The person Ronald took Emil to meet was Walter Murch.
Murch has not found a new directing opportunity since the box office failure of "Return to Oz." He himself had several children to raise, so he began to take over editing work again.
Ronald is very busy during this time. Several crews have to follow up. All matters big and small in the "Dirty Dancing" project have to be reported to him and wait for his decision.
After filming the movie, he will immediately start preparations for "Moonlight". So this time Ronald invited Walter Murch, who was also his teacher and friend, to serve as the editor and sound editor of "Dirty Dancing".
"You gave too much, Ronald." Murch took Ronald aside and spoke to him privately.
Murch saw the number on the contract given by Ronald. This price was the market price when he was a gold medal editor and sound editor before he became the director of "Return to Oz." He wasted two years preparing and directing this film, and now he has returned to the professional market, which no longer has the market price.
"I'm not giving it to you in one go. You also know that this is a small production." Ronald pushed the contract back. "Now I can only give you one-third of the total price. I have to wait until it is released to repay the money." , to pay you the full amount. This means you have to wait a long time to get paid, so it is normal to be higher than the market price.”
"Okay, I will do my best." Walter put away the contract and advance payment check and put them in his bag. "Let's go see those dancers now."
Walter Murch had a deep understanding of both editing and sound editing, so he usually only took on two projects that were given to him at the same time.
Unlike ordinary editors, he joins the crew after the filming is completed. At the beginning, he has to see the script, then the actors and locations, and is involved in the filming of the film from the beginning. He believes that only in this way can the temperament and tone of the entire film be grasped as a whole.
"They're going to Palm Springs today and dance training is grueling, so let them relax."
Ronald picked up Murch and took turns driving with Emil to Palm Springs.
Gale Hurd, a native of Palm Springs, helped contact a company because the director of "Top Gun" was coming and offered a special off-season discount.
“You should dance—yay!”
When they arrived at the resort, the dancers had turned on the tape recorder and started playing the famous song "You Should Dance" by the Bee Gees, and a group of people started dancing disco.
The dancers had dance bugs and left the rehearsal place. They were unwilling to dance Dirty Dancing, which was adapted from the mambo. Instead, they picked up the less popular disco.
Ronald was there too, dancing a few times with them.
"Oh yeah!" The extras started to scream strangely. The director's dancing skills are not bad. It seems that this movie will not mess around and regard those introductory dance steps as classics.
Walter Murch took out a stopwatch, compared the scenes in the script, started watching the dancers' dance rehearsal, and started the stopwatch.
"What are you doing?" Assistant Director Emil asked Ronald in a low voice.
"This is one of Murch's working methods. He is used to estimating the duration of each scene in the script before filming begins. Then when he sees the finished film, he compares it with his own estimate. There is a big discrepancy. That is The major differences between the director’s and my own understanding of the scene are something that need to be carefully considered.”
Ronald explained.
"Yeah, that's right." Murch smiled after hearing Ronald's answer, "Emil, come and time it with me."
Ronald was happy to be alone and relaxed. He walked to the side and picked up a glass of juice drink and drank it in one gulp.
"What happened to Richard yesterday?"
When Ronald saw the two main characters, Patrick Swayze and Cynthia Rhodes, approaching to chat with him, he put down his drink and asked some private questions.
"As a director, it is very useful to know about the actors' private lives. On the one hand, it can be used to guide emotions, and on the other hand, it can also avoid trouble.
"It's Cynthia's suitor," Sweets smiled, took a sip of the drink, and then left, leaving Ronald and Cynthia to chat privately.
"He chases me very persistently, but I don't want to be with him."
"Why? He looks like a good guy." Ronald smiled.
"He is several years younger than me. He is still very naive and immature." Cynthia shook her head and glanced at Ronald.
"You take care of it yourself, don't affect the filming. It's okay to let him come to visit the team when the time comes."
Ronald also took a sip of his drink.
"Ronald, can you ask them to dance for me according to the music in the script?" Walter Murch came over with a stopwatch and made a request to Ronald.
Ronald was distracted and started looking for choreographer Ortega.
"I haven't obtained the copyright for the song yet, and I'm not sure what song it will be for the dancers in the end, so I use a metronome to set the rhythm of the swing dance of the 1950s and let them dance along."
Ronald suddenly became anxious, "Why hasn't it been done yet? Emil, Emil..."
He quickly called the assistant director over and said, "Go and call Danny Goldberg, our music director, what song does he want me to use for the episode?"
Choreographer Ortega saw that the complaint was successful and immediately took out a cassette tape, "We still play the tape of screenwriter Miss Eleanor, although the sound quality of the duplication is average..."
Ronald waved his hand and told him to do it himself, helping Murch better estimate the time of each shot.
He found the phone himself and received a call from musical director Danny Goldberg.
"Danny, how much longer do you want? The dance rehearsals here will end in a week. Do you want me to use a metronome to accompany them when we start filming?"
There were a lot of worries. In the first movie that Ronald invested himself, all the unsatisfactory aspects seemed to be magnified countless times compared to when he was shooting other people's movies.
Every time there was a small setback, Ronald felt that his account numbers turned into bats and flew away with a squeaking sound. And every time I solve a small problem, I feel like the green money is attracted to the movie again and flies back.
Ronald is now more able to feel Weintraub's state of mind when he asked himself to be the director of "The Dragon King". Investing his own money in a film project is really stressful, and he thinks too much when there is any trouble. .
"Don't worry, I'm negotiating with major record companies now. What you want are famous songs at that time, and the property rights are complicated. We don't have a big budget, and I don't want them to feel that we really want these songs, so we can only take our time. Talking in the ground cannot reveal our true purpose..." Danny Goldberg was still operating unhurriedly.
Ronald couldn't stand it anymore, "I'm going to start shooting soon, so you can get it done as soon as possible. If you can't get it done, tell me earlier so that I can find someone who can do it..."
"Pah..." Ronald hung up the phone angrily.
"What's wrong? Is something wrong?"
The person asking the question was Ronald's other agent, Richard, who had returned from "The Nanny Adventures" and was helping Ronald with work.
There were some minor problems with the investment in "The Babysitter Adventures". The investment share of the second phase of the "Screen Fund" of which George Jr. was a director was directly allocated to Michael Eisner.
The first issue before George Jr.'s intervention was evenly divided between HBO and Britain's EMI Production Company.
Wall Street is riding high and the Dow Jones is much higher than it was a few years ago. The third tranche of Screen Fund began to attract high-net-worth private investors. Roland Bates, who is responsible for issuing the fund, wants to increase the financing amount of the third phase from 190 million in the second phase to US$300 million.
Faced with such a large amount of money, both HBO and Disney are fighting for the right to use the funds.
The condition given by HBO is that Screen Fund has the right to decide on the project. Disney's Eisner, on the other hand, demanded full control of the project.
The reason he moved out was that with a visionary director and producer like Ronald working for Disney, Wall Street, as a capital, just needs to hide behind professionals and let them decide art and please the audience, and then count the money after the release. .
Therefore, Eisner called Ronald and asked that "Babysitter" be moved to the day after New Year's Day to start filming the next year. In this way, this Ronald-led movie with a high probability of being a hit will enter the investment scope of the third phase of the fund.
With this golden brand, investors will have the upper hand in giving Disney the right to use the third phase of the Screen Fund.
"Our music director, Danny Goldberg, has not yet negotiated the copyright for the episode. This time is enough for a pregnant woman to give birth to a child." Ronald began to sneer.
"Goldberg is a Jew, and I know him." Seeing no one around, Richard whispered in Ronald's ear, "In fact, no one has valued these songs from the 1950s. Dan Ni is procrastinating like this because he wants to turn this into a big deal.
If I thought correctly, the next thing he would say is that some singer-songwriters have passed away and their relatives are more difficult to negotiate. "
"Huh? He did say that." Ronald looked at Richard Lovett. His agent was also of Jewish descent.
"I am different from them. I am a Jewish boy who grew up in rural Wisconsin. There are only 20,000 Jews in the entire state. When I was a child, I went to public schools with Puritans and Catholics. Our family also celebrated Christmas. I had nothing to do with them. Both.
These Jews who grew up in Los Angeles, California, only discovered when they reached adulthood that there were more than just Jews in the world...but they still used Jewish business rules to treat customers from other cultural backgrounds. In their view, as long as they can make enough money, it is their own responsibility. "
Richard pushed up his glasses and said.
Ronald nodded. Richard had always been very loyal to him. In this kind of matter, he, his biggest customer, was the greatest guarantee of his interests. He must be telling the truth.
Danny Goldberg's incompetence in doing things should be a strategy of his. He wanted to buy the copyright without delaying Ronald's affairs, and at the same time, he had to pay a price that was neither high nor low, so that he could make some money for himself. .
"What do you recommend?"
"Dirty Dancing also has a Jewish girl plot problem, so I suggest finding a non-Jewish agent to handle the purchase of the episode's rights." Richard leaned closer and spoke in a lower voice, "The key is , the person who goes to buy it should do it as your company’s purchaser, and don’t reveal that you are the person behind the project. If you act quickly, it should be done quickly.”
Ronald woke up from a dream, if he had not invested in it, he would have directed the film project. Then "Dirty Dancing" is just a boring movie with a $4.5 million investment about the love story of high school girls in the 1950s. Who would be excited about that?
Songs from the 1950s, no matter how famous they were at that time, can be considered a blessing as long as they can be sold for a little royalties.
"I'll go find Weintraub and borrow someone." Ronald figured out the crux and smiled.
Danny Goldberg also wants to monopolize the benefits and eat both sides. As long as Ronald keeps things secret and fights with speed, he will get things done before he even reacts.
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