Chapter 2 Videotape

   Driving into a McDonald's drive-through, Ronnie opened the storage box, took out a stack of coupons, picked out a Big Mac meal, attached a dollar bill, two quarters, and a dime, and handed them to the cashier window. 

 The original price of the Big Mac meal was $2.59, but the coupon only cost $1.6. 

 Taking the meal wrapped in a paper bag, Ronald drove all the way back to his apartment. 

 People living in Venice Beach are not rich, and most of the residents are middle- and lower-income residents. It is mainly white, so the public security is not bad.Ronald was a little hungry, so he went home to eat a Big Mac and drink Coke. 

 This apartment is a one-bedroom apartment. Venice is relatively remote, and the rent is not high, less than $200 a month. 

 Except for being far from the city, there are no disadvantages. Ronald has a car and commutes to work every day, which takes more than half an hour each way. There is nothing wrong with it.  Throwing the garbage into the trash can, Ronald took the clothes to change and went to the bathroom to take a shower.  Remembering that he had to get up early tomorrow, he took a shower and washed up, and went to bed early. Ronald wiped the fog off the mirror with his hands, revealing a handsome face. His deep eye sockets, straight nose, and well-proportioned body were the result of years of physical exercise. No matter from which angle you look at him, he is a handsome guy. 

 After the movie "Superman" adapted from the comic book was released last year, everyone said that he looked like Christopher Reeve, who played Superman. 

 It is true that Ronald is a bit similar. Ronald is also tall, 6 feet 2 (1.88 meters). However, Superman has black hair, while his hair is golden coloured, with the roots close to black and the ends of the hair more golden. His eyes are amber, the inner circle near the pupil is dark brown, and the outer circle is golden. 

 His hair and eyes are not pure colors, very typical of American people, and his ancestors have no idea how many countries they are from. However, Ronald does not have the strong body odor . This made him very relieved, and he did not have to spray deodorant on his armpits every day like the guys in his collage wrestling team.  

Ronald changed his clothes and lay on the bed, thinking of Aunt Karen in New York. 

 After crossing over, Ronald found that he had very good memory of his past life and retained all skills. For example, driving, drawing comics, directoring , scriptwriting and wrestling. He could not only speak English but also Italian and french and chinese.

 At first he could not speak very efficiently Aunt Karen was very anxious and took him to see a doctor. After a checkup, the doctor thought that he had suffered a blow to the brain, which led to a rare aphasia, and he had to learn to speak again like a child.  Ronald start to practice speech , and studied hard for half a year with the recording. In addition to the all-English environment, he was able to learn to speak again.  After that, he joined the high school wrestling team did good in wrestling, but leave to become a director which was the ronalds dream . He lost the inter-collage competition and didn't get a sports scholarship from the university.  

Until one day, when he accidentally picked up a camera from a classmate on the wrestling team, he discovered the most useful skill in his past life - taking pictures. 

 Measuring light, lighting, and posing with bare hands, as if you can take a qualified portrait without thinking. he was a good photographer in his previous life This skill can make money now. 

 Aunt Karen saved $200 with great effort and wanted to buy him a used car. This is the tradition of middle-class families in America. When the child gets a driver's license when he grows up, the father buys a used car for the child.  Ronald didn't want a car, but used the money to buy a second-hand Nikon F2 SLR camera and several rolls of film. From then on, he became a photographer and took various portraits to make money.  

After graduating from high school, Ronald didn't have enough money to go to college, so he took a loan and worked to earn tuition. With more than $5000 in "huge sums", he said goodbye to Aunt Karen and cousin Donna. It took 12 days to drive all the way along Interstate 40 from New York to Los Angeles. He looked like an 22-year-old boy, and clients didn't quite believe in his photography skills. He didn't make enough money as a portrait photographer. In the countryside of Staten Island, there are not many fast food restaurants that recruit young people to work.  Soon Ronald found that the easiest way to make money in portrait photography was to take audition photos for actors. It was simple and profitable. Two A4-sized headshots could earn more than $100. Not many people made movies in New York, so Ronald came to Hollywood to look for opportunities. 

 After arriving in Hollywood, he took some portraits one after another, and his reputation attracted clients. However, when they saw that he was young, they were unwilling to believe in his ability, so they could only charge $80-90 per set for novice actors who had not yet entered the industry. 

 Ronald join a film crew and have his name included in the end credits, so that clients started believe that he was an "insider". He wanted to charge more money and save up enough to pay off all loan as soon as possible. 

 Later, he went to New World Productions to apply for a screenwriter position. After being selected, he did not write a page of the script, but worked as a script reader for several months. Two weeks ago, Ronald was forced by his boss to work as an assistant in the crew of "Rock High School". His main job was to make coffee... Feeling a little sleepy, Ronald set the alarm for 04:30 tomorrow morning and turned over to sleep. ...  I don't know how long I slept in the dark, Ronald heard someone talking outside. He opened the door and walked outside. There was a white screen in the open space in the middle of the apartment. It seemed that someone was showing a movie? 

 With the weak light, Ronald found that many people were sitting in rows in front of the screen. Is this a party? 

 "Sit down!" Someone shouted at him.  Ronald sat in the middle of the last row by the aisle, next to the projector. 

 It seemed that something was wrong. Ronald wanted to find the person who spoke. 

 Suddenly the screen lit up. Ronald was startled. A bunch of English popped up on it, and the title was in red capital letters:  "FBI WARNING". 

 Below is a line of small print:  "Under federal law, the unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or public display of copyrighted motion pictures may result in severe civil or criminal penalties (U.S. Code Title 17, Sections 501 and 508). The FBI is responsible for investigating complaints of copyright infringement (U.S. Code Title 17, Section 506)"  

This is a copyright warning.  

"Why haven't you started yet? What movie are you showing today?" The man was speaking french again. 

 After more than ten seconds, a picture popped up on the screen and everyone fell silent. 

 A three-story white building jumped into the picture, and the sun shone gently on the upstairs. There was no one, only a few crickets chirping...squeaking..., contrasting with the quietness of the environment. 

 After a few seconds, a line of big red words jumped up at the bottom of the screen: "A New World Production Film, Copyright @1979, New World Productions. 

 Huh?  It turned out to be a movie produced by New World Productions where I work. But why is it next year's copyright? 

 The camera panned to a large sign with green letters on a yellow background that read Vince Lombard High School. Below that was a sentence: "Winning isn't the most important thing, it's the only thing."  Ronald's boss, Vince Lombard High School, isn't it the name of a fictional school in the script? Isn't this movie the "Rock and Roll High School" being filmed today?  The scene cuts, and a student appears on the screen. He is looking at a map on the wall. There is a red cross on it, and under the red cross it says: "You are here." 

 "Where am I?" the student mutters to himself. 

 A group of players in rugby uniforms come over and grab the student, carrying him away from the screen. A female student wearing black-framed glasses appears on the camera. She is standing next to the platform for welcoming new students. There are various chemical experiment vessels on the platform, filled with red, green, and blue liquids. Next to it is a sign that reads "Kate Lanbao, Science Club, Chemical Reaction Demonstration." 

 The scene cuts to another handsome boy, who is called Tom. Tom walks out of the teaching building and sits on the table to eat. Kate Lanbao goes up to chat with him, but Tom, who doesn't understand romance, refuses her and starts reading a book. 

 The scene cuts again, and another beautiful woman in red puts on a record of the Ramones band and starts playing this kind of rock music with a strong rhythm. The students began to dance on the playground, and the red title "Rock High School" appeared. 

 It was indeed "Rock High School"!  Ronald thought.

  "Boss, change to a good one." Someone shouted.  "Yes, change to a war movie." ? 

 Change to the one directed by Jin..." Suddenly someone stood up, walked to the machine next to Ronald, pressed a button, and the screen turned white again. 

 The machine spit out a black box. On the white label on it, four English characters were written in a flamboyant manner with a red fountain pen -  "Rock High School."  "Boss, change the movie!" 

 The man shouted, waving the black box - the videotape. 

 "Ah!" Ronald screamed and rolled off the bed. 

 (End of this chapter)