Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"Ronald, have you seen the ratings of Seinfeld? Hahaha, it's skyrocketing."

"Well, congratulations, Bannon."

When Seinfeld was on, Ronald received a congratulatory call from Bannon, and he had no other ideas.

The ratings are a mystery. Last year, only five episodes were shot. After the re-screening this year, it received nearly 18 million viewers, which is higher than the French Open.

Of course, this result cannot be directly compared with the hardcore results of the French Open. Because Seinfeld is in the good time slot of 9:30 pm on Thursday, while the French Open is in the time slot after 10 pm on Tuesday. Tuesday is the day with the lowest ratings in the week, and there are no popular programs earlier. It is all due to the strength of the French Open.

The Thursday of Seinfeld has always been the broadcast time of popular TV series. The prime time of 8:30 is the one that has been

The "Seinfeld" that was originally the successor of "Working Girls" can be moved to this good time slot, which is also due to luck. This year, NBC's cancelled series hit a new high. "Seinfeld", which was supposed to fill the time slot of "Working Girls", had only five episodes, so it was a blessing in disguise to fill the prime time slot.

Sometimes, it's just a matter of luck. If "Working Girls" had better data and could survive until this weekend, there would be hope to take over this popular slot. But things are unpredictable. Now we can only watch Seinfeld get good reviews and wait for the renewal next year.

"Congratulations to us, Ronald. Hahaha." Bannon's TV series has come back to life, and he also congratulated Ronald, one of the investors. Of course, the renewed series next year will get more investment. The two of them

"Okay, do you want to come? The refined cut of The Silence of the Lambs is ready, we can see how it's filmed." Ronald changed the subject, not wanting to talk about this painful topic anymore.

"Hey? Tell me the address, I'll come over." Bannon, who also invested in the two movies Ronald invested in this year, was immediately interested. He put down the phone and came to the screening room rented by Daydream in New York.

…

"Jonathan... you've worked hard..." Ronald looked at the tired director Jonathan Demme, stepped forward to shake hands and hug him. The filming of "The Silence of the Lambs" was completed at the beginning of the year, but Jonathan Demme put a lot of effort into editing, which was not completed until recently.

"I hope I can impress the distributor..." Demme smiled. This movie and "Dances with Wolves" were both abandoned by Orion. How the richest man Kluge gave money to Orion in the past few years, and now he let him go bankrupt just like that...

Fortunately, Ronald gave him a guarantee that the movie would be released in mainstream theaters in America, and that he would do some publicity for the Oscars to get a nomination. Others don't know, but he knows that Ronald is a man of his words.

In order to be favored by major distributors and get a better schedule, Jonathan Demme also put a lot of energy into post-production for "The Silence of the Lambs". We made the movie a fine product, so that the distributors will definitely like it.

All the people present were senior executives of Daydream, including Ronald and Bannon. The Pleiades, which consisted of seven stars, appeared on the screen, and then the stars formed a circle and rotated rapidly. The only trace of Orion in this movie was this logo.

After Ronald's Daydream and the logo of Jonathan Demme's production company passed, a gray-white forest appeared on the screen, with heavy mist above, giving people a heavy and mysterious feeling, as if some monster was about to jump out of the mist.

Then the names of the two leading actors appeared, and Jodie Foster, who had won the Best Actress Award, was ranked first.

The camera moved slowly, then sank down, and Jodie Foster jumped out of the mist in the distance and ran towards the audience with all her strength.

An indescribable emotion rose in the hearts of all the audience. Everyone looked at Director Demme. Such an ordinary picture could actually stir people's emotions. The director's skills were very superb.

"Oh, my God..."

Ronald was an expert and knew at a glance that this was the highest level of performance in Hollywood. Even Jonathan Demme can't always shoot at this level.

"This is..." Ronald turned around and asked Demme.

The reason why this scene is so catchy is not only the credit of the lens, but also the very hard music in the background, which is very German, monotonous, boring, heavy, and has a hidden crisis. And this recording obviously has the performance of the musicians, not the kind of remix of the stable studio recording.

"Howard Shore went to the Munich Symphony Orchestra to record it. I made special requirements for the composition. The effect is very good, isn't it? Ordinary audiences will never notice the music, but it gives you the feeling I want together with the picture."

Jonathan Demme talked about the process. This kind of soundtrack method is also rare. Howard Shore is his old partner, knows his ideas, and has connections in Germany. He can mobilize a professional symphony orchestra to record it at the end of the summer season.

Those serious criminals who walked along the way made people guarded, but when they came to Hannibal, the music suddenly became a little elegant and even cheerful.

Hannibal, played by Hopkins, is surprisingly gentle and refined. He is intoxicated by the scent of Starling's perfume and the slight surge of hormones that occurs after he enters his boring cell through the air vents on the plexiglass partition wall.

Here, Jonathan Demme used a close-up shot of the conversation between the two actors, which not only solved the performance problem caused by the discord between the two actors, but also used an audio-visual language that Hollywood moviegoers were not familiar with to express the conversation.

The key point of a thriller is to gradually hint to the audience that "something is wrong" in the normal plot advancement. Hannibal, played by Anthony Hopkins, gradually analyzed the background of Starling, played by Jodie Foster, and her sinister intention of being used by her boss to exchange her beauty for clues. In the end, he also analyzed the psychological shadow that Starling suffered in her childhood, which caused the psychological cause of her current desperate efforts to climb up.

Ronald felt panic in his heart when he saw it. This was a good sign. He, a professional, looked very uncomfortable, and ordinary audiences felt even more uncomfortable.

"Ah..."

When Starling and Hannibal finished talking and walked out of the cell, another serial killer on the road suddenly threw a sticky liquid on Starling's face.

Claudia Wells, the manager of the Daydream distribution department and the former actor in Back to the Future, screamed out in fear.

This is considered a sudden shock in a thriller, as if someone suddenly jumped out on a dark road to scare you. Originally, it was a low-level method in horror movies. But with the strong foreshadowing in the front, the audience's feelings of discomfort have accumulated to a certain extent, and it is a good use to vent now.

"Ah!"

Claudia Wells screamed out in fear again. Hannibal took the opportunity to meet the senator, the mother of the kidnapped girl, at the airport, stole the refill of the ballpoint pen, and opened the handcuffs.

Then he handcuffed the prison guard who was guarding him to the iron railing and beat him to death one by one. This scene was very terrifying. Jonathan Demme actually used a symphony to accompany it. It seemed that for Hannibal, this was an elegant behavior.

Ronald silently took out a handkerchief to wipe his sweat. Jonathan Demme used a close-up shot. The close-up shot of Anthony Hopkins with blood all over his mouth was really bladder-scarce.

By the last scene, Hannibal escapes and kidnaps Buffalo Bill, the senator's daughter, misleading the FBI and everyone into thinking he is in Illinois.

Only Starling finds Buffalo Bill's

The house raided by the FBI in Illinois is empty, and only Starling finds the place where the victim is actually being held. She knocks on the door and it is James Gamble who answers the door.

Starling finds the ghost moth found on the victim in the room, and she realizes that the man is "Buffalo Bill". Gamble turns off the power and puts on night vision goggles to hunt Starling. In the breathtaking

When Buffalo Bill raises his gun to kill Starling, most of the audience fidgets and starts moving their butts. Even Bannon, a Wall Street banker, begins to mutter, "God, God, turn around, Starling, turn around..."

Finally, Buffalo Bill's voice gives him away when he pulls the trigger on his revolver. Starling reacted quickly, turned around and poured all the bullets into Buffalo Bill's body, killing him.

The movie ended with a shot of Hannibal, who had already arrived in the Bahamas, calling Starling to say hello at the FBI celebration party.

"Huh..." Ronald also felt his heart pounding. This ending really made people's hearts, which had just been put down, hang again. The rhythm of the editing was very good, and the audience was in a state of being carefully led by the director from beginning to end.

"Pa pa pa..." It was still Ronald who took the lead in applauding, causing those colleagues who had not yet recovered from the movie to burst into applause and pay tribute to Jonathan Demme.

"Then the last shot was shot in the Bahamas, right?" Ronald asked Jonathan Demme.

"Yes..." Demme's film philosophy is that every detail should make the audience feel sophisticated. You can't let the audience lose interest in some details just to save a little money. So for the last shot, the crew went to the Bahamas to shoot.

"Where did those ghost moths come from? They look real to me, not fake moths made of props." Bannon also came over to ask. The scene of finding a large number of ghost moths in Buffalo Bill's house was really terrifying.

"Three hundred tobacco hornworms were provided by the University of Virginia. Our props carefully painted the patterns of Asian ghost moths on some of them..."

"Too scary, those needlework shots..." Claudia Wells was so scared that she cried and her makeup was ruined.

"This is a masterpiece..." Ronald sighed. The painful thing was that he didn't have the resources to promote two movies at the same time. And it would be a pity if such an excellent movie could not be distributed on a large scale by a big studio.

"Jonathan, I want to talk to you alone."

Ronald asked everyone to leave, and he talked to Jonathan Demme about some distribution issues alone.

Ronald wanted to take this finished film to negotiate with Columbia, Disney and other big studios with which he had a good relationship. If such a good movie wants to leave an impact on the box office and film history, it must have a big studio to take out the resources to schedule it and make a large-scale distribution.

This is different from the directorial debut of "Dances with Wolves". This is a work of a mature director, a work at the peak of his art. To put it bluntly, Jonathan Demme may not be able to shoot such a high-level work in the future.

Sometimes, the quality of a movie depends on the right time, right place, and right people. In the future, we may not be able to gather actors like Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins who fit the role, or we may not find full support like the FBI to lend them a real office space for filming. We may not find the Munich Symphony Orchestra to perform such a soundtrack live.

Not wanting such a masterpiece to be regretted because of Daydream's relatively weak distribution ability, Ronald asked Jonathan Demme:

"Can you promise to postpone the screening until next year? I will go to Columbia and Disney to ask for help myself."

"This..." Jonathan Demme was a little touched. This was Ronald using his face to fight for better marketing and distribution for him.

"There is one thing. If we go to talk now, we may not get the summer schedule that is most favorable for the box office, and the end of the year schedule that is most favorable for awards. Of course, I promise that my company will devote as many resources as possible to publicize the Oscar nomination for this movie."

"Hey, this is the best result relatively speaking. Thank you, Ronald." Jonathan Demme was originally very dissatisfied with Orion's approach. Now Ronald helped him do it, which can be said to be no worse than what Orion can do.

"Okay, I'll make an appointment and we'll go door-to-door to promote it." Ronald clapped his hands. For a movie of this quality, it is very cost-effective to lose some of his own false reputation.

"Come in..." Ronald opened the door and let his colleagues outside in, and then announced his decision. The employees of Daydream also cheered and high-fived. This movie can scare them so much. It is definitely a work with great potential at the box office.

"Ronald... um..."

Richard just walked in and was a little confused when he saw the people cheering suddenly.

"What's the matter?" Ronald helped him out.

"Ghost's box office is coming again

When it was first released, Ghost didn't receive very good reviews. But with the national movie-watching craze today, they had to change their tune and write new reviews to praise the movie.

"The era of new female stars dominating Hollywood has arrived..."

In the Los Angeles Times, an article appeared that fully praised the two romantic comedies of this year.

"Ghost" and "Pretty Woman" will be ranked as the two hottest movies of the 1990s. Ronald Lee and Garry Marshall eloquently proved that "relatively cheap romantic fantasy films" have the same huge box office potential as the more expensive "fantasy adventure films."

And women have played a greater influence on movie-watching habits. The domestic box office trend of "Ghost" is expected to exceed $200 million.