Exploiting Hollywood 1980

Elizabeth's mother, Anne Brewster, was the manager of the personal banking department of Chemical Bank in New York and was considered a high-income person. However, when Elizabeth was nine years old, she divorced her husband, James Sue, and moved to New York.

James Su is a lawyer by training and is now engaged in real estate development business in New Jersey. His income is enough for his children to live a good life. Elizabeth Sue went to school at the famous Columbia High School in New Jersey.

Two days ago, Anne Brewster received a call from her daughter, saying that she was going to participate in the shooting of Hershey's chewing gum commercial in New York. She supported it and confirmed the signing with Eddie on the phone.

But early this morning, she received a call from an enthusiastic person from the BBDO advertising company, saying that her daughter was tricked into filming an adult products commercial, and that CBS studios would not rent them to film such commercials, and the crew would definitely find another place to shoot. , as a conscientious person, I came here specifically to tell her that she must be careful of her daughter being deceived.

"I will never let my daughter fall into this kind of advertising. Her father James is also on the way from New Jersey. He is a lawyer. We can use the guardian's right to know fraud to sue you and cancel the guardian's filming authorization. So in order Hello everyone, you still take the initiative to cancel my daughter’s filming contract.”

"I have to say that the conscientious person has a very rich imagination." Ronald continued, "We did change the shooting location because the gymnastics equipment shot in the CBS studio was fake. We have contacted Filmed in the actual gymnasium at Stuyvesant High School.”

"Stuyvesant High School?" Anne Brewster's face softened slightly. This is a famous key high school in New York. Every year, it recruits children with outstanding IQs in eighth grade in New York. Like several other key high schools, candidates must take special exams and pass the exam before they are eligible to enter.

Presumably, they would not go along with the young "director" in front of them to shoot any adult product commercials.

"Yes, it's my alma mater." Darcy Maguire saw that Anne Brewster was a strong woman like herself. "I am Darcy Maguire from BBDO who is in charge of this advertising project. This is The director I hired was Ronald Lee, who had directed the movie 'Rock of Ages,' and we were going to Stuyvesant High School."

"This is my Directors Guild membership card, Ms. Brewster." Ronald handed over his union card to identify himself, "Our commercial shooting is in compliance with the law and is registered with the union in accordance with the regulations of the Television Actors Guild. "

"As for that conscientious person, he is just jealous of my woman's status, which is higher than his level." Darcy Maguire deliberately stamped his feet twice, implying that he was also a professional woman who wore pants.

The two strong women had a lot in common, and they cleared up the misunderstanding in just a few words.

"Who wants my daughter to shoot an adult commercial?" A man hurried in.

"James, it's a misunderstanding." Anne Brewster stopped her ex-husband and explained to him in detail.

Upon seeing this, Ronald took out his storyboard and explained the intention and process of the shooting to Elizabeth Su's parents, asking them to rest assured.

James Sue and Anne Brewster are both managers of commercial organizations and have been involved in many TV commercial shooting matters. After watching the footage, the lingering doubts in my heart were finally dispelled.

Darcy Maguire simply went to Stuyvesant High School with her mother and daughter, Elizabeth Sue, and James Sue to adapt to the venue first. Ronald and Eddie followed with the equipment and Spike Lee and other filming crews.

Before leaving, creative director Darcy Maguire pulled Ronald aside to talk, "Do you feel it? This is a combination punch."

Ronald nodded, and first used his connections to influence CBS not to lend them the filming location today, and then went to Elizabeth Sue's mother to complain, saying that they would change the location to film the adult products commercial.

Had Darcy Maguire not immediately secured the Stuyvesant High School location, it would have been difficult to convince Elizabeth's mother. Every detail is well integrated with the rumors in this whistleblower phone call. It is possible that the parents did not allow Elizabeth to be filmed for the sake of insurance, and they had to temporarily find another heroine.

"If we back down again and find another actor, maybe they have a third uppercut waiting for us." Ronald reminded Darcy.

"You're right, Ronald. To be on the safe side, we need to cancel the editing arrangement in the CBS post department. You find another place to edit the master tapes, but don't tell anyone on the surface."

Ronald expressed his understanding, and they split up.

"Hi, Ronald, I didn't expect that we would go to help you shoot the film first." Spike Lee and Ernest Dixon were already waiting for him at school.

"Yeah, this is just a TV commercial, 15 seconds. How is the filming of your movie going?"

"The money from the black equality organization has been spent. After we develop the film, we will have no money to shoot the remaining plot. We are applying for funding from the American Film Institute and New York City cultural institutions." Spike answered.

"This is Ernest Dixon. The cinematographer on my film, and I got him here this time."

"Hello, Ernest," Ronald shook hands with the burly Ernest Dixon. "There are only television cameras this time."

"Don't worry, that thing is very simple. I've played it a lot." Ernest Dixon's accent didn't have any black flavor at all. He was well-educated and was an architecture student at Howard University, a famous black university. Later, he became a real I was obsessed with movies, so I went to Tisch College to study film photography.

Ronald took out his scoreboard and handed it to Spike and Dixon.

"Well, you're going to need a zoom lens." Dixon began to design the lens. "I also have to go to the scene to see the environment before I can decide on the lighting method."

Spike Lee was not interested in the technical details, but he was interested in Ronald's painting style and lens design. "Your lens design is very similar to a comic book, especially the way from mid-range to close-up, which is very similar to Superman." The expression method of comics.”

"After finishing the pre-action and before the character speaks, close the distance so that the audience can see the character's expression before speaking." Spike Lee concluded.

"Well, yes, she had to do a dive on the uneven bars before, and in order to capture it, she had to give it a medium shot. But the screen is very small, and in order for the audience to clearly see what she is saying behind her and the brand of chewing gum she is holding in her hand, they have to close the distance. "

Ronald thought to himself that I just designed it based on the plot and didn’t think about comics.

"You are indeed a creative connoisseur, Ronald. I saw you right. The shots you took in 'Rock and Roll High School' are different from those taken by others. They have their own style and are easy to distinguish." Spike Lee insists Ronald is a talented director.

"Okay, since you insist, I reluctantly admit that I am a genius." Ronald thought to himself, "Maybe I watched a lot of movies in my previous life, and some lens designs became my own intuition. People today have not invented these yet. The shooting technique?”

"We picked up the person who recorded the video, and then went to WNDT's New York branch to get the equipment." Ronald asked a few people to get in the car and drive to the TV station.

Eddie, who was at the door of the TV station, had completed all the procedures and moved the equipment into the van. When Ronald arrived, he only had to sign and drive away.

After handing Helen's storyboard and script to Gerald Slater's secretary, Ronald quickly ran to the door to open the way.

"This is our driver Johnny, and this is the director Ronald." Eddie introduced the TV station's drivers while winking at Ronald.

Ronald understood, shook hands with the driver Johnny, and handed over a twenty-yuan note quietly. "Thank you, Johnny, it's all down to you today."

"Stuyvesant High School, right? Don't worry, I'm familiar with the roads in Manhattan." Seeing Ronald on the road like this, Johnny happily got into the driver's seat, "You just follow me."

In the gymnasium of Stuyvesant High School, creative director Darcy Maguire has secured the coach, cleared a large area for filming, and temporarily closed the gymnasium.

Ronald helped unload the equipment and move the equipment into the gymnasium, and discussed with Spike Lee and Dixon the placement of the cameras and the scheduling of the actors.

Soon the classmates helped set up the equipment. Dixon looked through the viewfinder for a while and said, "The background lighting of the venue is okay. We can just add a few lights."

Spike Lee was a little fascinated by Ronald's lens design and scheduling methods. He walked around the venue and kept mumbling, wondering if he was thinking about how to improve his own film shooting methods.

Ronald threw a roll of tape over and said, "Help me stick some anchor points." Then he turned around and talked to Elizabeth Su about today's shooting plan.

Her mother took leave today to deal with her daughter's affairs, and her father also drove here from New Jersey so he could accompany his only daughter to shoot commercials today.

Ronald explained the details of the shoot half to Elizabeth Sue and half to her parents, "Lisa, I need you to do a trick on the high bars of the uneven bars. Pick the one you are most skilled at, regardless of the difficulty, you know?" Safety comes first when shooting.”

Her parents nodded frequently beside her.

"Then my makeup artist," Ronald pointed to the female classmate, "she will tape a small bag on the left shoulder of your gymnastics suit with a piece of chewing gum in it. After you finish the exercise, go to the usual place. He also bowed to the audience, and then took out the chewing gum from inside.

Face the camera lens, strike a pose, and then keep it still for the time being. Understand? ""

Elizabeth's mother, Anne Brewster, wondered, "Why stay still?"

"That's right, our props will replace the old version of chewing gum in Lisa's hands with the new version. After that, Lisa only needs to say the slogan 'Chewels taste better'. After we edit in post-production, the audience You will see that piece of chewing gum instantly become new.”

"It's like magic." Elizabeth Su looked forward to it.

"Yes, it's like magic," Ronald replied.