Birth of an actor

好莱坞电影的观赏等级分为五个级别：老少咸宜的大众G级、建议10岁以下儿童有家长陪同的PG级、建议13岁以下儿童有家长陪同的PG-13级、限制级R级和严禁17岁以下青少年观看的NC-17，这五级分类多年来早已深入人心。

And A-list/A-lister, B-list, C-list and even D-list, which divide the positions of Hollywood movie stars, are also widely known after being frequently mentioned by the media.

But in fact, in Hollywood, there are still many technical terms that are difficult for outsiders to understand. These terms will never be mentioned in dictionaries, film textbooks, newspapers and magazines. The "black talk" in the Hollywood industry.

To give the simplest example, Film and Movie, in the eyes of the public, these two words both represent movies. The biggest difference is probably that the British like to use Film, and the Americans like to use Movie.

Many young Americans are dissatisfied with this: Doesn’t it mean that Film sounds more serious, and Movie sounds more colloquial? You Brits only use Film, do you think you have a high style?

But in fact, the difference between Film and Movie is not a question of British and American style, high or low style, but a question of professionalism.

Film does have the meaning of "movie". When it is only explained as a noun "movie", it has almost the same meaning as Movie. For example, AgoodFilm/Movie has the same meaning.But Film has a richer meaning besides "movie", such as "movie film/film", which is used as a verb "to make...a movie" and an adjective "Filmcritic". When expressing more serious meanings such as film research and film industry, Film is used instead of Movie. Compared with Film, the meaning of Movie is undoubtedly much less monotonous.

In the UK, all the people like to use Film, in the United States, audiences and movie fans like to use Movie, and people in the industry still generally use Film.

Of course, if you have a layman attending a Hollywood party, everyone will understand whether you say Film or Movie, but if you say in front of a more serious director: "I liked your last Movie very much. ", the director would probably immediately retort, "I'm shooting a Film, not a Movie."

Film and Movie are just a microcosm of Hollywood jargon. Following the ratings of Hollywood movies above, in fact, movies have production ratings long before the filming starts. It is not a detailed division like ABCDE, but roughly divided into categories. There are A-level, B-level and Z-level films.

——This A-level movie refers to not the A-movies that are abundant in Japan, but A-plctuur, which is replaced by a more popular explanation, which is a "movie blockbuster", with an investment of at least tens of millions and at most hundreds of millions, luxurious scenes, and a shooting cycle It is the kind of movie that chooses popular stars as the main character, and spends a lot of money on publicity when it is released.

The history of the birth of the word A-plctur can be traced back to the 30s. With the advent of the Great Depression, the number of movie viewers in the United States dropped sharply from 1000 million to 6000 million per week. Hollywood movies have just ushered in the golden age and fell into a development bottleneck. In order to attract audiences, the film company has introduced a dual-film system-a movie with a large investment and well-produced is called an "A-grade movie", and a movie with a low cost and poor production is called a "B-grade movie". With one movie ticket, you can watch two movies in the theater. The A-level film is considered as the main meal, and the B-level film is the dessert that comes with the meal.

This is the A-level film and B-level film in the Hollywood film production level, which has been used since its inception until now.

After the golden age of Hollywood in the 60s and [-]s, the American economy has gradually improved, and it has gradually established its position as the hegemony of the world economy. Americans are getting richer, and the investment in Hollywood movies is also increasing. It is no longer a representative of rough and bad production-after all, no matter how low the cost of B-grade movies is, they are also produced by regular film companies, after strict pre-shooting and post-production-so Z-grade movies came into being.

Compared with B-level films whose production procedures and distribution channels are relatively formal, Z-level films have lower cost and shorter shooting cycle, and sometimes even the director and actors are amateurs—for example, the director also has a strong personal style , The film with the background of the journey story, the B-level production cost is called "road film", and the Z-level production cost is called "motorcycle film".

Hollywood film production, the production cost of A-level films is less than tens of millions, and B-level films range from hundreds of thousands to several million. Movies, and Z-rated movies, sometimes only cost tens of thousands of dollars to shoot.

But in Hollywood, it is absolutely impossible to control the production cost of TV series within six figures.

As we all know, the sales of American TV dramas are very dependent on the length of the episodes. It can be said that the more seasons of TV dramas, the more lucrative profits in the later period-except for daytime soap operas (one episode is broadcast every Monday to Friday afternoon, with rich Characters and plot stories that are constantly updated with the times are the selling points. The longest daytime soap opera in the United States is "Guiding Light", which was launched in 1937 and has broadcast more than 1 episodes so far. If the episodes (one episode per week, aired from September to April next year) can accumulate to 9 episodes before being cut off, they will be packaged and sold to local TV stations, TV operators or even foreign countries by program producers. Repeat playback.

As early as 1989, an authoritative organization conducted a survey: Thanks to the popularity of English in the world and the backing of Hollywood, although the United States only has 5% of the world's TV audience, it has exported one-third of the world's TV programs First, in many third world countries with underdeveloped entertainment industries, 60%-80% of the TV programs broadcast by national TV stations are all purchased from the United States.

Since the cost of copying a TV series is almost zero, and the cost of multiple sales is also almost zero, so in the United States, to produce a long-lived TV series with good quality and good reputation, the producer can continue to source from this series for many years. beneficiary.

This greatly encourages the creative enthusiasm of TV drama production companies and attaches great importance to the quality of drama series.

For this reason, the major TV stations in the United States have adopted the production method of filming and broadcasting at the same time, attaching great importance to the audience's taste, and adopting a universal strategy in the theme (meaning to choose themes that resonate with the public, minimize the regional color, and facilitate global sales) , but also use expensive production fees to ensure the quality of TV programs.In order to extend the number of broadcast seasons and label American dramas as "well-produced", more and more of them are exported abroad, gradually gaining considerable influence in the TV program market all over the world, in order to maximize Develop the brand of TV programs to a certain extent, obtain the profits of the later stage of TV dramas, and form a virtuous cycle model of high investment, high output and high return.

Today's Hollywood, because TV audiences are becoming more and more picky, the production mode of TV dramas is very close to B-level movies, and even surpassed.

ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and other major American dramas of public TV stations may have to change directors and producers for each episode. The script of each episode is discussed by more than a dozen screenwriters. If the popularity is strong, it will star every season. Their salaries have to rise, and lighting, modeling, special effects, post-production and other links add up. It is not uncommon for a single American drama to cost more than a movie. Although it is a TV series, most American dramas now use movies. film shot.

For example, the medical drama "The Story of the Emergency Room", which has been on the air since last year, because of its sophisticated script, many actors, and special themes, the production investment of each episode exceeds one million US dollars, which is higher than the budget of many movies.

Even if it is a sitcom that only airs for 10 minutes to half an hour, the production cost may range from hundreds of thousands of dollars to several million dollars. The second and third seasons of "Friends", and "Seinfeld", which has been popular in North America for more than four years, can bring tens of millions of dollars to the lead actor and producer Jerry Seinfeld every year.

As a TV series mainly aimed at young audiences, "Leap to Beverly 90210" is the same as "Louis and Clark". Although the plot is simple, the production cost remains high, hovering around one million dollars per episode.

It may be difficult for laymen to understand why the production cost of an episode of TV series is so high, but as an insider, especially William who joined the crew and is waiting to be filmed, he can guess the production cost of "90210" based on what he saw, heard and felt. It’s so expensive—look at the screenwriters who work with more than five people every day, the extras with double digits at every turn, the director who changes every episode, the car and wine and the high-end restaurant, the Hampton vacation home, the average starring number The single-episode salary is close to six figures. Even his supporting role, who has only performed less than five episodes this season, can get a single-episode salary of $[-].

Yes, $90210 for an episode, about the same as the stars of NBC's "Friends," which just launched last fall -- Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and the six stars of "Friends," No. 90210 The per capita salary for a single episode of a season is [-] US dollars. The reason why they get only a little higher than William, the supporting role of "[-]", is because "[-]" is currently the fifth season of the hit drama. And "Friends" is the first season to test the waters.Of course, based on the ratings of the first season of "Friends", when the second season of "Friends" airs this fall, the salaries of the six leading actors will definitely increase significantly, and they will no longer be as pitiful as the first season.

In short, the total salary of [-] US dollars for a single episode is [-] US dollars, which is already the largest income William has obtained since entering the industry.

After deducting taxes and the broker’s 2% commission, William can probably save more than 10 U.S. dollars—it sounds like [-] U.S. dollars, but if William University is going to apply for a TOP[-] private school, it is estimated that even The tuition fee for the first year is not enough.

……

Where do America's billionaires live?

Manhattan, New York?Los Angeles Beverly Hills?

In addition to these two well-known areas, there are actually two places where housing prices are extremely expensive, that is, Malibu near Los Angeles, and Hampton near New York.

Hampton is located in the easternmost part of Long Island, New York, about two hours' drive from the center of New York. It was originally a place where the US military was stationed. After World War II, many residential areas were built. Because it is near the sea and close to New York, it has gradually developed into a resort. Rich people in New York City bought houses and land here one after another, and built castle-like villas.

Superstars and billionaires usually work and live in Manhattan or Beverly, but when they relax on weekends, they will go to the Hamptons or Malibu to live in their villas built by the sea, isolated All paparazzi shots, enjoy your own private beach.

Also because of the high price of land and the fact that almost all the residents are wealthy, Hampton Town has no chain supermarkets, chain hotels and chain fast food restaurants, only a family-run unique bar and cafe, and a farm selling organic food. On weekends, the streets are full of luxury cars, BMWs and Mercedes-Benz are not worth mentioning, Lambo and Ferrari barely pass, and the rich people only drive open-top sports cars in the small town. If they want to go out, they have helicopters.

A town like Hampton, built with money, where any street house can be used as the background of a rich area, is obviously very suitable for shooting TV series with the background of upper class, such as "Leaping over Beverly 90210".

The crew rented three vacation homes with private beaches, two yachts and a helicopter here to wrap up the fifth season——

The heroine Annie organizes a charity fundraising event in the affluent area of ​​Hampton. Her partner Princeton is not only handsome, but also rich and enthusiastic. If it is not because her boyfriend Liam has already occupied an important place in her heart, Annie thinks she must Would be attracted to Princeton.

However, the charm of the new friend Princeton no longer needs Anne to add icing on the cake. Since he appeared in Hamptons, he has attracted the attention of almost all school-age girls here, not only Annie's friend Naomi, but also Naomi's His sister Jane was fascinated by him.

If Anne and Naomi have become enemies and friends because they have dated the same man, Naomi and her sister Jane are almost enemies. Princeton, also in order not to lose to each other, the two sisters launched a wonderful battle to win the boy - of course, because of the brilliant writing of the screenwriters, this plot will be interpreted with a lot of jokes.

In the end, Princeton chose his sister Naomi, and soon proposed to Naomi.

Naomi ecstatically agreed, and flaunted her affection with Princeton, enjoying the jealous eyes of the women in the whole town.

But at the same time, the heroine Anne accidentally discovered that Princeton had already been in debt and was on the verge of bankruptcy.

The truth was suddenly revealed: it turned out that Princeton proposed to Naomi for a purpose, that is, for the huge property that the other party inherited as an adult, and wanted Naomi to repay his debts after marrying Naomi.

Naomi was very tangled, and finally chose to break up with Princeton. This extremely handsome and mysterious man, just like his arrival, disappeared from Hampton's sight like a gust of wind, leaving only countless girls who had been crushed in their hearts. Ripples in the wind.

……

Shallow sea surfing, beach volleyball, yacht parties, William can handle it all.

He was born and raised in New York, and Manhattan, like the Hamptons, was the two most important places in his upbringing.

So when William returned to the Hamptons, it was like coming home—even though the Bradleys' Hamptons property had been sold long ago.

William is probably the most comfortable living in the Hamptons among all the young actors in the crew. He knows which cafe has the most Italian-style freshly ground coffee, which bar has the most varied bartenders, and which restaurant has the most Italian flavor. The pizza is the most authentic... He can even say hello to one-third of the shop owners in the town.

The way the rest of the crew looked at William changed every day.

From William's words, everyone could see that he was very familiar with this town.

Given the level of spending in the Hamptons, what kind of people would live here for a long time?

Unknowingly, more and more actors came to chat with William during filming breaks, and there were more and more private discussions about him.