Roger Corman quickly left the set. He had to go to the hospital to check out Allen, and then took his lawyer to the police station to bail Joe Dante. The life of a multi-millionaire is always very busy. However, Assistant to the President Gale stayed at the scene.
Today is a sunny day, and the sun has risen high. The director of photography said that now we can only take some close-ups and close-ups, and use reflectors to fill in the light. Otherwise, under the direct sunlight from high angles, the shadows on the face will make the film look like Hitch. Kirk thriller.
Ronald and Jim selected some suitable shots together, and the photography continued after the director of photography approved them.
These scenes are about the new headmistress Evelyn Toga (played by Mary Woronov), who heard someone playing rock music on the radio and came to catch the culprit.
She took giant scissors and cut the audio cable from Liv Randall's record player. Then he asked everyone who was the leader. As long as the leader was handed over, everyone else would be innocent.
Kate Lambeau, a good girl, stood up and said she did it. Of course Liv Randall is indispensable. The two were punished by Principal Evelyn Toga's announcement that they would be suspended from school today.
Ronald found that if the actors are well rehearsed and the crew cooperates tacitly, the filming will be very rhythmic. Actor positioning, lighting, actor rehearsal, real shooting, changing scenery and props, arranging cameras, actor positioning, lighting... the cycle starts over and over again.
Maybe it’s because Ronald’s requirements are low (he didn’t have a dream guide, and he doesn’t know if the filming is good), maybe it’s because he respects the opinions of the crew (he doesn’t know if others are fooling him anyway), the filming speed of today’s crew was unexpectedly... Three points faster than when Allen and Joe directed it.
By 10:50 in the morning, we had already taken a lot of photos. Only a few panoramas and long lenses were left. I couldn't use reflectors to fool the light. I could only wait for the magic light before and after sunset to take pictures.
"The morning's shooting is over. It's lunch time. Everyone on the crew needs to take a 1-hour break." Ronald shouted with an electric horn.
Daylight Saving Time has just ended, and the time in the Pacific Time Zone is still a bit weird. The sun rises at around 6 a.m., sets at around 4 p.m., and lunch time is set at 11 p.m.
The extras ran back to the school building to eat, and the principal of Van Nuys High School welcomed the crew to the filming. As a high school in the West Hollywood area, there are many artistic students among the students. They have been exposed to filmmaking since childhood. They joined the drama club in elementary school and hope to enter the film industry in the future. If a film crew comes to the high school for filming, it will be a good thing for the school district's annual assessment and will also help attract students.
So the school gave us a treat today, pizza and Coca-Cola. This made the crew who had a mediocre meal happy too. The stingy crew does not have much budget for food, and usually only has cheap hot dogs and instant coffee.
Ronald sat with Jim and Gail eating Domino's pizza. This is a popular food delivery chain recently. The taste is not amazing, but it is delivered very quickly and is still hot when you get it. Ronald ate a few slices of pizza, drank a can of Coke, and patted his belly with satisfaction.
Gale ate much more elegantly, using plastic knives and forks at first, but under Jim's guidance, he soon started to eat directly, covering his mouth with his hand while eating.
I don’t know what joke Jim told, which made Gale giggle and tremble.
Ronald took out a pair of sunglasses from his fanny pack and put them on. Today he was considered a senior member of the crew, so he sat in a better seat, and the chair had a backrest. I leaned back comfortably, feeling quite relaxed. There was basically nothing to shoot in the afternoon, so I organized a few actors to rehearse and try to get a way around sunset.
The advantage of wearing sunglasses is that others cannot see what you are seeing. Ronald closed his eyes, breathed calmly, and rested his mind. Unlike most Americans, he likes to take a break at noon. However, in this country where the culture is proud of physical fitness, taking a nap can easily make people think that it is a lack of energy, poor health or laziness, so Ronald would wear sunglasses to hide it.
Today he is the temporary director and is destined to not be able to rest. Soon Jim came over to inquire about the secrets taught by Roger Coleman that morning. Ronald took off his sunglasses, took out a small book, and told him item by item. Jim nodded as he listened, "I wish I knew this when I was making short films."
"Have you ever made a short film?" Ronald didn't know he had this history. Gale knew a little bit about the situation, "Yes, Jim brought the short film over at that time. Mr. Coleman admired his talent and asked him to join the company to learn film production."
"Oh, what's the subject? Do you still have your copy? When can I have a chance to look at it?" Ronald became interested.
"It's a science fiction movie, 12 minutes and 7 seconds. I transferred it to a VHS tape and will show it to you when I get the chance."
"I don't have a video recorder where I live. I still have the opportunity to go to the company and watch it. How much did it cost to shoot that short film? How did you raise the money?" Ronald was a little envious of Jim. He knew that Jim was by no means a child from a wealthy family. Both men secretly used McDonald's coupons to eat.
"For US$24,000, I found 12 dentists and persuaded them to pool their funds for the auction."
"A science fiction film? Then you have to spend a lot of money on props and special effects, right? You can make it for $24,000. It's amazing."
"Ah, the main part that cost money was two machine models, the kind where people sit and fight. It cost a lot of money, and the actors couldn't perform while squatting in them. I could only shoot them separately, with the actors sitting on chairs and pretending. I was driving the combat robot, and then I shot scenes of the machine models fighting each other, and edited them together to create the feeling that the actors were driving the combat robot.”
Jim started talking endlessly about his favorite science fiction movies. Ronald suspected that if "Rock High School" hadn't been a teen movie with lots of music and dancing, Jim would have been competing with him to be the interim director.
"New World seems to have made a lot of science fiction movies?" Ronald asked Gale.
"Yes. But last year, George Lucas' "Star Wars" raised the bar for science fiction films a lot. Mr. Coleman's original science fiction films that only used Piu Piu to shoot green light were not easy to sell." Er smiled and made a laser gun gesture with his hands.
"Ronald, can you give us a closer shot?" came a voice from the side.
As soon as Ronald turned his head, two sexy dancing bombshells, Chris Sommer and Marla Rosenfeld, came to visit.
The two of them changed out of their costumes and were now wearing T-shirts and jeans, but they still couldn't hide the youthful look on their faces. One had blond hair, the other had brown hair, and two pairs of big eyes stared at the young interim director.
Ronald suddenly felt a little overwhelmed and put on his sunglasses, "Hi, Chrissy, Mara. My temporary director duties end today. The only scenes left today are the headmistress played by Mary Woronov. I can let you dance on the roadside as a background. I can't add a one-man show for you."
"Oh, thank you, I wish you were the real director."
"Yeah, I think your photos are better than Allen's."
The two beauties immediately started complimenting each other.
"Don't say that. You two are very photogenic (real) and the best dancers (fake). There will be dancing scenes in this movie. I think Siana will definitely recommend you."
Ronald quickly interrupted their complaints and gave them a break to ask the dance finger who really had the authority to recommend them. The two beauties thanked her and went to find Siana.
"Pfft." Gale looked at the backs of the two beauties and laughed, "Ronald, you can be a diplomat."
"Well, I'm just telling the truth."
"The truth? You just selectively told them part of the truth." Gale saw clearly, "For such a low-cost movie, the director is the one who can ultimately decide their fate."
"There's nothing wrong with that. Mr. Coleman told me before that his movie audiences don't come to see stories, but to come to see young beauties dancing disco. They best meet the audience's expectations."
"It seems you understand them very well?" Gale wrinkled her nose and asked.
"Yes, I quite understand them. Movies are a magical art that can be seen by dozens or millions of viewers. As a public school student, being able to watch a movie with a few frontal shots is considered achievable. It’s a dream in my heart, isn’t it?”
Ronald stood up and put the finished pizza boxes and Coca-Cola cans into garbage bags, "The school is treating us today, so I finally don't have to eat hot dogs, and I don't have to count heads to prevent outsiders from stealing them." As he said this, he and Jim laughed together. This was one of their usual important tasks, and Gail also laughed.
