypse Now is. It starts from the third column and goes all the way to the eleventh column. There is a pile in the corner, and there are a lot of Apocalypse Now. Your job is to use this editing table to make every Go through the roll of film and check with the label.

   When we were editing, we were too tight to tidy up carefully, and now that Coppola wants to store him in the desert, we have to check it out. Just in time for you to come..."

   taught Ronald to use a horizontal editing machine made in West Germany, and Walter Murkey went back to "Slay the Dragon" by himself.

   Ronald took out his notebook, tore off a piece of paper, folded it into two little figures, and placed them in front of the small monitor of a horizontal editing machine made in West Germany. The proportions seemed to be two little figures watching a movie.

   Then he picked up a reel of film, opened the box, put the rollers on, and at the push of a button, a bright light projected the film onto the screen.

  Working for a few hours, Ronald cleaned out some of the footage from the Diorama Company's other early films. The rest are raw footage of Apocalypse Now, many of which were not cut into the final film.

  For example, Ronald is watching this now, the protagonist Colonel Willard is another actor, not Martin Sheen in the film. His eyes are smaller than Martin Sheen, and he has a tough temperament. Ronald watched it for a long time, but he always felt that he did not match the overall atmosphere of the film.

   "This is Harvey Carter, who was replaced by Coppola for Martin Sheen after a few weeks of filming." Walter Murkey came over and asked Ronald to go to dinner. "Do you think he made the right decision?"

   "I have watched Apocalypse Now several times. This is a story in which the protagonist leads you to explore the truth of the world. This tough-guy Harvey Carter is on film, and the audience may not be able to substitute it. His eyes are very small.

   And Martin Sheen is very suitable, he is feminine, his eyes are big and charming, so the audience can easily empathize with him. "Ronald felt that Walter wanted to raise him, so he boldly expressed his opinion.

Martin Sheen is a handsome guy with a bit of a creamy temperament. In the Mio co-production "Cassandra Bridge" a few years ago, he also played a creamy boy eating soft rice, and Eva Gardner, the twilight beauty. Play opponents. Ronald was impressed.

"You have a good opinion, Francis told me that at the time." Walter saw Ronald standing over the film with one hand on the stop button, knowing that he was using the film to practice his editing skills, Nodding satisfied.

   "You remember the tricks I taught you, which is good. I've always believed in the need to stand up for editing"

   "But I haven't found the feeling yet. I don't know if I really found that cut point."

  Ronald remembers what Merzy said, finding the right rhythm and temperament of the movie, every time you press the stop button, you can accurately stop at the 24th of a second. But he tried several times and still couldn't do it.

   "I still have a trick for this kind of character shots, and I'll teach you later."

   The two went to the Diorama Cafe next to the entrance of the Sentinel Building. Walter motioned to the waiter for two diorama set meals and ate with Ronald.

   "How do you feel after working all morning?"

   "I was writing the script for the first paragraph, and now I'm standing in front of the editor. It feels like two different dimensions that need to be adjusted. But after putting the film on the editor, it feels like it will come right away."

   "Your idea is very correct, in fact, a movie has gone through several creative processes from the idea to the final release.

  The screenwriter wrote him into a script, which is the first time he created it.

  The director decomposed the script and drew the composition mirror, which is the second creation.

The    actor's performance is the third creation.

  The DP decides which lens to use and which images to shoot is the fourth creation.

   And the editing is the fifth creation, and the last chance you can correct the mistakes of the film. "

   Ronald picked up his espresso and drank it down.

   "So many creations, how should we control the quality of the film?"

"This is a good question. The main creators of each creation have a different movie in their mind. Generally speaking, the director is the only person who will start from the script and follow it all the way to the editing. He is also the only character who can fully control the film. .

  The director will know more than anyone else about what the final film will look like, he is the one who makes the decisions and is artistically responsible. But it is not so easy, there are many difficulties to overcome.

   Actually, I have never directed a feature film. You'll know when you're a director. "

  Ronald nodded and started talking about something lighthearted.

   "I heard Roger Coleman say you were George Lucas's college classmate?"

"Yes, we took a film course at USC together, and Warner Bros. had an internship position that year, and the last round of interviews was just me and him." Walter Murkey was distantly caused by Ronald's question Memories.

   "We both felt that each other was the only competitor, so we agreed that no matter who got that position, we would pull the other one.

   In the end he got that position and met Francisco Coppola on the set, and I later applied for Coppola’s company, starting as a sound engineer and then film editing. "

   "So George Lucas owes you one more time?"

   "Haha, that's it.

   "Walter, will you be a director too?"

Walter Murkey also finished his coffee. "The opportunity to direct is not easy to come by. After I became an editor, there will be editors and sound work that will come to you all the time. So you will be caught in one by one editing and sound. Design work.

   I'm about to break this cycle and start directing.

   But my children are still young, my wife Angie and I are considering waiting for them to be a little older before starting to pursue my directorial dream. "

   After lunch, the two returned to their respective places and continued to work.

  Ronald felt that he was in a strange place and started a strange job, but he was very used to it unexpectedly and didn't feel any discomfort. Maybe he would like to watch the film he directed in the editing room gradually take shape.

   "Crack", Ronald pressed the stop button again, still a few spaces away from the previous one.

   Ronald paced in the warehouse, took out the pre-prepared thermos cup, and took a sip of black tea. Compared with coffee, he is still used to the slow refreshing effect of tea. Coffee is like a usury, which refreshes you for an hour or two, and then pays it back with interest. The refreshing effect of black tea does not have this drawback.

"Who is this person? He looks a lot like the protagonist Martin Sheen." Ronald started another exercise, pressed the play button, and looked at a young man on the monitor. Except for a little hunched back, he was alive and well. A young version of Martin Sheen.

   (end of this chapter)