Chapter 630: Defeating TV series and NBA Finals ratings
"Not to mention the cost loss of the modification now, from the perspective of the movie itself, it only lasts for such a short time, which will definitely affect the overall effect..."
"There is no way, if it is not revised, the problem this movie will encounter is not as simple as Silence of the Lambs or Philadelphia Story being protested and publicly attacked in the media..."
"Is it so bad?" Walter Murch felt that Ronald was overreacting.
"Hey, you fly over first. My wife and children can stay at my house for a vacation. Let's have a good chat. If I think too much, that's the best. If you agree with my ideas, we have to hurry up.
It’s expensive to waste a day…”
"Okay, let me tell them. It just so happens that my children are going to college in the next few years, and I, as a father, don't have much time with them..."
Ronald was on the phone with Walter Murch at his home in Hollywood Park, urgently revising the copy of Forrest Gump. Although there was not much content to be deleted, it was necessary to avoid affecting the overall rhythm, and in addition to the original
The already arranged copy delivery schedule has been disrupted again. If not handled properly, the release time may be affected.
"Dear, don't worry, I believe your decision must be right..." Diane came over to comfort Ronald and asked Ma Wang to make a cup of authentic Qimen black tea given by Mr. Counselor.
Diane was originally reading the third draft of "Mr. Sweetheart" and revising the script. This is a typical script where stars are chosen first and then the plot is modified based on the stars. Since Tom Cruise and Diane Lane were confirmed to star,
From now on, all script changes will be made around some of the characteristics of the two stars themselves, making minor modifications so that they can better suit the box office appeal of the stars to the audience.
Since the famous Hollywood director Billy Wilder confirmed his guest appearance, this has also attracted the attention of many screenwriters in Hollywood. Many people are willing to pay less to do some consultation and revision work on this script. Even if they fail to make it into the final script
The signature can also be used as a qualification, which agents can use in the future to raise the asking price from the studio.
Many Hollywood screenwriters often used Billy Wilder's classic scripts as their learning materials when they were learning to write scripts. Being able to do something in the most likely last work that Billy Wilder participated in,
It will also be a source of conversation that can be boasted about for a long time in the future.
For example, Leigh Steinberg, the prototype of the protagonist Jerry Maguire, recently did a big thing. He allowed safety Tim McDonald to be acquired by the San Francisco 49ers under the new free agent regulations.
big contract.
In the previous NFL, after a player's contract expired, he automatically became a restricted free agent. If a new team offered a contract, the original old team would have priority to sign the player as long as it matched the contract.
However, in the league terms revised last year, players after their contract expires become unrestricted free agents, which means that as long as a new team is willing to offer a contract, he can sign freely.
This gave the agent room to operate, but no one knew how to do it. Only Leigh Steinberg took advantage of the information gap and repeatedly bargained with multiple teams interested in signing, and finally sold a safety guard to the entire team.
The worth of star players caused a sensation.
This incident was also put into the script, allowing Jerry Maguire to win a big contract for his client, and finally became the winner.
On the other hand, why did Jerry Maguire have this idea, suddenly give up lying to customers, and transform into a good person who serves customers wholeheartedly?
Ronald's own agent, Richard, reminded him that Disney's Katzenberg had written a memorandum to the board of directors. There was no cloudy "management language" in it, only common sense and the truth.
.
He told the board of directors that all formulas for film success are false. Over the years, whether it is a live-action film or an animated film, there is only one secret to success at the box office, and that is a very good story.
The idea was also announced and Ronald relayed it to Diane and director Cameron Crowe, and the entire script, which led to the inciting incident in the second act of the protagonist Jerry Maguire, was revised to what he preached in the office.
After writing his own memorandum, everyone except Dorothy, the heroine's company accountant, abandoned him, his apprentices, his clients, and even his girlfriend.
This also makes Rod, the only NFL player who still retains him as an agent, also because he made many mistakes and was abandoned by the team. No one wanted him, so he was not taken away. Rod also became Jerry Maguire.
The only hope for you to turn around after becoming independent is to work on your own.
In this way, the plot becomes more dramatic, and the rationality of Jerry Maguire's behavior is greatly enhanced. This sudden desire to be a good person is more in line with what Tom Cruise himself might do.
.This kind of performance will attract more audiences and have a chance to win awards.
Diane's character, Dorothy, is a very typical American girl-next-door image. Playing such a role is quite similar to Diane's own psychology. She was not originally a person who wanted to be in the circle she was in.
The Mean Girl who beats all the other girls.
The only shortcoming is that in the movie, her makeup must not be as good-looking as the female star who plays Jerry Maguire's ex-girlfriend. Otherwise, it will not match the story and the audience will look strange. But this shortcoming is also mentioned by Tom
·The advantages of Cruise being a couple on screen are outweighed. After making this movie, it will not be a problem for her to appear in any romantic movies in the future (except that she must first get Ronald's consent).
"I have no problem. This is not an artistic decision, but a business decision. What needs to be decided now is how much content to delete..."
Ronald scratched his head. He now understood why many producers would have very serious conflicts with directors. Various messy things in business may be the reason why producers need to modify the director's cut version.
Many directors cannot understand this kind of thing, and even master editors like Walter Murch would be dissatisfied. Of course, this does not rule out that some producers use commercial reasons to mess around.
…
"Walter... let me show you this..."
When Walter Murch and his family came to Ronald's house for vacation, he and Ronald ran into the study to discuss revising the editing of "Forrest Gump".
"Is this already this serious?"
What Walter Murch saw was a collection of news reports that Ronald had taped on O.J. Simpson's day of escape.
Murch needed to stay sharp in film editing because of his work. He did not have a TV in his house in San Francisco. Therefore, he did not see so many scenes of the day Simpson was arrested. He only saw them in the next day's newspapers.
I read some reports on the website that have been "processed".
Those who supported OJ Simpson along the way and cheered for his escape that day were impossible to report in the newspapers. In addition, those who hung banners such as "Come on OJ" and "Run OJ" on the overpasses along the way,
The impact of the image was so great that Murch, who was sitting watching the video, squirmed uneasily in his chair.
"So you understand my worries?" Ronald knew that Murch was disturbed by the impact of these images. No one knows better than an editor how well-edited images can incite the crowd.
Strong.
"How could this happen? I don't know whether he is a criminal or not, but people of such an ethnic group support OJ like this. God, there won't be another Los Angeles riot, right?" Walter Murch suddenly thought of a possibility.
sex.
"It's okay. I've put the plane on standby 24 hours a day. If anything changes, our two families can leave as soon as possible and go to any safe place." Ronald said that he would not cheat the editing teacher.
Consider the worst possibility.
"Was he wrongfully accused?" Murch also became curious. So many black people wanted him to escape. Could it be that the LAPD people really used the methods they used in the past?
They are all famous in the history of the country)
As a first-generation hippie, Walter Murch was certainly no stranger to this kind of thing. Before the human rights movement, it was a very common practice to stop a car at random, stuff some contraband into it when he saw a black man, and then arrest him on the spot.
.There are many cases where people are even shot to death on the spot in the name of arrest.
This is why Rodney King, the criminal in Los Angeles who really resisted the arrest of LPAD last time, caused such a big reaction. They are too familiar with this method. Every black family has this when they grow up.
memory.
"I don't know, but judging from the details in the report, OJ is very likely..." They are all white, so Ronald can speak out. If this was in front of Spike Lee or Whoopi Go
In the face of DePauw, saying this would mean breaking off the relationship.
He turned on the TV, and now there were overwhelming follow-up reports on the Simpson murder case every day. Every TV station wanted to get some latest news, and they also issued announcements and were willing to pay a lot of money to buy valuable clues. Under such competition,
Soon there were several heavyweight witnesses who gave the TV station very strong evidence.
A woman told the TV station that on the night of the murder, shortly after what the medical examiner presumed was the incident, she saw a white Ford Mustang speeding away from Bondi Avenue and nearly crossing the road at Bondi and St. Vincent avenues.
mouth, collided with a Nissan, and she recognized Simpson's voice.
This respectable white lady had the courage to tell her story to the public in a telephone interview with the television station. In order to reward this feat of protecting the people's right to know, the television station gave her five thousand dollars.
Another man was also interviewed by the TV station. He was sitting in a dark place leaving the country. He said that at the airport that night, he saw OJ Simpson preparing to fly to Chicago and saw him throwing a large bag of things into the airport.
trash can. If the LAPD had done their job, they would have discovered that it was a bag of blood-stained clothing. Just find it and test it for blood, Bang! Catch it on the spot!
This man is a black man. In order to reward him for having the courage to testify against a suspect of his own race for the sake of fairness and justice, the TV station rewarded him with tens of thousands of dollars.
Another employee of Ross Knife Shop testified to the TV station that six weeks ago, OJ Simpson bought a knife from them that could cause the kind of wounds that the forensic examination showed that the victim...
Because the clerk discovered one of the three most important elements in the murder case-the murder weapon, even though he did not appear on the scene, he was also given a lot of rewards!
The TV station announced that anyone who can provide important clues to the case like this enthusiastic citizen can also receive similar rewards.
Although television made Walter Murch unhappy, it has indeed become one of the most influential and credible media in the modern flow of information.
"Okay, what do you want to delete?" Walter Murch understood the situation. Not only did most black people not believe that OJ was the murderer, but the victim's ethnic group and white people generally believed that OJ brutally killed two people.
victims.
Moreover, the situation of the victim Ron Goldman was gradually revealed. He was not the new boyfriend of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown as people imagined. He was just a waiter in a restaurant. He was delivering Brown’s money that was lost in the restaurant that night.
Sunglasses just showed up at her house...
White people believe this statement very much, and their hatred of OJ has deepened. Killing your ex-wife is one thing, but affecting innocent people is another... Radio stations that already have white people as their main listeners have begun to
Calls for OJ Simpson to be prosecuted for double murder.
In California, double murder is a special case of murder, and as long as the prosecutor raises this point, if convicted, the suspect's probability of being sentenced to death will greatly increase.
"I mainly want to delete two places. The first is the scene where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. went to the streets to protest when he was young and was surrounded by police dogs. Forrest Gump went to rescue him... and the scene where he was assassinated later."
These two plots have been largely deleted by Ronald, leaving only a few scenes of more than ten seconds. But now OJ Simpson is about to go before the grand jury and is likely to be indicted.
. Under such circumstances, any scenes with civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. will cause inappropriate associations between ethnic groups that are already tense.
"The other one is here..." Ronald said another place. This is the scene where Babu, Forrest Gump's good friend who died in Vietnam, was discriminated against when he first joined the army like Forrest Gump. Babu
Bu's IQ is normal, but because he is black, he is considered inferior to Forrest Gump, who has a low IQ, as shown in the scene where he was punished.
"We can delete the antecedent and keep the scene of him and Forrest using a toothbrush to clean the floor tiles together..." Walter Murch thought about it again and again, and finally gave a solution.
Only one photo of Martin Luther King was deleted, with Tom Hanks' voiceover explaining that he was also assassinated like JFK. A section of Barb's shot was cut, leaving him and Forrest Gump as brothers.
The scene allows the audience to directly accept this setting, without exaggerating the causes and consequences of the two people's falling in love.
…
"Are you really not going to Houston to watch the last game of the Finals?"
A day later, little Doug called. Last night, the Knicks lost to the Rockets in Game 6 in Houston. In the last few seconds, Knicks guard Stex had a chance to hit a three-pointer to kill the Rockets.
.
However, his shot was blocked by Rockets center Olajuwon, who played very well in the game. The two teams had to play the decisive game at Houston's home court tomorrow.
"Why should I go? The Dolan family likes to be tied to failure so much, so just let them go..." Ronald watched the live TV broadcast and was also very angry. The defender Dolan praised Starks before the game.
His importance to New York is no less important than Jordan's importance to the Bulls.
The result? The last shot was blocked. What Jordan did before was to kill the opponent at the last moment...
"Okay, I won't go either. I feel relieved that you are so confident. Now New York fans are saying that Dolan wants to steal the limelight from you, so they have to go to the away game to watch the game. They lose without you there.
"Oh, I can't even go. Now the ratings have been lowered by OJ...Wang Ma, what are you arguing about there?"
As soon as Ronald put down the phone, he heard loud voices coming from outside and couldn't help but call Ma Wang to ask.
"Sir, you don't know, they are rushing to watch the TV. A few maids want to watch the TV series, and several other maids and gardeners on the other side want to watch the report on the Simpson case. Both parties are anxious. I will tell them...
"
"Alas, TV stations probably won't show reruns of TV series anymore..." Ronald also lamented the power of the TV media. In order to have more time to report the latest news, many rebroadcasts of TV series have been cancelled.