Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 42 Test Screening



Chapter 42 Test Screening
"Thank you, thank you all. First of all, I would like to thank the judges of the Academy for awarding me the Oscar for Best Director,

I would also like to thank my first boss, Mr. Roger Coleman, for giving me the first opportunity to hold a guide tube...I would like to thank all the members of the crew...I would like to thank my Kay Aunt Lun...

Finally, I would like to thank one of my fellow directors. I don’t want to mention his name, but I can get here because of him as an encouragement to me! "

Ronald finally stood on the Oscar podium and received his first Oscar for Best Director, full of spirits.Marla, in evening gown, beams at him from the audience, while Fat Michael Cimino looks down on the other side...

"Ring ring ring ring..." The alarm clock rang at 6:30 on time.

With big dreams in my heart, the road has to be walked under my feet.Early in the morning, Ronald went to New World Company to watch the trial screening of "High School of Rock".

"Ronnie, are you here? Help me move the copy." Director Alan stopped Ronald who was standing at the door of New World Production.

"Isn't it a test screening in the afternoon?" Ronald picked up a reel of film and carried it to the van.

"Yesterday Roger temporarily changed the time to 10:[-] this morning, saying that there are free trial audiences who can use it." Allen showed a "you know" wry smile.

"Are there free screenings for trial audiences?"

"Yes, tickets are actually sold." Joe Dante on the side spoke up, "I heard that a scalper ticket can fetch 5-10 dollars."

"What? $10 a piece?" Ronald looked disbelieving.Usually the ticket price of a movie is only 2 yuan and 5 cents. Can someone pay 10 yuan for an exploitation film like "Rock High School"? "

"I said you can't fool him, Joe." Director Allen laughed, "Ronald's sensitivity to price is very similar to Roger."

Uh, this is a good word to praise yourself... right?

"So what's going on? Why are there free trial screenings available?" Ronald asked, "Why is it brought forward to the morning?"

"It's Francis Coppola's new film 'Apocalypse Now', which is also previewing this afternoon," Joe Dante explained.

Usually, before the movie is officially released, it will find some audiences for one or two test screenings.Gather some audience feedback, and make final revisions based on these feedbacks before the show.

Generally speaking, for trial screenings, filmmakers need to spend money, and they need to find people whose age, gender, income and target audience are as consistent as possible to watch.This way the feedback is more realistic.

The general screening method is to call the members of the theater and ask them if they want to watch a certain type of movie.Before the test screening, the audience did not know which movie to watch.

However, Francis Coppola's reputation is big enough, and the two "Godfather" movies have swept the box office all over the world, and he also won the Oscar for Best Director with the second movie of The Godfather.When it was said that it was a Vietnam War film released by United Artists, most viewers guessed that it was his new film "Apocalypse Now".

The demand for the trial screening was very hot, and the feedback from the theater members who were notified by phone was very good. Some people even heard about the trial screening of "Apocalypse Now" and came to ask for a membership card to ask for tickets.

The 1000 internal tickets for members were quickly distributed, and the theater put the remaining 1000 tickets for public sale.

Roger Corman was also invited to see a test screening of "Apocalypse Now," Coppola told film industry insiders, and there was another dedicated screening.

When he heard about the demand for tickets for the trial screening, he immediately became interested.Those spectators who queued up to buy tickets at the scene but couldn't get them, just showed them a "Rock High School" without spending money.

This is not killing two birds with one stone.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, there were already people queuing up at the entrance of the theater, waiting to buy tickets.The all-pervasive scalpers knew about it and started speculating in second-hand tickets.

Coppola decided to have only one public preview in Los Angeles, and then went back to San Francisco Diorama Company to continue editing and waiting for the Cannes Film Festival.

The van drove to the theater where the trial screening was held, and the queue at the door was very long, almost circling the theater more than once.Although it is stipulated that each person can only receive one ticket, the 1000 trial screening tickets for "Apocalypse Now" still couldn't withstand the crowds, and when Ronald and the others arrived, they announced that they were sold out.

"Ugh……!"

Everyone sighed softly, converging into a loud noise, sweeping the entire queue.The unwilling people made various actions, covering their faces, sighing, beating their chests and stamping their feet...

There is also a female movie fan who may be a few places away from the queue, and has already begun to wipe tears.Ronald looked a little fascinated, this is the style of a great director.

"I heard that the commander-in-chief specially asked for a copy, and sent it to the White House yesterday." Joe Dante and Alan Ekush also looked envious.In 1979, Coppola, like one of the Olympian gods of the movie, descended to earth, and the audience's admiration for him has been immeasurable.

The filming of this film started in 1976, and there were numerous newspaper reports, but the starring role was changed, the hurricane destroyed the studio, and there was a military conflict in the Philippines where it was filmed. After various accidents, the release date was delayed again and again.

The industry has given up hope for this film, and newspapers even used the headline to change the name of the film to Apocalypse When?To mock Coppola's bouncing behavior.

But movie audiences don't like this. In their eyes, Coppola is still the magical director who made the two films of Godfather.Who else can shoot better than Coppola on the subject of the Vietnam War?

Although the tickets have been sold out, there are still many movie fans who are reluctant to leave for a long time. Some people took cardboards and wrote the words asking for tickets at a high price, hoping that someone would be willing to sell them.

The movie theater quickly put away the "Vietnam War Movie Preview" sign and advertised "New Movie Preview—High School Girls, Rock Punk, Disco Dance, Must See, Free Trial Screenings."

There were quite a few disappointed viewers who bought tickets to enter the venue in the spirit of coming. They couldn't see Apocalypse Now, and it was good to watch a youth movie.

Ronald frowned. This didn't seem like the target audience for "High School of Rock".

The audience who come to see "Apocalypse Now" are either fans of Coppola, lovers of war movies, and a few are readers of the original novel "Heart of Darkness".Among these people, there are not many audiences who look like high school students.

"Alan, Joe, are these test audiences okay? Can such test audiences reflect the real evaluation?" Ronald said to the two directors in the past.

"Don't worry, Roger is very experienced." Joe comforted Ronald with a serious face, maybe he was still comforting his good friend Alan Aikush.

"Roger will get the response he wants from a small number of teenage audiences." Allen said the same. "He will not look at the final survey data, but directly look at the reaction of target customers."

"Our theaters are mainly drive-in theaters, late-night theaters in cities, old movie theaters, and movie theaters in small towns. The audience there is not picky." Joe also added.

The two looked preoccupied and absent-minded.Ronald understands that this is the creator's natural reaction, and he has experienced it himself, so he doesn't persuade him. It is up to the audience to judge whether they should be excited or anxious after the movie.

Helping to move the copy into the screening room, Ronald found a side seat in the theater and sat down.There were still 10 minutes before leaving the venue, and the crowd was not full, there were probably more than 100 people.Ronald counted the sex ratio, and there were still more men and only one-fourth of women.

As soon as the light dimmed, the movie officially started.Ronald has watched this movie countless times in the editing room, and he has long since lost interest. He only watched the phone booth scene where he appeared in the scene, and watched it carefully.He turned his head away most of the time, secretly watching the audience's reaction.

Some of the male audience had a great time, yelling and whistling during the beautiful dance scene in the gymnastics room.The Ramones entered the school, and the footage of the students rebelling also won their applause.

On the contrary, the rock music part, which had high hopes, did not receive much applause. Maybe they don't listen to Ramones' music very much.

After the movie finished, Ronald went to the bathroom.The men inside are still deliberately imitating the dance moves of the beauties in the movie. It seems that they like these scenes.

Washing his hands and drying them off, Ronald went to the hall, and the voices of some women came from another direction.

"I especially love Liv Randall. She's so independent!"

"Yeah, if only I could be as brave as she is."

"Oh, I'm afraid of the principal of my high school. Few people can face the power like her and resist freely!"

"Yeah, I'm afraid of my boss right now. He's just like Principal Toga. He's an old-fashioned old man. He also reads the Bible to us in the office every day."

Ronald looked sideways, and it turned out to be a few young women, waiting for a seat outside the bathroom, while still chattering about the plot.

Unexpectedly, it turns out that the most attractive thing for female audiences to watch this movie is the rebellious and independent rock girl played by PJ Souls.Not hot guys, not rock punk, not dancing, but the independent spirit of protagonist Liv Randall.

The ideological trend of women's independence makes young women generally envy those independent professional women who can go to work to earn money, live without looking at men, and do not have to take care of children and do housework at home.Liv Randall is exactly what those independent career women were in high school.

Ronald returned to the entrance of the screening hall. Director Alan was sending out questionnaires to the audience with several staff members to collect their feedback on the film.In the past, I took a few photos, and the ratings are not too high.

Ronald quietly pulled director Alan and told him what he found in the bathroom.Allen was also a little surprised, and immediately went to discuss with Joe.

"Hey, Jim, why are you here?"

Ronald noticed a familiar figure flashing by, and Cameron was also in the theater.

"I'm here with Mr. Coleman, who's just officially promoted me to be the head of the stunt model, and also responsible for the design of the trick photography track."

Cameron, grinning, had just been promoted by boss Roger Corman.He lowered his voice slightly:

"The method you mentioned last time is very useful. As soon as Roger entered the workshop yesterday and saw the finished model display, he was full of praise. He called me today and decided that I would be in charge of the entire model manufacturing department."

"Congratulations, Jim. Roger is cost-conscious, you know." Ronald winked.

"Ronald, Jim, you take this." It was Roger Coleman who came over and gave them an envelope, "Coppola will play again in the theater for the industry tonight." One, you should also go and see it, it will be very good for improving your artistic level."

Ronald took it and saw that it was an invitation for United Artists' internal screening, which started at 5:30 p.m.

Roger Coleman went on to deliver tickets to other employees.

"Roger told me that Coppola once worked as his assistant." Ronald quietly passed gossip to Cameron.

"Oh, Roger really has a lot of connections..."

(End of this chapter)


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