Ronald and Jim began to look at the shooting information of the second team, and they made a plan on what shots they would shoot in the next five days.
Gale helped contact the photographer, and they agreed to gather at 5:30 a.m. tomorrow, Monday, to go to Mount Carmel High School to shoot the opening scene.
The next morning, Ronald met the photographer, who was a British photographer common in Hollywood. Ronald deliberately changed into a "New Concept English" recording accent, with a bit of a British BBC radio accent.
The photographer laughed happily and told some jokes about himself being drunk and making a fool of himself, to close the relationship.
The three of them quickly became familiar with each other and worked together to prepare for the shoot.
"I want a still shot, about 3-5 seconds, of a gentle ray of sunshine shining on the teaching building."
"Wait, wait, gentle sunshine? How do you want me to take pictures of gentle sunshine?" the photographer protested.
"Shooting normally, the sunlight after sunrise is relatively gentle, right?"
"In this way, I will adjust the parameters to make the aperture smaller. This Kodak daylight film is an old model. It is estimated to be a year old from the factory. It will be slightly whiter, so that the yellow sunrise can be 'gentler'."
"Listen to you."
"Roger Corman gave the last crew the same crap again," Jim complained.
Cut!
Finish.
“Where are we next shot?”
"Wait, it's under a big sign with the school's name on it."
"That means there are none. Let's get in the car and look around to see if there's anything suitable."
After removing the camera from its stand, the three of them packed up and got into the crew's van.
"Do you know that big sign there? We need to take a close-up shot." Ronald asked the driver.
"Big sign? Well, there is a billboard on the back wall of the school. Do you think it will work?"
The driver stepped on the accelerator and the car arrived behind Mount Carmel High School. Where it turned out to be the stadium, weeds grew half as tall as a man. There was a barbed wire fence around the stadium, right next to the road, and a large billboard was erected on the roadside, the height was just right.
.
"Very good, you have a very good sense and the place you chose is very good."
"Put the school name on it that Jim drew."
The four people took down the folding ladder and set it up on the billboard. Ronald and the driver were on one side, and Jim was directing from below, "A little higher on the left, a little higher, okay, just right."
The billboard was labeled "Vince Lombardi High School" in green letters on a yellow background.
Vince Lombardi is the most famous football coach, having won two consecutive Super Bowls. He has coached the military football team and emphasizes discipline. It is similar to Principal Toga's school management philosophy in "Rock High School". In other words, Toga's school management philosophy
The character of Principal Jia was modeled after Vince Lombardi.
The photographer confirms OK through the viewfinder.
Ronald took out the slate, filled in the scene number, slapped it in front of the camera, and then raised his hand to look at the watch: "One, two, three, four, five..., okay, Cut!"
The shooting of the second team was scattered and trivial. They only needed to shoot one or two shots in one place. Most of the time was spent waiting for the light, assembling and disassembling the camera, and arranging scene props.
Ronald thoroughly understood what Roger Corman taught him about focusing on a scene. It was too slow to shoot a shot in such a place.
The three of them all had some experience and cooperated tacitly. In three days, they shot seven or eight of the scenes that Jerry Zucker planned to shoot.
Jim also directed a motorcycle scene. He rode a motorcycle himself, and the photographer sat in front of him, holding the camera and shooting a subjective shot. According to the photographer, the scene the audience saw would be like riding a motorcycle.
It's like racing in the car.
This was of course Jim's idea, and he resorted to the old method of downgrading photography. The 20-mph motorcycle was driven at a slow speed, which gave him the impression of racing.
After shooting that day, Ronald and the others sent the film to New World Productions and were waiting to be sent for development and printing. They happened to meet the boss Roger Corman.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Coleman."
"Oh, Ronald, how was your photoshoot?"
"We have completed most of the second-unit shooting. Tomorrow we will go to Mount Carmel High School. Director Allen will shoot an explosion scene with two cameras. There will also be a phone booth scene the day after tomorrow. We have to wait for the two protagonists PJ and Dai Yang to shoot.
Once the gymnastics scene is over, the filming of 'Rock of Ages' can be wrapped up."
Packing is a jargon in Hollywood, which is equivalent to the Chinese word "final", which is a metaphor for the end of the shooting phase. Everyone packs the camera and film to indicate that the shooting is completed.
"Very good. I like your working style very much. It's fast, accurate, and artistic." Roger praised him.
"I have already written your letter of recommendation and asked Gale to send it with your application. When you graduate from college, don't forget to make a movie for me."
"Of course, Mr. Corman. Not all Hollywood bosses give opportunities to newcomers like me and Jim like you do." Ronald thanked Roger Corman from the bottom of his heart. The boss recognized the talents he recognized.
, was very hands-off, and Ronald had the opportunity to direct alone.
"Where's Jim? Ask him to come to me in the office, and I'll ask him to report to the stunt department for the new movie. This guy's mind is full of stunts and models, and he's already called me several times."
"He seems to be waiting for you at Gale's place, Mr. Coleman, you can see him when you go up."
Roger Coleman nodded and walked into the office.
After hearing that his application had been sent, Ronald couldn't help but look forward to college life. Which is better, Columbia in the Ivy League, or New York University in Manhattan? Speaking of which, the sunshine in the Westwood District of Los Angeles is also very good, located there.
UCLA is also quite suitable, very close to Hollywood.
Ronald stood at the front desk, drinking instant coffee and thinking about his college career.
After about two drinks, Jim came down from upstairs and shouted to himself with joy,
"I'm going to be a stunt model, Ronnie!"
"Congratulations!" Ronald hugged Jim tightly. As a person, being able to realize your dream and turn your hobby into a job is something worth celebrating.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "When do you go to work?"
“After the Christmas break”
"That's just right, we can also attend the 'Rock and Roll High School' packing party together."
Before Jim's excitement subsided, he suddenly remembered:
"By the way, I brought my short film. Can we watch it together later?"
"Okay, do you want to wait for Gail to come with you? Has she seen it?"
"She said she only watched the last minute and not the whole thing."
"Then you go call her, and I'll ask the photographer to prepare the video recorder in the conference room." Ronald really didn't understand how to connect the VHS recorder to the TV.
After a while, the four of them started watching Jim's short film in the conference room.
The resolution of this VHS tape is very poor, and the title "Xenogenesis" appears at the beginning.
Each letter appeared on the screen like a typewriter, and Jim also added some electronic sound effects, a bit like the popular Atari game console.
Then came the credits. The Sony TV was only 21 inches in size and the subtitles were not clear. Ronald and the other three had to distinguish it carefully.
The subtitles were very long and boring. For a 12-minute short film, the opening subtitles with white text on a black background only took one minute. Fortunately, he finally saw the director's name appear, and Ronald knew that the subtitles were finally coming to an end.
Hollywood's practice is that the last item in the opening credits is the director. America's habit is to put the most important person at the end of the list.
director:
Then the letters spelled out a name one by one.
James Cameron.
"Is this James you, Jim?" Jim is the short name of James, and Ronald never asked Jim's full name.