Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 550 Is it okay to shoot like this?

  Ned Tanin sent an assistant to accompany Ronald to Chicago.

  The two went to Glenbrook North High School, a defunct public high school where John Hughes' "Breakfast Club" was filmed.

  The number of births in America has continued to decline since Ronald first entered the industry. The interior decoration and facilities of this Glenbrook North High School are still very new, but the lack of students has still crushed it.

  The library, which is about to be demolished, has become the main location for John Hughes.

   The movie "The Breakfast Club" is very peculiar, and the story takes place in this library. Five middle school students were locked up for different reasons. On Saturday morning, five people who usually do not communicate with each other were forced to write examinations together.

  In this long day, they went from hating each other, to getting to know each other, and finally to close friends and lovers, but maybe after the weekend, they return to high school social circles and become strangers again.

  John Hughes' movie is actually the story of such a day.

   "Hi Ronald, welcome."

  John Hughes was lying on the ground next to the camera director.

   His previous commercial production "Sixteen Candles" was ok at the box office, but this movie was actually what he wanted to make the most, so the level of investment was much deeper than before.

   "Hi, John", Ronald stepped forward to greet him, seeing that he couldn't get up, he simply squatted down and talked to him.

   "Are you used to sitting on the floor? Why don't you ask the assistant to prepare a chair for you?" Ronald looked around and didn't see a chair, which was the first Roger Coleman movie secret.

   "It's more convenient for me to sit on the floor and watch the actors perform." Hughes didn't care, he didn't have the air of a director at all, and he was like friends with those actors.

   "Hi, John."

  Hughes's darling and muse, the red-haired Molly Ringwald, plays a wealthy "princess".

   They were like good friends, sitting on the ground and chatting about pop music.

   "After the Beatles went solo, do you think that song is the best?"

   "That was undoubtedly John Lennon's 'imagination'"

   is followed by Anthony Michael Hall, who plays a "nerd" who, like Ringwald, is sixteen, the only two of the five actors, who are actually in high school.

This kind of rapid classification of characters in teenage movies by labeling is the first time it was used in Ronald's "Fast-paced Richmond High School". Because of the good effect, the audience can immediately substitute for who is who. , so now teen movies are widely used.

  "Allie, Emilio", Ronald saw two actors coming behind, one was Emilio Estevez who played the wrestler, his old acquaintance.

  The other is Allie Sheedy. Ronald has a relationship. She is the girlfriend of Eric Stoltz, who was fired from "Back to the Future", and used to eat in Ronald's "Longwei Kid" crew.

  Emilio plays the "athlete" and Ellie plays the "neuropathy". One of them is strong and good at sports, and the other is beautiful but has no family warmth. The whole person is autistic and sloppy. In the end, after the role played by Ellie was beautified by the "princess", she amazed everyone and became a couple with the "athlete".

  The last one was Judd Nelson, who played the "criminal," the kind of character who gets into trouble so often and is seen as a thorn by teachers.

   "Okay, everyone is here, let's start." Director John Hughes saw that the five main actors had arrived and ordered the machine to start.

  The scene of this movie is limited. After a few days of shooting, the lighting team only needs to continue the previous plan, and the photographer has no place to be creative. It is enough to take a medium shot of five people and watch them improvise their lines with each other.

   "Action!" John Hughes lay down on his side again, watching the five people begin to perform.

  Ronald glanced left and right, but he didn't see the chair, so he had to sit down with his legs crossed, watching the camera crew and the recording crew start moving.

   "Hey, still inexperienced." Ronald shook his head.

  John Hughes had already made his second movie, and he still forgot to let the scene recorder hit the board, and the scene was in vain.

   Ronald resisted the desire to speak out. On the set, the director's authority needs to be carefully maintained. Even if he is wrong, he can only discuss it individually later.

  The "criminal" played by Judd Nelson is the most mischievous, and the "princess" played by Molly Ringwald is wriggling and constantly messing with him.

   "Stop making trouble." Molly Ringwald turned her head and scolded.

   "The reaction is very realistic," thought Ronald. It seems that Hughes still has some ability in directing performances.

   He looked at Judd Nelson, an actor who might also be a methodist, and was deeply involved in the play.

   "Cut!" John Hughes called off filming.

  The actors started to discuss from their chairs.

   "I think the reaction I just acted was okay."

   "The moment you were frightened by Judd, you responded well."

  Two sixteen-year-old actors are discussing with each other. They both acted in the director's last film, "Sixteen Candles," and were considered a little gang.

   "Yeah," Ringwald's hair was torn off by Judd Nelson.

   She turned and hit Judd.

   "Sure enough, Judd Nelson, that kind of Sean Penn, Eric Stoltz-style method school, stayed in the role after the shutdown." Ronald smiled.

   "Okay, let's do it again." Hughes didn't talk to them, and called the second one directly.

   "Action!"

   "No", Ronald put out his hand and put it down again. This Hughes doesn't follow the director's routine, so let's do another one like this? Don't you talk about the pros and cons of acting?

   And he didn't play the board again.

   Ronald reminded himself that he must say it next time, otherwise it would be a small waste to waste film, and it would be troublesome to waste a wonderful performance, and the actors may not be able to do the same wonderful performance again.

   "Cut!" Hughes stopped the second item, still letting the actors discuss and play by themselves.

  Ronald found that the actors said different lines in the two shootings, and they were still discussing what the characters said to be in line with their personality.

   "John, did you forget to hit the board?" Ronald couldn't help but whispered in Hughes' ear.

"I don't want to hit the board. When they hit the board, they will play it according to the script. If you don't hit the board, you can just shoot directly to catch their improvisation." Hughes changed his posture and said to Ronald, "Sometimes I don't tell them to turn it on, so the reaction is the most believable."

"This……"

   Ronald hesitated a bit.

  Hughes no doubt had his own way of improvising, rather than copying lines from a script.

  This kind of directing method, Ronald also saw the effect, it was unexpectedly very real, and it was more in line with the habits of high school students than the lines written in the script.

   This method of improvisation requires good actors and tacit cooperation.

   Ronald felt that the whole film was so improvised that he couldn't do it himself.

   But here in Hughes, the effect is not bad?

This is how    was shot, and finally edited, to find out which scene this shot belongs to, or where the shot of which scene is, but it’s going to die.

   "I think your performance is surprisingly good, John."

  Ronald took advantage of the interval to chat with Hughes.

   "I'm learning your method. Every scene is shot in the order of the script. After my 'Sixteen Candles' lost to you, I especially studied your shooting method."

  Hughes replied with a smile.

   Such a sequential shooting method is not expensive, because most of the scenes in the whole film are in one place. And the actor can better understand the character's reaction, and the intensity of the emotion. Ronald understood.

   "What I want to say is, how will you edit it then?"

   "Clip?"

  Hughes had no experience in operating the editing machine himself, he always let the editor cut out the combination he wanted. I never thought that film without a board would be a nightmare when editing in post.

   "Okay, I'll think of a way." Ronald felt that it was inappropriate to change Hughes's creative method rashly, but after filming like this, I'm afraid even Hughes himself would not be able to remember clearly and would not be able to start editing. Can't even find film.

   Ronald walked out of the filming location, found a phone number, and called Ned Tanin.

   "Congratulations, Ned, you've uncovered a directing talent. Yes...yes...he does a great job...but you'll have to send in the editor ahead of time."

  Ronald described the situation here. Such shooting is unpredictable. Don’t try to correct the genius creation. Just send an experienced editor to assist Hughes and mark each scene.

   "Oops, why did you hit me?"

   "Fuck you... it's you..."

   Ronald, who returned to the filming location, saw a few actors who were doing well just now, and suddenly there was a conflict.

  Emilio Estevez, and Judd Nelson, two actors, surrounded John Kellers, who played the cleaner, and were beating up.

   "Why did you beat me, I only said a few words for your own good", John Kellers was beaten inexplicably, "Oops..."

   Seeing that Emilio Estevez gave him a hard blow, his scalp was bleeding.

   "Stop, stop fighting."

   Ronald rushed up, struggled to separate a few people, and then dragged John Kelles, who was covering his head, out of the circle.

   "What's the matter? Why did you hit him?"

   "You let this son of a **** speak for himself!" Estevez pointed at Kellers, and scolded with one finger at the other's nose.

   "What did you say?" Ronald looked to his left and right, only one assistant stepped forward smartly, took a towel and let Kellers cover the wound.

   "I saw that they were discussing too much, and they didn't pay attention to rest at all. I kindly reminded them that when Martin Sheen was filming 'Apocalypse Now', it was because he didn't rest and worked continuously, and finally he suffered a heart attack."

   "How dare you say that? I won't kill you." Estevez stepped forward and wanted to fight.

  "Oh, hey", Ronald put his hand against his chest, Estevez was playing a wrestler, not like he was a real wrestler.

  John Hughes, an otaku who used to be the creative director of an advertising agency, could only stare blankly at this kind of thing.

   Fortunately, several assistants stepped forward to help Ronald separate the crowd again.

   "Mr. Kelles," Ronald said to the beaten hapless man, "you have to apologize to Emilio, Mr. Martin Sheen is Emilio's father. You shouldn't use him as an example."

   "Ah? I don't know..." Kellers was dumbfounded. He didn't know that Martin Sheen was a stage name. Emilio, the eldest son, did not inherit Xin's stage name, but his second son Charlie used it.

   "You gotta apologize to him", Ronald knew that Martin Sheen nearly died of a heart attack while filming "Apocalypse Now".

   "I solemnly apologize to you!" Kellers covered his head, the blood had dyed the towel red, but he kept apologizing and begging for forgiveness.

   "You @#%, pay attention to what you say in the future." Estevez pointed arrogantly, and walked away with Judd Nelson behind, and the two kept making fun of Kyles' stupidity.

   Ronald looked at John Hughes. This kind of hooliganism in the crew requires the director to stand up to distinguish right from wrong and let the perpetrators restrain themselves, otherwise the crew will be in chaos in the future.

  Hughes shrugged, "His role in the movie is a person who uses his body to solve problems."

   Among the two young actresses, Molly Ringwald threw her red hair, and she couldn't get used to it, so she turned around and went back.

   "Ronald, Director Hughes is more about getting into the play and improvising."

   An acquaintance, Allie Siti, came over and tried to explain.

   "I understand, every director has a different approach." Ronald looked at the beauty, painted black eyeshadow, and dressed to hide her beauty.

   "I'm sorry about Eric." Ronald told Siti that he had caused Stoltz to be fired.

   "It's okay, we're not together anymore. He is in love with the heroine Cher in the last movie." Ellie Siti waved her hand, saying that she couldn't talk to herself.

   "Cher?" Ronald was taken aback, "She debuted in the 1960s, and now she's in her 40s?"

   "It's almost forty." Seeing that Ronald seemed to be calculating Cher's age, Allie Sitty laughed.

   "Okay, be careful yourself, don't conflict with Emilio, his fists are quite heavy." Ronald felt that this kind of actor who did not agree with him should be careful, so he reminded the other party.

   "It's okay, I know how to deal with people like him. Ringwald is the director's muse, and he doesn't dare."

  In the evening, Ronald saw the editor sent by Ned Tanin.

   "Why did it startle you, Ms. Allen?"

   Ronald was also surprised to see the lady with the large tortoiseshell spectacles.

Diddy Allen is a veteran Hollywood editor. She has edited "Hands and Hers", which pioneered new Hollywood, and Sydney Lumet's "Hot Afternoon". She also edited Warren Beatty and won best director. Award for "Red Molecule".

  Her mentor was also the editor of Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" and the director of "West Side Story" Robert Wise.

   Ronald watched a lot of the movies she edited in his college class.

   "Didn't you say that this is a work of genius and needs an experienced editor to cooperate? I am very interested in geniuses."

  Didi, a very kind lady, communicated with Ronald about Hughes' shooting method.

   The next day, Didi watched Hughes' filming of the chaos and the actors' wonderful performances, and was also shocked.

   "You have to get me a Sony camera, and I have to follow along, or no one will be able to find where the footage is."

Didi quickly got the camcorder that Ronald bought, and she shot at the place where the actor was, Hughes shot, she also shot, and used a slate to make a slate, and recorded every improvised line in the film. on the notebook.

   "This is indeed a work of genius, but the director is a complete asshole!" Rao is a veteran of Didi Allen, who was also bewildered by Hughes' shooting method.

   (end of this chapter)