Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 596

  The movie theater in the Miramar base was rented by the crew to watch demos every night.

   Ronald's habit. He doesn't like everyone in the crew to watch the demo. In front of the demo without audio and video synchronization and no post-editing, many people don't know the director's plan. Will give some opinions and views, not only will not help, but will disturb the director's thinking and the next day's shooting.

In addition to Ronald, Bruckheimer, director of photography Kimball, and Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Kelly McGillis, etc. who have the right to see the dailies in the contract, there is only consultant Pete Petty Gru is looking at the dailies taken yesterday.

   "Ronald, why does TopGun School still have a trophy? We are a flying school, not the Olympics, and we don't encourage this kind of personal heroism. Air combat is mainly the cooperation of wingmen."

  Pete Pettigrew saw yesterday's dailies and came to Ronald to protest.

  "Jerry", Ronald asked Bruckheimer to explain to Pete that he was concentrating on talking to Val Kilmer's agent about his client's appearance time.

"Pete, imagine a couple in Oklahoma who own a mom-and-pop department store, and they have three kids, and for them it's a race to be a champion, and flying school is like a race, since the plan is If you score, you will be first, and if you have first, you must have a trophy..."

   Bruckheimer tried to use metaphors that the other party could understand and explain it simply to the other party.

"Kimer's appearances, in terms of time and seconds, are significantly less than Tom Cruise's. Paramount's high-level producer, but praised Kilmer's performance, I think if you continue to favor Ke like this. Ruth, I will have to reflect on the CEO, Mr. Frank Mancuso."

   Ronald knew that the opponent was largely bluffing himself. The agent is very concerned about the appearance of the client, and what is reflected to Mancuso is pure bragging. If Val Kilmer could go directly to Mancuso, he would not have come to play this movie he didn't want to play.

   "I think you misunderstood. Yesterday's scene was mainly about the Lone Ranger. Tomorrow, there will be many scenes of Iceman played by your client, as well as his rivalry with the Lone Ranger."

  "I'll be watching you", Val Kilmer's agent is very stubborn, and Kilmer was forced to star in this movie by Paramount's contract. But there are pros and cons. There are also many guarantee clauses in the contract. It is a disadvantage that the agent has a certain power to intervene in the crew.

   "It's up to you... I treat the actors equally, and shoot them according to their appearance needs. Besides, Tom is the first actor after all, and his salary is higher than that of Kilmer."

   "Higher salary means higher responsibility".

  Fong Kilmer did not participate in the discussion. After the agent quarreled, he walked out of the cinema with him and went back to his hotel.

  The actors in the cinema, there are still McGillis and Cruise.

  Tom Cruise heard all the quarrel and sat silently in his seat. Paula was beside him, whispering something to accompany him.

   "Aren't you going to the bar with them?" McGillis asked Cruise, as she was about to step out for a beer break with the rest of the cast.

"I'm not going..." Tom Cruise didn't want to be with the other actors, he heard it clearly, Ronald and Val Kilmer had an argument over show time and on-camera, and from Paramount executives pressure.

   He knew Ronald was under a lot of pressure to make a movie, and he was in the same boat as him.

  Paramount spent a total budget of 15 million, planing out what the Navy took away, and preparatory expenses. He himself took the highest salary of one million, which is close to ten percent of the total investment, or more than one-third of the actor's total salary.

  Other supporting roles, including McGillis, can be filmed with a game mentality, and only Tom Cruise has the highest pay and the greatest responsibility in the crew. The success or failure of the box office is closely linked to his stardom.

   With one million, he has to take on the responsibility of making a big hit. He still has a lot of preparations to do, and prepares to appear on the crew in the best condition every day.

"Today, you should go to memorize tomorrow's lines, but having fun with those supporting characters on the weekend is also a good gesture of goodwill. I can help you set up a bar and invite everyone to drink." Paula looks like a big sister In the same way, take care of everything about the younger brother Cruise.

   McGillis smiled, this "little boy" mentality is still very naive. There are some little boys in the crew, I thought the director would be different...

   "Kelly, wait a minute, I'll find you later." Ronald came over and stopped McGillis who was about to go out.

   "Oh, okay, I'll be waiting for you at the door."

   Ronald went back and continued the discussion with Pete Pettigrew.

   "I don't understand, why did the class move to the navy's airstrip? The class isn't in the class, so why go to the runway?

   There is also this scene, the base has no public bathrooms and locker rooms, this is not a professional football team. After getting off the plane, the pilots go back to their dormitory to take a shower. "Pete is again displeased with tomorrow's footage.

   "Think of Mom and Dad in Oklahoma," Bruckheimer was also on the sidelines trying to convince Pete, the consultant who saw the script and storyboard for tomorrow.

   "Pete", Ronald raised his hand for Pete Pettigrew to look over.

"We paid Tom Cruise $1 million, Val Kilmer was not much worse, and I put up with my agent pointing my finger at me and watching dailies with them every day, not for the sake of They wear pilot suits and go home to shower."

"But……"

   "Fuck, a million dollars, you understand? Like the F-14 Tomcats aren't for flying shows like a Cessna, they're for the battlefield. We've got to show them some muscle."

Looking at Pete Pettigrew's consternation, Ronald continued, "This is actually a sports movie, not a war movie. The audience sees it as a sport, but it's called a fighter dogfight. "

   "Since it is a sport, there is naturally a locker room and conflicts between teammates. This is a metaphor that can guide the audience's subconscious. This is a game."

  Pete thought for a while and accepted Ronald's explanation, "But don't make him more artistic. I don't want the old colleagues in the base to say that I'm helping you make a musical or kung fu movie."

   "Hahaha..." Ronald was also amused by him, and Pete had obviously seen his first two movies, "No, I promise."

   Ronald asked McGillis, "I'll buy you a drink".

   McGillis and he came to the lobby bar of the hotel.

   Ronald apologizes for the rudeness that day. He was the director and had to master all kinds of things on the set, and the time was tight that day.

   "I understand," McGillis smiled.

   "Then we..." Ronald also smiled, he wanted to continue what he had not done.

   "Without us", McGillis waved his hand.

   She felt nothing.

   McGillis is an actor, she can use a professional attitude in acting, follow Ronald's request, let her cooperate and highlight Cruise, it doesn't matter.

   But as a woman, it is an affront to her charm to put her down to talk about work in the middle, and such a man who thinks about the work of the crew every day becomes very boring and not romantic at all.

   "Okay, let's talk here, you graduated from Julia? I see that your first two movies have sold out. If we are lucky this time, you will have a triple hit."

   "Hahaha, actually I didn't have high expectations for this movie, I'm just an actor who is interested in drama. I'm not doing MVs."

   Ronald understood, McGillis was implying that his movie did not have too much drama, and there were too many superficial MV-style plots.

   "You are a good actor, who did you learn from?"

"You may not believe it, but my acting skills were developed when I was a waiter in a restaurant..." McGillis finished his cocktail, got up to check out, parted with Ronald, and went to the base bar to have fun with the boys .

   The next morning, the props team set up the class at the airport before sunrise. Several rows of tables and chairs were lined up neatly, and an F-14A fighter jet and an F-5 fighter jet were parked on the runway behind.

   "Joker" begins to formally introduce instructor Charlie.

   "She's a commoner, so you don't have to salute her. But she can grade your theory and flying lessons, and you'd better treat her with some respect."

"Da da da……"

  Sunrise at its most beautiful moment, Kelly McGillis donning the outfit of Ronald's dream.

  Wonderful legs, wrapped in a pair of black stockings with high heels, from behind the seated student, Charlie walked step by step to the blackboard in front of the F-14A.

The camera commanded by Kimball took a low position on the track, and several camera crews worked hard, slowly pushing the camera with the huge anamorphic screen, closely following McGillis's leg in the middle of the stockings. The black vertical line slowly moved forward.

   "Oh oh..." The Lone Ranger played by Tom Cruise saw Charlie and recognized that it was the beautiful woman whom he accosted at the bar yesterday. I didn't expect that today's dress is more **** and beautiful than yesterday.

  For fear of being out, Lone Ranger and Goose both put on Ray-Ban gold-rimmed sunglasses, and the huge lenses covered most of their faces.

   "Cut!"

  Ronald shouted at everyone with an electric horn, "Very good, let's change the angle and have another set."

   McGillis looked over with a pair of wonderful eyes, "When he was in command, he was like an attractive man."

  Kimball directed the camera team and quickly changed the angle to shoot from a high camera in front of the class.

  The sun has just risen in the sky, and the colors are so charming.

   "Action!" The moment he caught the magic light, Ronald immediately ordered to continue.

"Huh?" Ronald took a step back and looked at the audience. At a glance, he saw Barry Tabb, who played the radar officer "Wolfman", who got a light yellow cowboy straw hat from somewhere and put it on his head. .

   This level of robbery, Ronald is not disgusted. Everyone was wearing navy aviator uniforms and Ray-Ban sunglasses, and the camera was about the same. Barry Tabu, a cowboy straw hat, under the sunlight, gave the audience some visual stimulation.

   This is a great thing for commercials to keep the audience's attention.

  Ronald didn't make a sound to stop, there was only the very light motor sound of the camera.

"Captain, do you think I'm wrong?" Charlie, played by McGillis, mentioned that the aerodynamic characteristics of the MiG-28 are that it can't dive with high G, and looked at the lone ranger below and said something to the stupid goose with a hippie smile, Couldn't help but ask.

   "I've seen the MiG-28 dive with a negative 4G acceleration, so your data is wrong." Tom Cruise wore sunglasses and showed his signature smirk.

   "Can you tell me, where did you see it?" Charlie insisted, it is absolutely intolerable for professionals to be suspected of their professionalism. "

   "I can't tell you, it's a secret. After I tell you, I can only kill you."

   "I have the highest authority of the Navy, you can say it." Charlie said that I have seen a lot of pilot boys like you pretending to be amazing.

   "Well, I'm on top of him. Saw it with my own eyes."

   "Are you on top of him? How far are you from him?" Charlie, played by McGillis, gave a chuckle that caught your loophole.

   Ronald praised, McGillis's acting is very natural, this chuckle has the intellectual beauty of a professional woman, and a little naughty taste. Strong red lips, light blond hair, and eyebrows that slanted into the temples, a kind of **** of a big American girl rushed to the face.

   "Am I about two meters away from him?" The Lone Ranger and the Radar Officer were sure.

   "One and a half meters, I even took a photo." The stupid goose pretended to be a memory.

"Hehe, you are in the cockpit of the F-14, only two meters away from the MiG-28 below. How did you see it through the cockpit and the wings?" Charlie seized the bragging flaw of the Lone Ranger and gently poked break. This kind of little boy really can't talk, and he wants to brag when he sees himself.

   "Because I'm flying backwards", the Lone Ranger played by Tom Cruise just waited for this and revealed the mystery triumphantly. Before coming to the TopGun flight school, he used this trick to fly upside down and buckled the MiG-28 pilot's head upside down, scaring him away.

   So far so good.

   Ronald looked at Von Kilmer. Next should be his lines. Iceman is a calm technical faction, he will question Lone Ranger's statement, flying upside down like this, and it is an enemy aircraft following 4G acceleration, it is difficult for an ace fighter pilot to maintain a stable attitude, let alone to the opponent's pilot. Take a Polaroid snapshot.

   "Shit! (Bullshit

   Ronald's heart skipped a beat, and Val Kilmer was stealing the show.

   This actor. The robbery is also very professional, not random. Val Kilmer didn't say the lines in the script, but a **** also had the same questioning effect as the lines in the script.

  No, it's better than the lines in the script!

   The supporting characters who played pilots couldn't help laughing.

   Ronald didn't stop. From an acting point of view, this improvised line was very effective. He didn't want to destroy it, but raised his hand to tell the director of photography, Kimball, not to stop and let the motor of the camera continue to run.

   "He really did it, and I saw it in the back seat." Anthony Edwards, who played the dumb goose, responded quickly, came out to save the scene, and also improvised his lines.

   "So, you flew backwards and kept up with the enemy aircraft with negative 4G maneuvering?"

   McGillis' Charlie asked the camera with a puzzled expression. She came from a professional background and kept up with the rhythm of being chaotic by Fang Kimmer.

   "Yes, that's right", Tom Cruise held back his unhappiness and connected.

   "Cut!"

  Ronald stopped, he did not comment on the performance of Fang Kilmer.

   "Yeah, am I good at improvising?" Fang Kilmer raised his chin and showed off to the surrounding supporting characters.

   "It's really good..." Everyone replied, this is a sincere compliment.

   "I'll treat you to the bar at night." Fang Kilmer took the opportunity to win over a supporting role.

   "This print, let's continue." Ronald gave an order with a calm expression on his face.

  As a director, he can't be too partial to Tom Cruise. It's wonderful to play well. It's a professional thing. Partiality will cause problems in the atmosphere of the crew. Now everyone is at least doing their best for the performance.

   At the end of the day of shooting, everyone followed Fang Kilmer to the bar to drink, only Tom Cruise did not participate.

   "Ronald, I have something to tell you."

  Tom Cruise found the director alone.

   "Tom, Kimer played well. I believe you can accept his challenge. You are the opponents competing for the TopGun trophy in the play. I believe you can also defeat Kimer."

   "I'm not for this matter. I'm not worried about his few hits. Today is his outstanding performance, but after all, I'm still the most important role. I just need to grab the limelight tomorrow."

   "Very good attitude, then what are you looking for from me?" Ronald patted Cruise on the shoulder.

   "I...I can't ride a motorcycle...Can you teach me?"

   "You don't know how to ride a motorcycle?" Ronald was stunned, "Okay, then you come with me, just in time for your prop car to arrive"

   A sturdy motorcycle stopped on the track, Ronald took the key handed by the props and started the motorcycle.

   "Kawasaki Ninja 900, now the fastest motorcycle in the world. Like my GTO288, it's also the fastest, which is very suitable for the role of lone ranger."

  Ronald taught Cruise a few points, and then put him in the car to actually do it. After half an hour, Ronald saw that he was good at maintaining balance and manipulating machinery, so he let him try it out on his own.

   "Woo..."

   Cruise drove a back and forth on the runway and all went well.

"Very good, you will ride like this in the next scene of chasing and racing with the F-14A Tomcat." Ronald said when he saw Cruise stop the car, flip up his helmet, "but you have to remember, You can't drive on the road yet, I'll find a coach to teach you systematically in the future."

   "A piece of cake", Tom Cruise likes the appearance of motorcycles very much, and ran back and forth on the track a few times, "I will also buy one to drive in the future."

   (end of this chapter)