Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 316 Another Ballet Girl

Ronald took a look at the audition photo Eddie handed him, and the girl in the photo smiled at him.Ronald was in a daze for a moment.

In the photo is a very beautiful girl, a different kind of beauty.

Compared with a girl from a wealthy family like Helen Slater, her beauty is closer to ordinary people in America.

Slightly curly red hair, a small nose, plus two very energetic long eyes, and two dimples appear on the cheeks when he smiles.

Really fit a Burger King ad, she's more of a regular girl next door than Elizabeth Sue.This is exactly the kind of pretty girl you see in normal people's neighborhoods.

I was born in a small town, studied in a big city, and worked as a part-time fast food server to earn tuition.As soon as the girl looks over, the audience will think of these backgrounds.It looks like Eddie isn't promoting unsuitable actors for his own commissions.

and……

Except for the color of her hair, the girl resembles an old friend of mine.

"Doesn't it look like Antonia?" Eddie said to Ronald. "Her resume looks like her too."

"Ah."

The girl was indeed a resemblance to Antonia Franceschi, Ronald's ex-girlfriend, famous lead actress, and now a member of the New York City Ballet.

Underneath the girl's photo was the name, Lea Thompson.

Ronald flipped through the audition photos, with a short resume pasted behind them.

"20 years old, native of Minnesota. Received a scholarship from the San Francisco Ballet and the American Ballet Company. Just retired from ballet and turned to acting." Eddie introduced the situation of the girl beside her.

"Ask her to try the mirror." Ronald glanced at Eddie, not on purpose.

Ronald was in his early twenties, making blockbuster hits, and CAA's Nisita had warned him that many brokers were actually doing other kinds of "matchmaking" too.

Beautiful girls in showbiz ask powerful people for opportunities, or money in return, through their agents, and then give something.

"Li, are you free? Come to my office for an audition tomorrow." Eddie was calling Li Thompson, "It's not a print ad, it's a TV ad. Yes, it's from a big company and invited a famous director."

"I asked her to audition tomorrow."

Seeing that Eddie didn't mention any terms of exchange, Ronald knew that he really couldn't bear to see this girl's talent wiped out as a model for a local supermarket's price-cut promotional advertisement, so he recommended it to himself.

"Okay, I'll come over tomorrow. Why doesn't she continue her ballet career? Is it because of the injury too?"

……

"No, I'm not hurt. It's..." Sitting in the audition office, Lee Thompson looked up at Ronald and Maguire, the director of the advertising agency, and then turned to her agent Eddie, "I must Want to talk?"

"It's okay, they just want to know your background." Eddie looked at Ronald.

"If it involves privacy, you don't have to say it. I just want to know why you no longer engage in ballet. You must know that being an actor is no less than paying less than ballet." Ronald was a little worried that this girl would give up because ballet was too hard .

Although there are only two lines in this advertisement, as an inexperienced actor, he may shoot many lines.If there is no hard preparation, the performance will easily fail to meet the director's requirements.

"I like ballet, and I got scholarships from two ballet companies." Li began to defend her dream. "I gave up because ... because NYC male chief Mikhail Baryshnikov said I had no talent."

The girl raised her head, her eyes sparkled, "He said I was too stocky."

"What's the evaluation? He himself is still a little guy who can't find a ballet partner." Ronald laughed angrily at the words of the ballet dancer who had defected from Sowell who relayed to Li.

Li was also amused by Ronald's words, and two dimples appeared on her cheeks again.

"I didn't know the director was Mr. Ronald Lee. I liked your 'Fast Pace' very much. I watched it twice."

"Put on this Burger King uniform, and familiarize yourself with the lines." Ronald handed over a Burger King hat and a page of lines, and then pointed to the dressing room to let Thompson pass.

"Okay." Lee Thompson put on her hat, went to the dressing room to change into overalls, straightened her hair in front of the mirror, and read her lines twice.

"Can we start?" Ronald pointed the camera at the emerging Thompson, then zoomed into close-up focus.

"Coast to West, as many as two-thirds of customers agree grilled is better than fried. Burger King, roast beef, McDonald's, fried beef."

"Okay, that's it. When we have a decision, Eddie will let you know." Ronald was actually very satisfied with Thompson's performance.

"Okay, thanks." Thompson was about to leave.

"By the way, have you ever worked at Burger King?" Ronald stopped Thompson and asked.

"No, but I worked at McDonald's back home in Minnesota."

"Okay, thank you. You can go." Ronald, who got a satisfactory answer, signaled Thompson to go.

"You don't think she's a bit of a celebrity..." Maguire asked about Eddie.

"Like Antonia?" Ronald answered, "Actually, I think Thompson's temperament of a commoner girl next door is very suitable for this advertisement. At first glance, she looks like a pretty girl you might meet at Burger King."

Soon Burger King expressed its satisfaction with the audition results, and thus confirmed Lee Thompson and Elizabeth Sue as the two actors for their new version of the advertisement.

……

"This girl is a natural actress." Ronald has praised Lea Thompson's acting talent several times since starting the commercial shooting.

"She didn't really learn acting before?" Ronald asked Eddie on the set.

"She just earned some small money, so she can afford to sign up for acting classes."

"Let's take a close-up of Li." Ronald ordered the photographer to start preparing.

The big close-up lens was replaced, and the photographer signaled that he was ready to shoot.

"Recording? Camera? Action!"

Ronald gave the order to shoot.

Facing the close-up, Lee Thompson took out a baseball glove and put it on her hand, and then began to throw and catch a baseball.

The camera slowly begins to zoom, slowly inching toward a close-up of Thompson's face.

"I know you're watching the baseball game, but I have some good news for you. In a coast-to-coast test, two-thirds of customers rated their beef burgers better grilled than fried.

Come to think of it, two out of three people love to bake.Burger King, grilled; McDonald's, fried.Remember to go to Burger King after watching the baseball game. "

"Cut!"

Ronald was very satisfied, and Li made the boring commercials interesting.The rhythm and mood of the lines are very good, and every accent is just on the point.

"Very well, the one for Elizabeth Sue is next. Let Lisa get ready."

"Director, how was my filming?" Lee Thompson came over and asked Ronald about his performance.Her dimples reappeared on her cheeks.

Ronald took a closer look at Lee Thompson's face. There was a depression under the cheekbones, which gave her a three-dimensional face. There was not much difference between the left and right sides, and she was indeed suitable for being an actor.

"Not bad." Ronald replied, "You should be able to see this advertisement on major TV stations in the near future."

Next up is the shot of Elizabeth Sue.She came over from Wellesley College specifically to shoot this ad.

"On this weekend, if you order a Whopper from Burger King, as long as you say 'grilled is better than fried', you can get another free Whopper." Elizabeth Sue brought out two "Whoppers" from Burger King, facing the camera Said.

With the experience of shooting chewing gum last time, Elizabeth also did well.

"Director, your movie is very popular now." Elizabeth Su's mother said to Ronald.

"Thank you."

Unlike Thompson, Elizabeth had been admitted to Wesleyan College for Women.There is also a big difference between the two in their ambitions for acting.Elizabeth is now shooting commercials to earn money for extracurricular activities.At an Ivy League-level girls' school, classmates also have a lot of comparisons, such as going skiing in Vermont during the holidays.

"Director, how was my filming?" Elizabeth Su jumped over to ask Ronald after the filming was over.

"Not bad. You should be able to see this advertisement on major TV stations soon."

Maybe Su's mother didn't have strong ambitions for her daughter's career as an actress. Ronald made a correction in his mind. Elizabeth Su still cared more about her photogenic image.Who among the beautiful girls of this age has never dreamed of being a star?

But her mother's plan was also normal.Going to college is very important for children in ordinary families.

Helen Slater had a hard time discussing with her parents that after graduating from high school this year, she would not choose a university and take a gap year (Gap Year) to try acting as a career.For an actress, youth is short, and if it takes four years to go to college, many opportunities will be missed.

Two actors, Thompson and Sue, wearing Burger King uniforms, chirped next to them.Both are young actors in their [-]s and [-]s, and the two of them have a lot to talk about.

Next up Ronald is going to take some close-ups of the different ways the two types of beef are roasted and seared.

"The heat and bubbling of this roast beef are not enough, and it doesn't stand out from frying." Ronald looked at the scene of Burger King's kitchen set up in the studio, and was not satisfied.

"Turn up the flame on this fire-burning gas stove so that the flames will pop out and be seen by the camera."

"This will burn the beef." The staff reminded.

"I don't care about this. I don't want to eat, I want to take good pictures." Ronald squinted at the other party. As long as the shots are good, he doesn't care whether the beef patties are burnt or not.

The strong flame was so high that it had surpassed the grill, making the beef patties squeak, and the juice on them was bubbling.

"The shooting is very emotional." Darcy Maguire sat in the post-production room and looked at the samples taken by Ronald.

"Is this really okay?" Eddie pointed to the words McDonald's written on the monitor, and the beef patty used for comparison was fried on a frying pan, and it looked very sluggish.

Ronald also looked back at Maguire.

Advertisements attacking competitors by name are not absent, but a giant like McDonald's is not a good stubble.They're not going to swallow it up and let Burger King attack their burgers like this.

"That's something Burger King's legal team is thinking about." Maguire shrugged.

"And we did a lot of preparation. This ad said that the number of people who think grilled is better than fried is double the number of people who think fried is better. This is a statement of fact, not a subjective judgment. This can Avoid some legal trouble."

"So they actually did a blind test?"

"Of course, stores from the west coast to the east coast. Let the market research company find dozens of customers and do it repeatedly, and the desired result will always be achieved."

"Haha, is the grilled beef patty really better than fried?" Ronald asked.

These companies will do anything for marketing.Anyway, my contract has been reviewed by a lawyer, and all the data and facts are informed by written documents from Burger King. If there is a mistake, it is because they deliberately deceived, and it has nothing to do with me.

"How should I put it? If you strictly follow the process of baking, it is indeed more delicious than frying. But you know that in fast food restaurants, sometimes the back kitchen is not so strict when you are busy."

"That is to say, it's actually not that delicious?" Ronald said.

"Not at all, they can choose their own onions, pickles, and many kinds of sauces." Eddie interjected.

"Sometimes I don't like it either. They have too many choices. Sometimes I just want a quick meal. There are always customers who wait a long time to make sure, which makes the queue very slow. And they have more waiters than McDonald's." Ma Quill is a career woman who can't do without fast food.

"So they put up so many gimmicks, hired more waiters, and the business is still better than McDonald's? And the cost of roasting is higher than frying?"

"That is, you need to use an automatic grill for baking, and you only need an iron plate with a constant temperature for frying." Maguire studied the difference between Burger King and McDonald's in order to take over the business.

"Well, very interesting."

Ronald is busy with filming, and the commercial is complete. Burger King trusts his level. After all, the fact that the business of burgers in the United States has skyrocketed on the West Coast makes them feel amazing.

Taking his own check, Ronald went to the accountant, Lawrence, and told him what to do with the money.

"So you took the check from Burger King to buy McDonald's stock?" Lawrence looked in disbelief.

"Any questions?"

"No, no problem. I thought you would buy Burger King's stock. After all, you helped them shoot commercials. Their sales will increase."

"They don't make money. Every store has many waiters and special automatic grills. At the same time, McDonald's can sell many more burgers."

"It's okay, anyway, they pay a lot of dividends every quarter." Lawrence put away his surprise and started calling Ronald's stockbroker.

(End of this chapter)