Raising Dragons in Hollywood

In the movie, Ke Lin and his party excitedly packed their luggage.

They can't wait to prepare for this rare tour.

Watching the lead singer Ke Lin grow from a lonely and silly big man to become better and better, and also watching this sand sculpture band create and develop with difficulty until now, the audience who have long been involuntarily pouring into them a certain amount of emotion, at this time, He couldn't help but raise the corners of his lips slightly, and looked at the screen with a smile.

Soon, the band and a group of people entered the busy state of the tour.

On the first day of the show, Sammy used a long shot of about [-] kinds to record their lives.

During these 10 minutes, he rarely showed off his skills and played with the photographer in one shot to the end.

Aim at the lead singer Ke Lin, take his daily life as the main line, there is no cut in the middle, and the camera does not switch at all, all in one go!

First 2 minutes:

In the narrow corridor leading to the stage, the four members of the Hello band walked forward together.

Lead singer Colin walked in the front, excitedly facing the camera, as if interacting with the audience in a movie theater: "You know what? I've been longing for this all my life, standing on the stage!"

Then, he looked at his teammates and shouted energetically, "Guys, we're going to rock the crowd tonight, aren't we?"

Guitarist Jon smiled confidently, raised his hand and hit him.

The drummer smiled and said nothing; the bassist whistled beside him: "Shock the audience!"

The camera pans immediately and turns to the stage.

About 3 minutes is the performance: the noisy audience, the huge volume, the intense music, the four members are performing hard on the stage, and the whole body is soaked in sweat.

Then there is 1 minute to:

The camera followed the figures of the four people and slowly moved down from the stage.

They were sweaty, their hair was wet, and their faces looked tired.

The staff next to him hastily stretched out his hand and handed Colin an oxygen mask to let him inhale oxygen.

The camera slides and pans again.

2 minutes for the after-show party, champagne, beer, vodka, strippers...

The four members of the Hello band are like bumpkins entering the city, looking at this colorful world that has never been seen before.

In the shaky camera, the audience can clearly see that they were surrounded by a group of people at a loss, but due to entertainment and communication problems, they were forced to blend in reluctantly, and were persuaded by the people around them to drink heavily , Drunk and sing indiscriminately!

In the last minute, the camera chased Colin's back.

He staggered all the way back to the hotel room, and fell into the bed, tired and sleepy, lying completely flat.

Last 1 minutes:

Early the next morning, Colin was awakened by a loud knock on the door.

He sat on the bed in a daze, hugging the quilt with a splitting headache, feeling extremely painful.

The staff outside the door continued to knock heavily on the door.

At the same time, he shouted: "Come out for rehearsal! Familiarize yourself with the stage, it's time to rehearse! Get up, get up!"

The music sounded again, and the extremely mournful singing sounded.

——Do your best, lose yourself, and live on a meager salary.

The camera suddenly started to spin rapidly.

The feeling of dizziness in circles seems to be the world spinning around after Colin lacks sleep and wakes up drunk.

However, such efforts have not been rewarded.

Normally, the main purpose of participating in the tour is to expand the influence and fame of the band.

But at the same time, the band can more or less earn a little performance fee.

But what I didn't expect was that after a year of touring so hard, the Hello band not only failed to make money, but lost money.

They had an argument with the tour's organizers.

—— Performance fee?What performance fee?Why are you being paid to perform?We agree with you to participate in the tour, and we are doing publicity for you. We haven't asked you to help us with the publicity fee yet!

"Hey, the shot we made up later is put here?"

When seeing this passage, Mikey couldn't help asking in a low voice.

Sammy, sitting next to him, nodded.

Then, he leaned over and whispered to his ear: "Little Kerry doesn't like me making some scenes too straightforward."

Mai Qi didn't understand half of it, and sighed silently again: "Human beings are too complicated."

But he still didn't want Sammy to discover his ignorance. On the surface, he still pretended to know everything, looked at the screen solemnly, and used a tried and tested old method, that is, "I don't know what to say, boast about it." He's always right', and said sincerely, "Not everyone is as honest as you."

Satisfied once again, Sammy enlists the underage Charmander as a lifelong confidant.

In the film, the bickering between the band and the tour promoter continues.

--What?What's up with these bills?Why do we still have to pay for hotel bills and meals?

——You guys are not well-known, and you can only pay for the tour at your own expense. Of course, we don't reimburse you.

——But, you invited us here!

——Yes, but we didn’t mention board and lodging either?Wait, don't go, don't go, you still have bills, come here and settle the bills. On X, X, XX, lead singer Colin drank a glass of milk in the background, one dollar, guitarist Jon and bassist Kahn took two bottles of beer, XX dollars, drummer Gaylin ate a piece of pizza...

this moment……

Everyone in the Hello band gapes as they listen to each other's bills.

Lead singer Colin even couldn't help muttering to himself: "Aren't you fucking kidding me?"

Obviously not.

Because, what is even more exaggerated is...

They even charge for toilets and even a piece of white paper used to write a song list.

Such a group of people stared at them and demanded money.

The four members of the Hello band are pitifully like weak girls who are bullied by bullies.

The audience was also a little bit aggrieved for a while.

They couldn't help discussing in a low voice: "Why is this! They didn't get paid after the performance?" "Have those touring bands really been treated like this? Are these things real?" "Why did this happen? "

On the screen, lead singer Colin took out his pocket, which was empty and had a hole; guitarist Jon threw the wallet out without hesitation, but when he opened it, there was only ten dollars in it; After looking through the luggage, there was nothing; the drummer Gelin held the drumsticks and said nothing.

In the end, these poor and worthless fools were thrown on the road because they had no money to pay their bills.

The four of them carried heavy luggage and tattered and worthless second-hand musical instruments, and struggled forward under the scorching sun on their two legs.

But since it is still far away from the nearest city, if you walk, it may take more than two days and two nights.

So, in order to hitch a ride, this group of funny people started a permutation and combination activity on the road.

The lead singer and the guitarist stand on the side of the road and stop the car together; the bass player stops the car alone; the drummer and the bass player stop the car together; There was no intention of stopping at all, only leaving them with a face of dust.

They were tired, hungry, and exposed to the sun.

This scene is really funny and sad.

Therefore, the audience in the theater laughed at first.

After being ridiculous, they began to sigh again.

The band's bad luck didn't end there.

A year after the tour, they finally got a chance to release a record, and it sold really well!

However, the music industry is not as glamorous as outsiders see it.

In the past era, 90.00% of Nine’s bands were paid by Baigan, and the money was always taken away by the company. Even the world-famous Beatles could not own the copyright of their own music.

and so……

——Mr. XX, you should pay me $20 for our last record, when will I get the money?

——No, no.

Conversation is over.

This is a common thing that bands encounter when they face record companies.

A lot of bands don't get the money they deserve.

And the funny thing is, they often have no reason to go.

Because the company's financial personnel will record all the money that should be paid to them in the account book, clearly and clearly, and the numbers are accurate to two decimal places, which is not a lot.Moreover, they will smile from time to time and say: "Congratulations, you have made a lot of money this month, and the numbers have increased again!"

— and the numbers have grown again!

Yes, all they see are numbers.

Of course, everyone in the band is not a fool. No one can accept a life without getting paid for a long time.

But the record company also has a set of very skilled coping methods.

In that regard, their treatment of well-known band members isn't too bad either.

Because once the contract is signed, they will give all the members of the band basic living expenses, buy cigarettes and alcohol for them, and even pimp them, coaxing and holding them every day, treating them like gods.

During this period, those famous band members would give them whatever they asked for.

So, whenever something is missing, just make a phone call: "Hi, I'm XX from XX band, I want a XX brand car to drive around, can you get me one?"

No more than one night at the latest!

The next day, the band members can definitely find the car they want on their doorstep.

Delivered to your door with complete documents.

Everything could not be more intimate.

But the problem is...

Want cash?no way!No way!

However, they will not say it so directly, but will find various reasons to perfunctory.

What record sales statistics have not yet been released, and the bills will not be settled until the end of the year; why the company's capital turnover, there is no way to withdraw cash in large quantities; what is to avoid paying too much tax at one time...

In a word: I will help you buy what you want first, and the money must be kept in the account.

Many musicians who don't know much about the city will be confused by this kind of operation, and be confused by the glamor of the surface.

They will think: "This is also very good. If you want something, someone will deliver it as soon as you ask. There is no need to buy it yourself, which saves a lot of trouble."

So the record companies quietly swallowed their money.

Once the band starts to go downhill and the reputation is not as good as before, it becomes difficult to get what you want.

"Hello, I'm XX from the XX band. I want to drive a XX brand car. Can you get me one?"

"Not now, let's take a few days, let's take a few days."

Then, after a few days, it turned into a few months, a half a year...

At this time, the band often wakes up and realizes that 'money is still most useful in their own hands'.

So, they looked for the company again and wanted to settle the previous earnings.

But it was too late.

The financial department will still take out the account books and a bunch of bills with a smile, and carefully calculate the income and expenses for them, and the accounts are still clear and clear.

Just counting to the end...

Everyone in the band will be stunned to find that not only has the company not owed them any money for so many years, on the contrary, they may have owed the company a large amount of money!

At this time, the company will often say magnanimously: For the sake of previous colleagues, the money owed will not be held accountable!

The band members all fell into an odd silence...

Where did the money go?

For the vast majority of musicians who are not good at economics, this will evolve into a major worldwide problem.

If the above-mentioned bands are unlucky, but at least they enjoyed the good life of "responsive to every request, and the stars hold the moon" when they were booming, then the Hello band belongs to an even worse level-the money was robbed and they didn't enjoy it for a day. Pass.

These four people are too honest and easy to bully!

Although they have strange costumes and weird hairstyles, although they sing heavy, powerful, noisy and noisy heavy metal rock, although they can make all kinds of exaggerated actions on the stage to please and even detonate the audience...

But in real life.

They are honest people who can only laugh awkwardly when they are pointed at the nose by the crazy old lady, pulled their long curly hair, and yelled 'not a decent person', trying to pull their hair back, but never refute.

Record companies do to them what they have done to other musicians in the past.

But because of the experience of that tour, they didn't dare to ask for things randomly. For two full years, these four people didn't ask for anything except basic living expenses.

But it's useless if you don't ask for it.

Some things are not necessarily true. It is not you who did it, but you did it by presenting a bunch of evidence.

After one record, the band quickly fell silent again.

A lawyer wanted to help them with the lawsuit, but the four of them couldn't even afford the lawyer's fee.

Moreover, they are the kind of dutiful people who are completely confused by a few words.

The record company was babbling and saying 'this is what you drink, you had a bottle two years ago and it was expensive and the bill was right'.

Smart people tend to ignore 21 and resolutely refuse to admit 'I haven't drank it, you are talking nonsense, you are making it up'.

And honest people would be foolish to think 'have we had a drink'?Then, try to find evidence that you didn't drink two years ago.

It must not be found.

After being said a few more words, they seem to vaguely think, 'Could it be that I really drank it'?

The crux of the problem is whether they drink alcohol or not?

The crux of the problem is obviously that the record company does not pay copyright fees!

But these four honest fools just couldn't figure it out clearly and were completely led astray.

In the following plot, they even repeatedly mentioned the bottle of Schrödinger's wine, and the mantra became: 'I really don't remember drinking that bottle of wine. '

At lunch - I can't remember if I drank the bottle, and if I did, why on earth would I drink wine that cost more than a lunch?

At work - I can't remember if I drank that bottle of wine, and if so, why on earth would I drink wine that cost more than my monthly salary?

When singing—I really don’t remember whether I drank that bottle of wine, and if I drank it, why did I drink it... Forget it, I will sing first.

When I met the fans - I really don't remember drinking that bottle, but I decided to stop drinking.

Scenes of pictures flashed across the screen.

Every time the four of them...probably the fifth or sixth time, absurdly and a little pitifully repeated the phrase 'I really don't remember whether I drank that bottle of wine', the audience below couldn't help laughing Voice.

To make matters worse, the band began to fight among themselves.

It's not just those popular bands who have conflicts because of uneven distribution of spoils, no, because of unfair distribution of benefits.

Poor bands often have the distress of poor bands.

They quarreled among themselves, and the level of ping-pong-pong was not inferior to those popular bands.

During a rehearsal one day, guitarist Jon suddenly made a seemingly calm and rational statement.

He believes that everyone has done everything that can be done now, but they are still unsuccessful after so many years, and they are probably doomed to fail.Therefore, it is better to use the good time and energy to do something else, why hang on the tree of the rock band and disband it.

Lead singer Ke Lin looked at him in disbelief, and impulsively went up and punched him!

But guitarist Jon was naturally unwilling to be beaten, and immediately fought back.

The two fought violently in the room, tearing their faces apart completely.

They blame each other.

Colin accused 'Jon was selfish, he only wanted to live well for himself, but he wanted to abandon everyone';

Jon was a little more ruthless, yelling in hatred 'who caused this', he began to count the unlucky experiences of the band with reason, accusing 'Colin is not qualified as a leader at all...those contracts, those who were The experiences of cheating, those choices that should not have been made wrong, are all decisions made by Colin'.

Colin listened to these accusations with extreme shock.

Then, he couldn't refute at all, and burst into tears: "But what can I do? I don't know anything! You can come and ask me what to do when you encounter something? Who should I ask? My mother Also a normal guy, dude! I've done everything I can, but in the end...it's a nightmare! I just want to sing, I'm just a normal guy who can sing!"

All heroism will end when you find out that you are just an ordinary person...

On the stage, the singer who looks like a brilliant singer and the leader of the entire team is just an ordinary man who will cry when his brother blames him for his career failure.

Jon was silent for a moment.

The bassist and drummer looked ahead in confusion.

The lights flickered on and off, and the lead singer could be heard murmuring sadly: "I'm not a fucking star at all, I'm just a singer."

On the screen, guitarist Jon's eye circles suddenly turned red.

He sat half-kneeling on the ground with his head bowed.

The camera approached him little by little.

In a close-up, a tear slowly slid down his cheek from the corner of his eye, and then he turned his head with tears in his eyes, as if he didn't want others to see him in a mess.

The lead singer Ke Lin's emotions are completely released.

He lay on the wall, beat the wall with his fists, and burst into tears unabashedly, like a child who was wronged, crying until he lost his soul and cried so painfully that the enthusiasm and happiness he had once seemed to be drained and evaporated from his body all at once. , disappeared completely.

The drummer and bassist stood aside in bewilderment.

The camera moved unnoticed, silently recording such a scene, and showing it on the big screen.

This is the most difficult shot in the whole film.

Although Mick's acting skills are high, but when filming, his skills are too obvious, and he will lose his sincerity.

But fortunately, he is an actor who has been famous for many years, and he has a set of ways to regulate emotions. As long as Sammy mentions a little bit and directly states the effect he wants, he will go back and study it, and he can basically complete it. Eighty-eight, very worry-free;

Mikey never got into the scene, especially the crying scene.

It's not that he doesn't want to cry. Dragons don't have as many complicated thoughts as humans. He hasn't heard of anything like crying unmanly. He just can't cry.

It wasn't until Sammy helped him brew the relationship, and we thought about sad things together for a long time, and occasionally mentioned the sentence "I heard that your father robbed all your property", that Little Charmander felt completely sad and heartbroken. I can't persuade you.

Only then did the scene on the screen now appear.

The two stood and sat, in different postures, equally sad.

Throughout the whole movie, the four members of the Hello band encountered countless bad things along the way.

But in Sami's shooting, there is magically no sad plot at all, because the four people are always positive, as if as long as they have dreams, they will never be knocked down by anything.

If you don’t have money to play music, work first to make money. Even if you move bricks on the construction site, you can play music immediately if you earn enough money;

If you don’t have time or energy, then you don’t do anything other than make music, 24 hours a day, you don’t even have a girlfriend, and when you are in your thirties, you are still four bachelors;

Get cheated of money, angry.

But the focus of attention is 'have we ever drunk that bottle of wine'.

I was cheated of the copyright of the song, angry!

But as long as there are still fans singing their songs, the brothers feel that their work is not in vain, happy!

But now, all the beautiful falsehoods have been shattered!

It turns out that they are not indestructible...

How many people can still be stubborn when they are poor and down?

How many people can stick to their original aspirations when they are repeatedly hit?

How many people will be smashed against the wall by the false thing of dreams?

There was no sound in the movie theater.

Everyone looked at this scene on the screen with a heavy heart.

"Alas, alas!"

Even the audience sighed uncomfortably, but didn't know what to say.

Finally reached the last step...

The band broke up.

The four idiots who have been chasing music all their lives go back to their respective homes. Those who should go to the construction site move bricks, those who should go to the kitchen to cook cook, those who drive taxis continue to rent out, and those who work in the slaughterhouse are also sharpening their knives all day long. The rooster that crowed and didn't lay eggs rushed over.

The world returns to its original state.

Ordinary people return, forget the brilliance on the stage, forget the enthusiastic cheers of the audience, forget the moment when the music starts, the whole person feels refreshed and excited like drinking cold beer on a hot summer day!

but!

How can it be!

After seeing the sea, who can look at the small river ditch;

After climbing a high mountain, I naturally look down on the small slope at the door.

Everyone in the Hello band went around and went around in a daze for half a year.

In the end, they still couldn't give up music.

This series of plots is also advancing rapidly.

But there is only one small detail that Sami insists on keeping, and he personally likes it very much.

The lead singer Collins was sad after thinking about it.

In the end, he ran to tell his elderly mother in pain: "Mom, I still want to sing."

Colin's mother looked at her only son, lowered her head and thought for a while, then calmly accepted the fact: "I see."

Then, the faint flame that had been extinguished in Colin's eyes was kindled again.

This is rarely the case in reality.

But it really happened, and it was said casually by the real Colin.

Sammy liked it so much that he photographed it.

In other words, he appreciates Colin's mother's attitude, which is very beautiful.

I don't know when to start pursuing what I like, but it has become a non-mainstream phenomenon.

On the contrary, those who are pragmatic, self-contained and responsible seem to be more praised and praised by people.

Of course, pragmatism, self-discipline, and a sense of responsibility are all good qualities.

But sometimes, there is no need for everyone to live in the same way.

In Sammy's view, life needn't be so harsh.

Isn't the progress of social civilization reflected in more tolerance?

What encouragement and support can be given without excitement;

But there is no need to shout and object hoarsely.

Just……

Just accept it calmly.

Good results, bad results.

Naturally, those who want to pursue their dreams will bear it themselves.

Some attachments seem silly, silly.

only……

The world is so big.

Why can't there be a few fools chasing dreams?

Life is so long.

Don't you even have time to sing a few songs together?