On the morning of the first day of shooting the big scene, less than two hours after starting the filming, the crew lost the camera operator.
Director of photography Michael Seresin had to go into battle himself and became the camera operator, which is what some people call the camera operator.
The director ordered it to be restored to its original state and prepare for the second official shooting.
During the chaotic reversing scene, the American camera puller slipped out of the set and made a phone call.
At ten o'clock in the morning, everything on site returned to preliminary testing status, and Allen was ready to announce the second shooting.
"Recording? Camera?"
"Stop! This must stop"
It was the representative of the International Cinematographers Union in a suit who loudly stopped the filming at the scene.
"I received another report that the director of photography of your crew also served as the cameraman. This is expressly prohibited by the union charter." The proud union representative handed director Alan Parker a stop-work order.
"Hey, man, you can't do this, we stopped ground transportation in half of midtown Manhattan, we have a time limit, we can't stop work," the director of photography yelled.
"I'll give you two hours." The union staff were not completely unreasonable. "If it exceeds two hours, we must re-hire a camera operator with union qualifications."
"I'm not going to accept a fucking union clerk telling me how to fucking make a movie!" Alan Parker angrily rushed to him.
"Okay! As you wish," the union staff took back the 2-hour grace period. "We must stop work now until you find a suitable camera operator."
Ronald was chatting with a few white T-shirts on the corner of the street. They also saw the farce.
"Why can't the director of photography also be the operator?" Ronald asked one of the older men in a white T-shirt.
"I heard that in the early years of Hollywood, the director of photography was the person who took the shot, so that he could see whether the shot was in line with his intention. But the International Photographers Workers Union strongly intervened in the division of labor on the set in the 1970s, and imposed rigid regulations on photography.
The director cannot direct the camera, and must hire a dedicated camera operator.”
"Since then, in places with strong labor unions, such as New York and Los Angeles, photography has been divided into two types of work. The advantage is of course that there is an extra position out of thin air, hahaha." White T-shirt smiled happily, he is also a union member
one of the beneficiaries.
"What's the downside?" Ronald asked.
"With one more person, many subtle artistic ideas will inevitably be distorted."
…
"Ronald, come here." Producer David Da Silva waved him over.
"Hello, David."
"Did you see that little man wearing a peaked cap? He is the new operator we hired. Your job is to ensure that he does not touch the camera or hinder the filming, and only gets paid."
The producer still agreed to the union representative's blackmail and hired one of his connections.
"Is this your first time on a movie set, buddy?" Ronald greeted the cap.
"Ah, yes, it's the first time. My cousin said he could arrange for me to be the photographer."
"Do you know what is the best thing about photographers? It's metering! Very few people can accurately measure the intensity of light at once." Ronald took a mechanical light meter and handed it to Cap,
"Every time the director shoots, you have to calibrate the intensity of the sky light. Whether we can capture every shot depends on how well you meter the light. If the pointer is less than zero, you have to immediately ask the director of photography to pause.
.”
"Can I trust you, man? Whether our entire team can take good pictures depends on you."
"Oh, yeah? Of course you can trust me. How do I do this?" the peaked hat asked hurriedly.
After Ronald taught the cap to meter the sky, he walked to Michael Seresin and said, "Michael, before every shot, you have to look at the cap. After he nods, you can start shooting as usual."
.”
Director of photography Michael Seresin glanced at Cap inexplicably, and the cap excitedly waved the light meter in his hand and nodded vigorously at him.
"Camera?" director Alan Parker confirmed before filming.
"Full speed." Michael Seresin withdrew his gaze and focused on the next shot.
"action!"
The convoy headed by Cadillac cars slowly drove from the crossroad into 46th Street.
The music of "Hot Stuff" started playing again, and Ronald stood with the cap to prevent him from making any moves that would ruin the filming.
Every time the dancers rush down the street with all their strength, their dance is different from last time.
This time, they rushed ahead and stopped the Cadillac that was braking suddenly. They were a male dancer and Lucy. Lucy climbed on the roof of the car and started dancing to the rhythm of the disco.
The Italian driver, this time, followed the director's instructions and wanted to come up with some tricks to surprise the dancers and make them react with real expressions and movements.
After he stopped the car, he waited for the dancer to climb onto the roof of the car, then gently pressed the accelerator, and the car sped forward.
The dancers on the roof of the car were greatly surprised by this unexpected movement, and several dancers fell on the roof of the car.
Lucy was squeezed by other dancers and was pushed from the side and fell.
She brought down other dancers on the ground next to the car. Several people sat on the ground together, including Antonia, who was also taken down to the ground.
Seeing the fall, Ronald rushed forward.
Lucy sat on the ground, holding her ankles.
"How are you, Lucy?" Ronald asked as he squeezed through the circle of dancers.
"My ankle is sprained. It doesn't seem too serious." Lucy struggled to stand up on one foot, holding on to the car and jumping twice on one foot.
"Don't move, I'll help you." Gene, who is also from Harlem, put one of Lucy's hands on his shoulders and jumped to the edge with Lucy to rest. The doctor on site quickly came over to check on Lucy.
ankle.
Antonia was shocked. She had been admitted to the New York City Ballet. It would be bad if she was injured. She sat on the ground, still a little shocked.
Ronald walked closer and squatted down, asking Antonia's injury with his eyes.
Antonia moved her hands, feet, neck, and waist. "I'm fine. I saw Lucy fall and be taken to other dancers. In order to avoid them, she fell to the ground on her own initiative." She said and struggled to stand up.
.
Ronald saw that her buttocks in her dance clothes were stained, and it seemed that the fall was not as easy as he said. So he stepped forward to stop Antonia. He squatted down and asked Antonia to put her arms around his neck and support her with one hand.
With one hand on her waist, he picked up the crook of her leg and picked her up.
Ronald carried Antonia a few steps and placed her on a chair next to the resident doctor.
After the doctor examined Lucy, she found that she had sprained her ankle and needed rest, so she basically said goodbye to the filming. The dark-skinned, always open-minded girl cried sadly.
The doctor examined Antonia again and asked a lot of questions. Fortunately, Antonia was not injured. She only scratched the skin of the heel of her palm by putting her hand on the ground.
Ronald took a deep breath and leaned over to watch the doctor applying medicine to Antonia's palm. Then he stood up and turned around and walked to the Italian driver.
A group of dancers and Italian drivers had begun to confront each other. This time was different from the previous two, which resulted in injuries to the group performers. The dancers refused to let go and insisted that the driver of the Cadillac get out. Yes.
Several black dancers even shouted that they wanted to beat him.
Ronald left the crowd. Everyone had some trust in this young man who invented leg warmers for dancers and took cooling measures, so they let him walk in front of the driver.
Ronald stared at the driver who caused the accident for more than ten seconds without saying anything. The driver finally began to avoid his sight, and then Ronald suddenly spoke:
"Why did you do that sudden dangerous move?"
"It was the director who hinted to me..." The driver who caused the accident said half a sentence, then realized something was wrong and stopped talking.
Everyone was in an uproar. Some people didn't believe it and accused the driver of talking nonsense. Some people sounded the warning of the uncle operator and secretly believed it...
Ronald looked back at the director who was talking to the producer in the distance, then turned back and said to the drivers: "In any case, you are not suitable to continue driving on the set..."
Representatives of the Screen Actors Guild also came over and said to everyone: "Don't be afraid, children, you have all received the wages stipulated by the union, and the Screen Actors Guild will protect your legitimate rights and interests."
…
"Alan, you can't do such dangerous moves just for the sake of performance." The producer had just finished negotiating with people from the Screen Actors Guild. "We pay the dance extras the minimum wage stipulated by the union. In theory, they can
Union members took matters into their own hands and even went on strike."
"I didn't ask him to suddenly start the car, David. I just asked him to do something special to surprise the actor,"
"Don't treat me like a child, Allen." The producer was a little angry, ignored Allen, and walked towards the extras.
After Allen said his words of shirk, he seemed to realize that someone was looking at him, and turned his head to look at the group of dancers, and happened to meet Ronald's eyes.
…
"There can be no more dangerous sudden movements. The driver responsible for the accident is not allowed to work on the set. We apologize to the injured dancers. The actors involved will be given an extra week's salary. Then, the injured Lucy and the other two people will be given a shot of their faces in the future."
Ronald reported the actors' request to producer David DaSilva.
"that's it?"
"That's all, do you think it's okay? If you agree, you can resume filming." Ronald replied.
"The representatives of the Screen Actors Guild over there are launching a strike for the extras. But the extras really just want more wages and more shots. The strike has no special benefit to them. If you agree, there will be no strike."
"Of course, I can agree and let them resume filming. I owe you once, Ronnie." The producer breathed a sigh of relief, fearing that if the filming of the big scene was delayed for some reason, the cost would be greatly exceeded.
Apart from anything else, just contacting the city hall to block the road is not something that can be done in a short time.
Ronald grabbed the driver who caused the accident, apologized to everyone, then took him away from the extras and escorted him out of the set.
The driver also thanked Ronald. If the two sides hadn't reasoned with each other today, he would have received a severe beating.
"It's not my fault, brother, it was your director who asked me to do this." The driver continued to explain along the way.
"What exactly did the director tell you? Did he personally ask you to suddenly start the car?"
"He said he liked my performance and gave the actor a real reaction. He asked me to formally shoot another unexpected action. He also said that I should be careful not to make dangerous moves..." The driver's voice became lower and lower as he spoke.
"He hints without leaving any excuses. He is really a director who will do whatever it takes to meet his shooting requirements." Ronald looked back at Alan Parker again, remembering that the taxi driver Bert reminded him that the director would not let the actors film.