Chapter 24 The Commitment of the Secretary of the Navy
Ronald's efforts to film on Staten Island were thwarted. The New York film industry had been in decline since Edison began chasing studio royalties.
If you find an agent in Los Angeles, you can recruit a crew of actors, workers, lighting, sound photographers and other professionals. In New York, only those Broadway actors can choose, and each of them can't afford the movie, which is not considered high art.
.As for cheap open-can film, cheap photographers who have shot exploitation films have no place to find it.
Although labor and land prices are very cheap in Staten Island, the professional talents needed by the film industry are more expensive. You have to find people from Hollywood, and you also have to take care of food, accommodation, and transportation.
It seems that a low-cost exploitation film like Roger Corman's costing 200,000 US dollars can only be made in a place with developed industry such as Hollywood. A film of the same quality would cost at least 600,000 US dollars in New York.
It was barely made.
Eddie, the agent from New York, also came over to participate in the business discussions of Daydream Pictures. He did have some ideas to shoot image promotion videos and product samples for some companies. The development of video recorders has given many large companies the idea to shoot a series of videos.
A promotional video with a noble and elegant temperament is played repeatedly on the company's front desk TV.
There are many people working in the television industry in New York, and they are suitable for shooting this kind of film. After purchasing some cameras, lighting, recording and other equipment, Ronald asked Eddie to organize the manpower himself and began to try to take some orders.
"Let me show you the corporate video samples I collected." Eddie stood up and turned on the TV.
"Wait a minute," Douglas Jr. stopped him. As a child of a wealthy family, he was very concerned about the election news.
Everyone on TV is talking about the debate between the Vice-President and the Donkey Party candidate. This debate was much more exciting than the last debate between the Vice-President and Mondale. Both sides performed very well, and the TV commentators agreed that both sides
They are all very good debaters.
Newspapers and TV stations both believed that the two sides were tied, but polls afterwards showed great differences. Male viewers generally believed that the deputy leader won the debate, while most female viewers believed that the female candidate of the Donkey Party won the debate.
The main reason for this disagreement is the confrontation between the Vice President and Ferraro on an issue. The host asked Ferraro, who was elected to the House of Representatives for three terms, and the Vice President for two terms of Congress, Ambassador to China, and Ambassador to the United Nations.
Ambassador, CIA director, deputy commander's resume, who knows more about foreign politics.
The deputy commander opened his mouth and said, "Let me help you find out the different behaviors of the previous and current commanders when they faced the Persian and Lebanese embassies being held hostage."
Ferraro immediately retorted, "I strongly protest that the deputy commander has come up with an attitude that can teach me about his country's foreign policy."
This may seem okay from a male perspective, but professional women who have suffered from gender discrimination in the workplace immediately sympathized with Ferraro's attitude. As a result, he gained a lot of support from women.
Ronald thought thoughtfully. This kind of aversion to sexism from a female perspective seems to be increasingly becoming a trend of thought in America.
…
Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, who is at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego on the West Coast, is also watching the Vice Admiral's debate analysis program.
Lyman is the youngest Secretary of the Navy in America's history. When he took office four years ago, he was only 38 years old. America has a civilian military, and the Secretary of the Navy is appointed by the commander-in-chief.
Even so, he still received a lot of criticism when he joined the job. In addition to his unusually young age, Lyman was also the first minister in many years who had not served in the Navy. When he was young, he only served in the Air Force and Navy.
He served as a pilot in the reserve force. In the first few years as minister, he also had flying duties in the naval reserve force to perform.
Facing a group of admirals who were senior enough to be his father, Lehmann resorted to a plan to build a large number of warships. After taking office, he quickly catered to the commander-in-chief who was tough on the Soviet Union and took out the navy's active warships.
Restore the plan to 600 ships.
In addition to the recommissioning of the Iowa-class battleships, he also promoted new Aegis ships, Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarines carrying Trident intercontinental missiles, Los Angeles-class attack nuclear submarines, and upgraded the number of Nimitz-class aircraft carriers built.
Therefore, conservative politicians like Xiang Dang who were tough on the Soviet Union were his biggest reliance on his career.
"Yes, these congresswomen who decorate the House of Representatives like vases do need World War II veterans like the deputy commander to give them a good lesson in international politics. Do they know what the world's grand triangle politics is? The deputy commander has experience in China,
Just the right person to give them Dr. Kopkissing's theory."
He remembered the script that the deputy commander called him about. The number of people serving in the Navy has been declining year by year. It is necessary to make more heroic movies like Hollywood during World War II, so that there will be enough young people to join the Navy to match these six hundred
A world-class ship.
Immediately, he called the Foreign Relations Liaison Office under the Ministry of the Navy and expressed that he wanted to meet these patriotic filmmakers who wanted to create naval heroes.
Ronald was very surprised when he received the call. Unexpectedly, the deputy commander and his family did not reply to him, but just settled the matter calmly.
He quickly flew back to Los Angeles, met up with the two producers, and went to the Naval Air Base in San Diego, Southern California, to meet with Secretary of the Navy John Lyman who was inspecting here.
"His Excellency the Vice Commander said to me, you want to make a story about a heroic fighter pilot in the Navy?"
"Yes, Mr. Lyman. We do want to shoot a new era hero movie, like..." Don Simpson used enough at home before coming..., and now he is a bit too energetic. That's it.
The choice of words is influenced by brain chemistry and is not very sensitive.
"It's like a Star Wars movie on the sea, with fighter jets fighting." Ronald quickly added.
"To be honest, we need movies like this," said John Lyman, a handsome middle-aged man whose red tie showed his political stance.
"The Navy can provide help with your movie, but we will evaluate the script and the choice of the leading actor." John Lyman rang the bell and called in two tall officers, a man and a woman.
"This is Matthew, the external liaison officer of our naval base. In the future, you can contact him for coordination regarding the aircraft and other equipment that need to be rented for film shooting, as well as the location.
This is our doctor of aerodynamics, Christine Fox, and you can ask her about the details of fighter air combat." Lyman introduced the background of the two to the three.
"This support is really great," Ronald exchanged glances with the two producers.
"So it turns out that writing a letter to the deputy commander is really useful?" Bruckheimer was also very excited. Many of the problems in the preparatory stage were solved with the commitment of the Secretary of the Navy.
"By the way, Miss Fox also has a pilot's call sign, you can call her Legs."
Ronald took one look at Kristen Fox's long legs and thought that the call sign was similar to a nickname, and it was indeed worthy of the name.
"So, tell me, gentlemen, what kind of character will the protagonist of your movie be?"
The Secretary of the Navy asked the two liaison officers to go out, then walked out from behind the desk, sat at the corner of the table, and chatted with several producers and directors.
The two producers looked at each other and signaled Ronald to answer with their eyes.
"We feel that in the past ten years, there has been a lack of heroic movies from the golden age of Hollywood. Our idea is just to recreate the heroic epics like 'Fit' in the 1930s and reshape the image of a Western cowboy hero like John Wayne.
It's just that the dueling revolvers were changed into modern jet fighters."
"Very good, do any of you three have any flying experience?" The minister felt satisfied and asked casually.
Don Simpson and Bruckheimer both shook their heads.
"This is not possible. You have to experience a real naval fighter jet. Otherwise, how can you make a convincing movie?"
"My grandfather and great-grandfather were American fighter pilots. They participated in World War I and World War II respectively." Upon seeing this, Ronald tried to give the minister more confidence.
"Very good, very good. Well, since you come from a family of pilots, it's up to you. I'll ask Fox to contact the Blue Angels Aerobatic Demonstration Team and let them take you up to experience it."
"This..." Ronald thought to himself, I just want to eat steak, there is no need to be a cowboy.
"That's it," John Lyman waved his hand, indicating that the matter was arranged. "If you like flying, you can also try the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet, which is the main fighter jet of our navy.
This is the way the navy works, and you will gradually get used to it in the future."
John Lyman said to the three of them, "After I give the order directly, the bureaucracy may still make things difficult for you. If you don't cooperate, you can directly contact Matthew to coordinate. If he can't handle it, you can give it to me directly."
Call the office."
"Mr. Ronald, are you six feet two inches tall?" Long-legged Fox came over to look at Ronald and accurately reported his height, "I will prepare a flight suit for you according to this size.
We'll make an appointment and let you try it out."
The Blue Angels flight demonstration team used Douglas A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft. Ronald put on his flight suit and got into the back seat of the aircraft.
The blue fuselage was painted specially for the Blue Angels. Ronald put on the oxygen mask a little nervously.
"Are you ready?" The pilot in the front seat looked kinder.
"Yes."
"Let's go."
Ronald suddenly felt a strong push on his back, and the light jet engine made a sharp roar. Taking off in a short distance, Ronald soon found himself in the air.
The blue coast in the distance and the white clouds in the sky were turned upside down during the pilot's roll. Ronald seemed to be confused about up and down, and the wonderful feeling seemed to have touched his pilot gene.