Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 285 Audience Reaction

  Diane Lane and Laura Dern were dubious about Ronald's claim that he could cut out the movie "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Magical Stain".

   "Do you think he can really cut it out? Diane?" Laura and Diane went to play in the hotel that the Golden Globes Organizing Committee had booked for them, still thinking about whether their first movie could be released.

  The Golden Globe Awards had a 15% audience rating last year, and the annual broadcast cost was over a million dollars. Compared with the number of judges with less than 100 people, the organizing committee could not run out of money. Therefore, Laura, who is the "Miss Golden Globe Award", also opened a large room in a five-star hotel, in the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, where it was held.

"I don't know, but you can see that Jane Fonda respects him and invites him to the house alone to talk. Maybe he's really a genius?" Diane didn't know Ronald's level of directing and editing, but knew that He won an Oscar for writing lyrics.

   "It also makes sense. Artists can't use common sense to infer." Laura thought.

   She came from a family of performers and knows that the level of film artists does not depend on the accumulation of experience over time. It often happens in the film industry that young teenagers beat the old masters with one punch.

   One of the film director biographies on her father’s bookshelf is the teenage genius Orson Welles. Orson Welles directed the radio drama "Martians Invade Earth" at the age of 23, convincing half of America into believing it.

   "I have to call my mom and ask her to help me ask." Laura Dern said, unlike Diane, she already has several movie credits. Laura is still looking forward to the early release of her first film.

   A week later, Ronald finally got the test audience that Universal paid for. In a Hollywood movie theater, more than a hundred spectators were invited by the theater phone to participate in the test screening of an anonymous "teen comedy".

   "Wait down to the women's restroom and listen to the female audience's thoughts." Before the opening, Ronald hid at the gate behind the theater and whispered to his agent Paula Wagner.

   "Women's bathroom?" Paula nodded in agreement.

   "Help you go and see what they are saying in the men's bathroom?" Then Ronald assigned a task to Richard Lovett, the youngest of the three.

   "What job are you giving me?" Rick Nisita, who has the highest status in CAA, looked at Ronald and asked with a smile.

"Didn't you ask me something to talk to? Oh oh..." Ronald reacted and quickly thanked Paula and Richard, "Please help, I really don't have anyone to help, wait a minute. I'm going to the foyer to hear the audience. Thank you, thank you!"

  Nisita smiled and dragged Ronald out of the theater.

   "Do you think Ronald has become a little..." Richard said to Paula Wagner, who was rarely seen.

   "Confident, sensitive, aggressive?" Paula smiled.

"This is how artists treat their creative works. They are full of confidence, but also afraid of being criticized by others. This is Ronald's first directorial work, including his film Debut. It would be abnormal without this kind of ambivalence. You know when you deal with artists."

With a    "beep", the automatic door of the theater swayed twice, and finally stopped in the closed position, a sign of the earth appeared on the screen, and the preview of Universal's "Fast-Paced Richmond High School" began.

   The brisk opening music quickly brought the audience into an ordinary department store in Southern California…

  Richard and Paula stopped talking, also sat down and watched.

   Nisita outside the door, talking to Ronald, he has something to call Ronald.

"The top of Paramount personally called and asked if you could help see their movie 'The Fantastic Stain Band', the end of which has never been cut, and if you can't tell a story, you can only give it up Locked in the library."

   "Huh? Are they really looking for you?" Ronald was surprised, Laura and Diane passed on their words?

   "Yes, but I don't recommend that you take over the editing. It doesn't matter if you help with the copy. But Lou Adler is not a simple director, he is the boss of the record industry. We don't know what he thinks."

   "Then you arrange for me to meet with him? If he really wants others to help, then I won't be too late, otherwise I'll just look at other people's works."

"Aren't you going to take a vacation? You're six months away from the release, you can take a long vacation before you start working on a new project. I know your hands are fast, six months is enough to write the script for your next movie. ." Nisita replied.

"Writing a script?" Ronald repeated. "I don't know, Rick. I've been so nervous lately that I can't write a quality script, and I'm completely uninspired. On the other hand, I can't fully Stop and rest, always looking for something to do.

   I seem to be used to a fast-paced life of less than five hours of sleep a day, filming, watching dailies, editing, rewinding... The film has brought my own pace of life faster, and I feel uncomfortable when I stop, but I'm not in the mood to work on the script. "

   "Why don't you go on a trip abroad, Ronald? A lot of directors get into this kind of anxiety after finishing a work. All they need is a girl to go to a vacation spot for two months.

   I don't want you to spend your time on vacation, but well-timed rest and adjustments are needed. If you want, I can give you a few party invitations too, as long as you don't indulge in them..."

  Nisita sees Ronald's tendency to be a little anxious, and is concerned about the client's mental health.

   "I don't need to pay for a girl to accompany me, hahaha." Ronald laughed and laughed. He didn't like the kind of party that Nisita said. He drank too much, and it was easy for people to lose their minds.

   And there is also a lack of real high-quality beauties, all of whom want to enter the entertainment industry but cannot enter.

   He continued, "Hey, I also know that I may have the syndrome of ordinary life. The fast and dramatic story rhythm in the movie assimilated me, but the dull rhythm in life makes me feel abnormal."

   Ronald also vaguely felt that his mental state was a little too excited, eager to work but unable to calm down to write a script that required forward and backward planning.

   As for girls, I can't find a suitable short-term vacation partner for a while. After the filming, the beauties of the crew scattered to look for new jobs. Right now, the prosecutor who can skip the temptation and communicate directly is far away in New York, and the girl she wants to date is also constantly auditioning in New York, so she has no time to come to Los Angeles.

   "I think I still use work to adjust my status. Do you have any short-term job offers there?" Ronald asked.

   "Except for Paramount's 'Stained Band' asking you to see if there is a way to fix the editing, there are only a few sporadic script offers, but you say you can't calm down and write the script.

  I actually don’t recommend that you invest in such a script commissioned by the studio right away. When your new film is released and has some positive reviews, the asking price for this commissioned script will also be higher. "

   "What about work other than screenwriting?"

"There is a vacancy for a trainee director of Coppola's new film...but that requires competition with many directors from the director's union. With your qualifications, it is actually a bit too strong. You have directed a feature film, and you don't need to be in other directors. Learn around to increase your qualifications.”

   "Isn't Coppola's new movie yet to be released? That 'Old Love, New Love' starring Natasha Kinski? A new movie coming so soon?"

   "It's a long story. Paramount was going to release his new film, but Coppola, without Paramount's consent, released his edited version in Los Angeles and was terminated from the distribution contract.

  Colombia, which was acquired by Coca-Cola, took over the distribution at the last minute. But Coppola was also burdened with a heavy financial burden because of this. He signed a gambling agreement with Colombia...

   Now he can only take new jobs and solve his bankruptcy crisis. "

   Ronald nodded. If he had this opportunity early last year, he would definitely fight for it. "How is the quality of the old love and the new love? Have you seen it?"

   "No, but it's going to premiere soon, you can see it for yourself. I heard that there is a breakthrough in technology, but the format is a bit old, it's an old-fashioned musical."

   "Also, director Peter Bogdanovich wants to meet you."

"What is he doing with me? I don't know him?" said Ronald curiously, the famous director who filmed "Paper Moon" back then, after his girlfriend Dorothy Stratten was killed, scared him. Enough, disappeared in the circle for a long time.

   "Maybe it's about his dead girlfriend Stratten. You used her poster in the movie. I heard that many of Stratten's portraits are copyrighted by him now."

   "Then let him talk to the producer, I'm not interested." Ronald had seen Bogdanovich's films, but he didn't have a strong desire to communicate with him.

   "Aren't you going in and watching your own movie?"

"To tell you the truth, I've watched it hundreds of times in the editing room. I can't feel the charm of the movie itself when I watch it now, it's all the scenes when I filmed and edited it. And it's dark inside, so I can see it too. I don't know the expressions of the audience, I'm here waiting for them to come out and score."

   "Okay, then I'll go in and see." Nisita carefully pushed open the door of the screening room, preventing it from making a sound, and then got in.

  Today was the first time that Ronald, the client's film, was screened in front of the audience, so CAA's three agents came.

The name    is called helping, but it actually means evaluating, looking at Ronald's performance and potential, and then considering how much resources to invest in him and what opportunities to strive for.

   Ronald waited at the door, bought a pack of popcorn and a glass of Coke, and ate and drank by himself.

   In the past six months, it was really hard to make myself wait like this without doing anything. Every day I wondered how the box office would be after the movie was released. Like a defendant waiting for a judge's verdict, only when the gavel of that verdict falls can the fear stop.

   "If I don't have a job, I'll go back to New York and help my aunt sell leg warmers. Maybe it's better to be with my family." Ronald thought while eating.

   More than an hour later, the door of the screening hall was slammed open from the inside, and many spectators who had finished watching the movie filed out.

The staff of   Universal set up a stall at the door. There is paper on it for viewers to write ratings and comments.

  Ronald stepped up to help distribute and take back, and listened to the audience's feedback by the way.

   "I think the most memorable episode? It's Linda by the pool...haha."

   "Where do you think the filming is not good enough? I think the plot of Stacey and Mark's love is not very good, why does Stacey fall in love with him?"

   "Am I willing to accept a call back? Yes, I'll leave the number."

  …

  Ronald has seen a lot of audience ratings, and many people have given relatively high scores, and the average score may be between B+ and A-.

   "What do you think?" When the two agents came back from the bathroom after hearing the feedback, Ronald quickly asked them what they heard. Queues are required in the bathroom, and it is often the moment when the audience reveals the truth.

   "Girls generally appreciate the episode of Phoebe Cates' daydream. Although it is a **** scene, they don't feel disgusted." Paula Wagner said. "Maybe they also have a fantasy complex, Ronald, you just made the actor who played Brad in the dream scene very handsome."

   "What did they say about Stacey's footage?"

   "I didn't mention that scene, maybe it was too real?"

   Ronald nodded, Stacey's scene, scalper Mike became a quick shooter, and finally Stacey was pregnant, the final ending of this episode was not very good. Audiences may selectively forget.

   "What did you say there?" Ronald turned to Richard.

"A lot of people liked Spiccoli, and the male audience was talking about how he ended up with Brooke Shields, on Letterman's talk show, and asked Van Halen to sing for his birthday," Richard replied, "Maybe Everyone wants to be a Spiccoli, play all day and get a high school diploma and be a winner in life."

   "He's the only character who gets a round of applause at the end of the movie when the character ends," Nisita added.

   "Can I keep a copy of the audience's phone numbers for return visits?" Ronald asked the Universal staff who was sorting out the ratings and evaluation papers after watching the audience disperse.

   "I have to organize these first and discuss them with the company's top management. I can send you a copy at that time, Director Ronald."

   "Can I leave a phone number for you? I'm his agent. I'll contact you when the time comes." Richard quickly took out his pen and wrote down his phone number.

   (end of this chapter)