Roger Corman was facing the direction of the camera, and his eyes were illuminated by the strong light from there, and he could hardly see anything. Fortunately, he had guest-starred in many movies before and knew how to deal with the daily routine of film shooting.
.
He cheered up and tried not to sweat under the headlights. He introduced the theater's special products for the night of the comet to the actors playing customers. He picked up the most expensive headdress and put it on his head.
, introduce to the other party.
"You see, the comet headdress we have here is the cheapest. This one is only nine and a half yuan, this one is only eight yuan, and this one is seven and a half yuan. But if you blow on this one, the comet's tail can still move."
Roger Corman asked the other party to blow the nine-and-a-half-dollar comet ball he wore on his head. Behind him was an advertisement, "Night of the Comet." The movie theater business was sluggish, so they took advantage of the comet to play
During the all-night movie, when the comet comes, the audience can come out to watch the celestial phenomena.
Teenagers and girls all liked the discounted price of this all-night screening, and came here to celebrate this rare celestial event with others, which happens once every 60 million years.
"Cut!" Ronald yelled, and then quickly exchanged a look with the director of photography, Arthur Alexander, "This is very good, print it, Roger, you are such a good actor."
"Bang!" A staff member opened the champagne and gave some to everyone's disposable cups. Everyone congratulated Roger Corman, one of the investors, on the successful shooting of the first scene of the entire film's cameo.
"Oh yeah!" shouted Cameron, Gale Heard, and Corman's long-time collaborator Mary Woronoff, who had been waiting behind the camera for a long time, leading the entire crew to give Roger
Coleman applauded.
"Hey, why are you here too?" Roger Corman was wearing a dark red cinema staff uniform, glasses, and a comet-shaped headdress on his head, with two comets made of ribbons.
The tail moves with the movement of his head.
"Hi, Roger. This is your big day. Whether you can win the Best Actor statuette at the Oscars in the future will depend on your guest performance as Ronald today."
Mary Woronov was making noises from the side. She actually had no role to play today, but she just came to observe the acting skills of her former boss.
"Roger, this is the most important role you have ever played in a movie. You can also talk to the heroine. Isn't it much better than the last time you played a cameo in Joe Dante's movie as a guy who picked coins in a phone booth?" Came said.
Long also started joking with Coleman.
"What do you think, Ronald, how is Mr. Coleman's acting skills?" Gale pretended to be a reporter and simulated an interview with Ronald.
"I think Roger is a very talented actor, and his talent is wasted by making low-budget exploitation films year after year..."
"Hahaha, don't be stupid." The comet headdress on Roger Corman's head trembled with laughter.
"Seriously, Roger, it's perfect for you to play the owner of a movie theater." Ronald also laughed. Roger Corman played a shrewd and stingy boss, and his true performance was really good.
good.
…
"This one is also very good. Remember to print it, and we will take the next one." Ronald was very satisfied with Coleman's performance. He seemed to be an actor with a professional background. Although he could only play a limited role, the shooting was actually
Not slow.
"You know what? I once took an acting class with Jack Nicholson. At that time, he didn't have the opportunity to act in a big studio. I gave him a lot of roles, so that he could pay the rent. He paid me back
I wrote several scripts, and I made them all into movies."
Roger Corman sat on a chair to rest during the lighting break between takes, chatting with Ronald.
"Oh, I didn't know you were taking acting classes with Jack. What genre did you learn?"
"The problem I need to solve in the acting class is actually to stimulate the actor's acting talent. I have no acting talent, so what I can learn is to relax and be natural, so that I can perform a performance that is convincing to the audience."
"Then why did Jack stop working for you?"
"It was after I finished filming 'The Wild Bunch' and 'Journey'. Both films starred Peter Fonda. He thought that the themes of the two films should be combined to make a film about motorcycles and psychedelia.
The film market response will be very good. They found Dennis Hopper to be the director.
I found AIP at that time and asked for investment for them, but at the last moment, they asked Peter and the others to accept the supervision of the producer. If the two-day sample is not satisfactory, the studio can change the director and starring.
This condition made them mad. Later, Jack Nicholson helped them contact Columbia. Jack's condition was that he also played a role in the movie. This was 'Easy Rider'."
Ronald raised his eyebrows. "Easy Rider" was a super hit movie in the late 1960s, ushering in the new Hollywood era and the prelude to the independent film era. Unexpectedly, it was a movie that Roger Corman missed.
movie.
With a box office of over 50 million in 1969, if Corman eats this fat, he might actually be able to rise to prominence and become the ninth largest studio in Hollywood.
"Okay, director." The lighting team prepared the lighting for the next scene and the shooting continued.
"Look at my mouth, go! Patrol!" Roger Corman stood behind the counter, took out a large flashlight, and said to Regina, played by the heroine Katherine Mary Stewart.
"Flashlight, patrol, now!"
"Okay", Regina walked into the frame from the side, then bent down and took a portion of potato chips from the counter in front of Coleman, "I'll help you use up the inventory."
The camera zoomed out slightly and turned slightly to look at Regina's walking back.
"Hey, hey, hey...be careful, lower the flashlight, be careful of the audience throwing popcorn at you, and don't go to the screening room."
Roger Corman played this stingy yet very humane boss well.
"Cut! Well...this is a print."
Ronald was very satisfied with the progress of the filming. The budget was very low, one million to achieve the effect of more than three million, and one key was to save film. Ronald told the actors that if there was any accident, they could improvise on the spot.
Don't stick to the lines in the script.
Catherine Mary Stuart, wearing a dark red uniform, came back from the end of the walk. "Ronald, how was my performance?"
"Perfect. Ready for the next one."
Ronald did not lead everyone in applause at the end of each shot like he did when he last shot "Fast-paced Richmond High School" this time. Instead, he saved as much time as possible and directly let the coolies of the camera crew move the camera.
.
The performance of mid-range transition scenes like this is not so tight. As long as Catherine Mary Stuart's performance is acceptable, I will not hesitate to praise it.
"Okay, okay, I'll come." The next shooting started, Catherine Mary Stuart faced an Atari arcade game machine and began to leave the initials "reg" of her name on the high score record.
The camera starts with a close-up shot of Stuart's feet, photographing her patterned socks. Then it moves upwards, gradually moving to her face.
"Regina, third place, reg...wait, who is this dmk? I have a whole page of Regina, why is there a dmk inserted in the middle? Do any of you know a guy named dmk?"
The heroine Regina is an arcade game master. Taking advantage of the convenience of working in a movie theater, she marked all the high score records with her name. But when she came to play today, she found that the sixth place was taken by a person named dmk.
Occupied, disrupted the formation, and made her furious.
"Cut! Well...this one will be printed too."
After Ronald and the photographer heard about Arthur's confirmation, they called for approval. The final shot was a close-up of Catherine Mary Stuart's face, with the reflection of the video game console's screen shining on her face.
Many teenagers who play arcade machines will feel the same way.
This scene will be placed shortly after the opening of the movie. Ronald needed some typical props and typical scenes to quickly portray the characters. He thought of the arcade scene that was also filmed in "Fast Pace", so he added this section.
"So, director, who is this DMK?" Catherine Mary Stuart stood aside and was quickly touched up by the makeup artist, and her curiosity drove her to ask.
"No one. What I wrote casually was to describe Regina's personality. She pursues perfection, is very capable, and has a competitive spirit."
"Well, I thought it had some special meaning, just like those posters." Catherine Mary Stuart pointed to the posters on the wall and said to Ronald.
"Haha, those are movie posters shot by Roger Corman Company before. This one is for 'Death Race 2000', and there is Stallone in it. Mary Woronov also played a role in it."
"The atmosphere here is really good. Everyone is very helpful. You know what you should do without the director urging you. It's not like when I was on the set of 'Apple' in Minahan, where I danced for three days for one scene.
I don’t know if my photos are good or bad.”
Ronald smiled and said that the reason for the high shooting efficiency was thanks to the help of Roger Corman. He introduced some experienced people who had shot with him before to the crew. They were all used to Corman's film shooting methods.
That's "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!"
Soon, the first day of indoor scenes came to an end. Roger Corman's guest scene was also filmed, and he came over to say goodbye to Ronald.
"Ronald, you did a good job. I have been observing you for a long time, and you have not forgotten the shooting methods of low-cost movies that I taught you."
"Of course, I still remember the secrets you told me. I sit on the chair and rest whenever I have free time, hahaha."
"To be honest, many people are not so careful after receiving big investments from big studios. When Coppola was filming 'The Godfather Part II', lighting took half a day, and there was no room for mistakes.
And I see that you didn’t hire many extras, only twenty. You used close-ups and close-ups to give the audience the illusion that there were many people.”
"Haha, Roger, you should take a look at my shooting schedule for tomorrow night. There are more than a hundred extras, and they will fill up the street outside."
"That's not the case. It's just for shooting needs. You spend every penny on the movie screen so that the audience can finally see it. I think your budget of 1.2 million is enough to beat others.
of three million."
"Keep it up." Roger Corman patted Ronald on the shoulder, "Wish you good luck shooting too."