Universal President Tom Mount met Ronald and Niceta in his office.
At the age of 33, Mount became the president in charge of production of the eight major studios, no, the seven major studios. Mount is now very proud. He took this position at the age of 27. In the past few years, he has personally initiated, or supervised, or produced.
Providing financing and producing more than 100 films.
He has great confidence in various types of movies that are popular nowadays and predicts the profit level in advance.
Ronald, who was welcomed in by his secretary, noticed that on the wall of the office was a replica of the interview page of an issue of Time magazine, mounted in a wooden frame. The interview inside called Mount a young tycoon (baby mogul).
), he is a hot and powerful person in Hollywood.
The young Mount has a very good demeanor. The handmade suit with metal buttons looks closer to the body than Ronald's. It should also be much more expensive. He may be a tailor from Savile Row in London.
Mount, who had had many interactions with Niceta, stood up and hugged him.
But Ronald still stretched out his hand to shake his hand. He had met David Lynch once before, but maybe the busy CEO had forgotten about him. Just use the etiquette of the first meeting.
"You must be Ronald, please sit down. Please bring us two cups of coffee, can you add sugar?" Mount shook Ronald's hand warmly and asked his secretary to bring coffee to them.
The three of them sat down and Mount asked, "Ronald, tell me what this movie in your mind is like."
Ronald knew that the first critical question was coming today. For directors who have just debuted and have no experience directing feature films in theaters, the most important thing for producers to interview them is to investigate through questions and find out,
And evaluate the other party's directing level.
Simply put, tell me what kind of scenes you can direct the on-set technical team and actors to produce.
"I wanted to make 'Fast Time' into a movie about the growth of teenagers, reflecting the living conditions of high school students in California. When the audience sees it, they will feel that these high school students are so real, as if they are in the high school next door.
go to school.
Therefore, the background of the movie is realistic, the tone is a slightly exaggerated light comedy, and the five main student characters represent the six typical types of students today."
Ronald spoke the wording he had practiced for a long time, and took out a cardboard from his briefcase with six categories written on it on colorful paper cards.
"They are
The eldest brother Brad, who always looks for life experience from books,
Stacey, the little sister who is full of imagination about the opposite sex,
Linda, the social queen who pretended to be mature and made up a perfect boyfriend,
Mark the nerdy 'mouse' who is too shy to date girls,
Mike, who comes from a poor family and does whatever it takes to make money by talking,
And Spicoli, who is ignorant but good at surfing and retains his childlike innocence."
Ronald pointed to the portraits of the six characters on the cardboard and the character traits written in words next to them, and explained to Mount.
"Oh, you draw very well. Do you have any considerations for classifying characters like this?" Mount picked up the cardboard and looked at it carefully.
"Yes, I have considered it," Ronald replied.
"American high school students have different physical, intellectual, and personality development speeds. Students in the same year can differ greatly in these three aspects, giving the impression that students are not in the same grade.
You must know that the author of the novel, Cameron Crowe, once went undercover a few years after graduation, and no one discovered his true identity for a year."
"Their development levels are distributed differently in these three items, so they will present several typical characters. For example, a nerd with a poor body but a good brain; another example is an athlete whose body is relatively developed compared to his brain...
Various differences can show different levels of popularity in high school social circles. For example, a beautiful social queen, or a transparent person with basically no social circle...
All these character prototypes are deeply engraved in the minds of young audiences. As long as you can see this type of character on the screen, you can think of your classmates and friends around you.
This can greatly enhance the audience's involvement and allow them to integrate into the atmosphere of the story as quickly as possible.
…
Of course, a large part of these ideas should be attributed to Cameron Crowe, the author of the original novel. The above are some of my views on the finished film."
Ronald talked non-stop for more than 20 minutes, and Tom Mount listened carefully.
In particular, he was very interested in the six different types of high school students. He held the cardboard in his hand and kept watching.
"Very well, Ronald. I have a general understanding of your idea for the film. Niceta showed me a few commercials you directed, which were impressive, but you have no experience directing a 90-minute feature film. I
Why should I believe in your ability?"
Ronald knew his weaknesses very well and had been prepared for it long ago. “Although I have never directed a 90-minute feature film, I have worked on Roger Corman’s crew and am very familiar with low-cost productions.
The method has its own understanding.
Later, on the Famous crew, I handled a lot of relationships with actors as a crew assistant, and I knew how to stimulate actors' acting skills.
As for the shot scheduling and understanding of the overall atmosphere of the film, I think Mr. Mount, you have seen several of my series of commercials, and the atmosphere is very unified. You can judge for yourself my ability to translate the script into the audition language."
"Great, what are your thoughts on the casting?"
“I used to work at the School Corner Studio in New York, and my view on the character was to be as close to the character’s true age as possible while ensuring that he could work eight hours a day as an adult and that his acting skills were guaranteed.
The closeness here, I think, is mainly to select actors with temperaments similar to those of high school students. As for the actual age of the actors, it is not very important."
Ronald knew that this question seemed to be testing casting ability, but it was actually testing cost control for low-budget teen exploitation films.
"Very good, Ronald."
Tom Mount asked some more questions to examine Ronald's director's scheduling and stimulate the actors' acting skills. Finally, he nodded with satisfaction and said to Ronald:
"I appreciate your directorial intention and your use of language to express your thoughts on the audition language of the finished film. Especially this classification of roles, can you leave it for me to look at again?"
Ronald glanced at Niceta and saw the other person nodded slightly, so he readily agreed.
"When can we complete the signing?" Niceta finally asked the most important question to Mount.
"We still need to meet some potential candidates. If their performance is not as good as Ronald's, we may sign at any time in about two weeks." Mount said, touching his nose with his hand.
"Two weeks?" Ronald repeated.
"Any questions?"
"No, it's no problem at all." Ronald thought to himself that he had to stay in Los Angeles for the past two weeks. He should call the school to ask for leave. Generally, New York University will support students to participate in the work of the film crew and will also give corresponding credits.
If you become a director, you won't be able to stop yourself.
Niceta and Ronald said goodbye and left the office.
After confirming that they were gone, Tom Mount picked up the phone and dialed a number.
"Hello", a woman's voice came from the phone.
"Ronald is very powerful... I have a character classification table here, which was his invention. You can come and take a look."
Meanwhile, Ronald got into Niceta's BMW in the parking lot.
"How was my performance?" Ronald asked as soon as he sat down.
"Oh, it's perfect. I can't help but be smitten with your preparation, Ronald. I can't think of any reason not to cast you. There couldn't have been a better choice for this $3 million budget production."
.”
"What? Do you think Mount has other options?" Ronald was nervous and asked quickly.
"Of course, there are always choices in this industry. We often say, it's not what you know, but who you know. This is always true in the film industry.
But your performance is very good, so logically there should be no other considerations, not to mention you are a newcomer and can only ask for a salary of 100,000 US dollars. At this level, I can't think of a newcomer who is better than you."
Niceta still felt a little strange, so she pulled over the car, got out of the car and went to the phone booth to make two or three calls to confirm.
"Is there any news?" Ronald, who was sitting in the car, was actually waiting anxiously.
"No, we haven't heard of any strong candidates yet. But two weeks is really weird."
"Why?"
"If it is a veteran director who needs to wait for his time, Mount can tell us who it is. The competitiveness of newcomers in front of veterans is very weak. We can only pray that the competitor has other better choices, or ask for
The salary exceeded the budget.”
Ronald nodded, "What if that opponent is a novice like me?"
"Then it's even more impossible. Since he is a novice, how can he be qualified to ask someone of Tom Mount's level to wait for him for two weeks?" Niceta thinks this is a questionable point, but lacks further information and cannot analyze and judge.
.
However, he has already found several insiders. If there is clear information, he should know it as soon as possible.
"In this case, why don't we forget about him and let's go find a place to eat?" Ronald asked. After working hard to sell himself all afternoon, Ronald felt a little hungry.
"No problem, I know a good steakhouse, I'm treating you today." Niceta turned on the accelerator and drove to a restaurant on the edge of Hollywood.
"I have a question. If you don't feel comfortable answering it, you don't have to answer it, Rick." Ronald sat in the passenger seat and opened the window a little, letting the wind blow in through the gap and hit his face.
Today's interview is over. It's a bit like a dream. He needs a sense of reality to remind himself that to realize his dream of being a director, he has done everything he can, and the rest depends on God's arrangement.
"Tell me, what's the problem?" Niceta replied.
"Tom Mount is only 33 years old. Last time Richard told me that Shirley Lansing, the president of 20th Century Fox, is less than 35 years old. Why can such a young person become the president of the seven major studios?
?Because they are geniuses?"
"genius?"
Niceta smiled and said, "I don't know what a producer's genius is. In this industry, there are director geniuses, actor geniuses, and other technical geniuses such as photography, but what is a producer's genius?"
"Then why did they become president? Can you tell me?"
"The virtue of an agent is not to speak ill of others behind anyone's back. But if you look at them, the men are handsome and the women are retired actors, what do you think they relied on to become the president?" Niceta asked rhetorically.
"I know, it must be their unparalleled sense of humor."
"Hahaha..." Niceta laughed, "Ronald, you are becoming more and more like a Hollywood director now."