Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1430 A-Gump, Your Mom Calls You to Eat

"Action!"

Tom Hanks is wearing a military uniform from the Civil War, looking to the left at a 45-degree angle. This posture was imitated from a photo of Nathan Bedford Forrest, a retired Confederate officer after the Civil War.

This person is a distant relative of Forrest Gump many generations ago, and is also the source of the name his mother used to name Forrest Gump.

Hanks wore a wig and a beard. He took a helmet with a long pole like a lightning rod on it from his assistant and put it on his head. Then he lowered the mask made of white sheets, leaving only his eyes and mouth. As soon as the reins were tied, the white horse under his crotch, which was also covered with white sheets, ran forward obediently until it met up with a group of extras. Then it made a 180-degree turn and a group of people galloped past on horseback.

"Cut!"

This footage will be sped up and grainy in later film processing, and will be processed using technical means to look like a slightly brownish black-and-white full-color film, with the characteristics of old silent film era films.

"Ah sneeze... ah sneeze..."

After Tom Hanks finished shooting this scene, he sneezed several times after getting off the horse. Previously, when I was shooting the scene where I met Robin Wright in the rain on campus, I took a few more shots. The amount of water from the sprinkler truck was a bit too much, and both protagonists had troublesome cold symptoms.

"I think you'd better take a rest, Tom. Stop filming, or you'll end up like Robin..."

Seeing this, Ronald stopped the original shooting plan. Robin Wright had just given birth and the cold had a particularly severe impact on her. The next schedule was adjusted to shoot scenes with little Forrest Gump and little Jenny.

……

“Thank you for coming, I really appreciate it…”

When we switched to filming the Forrest Gump scene, the actors specially invited by Ronald flew to South Carolina. They were the celebrity couple, Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.

They and Ronald have known each other for a long time. Goldie Hawn has played in many of the Little Big Women series, many of which are about military life. In Hollywood, which is generally anti-war, she is a bit special. She often makes fun of the military, but she has never made the military hell.

Kurt Russell had filmed a movie called "Demons in Chinatown" with Diane many years ago, and he had known Ronald for a long time.

They are very special. They have lived together since 1983, and they have raised their children from their previous marriages together. They also have a son.

But the two refused to get married. When asked, they said they still wanted to enjoy the sweetness of love and marriage was just a ceremony, etc. People in and outside the circle were not sure what they were thinking, but they had not had any conflicts for many years and it was true that they had always been in love.

"Hey, it's fun here. I'm here for sightseeing with Kurt, hahahaha"

Goldie Hawn is not young anymore, but she still looks like a girl. Her way of speaking and treating others is similar to when she just entered the industry and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. She looks like a silly girl.

"And I am about to start working..."

Kurt Russell is also a relatively simple person who speaks his mind. Everyone who has worked with him has a good reputation for his attitude.

"I have arranged for a makeup artist and a costume designer. We have tried our best to research the costumes based on Elvis's appearance when he was young, including his early video footage and the memories of some close friends..."

"No problem, I will follow your instructions now..."

The reason why Kurt Russell was invited was that Ronald was attracted by his scenes as Elvis Presley in the 1979 Elvis Presley biopic.

There are many Elvis imitators in America, and imitation competitions are often held in various places, especially in Las Vegas and Elvis Presley's former residence in Memphis, Tennessee, where there are annual competitions.

But most of these people are similar in appearance, not in spirit. In Forrest Gump, when young Forrest Gump inspired Elvis to learn the hip-twirling dance, there was no positive image of Elvis in the entire shot.

This is because Ronald and I have not yet secured the copyright to Elvis' image. It's not because he can't afford it, but because the copyright to Elvis is extremely complicated.

After Elvis' death, his copyright was inherited by his father, and after his father died, it was managed by his grandmother and daughter Lisa. But in 1982, Elvis' ex-wife Priscilla also became a co-conservator of the estate.

They founded the Presley Company and turned Elvis's former residence into a museum. This led to a conflict with the original record copyright owner, RCA Records. After years of court litigation and out-of-court negotiations, the final result was that RCA owned the copyright of the released records, but the live performances belonged to the Presley Company.

Ronald could have purchased the copyright for Elvis's famous song "Hound Dog" in Forrest Gump through RCA, but it was a lot of trouble to have Elvis himself appear in the film. The two copyright-owning organizations had different opinions on this, and it was really time-consuming and laborious to work it out.

What's more troublesome is that Elvis' fans are also a group of very picky and loyal people. Especially after Elvis' ex-wife Priscilla took over the management of the club, they tightened the authorization rights for various imitation shows of Elvis.

This also led to a gradual decrease in Elvis impersonations on television after the mid-1980s.

Ronald was also a little worried that if he filmed the scene where Forrest Gump taught Elvis the iconic hip-twirling dance, many of Elvis' fans might cause trouble.

Therefore, the final compromise was to not film Elvis's front view, and only let little Forrest Gump and his mother see the real Elvis performance on TV in the later plot. Weakening this funny plot not only makes ordinary audiences feel funny, but also prevents Elvis' fans from seeing it as an offense.

In this way, the actor who plays Elvis must let the audience know at a glance that it is Elvis even if only his back is exposed.

Ronald asked Julia Taylor to find the right person, and she immediately recommended Kurt Russell, the star of the Elvis Presley biopic.

His portrayal of Elvis Presley was widely recognized by film critics. There are two main points. First, he not only looks similar, but also has a similar accent and tone of voice.

Secondly, even in the distance without close-up shots, he still looks very much like Elvis, because he has studied a lot of Elvis's habitual movements during his daily life and singing...

"Action!"

After Kurt Russell arrived, he quickly got into the mood, put on makeup, and styled his hair into the slicked-back, long sideburns style of Elvis' youth, and started filming right away.

This shot used a moving camera. A young and strong man, who was the operator sent by the Steadicam company, used a tripod to lift the heavy camera and started the camera right behind Sally Field, who played the mother.

"Forrest Gamp, Forrest?"

Sally Field, wearing a red floral apron, walked through several rooms on the ground floor, calling people to dinner.

As the operator of a family hotel, she not only had to take on the work of an innkeeper, but also had to cook meals for these travelers together with the black servants.

The camera followed Sally Field up a long wooden staircase, which was built in a very short time by Paramount's very skilled carpenters. The white paint made this old house in an old-fashioned style look very spacious and bright.

The next shot switches to the top of the stairs, showing Sally Field walking up from the bottom.

"Forrest?"

Like all mothers in the world, when it is time for dinner, she often goes around looking for her naughty son to bring back for dinner.

She stopped at the door of a room, and from inside came music that she had never heard in her life.

"You never catch a rabbit.....boom,boom,boom,boom..."

Under the fierce strumming, little Forrest Gump held a broom upside down, his legs tied with leg bands, unable to move freely, so he could only sway from side to side, dancing an unprecedented dance to the rhythm of the young man sitting on the bed and playing the guitar.

"Forrest Gump, I told you not to disturb this uncle..." Sally Field said politely.

"Oh, ma'am, not at all. I was just showing your son a little guitar music..."

The camera happened to capture the full view of Forrest Gump, and the upper part of Elvis Presley played by Kurt Russell was cut off. But all Americans, seeing this audience playing Elvis Presley's famous song "Hound Dog", will definitely understand.

"Okay, but lunch is ready, you can come down for dinner anytime..." The mother played by Sally Field could not escape the role of the proprietress of the family inn, and it was not easy to urge the young people to come down for dinner. She just gestured to Forrest Gump and closed the door and went down.

"Young man, please dance that dance again for me..."

Director of photography Don Burgess, who was behind the camera operator, saw the moment and immediately patted the focus puller on the back.

The focus puller repeated the exercise many times. When he felt the tap on his back, he immediately turned the focus knob quickly. In less than a second, he moved the focus from Sally Field at the door to Forrest Gump's face, which was closest to the camera.

Kurt Russell sat back on the bed, holding his guitar. The camera operator immediately moved back a little. In the viewfinder, the little Forrest Gump in the foreground immediately filled the left half of the frame. Elvis, played by Kurt Russell in the back, was just out of focus. His face was blurred. Only his voice, which was deliberately imitating Elvis, was within the recording range...

"You are nothing, you never catch rabbits..."

"Cut!"

"Very good, very good, Kurt..." After confirming with director of photography Don Burgess that there was no problem with the camera, Ronald immediately came out to praise Kurt Russell's performance.

This shot was smooth and fluent, showing all the necessary plot details, and also properly avoiding the impact of Elvis's image copyright. They were all first-class Hollywood actors and teams, and Ronald was very satisfied with this execution.

"Thanks, Kurt..."

In the evening, after all of Elvis' scenes were shot, Ronald specially entertained Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn to thank them for their great help.

"It's nothing, Ronald. I got a chance to travel and be with my Kurt. It's a very good supplement to the honeymoon..." Goldie Han still spoke in a girlish tone.

"I still have to thank you. You know, due to copyright reasons, the best Elvis actor in our country cannot be credited as playing Elvis in this movie. He can only be credited as a young guest."

Ronald still thanked Kurt. Not only did he come to play a small role as a famous actor, but he couldn't even credit his role as Elvis. It was a bit unreasonable no matter how you look at it.

"Ha, I'm still very happy. The time when Elvis was young and not famous is a part of his life that I have always wanted to play. This is also a dream come true for me."

The next day we filmed the scene where Forrest Gump gets on the school bus. This is a repetitive structure in the movie.

When Forrest Gump was old enough to go to school, his mother had an affair with the principal in order to get him into a normal school. As a result, Forrest Gump could go to school with those children with normal IQ instead of going to a special school to learn boring skills like changing tires.

This was his first time riding a school bus to school, and the bus driver was played by an unknown actor, Siobhan Fallon Hogan.

This Irish actress, who grew up in New York, has a Southern woman's face and red hair.

"Action!"

The camera shot from the sidewalk in front of the house, and it was a frontal shot of the school bus driver opening the door to let little Forrest Gump get on the bus.

Ronald looked at the actress, who was wearing a bow tie, dressed as a school bus driver, and had a cigarette dangling from her lips.

She waited there for a few seconds, and when she saw that little Forrest Gump didn't get on the bus, she asked in confusion, "Do you want to get on or not?"

"My mom said, don't get in a stranger's car..."

"This is a school bus," Siobhan Fallon Hogan looked helpless. Why does this kid look a little silly?

"My name is Forrest, Forrest Gump"

"Dorothy Harris..." The school bus driver still likes polite children.

"We are no longer strangers now..."

Siobhan Fallon Hogan smiled widely, with the cigarette held in the corner of her mouth, but she couldn't hide the smile from her heart. This child is very cute.

"Cut!" Ronald called a halt, and said he would just go back and shoot the scene of Forrest Gump later. These actors were well trained, and Siobhan Fallon Hogan had worked on Broadway before, so the shooting was very smooth.

Afterwards, the two shot this scene several times. This time the camera was on the bus, filming little Forrest Gump at the door. He was holding a red apple in his hand, and his mother was seeing him off outside the window.

The sunlight outside the car and the shadows inside the car were handled very well in terms of tone by director of photography Don Burgess.

"Okay, bring up our little actor..."

A large group of children in their teens all ran over. They were all dressed up like boys and girls from a small town in the South in the 1960s. A few of the boys who were particularly good at making trouble were professional child actors who were selected through auditions. Their expressions when making bullies were very vivid.

The others were Ronald's connections. Many people in the crew had children of the right age. Getting them all to make an important cameo appearance in the movie was also a reward for these people.

"Elizabeth, come here, do you remember what you are going to do?"

"Remember, Uncle Ronald, I'm going to shake my head, then lie on the back of the chair in front of me and ignore Forrest Gump..."

"Very good," Ronald touched Elizabeth Hanks' head. This is Tom Hanks' child with his ex-wife. Hanks always felt that she owed them something, so Ronald specially arranged for her to make a cameo appearance to create some opportunities for the father and daughter to spend time together.

"Kate, do you remember how to read the camera?"

"Yes, Uncle Ronald..." This girl is the daughter of Goldie Hawn from her previous marriage. She has never seen her biological father and has always recognized Kurt Russell as her father.

Although she is two years older than Elizabeth Hanks, she is smaller in stature and can even play the role of a school bus girl. She just can't speak, otherwise her voice will be exposed during the voice change period.

Of course, the most crucial character in this scene is Hannah R. Hall, who plays little Jenny.

"I remember my lines, Uncle Ronald..."

Little Hannah seemed to sense that everyone here was the child of Ronald's friends, and she really wanted to get closer to her uncle, the director.

"What is it, Hannah?" Ronald still liked this mountain girl very much and was not shy.

"You can sit here if you want..."

"Very well, then don't worry about us, just say this to little Michael, just like we..."

"It's like you're not here..."