Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1290 The Magical Use of Videotapes

Chapter 1290 The Magical Use of Videotapes
One important reason why Julia Roberts had such a hysterical outburst was that she had no relatives in Hollywood.

Just like Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, who worked with her, said that during the filming of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", Jane Russell could go home every day to relieve her depression on the set with her family, while Monroe could only accumulate all kinds of discomfort every day and bear it alone.

After playing a few rounds of mahjong at Ronald's house, Julia Roberts has regained some of the life feelings of an ordinary person, and her mood has improved significantly.

"Oh, if only we had mahjong when we were filming Steel Magnolias..." Diane and Roberts used to have a good relationship, and after playing eight rounds, they stopped to rest and eat.

"I really like this kind of game. It's about finding order from disorder. I need to play it more often in the future..." Julia Roberts was looking at a winning number table in her hand. This kind of game can really help relieve some worries.

"How is your new film? Is Spielberg strict? I'd also like to see your praise. How do you feel about it?"

Diane asked Julia Roberts what "Hook" was about. This movie was a big star gathering, and Julia Roberts got the role after starring in "Pretty Woman".

"I don't know. I haven't seen the dailies every day. I guess... I guess it's okay." Julia Roberts glanced at Ronald. Let the conflicts on the set stay on the set.

"How's your new film? I haven't had time to go to the cinema to watch it yet..." Julia Roberts was also interested in Diane's new film. There is actually a strong sense of competition among female stars...

"Ha, do you want to watch it? Ronald just got two videotapes. You can watch them at home." Diane took out the videotapes that Ronald prepared for Princess Diana and put one into the VCR.

"Oh, you look so sexy..." Julia Roberts saw the shot of Kate, played by Diane, appearing in the office of Garfield, played by Tom Hanks, and a professional woman's back was photographed from behind.

With blonde hair, a hot body, a thin waist and a round buttocks, Roberts couldn't help but sigh that it was really great to have a director husband. How many people would be fascinated by him if he could shoot a female star like this?

"Haha, the director of photography Ronald hired is very good at taking photos, right?" Diane's vanity was greatly satisfied. Ronnie was very good at photographing women in ordinary scenes with a professional sexiness. This photography team did a good job of meeting his requirements...

"Why are you watching this?" Ronald happened to pass by and saw "Other People's Money" on TV, wondering.

"Julia wants to see..." Diane answered first.

"Why don't you go to the cinema to watch it? If you want to watch it, I can transfer a copy over." Ronald thought it was a waste of talent to watch his own work on TV.

So much time was spent, so much lighting was done, and so many takes were done, all to show that magical, star face on the screen. Although I now use Sony's largest Trinitron TV at home, it is still a blur compared to the close-up shots that are several meters high on the screen.

Ronald was a little unhappy because the shots of his own works were carefully designed and carefully adjusted in the editing room. Some shots and edits can only be seen on the big screen, and the director's unique craftsmanship can be seen. When they are shown on TV, many of the feelings of the work are lost, and it seems that the quality of the work has been reduced by several levels.

"No, no, I'll just watch the videotape. We rarely have the chance to go to the cinema to watch movies. Especially our own works. By the time the movie is released, we have actually shot one or two more movies. To be honest, I have forgotten the plots and scenes at that time. As a result, I have to pretend to be very interesting during the interview..."

Julia Roberts is talking about the current situation of Hollywood stars. Young actors definitely don't have this kind of worry. After making a movie, they have no other work and they only have to think about whether this movie will make them famous.

But the film contracts of big stars are wrong. Every time they act, they cannot watch their performance immediately. The stars themselves have no idea what the finished film will look like. After finishing a film, they have to forget about the role and plot immediately and devote themselves to the role creation of the next film.

Moreover, celebrities often have to attend film promotion interviews. Every time they are interviewed, reporters ask about their roles in the past three films. Sometimes the celebrities say some polite words and do not give answers involving details, and sometimes it is because they really have forgotten.

"What did you say?" Ronald frowned. Julia Roberts' words seemed to have touched something. He had that feeling again, as if the inspiration was before his eyes but he couldn't grasp it.

"What did I say? I actually want to see Diane's performance, but it's a bit troublesome..." Julia Roberts thought that Ronald was ungrateful to her and was dissatisfied with her for not going to his private screening room to watch his hostess's movie. The feeling of being looked down upon came back to her.

"No, I've forgotten what you just said..." Ronald frowned even more tightly.

"Oh, I mean I rarely get the chance to watch the movies I made. I don't really like watching my own movies. It makes me nervous..."

"That's it..." Ronald suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He understood.

The Oscars are basically decided by actors, who make up the largest proportion of the judges. Many of them actually haven't watched the nominated films. So near the end of the year when nominations are approaching, there are so many movies that want to win awards to squeeze into that time slot.

But Julia Roberts' words reminded him that watching movies on the big screen is just an obsession of directors like them, right?

For most viewers, including the actors, watching this kind of drama is actually just watching it on videotape on TV. What's the difference?

Anyway, they don't understand what real acting is. They think good acting is just acting like it is real, acting until tears come out, and acting with passion.

"I have something to deal with, you guys can do whatever you want..." Ronald realized that this was a brilliant idea. He was going to call the daydreamers to discuss this issue. Before leaving, he said to the two female stars, "I suggest you go to the screening room to watch the copy. I spent a lot of effort in the editing room to ensure that Diane's shots were flawless..."

"Ah, hahahaha..." The two girls laughed so hard that their bodies shook. Diane came over and kissed him to express her praise.

……

"That's just the idea. Any opinions? Agree or disagree?"

Ronald went to the study and called a meeting. After he told everyone his idea, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. This trick was simply unheard of.

"But 'Other People's Money' is still in theaters, and 'The Silence of the Lambs' still has some long run. Will releasing it on video now affect the box office?"

Michelle Cannold has mastered the distribution process. Nowadays, Hollywood usually releases videotapes about half a year after a movie is released. Because once the videotape is released, it is inevitable that someone will use professional equipment to pirate it, and then everyone will give up this part of the profit.

"That's not a problem. You guys got into the industry too late. I was actually involved in Paramount's first videotape release, 'Flashdance.' It was released on video while it was still in theaters, and guess what? The box office actually went up."

Ronald: That's a bit far-fetched. Flashdance was sold because the main selling point of the movie was the sexy dance. After watching the exciting chair dance, everyone wanted to watch it again on the big screen.

For this kind of drama, if you want to see the close-ups and the unspoken emotions conveyed by the actors' subtle expressions, this viewing habit requires too much from the audience. Most people just watch the plot.

But Michel Cannold did not continue to object, because he knew that Ronald wanted to win the prize.

If this method works, then Daydreaming will have a secret weapon in its hands, giving it a special advantage when it comes to awarding prizes.

Furthermore, if a film receives multiple Oscar nominations or even wins, it will definitely boost the sales of its video tapes, which has been proven many times by award-winning films in the past.

"Does this require the director's approval?" David Simkins also asked a question.

"We are only discussing whether it can be done in theory. I will discuss the specifics with Jonathan..."

"In theory, it can be successful. This is a clever idea. People in the past didn't think of this because of blind spots in their thinking. However, there are still some technical problems."

Public relations consultant Michael Gray first affirmed that Ronald's idea was genius, and then he raised a technical question.

In theory, the Oscars Organizing Committee prohibits direct public relations with judges, so the public relations companies can only use roundabout methods, such as holding various parties and inviting judges to participate, in order to solicit votes.

Sending videotapes to judges violates the fair competition rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Technology and Arts, the organizer of the Oscars.

Ronald nodded. This is indeed a "technical detail" worthy of attention, but my idea is still a good one. Lawyers will provide appropriate solutions to these technical problems.

After discussing the Oscar-winning strategy with his colleagues at Daydream, Ronald breathed a sigh of relief. He took a shower and then called Richard and Niceta.

To do this, there is a more important "technical detail". It is not convenient for him to talk directly with temporary agent Kevin Hu Wen, so he can only ask Richard.

Richard had just finished his work with David Letterman and was making preliminary contacts with people from several TV stations on behalf of Letterman. When he received Ronald's call, he rushed to Ronald's home with Niceta, regardless of his fatigue.

"It's a brilliant idea... but it won't be as surprising once you use it once..."

After listening to Ronald's idea, the two agents were very impressed, but Niceta still thought of an important issue.

This method of giving out videotapes to help the judges remember the film is useless if used once. If it works once, everyone will do it again the next year. They know that Luo An wants the Best Director Award the most.

This time his "other people's money" has no chance of being nominated. If it is used this year, it would be equivalent to exposing this secret weapon in advance.

"I've thought about it, but mailing tapes to people isn't a very hard thing to think of. Sooner or later, someone will come up with it. I'm doing well this year, but how can you stop someone from doing it at another studio next year?"

"Hey……"

Everyone sighed. This was a natural outcome. Videotapes were not an important profit point for movies a few years ago. But in recent years, the number of VCRs has been growing rapidly, and videotapes have accounted for an increasingly larger proportion of movie profits.

When Ronald was nominated for Best Director a few years ago, even if he sent a videotape, many judges didn't have a VCR at home.

"So, the question now becomes how to get the home addresses and contact information of these judges..."

Another reason is that no other studio has done public relations like this before, and this may be it.

The organizer of the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Technology and Arts, does not announce the list of judges to the public in order to prevent targeted public relations by sending expensive gifts.

This rule was put in place in the early days of the awards, after the studios discovered that winning the golden statue had a strong effect on increasing the audience's favorability for their stars, so they used all kinds of public relations to patch it up.

At that time, the Oscars were still dominated by the eight major studios, and there were many internal administrative instructions on who the actors under their companies should vote for.

But even so, sending someone a small piece of chocolate or flowers, and then writing on the attached card, "Merry Christmas to you on behalf of XX Movie", and then stuffing some luxury goods redemption coupons in the card, or more directly putting a check in the card... are all very useful tricks.

In the subsequent reforms, this rule was changed. The list of judges was no longer published publicly, but only kept in the college for the convenience of mailing ballots.

The abuse of private publicity is also prohibited. If a nominated film wants to have public relations with the judges, it must do so openly at events publicly organized by the Academy. Private publicity is limited to a few events such as parties, private banquets, and union activities.

Therefore, in order to achieve Ronald's new PR idea, he must find someone who knows who the Oscar judges are to assist...

Of course, their agents are the ones who understand this best. Before the awards season, every judge who is eligible to vote will have their agent make some public relations arrangements, such as pooling their votes and exchanging them for some industry resources.

No one knows better than the CAA agents who has votes and who has undecided votes that can be used for public relations exchanges.

Nicita and Richard also felt that the matter was of great importance, and immediately came up with a rough plan: first, they would discuss the matter privately with the group of young agents who stood on their side, such as Kevin Huwen.

Don't tell them what you want to do first, just say you are holding a PR party, and then at the party, ask them for their home addresses privately... This way, even if someone finds out, it will be too late for them to copy Ronald's approach.

The discussion was finalized, and Ronald checked his watch, choosing instead to call Jonathan Demme, a fellow New Yorker, who was already late at night.

"Jonathan, this is Ronald, yes, it's urgent, you have a lot of signatures to sign..."

(End of this chapter)

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