“Karen Carpenter is one of the rare talents of this century. No matter how critics criticize her, she has always been a regular in the top 40 and is played on all easy listening radio channels in the country to this day.
The most popular singer."
The host of the MTV station is introducing Karen Carpenter, the lead singer of the Carpenters, who unfortunately passed away last month. This is her memorial program, and some of her most popular songs are constantly rotating on the MTV station.
Play.
Ronald stood up and turned down the volume, and then continued to discuss with Cameron his candidates for the "Terminator" audition. Cameron was very concerned about his real debut and asked Ronald to help him choose the right actor.
.
"This is Michael Biehn, this is Arnold Schwarzenegger, they all came to audition for human resistance fighter Kyle Reese, the father of future resistance leader John Connor."
"Why does he want to play Kyle Reese? Don't you think he is the best choice for the Terminator?" Ronald picked out a photo of Schwarzenegger. This is the Terminator in the sequel of his dream.
The actor, now he has more explosive muscles than in the dream.
"I think so too, hehe." Cameron moved his chair to a comfortable position, "But Schwarzenegger's agent doesn't like this villain role and wants him to play a positive character. You know he has played the role of 'The Savages' before.
Conan", so it can be considered as a certain bargaining chip."
"Actually, sometimes brokers cannot decide the will of their clients. Sometimes many brokers actually make decisions for their clients without authorization. I think you can talk to him directly."
"Is that so?" Cameron doesn't have an agent. He has been tricked by agents before, so he is not very familiar with the strange operations of these agents now.
"Anyway, he is coming to interview a resistance fighter. The agent will not be allowed to enter the audition room then. You can just tell him directly."
"Okay, let's do it like this. Actress, you can also help me take a look."
Ronald picked up a lot of audition photos of actresses. The competition for actresses in this industry is far more fierce than that for male actors.
"Jodie Foster, Diane Lane, Tatum O'Neal..." Familiar names floated by one by one.
"Your audition director is bluffing you. Judy has refused to act in domestic films for more than a year. Diane is about to join a big production, which will take a long time. And Tatum... um, you have to check.
Check her mental state." Ronald made a gesture of pinching half of his nose to inhale.
"Huh?" Cameron took the photos and put them aside, "But in the script, Sara is an eighteen-year-old coffee shop waitress, these... are a bit old." He pointed to the remaining photos, and there were all behind them.
Have a resume as an actor.
"It doesn't matter. The actresses are all beautiful anyway, and they look young on camera. Also, mature actors are easier to shoot. They have rich experience and can easily understand your intentions."
"It's up to you," Cameron took the remaining photos of the actors, "Sigourney Weaver, Diane Keaton, Kathryn Turner..."
"Okay, take your time and choose."
Ronald looked at the TV again. The music video for the opening song of "Flashdance" "What a Feeling" appeared on MTV. This song has been played on a loop on MTV recently and is very popular.
.Even the radio station is often requested.
The song ends, and it switches to a close-up of Jennifer Beals, who is talking:
"When you walk there, the music sounds, and you can feel its rhythm. Something in your body is awakened, and it bursts out with a click."
The camera switched to a shot of Alex, the protagonist of "Flashdance", doing a seductive wet dance in a bar.
"Is this a trailer?" Ronald thought to himself, getting up and turning up the volume.
"Her name is Alex, and she works in a male world..." The narration sounded.
"It's really a trailer." This was the first time Ronald saw a trailer for an upcoming movie on MTV. "This is actually a good publicity channel."
"Flashdance, if your dream comes true once, it can change your life." The narration ended, freezing on the Paramount logo, with subtitles underneath, "Premiering April 15th."
"I have something to take care of, let's talk later." Ronald rushed out of Cameron's apartment and drove towards Atlantic.
"I saw the trailer for Flashdance on MTV today. I feel like this is a good publicity channel. Can you add some marketing budget and put it on this channel?"
Ronald explained his idea to Atlantic's distribution and marketing manager.
"I really want to do it, Ronald. But now we are still waiting for the box office of Valley Girl. If it can be a big hit, we can add more. But..."
"But what?" Ronald asked eagerly.
"But Portrait Records has made an agreement with us, hoping to focus MTV's advertising resources on their music videos. In this way, even if we can release trailers, we won't have a lot of time. And you know, Valley Girl's box office returns are not fast.
, We may need a loan.”
"Okay, I'll go talk to the manager of Portrait Records first."
The manager of Portrait Records' Los Angeles office received Ronald, "It's not a big problem. In fact, Atlantic doesn't have much budget to put in. If you have extra budget, we can give up some resources. Anyway, your trailer.
We also watched it and basically used the song “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” as the background music.”
"That's great, I'll go to the Atlantic to talk about it. If it doesn't work out, I can personally finance some of it in advance. Nowadays, movie audiences are getting younger, and there are few TV stations that focus on teenage audiences like MTV, so the advertising effect will definitely be good.
of.
Besides, Flashdance also launched a large-scale trailer advertisement, I believe those two producers are not fools."
"Okay, I'll contact the manager in charge of advertising at MTV, and we'll discuss how to allocate the time and density of advertising."
Soon the manager of MTV came to the office, and the three of them watched the trailer shot by Ronald.
"We have no objection in principle. Your trailer and the original MV are both based on the same song. We have already had a similar cooperation with the movie 'Flashdance' on the joint broadcast of the MV and movie trailer. Even our contract does not
If changes are needed, as long as the two of you have a supplementary agreement on the release time."
"That's great." Ronald was happy in his heart, and he planned to go back and talk to the Atlantic people about additional investment.
"By the way, Ronald, you are a new director in the film industry. I have something to ask you." The manager of MTV stopped Ronald.
"Please say".
"It's like this. Our MTV station now broadcasts 24 hours a day, but the late-night ratings are too low. Most teenagers don't listen to music videos very much late at night because it is too noisy and affects their family's rest. So we want to try playing movies, so
Not too noisy.
But we can't afford too high purchase costs, so I want to ask you if there are any channels where I can buy some cheap movies, preferably music-related ones, but not too old musicals."
"Huh? When you say that, it reminds me of a movie called 'Rock and Roll High School'. Have you seen it?" Ronald had an idea and remembered this old movie.
"Ah, I've seen it, it's very good, Liv Randall, Rock Man..." The manager of MTV station had seen this movie and was deeply impressed by the lead actress PJ Soles playing the role of "Rock Man"
.
"Did you know? I participated in the filming of this movie, and I also know the producer and the copyright owner of this movie, Mr. Roger Corman. He is a great man in Hollywood, including Coppola and Scorsese.
I made my debut there."
"Ah? Really? That's great. We contacted New World Productions, but they said they no longer own the rights to the previous movies."
"I'll give him a call and you can talk."
…
"Thank you, Mr. Coleman. I didn't expect to be able to purchase so many movies that teenagers love. What a treasure trove you have here. Let's start with the five movies of 'Rock and Roll High School' and try to play teenagers movies late at night.
Effect."
"Of course, it's a pleasure to work with you. Working with a youth-focused TV station like yours always reminds me of when I made my first movie, when I was less than thirty years old."
A few days later, Roger Corman signed a package agreement with MTV to sell the television rights to his New World movie rights. If the results are good, the cooperation will continue.
"Let us congratulate you." Ronald skillfully took out a bottle of wine from Coleman's cabinet and poured a glass for all three of them.
"cheers"
"Ronald, you always bring me good luck. I am very happy, even happier than the money I make from selling these movie rights. I am very happy to see that Jim and Gayle are both establishing themselves in the film industry. Hollywood
We need more talents like you, not those lofty executives."
"Then please make me happy, Mr. Coleman." Ronald laughed loudly. This time, he could get a lot of benefits from the matchmaking.
"Okay, we will give you a 10% commission as agreed before." When Roger Coleman talked about the numbers, he lowered his voice and whispered in Ronald's ear.
"Thank you, Roger." Ronald smiled broadly. This transaction cost Coleman nothing. He just converted the old films to tape format and sold them again. Therefore, he could give a relatively generous commission.
.
After leaving Coleman's office, Ronald invited the film purchasing manager of MTV to go to the office of the manager of MTV's advertising department. It was he who had hooked up with Ronald in the first place.
"I have some ideas to promote this business. You will give me some commission, which is not a big amount. Can I not take your commission, but exchange it for some time slots on MTV to broadcast my "Comet Day"
For the trailer of "Night", I don't care about the time slot, as long as it is released as often as possible two weeks before the release.
The two MTV managers talked about it and found out that this approach actually allowed them to get benefits. It was nothing more than using their power to give Ronald more unsold playback times during garbage hours. Many times early in the morning and
Late at night, they are all giving gifts to customers.
"No problem, we can make the decision on this."
"Thank you." Ronald relied on his head and got some advertising time for "Night of the Comet" and went home to have fun alone.
"Hey, Ronald, I used your method to talk to Schwarzenegger. He himself is also willing to be the villain of the Terminator. Anyway, his English is not standard, he has an Austrian accent, and his lines are a big problem for him to play the leading role.
"
"That's great. Congratulations on choosing the two male leads."
In the evening, I got another good news call from Cameron. As expected, the agent turned down Cameron's invitation without telling Schwarzenegger.
"Then when will you start filming?"
"That's a problem. I have to wait about ten months. Schwarzenegger also has to shoot the sequel to 'Conan the Barbarian', 'Conan the Destroyer.' We have to wait for him."
"Why? Can't you change the actor?"
"That's right, Ronald." Gale took over the conversation from the side.
"Remember the plagiarism project I told you last time? They are still preparing to start the project and rewrite Jim's script to start filming. We are now targeting Schwarzenegger as an actor. After all, he is also a small star with a blockbuster movie, which is a bit
Appeal.
In this way, the other party knew that the film they produced would not be as popular as Jim's original version, so they gave up plagiarism. In order to allow Schwarzenegger to participate, we had to postpone the filming for ten months.
In addition, we also hope that Schwarzenegger will bring some exposure to the movie. If his Conan the Barbarian is a hit, it will be a bargain for us."
"Ah, then I wish you and Jim all the best. If there is anything I can help with, feel free to contact me."