This morning, Ronald and the camera crew arrived here very early.
The prop team has already built a wooden bridge for the two male and female protagonists to practice dancing.
Ever since Master Miyagi taught Daniel how to do karate by waxing cars, painting walls, and other weird tricks in "The Kid", many scripts will add a similar teaching trick to the plot.
The screenwriter Eleanor was no exception and added a scene where Johnny teaches the baby how to dance Dirty Dancing on a log bridge.
Mambo dance has a special movement, which is to lift the knees and then push the feet down. It is very beautiful in conjunction with the swing of the hips. It is a bit like a combination of rumba and tango.
But this kind of movement requires good physical coordination and a slightly more adventurous spirit than other dances.
So Johnny took the baby and forced her to practice on the single-plank bridge. She forgot all the fear of stepping on her male partner and only thought about the rhythm. She was able to learn this dance step very quickly.
"a!"
A single-plank bridge was erected over a creek by the lake. Patrick Swayze stood on it and spread his hands to maintain balance like those doing acrobatics.
Jennifer Gray was on the other side of the single-plank bridge, looking very scared, sitting at the end of the bridge and not daring to stand on it.
"Now, the most important thing is balance. You have to remember to keep balance." Patrick Swayze stood barefoot on the log with his hands spread out, looking confident.
Ronald was distracted again. The celebrity acrobatic program on the TV station invited Brooke Shields to perform a trapeze. But even a girl like Brooke who had practiced gymnastics since she was a child did not dare to try walking on the tightrope.
For laymen, the balance of walking on a tightrope is difficult to grasp. It is also a watershed that distinguishes real acrobats from ordinary people.
"Oh oh oh..."
Patrick Thwaites performs a gymnastic move, jumping up and then falling back down onto the wooden bridge.
He failed to maintain a good balance and almost fell off the bridge. Then he felt swaying from side to side, trying to find his balance. Finally, after turning around once and adjusting many times with broken steps, he stood still.
"cut!"
Ronald quickly asked the staff to help him down and handed him a blanket.
The weather was very cold today. Maybe it was because the temperature affected the coordination of his muscles that Sweets almost failed to perform a simple movement.
However, it was a blessing in disguise that the desperate effort to maintain balance just now unexpectedly became an interesting episode in this teaching. Ronald planned to use it in the final film.
"For the next shot, let's use a stunt double," Ronald said to Sweets. Eleanor also wrote a scene where Johnny would do a vertical jump, turn 180 degrees, and land firmly on the log.
.Show the baby that as long as you focus on the rhythm, there will be no problem.
"I'd better do it by myself. I've been practicing ballet since I was a kid. This is all trivial." Sweets insisted.
"Pat, that's not necessary. We can ask the stunt double to shoot a shot of the legs taking off and spinning to the ground, and then cut to the full view for you. He is registered with the stunt union."
"No, I can have it."
When Sweets heard that Ronald wanted a stuntman to perform the stunt, his hormones exploded even more. He refused to allow a stuntman to perform this action, which was not very difficult to do on flat ground.
Ronald tried to persuade him a few words, but seeing that he was so stubborn, he just let it go.
When it comes to men's faces, many actors have similar problems.
"a!"
"The important thing is balance." Sweets said one line, and then took off barefoot on the log.
"Oh oh oh..." When he landed, he encountered the same problem again.
This action is indeed not difficult on flat ground. But first, this time he was barefoot and without dancing shoes.
Secondly, the log was soaked by the light rain and was slippery, so it was not easy for him to stand firm.
"Snapped……"
Seeing that something was not going well, Sweets jumped off the single-plank bridge.
After landing on the ground, Sweets held his ankles and squatted there for a long time without getting up.
"What's wrong? Doctor!"
Seeing that something was not going well, Ronald immediately called the doctor who was on site. This was considered a dangerous action shoot registered with the stunt union. The union stipulated that a doctor must be present, otherwise the stunt crew could refuse to shoot.
"It's okay, it's an old injury I got when I was dancing."
Sweets is still saying that nothing is wrong with her.
But the doctor's expression was obviously wrong. He asked Sweets to sit down, and then looked at the swollen ankle.
"There is effusion in the ankle joint. Your actor has been engaged in dance training for a long time, so the synovial membrane is severely worn. The sprain just now has aggravated the problem. He can no longer continue filming."
"What should we do? Is he seriously injured? How long will he need to recuperate?"
Ronald didn't understand the medical terms and asked directly about the severity of the injury.
"It's not serious. As long as you lie still, you can return to normal in a week."
"Hiss..." Ronald grinned, he didn't have a week to waste.
The following are all Sweets' big dramas. If the crew had to stop and wait for him for a week, they would seriously overrun the budget again.
"Doctor, I can use a needle to extract the fluid." Sweets grinned, clearly in pain. During his dancing career, he often encountered knee and ankle injuries, but he actually knew more about treatment methods.
many.
"Are you sure? This is very painful and will affect your dancing career," the doctor confirmed to Sweets.
"I no longer have a dancing career. What I want to keep now is my acting career."
Sweets also joked, "Come on, it'll be better this way faster, and I can recover the day after tomorrow."
Ronald patted Sweets on the shoulder. This disaster was originally caused by his insistence on saving face, but now he is trying to make up for it and minimize the impact on the filming.
The crew had to stop filming for a day because Sweets' scene was interspersed with subsequent filming, and there was no big benefit in shooting other scenes in advance.
Ronald shot for a long time and finished all the shots that could be shot in advance, so he had no choice but to take a vacation.
"Fortunately, there is a product placement for Procter & Gamble's anti-acne products." Ronald and Daydream's general manager Eddie, the two of them calculated their accounts for a while in the room.
"Fortunately, Sweets has a lot of experience. When he jumped, he was prepared to cushion the impact of landing. If he was seriously injured, I'm afraid you would have to stop filming for more than a month. Then financially, this 'Dirty Dancing' is
It’s a disaster.”
On the third day, the swelling in Sweets' ankle finally subsided. Although it still hurt a little, he offered to resume filming.
After all, the crew was waiting for him to be alone, so he couldn't bear the invisible pressure.
Ronald quickly moved forward the scene in the lake, and Sweets and Gray went to the nearby Lake Lure with the crew.
"I arranged this lifting scene in the lake. Your ankle is not fully healed yet. Shooting this scene will put less pressure on your ankle. After all, it will be a continuous dance scene."
"Okay, I'm fine." Sweets nodded in agreement, which was a disruption of the order of filming especially for his physical condition.
"Woo..."
A gust of cold wind blew, and Jennifer Gray, who had just got out of the car and arrived at the lake, shivered and wrapped the blanket tightly around her body.
"so cold……"
"It's really strange." Ronald also felt that he was very unlucky.
When we were at the Mountain Lake Villa in Virginia, it was too hot and caused the actors to suffer from heatstroke. When we moved to North Carolina, late autumn entered early, and the wind was actually very cool.
Gray tested the temperature of the water with his hand, and his face showed embarrassment. It must have been freezing if the temperature went down, and he might not be able to say his lines well.
"What's the weather forecast for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow?" Ronald also tested the water, took off his socks, and went into the water to try it himself.
It might be bearable for men, but it would definitely be too much to let Jennifer Gray go.
"It seems that there is cold air passing through, the temperature will drop, and there will be strong winds."
"Why is the weather so weird? It seems there is no autumn anymore." Ronald had no choice but to look back at Gray.
"I'll give it a try, Director Ronald. But you have to prepare measures to protect me from the cold."
Jennifer Gray looked at Ronald's troubled face and knew that she couldn't postpone the filming for another three days. Otherwise, the crew might go bankrupt before the filming was completed.
For the sake of art, for the movie’s box office, and for my future acting career, I will fight hard!
"You know, the best place to practice lifting is in the water."
Sweets said the lines in the script and stood half-crouched in the lake.
Jennifer Gray wore a white dress and pants. She asked Sweets to hold her waist, and then pushed it up slightly.
She was lifted up by Sweetsto.
Sweets stood up from the water and was blown away by the wind. He shivered and almost lost his support to Jennifer. Fortunately, he had strong upper body strength and managed to save her.
Seeing Sweets stop, Jennifer immediately opened her arms and made a flying gesture.
"Tell me your lines." Ronald was anxious and kept sending secret signals to Sweets.
"Very good, very good..." Sweets was so cold that he could only shiver. He managed to control his abdominal muscles so that he could not shiver while listening to the lines.
"Keep this position, don't move, don't move."
"Ah..." Jennifer Gray was also shaken by the wind. She couldn't maintain her balance and jumped over Sweets' head.
Both men fell into the lake.
"Haha...ha...haha..."
Both of them tried their best to prevent their shivering and trembling voices from being recorded by the simultaneous sound.
Take all the water out of your hair and you won't feel so cold anymore.
"Continue!" Ronald ran to the opposite side of them, waving his hands and making a gesture to them to indicate that he would stop shouting.
Anyway, with the energy of the two of them, it would probably take a long time for them to return to normal even after taking a single shot, so I might as well just stop the camera and shoot to the end with a long lens, and use it whenever possible.
Both actors were very professional and they understood what Ronald meant and did not look at the camera in the middle.
"Continue, one, two, three..."
It was lifted again, and then it was frozen into the action of spreading its wings and flying. Finally, it couldn't hold up anymore and fell into the water together.
"cut!"
Ronald was the first to rush forward and put the blanket on Jennifer Gray's body.
"Whiskey" Ronald took another shot of liquor from his assistant and asked the actors to take a sip.
Four more assistants carrying stretchers carried the two leading actors wrapped in blankets into their respective RVs.
The air conditioner inside has been on for a long time, and there is a hot water bathroom, allowing them to quickly return to normal body temperature.
The morning sun rose over the lake, and Ronald quickly directed them to shoot some empty shots for editing.
"How was it?" Ronald asked the director of photography.
"Very good, you will have enough material to edit."