Exploiting Hollywood 1980

The highlight of the dance and music departments, the cafeteria dance, has been filmed, and the crew has started filming the drama of the performance department. Today’s scene is with Latino student Ralph Garcia.

The actor who plays Ralph is named Barry Miller. He is a veteran, he is 21 years old. In 1977, he played a suicidal high school student in "Saturday Night Fever" made famous by John Travolta. Later, he played a bad guy in the CBS TV series "Wonder Woman". He is one of the few faces in the movie that the audience is already familiar with.

Barry told others everywhere that he graduated from Stella Adler's acting training class, and Ronald was particularly looking forward to his acting skills.

"Li Zidao, I don't understand. I'm grinding with the oar. I'm in a bad position. I'm sorry."

Ronald looked at Jim, the black teacher who was playing opposite Barry. Jim put his hand on his bare forehead and lowered his head helplessly.

"Cut!"

"Barry, what are you doing? How did you say your lines? Why is it not clear at all?" The director stopped with dissatisfaction. Today's filming has seen many instances of Barry acting on the spot, which has greatly slowed down the filming progress. .

"Alan, I feel like Ralph Garcia is a guy who likes to work on his acting skills, just like me. He's learning how Marlon Brando talks."

"Can't you read your lines according to the script?"

"Alan, I think you are a director who pursues excellence and should not be limited by the script. I feel that the character of Ralph is better expressed in this way."

There was a buzzing sound, and the extras sitting in the teacher's seat began to whisper to each other. This is the first time someone from the crew has openly challenged the director's authority.

The actors in the crew have been dissatisfied with Allen for a long time, and today someone finally pierced the window paper. The dancers were dissatisfied with him for filming regardless of safety risks, and the local technicians in America also complained about the director's favoritism to fellow citizens from the British Isles.

But those are all conflicts accumulated for work. In the final analysis, they are to make better movies. As long as filming can move forward, everyone will forget about the old problems.

Today is the first time that someone has questioned the director's decision from an artistic point of view. After all, the other leading actors are mostly newcomers, and only Barry Miller feels he is qualified to "discuss" the acting of the character with the director.

Before, everyone was frightened by Allen Parker's attack on Jim, a black teacher. Now someone took the lead, and many dissatisfactions suddenly emerged from the bottom of their hearts. For the first time, everyone felt that not everything Allen said was right. .

"You..." Alan Parker's face was a little red, but now was not the time to lose his temper.

Allen announced the suspension of filming and took Barry to the inner room for a heart-to-heart talk. Everyone was talking a lot outside, venting their grievances about how the director treated them rudely and so on.

Ronald looked on with cold eyes. This was a moderate challenge to the director's authority. If it is not solved properly, there may be a lot of trouble in future shootings.

With a "pop" sound, the door to the inner room was opened, and Barry Miller walked out triumphantly first. Allen announced that the lines would be changed for this scene.

The scene recorder hurriedly picked up the pen and made changes to the script according to Allen's requirements. Afterwards, she had to type it again on a typewriter, make copies and replace the corresponding parts of the script.

"Recording, camera, start!"

"Li Zidao, I don't understand. I'm grinding with the oar. I'm in a bad position. I'm sorry."

"Ralph, Ralph, you're slurring your words again." Jim was acting opposite Barry Miller.

"I don't understand," Barry replied in a clear voice. "That's how the great Marlon Brando said his lines, and that's how James Dean said it. They're the greatest actors in the world, but no one Can understand what they are saying.”

The "Puff" extras contributed uncontrollable laughter.

These two are really disciples of Stella Adler, plus Robert De Niro, is slurred speech the secret of Stella's group? Ronald began to think wildly.

"Cut! This is a print," the director told the scene.

"Next, we will go to the No. 122 Performing Arts Space in the East Village. The address is... and gather at the No. 122 Performing Arts Space at two o'clock in the afternoon. The camera crew will follow the truck there. There are two buses for the extras, and the rest will go by themselves. …”

The first assistant director began arranging transportation for various people. Everyone went to the assistant to get an address.

Ronald got in the car and drove Jean and Antonia to the new filming location. Along the way, I was thinking about the consequences of Barry Miller's challenge to the director this morning.

Gene and Antonia were also chatting about the director.

"We're not afraid of him at all," Gene said. "What does it have to do with us that he's causing trouble for Jim? Teachers in public high schools have nothing to do with us."

"Of course you are not afraid of him. On the contrary, he is a little afraid of you. Everything will be conveyed through Ronnie." Antonia smiled.

Ronald heard the conversation between the two from the driving seat and glanced at Gene through the rearview mirror.

It does make some sense. After all, Allen is English and is more than 15 years older than him. I don’t understand the mentality of American high school students at all. After being influenced by the Vietnam War, hippies, and the civil rights movement, today’s young people don’t take public high school teachers seriously at all.

If the teacher dares to take care of them, he is afraid that someone like Jean will kill him on the spot.

It is a bit misguided to try to establish authority in the minds of student actors by scaring the teacher.

The new generation of American teenagers do not obey the authority of their elders, but obey their teenage heroes, such as the punk rock band Ramones.

When the car arrived at 122 Performing Arts Space, Ronald and the two of them got out of the car to take a look. The so-called performing arts space is also an abandoned high school. However, it was occupied by New York artists and transformed into a theater rehearsal space and small theater, serving as the center of avant-garde theater.

Producer David Da Silva came up to him and said, "Ronnie, you also go to the filming set in the afternoon and keep an eye on it. I heard about what happened in the morning. You go to the set and keep an eye on Barry Miller's every move." tell me."

Ronald nodded. Originally, the afternoon filming was for the love scene between Ralph Garcia and Doris, so he didn't need to be there. But now, David, the man who pays his salary, always listens to his orders.

"I have a lot of dads, and they come to my house, and some of them pay rent,..." Barry Miller was reading the lines.

The character of Ralph Garcia is a Latino in Harlem who is in a way worse off than black people because a lot of charitable donations don't go to Latinos. There are five brothers and sisters in the family, and they mainly rely on church relief and a single mother who occasionally has a man on the list.

"Cut!" Change to a close-up shot to film Barry's monologue.

The main shot just now was shot, and next is Barry's monologue. Allen's style is not to use over-the-shoulder shots, but to use close-up shots to show the characters' dialogue, which is different from the traditional Hollywood method.

The advantage of doing this is probably that it can express the character's emotions more clearly, but the disadvantage is that the audience sometimes doesn't understand who the character is talking to. Especially when there are more than two characters present. But Alan Parker is a famous British director after all, so there will be no problem.

"You have to understand Puerto Rican women, they don't look for men for love, they look for men to provide for their children."

"Cut, Cut, Cut" Allen angrily stopped the filming.

"Barry, Barry, you have to say it according to your lines, honey." Allen pressed Barry Miller's shoulders, pinched his face, and threatened.

Ronald also felt that Barry Miller was a bit too much. Roger Corman once said that if actors can improvise, give them that chance. But this does not include randomly changing lines between the main shot and the dialogue shot.

You can improvise in some of the main shots that take the panorama, and you can also improvise in some of the dialogue shots that take close-ups of you.

But it’s best not to say A in the main shot and irrelevant B in the dialogue shot. Because doing so will make editing difficult. There is no connection between the main shot and the dialogue shot.

This Barry Miller puts a little too much emphasis on his acting skills, as if he wants to use all his talents to show someone.

"No, no, Allen. My performance is based on situations. At this time and in this environment, Ralph Garcia should say this. This is not something I deliberately designed, but a natural expression. You You can’t limit the performance of an actor’s nature.”

"Barry, Barry, what should I do with you? You are a talented actor, but you need to prioritize when filming. This will seriously slow down the progress of the filming, and we are just a small production." Allen tried Reason with Barry Miller.

"Barry, can you limit the improvisation part to the scope of each scene? Otherwise, it will be edited later..." Ronald tried to help, so that Barry's improvisation would not interfere too much with the shooting and post-editing. .

"Hey, who are you? Don't interrupt a conversation between a great actor and director."

Ronald raised his hands in surrender and stepped back to Maureen Tiffey, who played Doris.

"Barry is always like this. He starts to overtime the scenes with me. I'm a little tired of it. He always makes Alan work overtime." Maureen complained to Ronald in a low voice.

Ronald turned back in surprise and glanced at Maureen, "Maybe he has his own ideas."

Allen and Barry finally reached a tentative agreement, and the director called for the third item.

"Recording? Camera? Start!"

Barry Miller walks to the window with a wine glass and pauses for two seconds with his back to the camera. Then turned around: "My mother had an extra house that she always rented to a man so I could have a new father."

"Good!" Ronald thought to himself, the mood of this performance was quite smooth.

"The vast majority of new dads only last one day."

He started improvising again, and Ronald facepalmed.

"Cut!"

Allen walked up and slapped Barry Miller.

"Snapped!"

"Stop messing around! Say your lines and follow the order of the script. Be honest and stop trying to pick up girls!"

The next scene was surprisingly good. Barry finished speaking the lines in the script honestly, and the emotion in the final crying scene was very real.

Maureen Tiffey also ended her shot, said "Bye!" to Ronald and others, and got into the car with her arm around Allen.

The director got a new car.