Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 409 MTV Preheating

   "When I was young, I listened to the radio

  WhenIwasyoungI\'dlistentotheradio

   Waiting for the song I like,

  Waitin\'formyfavoritesongs

   When they play, I sing along

  WhentheyplayedI\'dsingalong

   This makes me smile.

  Itmademesmile.”

"Karen Carpenter is one of the rare talents of this century. No matter what critics say about her, she has been a regular in the top 40 and has been played on all EasyListening radio channels nationwide to date. Most singers."

The host of   MTV is introducing Karen Carpenters, the frontman of The Carpenters who sadly passed away last month. This is her memorial show, and some of her most popular songs are played in non-stop rotation on MTV.

   Ronald stood up, turned the volume down, and continued his discussion with Cameron about his Terminator audition. Cameron was so obsessed with his real debut that he pulled Ronald to help him choose the right actors.

   "This is Michael Biehn, this is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and they both auditioned for the role of Human Resistance fighter Kyle Reiss, father of future Resistance leader John Connor."

"Why did he play Kyle Reese, don't you think he is the best candidate for the Terminator?" Ronald picked out the picture of Schwarzenegger, which is the Terminator in the sequel he dreamed of The actor, now he is more exploding than the muscles in the dream.

"I thought so too, hehe." Cameron moved his chair to a comfortable position, "but Schwarzenegger's agent didn't like the villain and wanted him to be a positive character. You know he's played 'The Savage' before. Conan", so it can be considered a bargaining chip. "

   "Actually, sometimes brokers can't decide the will of their clients, and sometimes many brokers actually make decisions for their clients without authorization. I think you can talk to him directly."

   "Is that so?" Cameron doesn't have an agent. He has been tricked by agents before, so he is not familiar with the strange operations of these agents now.

   "Anyway, he's coming to interview the resistance fighters, and the agent won't be able to enter the audition room, you can tell him directly."

   "Okay, let's do it like this, actress, you can help me see too."

  Ronald picked up a bunch of audition shots of actresses, and the competition for actresses in this line is far more intense than that of male actors.

   "Jodie Foster, Diane Lane, Tatum O'Neal..." Familiar names drifted by.

"Your audition director is bluffing you, Judy has been refusing to act in domestic movies for more than a year, Diane is about to join the group and act in a big production, which will drag on for a long time, and Tatum... um, you have to check Check how her mental state is." Ronald made a gesture of pinching half of his nose to inhale.

"Huh?" Cameron took those photos and put them aside, "But Sarah is an eighteen-year-old cafe waitress in the script, these... are a bit old." He pointed to the remaining photos, all behind them were Has an actor's resume.

   "It's okay, anyway, the actresses are beautiful and look young on camera. Also, mature actors are easy to shoot. They have rich experience and can easily understand your intentions."

   "Listen to you", "Cameron took the rest of the cast photos," Sigourney Weaver, Diane Keaton, Katherine Turner..."

   "Okay, take your time."

   Ronald looked at the TV again. The MV for the opening song "Whata Feeling" of "Lightning Dance" appeared on MTV. Even the radio is often on demand.

The    song ends, replaced by a feature of Jennifer Beals, who is speaking:

   "You go there, the music plays, and you can feel its rhythm. Something in your body is awakened, and it bursts out with a click."

  The camera cuts to the scene where Alex, the protagonist of "Lightning Dance", does a tempting wet dance in a bar.

   "Is this the trailer?" Ronald thought, getting up and turning up his voice.

   "Her name is Alex, she works in a male world..." The narration sounded.

   "Really a trailer." It was the first time Ronald saw a trailer for an upcoming movie on MTV. "It's a good publicity channel."

   "Lightning Dance, if you have a dream come true, it can change your life." The narration ended, freeze on the Paramount logo, and the subtitles, "Premiering on April 15th".

   "I have something to deal with. Let's talk later." Ronald rushed out of Cameron's apartment and drove to Atlantic.

   "Today I saw the trailer of Lightning Dance on MTV. I think this is a good promotion channel. Can you add some marketing budget and put it on this channel?"

   Ronald explained his thinking to Atlantic's distribution and marketing manager.

   "I'd love to do this, Ronald. But right now we're still waiting for Valley Girl's box office. If it's a big hit, we can add some more. But..."

   "But what?" Ronald asked eagerly.

"However, Portrait Records made an agreement with us that they hope to concentrate MTV's resources on their MV, so that even if we can release the trailer, we won't have a lot of time slots. And you know, the Valley Girl's box office returns are not fast. , we may have to take a loan."

   "Okay, I'll go talk to the manager of Portrait Records first."

The manager of Portrait Records' Los Angeles office received Ronald, "It's not a big problem, it's actually that Atlantic doesn't have much budget to put in, if you have extra budget, we can give some resources, anyway, your trailer, We watched it too, and basically used that Girls Just Want to Have Fun as the background music."

"That's great, I'll go to the Atlantic to chat again. It's really not good, I can pay for it personally. Now the movie audience is younger, there are few TV stations that focus on young audiences like MTV, and the effect of advertising must be good. of.

   Besides, Flash Dance has also launched a large-scale trailer advertisement, I believe those two producers are not fools. "

   "Okay, then, I'll contact the MTV manager in charge of advertising, and let's agree on how to allocate the time and density of advertising."

   Soon the manager of MTV came to the office, and the three watched Ronald's trailer together.

"We have no opinion in principle, your trailer and the original MV are the background of the same song, we have already had a similar MV and movie trailer simulcast with the movie 'Lightning Dance'. Even our contract does not It needs to be changed, as long as you have a supplementary agreement on the delivery time."

   "That's great." Ronald was happy in his heart, and he planned to go back and talk to the people in the Atlantic for additional input.

   "By the way, Ronald, you are an up-and-coming director in the film industry. I want to ask you something." The manager of MTV stopped Ronald.

"Please say".

"That's right, our MTV channel now broadcasts 24 hours a day, but the ratings in the middle of the night are too low. Most of the teenagers don't listen to the MV very much in the middle of the night, because it is too noisy and it will affect the rest of the family. So we want to try to play the movie, so that Not too noisy.

   But we can't afford the high purchase cost, so I want to ask you, where can you buy some cheap movies, preferably the kind related to music, but not too old musicals. "

   "Huh? You said that, but I think of a movie called 'Rock and Roll High School', have you seen it?" Ronald had an idea and thought of this old movie.

"Ah, I've seen it, it's great, Liv Randall, The Rocker..." The MTV manager saw the film and was impressed with the "Rockman" heroine played by PJ Sowers .

"You know what? I participated in the filming of this film, and I also know Mr. Roger Coleman, the producer and owner of the copyright of this film. He is a Hollywood genius, Coppola, Scorsese. It came from him."

   "Huh? Really? That's great. We contacted New World Productions, but they said they no longer own the rights to the previous film."

   "Wait for me to call him, let's talk."

  …

"Thank you, Mr. Coleman. I didn't expect to buy so many teen favorite movies, what a treasure trove you have here. Let's start with 'High School of Rock' with five movies to try out late night teen movies. Effect."

   "Of course, it's a pleasure to work with. Working with a TV station that is dominated by teenagers like you always reminds me of when I made my first movie, when I was not yet thirty years old."

  A few days later, Roger Coleman and MTV signed a package agreement to sell the TV broadcast rights of the New World movie rights he owned, and if it works well, they will continue to cooperate.

   "Let's congratulate." Ronald deftly took a bottle of wine from Coleman's cabinet and poured a glass for all three.

   "Cheers"

"Ronald, you always bring me luck. I'm so happy, I'm happier than I'm selling these movie rights to make money. I'm so happy to see Jim and Gail have a foothold in the film industry, Hollywood We need more people like you, not those high-level executives."

   "Then you can make me happy, Mr. Coleman." Ronald laughed, this matchmaking can get a lot of benefits.

   "Okay, we'll give you a ten percent commission according to the previous agreement." When Roger Coleman talked about the numbers, he lowered his voice and whispered in Ronald's ear.

   "Thank you, Roger." Ronald smiled, the deal had no cost to Coleman, just converting the old film to tape format and selling it again. Therefore, a relatively generous commission can be given.

  Leaving Coleman's office, Ronald asked MTV's film purchasing manager to go to the manager's office of MTV's advertising department. He was the one who hooked Ronald in the first place.

"I have some ideas, to make this business happen, you will give me some commissions, which are not large. Can I not take your commissions, but replace it with some time on MTV for my "Comet of the Comet" "Night" trailer, I don't care if the timing is good or bad, as long as the number of times can be guaranteed two weeks before the release.

The two MTV managers talked about it. This approach actually allowed them to take advantage of it. It was nothing more than using their power to give Ronald a few more broadcasts that could not be sold during the garbage time. Late at night, it is a gift for customers.

   "No problem, we can call the shots."

   "Thank you." Ronald relied on his head and gave "Night of the Comet a little commercial slot, and went home alone to have fun.

"Hey, Ronald, I used your method to talk to Schwarzenegger. He himself is willing to be the villain of the Terminator. Anyway, his English is not standard, and he has an Austrian accent. The lines of the actor are also a big problem. "

   "That's great, congratulations on your two male protagonists."

   Got Cameron's good news call again in the evening, the agent really refused Cameron's invitation without telling Schwarzenegger.

   "Then when will you start filming?"

   "Here's a question, I'm going to wait about ten months, and Schwarzenegger has a sequel to 'Conan the Barbarian', 'Conan the Destroyer'. We'll have to wait for him."

   "Why? Can't you change an actor?"

   "That's right, Ronald." Gale took over from the side.

"Remember the plagiarism project I told you last time? They are still preparing to set up a project and remake Jim's script and start shooting. We are now targeting Schwarzenegger as an actor. He is also a little star with a big-selling movie. appeal.

   In this way, the other party knows that the movie he shoots cannot be sold as Jim's original version, so he will give up plagiarism. In order for Schwarzenegger to participate, we had to delay filming by ten months.

   In addition, we also hope that Schwarzenegger will bring some exposure to the film. If his Conan the Barbarian is a hit, it means that we have picked up a bargain. "

   "Ah, then I wish you and Jim all the best. If there's anything I can do to help, feel free to ask me."

   (end of this chapter)