After finishing filming the music video, Ronald returned to Portrait Records with the materials he had shot. Here was the latest editing equipment that the lawyer Hoffman rented for free through his personal connections. He got it from the producer of the SNL program group.
The latest device that has just been unpacked and has not yet been officially launched.
Ronald is going to be here, using the new machine to quickly edit the MV, and after submission, he can get the right to use the episode.
In the office of Portrait Records, Diane and Donna stopped Ronald, opened the bag he was carrying, and took out two thick printed documents.
"Here are the two scripts I told you last time. Both producers sent me call back invitations for another audition. I don't know which one I should choose." Diane took the two scripts.
Hold it in your hand and hand it to Ronald.
Diane was obviously a little anxious. Instead of waiting for Ronald to finish working on the music video, he and Donna came to him in advance to ask for advice.
"What did Bert say?" Ronald took two scripts and turned them over.
The first thick script was "Mermaid". Two brothers, the heirs of a New York fruit and vegetable wholesale terminal, one of whom was named Allen, met a little mermaid who saved him when he was playing on a yacht when he was a child.
Years later, the adult mermaid used magic to transform into a human form, and went ashore to spend seven days with Allen. Unexpectedly, a few days later, the crazy scientist caught the mermaid, and Allen rescued the mermaid. In the end, she gave up her life in the world for the love of the mermaid.
Life grew gills and returned to the sea with the mermaid.
This script is obviously based on the classic "The Daughter of the Sea" by Danish fairy tale writer Andersen.
However, the ending of the story is completely opposite. It is not that the little mermaid couldn't bear to hurt the prince and disappeared by herself, but that the human prince (who owns a vegetable and fruit wholesale terminal in New York and can live like a prince) abandons the worldly life and returns to the sea with the little mermaid.
There is some vague environmental theme.
"Director Ron Howard, he hopes that I can play the role of The Little Mermaid." Diane pointed at the script.
Ronald raised his eyebrows. He heard that Ron Howard had rejected "All the Energy", and it seemed that he was more optimistic about the movie. "How much are they prepared to invest?"
"More than 10 million. A live-action movie invested by Disney." Diane said proudly.
"Well..." This production budget is already a big production for Disney studio. President Ron Miller obviously has not given up his intention to transform into live-action films and will continue to move forward on his own determined path.
Ronald raised his head and looked at Diane. Diane had no makeup today and was wearing a white shirt under a thick coat. There seemed to be a golden brooch pinned to the shirt. She looked very youthful and had a bit of the refined temperament of The Little Mermaid.
"And this one is a Universal project with a budget of over 10 million." Diane picked up the second script and handed it to Ronald.
The cover of this book said "Untitled Project". Ronald opened it and quickly browsed it. It was a classic gangster story.
A female rock star born in a small town was kidnapped by a gang leader. Her ex-boyfriend, a retired soldier, came back and attacked with her current boyfriend and manager to snatch the female singer back.
Then the ex-boyfriend organized the men in the town to stand up together and resisted the counterattack called by the gang leader. In the end, the female singer and her manager continued their journey to fame, while the ex-boyfriend continued to wander.
The script is very thin, and there are only about fifty pages with detailed content. There are no details in many places, and only half a page or a page of the script contains general terms such as gun battles, singles, and group fights.
"Why do I look familiar? The plot of this story is like...'The Spy Shadow of North Africa'?" Ronald was a little confused and raised his eyes to ask Diane. The ex-boyfriend broke up with the heroine and saved the heroine by chance.
She and her current lover finally got married to her new boyfriend and left for a distant place.
"Yeah, they also said that it was the prototype of the story of 'The Spies of North Africa', but with a lot of modern rock content added. Bert said that taking this movie would be more beneficial to my career." Diane's eyes were bright,
As if waiting for Ronald's praise.
"Well, if he said so, then it's this one. Hello, new Ingrid Bergman." Ronald smiled at Diane. Teenage to teenage girl is the most difficult hurdle for an actress to cross.
It seems that Diane has transformed well under Bert's plan.
But then he frowned, are these gangster-themed movies really easy to sell now? Ronald always feels that today's young audiences may not like this kind of movies. If it works, watch "The Naughty Boy" next month
You will know the box office of the movie.
"But I hope you can give me some advice, Ronald. You are an accomplished director, and I think your advice is more valuable." Diane clasped her hands.
"Don't let Bert hear this. Okay, but I'm going to read these two scripts carefully in the evening and give you my opinion tomorrow, okay? I'm busy getting familiar with the new editing machine now. I still have
I have to help edit this MV before I can change it to..."
"Really? Do you want to take a closer look? Of course. But don't keep me waiting too long. Both movies are about to start shooting." Diane was very happy and interrupted Ronald's explanation.
Anyway, it would be great if Ronald could give her some advice.
Ronald patted the two scripts and put them in the bag that Donna had brought. Diane had starred in two consecutive Coppola films as the heroine, and seemed to have made a name for herself in Hollywood.
The scripts sent to her now are all complete ones, no longer excerpts with only her own roles. This shows that Diane is already qualified to choose projects, rather than being selected by projects. This time there are different film projects coming
Compete for her to be the leading actor.
She was given two major Hollywood productions to choose from. If "The Kid" and "Douyu" can be a big hit, she will have already firmly entered the ranks of first-line female stars.
"I'm going to learn how to operate the new machine. How about you and Donna go back first? I'll ask the assistant to call a taxi for you."
"Okay, remember to come back early tonight. My mother hasn't seen you for a long time." Donna dragged Diane, and the two of them walked to the door to wait for the bus.
"Is this the machine?" Ronald stepped on the bag containing two scripts and entered the inner room.
"Which play do you think Ronald would let me choose?" Diane and Donna whispered.
"I don't know, but I like that mermaid, it's very interesting."
"Aren't rock stars bad? I think rock stars are very exciting."
"It's not bad. Didn't you act in a rock and roll movie?"
"The box office of that movie was too bad, so it doesn't count."
…
"It's this editing machine, equipped with an ADO special effects machine. This is America's first set of machines that can use computers to generate special effects." The technicians sent by the company where SNL purchased the new machine for training were waiting to talk to Luo in the back room.
Introduction by Nader.
The editing table still looks like a traditional horizontal editing machine, except that a large metal table is added next to it, with various knobs and switches on it.
"ado (ampex digital optics)", Ronald saw the trademark on the panel.
"Yes, this is the latest digital film and television special effects machine. We are the first company in America to make this product." The staff began to memorize the introduction in the sales manual.
"How do you use this thing?" Ronald interrupted the endorsement and asked him directly how to use it.
"First get the tape in, and then here are several special effects." The staff introduced him to the use of the ADO special effects machine.
"...First enter the x-axis data and y-axis data, so..., and then you can do this..." The staff operated on the sample tape for a while, and then pressed play.
The entire monitor screen seemed to have been peeled off a layer of skin like an onion, and then the entire screen flipped over like a book, and finally stopped at the upper left corner, turning into a picture-in-picture.
"Huh?" Ronald exclaimed in surprise.
"This is the special effects I just made. Let me show you the demo tape. It shows various special effects." The staff put in a videotape and showed it to Ronald on the monitor.
"This is the effect of turning pages, this is the effect of turning upside down, this is the effect of rotation, this is the effect of turning the picture into a sphere, and then there is this, which allows several balls to collide with each other."
The staff used the demo tape produced by the ADO special effects machine to demonstrate it for Ronald.
"Is it okay if I rent this machine to do special effects for a movie?" Ronald had the idea of a special effects machine. Could it be used to create the title sequence of "Night of the Comet"?
"Yes, you can, but you need to convert the film to tape first, and then edit it with an ADO special effects machine."
"What if you don't need to use the film that was shot in advance? Just use this ado to make some special effect fonts?"
"That's very cheap. If it's just the first few dozen seconds of the film, it'll cost about five thousand yuan. And when it's finally converted to film, it won't cost more than ten thousand dollars."
"Okay! Can the effect be like this?" Ronald rubbed his hands, pointed at the special effect fonts on the sample tape and asked the staff.
"No problem. It turns out that the old-fashioned special effects machine uses old-fashioned analog circuits to deform the picture, and then cooperates with the film optical printer to achieve the effect. The kind Lucas used when making Star Wars. It does the simplest horizontal shifting and erasing.
The labor cost for the effect is tens of thousands of dollars. His subtitles cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce.
Our ado uses digital circuits to create special effects, so you can directly let the computer use mathematical formulas to complete the same enlargement, reduction, flip, etc. effects. Just enter the parameters, and there is no need to use an additional film optical printer to synthesize it.
And the deformation of the sphere is even more difficult to achieve with analog circuits.”
"Okay." Ronald was very happy, "Then you teach me and we can use the MV material to achieve the effects you mentioned."
"Our digital special effects machine has not been officially launched yet. It is the only one in America. Your music video will be the first time that computer-generated special effects appear in commercial videos."
"I also need to do some effects for the subtitles of a movie. Can you give me a cheaper price? If possible, I will do all the special effects that ADO can do in the MV, which is equivalent to helping you advertise."
"Is that so? I can call the company's sales director. They may be willing to make a movie title for you for free. Our company also hopes to enter the film production market."