"Everyone, please line up. In a few minutes, you can get your coupons and go in to watch the movie." The assistant of the film crew said to a large group of moviegoers at the entrance of the Elray Cinema, instructing them.
Filmed in a row in front of the cinema.
Ronald and the camera crew were lying on the roof opposite the movie, shooting distant views of the team below, "Yes, this angle is fine. You try to capture some pictures of the team, and don't exceed the range of more than a hundred of us."
"
With a "pop" sound, Ronald held the clapperboard in his hand and hit it in front of the camera.
"Aren't you afraid that they will sue you? The laws in America are much stricter than those in Mexico. If they see their own footage on the screen, they can theoretically sue." Arthur, the director of photography, was lying next to Ronald.
Albert had made movies in Mexico and California, reminded Ronald.
"So I asked not to take any shots showing my face. Not many people would recognize me in the distance..."
Ronald thought to himself that this was something he had no choice but to do because of the budget. If he really had to hire more than a hundred extras to stage the photo, plus clearing the venue to compensate for the cinema's expenses and PD to maintain order, the expenses would be scary.
.
"Okay, the camera has captured enough, you can go and hand out coupons." Arthur
Ronald nodded and waved vigorously to the assistant below. Then he quickly ran downstairs, went to the people lining up at the entrance of the cinema, and handed out coupons to them one by one.
"Thank you, thank you, this is a coupon for Elray Cinema, thank you for your cooperation."
Ronald made an agreement with the Elray Cinema in advance and gave them a two-second frontal shot of the cinema in the movie, convincing the manager of the Elray Cinema to let them shoot for free.
Then, at the ticket office of the cinema, he used 50% off coupons to recruit more than a hundred moviegoers and asked them to queue up at the entrance of the cinema.
"Thank you, thank you." Ronald let out a sigh of relief after handing out the coupons. This shot was not reported to the Los Angeles City Hall, but fortunately it was a long shot that was fast in and out, and it didn't take much time. It was also not patrolled by the police.
Discover.
"Then take a look at the sign and exterior of this cinema."
The manager of the El Rey Cinema cooperated and changed the words on the large illuminated sign on the roof of the theater from "My Fair Lady" to "Stay up late and watch the comet together." The film crew seized the opportunity to take a close-up.
The audience who had been cooperating at the door just now had all entered the cinema to watch the last movie, and the streets instantly became empty.
"Okay, tell the extras to get off the bus and come over quickly." Ronald waved quickly to the big bus opposite. The driver opened the door, and the assistants handed various props to the extras who had put on makeup.
They filed out and lined up on the edge of the sidewalk.
"Remember your moves, remember your moves..." Ronald told each extra, "We only have one chance to shoot, everyone please smile at the camera."
This shot imitates the filming method of a TV station interview, so these extras need to be like passers-by seeing the TV station’s live broadcast truck and camera, making various happy smiles at the camera.
"Action!" Ronald gave the instruction to the director of photography, Arthur.
Arthur Albert personally carried the camera and photographed the faces of the extras from below. He moved forward slowly, taking pictures of everyone's smiling faces.
These extras play the role of being attracted by a comet that occurs once every 65 million years, and come to the streets to watch the comet arrive.
The number of people who can be included in the frame in the close-up shot is very limited. Twenty extras scanned it from beginning to end. After editing together with the overhead shot just now, a montage can be used to create a special impression, like standing on the street.
It was full of people, and there were many, many people coming to see it.
There were a few wearing comet headdresses, a few holding "I Love Comet" playing cards, and two extras playing a couple, kissing in front of the camera, similar to the live TV interviews during New Year's Eve.
It was already past eight o'clock in the evening, and the roadside outside the close-up shot was actually empty. But people's imagination will automatically add the shot of more than a hundred people queuing up just now as the background of this story. Although the close-up shot
There are only about 20 people, so the audience will feel like there is a huge crowd.
"How's it going? Arthur?"
"No problem." Arthur replied.
"Pa", Ronald turned the clapperboard upside down and slapped it towards the camera. This means that there was no clapperboard at the beginning of this sequence, and the scene and shot at the end depended on the final clapperboard record.
Because the slate is at the end of the shot this time, not at the front, so when slapping the slate, you have to turn the slate upside down to make it easier to distinguish later.
They also wrote on the slate that there was no simultaneous recording, reminding the editor to add music in post-production to cover up the noisy sounds of the scene and the dialogue between Ronald and Arthur.
Because this scene mainly introduces the scene where the crowd is very curious about the comet and goes out in full force, it doesn’t matter if there is no dialogue.
"Okay, everyone, get on the bus quickly, hurry up, hurry up!" Ronald saw the director of photography, Arthur, signaling OK, and quickly directed the extras to rush to the bus.
"Let's go, let's go." Ronald held up the camera carried by Arthur and was the last one to get in the car. He took a few hard shots on the driver's seat, "It looks like there is a patrolman on the other side, let's go quickly."
"This is yours, yours, yours..." The assistant sent everyone a copy of the storyboard, and then asked everyone to sign the form and record the shooting time.
"Thank you all for your cooperation." Ronald picked up the microphone on the bus and thanked the extras. This guerrilla-style shooting method saves money, but it is not very friendly to the extras. There is no RV to do it.
Dressing room, everyone is putting on makeup on the bus.
If PD is caught, they will be in trouble. So Ronald pays them wages at one and two times the minimum wage.
"Let's go to the next filming location, outside the heroine's stepmother's house. Everyone saw the storyboard in your profile. It's just a simple outdoor scene with some lightning special effects."
Ronald happened to be on his way to the next shooting location to explain it to everyone.
The car soon arrived at the shooting location of the house of the two heroines Regina and Samantha. This was a middle-class community in Los Angeles, and a row of headlights had been lined up on the lawn outside the room.
"Bess, thank you for coming to help." Ronald was the first to get off the bus and shook hands with a woman wearing electrician clothes and boots.
"No problem, Cameron's friends are my friends."
Bess was a rare female electrician. She was tall and strong. She took Ronald to the back of the row of lights. Two very thick cables were lifted in the middle and placed on two wooden
On the shelf.
"I can show you the effect, but this will cause considerable damage to the light bulb, so in order to prevent the light bulb from exploding during actual shooting, I can only briefly demonstrate the effect."
Ronald nodded.
Bess connected the two cables, put on thick insulating gloves, and pressed a guillotine switch.
The bulbs of the row of headlights suddenly emitted a very bright light, illuminating the faces and houses opposite them pale.
"Pop!" The bass turned off the switch again. The brightness suddenly dropped.
"That's it, do you think it's okay?" Bess asked.
"The brightness is enough. I want a rhythm like this, bang... bang bang." Ronald beat a few beats.
The special effects of lightning are very difficult to shoot. If you aim at the sky to shoot during a thunderstorm, the film is not sensitive enough, and it will be difficult to capture the moment of lightning.
An experienced electrician will short-circuit the power cord of the light in a controlled manner for a short time. In this way, the voltage will increase, and then the light will be emitted several times brighter than the rated brightness. Then the short-circuit time can be controlled intermittently by hand to simulate lightning.
Effect.
Of course, there are risks in doing this. Sometimes the electrician is inexperienced and the short-circuit boost time is too long, which will cause the light bulb to explode. So Ronald asked Cameron to find an experienced expert in the industry, Bass, to come
Operate the scene where the comet emits a world-destroying flash.
More than 20 extras were divided into several groups outdoors, looking up at the comet. The bright light from the lamps shone on their faces, like the bright light from lightning. In this way, only the reflections on the actors' faces could be photographed.
Avoid front-on shooting of complex comet flash special effects scenes and save a lot of money.
In addition to the extras who had just gotten off the bus, there were also regular actors playing the father and stepmother of the two heroines in the crowd.
The stepmother is played by Sharon Farrell, a beautiful actress who still retains her charm. She is actually a few years older than Catherine Mary Stuart, who plays the eldest daughter, and Kelly Maroney, who plays the younger daughter.
But this industry treats actresses very cruelly. Everyone in the industry says that actresses can only play three roles: virgin, slut, and grandmother.
The reason behind this metaphor is that very few people in Hollywood will film stories about middle-aged women because audiences don’t like them.
In this way, the roles that actresses can play are quite limited, including young girls who are in love, older female characters who fall into romantic love scenes with male protagonists, and mothers and grandmothers of younger girls.
Sharon Farrell has passed the first two stages and started playing the mother directly. Many actresses will resist the arrival of this day, and some will even report a false age. But the wrinkles on the face do not lie.
"Sharon, when you come out of the room, you just had a fight with Samantha and slapped her, but you still acted like a good stepmother in front of your husband."
Ronald talked to her about the scene, then asked her to prepare the lights and take the first step.
"In 1910, Halley's Comet returned. At that time, many people thought they were going to die," an old man said in the group performance about his experience of seeing Halley's Comet last time.
Sharon Farrell has short curly blond hair, a black velvet collar tied around her neck, and red nail polish on all her fingers, looking like a wealthy suburban housewife.
She walked up to her husband and started talking about her two stepdaughters.
"Very good, let's start shooting."
"Recording? Camera? Action!"
Ronald gave the order and the camera started rolling.
"In 1910, Halley's Comet returned. At that time, many people thought they were going to die." The old actor began to speak to other groups, and a flash of lightning-like light flashed, illuminating everyone's faces.
"What is that?" the old man turned around and asked.
"Honey, Samantha still has a little rebellious temper. Ah, what is that?" Sharon Farrell, who plays the stepmother, was also awakened by lightning. She and her husband hugged each other and looked at the sky, bursts of flashes of light.
Shine it on their faces.
Ronald made a gesture. The lighting team turned on the dark red lights, and the scene was illuminated with a dark red atmosphere.
The electrician's bass performed several quick short-circuit operations, and several more flashes of light flashed.
Sharon Farrell, who plays the stepmother, looked at her arm and it seemed like it was starting to itch.
There was another flash of light, and Sharon Farrell covered her eyes with her fingers covered in red nail polish, "Ah..."