Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 741 Turn on the camera during rehearsal

   On the first day of shooting, Ronald found some relatively simple shots and began to find a state for himself and the entire crew. He first shot the scene where the two protagonists connect with simple dance steps, which is not technically difficult, and is conducive to enhancing everyone's confidence in the director and in themselves.

  In the morning, Ronald used a classroom where the dancers rehearsed at the Mountain Lake Villa to set up the classroom where Johnny taught Baby to dance in the movie.

  While lighting was set, Ronald first had Patrick Thwaites and Jennifer Grey put on dance suits and begin rehearsing in the next room.

  The weather was very hot, and the air conditioner could not be used. The crew had to put a lot of ice cubes in the room to cool down, and then used a large electric fan to start blowing in a location that the camera could not capture.

  The interior lighting is relatively simple, with a few large windows that let in direct sunlight. The lighting group used some curtains and screens to weaken and reflect the light, making the whole atmosphere ambiguous and warm.

  Ronald is now more and more fond of shooting with this natural light. Soon after sunrise in the morning, the oblique sunlight gives a feeling of good mood.

   "You have to raise your hands, and don't let your shoulders slump."

  Switz, as a family dancer whose mother runs a dance studio, is very good at teaching girls how to dance.

   But Jennifer Thwaites is not a good student, she has nothing more than good coordination. I often remember this essential point, forget that, and I have the problem of being ticklish. When I do some intimate actions with Swayze, I often laugh out loud by his gentle movements.

   "You have to pay attention to the distance with me and keep a sense of distance. Don't be too far, don't be too close, follow my feelings."

   "Hee hee hee..." Jennifer Gray laughed again.

   "Ah..." Swayze grabbed his hair and screamed, never seeing such a sensitive girl. Gray is over twenty-five years old, nine years older than the Baby in the script, how can he still look like a little girl,

   "Are you ready?" Ronald just walked in, and the lighting was ready, just waiting for the two protagonists to pass.

   "Okay, Director."

  Grey stopped laughing and stuck his tongue out to Patrick Swaytz while Ronald turned his back.

"Don't put this kind of tape on the wall. Our contract with Shanhu Villa states that any damage to the equipment will be compensated according to the price. This kind of tape is suitable for sticking on wood, and the wallpaper here is easy to remove. It was damaged when the tape was torn off..."

   It was Eddie Cohen, general manager of Ronald Daydream Pictures. Before, he handled the chores of the crew in Los Angeles. He just got the crew list, bought everyone's life insurance in Los Angeles, and rushed to Virginia on a late red-eye flight.

   He arrived at the scene this morning. Regardless of his fatigue, he immediately helped manage the trivial matters of the crew. In fact, he became a live production manager.

   "Thank you, Eddie." Ronald thanked his old friend, and then gave him a clapping of hands, "Everyone listen to Eddie, don't destroy the wallpaper."

   "You guys use these kinds of tapes, I just bought them from HomeDepot in Hollywood. This kind of wallpaper, this kind of sticking to wooden furniture, this kind of..."

   Eddie took out a roll of tape from the box and threw it to the assistants.

   They hurriedly tore off the original tape carefully, leaving no trace, and replaced it with the variety that Eddie brought.

  Many of the props in the crew are actually fake, and they were temporarily fixed with adhesive tape for easy replacement afterwards.

   When they were ready to retreat, another ten minutes passed. Ronald had Thwaites and Gray stand on the positioning tape that had been glued to the ground, and then started talking to them about the first scene of the day while the camera crews were measuring focus.

"Johnny taught Baby to dance mambo here. Baby's level is average, so Johnny was not satisfied when he taught. Then the youngest son of the owner of the resort came over and saw the two hugging each other and dancing this hot dance. It looks like Johnny hastily separated from the customer, which is not allowed, and may lose his job if he is seen by the boss's son."

  Seeing that the focal length measurement is good, Ronald asked the two leading actors to rehearse and walk once.

   "Love, love is strange

  Many people think of it as a game

   Once you get it

  You never want to give up, no no”

  The sound of the scene began to play the famous song of the black group "Mickey and Sylvia" repeatedly, "Loveis Strange".

  Switz raised his hand and swung it around, touching Gray's palm in the face, and the two began to dance mambo. This first scene happened to be the song when the two of them were auditioning.

   "Pay attention to your arms and don't let your shoulders collapse." Swayitz was still reminding Jennifer Gray.

   "Got it..." Gray enjoyed the mood of the song, and she didn't want Swaytz to just say these unpleasant remarks.

   "Pay attention to the distance, don't get too close to me, follow my lead, my rhythm."

  Grey jumped more and more inattentively, her heart melted in Switz's masculine monolid eyes.

   "Don't look at your footsteps, look in my eyes, look here." Switz is still teaching

   "I know." Gray threw his hands in anger. He wasn't a professional dancer like him, so why was he so strict and didn't understand the style.

   "Hey..." Swayze sighed, why is dancing so stupid? He fell to the ground exaggeratedly, looked up at Gray, and smiled helplessly.

​​​​​Twist your hips, turn your head.

The music played    reached the middle section, and the two singers did not sing for a section, using dialogue to tell the coquettish dialogue between men and women.

  Switzer became interested, and he mouthed the dialogue instead of singer Mickey.

   "Sylvia?"

   "Mickey" Jennifer reacted, and also matched Swayze's mouth to mouth, it seemed that the other party was still very interesting.

   "Why did you ask your lover to come over?" Switz lay on the ground and continued to lip-synch.

   "Come here, Lover Boy (ComeHere, LoverBoy Gray waved to the lover on the ground.

   "What if he doesn't answer you?"

   "Oh, lover" Gray changed a provocative posture, and Sylvia in the record also began to seduce with a gentle tone.

   "What if he still ignores you?"

   "Then I have to say..." Jennifer Gray looked at Swayze on the ground, and her eyes were as sweet as honey.

   "Oh, lover, sweet lover", Gray also knelt on the ground, and Swayze got closer and closer, the two began to get closer, facing each other, getting closer and closer.

"Hahaha……"

   Playing like this dilutes Swayze's dissatisfaction with Grey's dancing a lot. The two looked at each other and laughed, and the atmosphere of confrontation finally eased into mutual appreciation.

   This chemistry was exactly what Ronald needed.

   "Did you start up?" Ronald was stunned. The two had not practiced dancing together for a long time since the audition. Ronald deliberately wanted to keep Gray's beginner state.

   But the hit was right, Jennifer Gray's love for Swayze did not diminish at all, but it became stronger because of this short separation.

   This impromptu play is like a little fun between real couples and sparks. The chemistry between the two exploded

   "No..." Director of photography Jeff Zu shook his head. It was originally a simple rehearsal. Not only did it not turn on, but the recording rod was not mounted.

  "Oh, Shxt", Ronald can really feel the benefits of the habit of not rehearsing what Jonathan Demme said to himself.

  Afraid of missing out on rehearsals, the actors will give their best performances. Demi has always started rehearsals, even if the film is wasted.

   This is because of this scene today.

   "Do your impromptu performance again, this time we will start."

  Ronald hurriedly struck while the iron was hot, before the two of them felt that they had not disappeared, and when the **** of movies suddenly favored them, he wanted to repeat the performance just now.

   "Action!"

  Ronald moved his head away from the monitor on the camera and instructed the two leading actors.

   For this time, Ronald also used a new toy, a small monitor on the camera, for the director to see the composition of the shot.

   The clarity of that thing was extremely poor, and Ronald could only observe the details by raising his head to look at the actors in the live performance.

   "Cut, let's do it again. I want the feeling you just rehearsed."

   After all, it was a deliberate performance this time, and the feeling of naturalness was by no means comparable to the improvisation of the last time.

   I took several reshoots, but none of them were as good as the rehearsal.

   "It's good, we just took it here, lunchtime"

  Ronald patted his head with regret. In order to save money, he delayed the wonderful scene. It was really worth the loss.

  The production cost of the film is limited, and I don’t prepare enough film for myself. I didn’t intend to waste it, but objectively I shot more and didn’t get good results.

"I want to make extra money, and I plan to film it every time I rehearse. This film is very particular about the tacit understanding between dances. If the best one is not good, there is a special freshness on both sides. Appeared in rehearsal. The actors are all skilled, and I didn't want to give up this good opportunity to shoot a particularly tacit shot."

   During lunch, Ronald and Eddie discussed the budget of the shoot.

   "Your budget allocation is very tight. If you shoot for rehearsal, it will increase the cost of film by about one-fifth, and you may need to use the reserve fund."

"I know, when I go and talk to Douglas Jr., he should agree. This is where the artistic level is key. This movie is not a fledgling actor, the supporting role uses a lot of experienced actors, and their The difficulty is to get rid of the stylization, so generally the first one is the best.

   And this movie is not a break dance, and the screenwriter Eleanor strictly abides by the story progression of the three-act play. Therefore, the spark of the opponent's play is particularly important, and the dance is the same. It is very important to capture this impromptu spark. "

   "You're the boss, Ronald. I'm fine. I'll give Douglas Jr. a call later and let him talk to you."

   On the first day of shooting, except for the dance scene, the most sparkling rehearsal was not caught, and the subsequent reshoots were slightly worse, everything went well.

  Ronald was talking to Douglas Jr. about adding a portion of the reserve fund while the crew was having dinner.

   "No problem, isn't this part of the money just in case? It's very suitable for use here."

   "Thank you, man."

   There is no problem with Douglas Jr.

   Ronald took a slice of pizza, grabbed a Coke and ate it. He continued to meet with the crew to discuss various things.

   "This is an episode of the various submissions I solicited, you can listen to it when you have time..."

  Danny Goldberg, the music director, was robbed by the broker Jimmy Reiner because of the purchase of the copyright of the old song, which is very dangerous.

   For the three episodes that needed to be newly composed, he worked very hard, and brought the demos of dozens of songs collected and fell to the ground.

   "Don't be free, we'll listen now, please come with Eleanor."

   Ronald took a tape recorder and put the first one in it.

  Eleanor is the creator of this story. She is very familiar with the style of music at that time and has feelings for the situation of each episode, so when picking music, Ronald always calls her.

   Those actors, after eating, wanted to start the disco party as a routine, but they were attracted by the sound of the recorded songs, so they all gathered around.

   "Is this an interlude that the director intends to use in the movie?"

  Many actors are inquiring privately.

   Reels of tapes were put in and taken out again. Ronald and Eleanor frowned slowly.

   These songs may be due to the fact that they made small productions and did not add their own names, so the songs I found were not very satisfactory.

   "It's not very satisfying, you have to keep looking," Ronald said to music director Danny Goldberg after listening to it.

   "I'll fly back to Los Angeles immediately and continue to recruit..." Danny is working hard now, and he doesn't want to be fired now.

   "Director, I have written a song, isn't my character going to sing a song at a resort show? I think this song is quite appropriate."

   After a while, Jane Brook, who played Baby's sister Lisa Hausman, came over to look for Ronald with a cassette in her hand.

   "Hula, Hana... Hula, Hana..."

  The tape was put into the recorder, and it was a very strange song, and Jane Brook's voice was always repeating those few syllables.

"What song is this?"

   Eddie couldn't hold back and spit out a coke.

   "A witty song, doesn't it suit the character of Lisa Hausman's silly big sister?"

   "Hula, Hana, God, Hana, Huna, chant..."

   Ronald nodded and smiled, "It's really suitable, and you sing very well." He looked at the screenwriter Eleanor and asked for her opinion.

   "It's really good, but it's not suitable for the finale episode." Eleanor is a little pity.

   "So it's settled?" Jane Brook recommended herself successfully and was very happy.

   "You wait and sign with music director Danny Goldberg, I'll buy it."

"Yeah..." Jane Brook is completely different from the character Lisa. She is actually a good actress, she can sing and write her own writing. In this film, it is a bit underpowered for her to play a girl who can only dress up. .

   "Congratulations!" Jane Brook gave a high five with several supporting characters. Everyone congratulated her. If she can become the lyrics and music used in the episode used in the movie, she will have a long-term remaining dividend to take, if the movie is a hit.

  Patrick Thwaites saw it all. He went to the hotel room, picked up the phone and asked the front desk to make a long-distance call to Los Angeles.

   is Lisa Niemi, the wife of the family ranch.

   "Lisa, honey. You bring the tape of that song to Virginia Mountain Lake Villa, the movie still lacks a theme song... Yes, that's the one..."

   (end of this chapter)