"Fake script?" Jenny asked with a smile.
"Yes, asking the principal to borrow the venue and extras for free will not reveal the plot of the movie."
This is the consistent style of New World Production: stingy!
Van Nuys High School agreed to lend the school's playground for filming for free, organize students to act as extras for free, and provide a free breakfast and lunch. This is all based on the fake script produced by the producer.
"Rock and Roll High School" is a typical low-cost movie, full of various rock, rebellion, love and other elements that teenagers like. The plot is simple:
The cheerleader of "Vince Lombardi High School" is a rebellious rock and roll girl. Together with her good friend and obedient female high school student, she invites the popular rock band "The Ramones" to come to the school for a concert, which makes the old-fashioned headmistress mad. Finally, The roof of the high school teacher's office building was ripped off and the school was renamed "Rock and Roll High School."
Of course, the school officials at Van Nuys Public High School, where the film was filmed, would not agree to such a plot. The director asked Ronald to write a fake script "High School Life" to fool the school.
The story written by Ronald is: The new female principal of the high school rectifies the school spirit and makes the students who are addicted to rock music realize that there is more to life than rock and roll. Some of the students went to college, some worked as supermarket cashiers, and some worked in factories. Everyone has a bright future.
"Okay, I get it." Jenny began to erase the title on the slate with an eraser, and wrote "High School Life" again with a pen.
"Please notify the relevant personnel and don't reveal your secret. We will only be filming in this school for one day."
"No problem." Jenny smiled and joked, "Ronnie, you are talking more and more like a director."
Ronald smiled and waved his hand, "I'm just here to show off the credits."
At this time, a group of people on the other side of the camera burst out into a burst of rapid talking, and the sound became more and more shrill, as if they were about to start a quarrel.
"I'm going to find out what's going on. See you later, Jenny."
"See you."
Walking quickly into the crowd, it was Jim who was surrounded by three female actors, as if 1,500 ducks were quacking.
"Can we start rehearsing the moves?"
"Where's Mr. Director? Should I wear a red coat or a black coat today?"
"Where's Joe? He agreed last week to feature me."
…
Ronald shook his head with a smile, and Jim was like a poor chicken, confused by the rapid questions from the three female leads. Before he could answer the previous question, he was immediately interrupted by the next question.
So he asked the director of photography: "The extras have already moved into position. They have rehearsed twice and are just waiting to move into position together with the actors. Mr. Candy, what happened? Can't we start yet?"
The director of photography was lying behind the camera to check the framing situation. After hearing this, he stuck his head out from behind the camera and looked at him: "What they want is a result, and what Jim gave them is a lot of explanations, so..."
Ronald also understood. There were countless clues on the set. The script only said that the protagonist wore white shoes, and the director had to choose the most suitable pair from the several pairs of shoes prepared for the costume.
Directors have to make dozens of decisions like this every day. It can be as small as the shoes the actors wear, or as large as 50 extras dancing, or how everyone's dance moves are choreographed. The actors don't trust Jim's choices, and Jim is eager to explain why he chose this instead of that.
"Jim, where's the director? Where's Joe? Should I wear a red coat or a black one today? This is a poor low-budget movie. The costume fee is only $100. I can't buy suitable clothes at all. I'll take all the money from the film." Bought clothes.
You know, that day at the Fred Segal clothing store on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Rod Stewart (the famous singer) was behind me. I got this red one minute before him, otherwise he would buy it. Yes, it cost me $300. And this black one is from..." PJ Soles, the first heroine, talked about the two pieces of clothing very familiarly.
"Miss Sowers!" Ronald shouted, "You should wear the red one for today's play."
"Call me PJ. Wearing red? But black would be nice too."
Because you were wearing red in the tape, Ronald thought, but he had to make up a reason.
"Miss PJ Sowers, we shot today's scene at sunrise. The light before and after sunrise is bluish, which will make the black stand out incorrectly.
And your red coat is very suitable. The light blue is just the complementary color of red. It will definitely stand out when photographed. And your character is a rock girl, so red is more suitable. "
"Really? Then I'll choose the red one."
"Ms. Mary Voronov, the director has promised to add a close-up of you last week, and it will be in today's shooting schedule, I promise. You will walk in front of the camera from a distance and appear in the uniform of the headmistress."
Ronald took the shooting sheet in Jim's hand, turned to a certain page, and glued a piece of paper of a different color to it, and pointed to Mary, who played the headmistress: "Look, this is the shot."
"Miss Dey Young, the obedient school girl you played is the protagonist of the first shot. We first started to move, measure the focus, and wait for 20 minutes, no, 18 and a half minutes to be precise. , the extras are in place, and we can start rehearsing.”
The problem was solved neatly and the director of photography gave him a thumbs up.
Mary Voronov, who plays the headmistress, has acted in several New World Productions movies, and Dai Yang, who plays the good school girl, is a newcomer. The two have little experience and are ready to start taking roles.
PJ Soles, who plays the protagonist, the rebellious rock cheerleader, is the biggest actor on the crew and gets the highest salary. She played major roles in the hit horror film "Carrie" the year before last and in the currently released "Moonlight", so she had a stand-in.
Before the official shooting, the lighting team had to look at the effect of the light on the person's face, while the camera team had to use a measuring tape to measure the distance between the actor's eyes and the camera. The movie camera does not have automatic focus, so you need to use a measuring tape to measure the focal length and manually focus to capture the sparkling eyes on the screen.
Some actors don't want to waste time, so they have a stand-in with a similar height and weight to do it for them. PJ Soles is the only actor on the cast to receive this treatment. While the stand-in took her place, PJ went to the temporary dressing room in the teaching building to change clothes and touch up her makeup.
The first photography assistant, also the focus puller, the red-haired photography assistant who was the chief coolie, quickly took the tape and found the initial position of the actors in the storyboard on the ground. After you find it, tape a T-shaped indicator mark on the ground, which is the actor's position.
Then take out a tape measure, hang one end on the camera, pull the other end to the actor's eyes, and write down the reading. Then go back and figure out the corresponding focus point and make a mark on the focus ring next to the camera body. When it comes to the actual shooting, wherever the position is photographed, the focus puller will adjust it to the corresponding mark to ensure that the focus is on the actor's eyes.
After repeating this process several times, the shooting position of the first shot was completed. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and Ronald picked up the electric horn: "Where's the makeup? Gigi, you touch up the heroine's makeup."
The time has come to 05:55, and Ronald is getting anxious again. The director hasn't arrived yet. At this time, PJ Soles had already changed his clothes, touched up his makeup, and walked out of the temporary dressing room in the teaching building.
She was still a little hesitant, wearing a red coat and holding a black coat in one hand as she kept gesticulating, "Where's the director? I still have to ask the director."
Everyone looked at Ronald. Ronald sweated all of a sudden. Why are you looking at me? I don’t know where the director is either? But I definitely chose red for my clothes in the end. He still pretended to be confident: "Director, director..."
"The director is here!" Jim standing opposite shouted.
A tall and thin man walked towards the school gate, about 6 feet 6 inches (about 2 meters) tall. With a head of explosive curly hair and facial features that are vaguely of Middle Eastern origin, he is none other than the director of the "Rock High School" crew, Alan Aikush.
