"Helen, can you tell us how you got into Hollywood? We occasionally receive invitations to audition, but we are unsuccessful every time, so we would like to know more about your experience in this area."
At the event of the actors' theater company "Naked Angels" where Helen Slater and her best friend Helen Hunt collaborated, a red-haired girl raised her hand and asked Helen who was sharing her acting experience today.
Helen Slater's performance in "Sticky Fingers" made her understand the shallowness of her acting skills. She also slowly gave up the mentality of being anxious to show off her acting skills and began to act in some Off-Broadway theater companies in New York.
, and then share it on a voluntary basis with young people who are interested in Hollywood film and television creation.
"I originally just thought that I could film some TV series. When I gain experience, I might be able to appear in some medium-sized Hollywood productions. I never thought that I would be able to get the role of Supergirl." Helen was wearing a clean T-shirt.
Wearing glasses, he is very eye-catching and answers each other's questions in a leisurely manner.
"Well, you want to know how I won the audition? At that time, a friend of mine accompanied me to the audition. He had a crazy idea. He put on a Supergirl tights and went in as the character from the comics when he arrived at the audition.
.
He had a relative who sewed, and I was the first one to show up for the audition, which is usually the round where you're least likely to get a part, but apparently my surprise attack impressed the casting director, who was there for the next audition.
, can’t rule out the image of me wearing a Supergirl uniform.
So, have confidence in yourself, think of a way, and then do it, maybe your luck will come."
"Uh-huh..." From the corner of the scene, a tall handsome guy walked in, wearing the kind of aviator sunglasses from Top Gun and a New York Yankees baseball cap, and gave a reminder.
"Okay, we'll stop here today, and we'll continue next Tuesday." Helen hurriedly ended the naked angel's sharing, took the handsome guy's hand, and walked out of the rehearsal hall.
"Who is that?" Several members started chatting and gossiping.
"Who else, Ronald Lee? You don't think that Helen really got so many roles by luck, do you? Do you think that her acting skills are outstanding, so the director appreciates her?"
"You can't say that. I watched her latest movie Sticky Fingers and her acting skills were pretty good."
"That was recently. If you go and watch the original 'The Legend of Billie King', ugh... what we really need to learn is not her acting skills."
…
"This is a little gift for you," Ronald said to Helen Slater when he arrived at the apartment he rented, pointing to the Yamaha piano placed in the corner.
Helen is an independent-minded person and is unwilling to accept high-priced gifts from Ronald or accept real estate such as apartments. She also has low material requirements and can often attend premieres wearing only homely clothes.
So Ronald gave her some gifts that he liked, such as this piano made in Japan, which occupies a small area and is of good quality. It just so happened that Helen had been trained in jazz music since she was a child and could now resume her old career.
"Oh, thank you." Helen was overjoyed. Ronald could still remember her hobbies in high school. With her heart filled with sweetness, she sat in front of the piano, opened the cover, played a jazz melody, and then sang.
"It's raining in the park, buy coffee for two people and tickets to the Yankees game at noon, this is New York in June..."
"Hmm... very good. Is this a song you wrote yourself? What's its name?" Ronald listened to one next to him. The melody and improvisation were complete. With his little knowledge of music, it seemed to be jazz.
Improvisational singing that is common here.
"Hahaha, I sang it impromptu. Well, what's it called? Maybe it's New York in June."
"It's really good. Have you ever thought about releasing a record?"
"No, but it's a good idea. Do you really think I can release an album at my level?"
"Why not give it a try? I can ask for you."
"My dear, you are so kind. But now I have to concentrate on preparing for the performance of 'To the Deepest Love'."
Helen talked about her preparations for the new movie over the past month and took notes. Next to the TV in the apartment there was a pile of video tapes of teenage romantic dramas.
Ronald smiled and nodded. In fact, this movie does not require too much acting skills. The appearance and temperament of Helen are very suitable, and the acting skills are enough. However, it is also a good thing to be able to concentrate on learning and thinking about acting skills, instead of relying only on methodical empathy methods.
When it comes to acting, it’s not good to show real emotions.
"Well...Ronald..." Helen raised her head, held up Ronald who was holding her shoulders and kissed her. Ronald was a child from a poor family. He didn't know the piano, an instrument that required investment, and couldn't play with herself.
If there was a four-hand combo, then I had to take the initiative. After not seeing each other for so many days, Helen could only feel a warmth coming up in her lower abdomen, stimulated by Ronald's masculine scent.
With a "squeak" sound, Helen was picked up by Ronald and leaned against the piano. She emitted a string of weird melodies without chords, and then made a loud bang with a clang.
"Oh, please be gentle, we need to find someone to tune it."
"It's okay." Ronald simply picked up Helen, only touching some black keys. With the chord combination of the black keys, Helen also improvised a piece of jazz again.
Helen had already gone to Los Angeles to join the crew in preparation and rehearsal. Just when she had agreed on a time with Cameron Crowe, the Writers Guild and the Producers Union broke down again. The strike continued, and Daydream applied.
The strike exemption was not approved and the crew was suspended.
The two had no choice but to stay in New York, and Ronald was looking for connections to try to start work as soon as possible.
After taking a shower, Helen put on a very simple dress and no makeup, and took Ronald to have dinner at her father Gerald's big house on the Upper East Side of Central Park.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Gerald’s current wife and children respect Helen more and more, and treat her as a real movie star at the dinner table.
"I'm going to make coffee for you." Helen's stepmother took her and they went to the kitchen to whisper. Helen, who had always been very well-behaved in both families, now gets along well with her father's new wife.
"Drink something good. My friend brought it from Bordeaux." Gerald also went to the study with Ronald and took out an unlabeled glass bottle. Inside was the brandy brewed by the owner of the Bordeaux winery. He
A gift I received when I went to France to buy TV series.
"Why didn't it pass this time? When I held a meeting at the Los Angeles Producers Alliance, basically all the producers agreed to the conditions proposed by the new mediator. The Writers Guild has not started work for almost three months.
They can’t even eat, right?”
Ronald took a sip of brandy. This time the strike negotiations failed again, which was indeed beyond his and other Hollywood people's expectations. However, after the Writers Guild voted against the new agreement, mainly the Eastern Writers Union, he came this time
, I also want to pay a special visit to Gerald Slater and ask this veteran TV station expert what the problem is.
This time, the Producers Alliance came up with the "Final (This Time Real) Solution to the Strike" in early June. It can be said that based on the last time, it made some nominal concessions to the screenwriters' requirements.
This includes extending the contract period from three years to four years so that the screenwriters have better protection and the management reduces the frequency of negotiations. It also includes expanding creative rights and giving the screenwriters some rights to participate in the early preparation stages.
Originally, everyone was very optimistic that the negotiation would result, and at least they would be able to obtain exemptions for most new Hollywood films. Who knew that in the voting last weekend, the final vote count was still two to one.
The majority of screenwriters in the Western Writers Guild have already voted in favor of ending the strike and passing a new labor agreement. While the number of people in the Eastern Union is much larger than that in the West, the vote there was still overwhelmingly in favor of continuing the strike.
The producers were a bit confused about their loss, and wondered if someone was playing tricks on the Eastern Writers Guild vote. Ronald also couldn't figure it out, so I sincerely ask for advice.
"Have you ever seen the voting ratios of the two unions?" Seeing Ronald nod, Gerald took out a copy of the new agreement and handed it to Ronald. On the second page of the summary, he used
The pen marked out a paragraph heavily.
"The remaining dividends for movies and TV series will still be based on the 1985 sharing ratio basis. Only movies and TV programs of more than one hour can receive dividends from national television networks and foreign TV stations."
"I still don't understand, most movies are more than ninety minutes, why is this one so important?" Ronald saw the words "more than an hour" and Gerald also put an asterisk.
"You don't watch TV much, do you?" Gerald smiled.
"I don't watch it very much." Ronald admitted that he would watch videos of classic movies whenever he had time to study their techniques.
"Most talk shows, soap operas, TV series, and talk shows are just under one hour, don't you think about it?"
"Huh?" Ronald suddenly realized that this was indeed the case. The reason why the Eastern Writers Guild has much more members than the Western Guild is because they mainly serve television and radio stations.
It's not for Broadway, as Ronald thought.
This clause is a key point in the negotiations for several major public television stations and is the most critical clause for them in the new labor agreement.
If it is retained, the dividends the screenwriter will receive will be much less.
Imagine, for example, Oprah Winfrey, a black female host who now comes out of a local TV station in Chicago. Since 1987, the "Oprah Winfrey Talk Show" has been syndicated across the country.
TV network broadcast. Compared with her original income from local TV stations, her personal income increased by forty times.
But all this money belongs to the program producer, Oprah Winfrey, a fat woman who likes to sensationalize on TV. Her writing team will not get a penny in dividends, so she proposed
A salary increase also depends on the boss's attitude.
This is the power of this clause. That talk show, minus the commercial time, was actually less than an hour long.
Therefore, there is a request to amend this clause. As long as the program is less than one hour long and is broadcast nationally, the screenwriters can also receive dividends. This has been received by the three major wireless television networks, as well as Fox and Paramount, which have their own television businesses.
Studio objections.
"It's dog-eat-dog time now, Ronald. We all stood on the river bank, watching the two groups of vicious dogs biting each other by the river. The losing party was either eaten by the same kind or was driven down the river.
,disappear in this line.”
"But a pack of dogs biting each other is detrimental to the long-term development of the entire industry." Ronald shook his head, he didn't like this kind of thing.
The dogs Gerrard is talking about are about to fall into the river, which are the independent producers in Hollywood. They have been dragged down by the strike and have high financial costs. If they are pushed again, they are likely to go bankrupt.
The vicious dogs that eat each other are the backbone screenwriters who are struggling to survive. The strike has been going on for three months, and they haven’t taken home a penny of pay. The newbies at the bottom have run away. These backbones feel that they can still resume work.
hope, so I still persevere.
With the savings of an ordinary American family and the meager income from screenwriter work, Ronald felt that soon they would not even be able to take out the valuable things they took to the pawn shop, and maybe in a few weeks, they would have to mortgage their house. This kind of thing
, it is a great harm to the entire talent training. If these people leave this industry sadly, they will never come back.
"So, are you so sure about the TV drama industry? The Writers Guild must have collapsed first?" Ronald didn't know what the TV station's executives were thinking. Not one new TV series has been filmed in three months. Is it possible that a new TV series is about to arrive?
Ji, are they still fooling us with replays?
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Of course not, many medium-sized local TV stations and medium-sized TV drama projects are now on the verge of collapse, but... New York's Midtown, from Fifth Avenue to Eleventh Avenue
The people there, like those in downtown Wall Street, like crises more than they fear them."
"Well, are you trying to take the opportunity to annex those small and medium-sized TV stations and production companies?" Ronald was prompted by Gerald, and he understood. The current Producers Alliance is also divided like the Writers Guild.
The film industry, which has a numerical advantage in the Producers Alliance, wants to end the strike as soon as possible, while the large television networks, which have few votes, want to wait.
Therefore, these giant television networks, in order to continue the strike, secretly supported the Eastern Writers Guild - most of the screenwriters who wrote scripts for the network, and strongly opposed themselves.
"Damn capitalists." Ronald cursed.
"Huh??" Gerald was stunned.
"I'm talking about those Wall Street capitalists who instigated TV stations to artificially prolong the crisis." Ronald found that this sentence could easily cause misunderstanding, so he immediately explained a few words.
“Do you have any spare production capacity here, or a production company that is not regulated by the Writers Guild of America?”
"Huh? Of course I do, what kind do you need?" Ronald thought to himself, does Gerald have any production work that he wants to subcontract to himself?
"There are also differences among the three major TV networks. NBC is the toughest. ABC and Paramount do not have the kind of talk shows to fill their time slots. These TV stations, which use TV series as their main weapon to attract viewers, actually want the strike to end as soon as possible.
It's just that it's inconvenient for them due to some rules of TV station management.
The general manager of ABC came to me. The old TV series they bought from CBS some time ago, The Big Deal, had good ratings, so they came up with the idea of making a new version. He came to me and wanted to take advantage of my relationship with the BBC in purchasing TV series.
We have established a good relationship and collaborated with a British television production company to film the film.
But now the BBC, and ITV people are raising prices, are there any other places here that have English production capabilities?" Gerald took a sip of wine, if he could find a better quality and cheaper one with Ronald, which would not be affected by screenwriters.
The production capabilities under the jurisdiction of the association are very profitable."
"Don't tell me, I really do." Ronald thought of Mr. Crocodile Dundee and Paul Hogan, who had promised to make sure he could live well. If he wanted to film in Australia, he would ask him to take care of everything.