Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 266 Move to Van Ness High School

  Phoebe Cates' signing of a special filming contract went well, and her father agreed after seeing the description of the swimming pool scene in the script. She also encouraged her that if it was a high-profile shot, it would give the actress more praise.

   As for Robert Romanus, he came from the bottom, signed the contract without any hesitation, and triumphantly declared that he wanted to show the national audience the cannon from the Bronx.

  The crew moved smoothly to Van Nuys High School, where they filmed the interior of the school and classrooms.

   The principal of Van Nuys High School, and the dean of education, the same two as "Rock High School". But the students have changed. Ronald stood on the roof of the teaching building and looked down, and the filming process was still vivid in his mind.

   It's just that this time, instead of Mara's two dancing babes, a new batch of high school beauties is watching the shooting.

   This time is the official project of Universal Pictures, Ronald no longer has to write fake scripts to prevaricate the school. Our own professionals negotiate with the school to arrange everything.

   The shooting time was still in the semester, and the students came to the school every day. For this reason, Ronald negotiated with the school that students can watch the filming, but they cannot interfere with it. If you are interested in participating in the performance, you can go to the crew to sign up and act as a background group.

  Standing on the roof of the teaching building of Van Nuys High School, Ronald used electric horns to direct the crew to rehearse.

   Shooting the appearance of several protagonists today. Brad drove his own luxury installment car, and he was greeted by many girls along the way. There was a good car that always attracted girls' attention.

   After planning the route for the car to enter the venue, and the group performance with lines along the way and showing a little face, the two rehearsal results were good, and Ronald began to shoot the main camera.

  The camera on the roof shoots down. A sapphire blue four-door car enters from the left side of the screen and exits from the right.

   "Very good, another one." Ronald, who was standing on the roof, picked up the electric horn and shouted to the stunt crew below.

  Stunt driver Debbie Evans, came out of the car door, gave Ronald a thumbs up to hear it, then backed the car back to the starting position and started again. If this kind of footage is not necessary, the stunt team will help drive the car.

   The reason why the actors are not allowed to drive is to prevent any accidents to the actors and affect the subsequent shooting. Driving may seem harmless, but Hollywood has long developed a standard practice that has its own logic. There have been precedents of actors jumping off tables and breaking their own bones before.

   This set of shots is to show Brad, who works part-time in a fast food restaurant. After working hard to make money, he has a feeling of being superior to his classmates in school.

   Seeing that there are many beautiful girls in the new school year, he decided to get rid of his girlfriend Lisa, who also works in a fast food restaurant, and really find a "girlfriend" to enjoy the last year of high school life.

  The shot was well done, Ronald motioned Debbie to pass.

   "Fix the camera in the back seat of the car and shoot the beautiful woman over there through the window."

  Ronald moves on to schedule the next shot.

   "Hi, Brad." A girl greeted the photographer in the back seat. Of course with other cuts, viewers would think she was talking to Brad.

   "Cut, fine, next."

  This time Brad has close-ups, not suitable for stunt doubles, and he gets into the car himself and drives on a prescribed route.

  The camera is placed on the co-pilot, fixed with a bracket, and the photographer and follow focus operator sit in the back seat to operate. The focus operator connected an extension cable to the focus knob, and was half lying on the back seat to adjust the focus. The focus depth of this close-up shot is very shallow, and it will be out of focus if you are not careful, which is a test of the skill of the focus operator.

After    practice twice, DP Matthew signaled that Ronald was ready.

  The crew filmed Brad's footage, and there were two cars available for use. One is a true royal blue four-door limousine for panoramic car shots.

  The other is the current ordinary car. The passenger door was removed to prevent interference with the large film cassette behind the camera. Mainly used to take pictures of car interiors.

   "Recording? Camera? Action!"

  Judge Reinhold, who plays Brad, took out a small slate and tapped it lightly at the camera.

  The framing range of the close-up lens is very narrow, so the stencil is also a special small board, only a little bigger than the palm of your hand.

  The space inside the car is narrow, which made it inconvenient for the screenwriter to get in and play the board every time. Actor Reinhold played the board himself, then put the screenboard next to the chair where the camera could not see it, and started the car.

  Brad replied to the girl who greeted him, "Hi."

   Then he continued to drive forward and graded the girl to himself, "Ah, grown up? Become beautiful?"

   "Cut!"

   "Very good, another one."

   This one is actually not that good, but Ronald always said that it is okay for the actors to have no psychological burden when shooting the next one. This is a trick he came up with.

   "Famous in the World" director Alan Parker was upset when he was dissatisfied with the camera, which put a lot of pressure on the actors, which was actually not conducive to their performance.

"When you turn your head to speak to the camera, you should have the feeling of a boss patrolling the company. Brad is patrolling the beautiful girls in the school. He is now the foreman of Hamburg in the United States, and he treats his classmates with a dominant mentality." Ronald told Jia Chi said two words.

   "Cut!" Ronald came to shoot again, "This time it's better than last time, let's do it again, this time with a different acting method."

  Brad is a celebrity at school, and many people admire him for being the foreman of a "big company" like Hamburg in the United States in 12th grade. When he got to the parking lot, his younger brother helped him open the door.

   "There are still 6 issues, and this four-door luxury full-size cruiser belongs to me." After getting off the car, Brad gave a high-five to his younger brothers.

   "Cut!"

  Brad's appearance scene is finished, and then there is the appearance scene of the scalper Mike played by Romanus. Both appearances were in the school's parking lot.

   The part-time part-time job in the mall is the appearance of several characters. By about seven minutes, Ronald arranged for them to play in the school. A good appearance scene can let the audience know what kind of person this character is in a few seconds.

   In turn, the audience will understand what kind of story they will have and how they will interact with other characters.

   So Ronald attaches great importance to appearance shots and keeps improving. The progress of filming is not as fast as in the mall, but try to get the accurate performance of the actors.

  Anyway, it was filmed in the mall for a week, and it was completed one day earlier than the shooting plan. The two producers are very satisfied with the progress and quality of their work. Ronald has the capital to spend more time here at Van Nuys High School.

   "I'll give you four tickets for the fifth row, the lowest price is $140 in total." Romanus was speaking to several customers, hoping to fool them into buying high-priced tickets.

"See that sports car? That's Jefferson's car. He was the linebacker for our high school football team. One alumnus wanted him to join his college and gave Jefferson a sports car in 10th grade, when it was still I picked it for him.

  Football star Charles Jefferson, played by Forest Whitaker, drives a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 sports car past Mike the scalper and pulls into the parking lot.

   "This is a good car." The two customers admired.

   "Yeah, huh, he and I are old friends." Mike the scalper thought about his pretence and went up to greet Jefferson.

   "Hi, Charles, how are you today? It's a nice car, and you take good care of it."

   "Don't **** touch it dirty." Jefferson gave no face to scalper Mike.

   "Look, what a person with personality." Mike's face changed, he turned around immediately, and praised Jefferson in another way.

   "Really," the customer said, and for a while it seemed like Mike was really a man with many connections and great powers.

   Forest Whitaker is tall, but not much taller than Robert Romanus, who plays Mike.

   For dramatic effect. Ronald had the props team put an apple crate on the side of the car. Let Whitaker get out of the car and stand on the 20cm high stepping wood.

  Then the camera shoots up from Mike's side. When Whittaker got out of the car and stood up, he was a lot taller than Romanus. Romanus only reached his chest, and instantly shot a giant feeling.

"Cut! Very good, change the camera, let's do it again." Ronald is very satisfied with the lens design of the director of photography Matthew, such a Charles Jefferson, the university did not hesitate to send alumni to attract him to join the NCAA competition. Car delivery genius.

   The second camera was shot from behind Whitaker, the camera was fixed on a stand, raised to the back of Whitaker, and shot from above. The camera operator and follow focus operator crouched on a small platform above the camera mount.

   "Action!" Ronald ordered.

   "Don't **** touch it." Whittaker repeated the line.

  Romanus stood in front of him, and as Whittaker stood up on the apple crate, Romanus had to look up and speak to the other side.

  The distortion of the lens makes the scalper Mike played by Romanus even smaller, which is a little funny.

  The director of photography, Matthew, who climbed up and stared at it, was very satisfied with the shot and gave Ronald a thumbs up.

   "Very good, let's take another shot from the side."

   Filming is just so complicated, tedious, and boring. The students who were watching soon couldn't take it anymore. Waited 20 minutes, shot for 20 seconds, and didn't see any effect.

   But these shots, once cut together in the editing room, can smoothly express complex emotions and stories, immersing the audience in the world created by the director.

   In this encounter scene between scalper Mike and rugby star Jefferson, the front, back, and side shots are cut together to show Jefferson's physical talent and impulsive personality.

  Scalper Mike, who is good at bragging and taking advantage of his background from a poor family, is also at a glance.

   However, the interest of high school students cannot be dissipated at once.

   When it was time to shoot the indoor scene, that is, when Spiccoli was late and was kicked out of the history class by Mr. Hand, a group of Van Nuys High School students were still standing outside the classroom door, trying to find out the secrets of the filming.

   "Spicoli, this shot will be on your face and Mr. Walston's face, I need an emotional close-up."

   Sean Penn nodded to Ronald, indicating that he was ready.

   Ray Walston, who plays Mr. Hand, is an old Hollywood actor. He played Martian Uncle Martin in the TV series "My Favorite Martian" and is a well-known TV star.

   "Recording, Camera, Action!"

   "Mr. Hand...Cut!"

   Sean Penn stopped halfway through his lines.

   "What's the matter, Spiccoli?" Ronald asked.

   (end of this chapter)