Chapter 226 Universal wants to send someone to check
"Hahaha..." Eric, the editor, looked at the picture on the monitor and couldn't help laughing.
"Your screenwriter is a genius. Even though I have watched it many times, I still laugh out loud every time I see it."
Ronald couldn't help laughing. On the screen was Stacey's eldest brother Brad. He was fired from All-American Burger because of a dispute with a customer. In order to repay the installment loan of his beloved four-door luxury car, he had to go to a competitor.
Captain Hook's Fish and Chips" fast food job.
On the way to deliver food to IBM, the store manager asked him to put on a full Scottish skirt and a big-brimmed hat with a pirate logo.
At a red light intersection, in a convertible next to him, a beautiful woman with blond hair and blue eyes wearing a purple and pink cashmere sweater kept smiling at him.
Brad thought at first that the beauty was looking behind him, but the constant smiles and looks made him think that the beauty fell in love with him at first sight. He quickly showed his teeth and smiled in response, and winked at the beauty.
The beauty found him more and more ridiculous, so she couldn't help but cover her eyes with laughter, and when the light turned green, she acceded to the gas and left.
Only then did Brad realize that he had misunderstood. He looked at his pirate hat in the rearview mirror and was so angry that he grabbed it and threw it out of the car window.
"That's screenwriter Cameron Crowe's girlfriend, Nancy Wilson, the guitarist of the girl rock band 'Hearts.'" Ronald pointed at the beautiful woman in the freeze-frame on the screen and said, "If you watch MTV
If so, their music video is being played recently."
"No wonder she looks familiar." Editor Eric laughed.
The editing has been going on for two weeks. They stayed in the editing room from morning to night every day, immersed in the fantasy world depicted in the movie. Ronald and Eric were a little out of touch with the real world.
"Would you like a cup too?" Ronald asked Eric as he picked up the thermos cup and poured black tea out.
"Okay, I'll have a cup too. I'll see you drink this every day. Don't you drink coffee?"
"Coffee is like a loan shark. It helps you wake up, but you will be more sleepy after a few hours. Black tea is like an installment loan, smoothing out the peaks and valleys of your concentration."
The two drank a cup of black tea and got back into hard work.
The editing work of "Fast-paced Richmond High" has encountered a bottleneck recently and has not made much progress. Ronald has completed the first cut. The complete story has distinct images and emotions for each character. The only big problem is
The duration exceeded 115 minutes, which was more than 20% longer than the 90 minutes required by the producers.
After watching the complete first cut version without the soundtrack, the two producers actually had the idea of persuading Universal executives to release it as 115 minutes. However, after some testing, they found that it was impossible.
This type of teen comedy is used by Universal to fill the low period of the year. After the summer season is over, it is the wooden block period with the lowest box office of the year. During this period, few viewers go back to the cinema to watch a two-hour movie.
Feature film.
Only light-hearted comedies have a market. Theaters hope that the length of the film should be kept within 90 minutes, so that one more show can be scheduled during prime time every night and increase box office revenue.
To reduce the length of the 115-minute film by 20% without affecting the original story and emotion, this posed a great challenge to Ronald, who was editing a feature film for the first time.
"Actually, we can remove a scene where Brad starts driving and let the scenes of Brad and Nancy Wilson intersect. It would have made the audience feel like the two were communicating back and forth.
After Nancy drove away, there was no need to show Brad starting off, just cut to him looking in the rearview mirror and realizing that he looked ridiculous like a clown."
Editor Eric suggested to Ronald.
Ronald thought for a while, and it is true that the audience should not have any difficulty in understanding. Today's Hollywood movies no longer follow the continuity requirements of time and space. In movies before the 1950s, this kind of time and space continuity was a hard rule.
.
For example, in reality dramas at the time, we often saw scenes of characters entering skyscrapers.
Under the dogma of time and space continuity at that time, it was necessary to cut a series of shots of getting on the elevator, closing the elevator door, the elevator indicator light continuously showing the rising floor, the top floor elevator dinging to stop, opening the elevator door, and the character walking out of the elevator to explain the character.
flow in space and time.
However, the new wave of Chinese people created new editing methods, which also profoundly affected American movies after they spread to Hollywood.
Hollywood directors suddenly discovered that as long as the plot is coherent, after the shot of entering the building, they cut off all the elevator shots and directly let the characters open the office door and walk in, and the audience will not understand anything.
They automatically omit the unimportant parts in the middle and a light bulb goes off in their mind. Oh, this person entered the building and went to the office to talk to people.
Continuity in time and space has since been abandoned by Hollywood, and it is also ranked the least important among the six editing principles given by Mertz.
"I think it's okay, you might as well give it a try." Ronald replied to Eric.
"Okay." Eric operated the editing machine and deleted the scene.
The editing assistant came over and wrote down the time when the scissors were cut and the numbers of the front and rear lenses. Then he picked up the tape and quickly connected the two front and rear lenses on the machine.
Finally, she carefully collected the cut film and put it in a plastic bag for record keeping to prevent the director from regretting it in the future and reattaching the original footage.
Ronald and Eric watched the edited footage again, and the story and emotions were as expected, unaffected.
"Very good, this saves another four seconds." Just seconds passed like this, and the length of the film was arduously moving towards the 90-minute mark.
"Hi, Ronald. How's the progress today?" After lunch, producers Lin Sen and Azoff "accidentally strolled" into the editing room on time.
During this time they came more frequently, sometimes twice a day, once for a walk after lunch and again after dinner.
Generally speaking, directors are full of love for the films they shoot, and cutting out any part is like cutting off the hands and feet of their beloved with a scalpel.
Recently, Warner Bros.'s "Blade Runner" (blade runner), the producer, the starring star Harrison Ford, and the director Ridley Scott had a falling out over the editing time and plot, and the two sides have reached the point of starting a fight.
To the extent that rumors spread all over Hollywood.
Ronald seems to have no prejudice against editing, but the pace of progress has been getting slower and slower recently, which has made the two producers worried.
"It's not bad. I cut off about five seconds this morning."
The two producers were worried. The editing speed had not increased for several days in a row. The progress was probably going to be seriously delayed, and the editing speed became slower as it went on. By then, it was very likely that the editing would be less than 90 minutes.
The two exchanged glances, and Lin Sen spoke again, "Ronald, we all trust you, but Universal's executives don't know the excellence of this movie. They will definitely use the 90-minute total length in the contract to limit it."
your."
"I know..." Ronald also had a headache. "I tried to cut without damaging the story and emotion, but it's difficult and the speed can't be increased. This is not the kind of comedy farce. Every character and story is unique.
There are foreshadowing and highlights, so it’s difficult for me to cut out the entire plot with scissors, so I can only add time to each shot.”
Azoff couldn't help it, "You know, Ronald. There are voices from Universal executives saying that your movie is not a comedy, but a drama that reflects social reality, and even a tragedy with a crying scene. They also say that you are holding a
Play with your own money around the world.
Tom Mount is prepared to send an experienced director to check the progress and step in if it is not satisfactory."
Ronald frowned. He didn't know who spread this rumor out of context.
There was indeed a crying scene during the filming, but at that time Linda, played by Phoebe Cates, cried and explained to her friend Stacey after being unable to conjure up an imaginary Chicago boyfriend to attend her prom.
It's obviously a humorous comedy scene and has nothing to do with tragedy.
As for reflecting social reality, this is a modern youth comedy. Does it reflect some social reality that is not normal?
For example, Stacy had an unexpected pregnancy and went to a free clinic funded by the California Women's Liberation Organization. For example, Brad was working in a Seven-Eleven convenience store and was robbed by a teenage robber at gunpoint.
However, these plots are all told in the context of light comedy, and there is no heavy atmosphere like "Famous". "Fast-paced" overall will make the audience laugh from time to time.
"Okay, I understand, I will speed up the progress."
Ronald was angry in his heart. This Mount always caused trouble for him. Now he wanted to send someone to check. This kind of thing is the most taboo in artistic creation. Could it be that when Michelangelo was painting the Sistine frescoes, the church was still there?
Would Leonardo da Vinci come midway to check on his artistic abilities?
As a last resort, Ronald had to work two more overtime hours every day, but this exhausted the editor Eric and the two editing assistants, and the editing efficiency plummeted.
Seeing that the progress was getting slower and slower, Ronald suppressed his irritation and asked Eric and his assistant to take a day off.
He himself also had the opportunity to reorganize his thoughts and at the same time relax his irritable mind.
But Ronald didn’t have many friends in Los Angeles. Jim Cameron couldn’t bear it anymore, so he borrowed some money from himself, scraped together a ticket and flew to Rome, Italy. He couldn’t bear the thought of his movie being filmed by others.
I cut it randomly and went to negotiate with the producer.
Gale Hurd is getting busier and busier, now supervising four production crews at the same time, and it looks like she has a chance to be promoted to vice president.
Ronald had no friends to talk to about his troubles, so he had to watch TV at home to relieve his boredom. Fortunately, MTV gave him a lot of joy, and the various weird editing methods there were very exciting.
MTV did not have enough film sources. After dozens of minutes, the content was repeated again. Ronald picked up the remote control and changed to a news station.
"In a San Francisco community, a mysterious disease has been found to be prevalent. The patients are usually gay men. Local doctors said there is no evidence that the disease is contagious."
"San Francisco?" Ronald was stunned. He hadn't contacted Walter Mersey for a long time. He was an Oscar-winning editing expert. He encountered editing difficulties. Why not ask him for advice?
After Mersey left Peep Show, he didn't edit or do sound design on any of the films. Ronald didn't have his phone number.
After asking around through various brokerage companies, I got a phone number for the house where he lived with his wife and children in the countryside.
"Hello, I'm looking for Mr. Walter Mersey. I'm his friend Ronald."
"Daddy, someone is looking for you." The person who answered his call seemed to be Merzi's little daughter.
"Hi Ronald, long time no see, how are you now?"
"I'm filming a small-production youth film for Universal. I encountered some problems in editing, so I have to ask you for advice."
"Oh, look, Ronald, you have completed your directing work, and I am still in the preparation stage of the script."
"That's different. Yours is a big production, and mine is an exploitation film."
"Haha, there are no big or small movies."
Merzy chatted with Ronald for a few words, and then listened to Ronald describe his dilemma.
"It's like boiling tomato sauce when making macaroni. There are no shortcuts in editing. You can only slowly reduce the juice, cut a little here, cut a little there, and finally slowly make a bowl of delicious sauce."
"I think so too, but Universal is dissatisfied with my progress, and some rumors are being spread by the upper management. They may send another director to check my editing progress. I am also a little anxious."
"Well, if you really have no choice, you can try the 'Procrustean bed', which is also an editing method. I wouldn't do it myself, but George Luca
This is how Si cuts the film, you can try it."
Walter Mersey saw that Ronald was facing trouble from the top and gave him an idea.