Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 409 MTV Preheating

"When I was young, I listened to the radio

When I was young I'd listen to the radio
Waiting for the song I like,

Waitin' for my favorite songs
When they play, I sing along

When they played I'd sing along
It makes me smile.

It made me smile.”

"Karen Carpenter is one of the rare talents of this century. No matter what the critics say about her, she is a consistent top 40 charter and is by far the most played on every Easy Listening radio channel in the country. Most played singer."

The MTV host is introducing Karen Carpenter, frontman of The Carpenters, who tragically passed away last month.This is her commemorative show, and some of her most popular songs are played in non-stop rotation on MTV.

Ronald stood up and turned the volume down, then continued to discuss his "Terminator" audition with Cameron.Cameron was very concerned about his real debut, and pulled Ronald to help him choose the right actor.

"This is Michael Biehn, this is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and they both came to audition for the human rebel fighter Kyle Reese, the father of future rebel leader John Connor."

"Why does he want to play Kyle Reese, don't you think he is the best candidate for the Terminator?" Ronald picked out a picture of Schwarzenegger, which is the picture of the Terminator in the sequel he dreamed of. The actor, the current him, is more explosive than the muscles in the dream.

"I think so too, hehe." Cameron moved the chair into a comfortable position, "but Schwarzenegger's agent didn't like this villain, and wanted him to play a positive role. You know he played 'Barbarian' before. Conan", so it can be considered as a bargaining chip. "

"Actually, sometimes brokers can't decide the will of their clients. Sometimes many brokers actually make decisions for their clients without authorization. I think you can talk to him directly."

"Is that so?" Cameron didn't have an agent. He had been tricked by an agent before, so he was not very familiar with the strange operations of these agents.

"Anyway, he's coming to interview the rebel fighters. When the time comes, the manager won't be able to enter the audition room. You can talk to him directly."

"Okay, let's do it like this, actress, you can help me too."

Ronald picked up a lot of audition photos of actresses. The competition for actresses in this industry is far more intense than that of male actors.

"Jodie Foster, Diane Lane, Tatum O'Neal..." Familiar names drifted past.

"Your audition director is bluffing you, Judy has refused to act in domestic films for more than a year, Diane is about to join a big production, and it will take a long time, and Tatum... um, you have to check Find out how her mental state is." Ronald made a gesture of pinching half of his nose to inhale.

"Huh?" Cameron took those photos and put them aside, "But in the script, Sarah is a barmaid, these... are a bit old." He pointed to the rest of the photos, and there were actors behind them. curriculum vitae.

"It doesn't matter. Anyway, the actresses are all beautiful, and they look young on camera. Also, mature actors are easier to shoot. They have rich experience and can easily understand your intentions."

"Listen to you", "Cameron took the rest of the cast photos, "Sigourney Weaver, Diane Keaton, Katherine Turner..."

"Okay, take your time."

Ronald looked at the TV again. The MV for the title song "What a Feeling" of "Lightning Dance" appeared on MTV. This song has been played on MTV recently and is very popular.Even the radio station is often on demand.

The song ends, replaced by a close-up of Jennifer Beals, speaking:
"Where you go, the music is playing, and you can feel its rhythm. Something in your body is awakened, and there is a click."

The camera cuts to a shot of Alex, the protagonist of "Lightning Dance", doing a seductive wet dance in a bar.

"Is this a trailer?" Ronald thought to himself, getting up and turning up his voice.

"Her name is Alex, and she works in a male world..." the narration began.

"It's really a trailer." It was the first time Ronald saw a trailer for an upcoming movie on MTV. "It's a good publicity channel."

"Lightning dance, if your dream comes true once, it can change your life." The narration ended, and the Paramount logo was frozen, with the subtitle below it, "Premiere on April [-]th".

"I have something to deal with, let's talk about it later." Ronald rushed out of Cameron's apartment and drove to Atlantic Company.

"Today I saw the trailer of Lightning Dance on MTV. I feel that this is a good promotional channel. Can you add some marketing budget and launch it on this channel?"

Ronald explained his thinking to Atlantic's distribution and marketing manager.

"I really want to do this, Ronald. But now we are still waiting for the box office of Girls in the Valley. If it can sell well, we can add some more. But..."

"But what?" Ronald asked eagerly.

"However, Portrait Records made an agreement with us, hoping to concentrate MTV's investment resources on their MV. In this way, even if we can release the trailer, there will not be a lot of time. And you know, the box office of Valley Girls is not fast. , we may have to take out a loan.”

"Okay, I'll go talk to the manager of Portrait Records first."

The manager of Portrait Records Los Angeles office received Ronald, "It's not a big problem, actually the Atlantic doesn't have much budget to cast, if you have extra budget, we can give up some resources, anyway your trailer, We also watched it, and basically used that Girls Just Want to Have Fun as background music."

"That's great, I'll go to the Atlantic to talk about it. If it's not possible, I can pay some money in advance. Now that the movie audience is younger, there are few TV stations that focus on young audiences like MTV. The effect of advertising must be good of.

Besides, Lightning Dance has also launched trailer advertisements on a large scale. I believe those two producers are not fools. "

"Okay then, let me contact the manager in charge of advertising at MTV, and let's discuss how to allocate the time and density of the advertising."

Soon the manager of MTV came to the office, and the three watched the trailer shot by Ronald together.

"I have no objection in principle. Your trailer and the original MV are both the background of the same song. We have already cooperated with the movie 'Lightning Dance' on a similar MV and movie trailer simulcast. Even our contract does not It needs to be changed, as long as you both have a supplementary agreement on the release time."

"That's great." Ronald was happy in his heart, and he planned to go back and talk to the Atlantic people about additional investment.

"By the way, that, Ronald, you are a new director in the film industry, I have something to ask." The manager of MTV stopped Ronald.

"Please say".

"It's like this. Our MTV station is broadcasting 24 hours now, but the late-night ratings are too low. Most teenagers don't listen to MVs in the middle of the night, because too much noise will affect the family's rest. So we want to try to play movies, so that there will be no Too loud.

But we can't afford the high purchase cost, so I would like to ask you, is there any channel to buy some cheap movies, preferably those related to music, but not too old musicals. "

"Huh? If you say so, I think of a movie called 'Rock High School'. Have you seen it?" Ronald had an idea and thought of this old movie.

"Ah, I've seen it, it's very good, Liv Randall, the Rock Man..." The manager of MTV had seen the movie and was impressed with the lead actress of "Rock Man" played by PJ Souls .

"Do you know? I participated in the filming of this film, and I also know Mr. Roger Coleman, the producer and owner of the copyright of this film. He is a great man in Hollywood. Coppola and Scorsese all It was with him that he made his debut."

"Huh? Really? That would be great. We contacted New World Productions, but they said they no longer own the rights to the previous film."

"Wait for me to call him, you can talk."

……

"Thank you Mr. Coleman. I didn't expect to be able to buy so many teen favorite movies, what a treasure trove you have here. Let's start with five movies from 'High School of Rock' to try out late night teen flicks Effect."

"Of course, it's a pleasure to work with. Working with a teen-oriented TV station like yours always reminds me of my first film when I was under 30 years old."

A few days later, Roger Coleman and MTV signed a package agreement to sell the TV broadcasting rights of his New World film copyright. If the effect is good, they will continue to cooperate.

"Let's congratulate them." Ronald skillfully took out a bottle of wine from Coleman's cabinet and poured a glass for all three of them.

"Cheers"

"Ronald, you always bring me good luck. I am happier than I am selling these film rights to make money. I am very happy to see that Jim and Gail have established themselves in the film industry, Hollywood Need a little more of your kind of people, not those high-ranking executives."

"Then please make me happy, Mr. Coleman." Ronald laughed loudly. This time, he can get a lot of favors for the matchmaking.

"Okay, we will give you a [-]% commission according to the previous agreement." When Roger Coleman talked about the figures, he lowered his voice and whispered in Ronald's ear.

"Thank you, Roger." Ronald smiled. Compared to Coleman, this transaction cost nothing, it was just converting the old film into tape format and selling it again.Therefore, a relatively generous commission can be given.

After leaving Coleman's office, Ronald invited MTV's purchasing manager to the manager's office of MTV's advertising department. He was the one who hooked up Ronald.

"I have some ideas, and you will give me some commissions for this deal. It's not a big amount. Can I not take your commissions, but exchange it for some time slots on MTV, which will be used to broadcast my "Comet of the Comet" I don’t care if the time slot is good or bad, as long as the number of times can be guaranteed two weeks before the release.

The two managers of MTV had a chat. This approach actually benefited the two of them. It was nothing more than using their power during garbage hours to give Ronald more unsellable broadcasts. Many times in the morning and In the middle of the night, they are all gifts for customers.

"No problem, we can decide on this."

"Thank you." Ronald relied on his brain, and got some commercial time for "Night of the Comet", and went home alone to have fun secretly.

"Hey, Ronald, I used your method to talk to Schwarzenegger. He himself is willing to be the villain of the Terminator. Anyway, his English is not standard, he has an Austrian accent, and his lines are also a big problem when he plays the leading role. "

"That's great, congratulations on identifying the two leading actors."

In the evening, I got a call from Cameron to announce the good news. The agent turned down Cameron's invitation without telling Schwarzenegger.

"Then when will you start filming?"

"That's the problem, I'm probably going to have to wait ten months for Schwarzenegger to do a sequel to 'Conan the Barbarian,' 'Conan the Destroyer.' We'll have to wait for him."

"Why? Can't you change the actor?"

"That's right, Ronald." Gail took over from the side.

"Remember the plagiarism project I told you about last time? They're still going to start a project to remake Jim's script and start shooting. We're targeting Schwarzenegger as an actor. He's also a starlet with a blockbuster movie, kind of appeal.

In this way, the other party knew that the film he made would not be as popular as Jim's original version, so he gave up plagiarism.In order for Schwarzenegger to participate, we had to delay the start of filming by ten months.

In addition, we also hope that Schwarzenegger will bring some exposure to the movie. If his Conan the Barbarian sells well, it means that we have picked up a bargain. "

"Ah, then I wish you and Jim all the best. Call me any time I can help you."

(End of this chapter)