Exploiting Hollywood 1980

   Chapter 92 Improvisation

  The main event of the dance department and the music department, the canteen dance was finished, and the crew began to shoot the drama of the performance department. Today is a scene of Latino student Ralph Garcia.

   The actor who played Ralph was named Barry Miller. He is a veteran, 21 years old this year. In 1977, he played a suicidal high school student in John Travolta's "Saturday Night Fever". Later, he played a villain in the CBS TV series "Wonder Woman". It is one of the few faces in the movie that the audience is already familiar with.

  Barry told others that he was a graduate of the Stella Adler acting training class, and Ronald was also looking forward to his acting skills.

   "Li Zidao, Li doesn't understand that I'm grinding with an oar, what's wrong with Li's position?"

   Ronald looked at Jim, the black teacher who was playing against Barry. Jim put his hand on Guang Guang's forehead and lowered his head helplessly.

  “Cut!”

"Barry, what the **** are you doing? How did you say your lines? Why is it not clear at all." The director called off in dissatisfaction. Today's shooting has seen many instances of Barry improvising on the spot, and the shooting progress has been greatly affected by the dragged down.

   "Ellen, I feel like Ralph Garcia is someone who likes to dig into acting, just like me. He's learning the way Marlon Brando speaks."

   "Can't you just read the lines according to the script?"

   "Ellen, I think you are a director who pursues excellence and should not be limited by the script. I feel that the role of Ralph is better expressed in this way."

With a    hum, the extras sitting in the teacher's seat began to whisper. This is the first time someone on the crew has publicly challenged the director's authority.

  The cast members were dissatisfied with Allen for a long time, and today someone finally pierced this layer of window paper. The dancers were dissatisfied with his disregarding the safety risks of filming, and the local technicians in America also complained that the director favored the fellows of the British Isles.

   But those are all conflicts accumulated for the sake of work, in the final analysis, to make better movies. As long as the filming continues to move forward, everyone will forget about the old problems.

   Today is the first time that someone has questioned the director's decision from an artistic point of view. After all, the other leading actors are mainly newcomers, and only Barry Miller feels that he is qualified to "discuss" the role's performance with the director.

Before everyone was frightened by Allen Parker's knife on Jim, a black teacher, someone raised his head, and a lot of dissatisfaction came out from the bottom of their hearts. For the first time, everyone felt that what Allen said was not all right. .

   "You..." Alan Parker's face was a little red, but now is not the time to lose his temper.

  Allen announced the suspension of filming and dragged Barry to chat inside. Everyone was talking outside, venting their grievances about the director's rude attitude towards him.

   Ronald watched indifferently from the side, which was a big challenge to the director's authority. If it is not resolved, it may cause a lot of trouble in the future shooting.

With a    "pop", the inner door was opened, and Barry Miller came out first triumphantly. Allen announced that the scene would be changed.

  Record of the scene hurriedly picked up the pen and revised the script according to Allen's request. She would then have to type it again, copy and replace the corresponding parts of the script.

   "Recording, camera, start!"

   "Li Zidao, Li doesn't understand that I'm grinding with an oar, what's wrong with Li's position?"

   "Ralph, Ralph, you're inarticulate again." Jim was showing Barry Miller.

"I don't get it," Barry replied in a clear voice. "That's how the great Marlon Brando read his lines, and so did James Dean. They're the greatest actors in the world, but no one Can understand what they're saying."

   "Puchi" extras contributed laughter.

   These two are really Stella Adler's disciples, plus Robert De Niro, is lisp the secret of Stella's school? Ronald began to think wildly.

   "Cut! This print" the director explained the scene.

"Next, we will go to the No. 122 performing arts space in the East Village. The address is... , and we will meet at No. 122 performing arts space at two o'clock in the afternoon. The camera crew follows the truck. There are two buses for the group performance. "

   The first assistant director began to arrange transportation for various people, and everyone went to the assistant to get an address.

   Ronald got into the car and drove Gene and Antonia to the new filming location. Along the way, I was thinking about the aftermath of Barry Miller's morning challenge to the director.

  Gene and Antonia were also talking about the director.

   "We're not afraid of him at all," Gene said. "What's up with us when he troubles Jim? Public high school teachers can't control us."

   "Of course you're not afraid of him, but he's a little bit afraid of you, and everything is conveyed through Ronnie." Antonia laughed.

   Ronald heard the conversation between the two in the driving position and glanced at Gene through the rearview mirror.

   does make some sense. Alan is English after all, and he is more than 15 years older than himself. Don't understand the mentality of American high school students at all. After the Vietnam War, the hippies, and the civil rights movement, today's young people don't take public high school teachers seriously.

  Teacher dares to control their words, for fear that he will not be killed on the spot by a thorn like Gene.

   Trying to establish authority in the minds of student actors by scaring the teacher is a bit misguided.

  The new generation of American teenagers, not so much obey the authority of their elders, but obey their teenage heroes, such as the punk rock Ramones.

  The car arrived at the 122 Performing Arts Space, and Ronald and the two got out of the car to take a look. The so-called performing arts space is also an abandoned high school. However, it was occupied by New York artists and transformed into a theater rehearsal space and a small theater, serving as the center of avant-garde theater.

Producer David Da Silva greeted him, "Ronnie, you also go to the filming site in the afternoon to keep an eye on it, I heard what happened in the morning, you go to the scene to keep an eye on it, and Barry Miller will come to every move. tell me."

   Ronald nodded. The filming was originally a love scene between Ralph Garcia and Doris, and he didn't need to be there. But now, David, the man who pays his own salary, has told him to listen.

   "I have a lot of fathers who come to my house and some pay rent,..." Barry Miller was reading.

The character of   Ralph Garcia is a Latino in Harlem, in a way worse than a black person, because many charitable donations do not go to Latinos. There are 5 brothers and sisters in the whole family, mainly relying on the relief of the church, and a single mother from time to time on the list of a man.

   "Cut!" for a close-up shot to capture Barry's monologue.

  The main camera shot just now is completed, and then there is Barry's monologue. Allen's style is not to use over-the-shoulder shots, but to use close-up shots to express the characters' dialogue, which is different from the traditional Hollywood method.

The advantage of    is that the emotions of the characters can be expressed more clearly. The disadvantage is that the audience sometimes does not understand who the characters are talking to. Especially when there are more than two characters present. But Alan Parker is a famous British director after all, so there will be no problem in thinking about it.

   "You have to understand Puerto Rican women who don't look for men for love, but to feed their children."

   "Cut, Cut, Cut" Allen stopped filming in a fit of rage.

   "Barry, Barry, you have to follow the lines, dear." Allen pressed Barry Miller's shoulders, squeezed his face, and threatened.

   Ronald also felt that Barry Miller was too much. Roger Coleman once said that if actors can improvise, give them the chance. But this never includes changing the lines at will between the main shot and the dialogue shot.

   You can improvise on certain strips of the main shot where you shoot the panorama, or you can riff on several of the dialogue shots where you are close-up.

   But it’s best not to say A in the main shot, and say an irrelevant B in the dialogue shot. Because doing so would make editing difficult. There is no connection between the main shot and the dialogue shot.

   This Barry Miller puts too much emphasis on his own acting, as if he wants to give full play to all his talents and show it to someone.

"No no, Ellen. My performance is situational, and at this time, in this setting, Ralph Garcia should have said this. It wasn't my intention, it was a natural revelation. You You can't limit an actor's natural play."

"Barry, Barry, what should I do with you? You are a talented actor, but you need to distinguish between the primary and secondary when shooting. You will seriously slow down the progress of the shooting, and we are only a small production." Allen tried Reason with Barry Miller.

   "Barry, can you limit the improvisation part to the scope of each scene? Otherwise, it will be edited later..." Ronald tried to help, so that Barry's improvisation would not interfere too much with the shooting and post-editing.

   "Hey, who are you? Don't interfere with the conversation of a great actor and director."

  Ronald raised his hands in a gesture of surrender and stepped back to Maureen Tiffey who played Doris.

   "Barry is always like this. My opponents start to play extra. I'm a little tired of it. He keeps making Allen work overtime." Maureen complained to Ronald in a low voice.

   Ronald turned his head in surprise and glanced at Maureen, "Maybe he has his own ideas."

  Allen and Barry finally reached a tentative agreement, and the director called for the third item.

   "Recording? Camera? Go!"

  Barry Miller walks to the window with his wine glass and stops for two seconds with his back to the camera. Then turned around: "My mom has a spare house, and she always rents it to a man so I have a new dad."

   "Okay!" Ronald thought to himself, this part of the performance was quite smooth.

   "Most new dads will only be one day."

   He improvised again, Ronald covered his face.

  “Cut!”

   Allen stepped forward and slapped Barry Miller.

"Snapped!"

   "Stop messing around! Say your lines, in the order of the script. Be honest with me and stop chasing girls!"

   The next scene was unexpectedly good. Barry honestly finished the lines in the script, and the last crying scene was very real.

   Maureen Tiffie also ended her own shot, saying "Bye!" to Ronald and others, and took Allen into the car together.

  The director has a new car.

   (end of this chapter)