Chapter 23 James Talent

  Ronald and James began to look at the shooting materials of the second group. The two made a plan for which shots to shoot in the next five days.

  Gail helped to contact the photographer and agreed to meet at 5:30 am tomorrow, Monday, to go to Mount Carmel High School to shoot the opening shot.

  The next morning, Ronald met the photographer,He was a British. Ronald deliberately switched to the accent of the "New Concept English" recording, with a bit of British BBC broadcast accent.

  The photographer laughed happily and told some jokes about his own drunken embarrassment to get closer.

  The three of them quickly became familiar with each other and cooperated to prepare for the shooting.

  "I want a still shot, about 3-5 seconds, with a ray of gentle sunlight shining on the teaching building."

  "Wait, wait, gentle sunlight? How do you want me to shoot gentle sunlight?" The photographer protested.

  "Shoot normally. The sunlight after sunrise is naturally gentle, right?"

  "Well, I'll adjust the parameters and make the aperture smaller. This Kodak daylight film is an old model. It's probably one year old. It will be slightly white, so that the yellow sunrise can be 'gentler'."

  "As you say."

  "Roger Corman gave us the garbage left over from the previous crew again." Jim complained.

  Cut!

  End.

  "Where are we for the next shot?"

  "Wait, under a big sign with the name of the school written on it." "

  Then there is no such thing. Let's get in the car and look around to see if there is a suitable one."

  After removing the camera from the bracket, the three of them packed up and got into the crew's van.

  "Do you know where there is a big sign like that? We want to take a close-up shot." Ronald asked the driver.

  "Big sign? Well, there is a billboard on the back wall of the school. Do you think it's okay?"

  The driver stepped on the accelerator and the car came to the back of Mount Carmel High School. It used to be the stadium, and the weeds grew half a person's height. The stadium was surrounded by barbed wire, just next to the road, and there was a big billboard erected on the side of the road, at the right height.

  "Very good, you have a very good vision, and you chose a good place."

  "Put up the school name that James drew."

  The four people took down the folding ladder and put it on the billboard. Ronald and the driver were on each side, and Jim was directing from below, "A little higher on the left, a little higher, good, just right."

  The billboard was pasted with "Vince Lombard High School" in green letters on a yellow background.

  Vince Lombard is the most famous football coach and has won two consecutive Super Bowls. He has coached the military football team and emphasizes discipline. It is similar to the school management philosophy of Principal Toga in "Rock and Roll High School". Or in other words, Principal Toga's personality was created to imitate Vince Lombard.

  The photographer confirmed it through the viewfinder.

  Ronald took out the clapperboard himself, filled in the scene number, and slapped it in front of the camera, then raised his hand to look at the watch, "One, two, three, four, five..., OK, Cut!"

  The shooting of the second group was scattered and trivial. It only took one or two shots in one place. Most of the time was spent waiting for light, assembling and disassembling cameras, and arranging scene props.

  Ronald thoroughly understood Roger Corman's teaching that he should focus on the scene. It would be too slow to shoot one shot in one place.

  The three of them had some experience and worked well together. In three days, they shot most of the shots that Jerry Zucker planned to shoot.

  Jim also directed a motorcycle scene. He rode the motorcycle himself, and the photographer sat in front of him, holding the camera and shooting a subjective shot. According to the photographer, the audience would see the scene as if they were racing on a motorcycle.

  This was of course James idea. He used the old method of slowing down the shooting. The motorcycle was driving slowly at 20 miles per hour, and he shot the feeling of racing.

  After the shooting that day, Ronald and his team sent the film to New World Productions, waiting to be sent for printing, and happened to meet the boss Roger Corman.

  "Good afternoon, Mr. Coleman."

  "Oh, Ronald, how is your filming going?"

  "We have completed most of the second unit shooting. Tomorrow we will go to Mount Carmel High School. Director Allen will use two cameras to shoot the explosion scene. There will be a telephone booth scene the day after tomorrow. We have to wait for PJ and Dai Young to finish the gymnastics class scene, and then we can wrap up the filming of Rock High School."

  Everyone packs up the cameras and films, indicating that the filming is completed.

  "Very good, I like your work style very much, fast, accurate, and artistic." Roger praised him twice.

  "I have written your recommendation letter and asked Gail to send it out to your college . When you graduate from college, don't forget to come and shoot a movie for me."

  "Of course, Mr. Coleman. Not all Hollywood bosses give newcomers like me and James an opportunity like you do." Ronald thanked Roger Corman from the bottom of his heart. The boss was very generous with the talents he recognized, so Ronald had the opportunity to be a solo director.

  "Where's James? Ask him to come to my office and I'll ask him to report to the stunt department of the new film. This guy's mind is full of stunts and models. He has come to me several times."

  "He seems to be waiting for you at Gail's place, Mr. Coleman. You can see him when you go upstairs."

  Roger Corman nodded and walked into the office.

  Ronald stood at the front desk, drinking instant coffee while imagining restarting his college life.

  . After drinking about two cups, James came down from upstairs and shouted to him with joy,

  "I'm going to be a stunt model, Ronnie!"

  "Congratulations!" Ronald hugged James tightly. After all, it is a thing worth celebrating for people to realize their dreams and turn their hobbies into jobs.

  "When do you go to work?"

  "After Christmas break"

  "That's perfect, we can still attend the packing party for 'Rock High School' together."

  James excitement hadn't subsided yet, and he suddenly remembered:

  "By the way, I brought my short film, shall we watch it together later?"

  "Okay, do you want to wait for Gail to join you? Has she seen it?"

  "She said she only watched the last minute, not the whole thing."

  "Then go call her, I'll ask the photographer to prepare the VCR in the conference room." Ronald really didn't know how to connect the VHS recorder to the TV.

  After a while, the four of them started watching James short film in the conference room.

  The clarity of this VHS tape was very poor. The first thing that appeared was the title "Xenogenesis".

  The letters appeared on the screen one by one like typing on a typewriter. James also added some electronic sound effects, which was a bit like the popular Atari game console.

  Then there was the cast list. The Sony TV was only 21 inches in size, and the subtitles were not clear. Ronald and the other two had to distinguish them carefully.

  The subtitles were very long and boring. The opening subtitles with white text on a black background took up one minute of the 12-minute short film. Fortunately, the word "director" finally appeared, and Ronald knew that the subtitles were finally finished.

  It is a Hollywood convention that the last line of the opening subtitles is the director. It is an American habit to put the most important people at the end of the list.

  Director:

  Then the letters spelled out a name one by one.

  James Cameron.

  "This James is you?" James is the short name of James. Ronald didn't ask James full name.

  "Yes."

  (End of this chapter)