Chapter 32 New Job

In 1979, the holiday ended, and it was the first day of work.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, Ronald returned to the New World Productions office building and immediately felt that he had made the right decision to give up the portrait photography business.

Seeing the movie posters in the corridor, he was excited and couldn't wait to get to work. Sometimes, people's rational thinking is not as real as the body's reaction.

As soon as he arrived at the New World Studios office building, Ronald felt his body eager to work. Something in his blood vessels was awakening, resonating with the film, and he couldn't wait to let them be exposed, developed, and played according to his wishes.

I'd better go to the second floor to find out the news from the president's assistant. Seeing that Gale was already busy at his seat, Ronald hurried forward to greet him.

"Hi Gale, Happy New Year. You look great."

Gale wore a new business suit and still had her Sassoon bob. There were a few new photos on her desk, including a photo of herself, a photo with Cameron, and a photo of the three of them, all taken by Ronald.

She was happy to see Ronald. "Ronald, you're here? How was your vacation?"

"Very good, and you?"

Ronald and Gale chatted about what their acquaintances were doing.

After the filming of "Rock High School" was completed, the crew members immediately dispersed and went their separate ways. The actors have already gone to the next crew, as have the photography, sound recording and other technical staff.

The actual filming time of a movie is not long. Only the director is responsible for the entire preparation and the long post-production work. This is what Roger Corman said: that filming is long at both ends and short in the middle. The more expensive part of the filming should be done as quickly as possible, and the post-production editing and mixing can be done slowly.

But this is just the philosophy of Hollywood. No, to be more precise, it is the philosophy of Roger Corman, the tycoon of low-budget exploitation films.

Polanski has been shooting Tess for more than six months, and it is still not finished. I don't know how he persuaded his investors. And can the investors tolerate his slow work?

Continuing to gossip with Gale, Ronald found that several of his acquaintances also went their separate ways.

Cameron joined a new science fiction film crew and started a new job designing and manufacturing stunt models. Roger Corman named the new film "Battle of the Stars", planning to copy "Star Wars" and also make a space opera.

PJ Soles went to the big production of Warner Bros., "Private Benjamin" with a budget of $15 million. But unfortunately, she still didn't get the leading role in the big movie, this time playing a supporting role to the popular star, Oscar winner Goldie Hawn.

But the most surprising thing is that the script supervisor, Jenny, actually became a screenwriter and revised the script for the movie "Black Stallion". This was produced by Francis Coppola's Zoetrope company. It is said to be very artistic and directed by Coppola's senior brother, Carol Ballard.

"Wow," Ronald couldn't help but exclaim. How come he didn't have such luck?

Gale saw the envy in his eyes and reminded him, "Jenny's last name is Rosenberg."

Ronald was stunned for a moment, then realized that Rosenberg was a common Jewish surname. It seemed that Jenny had some family background and had access to the most powerful Jewish circle in the film and television industry.

…

"Are you reporting to the editing room today? I'll take you there."

Gale took Ronald to knock on the door of an editing room. Director Allan Arkush was already inside. When he saw Ronald coming, he stood up to greet him, "Ronald, you're here. Welcome."

Allan's height of nearly 2 meters put Ronald under a lot of pressure. "Hello, Director, what do you need me to do? Please tell me."

"Joe, Joe? Take Ronald to familiarize himself with the equipment, teach him how to load film and tape into the machine, and then teach him how to synchronize the sound and picture." Alan asked Joe Dante to teach him the basics.

"Hi, Ronald. Glad to have you in the editing room so we can continue working together."

Joe Dante smoothed his hair, revealing his receding hairline. He took Ronald to the film cabinet in the corner of the room and took out a few reels of film. Then he found the recording tapes according to the numbers on the films.

It was the first time for Ronald to see a movie recording tape. It was 35mm wide, the same as the film, but the middle was empty, and there were only some lines on the two sides. These lines recorded the sound magnetically.

Finally, the recording of the tape will be added to both sides of the film in the processing plant, and the sound will be synchronized with the image when it is projected.

In one corner of the room there was a table with two spinning wheel-like plates and handles on it.

"This is the film winder. Put the film in and shake the handle to pull the film along." Joe Dante demonstrated it to Ronald.

"Then put the tape on the second reel and put on the sound playback head. This way, when you turn the handle, the image and sound will move together." Joe Dante motioned for Ronald to try it.

"It's best to keep the speed of your crank at 24 frames per second, which is the standard speed for movie projection," Joe reminded Ronald.

"Okay, stop here."

Ronald stopped cranking the handle, and the film and tape stopped.

"Did you notice? This frame shows the script supervisor, Jenny, clapping the board, but there is no such sound on the tape. Do you know why?" Joe asked, pointing to the picture on the film.

Ronald still remembers that every time a movie was shot, the recorder was turned on first, then the camera, and finally the director called "Action".

"Because the tape recorder was turned on first, the recording is longer than the film."

"Yes, your job is to cut off the audio tape that has nothing recorded at the beginning and keep it in sync with the film."

Joe Dante didn't waste any time and immediately brought a bunch of tools.

"These are your friends at work: white tape, transparent tape, and a guillotine. First, stick 10 feet of white tape at the beginning and end of the film and tape, and write the shot number and content."

Ronald did as he was told and picked up the pen and wrote "Rock n Roll High School Scene 2"

"Then put the film and the tape on the rollers, find the frame where the script supervisor hits the board, and then find the "snap" sound on the tape, and cut off the excess part in front. Do you understand?"

Ronald tried it out and he found it quickly and succeeded in the experiment immediately.

"Throw away all the extra film and tape. Then connect the useful parts, using transparent tape for the film and white tape for the tape, to ensure that the shots and sounds on the clapperboard are synchronized. Very good!"

"I'll teach you how to use the connector. It's much faster than sticking the tape on by hand."

Joe Dante took a small connector.

"Put this end of the film in this grid, put on the transparent tape, put the other joint here, put the tape on the other side, and then..."

As he spoke, he pressed down the connector lever, and

Ronald picked up the film and saw that it was indeed tightly attached.

Ronald then did a few cuts himself using scrap film.

Seeing that Ronald got the hang of it quickly, Joe Dante told him to find the clapboard points a few times and connect the films a few times, and then he let him be responsible for the synchronization of sound and picture.

Director Allan nodded with satisfaction when he saw Ronald getting into the working state. Before the audio and picture were synchronized, the director had nothing to do in the editing room. After staring for a while, he went out to play with Joe Dante.

After synchronizing the sound and picture of a roll of film, Ronald handed the film to Larry, a senior film editor, to see how he did the initial editing.

Editor Larry cut the large roll of film that Ronald had synchronized into small rolls one by one according to the shots so that they could be put on the editing machine and assembled into a movie later.

The film footage was 25 hours long and 120,000 feet (38,000 meters) long. It was not a small project to synchronize the sound and picture. Repeating the same work every day was very boring. If Ronald hadn't wanted to learn the editing technology, he would have found it unbearable.

In the big studios of the golden age of Hollywood, editing was almost always done by women. The reason is that women are more meticulous and make fewer mistakes. In this editing room, except for Ronald, the other two assistants are girls.

Soon, Ronald found that he was not good at this kind of meticulous and repetitive work. Compared with the two assistants, he made more mistakes and his work efficiency was much lower. The editing assistants insisted on working in three shifts, and the workers rested while the machines did not rest; and they worked 24 hours a day without stopping.

Ronald was inefficient, so he had to work more night shifts to avoid competing with the two female assistants for the machine. As a result, he had his days and nights mixed up.

After working for two weeks, his condition became worse. During one night shift, he made three mistakes in a row. Ronald couldn't stand it anymore, so he asked Director Allan to take a day off to adjust his condition.

…

After a good sleep, Ronald went out to buy a TV. He needed a change of pace.

After a while, he brought back an old color TV from a second-hand electronics store and placed it on the cabinet in the living room.

He plugged in the power, pulled out the antenna, and changed several channels. He could receive CBS, NBC, and ABC, and the signal was pretty good. There was also a public education TV station, PBS, which broadcast some science and education programs.

Ronald started changing channels, enjoying watching TV alone.

"As the unrest in Persia continues to worsen, the Shah and his family leave Persia on a private plane and head to England..." ABC's "International News Tonight"

"Persia's National Oil Corporation announced a suspension of oil exports. International oil prices are expected to rise. Persia's crude oil production accounts for 10% of the world's total production..." NBC's Economic Commentary

"Don't do this to me... JR, you're a member of the Dallas family too." This is the CBS prime-time drama "Dallas."

Ronald stopped turning the channel dial and sat on the sofa to watch the TV series "Dallas", which tells the story of the feud between the two oil tycoon families in Dallas.

Ronald didn't see any memorable scenes. He had watched too many movies, and his taste was a bit picky. When he watched TV series, he just looked at the beautiful women.

The plot is rather exaggerated and the camerawork is a bit rough, but fortunately there is a beautiful heroine. Ronald watched it for half an hour until the end of the episode.

Yawning, Ronald stood up and turned off the TV. Even if he had a TV, there weren't many good programs to watch. He had to go to work the next day and continue his boring work.