Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1438: Table Tennis is Too Difficult to Play

"Cut, Cut...Tom, your hand is over the line..."

"Shit! Sorry for my question, here's twenty dollars..."

In Paramount's studio, the Forrest Gump crew has been continuously filming scenes of Forrest Gump meeting with successive presidents these days.

President Johnson was the person who awarded the medal to Forrest Gump. As there were no suitable real images of his conversation with Forrest Gump after the awarding of the medal, he had to find a stuntman to shoot it, and then used Johnson's head from other images to assemble it on the stuntman's neck.

This shooting method has good results, but it is very labor-intensive. Van Fleet's special effects team first cut out each frame of the picture, and then calculated how much angle Johnson's head needed to be offset as he walked towards the camera after seeing the wound on Forrest Gump's buttocks, and the speed at which the perspective ratio needed to be magnified as he got closer and closer to the camera.

Just this part of the work, a team spent several weeks slowly polishing it. If all the scenes of the meeting between the President and Forrest Gump were done in this way, the film might not be completed until the middle of next year.

Therefore, the scene where Forrest Gump meets the two presidents, JFK and Richard, used a relatively simple special effect.

The footage of the two presidents meeting with others, shaking hands, and talking for a few words was used as the master. Then Tom Hanks and the people who shook hands with the presidents in the footage were asked to do the same action in front of the blue screen and in the air.

Finally, we used special effects software to redraw the President’s mouth shapes when he met with other people, so that their mouth shapes would match what they said in the Forrest Gump script.

This has the advantage that the time required for special effects is greatly reduced, but it also has the disadvantage that the difficulty of Tom Hanks' performance is greatly increased.

Hanks was still performing with a real person when meeting with President Johnson. The two presidents had to perform without props in the air. And Tom Hanks had to do every move in the exact position, so that he could fit in perfectly with the two missing characters in the real historical footage. When he stretched out his hand to shake hands with the president, there was no flaw.

If there were any inaccuracies in the position of the hand, the speed, strength, and amplitude of the handshake, Forrest Gump's hand and the President's hand would not fit together in the film, and it would be exposed.

Therefore, Tom Hanks, an actor with excellent acting skills, was often stopped for some non-acting reasons, such as his hands crossing the line, his steps not being taken correctly, etc. He was so angry that he swore after being stopped several times due to small flaws...

However, this was a crew with child actors, and Tom Hanks was also the father of several children. After swearing, he consciously took out twenty dollars as a fine and threw it into the fine cup. At the end of the day, he used the money to buy some sweets to reward the staff.

After the filming was completed that day, Tom Hanks couldn't stand it anymore and secretly asked Ronald, "How long will this thing take? I feel like I can't act anymore..."

"Don't worry, the scenes that require high movement will be filmed quickly, and from now on you will be facing real people and you will feel a lot more relaxed." Ronald smiled and comforted. These good actors who have received excellent training and years of filming experience rely on mutual inspiration with their opponent actors to reach their best condition.

The special effects in Forrest Gump are similar to those used to target beautiful stars who can't act, and only require them to walk to certain places, do certain actions, and say certain lines. It's like asking a PhD graduate to do elementary school math and often get punished for poor handwriting. It's really torture.

……

"Finally, I'm not shaking hands with the commander-in-chief..."

Tom Hanks came to the studio that day and finally breathed a sigh of relief when he watched the image of the former president played on the videotape.

"He wasn't even the Supreme Commander at that time... playing table tennis is much easier."

Ronald also laughed. This time it was the video of the former president, George Sr., which happened to be a video of him working at the Chinese Agency. George Sr. and someone else also followed the local customs and played table tennis.

However, his skills were much worse than that of the person he was playing with. The opponent seized the opportunity and smashed the ball, but Old George missed it and hit him directly in the crotch. The cheerful Old George laughed, but he was not a person who would easily admit defeat. He picked up the ball and continued to play with the opponent. Although his level was average, his competitive spirit and sense of fair competition were still very good.

The special effects team did a lot of preliminary work and had already calculated the hitting point in front of the blue screen, which would overlap with the original image after shooting.

In order to make Tom Hanks' performance easier, they hung three ping-pong-sized paper balls with ropes in front of the blue screen for Tom Hanks to use for positioning. These three positions are the positions where the opponent hits the ball three times in the image. He was removed with special effects, and then Hanks was asked to hit the ball in front of the blue screen. When it was synthesized in post-production, it would look like Hanks was smashing the ping-pong ball.

"Cut, Cut..."

After taking the first take, Ronald stopped the scene in the special effects studio. The special effects engineer looked at Ronald, as if asking, "Is this right? What went wrong?"
"It's not your skills, Tom..."

Ronald called Tom Hanks aside and asked him where he learned his table tennis skills.

Tom Hanks obviously practiced table tennis, and his receiving, returning, and spiking postures were all quite similar. But his table tennis posture was a typical American community leisure sport, not the kind of posture that was as talented as Forrest Gump, who could win the US championship and go to China to play a friendly match with the world champion there.

There are two obvious problems. First, he mainly relies on his hands to reach the ball, rather than moving his feet to expand the range of control. Second, his center of gravity is too high. A truly professional player will not stand with both feet completely straight, but lower his center of gravity to wait for the moment to grab the ball with explosive power.

"I'm not saying that you have to play like a professional when playing with Old George, but generally speaking, a professionally trained person wouldn't tiptoe to return the ball like this..."

"OK, lower your center of gravity, bend your knees, use your feet to reach the ball..." Tom Hanks also watched some video footage of the China-US Friendship Match that year for the role. He immediately squatted down and tried it.

"No, let me show you..." Ronald took the table tennis racket, then naturally held it in a straight-blade position, performed a few quick movements, and coordinated the whole body to spike the ball for Hanks to see..."

"Why do I feel like your playing posture is like that of the Chinese..." Tom Hanks took the racket and imitated Ronald's way of holding the racket.

"That's not the case. American players usually hold the racket horizontally..." Ronald asked him to hold the racket horizontally.

"OK..." Tom Hanks looked at Ronald strangely. We in America do it this way, why do you use a straight camera?
"I learned to play table tennis from a Chinese guy..." Ronald explained and let him continue filming.

Tom Hanks tried his luck a few times with the newly learned posture, and this time he looked more like a professional golfer.

"Well, you are really good... Ping-pong is so difficult..."

Tom Hanks didn't know whether Ronald was really good or just talking. After the filming, he insisted on playing a few rounds with Ronald. Once he sat on the table, his amateur-level table tennis ball was not enough. Ronald just served a few times and he was able to catch it.

"Very good, we will shoot the China-US friendly match tomorrow, it will be great if you keep up this form..." After seeing his level, Ronald passed a few balls to Hanks and even made a few dunks for him which were quite cool.

"Really?" Tom Hanks was also happy. "Looking at our table tennis skills, Hollywood may be the champion and runner-up. If you win the championship, I can be in the top three, and if I perform well, I can be second..."

"Hahaha, very likely. But tomorrow it's hard to say. The Chinese actor we found to play your opponent is a professional basketball player... He's in a union, I don't think we can beat him..."

The next day, a Chinese golfer named "Valentino" came to the studio. He was also a fan of Tom Hanks and liked Ronald's previous movies very much. He asked for a few autographs first and then took photos with them.

"Valentino, we can try a real fight first..."

Ronald smiled and said that he still hoped that, if possible, he and Hanks would really hit a few balls without using special effects, because the real light and shadow, and the texture of the contact between the board and the ball, could not be matched by special effects.

"Oh God, I can't, Valentino you serve too fast..."

After a few attempts, it really didn't work. Tom Hanks often couldn't even receive the serve. This wasn't because he couldn't see the spin clearly when he played with Ronald. It was because the opponent's professional-level serve speed and landing point control made it impossible for him to receive it.

"Could you please put some water on, Valentino?"

Ronald shouted to Valentino, who was wearing a red sportswear. He was wearing a sportswear based on the uniforms of the Chinese table tennis team back then, which had the same temperament as back then.

In addition, the audience around were all wearing the gray-blue Zhongshan suits of that time, sitting behind a red slogan "Friendship First, Competition Second", with a large red portrait and red-based venue decoration behind them, which brought back the feelings of the generation who watched the news about President Richard's visit to China: a mysterious, powerful and special country.

All of these were made possible by the newsreels of the year that the counselor of the Chinese Embassy had brought to Ronald for reference. The props and scenery were restored based on the images shot in China at the time, and they were able to fully express the appearance of the people at that time.

"Okay, I'll go slower." Valentino had played teaching ball before, so he slowed down his pace, but Tom Hanks still couldn't keep up. After a few times, he spent more time picking up the ball than playing.

"No way, let me try... Valentino, you're letting me win..." Ronald didn't know whether Hanks' skills were too bad or Valentino's level was too high, so he went forward to fight with him a few times.

"It seems to be OK..." Tom Hanks saw Ronald and Valentino (letting go) playing back and forth and applauded. He had an idea, could he let Ronald be his stand-in, film him playing table tennis, and then change his head.

"I'm afraid not. My arms are much different in length from yours, so the keying probably won't look like yours..."

"Oh, yes, what am I thinking about?" Hanks scratched his head. Ronald spoke a little evasively. In fact, his height was too different from his own, so it was impossible for him to be a stand-in.

"Try a few more times. If it doesn't work, we'll switch to the way you and Old George shoot..."

Ronald also shook his head. It was unlikely to improve Hanks' table tennis level in the short term. Instead of finding someone with a similar body shape to act as a substitute, it would be better to use the method used a few days ago and let him swing in the air at the position where the paper ball was hung by the rope in the air.

After all, when replacing a head, one also has to consider the person's movements, expressions, and mouth shape when speaking, which is much more difficult than simply creating a white ping-pong ball out of thin air.

“Oh, there’s no way to take this photo…”

Who would have known that the scene of playing table tennis with old George, which used a very good method, would fail when we were filming the China-US friendly match today.

This is also because, in this semi-professional level game, the ball speed is much faster than the speed that Old George plays. Therefore, the two of them did not have a suitable reference for hitting the ball, and they could not find the feeling of swinging in the air at all.

Hanks was trying very hard to swing the racket, and Valentino was also trying very hard to swing the racket, but the two of them just couldn't get their rhythm together.

In professional competitions, the rhythm of swinging the racket twice in one second is very fast. The two had no reference and swung the racket in a mess. Either they swung the racket together, or they both put their hands down and waited for the ball, which looked very funny.

"Oh, huff huff... I'm so tired, even more tired than actually fighting..."

Hanks also shouted that he was exhausted from swinging the racket at a high frequency.

Valentino didn't say anything, but his sweating revealed his nervousness. After all, he was an amateur actor, and it would be embarrassing if he was replaced.

"You guys didn't find the rhythm, I'll think of a way..."

Ronald knew that this was because the two had no reference and their swings were not in rhythm. Soon, he took out the old method and played the videotape of the friendly match that year on the spot, letting the two watch the rhythm of the athletes' swings and perform the same way.

However, this method, which had worked well in previous filming, also failed. After all, the speed of table tennis is extremely fast, and the two people couldn't keep up with the rhythm while watching the video and performing.

"What should we do?" Ronald also scratched his head. He turned around and asked the people around him, asking them to give any suggestions.

Ken Ralston, who was in charge of special effects shooting coordination, remembered something and told Ronald that people who practiced musical instruments had a metronome that could adjust the speed of the beat, making a clicking sound that was very rhythmic.

Now they finally found a solution. The metronome used as props made sounds one by one, and Hanks and Valentino just had to swing their rackets according to the rhythm.

"Very good, let's have another one..."

As expected, this kind of shooting made both of them enter the state. Valentino pretended to swing the racket according to the rhythm, and then he turned sideways on both sides of the stage and attacked from both sides (straight-blade style). Hanks was more performative, he moved left and right in the middle of the stage, swinging hard, and looked more chic than Valentino on the opposite side, as if his level was higher.

"One more?" Ronald was also satisfied with what he had taken, but he still wanted Tom Hanks to take a few more shots as he was in good shape now.

"Oh, Ronald, please forgive me. I am more tired without a ping-pong ball than with one. I am looking at the table now, and it seems like there is a ball on it. I am hallucinating."

"Okay, take a half-hour break, and bring up some snacks and some good coffee..."

In order to get the actors to work hard, Ronald directly made a food guide, including various Italian salamis, his aunt's baked cookies, Japanese tempura, Chinese dim sum, and other pre-prepared delicacies, which were served one by one. Only when everyone enjoyed the food would they have the energy to shoot better.