After the weekend, Donna had to go back to New York to prepare for her final exam. The family only had one day in Los Angeles for fun. Ronald accompanied his aunt and Donna to the mall to buy some gifts.
"Ronnie, I really want you to go back with us. You have been in Los Angeles for half a year. We all miss you and hope you can go back to New York for Christmas. But you should work harder in Los Angeles. After all, this is your first time.
movie.”
After Aunt Karen saw the filming scene, she felt a little in awe of Ronald's work.
Directing the work of a crew of more than 100 people and giving orders is not a job that ordinary people can do. She did not want to delay the editing work because Ronnie returned to New York for the Christmas vacation and let down the efforts of all the actors.
"It doesn't matter, I was going to take a few weeks off. Film editors need to look at the dailies with a critical eye, just like a teacher of Donna grading her homework. If I go to the editing room now, my mentality has not changed.
Once the director changes, I'm afraid he won't be willing to delete even a single thing."
Ronald explained to his aunt the work of film shooting. The director had his own thoughts on every shot he shot, and some shots went through a lot of hard work before they were finally shot.
But the idea of editing is to cut out all the bad parts of the film and connect the good parts. Sometimes the results of films shot casually are better than those of more than 20 shots made with serious effort.
.
One thing Ronald learned from Walter Mersey was that after the filming was completed, he had to completely play for two weeks to clear his mind, and then sit in the editing room, so that he could forget about the director's understanding of the footage he had shot.
Love, regain the objective perspective of ordinary viewers.
"Okay, okay. I'll stay in Los Angeles for another week and work hard, and then I'll go back to New York to spend Christmas with you." Ronald looked at Aunt Karen's "You have to work hard" expression on her face and agreed with a smile.
I'll go back to New York later.
"Let's go watch a movie?" Donna suggested. After watching her cousin's director work, she became interested in movies and always asked Ronald how the shots of a certain movie were shot. Ronald was blindfolded.
He made some guesses, some of which he couldn't figure out himself.
Sometimes a movie attracts more viewers just because of some particularly interesting scenes.
"Wait for me for a while, I will write this postcard and send it out." Aunt Karen said.
Ever since the Grand Commander miraculously survived the assassination, Aunt Karen has become his loyal supporter and often writes him postcards to express her support.
According to her friends who were war widows, the current commander-in-chief was the chosen one. He was able to escape assassination because God specially sent him to do something to save America. He was not allowed to die before completing the task.
Recently, the leader of a small African country, Colonel Gaddafi, was rumored to assassinate the commander-in-chief. NBC reporters went to interview him, and he was so frightened that he called the White House during the live broadcast and personally clarified to the commander-in-chief that he had absolutely no intention of assassinating the commander-in-chief.
Any assassination attempt.
A lucky female worker in the leg warmer factory also received a handwritten reply from the commander-in-chief, and suddenly became the most powerful local celebrity. This made Aunt Karen even more motivated to write the letter.
This impressed Ronald very much. The commander-in-chief randomly selected some people to reply to the letter every day, and did not mention the matter in the national news media. However, the ordinary people who received the reply would spread the news locally, and the local media
According to reports, people all over the country have small groups supporting him.
When the tax cut bill needed to be approved by Congress a few months ago, the president called on people to write letters to their state senators and representatives of their districts, calling on them to vote to pass the tax cut bill in Congress. Aunt Karen also wrote
The New York State Senator and the Staten Island Representative wrote letters urging.
What American congressmen are most worried about is a fire in their backyard and losing the support of voters. This continued pressure caused many congressmen to change their attitudes, and the tax cut bill was successfully passed.
When it comes to acting skills, the commander's sophisticated tactics of inciting the masses are much better than most male stars in Hollywood.
The most powerful thing is that, as the leader of the Elephant Party, he has also won the support of most of the Southern Donkey Party members. His masculine voice and humorous conversation really attract the love of southern housewives.
Even the senator from Delaware, a state with strong white supremacy in the South, Joe, the leading member of the Donkey Party on the Senate Judiciary Committee (meaning he has served as the longest-serving senator on the committee), the bellwether of the Donkey Party, also voted in favor of tax cuts.
ticket.
"What are you watching, Ronnie? Shall we go to the cinema?" Seeing that her aunt had finished writing the postcard, Donna couldn't wait to drag Ronald along to the Chinese Theater.
“The Lost Ark of the Covenant once again topped the box office charts and is expected to become the top-grossing Christmas movie of 1981.”
This movie produced by George Lucas and directed by Spielberg has been in the top three box office charts for half a year, and as Christmas approaches, it has climbed to the top again.
"Lights Out" starring Timothy Hutton and Tom Cruise premiered last week. It only ranked fifth at the box office.
Ronald put down his weekly box office column in the "Hollywood Reporter" and went out with his family to the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.
This is a famous theater in Hollywood, and the gate is a Chinese-style building with carved beams and brackets.
"Which movie should we watch?" Ronald saw that there were several movies to choose from at the ticket window.
"Watch 'Lights Out', there's Tom in it." Cousin Donna still remembers that the cake sent by Tom Cruise was delicious.
Well, Ronald also wanted to see the quality of this 20th Century Fox 14 million big production. The "Hollywood Report" said that the box office this week is expected to reach 3 million, which is not good news relative to the cost.
"Hahaha, look, my hands are almost the same as Monroe's." Donna smiled and played in the star's handprints and footprints area at the entrance of the Chinese Theater.
Among the more than a hundred celebrities who left handprints or footprints, Monroe was the most loved by the audience. Because her handprints were touched the most, they were obviously darker than other handprints.
The Huaguo Theater also has a strong Chinese style. The curtain raised on the stage is Huaguo red, with the words "Double Happiness" and some Chinese mythological stories displayed on it in bright yellow.
The curtain slowly opened, and Ronald sat on an old-fashioned chair and looked at the Fox logo that lit up on the screen. Watching a movie here really had a unique flavor.
"Lights Out" tells a ridiculous story. George C. Scott, who once played General Patton, plays a brigadier general who works in a military academy and instills military honor and responsibility into the cadets.
When politicians and real estate businessmen wanted to bulldoze the military school and develop real estate projects, the students took up arms to defend the school.
After the general came to power, ideas such as tradition and honor that conservatives insisted on began to come back. Three years ago, there would have been no movies to give a positive image of soldiers.
Aunt Karen was quite satisfied that the movie did not desperately smear soldiers. Donna thought Tom Cruise was more handsome than the lead actor Hutton in the movie, which made Ronald laugh endlessly.
Indeed, Hutton's performance in the movie is just a formality and is not as real as Tom Cruise's performance.
I heard from Niceta that Paula arranged a series of acting courses for Tom, and Tom worked very hard. Every time he got a new role, he studied for a long time, trying to leave a deep impression on people in the movie.
As for why Tom's performance felt more real than Hutton's, Ronald couldn't figure it out. To be fair, although Hutton didn't deal with him, his performance wasn't bad, otherwise he wouldn't have won the Oscar.
But his performance in "Lights Out" always feels less real than the supporting roles of Tom Cruise and Sean Penn. Maybe it's not that Hutton is bad, but that he met Tom and Sean.
By comparison, the audience will have evaluation in their minds.
Ronald feels that his main research direction should also be on actors' acting skills. As a director, he already knows a lot about the techniques of various types of work, so he can avoid being fooled by technicians.
But what finally appears on the screen in the movie is the performance of the actors. He can't tell the reasons why the performances of Hutton and Tom Cruise are good or bad right now. If he doesn't want to be like Roger Corman for the rest of his life
For exploitation films, acting is an area that you must learn.
After sending away his aunt and cousin, Ronald started a vacation life in Los Angeles. He visited the surrounding areas, soaked in hot springs, watched other people's movies, and just stopped thinking about anything about "fast pace".
When he had time, Ronald went to Little Venice, where he lived three years ago, to look around. It was still the same. There were many people surfing on the beach in winter, but Ronald knew he lacked talent, so he stopped trying.
The karate gym where I once practiced has been in poor business and has been converted into a kickboxing gym. The owner of the gym who fought with me in the past is also missing.
Only the number of people dancing various dances on the streets has expanded. Ronald also saw many people teaching, allowing interested boys and girls to learn various robot movements and ground movements. Dances driven purely by interest are free of charge.
, everyone danced very energetically.
Of course, Ronald did not forget his old friends. On this day, he invited James Cameron and Gale Hurd to drink beer and eat barbecue together.
"Congratulations to Ronald for completing the filming of his first directorial work." Gale suggested, cheering for Ronald.
"Thank you, and congratulations, Jim. Is your movie finished?" Ronald asked, otherwise Cameron wouldn't be free to attend the party.
Cameron has returned from the tropical island of Jamaica and spent the past few weeks directing some studio shots for "Piranha 2" at a studio in Los Angeles.
"Shxt, I don't want to put my name on this unfortunate movie. The producer Assonitis is an asshole." Cameron cursed out.
Ronald had long noticed that Cameron was in a bad mood, thinking that he was too busy working and neglecting his family, and he had another quarrel with his wife, Sharon.
Now it seemed that it was because of the filming of the movie, so I quickly asked, "What's wrong? Doesn't he give you the power to edit?"
Directors do not naturally have the power to edit. Just like Ronald himself, after editing the 120-minute preliminary version, he has to discuss with the producer how to edit the final 90-minute release version.
He did not have the power to independently decide on the final duration and whether to retain some shots.
"No, this bastard. He wants to be a director himself. But his previous behavior of firing the director and signing his own name was discovered by the Directors Guild, which prohibited any films he directed from being released in American theaters. That's why he hired
I signed myself as director and bypassed the labor union."
"The previous director left because he knew his background. This bastard was optimistic about my stunt production ability, so I shot all the piranha scenes in Jamaica.
But as soon as he arrived in Los Angeles, he criticized the daily samples I shot for not meeting his requirements, and then gradually took away my power. The staff were all Italian and spoke Italian, and finally kicked me out of the studio."
"This..." Ronald didn't know how to persuade him. It would be very unlucky to meet such a producer.
"I think you should sign it. No matter how bad it is, this is still a movie released in American theaters. Directors of released works and directors of unreleased works are two completely different things from the perspective of the producer.
Bio." Gale advised Cameron not to make fun of his byline.
"You're right. I spent a lot of effort shooting those shots of piranhas jumping out of the sea and attacking humans from a helicopter. When I arrived in Jamaica, they didn't even do anything to make the scene look good." Cameron was told by Gayle
Convinced.
"But Assonitis wants to take the original film back to his hometown in Italy for editing. What should he do to get the editing rights?" Cameron had a plan in mind and drank the beer in one gulp.
"Continued Cup."
Ronald poured him another beer and patted him to comfort him.