Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 4 Fake Scripts



Chapter 4 Fake Scripts

"Fake script?" Jenny asked with a smile.

"Yes, asking the principal about the venue and group performances borrowed for free can't reveal the plot of the movie."

This is the consistent style of New World Producers: stingy!

Van Nuys High School agreed to rent out the school's playground for free, organize students to perform in the group for free, and provide a free breakfast and lunch.This is all for the sake of the fake script produced by the producer.

"Rock High School" is a typical low-budget movie, filled with all kinds of rock, rebellion, love and other elements that teenagers like.The plot is simple:
The cheerleader of "Vince Lombardi High School" is a rebellious rock girl. Together with her good friend, a good girl, she invites the popular rock band "The Ramones" to the school for a concert. Toppled the roof of the high school's teachers' office building and renamed the school "Rock High School".

Such a plot, of course, the location of the filming - the school of Van Nuys Public High School will not agree.The director asked Ronald to write a fake script "High School Life" to fool the school.

The story written by Ronald is: the new female principal of the high school rectifies the school ethos, and makes the students who are addicted to rock music realize that there is more to life than rock and roll.Some of the students were admitted to universities, some became cashiers in supermarkets, and some went to work in factories. Everyone has a bright future.

"Okay, I see." Jenny began to erase the title of the film on the slate with an eraser, and wrote "High School Life" again with a water pen.

"Please inform the relevant personnel, don't reveal your secrets, we will only shoot at this school for one day."

"No problem." Jenny joked with a smile, "Ronnie, you're talking more and more like a director."

Ronald smiled and waved his hands, "I'm just here for the cast and crew."

At this time, a group of people on the other side of the camera broke out into a burst of rapid talking, and the voice became more and more sharp, as if they were about to quarrel.

"I'll go and find out what's the matter. See you later, Jenny."

"See you."

Walking quickly into the crowd, it was Jim who was surrounded by three leading actresses, as if 1500 ducks were calling.

"Can we start rehearsing?"

"Where is Mr. Director? Am I wearing a red coat or a black coat today?"

"Where's Joe? He agreed to feature me last week."

……

Ronald smiled and shook his head. Jim was like a poor chick, dizzy by the quick questions from the three leading actresses, and was interrupted by the next question before answering the previous question.

So he asked the director of photography: "The group performers have already passed the position, and they have rehearsed twice, and they are waiting to move together with the actors. Mr. Candi, what happened? Can't we start yet?"

The director of photography was lying behind the camera to check the framing situation. After hearing this, he stuck his head out from behind the camera and looked at him: "What they want is a result, but what Jim gave them was a lot of explanations, so..."

Ronald also understood that there were countless clues on the set, and the script only wrote that the protagonist wore white shoes, and the director had to choose the most suitable pair from the several pairs of shoes prepared for the costume.

The director makes dozens of decisions like this every day.As small as what shoes the actors wear, as large as 50 group performers dancing, how each person's dance moves are choreographed.The actors mistrust Jim's choices, and Jim is eager to explain why he chose this and not that.

"Where's the director, Jim? Where's Joe? Am I wearing a red coat or a black one today? This is a bad low-budget movie. Costumes are only $100. There's no way I can get the right clothes. I'm taking my paycheck." bought clothes.

You know, that day at the Fred Segal clothing store on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, behind me was Rod Stewart (famous singer Rod Stewart), I got this red one minute earlier than him, otherwise he would have bought it Yes, it cost me $1.And this black one is..." The first heroine PJ Soles (PJ·Soles) talked about the two dresses like a treasure.

"Miss Sauls!" Ronald yelled, "for today's play, you should wear the red one."

"Call me PJ. In red? But black is fine too."

Because you're wearing red in the tape, Ronald thought, but he'd have to make up a reason.

"Miss PJ Sauls, we shot this scene today at sunrise, and the light around sunrise tends to be light blue, which will make the color of the black set off incorrect.

And your red coat is very suitable. The light blue is just the complementary color of red, and it must stand out when photographed.And your character is a rock girl, red is more suitable. "

"Really? Then I'll choose the red one."

"Ms. Mary Woronov, the director has promised to add a close-up of you last week, and it is in today's shooting list, I promise. You walked in front of the camera from a distance and appeared in the uniform of the headmistress."

Ronald took the filming list in Jim's hand, turned to a certain page, and glued a piece of paper of a different color on it, and pointed to Mary, who played the role of the headmistress: "Look, this is the shot."

"Miss Dey Young, you play the good female schoolmaster, who is the protagonist of the first shot. Let's start to move, measure the focus, and wait for 20 minutes. No, it will be 18 and a half minutes later , the group performers are in place, and we can start rehearsing."

He solved the problem neatly, and the director of photography gave him a thumbs up.

Mary Woronov, who played the role of the headmistress, had acted in several films produced by New World, and Dai Yang, who played the role of the obedient schoolgirl, was a newcomer. The two were not very experienced, and they were about to start moving.

PJ Souls, who played the leading role of the rebellious rock girl cheerleader, is the biggest actor on the cast and earns the highest salary.She played the main roles in the horror film "Kary the Witch", which sold well last year, and "Moonlight, Panic", which is currently being released, so she has a stand-in (Stand in).

Before the official shooting, people in the lighting team have to see the effect of the light on the face, and the camera team has to use a tape measure to measure the distance from the actor's eyes to the camera.Movie cameras do not have autofocus, you need to measure the focal length with a tape measure, and manually focus to capture the sparkling eyes on the screen.

Some actors don't want to waste time, so they have a stand-in who is similar in height and weight to her to do this instead. PJ Sauls is the only actor on the set to receive this treatment.When the stand-in replaced her, PJ went to the temporary dressing room in the teaching building to change clothes and touch up makeup.

The first camera assistant, also the follower, and the red-haired camera assistant of the chief coolie, quickly took the tape and looked for the initial positions of the actors in the storyboard sketch on the ground.After finding it, stick a T-shaped indicator mark on the ground with tape, which is the actor's station.

Then take out the tape measure, hang one end on the camera, and pull the other end to the actor's eyes, and take the reading.Then go back and figure out the corresponding focal point, and mark it on the focus ring next to the camera body.When it comes to the official shooting, wherever the position is photographed, the follower will turn to the corresponding mark to ensure that the focus is on the actor's eyes.

After repeating this several times, the shooting position of the first shot was completed.Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Ronald picked up the electric speaker: "What about makeup? Gigi, you touch up the heroine's makeup."

The time had come to 05:55, and Ronald became restless again.The director hasn't arrived yet.At this time, PJ Sauls had already changed his clothes, fixed his makeup, and walked out of the temporary dressing room in the teaching building.

She was still a little hesitant, wearing a red coat, and kept comparing herself with the black coat in one hand, "Where's the director? I still have to ask the director."

Everyone looked at Ronald, and Ronald was sweating white all of a sudden, why did you look at me?I don't know where the director is?But the clothes must have chosen red in the end.He still pretended to be confident: "Director, director..."

"The director is here!" Jim standing opposite shouted.

A tall, thin man, about 6 feet 6 inches (about 2 meters) tall, walked by the school gate.With exploding curly hair and facial features that are vaguely of Middle Eastern descent, it is none other than Alan Aikush, the director of the "Rock High School" crew.

(End of this chapter)


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