Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Few people believe that a little bit of simulation of the movement of a live-action movie camera will bring any benefits to animated films.

But Ronald knew that this technique was very useful for

Although if you look closely it is actually hidden and you can see the photographer, this shot is still very popular with the audience. This can give people a sense of dizziness, and can give the audience a feeling of release when they experience ups and downs of emotions and are about to reach a climax.

But this kind of shooting method has been shot in live-action movies before. Children are rarely seen as an audience for cartoons. In addition, parents will also feel a sense of novelty when they see similar scenes in cartoons.

Those audiences who applauded for ten minutes at the internal screening of the New York Film Festival were not invited. In fact, America does not have the tradition of applauding for a long time. This was completely spontaneous by the audience, which was a very good signal, so much so that Ronald was more confident than the people at Disney.

Ronald, who stayed in New York, also attended the premiere of a movie. That was the "cityslickers" that Helen Slater was involved with.

The movie was directed and starred by Billy Crystal. Although the format imitates John Wayne's movie "The Boys", the audience can't tell it at all because the drama was changed into a comedy.

Helen plays an urban literary young woman in it, and her appearance is very good. It’s just that there were relatively few scenes, and some of the emotional scenes that were filmed were cut out by director Christo due to time constraints.

"Hey, it's a pity. I thought my performance had improved and I might be able to compete for this year's awards..."

Helen returned home and began to sigh. All movie actors, especially female stars, have an instinctive comparison mentality regarding their screen time and the number of close-ups.

"My dear, this is the director's choice, because it has to meet the length requirements of the theater release. In fact, your performance is really good, much better than the previous comedies you performed..."

What Ronald said to Helen was not a lie. In her previous films "Ruthless People" and "Happy Together", her acting skills were always a bit artificial.

But in this play, she was much more relaxed, and the audience didn't feel like they were watching a rehearsal for a stage play. The character was very close to the image of an artistic young woman in the audience's mind, and no faults could be found.

Of course, acting is a contradiction of finding dramatic conflict in similarity. Helen's acting is only similar, not impressive enough to be memorable.

However, women still have to be coaxed. Ronald knew that in addition to having less scenes, he did not appear side by side with her at the premiere, which was also an important reason for Helen's unhappiness.

"Will you be free tomorrow?"

"Where to go?" Helen cheered up and did not let these small problems affect her emotions. She now does a lot of drama practice and teaches amateur actors in the actors' troupe, and her mentality is much better than before.

This may also be the reason why her acting skills have improved. Teaching others the principles of acting is actually a process of self-examination of improvement. At least when you let others relax, you will also become relaxed.

"I made an appointment with someone to discuss cooperation. You can go with me..."

…

"Yeah, this is where Michael Jackson recorded?"

"Ha, that's not it. J has a dedicated recording studio. Our president has stipulated that J has unlimited priority. This is for recording some second- and third-tier singers, and everyone has to take turns using it." The speaker was a black man from Columbia Records. Veteran jazz producer.

"Oh, this is great, I didn't expect to be able to record here..." Helen has been fascinated by jazz piano and vocals since she was a child.

Training, and before making movies, I had a development path as a singer.

"What does it smell like?" Helen smelled a strange smell when she entered the recording studio. It was very overpowering.

"Fuck, those little bastards are here again... Sorry, there was a new black rapper recording here. They don't understand any rules and made this place a mess. They're all from Chicago. You know, low-level singers, if you have a street background, you are not afraid of anything. I apologize to you, but we should go over there to meet your band..."

The producer closed the door and ordered the ventilation fan to be turned on. He personally accompanied Ronald and Helen to another conference room, where there were already six gray-haired black musicians waiting. It turned out that they were all famous jazz musicians from New York. Accompanied by singers. It's just that black people now prefer rap. It's been a long time since they've received such a message from a rich man who spends a lot of money and wants to record a record with a beautiful woman. Everyone is very excited and wants to catch the fat sheep and make a small fortune.

"He came like a shadow into my room. His eyes like the sea made me find myself..." Helen went up and played and sang a song of her own composition and lyrics, "Touch lightly and leave. ”.

The six musicians looked at each other in surprise, and then joined in the improvisational accompaniment one by one, making it very emotional.

After the song ended, Ronald touched his nose, as if the lyrics were sung to himself, and then he began to applaud, and the six musicians stood up and took off their hats to Helen.

"We originally thought you were here for fun, but we didn't expect you were good enough to record immediately. It's been a long time since we heard a white person singing improvised jazz..."

"Really?" Helen is happiest when professionals praise her professional abilities.

"Yes, and you can record one song to the end. Unlike those young black people who can only record some sentences separately, their interpretation skills are not good. The last white girl who could sing a song from beginning to end was, ahem, a female singer. , or Karen Carpenter..."

"Hahaha……"

When Ronald saw that Helen was happy, he encouraged them to try recording a song to see the effect. Then he went to talk to the producer just now about the main purpose of the trip. He wanted to cooperate with Columbia Records to produce a soundtrack for a classic British movie. album.

In white middle-class families, many people are still interested in light music, and they will play it at parties and dinners to create an ambience. The soundtrack of famous passages from old movies is perfect for this kind of music.

As a filmmaker, there are also many opportunities for collaboration. Now that Ronald has a better relationship with Sony, he wants to put future soundtrack albums on Sony Columbia for distribution, such as the newly successful "Dances with Wolves", "Silence of the Lambs", and "Other People's Money" "etc.

While Ronald was chatting with the producer, the door of the conference room suddenly opened and a loving Italian man walked in.

"Director Li, I am your fan. You chose Columbia as your long-term partner for the original soundtrack. That is really the wisest choice..."

"This is President Motura..." The producer stood up and introduced Ronald.

"Hello..." Ronald knew that this was the American he trusted most after Sony acquired Columbia Records. Last year, Yetnikov, a major figure in mergers and acquisitions, was replaced as CEO of the record company.

"I'm sorry, I've been busy with J's new album recently, and I didn't come to say hello to you just now. Fortunately, you haven't left yet, so you can give me a chance to pay tribute to you... Your Dirty Dancing album created a miracle. , I sold it that year, hahaha..." The CEO's words were very charming, which made people put down their guard and create a sense of intimacy.

Nowadays, movies and music, through the medium of video tape, tend to work closely together and even merge. A movie brings not only video tapes and TV reruns, but also the salaries of stars who star in it. The recording industry also likes this kind of low-cost works. Although it has to be shared with the movie, the production cost is also low, so the profit is still considerable. Motula cannot underestimate this source of wealth.

"Mr. Motula..."

"Call me Tommy..." Motura was very satisfied with the content of the contract and came over in person to express his intimacy with Ronald. The two sing together in Hollywood now

Cooperation in the film industry discussed some general trends.

"We will have more cooperation like this in the future. Columbia Records' previous cooperation with Hollywood was very annoying due to the packaging business. This kind of direct cooperation is more suitable."

"Are you also troubled by CAA's packaging business?" Ronald heard something interesting.

"Ovitz is a very ambitious agent. He has stretched his hands a bit too far recently and has attracted many clients from the record industry... We also have to deal with him..."

Motura told Ronald that Ovitz's expansion in the music industry was far smoother than the attacks he received in the advertising industry.

This year he signed a management contract with an important music producer, David Geffen of Geffen Records. This producer with a wide range of interests sold the Geffen Records label he founded to Panasonic CA, and now he has also signed his management contract with Ovitz.

Ovitz's biggest achievement as a singer was the rock star Madonna. This is him

"The director actually loves and hates Ovitz's packaging system. What he loves is that it is convenient and the project success rate is high. What he hates is that it deprives some of the freedom of creation and casting..."

"It's all the same. They like to use packaging to create monopolies..."

…

It was not convenient to go too deep into this topic, so Motula asked again:

"Have arrangements been made for Miss Slater's recording?"

"We're trying to record. I asked the guys who accompanied Bing Crosby to come in..."

"very good……"

Everyone was walking and chatting. When they arrived at the recording studio, Helen had just finished the trial recording. Motura personally picked up the headphones and listened for a while, "Very good, great... Miss Slater's voice is very distinctive. You might as well consider a career in the record industry." develop……"

Helen made a gesture of thanks very obediently, which made Motura's eyes light up. This beauty's singing was very average, and she didn't have any potential to become famous. However, her temperament was first-class, completely different from those beauties in the record industry. At first glance, it was obvious Raised in a good family.

When he saw Helen giving Ronald a sweet kiss, he immediately looked understanding and looked up to Ronald. I don’t know how Hollywood does it, but in the record industry, a good producer is a producer who can handle female singers.

…

"Is Ovitz making big moves now?" In the evening, Ronald and Richard were talking on the confidential line. "I heard that he signed two big names in the music industry..."

"Yes, although Madonna really wants to make movies, her value in music is much higher. David Geffen's company sold for 800 million. He signed the contract mainly to save trouble. His interest gradually shifted to modern art collection ..."

"This guy..." Ronald thought of the eight paintings he had tricked him into buying, and then left them in the basement to collect dust.

Richard thought he was talking about Ovitz, "He opened up many new fronts. In addition to the record industry, he also broke into the corner of Proserv, the largest management company in the sports world, and brought in the famous college basketball coach Tubby Smith. It was dug up.

The industry with the strongest proserv power is tennis, where big consumer goods companies like to be spokespersons. Ovitz wants to enter the sports agent business.

"If he doesn't fight with us and opens up a new front, we can get along peacefully." Ronald thought to himself, maybe after losing the battle for Coca-Cola advertising, Ovitz switched to an easier one. Has the industry developed?

"Perhaps he has figured out that the core competitiveness of CAA is to provide brokerage services to customers, not advertising business..."

"This is best..."

…

"George..."

After making the call, Ronald saw little Doug and little George, the eldest son of the commander-in-chief, waiting for him in the living room for a few minutes. "You should have informed me right away, Helen." Isn't it a little bit to let the commander-in-chief's son wait for him? Too much?

"Haha, Ronald, don't be like this, I don't want to disturb you..."

Little George happily came up and hugged Ronald, "Your business

It’s getting bigger and bigger, and the company has acquired such a large film library. As a shareholder, you should wait..."

"It's our business..." Ronald corrected with a smile, "This is our company's third quarter operating report, take a look."

As he spoke, he handed over a report, which was the operating status of the anonymous limited liability company registered in Delaware.

Little George was delighted as he watched the tens of millions of dollars in purchases. This kind of corporate business is the favorite of children from political families like him. It has strong monopoly, good security, no leakage of information, and no business risks. Especially things like film libraries, which can generate cash flow every year through TV broadcast licensing and video tape business, are simply better investments than oil.

After all, the film library will not risk losing money due to the rise and fall of oil prices. If some movies in the film library are chosen to be remade, there will also be licensing fees, which are assets that can be passed down to family members.

There are also some British classics in the library, including the rights to some of the films Hitchcock shot while he was in Britain. You know, Hitchcock's legacy to his only daughter was the copyright to eight movies.

"I hope you are satisfied with the company's operations, Mr. Shareholder." Ronald motioned to little George to watch until the end.

"I'm very satisfied..." George didn't really know how to read operating reports, but the dividend check in the last envelope made him very satisfied!

"My father will be running for re-election next year. I hope you can shoot a campaign advertisement for him..." After putting the envelope into his coat pocket, little George thought of something again and said.

"Then it depends on who Ms. Barbara will give the campaign business to..." Ronald knew that little George wanted another chance to show his face. In the past year, he has appeared in Texas baseball team games, and the TV broadcasts seemed to have agreed to always give him a close-up shot.