Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 461 Let them star in their true colors

  Weintraub recruited the senior brother of Chuck Norris Tang Sate Club, Pat Johnson, to serve as a martial arts instructor and train actors.

  Pat Johnson is slightly bald, with a moustache, and the exposed arms are full of hair, which looks like a strong male hormone.

  After meeting him, Ronald told him about the concepts of two karate styles in his script. One is Chris's preemptive strike, leaving no prisoners and eliminating the opponent's ability to fight back. Another kind of Miyagi-sensei does not use martial arts to bully others, but only uses it to defend himself.

Pat Johnson applauded and shared Ronald's philosophy, "Ronald, I have a lot of students in Hollywood, and you're the first person I've met in the film industry who understands the philosophy of martial arts. Listen. Say you have practiced, why don't we try it out."

   "Okay", Ronald started playing with the opponent a few times. The first two times were dropped by the opponent at one time, and the third time he might let Ronald win.

Ronald saw that he was more powerful than Vidal, and he was not as obsessed with his own ideas as Chuck Norris. He was an enlightened martial artist. He quickly chatted with him about the movement design of the two genres and how to make the audience alike. You can tell the difference by looking.

   It turns out that Pat Johnson is a professional caster. He was originally a black belt in karate, and he followed Norris just to take advantage of his fame.

   "My idea is that as soon as the disciples of the two genres appear on the set, the audience should be able to see the obvious difference. The students of the glasses dojo are intimidated by the coach and maintain an unnecessary aggression in everything.

   On the other hand, Miyagi-sensei's firmness and softness are kind to others. He is usually not seen as a martial arts master, and only shows his edge at critical moments. "

   "Then your actors, do you have a foundation in karate or other martial arts?"

   "Except for Coach Chris who has practiced karate and wrestling with the protagonist's opponent Johnny, the other actors probably don't have any martial arts training."

   "Well, I will carefully design two training methods so that they are separated from each other when they start training, and they can't see each other's training content, so that they can connect with karate with the ideas I instilled in them."

   "This method is good", Pat Johnson's idea, reminded Ronald of Coppola. During the filming of "Urchin", he let several young people deliberately prank Diane Lane, so that they can maintain a relationship similar to the characters in the movie in their lives.

   "My request is that after they finish training, they will agree with the fighting concept of their characters in the movie script, so that when they are filming, they will act in their true colors, and the confrontation will appear real."

   "It's no problem, I need it for a month, five days a week, and in four weeks they'll be able to make a movie."

"I have a friend Daryl Vidal, who is also a karate coach. Let him cooperate with your teaching. Do you need anything else in motion design?" Ronald likes this kind of professional talent. He couldn't beat him either, and this level of professionalism was reassuring.

"I think you might need some professional stuntmen, karate is different from other martial arts. If it's boxing, any stuntman can do two strokes. But a karate stuntman, if you're not a professional, can't make a good move. They The difference between fighting in Europe and America is not small.”

   "Do you have a team?" Ronald trusted an opponent who could simply knock himself down.

   "I don't want to use Chuck's team, he has his own business to do. I recommend a karate master from the East, Fumio Demura, who has a large dojo in California."

   Demura Fumano is a real Dongying, and he is the fifth dan of karate. He was one of the first people in America devoted to the promotion and teaching of karate.

   Interestingly, he himself has learned the Ryukyu Ryukyu Ryukyu Ryukyu Ryukyu and the Eastern Ito Ryu. He knows exactly two genres that Ronald wrote.

  Weintraub was full of praise after meeting with his team. It happened that out of the village and Morita Noriyuki, who played the role of Miyagi's master, were both small, and by the way also signed a stand-in contract to let him take Morita's place to shoot those fighting scenes.

After    got the action team in place, Ronald started getting Weintraub to sign all the main cast and get them to LA as soon as possible to train. He himself and art director Cassidy, began to set in Los Angeles.

   "How's this apartment?" Art director Cassidy asked Ronald, pointing to a location he found.

   "Like the apartment Daniel's mother lived in."

  This apartment in Venice has three palm trees at the door, a dry swimming pool inside, and is surrounded by three-story low-rise buildings on three sides.

  Ronald thought it was very interesting, a bit like the apartment he had just lived in in Los Angeles. The swimming pool in the middle was built by the developer, but due to the high maintenance cost, the residents were unwilling to share it evenly.

  Daniel's mother, Lucille, found a job as a secretary in a computer company and could afford such an apartment with maintenance workers, but she couldn't afford the more expensive one.

   "Is there a maintenance room?"

  The two found the maintenance room of the apartment, which was very small inside. Ronald felt that the framing wasn't enough.

   "Unfortunately, we had to find another maintenance room for framing. It would be nice if there was a big room here. The shots here are concentrated and shooting in different places will cause confusion." Ronald said.

   "I've thought about it for a long time, you come and see" art director Cassidy took him to the back of the first floor.

   "Is this a garage?" Ronald saw a large space, the size of two apartments, which could park four cars side by side. Most of the tenants of this apartment are low-income, so there are not many cars to buy, so the garage is not big.

   "Yes, let the set surround this place on three sides and make it a maintenance room where Master Miyagi works, and one side of this place can put the camera."

   "Very good, Susan, what do you think?" Ronald looked at Susan who was following.

   "You all said yes, let's settle it."

   Then there is the venue of the Cobra Karate Hall. Ronald and art director Cassidy, again on the Miracle Mile next to Museum Row in Los Angeles.

  This is the most densely populated commercial street in Los Angeles, most like New York, with many old buildings. There is a street shop, the current owner is going to give up the lease.

   pushed the door open, and a large space appeared in front of you. Ronald measured the open space back and forth and thought it was okay. Cassidy reminded him to look outside, which happened to be a street scene from the Miracle Mile.

  The very satisfied Ronald asked Susan if he agreed, and after getting her consent, the selection of another location was completed.

   "When will this place be renovated? Our actors are still waiting to train." Ronald asked art director Cassidy.

   "I'm afraid it won't be soon. Negotiations with the landlords will take a bit of time, and most importantly, their leases won't expire in two weeks."

   "That won't work, we have to start karate training as soon as possible."

   "I know there is a place" Susan followed them on location for a few days, and also admired Ronald's efficient work attitude. She remembered the female star she met at the party before.

   "This is the dance studio you said Princess Leia opened?" Ronald came to the place Susan introduced. A large dance studio with mirrors and handrails for practice.

   "No, it's Carrie Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds. She's going to open a dance studio for students now."

   "So it's not open yet?" Ronald thought, that's not bad, the rent could be cheaper. He walked around the wall, and these mirrors could be covered with a cloth so they wouldn't interfere with training. There is also a small classroom next to it, just enough to separate two groups of people for training.

  Debbie Reynolds made her debut in musicals. Her debut film is the famous "Singing in the Rain", a couch dancer with dancer Gene Kelly. Now she is no longer as beautiful as she used to be, or she has never been the kind of glamorous type.

   "Hello Debbie, I've always been a fan of yours."

"The directors are really young now. When I was making movies, the directors were middle-aged." Debbie Reynolds hugged Ronald and kissed him, "Thank you, dear, for having this A rent and I can start advertising for admissions."

  It turns out that Debbie Reynolds is still waiting for the money to run the dance studio.

   All the actors also signed contracts with Weintraub, and all the actors with action scenes were called to Los Angeles to start a month of intensive training.

   Weintraub's funds began to flow out like water. All actor training hours are also paid according to the union minimum wage. There are also rentals of various venues and equipment, and the cost of filming in Los Angeles is getting more and more expensive.

   Ronald stuffed Vidal into the training team and reported his progress to himself every day. In the time I have freed up, I am busy with other exterior scenes and the choice of interior scenes.

   Action director Pat Johnson really has two hits. He immediately saw that Martin Cove had real skills, and he freed him to serve as the coach's deputy.

   For Kov and his disciples, including William Zebka, and the second generation of Yiganxing, the training is very strict. Squat and bench press every day, making these young actors moan.

   Fortunately, there are a lot of karate training contents, kicking targets and boards every day, which makes the teenage boys go to their friends to brag, so they practiced very seriously, which made Ronald a lot more relieved.

   On the other side of the training class, there are only two trainees and one audience. The trainees are Morita Noriyuki and Ralph Mazio. Their training content is completely different from that of the Cobra class, and they practice all kinds of flexibility and coordination. The audience was Elizabeth Shue, who took a semester off from Harvard to shoot, and she also spent every day with Ralph Mazio to cultivate a tacit understanding.

  The idea of ​​​​action director Pat Johnson is that since it is a post-attack, it must have more flexibility than the opponent, can avoid the opponent's punches, and then attack from the opponent's weak link on the side.

   Therefore, the two practitioners, one old and one young, were made to cry and howl every day when doing Lajin. But instead of being asked to do a lot of strength training, they listened to Johnson telling the origin story and philosophy of karate.

   So the three of them have a good impression of karate. In their view, karate is a martial art with more philosophical thinking than practical training.

"I think it's very interesting. When will you come and see? Both sides are training karate, but the effect is completely different. I think it is very similar to what you want to show in your script." Vidal called Ronald again at night to report. , report the training progress.

   "Okay, Friday is the last day of training for the first week, I'll go check it out."

   (end of this chapter)