Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1433: Help from Xiangjiang Martial Master

"All units, get ready... Alpha One, Alpha Two... Attention everyone, the helicopter will arrive at the designated location in two minutes, all teams, rehearsal begins..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa..." The noise made by the propellers of the Huey helicopter was getting louder and louder. Between the palm trees planted by the props team and behind several cameras, the photographers were there, and the large jib was slowly adjusting, looking for the most suitable shooting angle.

Two helicopters slowly landed on the shore. There is a large pond on the golf course, which is now used as the setting for Vietnam. There are palm trees by the water, weeds all over the ground (they have not been taken care of for a long time because they are going to be removed), and blue sky and white clouds.

A group of actors dressed as soldiers were scattered on the shore, and one of the symbols of the Vietnam War, the armed helicopter, was there. As long as the camera was not turned to shoot the green, no one could tell that this was an abandoned golf course.

"Monty!"

"Hey, Ronald, you guys are finally going to make another helicopter movie?"

The first person to land from the helicopter was Monty Jordan, a stunt pilot Ronald hired from the army when he was filming "Firebird". He served in the Gulf War, retired from the army, and found a job flying helicopters in Hollywood because of Ronald's Firebird.

In addition to war-themed films, he also worked as a pilot to shoot aerial footage and did live reporting for television stations.

When filming the large-scale scene of helicopter cruising on the battlefield in Vietnam, Ronald thought of him again and asked him to be the stunt pilot this time.

"It's like this. Fly over the 'beach' from left to right. While ensuring safety, try to let the camera see you flying over the treetops..."

Ronald pulled Monty Jordan over, holding two helicopter models, and demonstrated to him the flight shots he needed.

"It's a piece of cake. But, Ronald, before I came here, I heard that you were going to stage a big helicopter attack scene like Apocalypse Now. Why are there only two now?"

"Monty, Francis (Coppola) has a helicopter from the Philippine government army, and he uses it for almost free. I have to pay the US military tens of thousands of dollars a day for rental fees..."

Ronald also complained a bit bitterly that the theme of this movie was not in line with the values ​​of the US military and government like Firebird or Top Gun, and its attitude towards the Vietnam War was neither in favor nor against. After reading this part of the script, the military offered a much more expensive price than before.

"So, you only borrowed two? That won't do. When we were in Vietnam, we sent many troops together..." Monty Jordan was a little dissatisfied. The American army had to scare people when they appeared. Two? Twenty is not too many...

"Ha, Monty, come here, let me show you some high-tech stuff, this is my special effects supervisor, Van Fleet..."

Ronald called over the heads of a large group of computer special effects engineers nearby, including Daydream's special effects supervisor Van Vliet. Next to him was a senior engineer from Industrial Light & Magic. Many of the special effects shots this time were completed jointly by Daydream and Industrial Light & Magic.

"It's very simple. We will take some photos of helicopters here. After the shooting is completed, we will copy the flight footage of these two helicopters and paste them to other locations. Then you will be able to see Hueys everywhere in the sky..."

"Hey? You can do this?" Monty Jordan also thought it was amazing. Now, this kind of shot doesn't need to be shot by renting an expensive fleet like Coppola did? Doesn't that mean everyone can shoot a helicopter battle?
"It's almost like copying and pasting on a computer, except that our resolution requirement is higher, and it takes more hours to produce..." After Van Vliet explained it clearly, he found two special effects engineers, took a camera, hid behind the crew's photographer, and set up a tripod facing the trajectory of the helicopter.

"Okay, our units are ready..."

Ronald picked up the loudspeaker and confirmed again and again that all departments were ready for filming.

"Gary (Sinise), what is this?"

Ronald saw Gary Sinise, who played Lieutenant Dan, shirtless, pick up a metal chain and put it around his neck. This was his ID card, but it had been modified with a small thing added.

Ronald looked carefully and saw a ring, followed by a string of beads, and finally a cross in a special shape.

"Ha, I hope you don't mind, Director, this is my relative...my brother-in-law wore it when he was in Vietnam, he's Irish..."

"It doesn't matter. My uncle also died in Vietnam. I asked Tom to bring his ID card, which shows that we have similar backgrounds. I completely understand this feeling. I hope that some of our relatives' belongings will continue to be passed down in the movie..."

"Thank you, this means a lot to me..." Gary Sinise straightened his ID card and beads, then smiled and went to get ready.

"That's the rosary and the Penal Cross, which is their patron saint..."

A voice came from behind Ronald to explain. It was Ronald's aunt Karen. Aunt Karen came to watch the filming of the Vietnam War today. Her memory of her late husband was condensed on the ID card worn by Forrest Gump, played by Tom Hanks.

Ronald was not very clear about religion and ethnicity, so his aunt explained it to him. This is a belief of Catholics, and each ethnicity, each profession, and even different genders have different historical saints as their patrons.

Rosaries and crosses are holy objects approved by the Vatican and even blessed by the Vatican itself, and they can bring good luck to the wearer.

When the Irish were ruled by the British Empire, they passed many Penal laws prohibiting Catholics from carrying icons and weapons, which eventually developed into this unique cross relic.

If you have a clear understanding of the history of this religion, you can actually tell whether they are Italian, Irish, or believers of other ethnicities by looking at the crosses and rosary beads they wear.

"Action!"

"Action! Action!..."

Today was a big event, so Ronald's shooting orders were repeated by team leaders from many different places.

Two helicopters carrying Forrest Gump, played by Tom Hanks, and Bubba, played by Mykelti Williamson, slowly landed on the shore.

Van Vliet, who was in charge of special effects, also kept shooting helicopter footage himself, from various positions and angles, trying to store as many images as possible so that they could be copied on the computer later.

Before the helicopter's blades had completely stopped, Tom Hanks and Mykelti Williamson got off, and the extras on the plane dropped their luggage, a bucket bag like Ronald's Uncle Ronald's.

The two actors picked up one each, covered their military caps with one hand, put the bucket bags on their backs with the other, and walked towards the camera.

At the same time, the second helicopter roared and quickly rose behind the helicopter they were riding, just brushing against the blades of the first helicopter, then made a sharp turn and rose into the sky.

That was a powerful flying special effect that Monty Jordan made specially for Ronald. He gave it a discount for the sake of our old friend!
"Cut!"

"Cut! Cut! Cut!"

Each group called a halt, and then a script supervisor ran to the camera lens and hit the clapboard.

His clapperboard was upside down because the various filming teams for such a large scene might not be in sync, and the helicopter was noisy, so he ended up relying on knocking the clapperboard upside down to locate the sound.

"Are your lips okay?"

"No problem, I can control it as I please..."

Mykelti Williamson, who played Bob, had his lower lip, which was made very prominent by the makeup artist, pulled inward, and it finally looked like that of an average person.

"I know this is uncomfortable, but this is an important plot point..." Ronald patted his shoulder encouragingly.

Bubba is a stereotypical black man who likes to talk about how he will catch shrimps and open a restaurant in the future. He and Forrest Gump seem to be natural friends like brothers, except for their different skin colors.

"No problem, except that this mouth guard is a bit uncomfortable... Director, I'm fine..."

Mykatie Williamson didn't want to make Ronald feel unreliable at the critical moment, so he immediately made a few gestures to show that he was fine.

"Okay! Keep up the momentum..."

……

The filming continued, and the two soldiers, Forrest Gump and Bubble, started talking as they walked towards Lieutenant Dan.

"I bet the water here is full of shrimp. They say Vietnamese shrimp are the best. When we win the war and take over here, I will bring the American shrimp boats over, and we can catch a lot of shrimp every day..."

The camera slowly panned over, and Forrest Gump and Bubba walked past the camera, just as Lieutenant Dan came out of a tent, holding a roll of toilet paper in his hand.

"You must be my new recruits"

Tom Hanks and Mykelti Williamson both dropped their luggage neatly together and saluted at the same time, "Good morning, sir!"

"Put your fucking hands down, don't salute. There are a lot of fucking snipers in this area, and they love to target officers. Welcome to our platoon..."

Gary Sinise, who plays Lieutenant Dan, looks the two recruits over and says to Bub, played by Mykelti Williamson, "What happened to your lip?"

"I was born with thick lips..." Mykelti Williamson looked at Lieutenant Dan and said helplessly that such big lips were much thicker than the stereotype of black people.

"You'd better bring him in a little, otherwise you'll hit a landmine when you crawl..."

Mykelti Williamson immediately stopped talking and tried to pull his lips back.

……

"Come on, come on, come and try the cookies baked by my aunt..."

There were many barbecue stoves and beer on site, but they were just props and not convenient to eat. During the break, Ronald took the lead in distributing aunt's biscuits to them, and then provided them with coffee and black tea.

"Oh, you really look like a Vietnam War veteran. When the veterans in my veterans club see you, they will definitely recognize you as a real veteran..."

Aunt Karen was most interested in Gary Sinise, who played Lieutenant Dan. She was particularly impressed by his ability to remain relaxed in difficult circumstances, which only veterans can have.

Some of the veterans could not stand the cruel battlefield and suffered from PTSD. But some of them became calm after experiencing cruel things. In her opinion, Gary Sinise played the essence of the role.

"Ha, I followed my brother-in-law and learned for a month. I went to the veterans' club and the veterans' hospital with him to observe the veterans for a long time. I heard from the director that you often take care of the veterans. I admire such people. It's not their fault to go to Vietnam. It's wrong to vent your anger on them. We didn't give the Vietnam veterans the help they deserved..."

Aunt Karen was very happy that there were such actors in Hollywood who did not discriminate against Vietnam veterans and spoke from a fair standpoint. She came back and fed the remaining cookies to Ronald and kept praising Gary Sinise.

"Haha, if you are interested, you can organize a charity organization with him to help those Vietnam War veterans overcome some difficulties..."

"That's exactly what I meant..." Aunt Karen's daughter is now married, and Ronald has a happy family, so all that's left is to serve the community.

Aunt Karen was busy running around, pouring coffee for Ronald, helping him take out the trash, and moving the chair with Ronald's name on it around. She was very busy and was more considerate than Ronald's own assistant.

Suddenly, she saw a group of Asian people walking towards Ronald. They were all wearing white T-shirts with a line of Chinese written on them, and she blurted out, "Hey, what are they wearing?"

“Puchi…hahahaha”

Ronald understood Chinese, so of course he recognized these martial artists from Hong Kong. The clothes they wore had the words "Our director likes big ones!"

"Why are you wearing these T-shirts?" Ronald was also confused and asked them.

"Brother Long told us to listen to your director before we came. He said that you invited us here to make the scene big... big explosions, big actions, so the assistant who arranged our food and accommodation gave us these T-shirts. You see, they have them too, but they are written in English..."

The first ones were the martial artists who assisted Ronald in shooting the Coke commercial with Demi Moore. These people had been with Jackie Chan for a long time, and they were best at shooting those very powerful actions.

Ronald wanted them to come to shoot the bombing scenes in the Vietnamese jungle. Some explosion scenes required them to use Ravia to create a sense of power from being blown away by bombs.

Hollywood special effects people were not experienced in shooting this kind of scene, so after trying it, Ronald called Jackie Chan, who called several elites from the Long Family Team to assist in the shooting.

"Our director likes big ones..."

On the other side, those people from the special effects team also put on T-shirts mocking Ronald and made some preparations on the shore.

"When the time comes, they will come running over here, and you will be in this pit, stepping on empty air, and then we will replace the actors and go up ourselves..."

Ronald explained the key points of the shooting to the two stand-ins, and then Van Vliet and his computer post-production special effects team completed the on-site measurements, and the stand-ins for Hanks and Mykelti Williamson were also ready.

"Action!"

Following the running route precisely specified by the special effects team, Hanks' stand-in, holding Mykelti Williamson's stand-in, quickly ran out of the woods.

For a long time, the two special effects stand-ins, one running and one being hugged, could only be seen moving their heads and shoulders in the frame.

Suddenly, Forrest Gump's stand-in stumbled and stepped one foot into a hole dug in advance, almost falling to the ground. He struggled to maintain his balance, then recovered and ran closer and closer holding Bubba's stand-in.

"Cut!"

Ronald was very satisfied. When the explosion scenes came, they would be superimposed with real shots and computer special effects. The real shot was of Forrest Gump holding Bubba and running hard.

"Tom..."

Ronald turned around and called Tom Hanks. The two stand-ins did a great job in the early running. But when we got to the pit, we could see the faces of the actors. So we had to take advantage of the time when the actor's head dropped down and then rose up. We switched to the real shot of Hanks and Mykelti Williamson.

"what……"

Tom Hanks tried twice to hold Mykaty Williamson, but found that Mykaty Williamson was too tall and too heavy. He could barely lift him up, but it was impossible for him to run.

"Or, how about using a stand-in and replacing the head later?" Ronald consulted Van Vleet.

"I'm afraid this shot is too labor-intensive. Ten seconds, twenty-four frames per second, and two characters have to swap heads..."

"Boss..."

Just when Ronald was a little confused about what to do most efficiently, the martial artists from Hong Kong took the initiative to speak, "Boss, we can use wires to hang this black guy, and then we can pull to reduce his weight, so that this white guy can run more easily... Can't the special effects of the wire be fixed on the computer?"

"Can you keep your balance while Hanks is running?" Ronald thought it was a good idea. It would take much less work to pull the wire than to pull the head. But he was not sure whether they could keep the force on Mykelti Williamson even during the ten seconds of running so that Hanks would not be overweight and cause Babu to fall.

"Boss, don't worry, Brother Long and I are used to sitting here..."