Chapter 266 Moved to Van Nuys High School

  Phoebe Cates signed a special shooting contract very smoothly, and her father agreed after reading the description of the swimming pool scene in the script. I also encouraged her, if it is a high-end shot, it will give the actress more praise.

  As for Robert Romanus, he came from the bottom, signed the contract without any hesitation, and proudly declared that he would show the cannon from the Bronx to a national audience.

  The crew moved smoothly to Van Nuys High School, where they filmed scenes inside the school and classrooms.

  The principal and dean of Van Nuys High School are the same two from "Rock High School". But the students have changed. Ronald stood on the roof of the teaching building and looked down, and the shooting process was still vivid in his memory.

   It's just that there are no two dancing hot girls like Mara this time, but a group of new high school beauties watching the filming.

  This time it is an official project of Universal Pictures, Ronald no longer has to write fake scripts to fool the school. Our own professionals negotiate and arrange everything with the school.

  The shooting time was still in the semester, and the students came to the school every day to attend classes. For this reason, Ronald negotiated with the school that students can watch the filming, but they can't interfere with it. If they are interested in participating in the performance, they can go to the crew to sign up and act as a background group performer.

  Standing on the roof of the Van Nuys High School teaching building, Ronald used the electric horn to direct the crew to rehearse and move.

  Today, we will shoot the appearance shots of several protagonists. Brad drove the luxury car he paid for in installments, and many girls greeted him along the way. A good car always attracts girls' attention.

   After planning the route for the car to enter the scene, and the group performances with lines along the way and showing a little face, the two rehearsals turned out well, and Ronald started shooting the main shot.

  The camera set up on the roof shoots down. A fine royal blue four-door car enters from the left side of the screen and exits from the right side.

   "Very good, one more." Standing on the top of the building, Ronald picked up the electric horn and shouted to the stunt team below.

  Stunt driver Debbie Evans, coming out of the car door, gave Ronald a thumbs up to hear, then reversed the car back to the starting position to start over. If this kind of shot is not necessary, the special effects team will help drive.

  The reason why the actors are not allowed to open is to prevent any accidents with the actors and affect the subsequent shooting. Driving may seem harmless, but Hollywood has long established a standard practice that has its own logic. There have been precedents of actors jumping off tables and breaking themselves into bones before.

   This set of shots is to show that Brad, who works part-time in a fast food restaurant, feels superior to his classmates after working hard to make money.

  He saw a lot of beautiful girls in the new school year, so he got rid of his girlfriend Lisa who also worked in a fast food restaurant, and really wanted to find a "girlfriend" to enjoy the last year of high school life.

  Camera shot well, Ronald motions for Debbie to pass.

   "Fix the camera in the back seat of the car, and shoot the beautiful woman over there through the window."

   Ronald then arranged for the next shot.

   "Hi, Brad." A girl greeted the photographer in the back seat. Of course, with other shots in the edit, the audience would think she was talking to Brad.

   "Cut, good, next."

  This time Brad has a close-up shot, not suitable for a stunt double, and he gets in the car by himself and drives on the prescribed route.

  The camera is placed on the co-pilot and fixed with a bracket, and the photographer and follower sit in the back seat to operate. The focus follower connected an extension cord to the focus **** and half-lyed on the back seat to adjust the focus. The focus of this close-up shot has a very shallow depth of field, and it will be out of focus if you don’t pay attention, which is a test of the focus focuser’s skills.

  After practicing twice, the director of photography Matthew signaled Ronald to be ready.

  The crew used two vehicles to shoot Brad's shots. One was a real royal blue four-door limousine for panoramic car shots.

  The other one is the current ordinary car. The co-pilot's door was removed to prevent interference with the large film box behind the camera. It is mainly used to take pictures of the interior of the car.

   "Recording? Camera? Action!"

  Judge Reinhold, who plays Brad, took out a small slate and tapped it lightly at the camera.

  The framing range of the close-up lens is very narrow, so the slate is also a special small board, only a little bigger than the palm.

  The space in the car is narrow, making it inconvenient for the director to get in every time to play the board. The actor Reinhold played the board himself, then put the board next to the chair where the camera could not see it, and started the car.

  Brad replied to the girl who greeted him, "Hi."

   Then he continued to drive forward, and rated the girl to himself, "Ah, grown up? Beautiful?"

   "Cut!"

   "Very good, one more."

  This one is actually not that good, but Ronald always said that it is good for the actors to have no psychological burden when shooting the next one. This is a trick he came up with.

   "Famous" director Alan Parker was upset when he was dissatisfied with the camera, which put a lot of pressure on the actors, which was actually not conducive to their performance.

"When you turn your head and talk to the camera, you should have the feeling that the boss is inspecting the company. Brad is inspecting the beautiful girls in the school. He is now the foreman of Hamburg in the United States, and he treats his classmates with a superior attitude." Ronald said to Jia Qi said a few words.

   "Cut!" Ronald came to shoot again, "this time is better than last time, let's do it again, this time with a different acting."

  Brad is a celebrity in school, and many people admire that he can be the foreman of a "big company" like Hamburg in the United States in the 12th grade. When he got to the parking lot, his younger brother opened the door for him.

   "There are still 6 issues. This four-door luxury full-size cruiser belongs to me." Brad clapped hands with his younger brothers after getting off the car.

   "Cut!"

  Brad's appearance shot is finished, and next is the appearance shot of the scalper Mike played by Romanus. Both of their appearances were in the school parking lot.

  The part where I work part-time in the mall during the summer vacation is the appearance of several characters. At around seven minutes, Ronald arranged for them to play in the school. A good appearance shot can let the audience know what kind of person this character is in a few tens of seconds.

   Furthermore, the audience will understand what kind of story will happen to them and how they will interact with other characters.

  So Ronald attaches great importance to appearance shots and strives for perfection. The progress of the shooting is not as fast as in the mall, but try to get the accurate performance of the actors.

   Anyway, it was filmed in the mall for a week, and it was completed one day earlier than the shooting plan. The two producers are very satisfied with the progress and quality of their work. Ronald has the capital to spend more time here at Van Nuys High School.

   "I'll give you four tickets for the fifth row, the lowest price is 140 dollars in total." Romanus was speaking lines to several customers, hoping to fool them into buying high-priced tickets.

"See that sports car? It's Jefferson's car. He was a linebacker on our high school football team. An alumnus wanted him to join his college and gave Jefferson a sports car in 10th grade when he was a I picked it for him.

  Forest Whitaker plays football star Charles Jefferson, driving a 1979 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 sports car, passing by the scalper Mike and parked in the parking lot.

   "This is a good car." The two customers praised.

   "Yeah, huh, he and I are old friends." The scalper Mike wanted to pretend to be arrogant, and walked up to Jefferson to say hello.

   "Hi Charles, how are you today? What a nice car and you've taken good care of him."

   "Don't **** get it dirty." Jefferson didn't give the scalper Mike any face.

   "Look, what a man of personality." Mike's face changed, and he turned around immediately, and praised Jefferson in another way.

   "Really," said the customer, and for a moment it seemed that Mike was a man with many connections and great powers.

   Forest Whitaker is tall, but not much taller than Robert Romanus, who plays Mike.

  For dramatic effect. Ronald asked the props team to put an apple box on the side of the car. Get Whittaker off the car and stand on a 20 cm high stepping log.

  The camera then looks up from Mike's side. When Whittaker got out of the car and stood up, he was a lot taller than Romanus. Romanus only reached his chest, and instantly felt like a giant.

"Cut! Very good, change the camera position, let's do it again." Ronald is very satisfied with the lens design of the director of photography Matthew. Such Charles Jefferson is the one who the university sent alumni to attract him to join the NCAA. Delivery genius.

  The second camera is shot from behind Whitaker, the camera is fixed on a stand, raised to the back of Whitaker, and shoots from above. The camera operator and the focus follower squat on a small platform above the camera bracket.

   "Action!" Ronald ordered.

   "Don't **** get it dirty." Whittaker said the line again.

  Romanus stood in front of him, and as Whittaker stood up on the apple box, Romanus had to look up and speak to him.

  The distortion of the lens makes the scalper Mike played by Romanus look smaller, which is a bit funny.

  The director of photography Matthew, who climbed up to stare at it himself, was very satisfied with this shot and gave Ronald a thumbs up.

   "Fine, let's take another shot from the side."

  Filming is just that complicated, tedious, and boring. Soon the onlookers couldn't take it anymore. Waiting for 20 minutes, shooting for 20 seconds, can't see any effect.

   But these shots, once cut together in the editing room, can express complex emotions and stories smoothly, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the world created by the director.

  The encounter scene between the scalper Mike and the rugby star Jefferson, by cutting the front, back, and side shots together, can show Jefferson's physical talent and impulsive and irritable character.

  The background of the background of the underprivileged poor family who is good at bragging and taking advantage of the scalper Mike is also clear at a glance.

  However, the interest of high school students cannot be dispelled all at once.

   When it came time to shoot the indoor scene, that is, when Spiccoli was late and was kicked out of the history class by Mr. Hand, there were still a group of Van Nuys High School students standing outside the classroom door, poking their heads to see the secrets of filming.

   "Spicoli, this camera will focus on your face and Mr. Walston's face. I need an emotional close-up."

   Sean Penn nodded to Ronald, signaling that he was ready.

   Ray Walston, who plays Mr. Hand, is an old Hollywood actor. He played Uncle Mars Martin in the TV series "My Favorite Martian", and he is a well-known TV star.

   "Recording, Camera, Action!"

   "Mr. Hand...Cut!"

   Sean Penn was halfway through his lines and suddenly stopped.

   "What's the matter, Spiccoli?" Ronald asked.

  (end of this chapter)