Chapter three hundred and eighty seventh understand naturally understand
The vacation continued for a while, and Ronald finally adjusted his mental state.
On this day, he received a call from Walter Murch. The rough cut and first assembly of the film had been completed, and he could go to the editing room to discuss the details.
"Walter, how do you feel about my new movie? I feel like this is the movie with the best collaboration among the actors since I started working in the industry. What's your opinion?"
Ronald saw Murch in front of the editing table and couldn't help but ask him what he thought of the film he had invested in. Since Murch taught himself how to edit in San Francisco, he has shot many blockbuster films. It's time to let the master
In the same way, let’s evaluate whether I have made any progress in the past few years.
"The dance scenes are very good, never seen before. The casting is probably one of the best I've ever dealt with in a movie, other than Coppola's 'The Godfather,'" Murch said when he saw Ronald coming.
I happily stood up and hugged him, then gave up a seat for Ronald to sit together in front of the editing table.
"But the movie clip I gave you is a little less interesting, so I really hope you can come over and discuss it with me."
"Fun?" Ronald asked.
"The rough cut version of the entire film is two hours and ten minutes long.
Every shot you shoot is actually pretty much the same. I don’t have many options, unlike some directors’ movies where the rough cut will be more than double the final length.
And among many shots, only the first shot is often the best, and it is edited for you, just like completing homework for high school students, which are all multiple-choice questions."
"Ha..." Ronald smiled, "Is this a good thing or a bad thing?"
"From a producer's point of view, this shows that the director has his own vision for the finished film and can complete the shooting on time. From a director's point of view, there may be less freedom for the actors to express themselves on the set. But from an editing point of view,
, I think it’s a little less challenging. It’s not like when I was editing for other directors, I often had to challenge the limits and cut together seemingly impossible clips.”
"Hahaha, I'll just take it as you praising me."
The two joked around, starting from the beginning and slowly watching all the shots.
Over the past two days, Ronald gradually got into the mood and began to express his thoughts to Murch on the processing of certain shots.
The two have the same editing methodology, and often can quickly agree with each other's opinions. Only in sound design, Ronald doesn't know much, and Murch takes the lead in this area of work, and also takes the time to give Ronald lessons.
.
Every day's editing work is progressing slowly at a speed visible to the naked eye, discarding cutscenes of one or two seconds and using a more interesting connection method. The length of the film has gradually been reduced from more than two hours to one hour and fifty.
minutes, and gradually move towards the scheduled target of one hour and forty minutes.
One afternoon, the two were discussing a shot in the editing room. Both Ronald and Walter Murch insisted on their own ideas. The two discussed for a long time with no results, so they took a break to replenish caffeine.
Murch asked Ronald, who was drinking a strange drink like wolfberry black tea, a question he had wanted to ask for a long time.
"I heard that those high-ranking Jews are looking for trouble with you?"
"Yes, they also asked Michael Douglas to come to me for an interview. In fact, they just didn't want a rich Jewish girl to fall in love with a poor Irish boy, and finally gave up on the rich Jewish second generation to get together with a dancer.
.”
"So what are you going to do? Our current version contains a lot of intimate scenes between the baby and Johnny, as well as scenes where the two finally resolve their misunderstandings and look forward to a future together."
"I have my own way." Ronald smiled and replied to Murch.
"You don't want to get things done secretly, do you? That won't work, it will cause big problems."
"Ronald", Murch pulled Ronald to the table, "You are still very young. When you entered the industry, the Jewish forces in Hollywood had already retired from the stage and behind the scenes. You may not understand their ferocity.
If you deceive those old Jewish guys with the idea of making yin-yang copies, there will be big problems later. Among other things, the MPAA, which handles film ratings, is also a place where Jews are piled up. They can get stuck there.
You, give you a bad rating.
Even if you get a good rating from MPAA, or find a way to bypass them and find a theater to show it yourself, it's still very risky. Don't forget, the son of the Douglas family is looking for you."
"What happened to the son of the Douglas family?" Ronald did not answer Murch's question, but was curious about his evaluation of Michael Douglas' family, as if there was some gossip.
"Well, I haven't caught up with the days when Jewish gangs were running rampant in Hollywood. I heard from my seniors that before the 1960s, Jewish gangs had a reputation of being more feared than Italians. Legend has it that Michael's father, Kirk, was a Jewish gangster in Hollywood.
Hollywood spokesperson.
Do you know Natalie Wood, the actress who unfortunately passed away a few years ago?”
"Of course, I saw him at the Golden Globe Awards," Ronald replied.
"It is said that in her early years in Hollywood, she was forced by Kirk Douglas. He was a Hollywood 'sexual predator'."
"No way?" Ronald raised his brows when he heard this kind of gossip. He is also familiar with Hollywood. He and the actress are all consensual, and then communicate through the agent. Everyone gets what they want. I haven't heard of any
Is this kind of forced thing happening? Does it have to be so ugly?
Unless it's a non-union-registered project, some small production companies, and films released directly to the video tape market, I've heard of this happening.
It turns out that at Weston Pictures, Michelle Cannold, the distribution director of Daydream Pictures who was poached by Ronald, talked about the chaos of those small projects. Weston Pictures used to specialize in
Filming NC-17 content video tapes.
"Hollywood is a new place now. But when I was in college, it was still a chaotic hodgepodge. Many actors didn't have makeup artists and had to do their own makeup. Actresses often had to find their brothers as assistants.
Protect yourself on set.
I've also heard that... when Kirk Douglas was in Hollywood in the late 1940s, he once got a young actor named Jean Spangler pregnant. On the night she went to see Kirk for negotiation,
Just disappeared.
Later, his body and handbag were found on the way from her home to Kirk Douglas' home, with an unfinished note inside with Kirk's name written on it."
"Really or not?" Ronald had never heard of these gossips. "Then why do people think of the Italian Mafia when they talk about gangs? But no one mentions the Jewish gangs?"
"You can figure it out yourself. There are two reasons for this. On the one hand, Jews are gradually occupying the upper echelons of Hollywood, and they are unwilling to make movies and TV series about Jewish gangsters. On the other hand, Italian directors like to shoot movies.
Gangster story.
Nowadays, most of the American people's stereotypes about ethnic groups come from movies and TV series. With more of these movies being made, they have gradually become a symbol of Italians, and many ignorant Italians are still very proud...
"
That's true.
Ronald touched his ears. After Coppola filmed The Godfather, many mafiosi in movies were of Italian appearance. Although "The Godfather" is essentially a family film, the background story of the mafia, many gangsters are actually
I started to learn how to act in movies, which further deepened the stereotypes of Italians from other ethnic groups.
Thinking of this, Ronald smiled at Murch. The other person obviously cared about him very much, so he would tell such gossip.
"It's okay, Walter, I have a sense of discretion. I thought about it when I invested the money to make this movie. Old Jewish men will not say anything about this movie."
Ronald whispered his thoughts into Walter Murch's ear.
"are you sure?"
"I am sure that if the Jews continue to trouble me in this way, any action they take will deepen the audience's impression of the Jewish girl's story. So the best way is to pretend not to see it."
…
Some time passed. The rough cut of the film was completed. After assembling the film into a complete copy for the second time, Ronald called and invited Michael Douglas, who had helped deliver the message, to come and see the finished film.
appearance.
"You were filming in Virginia before this movie, right? I happened to be filming 'Fatal Attraction' in New York at that time, and I returned to Hollywood at about the same time as you." Michael Douglas was still dressed like a noble boy, very energetic, and he came in
Hugged Ronald.
"Oh, how about working with director Adrian Lyne? I was on the set of his 'Flashdance' and he is a very talented person."
"It's great, it's simply great. He is a good 'actor's director' and won't give us too many constraints. As an actor, it is the most comfortable to work with a director like him. Glenn often told me
, how lucky I am to work with Adrian.”
"Glenn?"
"It's the heroine, Glenn Close. She is a great actor. She plays a slightly insane lover who wants to destroy my family. Have you met her?"
"Oh, it's her. We met once, at the party of 'The Big Chill'. Kevin Costner originally had many scenes, but they were all deleted in the end..."
Ronald and Douglas chatted for a while, then invited him to the screening room and watched "Dirty Dancing" with music.
"Dong...dong dong..." I remembered the drumbeat of Mambo, and what appeared on the screen was an old dance scene, with several dancers doing Dirty Dancing in the basement, a shot full of temptation, in slow motion,
showed on the screen.
"Is this what you call 'Dirty Dancing'?" Douglas touched his chin as if he was very interested.
The duration of the copy is one hour and forty minutes, and the final subtitle list has not yet been added.
Michael Douglas, who had watched the entire movie, looked over at Ronald.
“You changed the ethnicity of the heroine’s baby? Or to be more precise, you hid it, right? I didn’t hear anyone say they were Jewish during the entire movie.
Johnny's ethnicity was not mentioned much, and it was only mentioned at the end when the two of them hugged each other and danced in the crowd.
If you cooperate like this, I think those old guys will have no problem. But does this hinder your creative freedom?" Michael Douglas asked Ronald very politely.
"Michael, you lived in Los Angeles when you were a child, right?" Ronald didn't answer, but asked the other person.
"No, after my parents divorced, I lived with my mother in New York. I went to school there since I was a child, and I didn't go to New Jersey until college. What?"
"Then how come you don't know that the Kellerman Resort Hotel in the movie is based on the Catskills? Aren't those resort hotels exclusively for Jews called the Borscht Belt by you?
The food that appears in the movie also contains borscht, and they are all resort hotels that Jews only go to. Anyone who is a Jewish child there will be able to tell that, right?"
"Oh, actually my mother is not Jewish. She is of Irish descent. So when I was a child, I didn't go to those Jewish-only resorts. We always went to Long Island in New York during our holidays."
"Pfft..." Ronald almost didn't laugh. No wonder Michael Douglas didn't respond to his ethnic origin hidden in the background of the story.
This kind of treatment, which is not stated but only hints at the character's ethnicity, is a way that Ronald came up with to deal with the Jewish forces.
From the beginning to the end of the movie, there is no mention of the fact that the baby's Houseman family is Jewish. Moreover, among the actors he chose for the Houseman family, they did not have a particularly obvious Jewish nose like Barbra Streisand.
Even the leading actress, Jennifer Grey, has a much smaller nose than another candidate, Sarah Jessica Parker.
Unless they are Jewish viewers, they will be able to find some familiar background from clues. Only then will they notice Jennifer Gray's nose that is not obvious but fully reflects the ethnicity.
Ronald does not mention a word of Jewishness in the entire movie, but the background of the story tells the story that this is a Jewish story.
Then, the audience will be divided into two parts, one part is non-Jewish and is unaware of it, and the other part is Jewish and knows that it is telling its own story.
This is the so-called understanding of nature, and those who don’t understand cannot understand.
If high-level Jewish officials wanted to cause trouble for themselves, they would have to mention in the media Ronald's anti-Semitic tendencies, deliberately photographing Jewish girls in such a way that they did not know how to love themselves, and losing their virginity to obscene Irishmen.
Whenever they mention this meaning, those viewers who did not realize that Ronald was telling a story about a Jewish girl will suddenly realize it.
The entire American society does not have much favorable impressions of Jews. These old conservative Jews still dare to come out to promote such outdated and racially discriminatory ideas. They will definitely be attacked by the mainstream media.
Therefore, Ronald's ingenious way of telling actually put those old diehards who opposed the making of this story into a movie into a dilemma.
If you just hint in your media, then people will not understand what you are saying. If you say it clearly, it will arouse more people's resentment.
It is better to just close your eyes and let it go. As long as the media marketing does not deliberately promote this as a Jewish story, then there will be no problem.
"So, in your marketing, you won't deliberately mention that this is a Jewish story, right?" Michael Douglas thought about Ronald's handling, nodded his approval, and then asked Ronald to provide a guarantee.
"I'm not a fool, so why would I deliberately challenge the cognition of old men?
Besides, Jews account for less than 3% of America’s youth population. I invested my own money in making this movie. Of course I want to make money. I don’t need to give up the bigger market, right?”
"You convinced me," Michael Douglas nodded in agreement.
Ronald laughed, took out a cigar from the side of his seat that was given to him by Paramount President Ned Tanin, cut it, and lit it for Douglas politely.
I didn’t know before that Michael Douglas’ maternal lineage was of Irish ancestry. This makes it easier to talk about. He also lived with his mother after his parents divorced. He is closer to Irish ancestry, so he will be less opposed to this kind of plot.
Already.
"I will bring you a message and put in a good word for you." Michael Douglas took a puff of his cigar and then slowly exhaled the smoke. "It's a good thing."
"The gift from a friend is the Fuente Hemingway series from Dominica." Ronald took out a new wooden box and handed it to Michael Douglas, "Take it and help me test the quality. I know you are an expert."
"Thank you, I will," Michael Douglas received in his arms, "but those old men will be more stubborn, and they are very ignorant of the current situation in America. In their view, everyone should respect Jewish culture and religion.
They may not fully understand the fact that most Americans have no idea that the Catskills are an exclusive Jewish resort.
If you had better evidence that the audience wouldn't find out that this is a Jewish story, I think they would be more reassured."
"I'll hold a test screening and then do an audience survey. What do you think?" Ronald thought for a while and asked.
"I think it's okay. After you finish it, send the results to my agent. I will make an appointment with my father."
"very good!"
Ronald was also very satisfied with Douglas's help, narrowed his eyes, and started puffing away with him.
"Then I'll go first. It's really fun chatting with you." Michael Douglas enjoyed it for a while and stood up to leave.
"I'll see you off." Ronald stood up to see him off.
"Also", when he arrived at the gate, Michael Douglas turned around and said, "Can the last scene, the one where Johnny and the baby look forward to the future together, be deleted? I thought about it, this may be the only place where Johnny and the baby look forward to the future together.
What makes old men uncomfortable."
"Why? I didn't say that the baby was Jewish? I just said that she joined the Peace Corps, and Johnny was going to be a dancer. They were in a long-distance relationship and had no confidence in the future."
Ronald was a little confused after hearing this request.
"Um... I just think that old men would be unhappy if a rich girl and a poor boy had long-term plans rather than a short-term relationship. You know, they are all rich people, so they might be more concerned about this kind of thing.
We still have to worry about ethnic disparities.”
"Oh, I'll think about it." Ronald frowned. It turned out that these old men thought that there were not only conflicts between ethnic groups, but also conflicts between rich and poor.
But this movie itself is a love story that crosses ethnic groups and classes. If there is no happy ending, will the audience be left unsatisfied?
"Also, we shouldn't be constrained by the baby's ethnicity, but on the other hand, we shouldn't bring the stereotype of poor Irish people into the movie, what do you think?"
"Um……"
It turns out that Michael Douglas himself also considered it. He didn't want his mother's side of Irish descent to be labeled as poor and could only rely on physical strength and physical abilities to make money, such as dancing, but not the stereotype that he could make money with his brains.
Ronald's mind is thinking fast, and now he still needs Michael Douglas to be the intermediary to deliver messages to the Jewish old men. Besides, this is really not a necessary part of the plot.
"Thinking about it from another perspective, maybe leaving the future of baby and Johnny blank is also a good way to deal with it. This can also leave a suspense for the audience..."
"Hahaha... Yes, we can make a sequel. You are such an interesting person. We will keep in touch frequently in the future. I will call you when there is a party."
Michael Douglas is also a producer. As soon as Ronald said this, he knew he wanted to make a sequel.
…
"So, you want to delete this scene that explains the future story of the male protagonist? Well, it's almost twenty seconds."
Walter Murch sat in the editing room and heard Ronald's new idea.
"What do you think? I got feedback from Michael Douglas that theaters may be a little concerned about this part. I'm wondering whether to leave it blank to avoid controversy."
"Leave it blank?"
Walter Murch cut this section out, then went back a few minutes and reread the entire story several times.
"Leaving blank space is a good idea. Baby and Johnny may face the future together. It may also be that Johnny came back to give baby a good memory and give her a well-deserved dance, making her the focus of everyone.
Break up again.
This processing is a more advanced method. It allows the audience to participate in the creation of the film."
Walter Murch talked about his film theory again.
After several creations of script, performance, shooting, editing, etc., the director lost control of the movie. In the end, whether the audience likes the movie or not depends on what they left in the cinema after watching the movie.
Depends on impression.
Many times, about 10% of the content of a movie is a combination of the audience's imagination and impressions, which may not be present in the movie.
"Very good, we will finalize the cut and then organize an internal test screening and conduct an audience survey to see how many people recognize that this is a Jewish story. We need to make a reference for distribution.
Then we can send it to the MPAA for grading."
Ronald hopes to get a pg-13 rating. With such a rating, all teenagers can go see it on their own. Plus the name "Dirty Dancing", how crazy is it?
"Hahaha..." Thinking of the joy, Ronald burst into laughter in the editing room.
An internal preview is scheduled for a few days later.
All of the test screening participants were recruited by Ronald from high schools and colleges near Hollywood.
He didn't really believe in the method of letting the secretaries of the film company go to the movie screening. These people all worked in the company, and they might be suspected of saying good things for the sake of the boss's face.
It is better to select from the identified target customers, which is more in line with the real situation.
Ronald called his publishing team, Michelle Cannold's team, general manager Eddie, and two agents to the scene.
It is a very good thing for the audience's reaction to give those who are directly related to the distribution and marketing work an intuitive impression.
Sometimes, no matter how good the audience rating data is, it is not as shocking as seeing the audience applauding like crazy at the scene. It can make these people more confident in the results of their work.
Ronald still remembers that the "Break Dance" he filmed was just like this. After seeing the enthusiasm of the audience after the release, they learned to break dance on the scene and blocked the actors from leaving, Minahan Golan was
I took over the distribution work myself with full confidence.
"Dong...dong dong..."
The familiar rhythm sounded, and the audience looked at the deliberately old-fashioned picture and the loving dance movements on it, which made the young people scream "Oh!"
The opening scene shows the Haussmann family going to the Kellerman Resort. The audience was quickly drawn into the plot by the bright pace.
After the baby witnessed Johnny and Penny's tacit cooperation at the dance, accidentally entered the dancers' resting place, and saw their blushing and heart-pounding dance. The audience was silent, and only made a lot of swallowing sounds.
.
As the story continues, Baby and Johnny gradually fall in love with each other. They practice lifting movements in the lake, making both male and female audiences sigh with envy.
Finally Johnny broke through the obstacle, returned to the Kellerman Hotel, and invited the baby to dance on stage.
Seeing this, the audience could no longer restrain their enthusiasm and began to whisper to each other in low voices. The dance music "I have found the time of my life..." sounded, and some people began to applaud along with the rhythm.
Finally, the baby made a shocking leap and was lifted up by Johnny like a bird.
The audience's emotions had been stirred up for more than an hour and a half, and they couldn't bear it anymore. When they saw this kind of scene, they all started to burst into laughter. They started to applaud and applaud desperately.
A female audience member in the front row felt that her applause was too quiet and began to stomp the ground hard.
Immediately, this stomping action triggered a chain reaction, and all the audience began to imitate it, making a loud bang on the floor of the screening room. The manager of the screening room thought something was wrong and rushed in to check.
"Thank you. Please help us fill out a questionnaire. We have a gift for you."
At the exit, Michelle Cannold's team began to distribute questionnaires to the audience. There were many questions on them.
How would you rate this movie?
Would you recommend this movie to a friend?
Do you know what ethnicity the baby is?
Do you know what ethnicity Johnny is?
Do you know what's wrong with Penny?
…
After collecting the responses to the questionnaire from all viewers, Michelle Cannold was very excited and came back to report to Ronald.
"The movie's rating is A, 94% of viewers said they would recommend it to their friends, and 92% said they would like to watch it again if they have the chance."
"Yes, what about the cognitive part?"
"Less than 20% of the audience found out that the baby was Jewish. In fact, some people only remembered it after seeing other people answer questions.
Only 30% of the audience knew that Penny was pregnant. We filmed it in a more subtle way. Unless someone familiar with pregnancy has gone through it, or they themselves have had a similar experience, most of them just thought that Penny had a stomachache and thought she had appendicitis.
The proportion is higher than pregnancy."
"Very good, send a copy to Michael Douglas." Ronald asked his agent Richard to handle the matter.
"Where is Niceta?" Ronald asked when he saw that Niceta was not around.
"Rick was talking to the marketing manager at Procter & Gamble, and he insisted on watching the finished film."
"Oh", Ronald looked far away and saw Niceta's figure in a light-colored suit. He and another man also in a suit were talking about something.
"You are needlessly worried. We have handled it very well. You can go read the market research report there." Nisita insisted to the manager of P&G opposite.
"I don't think so. The two ladies sitting next to me both clearly said that word."
"What's wrong?" Ronald asked Niceta as he went over to join the discussion.
"This is the marketing manager of Procter & Gamble... He feels that there is a plot of abortion in the movie. Their acne cream product is mainly targeted at teenage girls. He doesn't want to take the risk and wants to withdraw the product placement."
"What?" Ronald didn't expect this to happen. "We handled this very carefully, sir. You see, in the market survey we just conducted, less than 30% of the audience discovered Penny.
My physical problem is..."
"I understand, Director Ronald. I personally support Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court's decision. But the target market for our products is teenage girls. I can't risk that any conservative forces will organize protests after this movie is released.
Activities, linking the name of our company with...
This is P&G's consistent policy, please understand."
"But you signed a contract with us."
"But there is a force majeure clause in the contract." The other party insisted.
"If I understand correctly, force majeure refers to natural disasters such as earthquakes. This is not a force majeure." Ronald retorted.
"Haha", the other party smiled, "P&G's legal team is composed of the elites from all over America. We also have the top ten law firms in several cities across the country to hire services for us at any time, so we at P&G believe that this is
force majeure."
"You! shxt!"
Ronald was so angry that he couldn't speak. His daydream was that of a small company without a strong legal team, it would suffer losses no matter how it entered into such a lawsuit with a multinational company.
"Then I'll leave first, Director Ronald. P&G's legal department will submit the contract termination documents to you, and we will pay the liquidated damages in accordance with the terms."
"Damn Jews," Ronald cursed in his mind as he looked at the other person's big, crooked nose.
"Sorry, Ronald, I didn't expect them to have such an idea." Niceta came over to apologize.
"It doesn't matter," Ronald waved his hand, indicating that it was none of Niceta's business.
It's nothing more than diverting part of the distribution budget to pay for P&G's cancellation of product placement.
From now on, they will not accept any advertisements for P&G’s anti-acne cream! However, their competitor Unilever could consider it.
"You have to find me some advertising business, something short and quick." Ronald pulled Nicita aside and whispered.
"You financially?"
"There is no problem now, but the issuance fee..."
"I'll make arrangements right away and ask those regular customers about their intentions."
Suddenly hundreds of thousands short of money, Ronald had no choice but to temporarily pick up the advertising business that he had originally not wanted to take on.
I hope to make two commercials that pay well and can be completed in a short period of time to replenish my bank account.