NOVEL NEXT Exploiting Hollywood 1980.
Chapter 43 Apocalypse Now
Chapter 43 Apocalypse Now
The test screenings of "High School of Rock" turned out to be neither too good nor too bad.The two directors were slightly disappointed. Roger Coleman watched the results of the test screening, called a meeting with everyone on the spot, and decided to make only a few copies and play them in turn in each state.
This old-fashioned distribution model has already been subverted by the new model of "Jaws" with hundreds or even thousands of movie theaters and simultaneous nationwide releases.
The reason why Roger uses the old model is that he is not optimistic about the box office of the movie, so in order to save the production cost of the copy and reduce the risk, he adopts the state-by-state rotation model.
A print is a complete film, reproduced from a negative, that can be played many times.Instead of making hundreds of expensive copies of the movie at the beginning, launch it nationwide simultaneously, and then reap the box office bomb and end up losing money.Roger Coleman's philosophy is always cost first, if the cost is low enough, it's hard to lose money.
Roger decided to release it in small central and southern states, such as Arizona and Georgia, and then ship the copy to the next state after the screening in one state.Not only did the cost of copy production be saved, but in terms of marketing, the posters were mainly put up by local theaters, and there was no need for expensive TV and newspaper layouts.
If the box office in small states is high enough, some copies will be printed and released in big cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.If the box office is mediocre, then don't print it, let this movie slowly go through its own life course.
There was no explosion that exceeded expectations, nor did it fall below the bottom line, and it was still able to be released nationwide. Alan and Joe were a little disappointed, but also fortunate.Ronald didn't know whether to comfort or congratulate the two directors.
Ronald went out to buy some Chinese food and brought it to the two directors.The two of them liked this kind of improved Chinese food suitable for Western tastes.Ronald himself, on the other hand, preferred the original.He often eats at the Mongkok restaurant in Chinatown.
The test screening is the first time a movie faces a real audience, and the director's psychology is probably similar to that of a gambler waiting for the result.Ronald began to think about "Apocalypse Now" at night. He wondered what the great director Coppola would think of the test screening of his film. Was he also nervous?
As it turns out, Coppola was more nervous.
Francis Coppola has a big beard and black-rimmed glasses, and his figure is already a bit blessed.
"Please film critics, friends from the media, please do not release film reviews after today's trial screening. Today's trial screening is still a semi-finished product, incomplete. We will go to China to participate in the Cannes Film Festival next month, and then return to China to refine. This trial screening is a temporary screening at the invitation of the Directors’ Union and the Film Academy, so please do not release film reviews before the official release.”
When Ronald entered, he also saw many viewers who came in without invitations and directly showed a kind of membership card, presumably they were the film critics Coppola was talking about.Film critics of newspapers and magazines in the United States enjoy this privilege. No matter what kind of film it is, as long as you show your film critic card, you can watch it for free.
After a brief speech by a senior executive of the distributor United Artists, the lights were turned off and the screen was completely dark.
"Hey hey hey..."
There was a faint sound of propellers, the sound fluctuated from left to right, stronger and weaker, and seemed to come from behind Ronald again.
The audience turned their heads in amazement, wanting to see the source of the sound.
"It's a new technology, it's called surround sound..." Ronald heard someone whisper.
Is this new technology?Ronald thought to himself, in the original movies, the sound came from behind the screen, and the audience was used to it. Today, the propeller seems to be hovering behind his head, which is really insightful.
On the pitch-black screen, a burst of sad background music sounded...
The screen gradually lights up, showing a tropical coconut forest.The orange-red dust was blown up by the wind and pulled up in circles.
There is more and more dust, and the sound of whirring propellers is getting louder.
The landing gear of a helicopter suddenly flashes across the screen from left to right.
It was as if the world had woken up.
Suddenly there was a breeze in the coconut grove...
Napalm bombs fell into the coconut grove one after another, and orange-red explosion flames rose one after another, very similar to the color of the dust just now.
"Wow..." Ronald was really taken aback, this beginning is extraordinary.Can't help but sit upright, waiting for the movie title and subtitles to be explained.
No movie title!Subtitles don't appear either!
There was only a man's voice, and he began to sing softly. His voice was very special.
"This is the End..."
Why did you sing the ending right after the beginning?
Some people in the audience went "Oh, it's The End of The Doors!"
Some people start clapping...
Ronald didn't understand the admiration these literary figures had for Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors.Known as the rock poet, Morrison also has many fans in the literary and art circles.
This is the end This is the End...
My beautiful friend Beautiful friend
This is the end This is the end
My only friend My only friend, the end
Accompanied by poetic singing, the helicopter hovered over the bombed-out coconut grove.
The tail is exposed for a while, the propeller is exposed for a while, and the landing gear is exposed for a while.
An upside-down human face began to appear on the screen, staring at the audience with bewildered eyes, as if asking "Who am I and why am I here?"
The whistling sound of propellers is getting closer and closer to the audience...
Just when Ronald felt more and more weird, the propeller turned into a ceiling fan.
The ceiling fan was blowing hard, the camera slowly rotated 180 degrees, and the owner of that face began to appear in the field of vision.
The opening music "end" fades away, and the audience sees the main character resting on a bed in a tropical-style room with a pistol thrown beside the bed.
The protagonist finally got up, walked to the window, and opened and closed the midnight window with his hands. The outside was full of warm sunshine.
The picture is finally not that weird orange.
A soft voice came to mind.
Ronald was startled, and the speaker seemed to be whispering in his ear.how did you do that?And the audience is looking down to see if there are speakers hidden under the seats.
"Saigon, Shxt, I'm still stuck in Saigon."
It turned out to be the inner monologue of the protagonist, so the helicopter and the explosion just now were the memories of the protagonist?This opening is really brilliant.
The protagonist turned out to be Captain Willard, an officer in the intelligence department of the US Army.He accepted the task and went up the Mekong River to investigate a Colonel Coates who had left his command and organized his own private army. If the situation allowed, he would get rid of Coates himself.
Willard formed a ranger and sailed forward by boat, encountering all kinds of strange people and strange things along the way.
Commanding a helicopter formation, riding a Valkyrie, bombing a colonel in a village, all you can think about is surfing.
The cover girl who flew from the United States to the labor force wore a bikini and sang for the front-line soldiers, but was surrounded by the soldiers. She wanted to spend the spring night, and finally climbed into a helicopter to escape.
Frontline soldiers held a fireworks show, and on the other side of the beautiful fireworks were soldiers on duty firing machine guns in the trenches.
The team goes ashore to rest, and encounters a tiger in the rainforest... and is scared the shit out of it.
The team that finally arrived at the destination found Colonel Coates with the help of an American war photographer.
Kotz has become an evil leader, killing and taking the lives of his subordinates.He wanted Willard to inherit his position and career.The leaders held a sacrificial ceremony and slaughtered a bull. The crowd cheered, as if worshiping him as a god.
Team leader Willard seized the last chance, hacked Coates to death with a bull knife, and led the remaining team members to leave this strange place.Before leaving, he called the bomber and bombed Colonel Coates' camp.
The ending music is the ending of The Doors again, and the whole film seems to tell a reincarnation.
"Apocalypse Now" has not been edited yet, and there are still a lot of unprocessed editing ports in the copy of the trial screening. Either the screen suddenly blacks out, or it freezes. The whole movie does not have any subtitles for the cast and crew, and there is only one shot on the wall. The words "Apocalypse Now" were written.
I don't know if I didn't have time to do it, or the director did it on purpose.
After the film of about 2 hours and 20 minutes ended, the lights in the projection hall were turned on.The audience began to whisper.
Not knowing what other people think, Ronald was deeply fascinated by this movie.
The film seems to be telling a weird dream, and the words that the protagonist Willard always narrates in his ears also seem to be a dreamer telling a story to himself.
The main creative team was invited to the stage, and some audience members began to applaud enthusiastically.
However, it seems that there are not many people applauding?
(End of this chapter)
The test screenings of "High School of Rock" turned out to be neither too good nor too bad.The two directors were slightly disappointed. Roger Coleman watched the results of the test screening, called a meeting with everyone on the spot, and decided to make only a few copies and play them in turn in each state.
This old-fashioned distribution model has already been subverted by the new model of "Jaws" with hundreds or even thousands of movie theaters and simultaneous nationwide releases.
The reason why Roger uses the old model is that he is not optimistic about the box office of the movie, so in order to save the production cost of the copy and reduce the risk, he adopts the state-by-state rotation model.
A print is a complete film, reproduced from a negative, that can be played many times.Instead of making hundreds of expensive copies of the movie at the beginning, launch it nationwide simultaneously, and then reap the box office bomb and end up losing money.Roger Coleman's philosophy is always cost first, if the cost is low enough, it's hard to lose money.
Roger decided to release it in small central and southern states, such as Arizona and Georgia, and then ship the copy to the next state after the screening in one state.Not only did the cost of copy production be saved, but in terms of marketing, the posters were mainly put up by local theaters, and there was no need for expensive TV and newspaper layouts.
If the box office in small states is high enough, some copies will be printed and released in big cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.If the box office is mediocre, then don't print it, let this movie slowly go through its own life course.
There was no explosion that exceeded expectations, nor did it fall below the bottom line, and it was still able to be released nationwide. Alan and Joe were a little disappointed, but also fortunate.Ronald didn't know whether to comfort or congratulate the two directors.
Ronald went out to buy some Chinese food and brought it to the two directors.The two of them liked this kind of improved Chinese food suitable for Western tastes.Ronald himself, on the other hand, preferred the original.He often eats at the Mongkok restaurant in Chinatown.
The test screening is the first time a movie faces a real audience, and the director's psychology is probably similar to that of a gambler waiting for the result.Ronald began to think about "Apocalypse Now" at night. He wondered what the great director Coppola would think of the test screening of his film. Was he also nervous?
As it turns out, Coppola was more nervous.
Francis Coppola has a big beard and black-rimmed glasses, and his figure is already a bit blessed.
"Please film critics, friends from the media, please do not release film reviews after today's trial screening. Today's trial screening is still a semi-finished product, incomplete. We will go to China to participate in the Cannes Film Festival next month, and then return to China to refine. This trial screening is a temporary screening at the invitation of the Directors’ Union and the Film Academy, so please do not release film reviews before the official release.”
When Ronald entered, he also saw many viewers who came in without invitations and directly showed a kind of membership card, presumably they were the film critics Coppola was talking about.Film critics of newspapers and magazines in the United States enjoy this privilege. No matter what kind of film it is, as long as you show your film critic card, you can watch it for free.
After a brief speech by a senior executive of the distributor United Artists, the lights were turned off and the screen was completely dark.
"Hey hey hey..."
There was a faint sound of propellers, the sound fluctuated from left to right, stronger and weaker, and seemed to come from behind Ronald again.
The audience turned their heads in amazement, wanting to see the source of the sound.
"It's a new technology, it's called surround sound..." Ronald heard someone whisper.
Is this new technology?Ronald thought to himself, in the original movies, the sound came from behind the screen, and the audience was used to it. Today, the propeller seems to be hovering behind his head, which is really insightful.
On the pitch-black screen, a burst of sad background music sounded...
The screen gradually lights up, showing a tropical coconut forest.The orange-red dust was blown up by the wind and pulled up in circles.
There is more and more dust, and the sound of whirring propellers is getting louder.
The landing gear of a helicopter suddenly flashes across the screen from left to right.
It was as if the world had woken up.
Suddenly there was a breeze in the coconut grove...
Napalm bombs fell into the coconut grove one after another, and orange-red explosion flames rose one after another, very similar to the color of the dust just now.
"Wow..." Ronald was really taken aback, this beginning is extraordinary.Can't help but sit upright, waiting for the movie title and subtitles to be explained.
No movie title!Subtitles don't appear either!
There was only a man's voice, and he began to sing softly. His voice was very special.
"This is the End..."
Why did you sing the ending right after the beginning?
Some people in the audience went "Oh, it's The End of The Doors!"
Some people start clapping...
Ronald didn't understand the admiration these literary figures had for Jim Morrison, the lead singer of The Doors.Known as the rock poet, Morrison also has many fans in the literary and art circles.
This is the end This is the End...
My beautiful friend Beautiful friend
This is the end This is the end
My only friend My only friend, the end
Accompanied by poetic singing, the helicopter hovered over the bombed-out coconut grove.
The tail is exposed for a while, the propeller is exposed for a while, and the landing gear is exposed for a while.
An upside-down human face began to appear on the screen, staring at the audience with bewildered eyes, as if asking "Who am I and why am I here?"
The whistling sound of propellers is getting closer and closer to the audience...
Just when Ronald felt more and more weird, the propeller turned into a ceiling fan.
The ceiling fan was blowing hard, the camera slowly rotated 180 degrees, and the owner of that face began to appear in the field of vision.
The opening music "end" fades away, and the audience sees the main character resting on a bed in a tropical-style room with a pistol thrown beside the bed.
The protagonist finally got up, walked to the window, and opened and closed the midnight window with his hands. The outside was full of warm sunshine.
The picture is finally not that weird orange.
A soft voice came to mind.
Ronald was startled, and the speaker seemed to be whispering in his ear.how did you do that?And the audience is looking down to see if there are speakers hidden under the seats.
"Saigon, Shxt, I'm still stuck in Saigon."
It turned out to be the inner monologue of the protagonist, so the helicopter and the explosion just now were the memories of the protagonist?This opening is really brilliant.
The protagonist turned out to be Captain Willard, an officer in the intelligence department of the US Army.He accepted the task and went up the Mekong River to investigate a Colonel Coates who had left his command and organized his own private army. If the situation allowed, he would get rid of Coates himself.
Willard formed a ranger and sailed forward by boat, encountering all kinds of strange people and strange things along the way.
Commanding a helicopter formation, riding a Valkyrie, bombing a colonel in a village, all you can think about is surfing.
The cover girl who flew from the United States to the labor force wore a bikini and sang for the front-line soldiers, but was surrounded by the soldiers. She wanted to spend the spring night, and finally climbed into a helicopter to escape.
Frontline soldiers held a fireworks show, and on the other side of the beautiful fireworks were soldiers on duty firing machine guns in the trenches.
The team goes ashore to rest, and encounters a tiger in the rainforest... and is scared the shit out of it.
The team that finally arrived at the destination found Colonel Coates with the help of an American war photographer.
Kotz has become an evil leader, killing and taking the lives of his subordinates.He wanted Willard to inherit his position and career.The leaders held a sacrificial ceremony and slaughtered a bull. The crowd cheered, as if worshiping him as a god.
Team leader Willard seized the last chance, hacked Coates to death with a bull knife, and led the remaining team members to leave this strange place.Before leaving, he called the bomber and bombed Colonel Coates' camp.
The ending music is the ending of The Doors again, and the whole film seems to tell a reincarnation.
"Apocalypse Now" has not been edited yet, and there are still a lot of unprocessed editing ports in the copy of the trial screening. Either the screen suddenly blacks out, or it freezes. The whole movie does not have any subtitles for the cast and crew, and there is only one shot on the wall. The words "Apocalypse Now" were written.
I don't know if I didn't have time to do it, or the director did it on purpose.
After the film of about 2 hours and 20 minutes ended, the lights in the projection hall were turned on.The audience began to whisper.
Not knowing what other people think, Ronald was deeply fascinated by this movie.
The film seems to be telling a weird dream, and the words that the protagonist Willard always narrates in his ears also seem to be a dreamer telling a story to himself.
The main creative team was invited to the stage, and some audience members began to applaud enthusiastically.
However, it seems that there are not many people applauding?
(End of this chapter)
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