Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 510 I Owe You Once

   "Huh? Fired? Why didn't I get a call from Walter before?"

   Ronald got in touch with George Lucas, who was on a business trip in Tokyo, through his agent.

   After hearing the news from Ronald, Lucas's first reaction was why his old friend Merzy didn't call him for help earlier when the situation was bad.

"Walter drank a little more and has fallen asleep now. It's Thursday midnight here. If it's Friday and the weekend is off for two days, I'm worried that things will develop to the point of no return." Ronald put himself of concerns.

   He also sighed inwardly.

  George Lucas has made his mark as America's most lucrative director and producer, and his former friend Walter Murkey has a class gap with him.

   Even if Lucas still regards him as an old friend, but various obstacles in reality make Merzy not willing to ask for help from his old friend and use the promise of that year.

   Even a director like Ronald, who already has a lot of achievements, and the support of CAA, it is very troublesome to find Lucas.

"I see, you look at him, I'll call Disney's Ron right away. You'll stay by the phone, and I'll call you as soon as I have the results." Lucas was silent for a while, as if he heard Despite Ronald's overtones, he was still a person who was nostalgic, and immediately agreed to negotiate with Disney executives.

  "I will", Ronald put down the phone with a sigh of relief. With such an influential level of Lucas intervening, it should be able to solve Walter Murkey's problem, right?

   "Borgy", Ronald looked back, the girl was no longer in the hall. It turned out that Ronald made too long phone calls to find Lucas, and Brooke was not very interested in these things. She had already gone back to her room to sleep.

   Ronald was still waiting for news from Lucas. The night outside London was very quiet. He thought about it while waiting, and gradually fell asleep on the sofa.

   "Ring Ling Ling Ling..." Ronald woke up from the sofa, it was the next morning, he rubbed his eyes and answered the phone, "I'm Ronald."

"Ronald," Lucas's voice came from the phone, "I got Steven (Spielberg), and Francis (Coppola), to put pressure on Disney. But the situation there was very Unusually, Ron Miller is reluctant to intervene, and there is only one way to save Walter's directing career."

"any solution?"

   "That's when I fly to London and negotiate face-to-face with Gary, who is in charge of the project. Please write down my flight number and pick me up at the airport when you arrive."

   "Borgy, let's go out and play together, where do you want to go?" Ronald said, looking at Borgy who came out in his pajamas to take a bath.

   "I want to go to some places with human history, are you done with your work?" Brooke said with a yawn.

   "Not yet, but today is free during the day. Why don't we go to Canterbury to see the cathedral." Ronald suggested.

   left a message for Walter Murkey at the front desk, and Ronald went out to play with Brooke.

Bringing their own Nikon cameras, the two drove to Canterbury, saw the cat mummy, and the cathedral, tasted Scotch egg salad and french fries, and took countless pictures of Brooke, who had not been there until yesterday. Accompany your depression to ease.

   "Is the director's job so stressful? I think you guys are busy every day." Brooke posed a professional pose on the old street.

  The weather was cloudy, the clouds dissipated at this moment, and the sun came out to illuminate Brooke's whole person. Ronald didn't have a grayscale board, so he stretched out his hand and took a meter on the back of his hand, and subtracted it by one stop to calculate the exposure. Recently, he has been in the editing room, and his skin has turned a little white.

"It's not necessarily. If you get the approval of the studio to shoot a big production, the director can also easily. There are many professional talents working for you, you can trust them. If you shoot a small production, or want to be the first such as Walter. Ministry, then there are a lot of things that you have to do yourself." Ronald pressed the shutter on Brooke one after another.

   "But you seem to be able to do everything." Brooke changed his posture and asked Ronald to take pictures. It can be seen that Ronald's photography is also professional, and his technology can take pictures for fashion magazines.

   "The director should know a little bit about everything."

   "Hee hee", Bo Ji put his arm around him, and the two walked back to the parking place together, ready to go back.

   "By the way, I'm attending the Oscars this year, and there is a place for a female companion. Would you like to attend with me?" Ronald remembered what his agent told him,

   "Well... I happened to have a mid-term test at that time, so I'm afraid it won't work." Brooke thought for a while and declined Ronald's invitation, "Just ask your agent to find one for you."

"Why? Even if you go to college, you still need exposure opportunities, right?" Ronald said, the Oscar is not the Golden Globe Award, and there are no nominated movies like myself, and those who are invited to attend are all managed by the agency. arrived.

   "My mother said that after filming this 'Sahara', I have no worries about money, and my most important goal is to graduate from college." Brooke is full of expectations for Princeton's golden sign.

   "You don't have to work even after graduating from college... What kind of job do you plan to do in the future?" Ronald saw that Brooke wanted to be a college student, and suddenly wanted to understand that she was a model and actress. Bo Ji has fame and money, maybe what she hopes most now is a diploma from a prestigious school to prove that she does not only have a pretty face.

   "I didn't think about it. I felt that being admitted to Princeton and getting a diploma was the greatest success in my life."

   Ronald was silent, he felt that Brooke Shields was thinking about the future simply. Just a few years ago, Jodie Foster, who also gave up her career as an actress, went to Yale to go to college, and now the media thinks she doesn't exist.

  When she first experienced the assassination of the chief commander, every day undercover media would ask her what she thought of the murderer at Yale, but now? Jodie Foster took the initiative to appear in Hollywood, and no reporters came forward to report. Americans are so forgetful.

   Ronald didn't figure out how to persuade Brooke, at least she was still America's number one beautiful girl, and she was suspected of being nosy.

   After playing for a day, Ronald went to Heathrow Airport to wait for Lucas in the evening.

   "Ronald, I'm here." Ronald turned back and saw George Lucas hurried over from the business jet.

   "Hello, George. Walter is a little frustrated, shall we go to the hotel now?"

  Lucas nodded with his sunglasses, and the two went all the way to the hotel on the Pinewood Studios.

   "Walter."

   "George."

  The two old friends hugged tightly, and they went to discuss things.

   Ronald waited in his room for the results of their discussion, sorted out the film taken during the day, and called the front desk to help with the printing.

   "Ring, bell, bell..." The phone rang.

   "It's me, George. Come here." Lucas called Ronald over.

"I talked to Gary, Disney's executive producer, and he said he has no confidence in Walt's schedule, and I've assured him that even if Walt's schedule goes wrong, I'll be there to take over as producer. Then finish the film with guaranteed quality.”

   "That's great." Ronald didn't expect Lucas to be so loyal, which was equivalent to endorsing Walter.

   "Thank you, George." Walter Murkey was excited and frustrated.

Lucas clapped his old friend's hand, "What I don't understand now is why they don't have confidence in Walt, so I offered to check out all the dailies tomorrow, and you come along too Ronald, let's find out why Disney To make things difficult for Walter, I'm afraid there is some misunderstanding here. Walter is a genius, and there is no way he can't make the movie he wants, even for the first time."

   The next morning, Lucas, Murkey, and Ronald came to the screening room together with Gary, the Disney representative, to see all the dailies that Walter had shot over the past five weeks.

After watching   , Ronald felt that there was actually no major problem with the quality of the shooting. As for whether the progress was too slow, it is hard to say. Because there are many characters in the film that need to be re-synthesized after special effects, he has no concept of the shooting method of this kind of film.

   Ronald looked at Lucas, this is the person in Hollywood who knows how to shoot live action and special effects movies best.

   "I don't think there's any problem with Walter." Lucas supported his old friend.

   "But it's a sequel to a children's book, and the last one was decades ago, and we can't afford it. If Walter continues at this rate, we'll have to divest."

   "Don't talk nonsense, I've promised you that Walter will improve the shooting speed."

   After several verbal exchanges, Gary finally agreed to restore Walter Murkey's directorship, starting next Tuesday.

   After he was gone, George Lucas said to Walter Murkey, "Walter, I did find a problem, you don't have a main shot in the movie."

  The main shot is the first panoramic shot every day, explaining the relationship of all the characters and their positions in the scene.

  Although there are also directors who make up the main shots, such as the famous Stanley Kubrick, but the standard Hollywood method must be shot.

   "But it's useless for me to take the main shot," Walter Murkey shared his considerations. "Return to Oz" is a movie that combines live action and mechanical special effects. The robots, hens, and spirits in it are all simulated by mechanical devices.

"Just like this robot, there must be six people to operate it. When shooting the main shot, it is inevitable to include these operators. And the king of the rock, I plan to use stop-motion animation for post-compositing, they When performing, it's just a picture on the wall."

"I know, I know..." Lucas indicated that he fully understood the problem, "I had the same problem when I shot the robot R2D2 in Star Wars, and most of the panorama shots that I shot didn't work. , only a few of them can be used.

   But this can give the actors a clear sense of what they are shooting today, help them understand the plot, and develop feelings.

  The staff also knows what the first shot is every morning, what he will do next, those shots he needs to appear, and those shots he can be busy with other things. "

  "You're right", Walter Murkey was a little frustrated, this was indeed a question he hadn't thought about. Perhaps because he was born in editing, the starting point for considering the problem is how to edit the shot into the final film, ignoring the cultivation of actor status and the efficiency of the staff.

   "What do you think, Ronald? Do you think there is anything wrong with Walter here?" George Lucas seemed to be back in college, and he asked Ronald to give his opinion when evaluating his classmates' homework.

   "I have no opinion, but I have a way to speed up Walter's shooting without compromising his artistic expression."

   "Anthracene?" Both Murkey and Lucas looked at Ronald.

   "I noticed that all the scenes in the dailies, especially the scene full of mirrors, seemed to be lit with multiple light sources every time." Ronald talked about his findings.

"Yes, there are too many mirrors. If you change the angle at random, the reflection of the light will mess up the lighting. You have to spend time rearranging it. Do you have any idea?" One of the questions, asked quickly.

"I can't do it, but I know someone who has a way. You know, I did a Saab commercial, and in it I had a director of photography, David Watkin, who had a patented invention that could use a The lights illuminate the night scene, and he told me that he can do things with one light that others cannot do with a dozen lights."

   "The Watkin who invented the Wendy lamp?" George Lucas had heard his name.

   "Yes, he usually lives in London, maybe..."

   "I'll find a way to find him." Lucas took care of everything.

   After the weekend, Walter Murkey was hired as director. David Watkin was the director of photography for the newcomer, he pulled Murkey and said, "I'm not here to accompany you to shoot, I use a lamp to set the light, you can move the camera however you want, anyway, these mirrors , will send light where you need it.

  Then I will go to the studio next to me to set the lights and wait for you to come. If you have something urgent that my assistant can't handle, just call me over there, I usually doze off in the corner..."

   "Our first shot today, the main shot, all departments are ready!"

   Seeing Walter Mersey regain his energy and confidence, Ronald and George Lucas turned and left.

   "I also want to thank you, Mr. Lucas." Ronald and Brooke packed their bags and went to Heathrow Airport with Lucas.

  Last night Nisita from CAA called Ronald, he was seen playing with Brooke, and was selling this gossip clue in the British tabloids. Fortunately, CAA's colleagues in London knew about this and took the initiative to warn Ronald.

   Brooke didn't want to let the news media report the two people together while she was in college without her mother Terry's knowledge, and offered to go back to New York first.

   Ronald was also a little uncomfortable seeing that Brooke didn't want the relationship between the two to be exposed. But if Bo Ji goes back alone, I am afraid it may not be able to quell the discussion of the gossip media. So he insisted on calling his agent to discuss PR countermeasures.

   Brooke felt that Ronald was superfluous. She and her mother had always handled media relations without problems. Not only can there be exposure, but it will not really be contaminated with any scandals.

  Ronald still insisted on seeking professional consultation, but this time there was a real scandal. And why didn't Bo Ji find a real agent, so as to plan her future career.

   While the two were discussing, George Lucas came to say goodbye.

   When he entered the door and saw Ronald and Brooke together, he immediately understood the relationship between Ronald and Brooke Shields, and also teased Ronald's love affair.

   Just as Lucas's holiday in Dongying ended, he offered to let the two of them fly back to New York with him to avoid media speculation.

  If there is an interview at the airport, it can be said that Ronald and Lucas discussed the new film together, and invited Brooke Shields in London to discuss the possibility of her participating.

  Ronald thinks this is the best way to handle it, Brooke and her mother, both like a certain amount of exposure. After the call with Nisita of CAA, they also prepared some operations there, which satisfied both Brooke and Ronald.

   "Thank you, Mr. Lucas." Ronald thanked Lucas again for his arrangement at the boarding gate.

"It doesn't matter, this time you called me and helped Walter. I am very grateful. He is my rare close friend. If it weren't for you, I might have lost him. If I owe you once, what will happen in the future? , you can call my Skywalker Ranch." Lucas handed Ronald a business card with a personal phone number on it.

  Three people passed through a special boarding gate and came to the front of a beautifully shaped plane. This is a British Airways Concorde, with its huge nose drooping like the beak of a bird of prey foraging for food. The graceful delta wing is in the back, full of power beauty.

  Concorde can travel across the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound, between London and New York in less than three hours each way.

   Boarded the plane, Lucas was in the front cabin, Ronald and Brooke made a temporary reservation and only bought the rear cabin. They found the seats in the rear cabin and found that the distance between the seats was narrower than that of the economy class of ordinary airliners.

  The two tall people sat down, their legs were a little unable to straighten.

   But the passengers next to them are all dressed in decent handmade suits or custom-made dresses. After a while, the plane moved to the takeoff runway, and Ronald was a little uncomfortable with the roar of the huge engine. Although the speed is fast, and the passengers are either rich or expensive, the ride experience is average.

   "This is my first time sitting in Concorde!" Brooke spoke next to him.

   "What did you say?" Ronald was a little inaudible.

   "I said it was my first time..."

   "Boom..."

   Concorde took off and flew to New York.

   (end of this chapter)