Chapter 1 "Rock High School"

   "Cut!" 

The director shook his head helplessly, "NG!" (No Good, meaning unqualified)"  The staff sighed in unison, "Alas!"  This is the Whiskey-GoGo Bar, rented by New World Productions to shoot the movie "Rock High School". The crew had taken four takes for the last shot on Friday afternoon, and the fifth was still NG. 

 Everyone couldn't leave work early, but they couldn't get angry. They could only look at the rock band "Ramones" in the movie with resentment.Director Alan Ekush got up and went to find the band manager, wanting to replace the bassist Dee Dee Ramone who always made mistakes. 

 Co-director Joe Dante sat there, trying to figure out what went wrong. It was obviously a very simple scene, about a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer, taking a few boxes of pizza and walking into the backstage lounge of a concert. Bassist Dee Dee Ramone said a line, "Pizza, pizza is here, let's eat! " 

 How come it still doesn't work after 5 takes? This Diddy, either he says the wrong lines, drops the pizza, or knocks over the small table...  

Ronald Smith , the crew assistant, watched the whole process from behind the camera. It was a bit strange. The bassist Diddy acted very hard. He really wanted to act well, and he did his best to shout out the lines every time. 

 But after shouting, when the three of them were unpacking the pizza boxes, Diddy would make some low-level mistakes, as if... yes, it was as if he did it on purpose. 

 The three of them sat on the chairs to rest. Anyone who was NGed 5 times by the director would be a little dejected.  Seeing that the band members were a little exhausted, Ronald quickly walked to the table in the corner behind the camera, took three paper cups, and soaked them in Nestle's "Tasty" instant milk. He took the coffee and brought it over.  

Diddy was the most arrogant of the four band members. He took the coffee lazily without saying thank you. He only glanced at the other side of the room with a sneer of contempt on his lips.  Ronald followed his gaze and saw that it was the fourth member of the band, the lead singer Joey 's shot had been finished first and he was now chatting with a fan. 

 Ronald turned his head and looked over here. Diddy had his back to the other two band members and was sipping coffee. 

 Ronald suddenly had a guess in his mind.He walked quickly to the director's chair, greeted Joe Dante, and approached him and said softly, "Mr. Dante, I found that Diddy was a little dissatisfied with the lead singer Joey..."  Joe Dante listened for a while, his eyes suddenly brightened, and asked, "Are you sure?"  "Not completely sure, but it's worth a try." 

 Director Allen just came back after the failed negotiation, "No, the band manager said that he wanted to ensure that the four members had equal screen time, and he refused to change someone to say Diddy Raymond's line. " Equal time..."  Ronald and Joe Dante looked at each other and felt more confident.  

Joe Dante pulled over the director's chair and asked the very tall Allen to sit down and rest first, and whispered in his ear: "Ronald just discovered... Why don't we try a different way of shooting?" 

 "Oh, my God, you may be right." Allen jumped up from his chair immediately after hearing this and went to coordinate with the band manager.  

Joe Dante also stood up to explain the new way of shooting to Dee Dee Raymond, and asked the makeup artist to come up and touch up his makeup.  Ronald saw the director of photography looking at him with curiosity behind the camera, and grinned: "The director will change the way of shooting." 

 Soon, the crew prepared everything and started again. 

 Director Allen shouted: "Start! (Action)" 

 Dee Dee Raymond rushed into the camera first, holding a large stack of pizzas. He put the pizza on the small table and shouted: "Pizza, pizza is here, let's eat! " 

 The other two members of the band, the drummer and the guitarist, then ran into the picture from the left and right. The three of them opened a box of pizza, each took a piece and bit into it fiercely.  "Cut! This one is good, it passed!"  Everyone shouted "Yeah" and applauded. Today's scene was finally finished.  ... 

 Ronald took the form and asked the actors to sign one by one to confirm the working hours. Then he handed the signed form to Jim, who was also an assistant to the crew. 

 Jim was also a young man with long hair parted in the middle, a beard, and a Beatles look. Both of them were "odd jobs" crew assistants. They had the most contact at work and were the most talkative friends.Jim put away the form, saw that the Ramones had gone far away, and came closer to ask quietly: "What did you say to the director just now to let that Dee Dee pass in one go?"  Ronald smiled slightly: "When I brought coffee to Dee Dee, I found that he was dissatisfied with the lead singer Joey. The previous shot gave a close-up of Joey alone, and this shot gave a medium shot of the three of them together. So I asked the director to try to give him a single shot. " 

 The two of them smiled knowingly. It's not just the actors in the same crew who are like this. Rock stars in the same band also care about their status. 

 Ronald looked at his watch and stood up to leave. "Why are you leaving? Aren't you going to the party?" Jim was a little surprised. The crew will be staying at the "Whiskey-Go Go" bar tonight to have a weekend party.  "No, I have to call my aunt in New York. " 

 Don't forget that we still have to shoot tomorrow. While the students are on holiday, we'll go to Van Nuys High School to shoot the morning scene. Meet at 05:30." Jim handed over a notice with a map on it. 

 Taking the notice, Ronald walked out of the bar, got into his car, and drove out of the parking lot. 

 When passing the crew's van, the camera crew was loading the equipment. Ronald honked the horn twice, signaled to the camera director standing there, and then turned left onto the main road.  On December 15, 1978, in Los Angeles, daylight saving time had ended. The clock was turned back one hour, just after 6 o'clock in the evening, but it was already dark. 

 My aunt must have been waiting for a call. There was a 3-hour time difference between Los Angeles and New York. It was already 9 o'clock in the evening there, and it would be too late to call when I got home. Ronald stopped at a telephone booth not far ahead.  Taking out a handful of coins, he stuffed a few into the coin slot, and began to dial: 1-718-317 7157. The call was connected, and the call was picked up with almost only one ring.  "Hello, Aunt Karen, I'm Ronald."  "Oh, Ronnie, how are you? (Ronnie is Ronald's nickname)" 

 "I'm doing fine. I've been working on the crew for the past two years and I've met a lot of people in the industry this time. I take photos of actors for auditions.  There are many people in Los Angeles who want to enter the film and television industry, and the market here is huge. I've calculated that I can make more than I do at home. With $50 for a set of audition photos, I have earned enough for my student loan of college tuition. 

That's great, I'm so proud of you, Ronnie. You're a good boy, and your father and mother will be proud of you in heaven, too. 

 I married Steve right after I graduated from high school. After he died in Vietnam, I could only find a job as a waiter in a restaurant. I couldn't make enough money for you to go to college. But you gone to college on your own."  Aunt Karen was a little excited. She mentioned her late husband and Ronald's parents who died in a car accident, which made Ronald sigh. 

 "Don't worry, Aunt Karen. I will definitely make enough money this year and pay the loan." 

 "I'm just a waiter in a restaurant. I can't save much money..." Aunt Karen began to blame herself again. 

 "Don't say that, Aunt Karen. You raised your daughter Donna alone, and you also took me in." 

 After 6 o'clock in the evening on weekends, long-distance calls are half price, 29 cents for the first minute, 19 cents per minute thereafter, and 10 cents per minute for local calls. The two chatted on the phone, and Ronald kept inserting coins to renew the fee. After a while, more than half of the coins were gone. 

 "There are not enough coins. Let's talk about it here first. I love you, Aunt Karen."  "I love you, too, my little Ronnie."  Ronald hung up the phone, pressed the coin return button a few times, put the coins away and put them in his pocket. He got in the car, turned around, and drove towards the rented apartment.  While driving, Ronald was thinking about a lot of things. Aunt Karen and cousin Donna were his only relatives in "this world".  Five years ago, Ronald smith was still a Canadian of hongkong origin. When he closed his eyes when he was sleeping, he traveled to an American hospital. When he opened his eyes, the first person he saw was Aunt Karen.  His parents in this life died in a car accident, and only Ronald, who was sitting in the back seat, survived by chance. 

 Aunt Karen lost her husband in the Vietnam War and lived with her daughter Donna. After learning that her sister's family had a car accident, she took Ronald, who had become an orphan, from the hospital to her home in Staten Island in the countryside of New York, and took care of him until he recovered. After  that, Ronald was transferred to Totville High School on Staten Island and after completing high school got to college to become a director.  

Thinking about his worries, Ronald stepped on the accelerator and drove towards his home in the direction of Venice Beach. 

(End of this chapter)