Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1453 Mind Control and Perjury?
The praise Spielberg received from the directors did have some impact on the attitude towards Jews. A group of directors, including Ronald, appreciated the way of using black and white movies to deal with this subject and the little girl in the red coat.

This is a coloring technique that has existed since the black-and-white era. Because each frame needs to be colored, it is often only used in important parts. This ancient technique is very suitable for this movie.

In addition to this artistic expression of the epic of national suffering, the film also did well in commercial elements, and received very good feedback from many viewers.

What is most surprising is that such a movie, which was originally aimed at Jewish audiences and some well-educated audiences, actually received an A+ rating from Cinema Score, which represents the tastes of mainstream audiences.

This means that mainstream audiences have a surprisingly good impression of this seemingly non-mainstream movie. People do not see it as a niche movie, but as a commercial film with a certain historical weight.

Hollywood directors and ordinary audiences, the two groups that play a decisive role in professional evaluation and box office, also made the powerful Jews feel differently. In the week after the premiere, Jewish executives gradually spoke well of the film in the media.

The key to the matter is that these Hollywood executives also have their own professional image to maintain. If an executive makes a wrong assessment of the work of such a well-known director, then his professionalism will be questioned both inside and outside the circle.

If they overestimate a movie, they can still save some face from the artistic point of view, for example, this movie transcends the times and is made for audiences decades later, and Orson Welles and Francis Coppola both have representative works that were not understood by the audience at the time.

But there is no reason to underestimate the box office of a well-known director's film. The only explanation is that you are a jerk in this position, but you may be better for the studio's performance... which is undoubtedly very bad.

Directors, especially influential directors, have more influence in the field of professional evaluation than well-known film critics. There is only one reason for this: the nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director is decided by the directors on the jury.

Although the proportion of Jews among Hollywood executives is high, the proportion of Jews among directors is much lower than that of other occupations.

"Do you want to call Steven to congratulate him?" Richard went to Ronald's house to talk about Schindler's List.

"In fact, I wrote Steven a letter several days ago saying that this might be the most important film ever directed by a Jewish director and that I loved it very much," Ronald replied with a smile at home.

"Fortunately you wrote it early. Now the praise from those Jewish executives is starting to flood in. When Steven needs affirmation the most, he will definitely remember it."

"I'm telling the truth. In fact, all of our directors like this work very much. It is very much in Steven's style. Tell me something about MJ..." Ronald wanted to ask about the search of MJ.

"Well, it's very strange that the prosecutors haven't made any decision... But no news may be good news."

After Michael Jackson went to the prosecutor's office for a body search, the matter seemed to have been put on hold. There was neither positive nor negative news.

In theory, Jordan Chandler's testimony was very accurate. Vitiligo and circumcision should have been very easy to identify. However, the prosecutor's office neither announced the results nor took further action against MJ.

The general speculation about the outcome of this incident is that MJ obtained very favorable evidence and the prosecution was in a bit of a bad situation.

"Then is that Jordan Chandler committing perjury?" Ronald felt something was wrong again. In American courts, the punishment for perjury is quite severe. It is usually considered a felony and requires imprisonment and entry into personal records.

Jordan Chandler was just a teenager, even if he was instigated by his father, but what is the point of giving testimony that can obviously be proven to be a lie?

"I heard that he was under the influence of narcotics when he testified. Many drug addicts in Hollywood have similar problems. After being affected by certain drugs, witnesses, especially teenagers, are more likely to be "implanted" with memories and regard other people's false stories as their own real memories. They themselves cannot tell whether such things have actually happened.

So the prosecutors are now in a very awkward situation, and are probably trying to figure out how to handle this potentially scandalous search warrant.”

"So those plots in Hollywood B-movies where the CIA implants memories in people and asks them to assassinate the president, are actually possible?"

"Hey, you know this better than me. I've only heard this in the agent circle." Richard shrugged. This kind of thing was true and false, and it was related to many major cases. It was not something that an agent like him could explain clearly.

"Okay, let's continue..."

Ronald and Richard continued to talk about the recent public trends in society, and that racial conflicts were beginning to rise again.

In the New York City election, the investigation team sent by the Department of Justice did not find any evidence to convict after a long investigation, so the case was dropped. Black and Latino New Yorkers were very dissatisfied with Rudy becoming mayor. The reduction of welfare and the strengthening of NYPD law enforcement had a negative impact on them.

However, after the election, he still held a tight grip on the NYPD and the prosecutorial system, and cracked down on various potential criminal activities. These people did not dare to act rashly, but the dissatisfaction was visibly growing.

The MJ issue is now at a stalemate. Many black people in the Los Angeles area have changed their dissatisfaction with MJ's skin color and facial features gradually becoming "whiter", and have begun to compare him with those black stars in history who were falsely accused, imprisoned, or even died in unclear circumstances.

The feedback from Richard showed that this was not just Ronald's personal feeling. Hollywood had already confirmed with its actions that various racial sentiments were rising.

For example, Paramount has begun considering reshooting some scenes from the third episode of Eddie Murphy's prestigious series "Beverly Cop." The film contains many racial jokes between blacks and whites, which may cause unnecessary trouble at this sensitive time.

With the evidence of the action, Ronald had other people's evidence to prove his intuitive judgment. After he and Richard separated, he went to the editing room and began to modify the scene of Dr. Martin Luther King and Forrest Gump reuniting.

In this scene, Dr. King was bitten by dogs set on him by racist white detectives in Alabama. Forrest Gump, who has a natural ability to communicate with animals, went up to the police dogs he knew and persuaded them to be quiet.

In addition, Dr. Martin Luther King later told Forrest Gump about his views on the racial segregation system, which Forrest Gump summarized as "Dr. King is having a dream," which eventually led to Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Ronald actually liked this scene very much, and it was similar to the previous scene where Forrest Gump taught Elvis how to twerk. But in front of the overly sensitive public, he still had to delete it with great reluctance. Only a few scenes of Dr. King being shot were left, and Forrest Gump could explain it in a voice-over.

"You actually deleted this part? This is my favorite part."

After returning home, I talked to Diane about today's work, and Diane was surprised by Ronald's choice.

"I don't want to either, but the movie is already too long, and this plot has no intersection with other plots. It's a waste of time to tell it as a standalone story. Besides, black people may not buy it. I'm afraid the acceptance of Forrest Gump, a white man, teaching Dr. King's speech is different from that of Forrest Gump teaching white singer Elvis Presley." Ronald had to admit his considerations.

"God, being a director is too troublesome. It's more comfortable to be an actor. I don't have to worry about so many things after filming."

"Hey, that's why directors have the power to direct actors on the set. Otherwise, after the movie is released, all the glory will be taken away by the actors, and there will be no one left to be the director."

"Oh? Ronnie, what do you want to tell me to do? I'm waiting for your order now."

"How about we go to the bedroom and try on your character's costume?"

Next, the editing principles were revised. Ronald blurred all the controversial plots, so that viewers with different opinions could feel that the hints of the film were on their side.

For example, in the segment where Forrest Gump gave a speech at the Washington Monument in front of Capitol Hill, all of Forrest Gump’s words were muted, without leaving a single word commenting on the Vietnam War.

Although what Forrest Gump originally said, that the Vietnam War caused his good friend Bub to die and Lieutenant Dan to lose both legs, is a relatively conservative statement, but who knows if those viewers who support the Vietnam War will feel offended?
It would have been better to cut off a few seconds more, leaving only Forrest Gump's last words, his speech on the Vietnam War ending here, and then quickly edit to the scene where the host said his name and Jenny waded through the crowd to meet him.

In short, Ronald's new principle now is to use a high-intensity emotion to overwhelm all thoughts of the audience who have just formed their own ideas about Forrest Gump's actions before they can clearly figure out their attitude towards what Forrest Gump did.

The audience is tempted to jump into the pool of emotion before they have time to think independently, and be moved by a person like Forrest Gump who is not very intelligent but works very hard.

This kind of editing is easy to say, but it is very difficult to find the right editing point. Ronald also spent several days to adjust his editing system to the new principles, and things gradually became smooth.

Schindler's List and Philadelphia Story are both still being screened on a small scale and are in the process of accumulating word-of-mouth among the audience.

In terms of the quality of the two films, Schindler's List is better, and the Cinema Score can still objectively reflect reality. The box office of Philadelphia in Chicago and Dallas is far behind that in New York and Los Angeles.

After discussing with Ronald, Medavoy decided to extend the duration of the small-scale screening and release it in more theaters on the east and west coasts to continue the word-of-mouth offensive in both places. After the Christmas and New Year holidays, the scale of the screening will be expanded to allow the word-of-mouth to play a role.

However, compared with the preparations of Ronald and TriStar, Schindler's List did not seem to receive enough support from Universal. The number of copies they produced was far less than the scale of Philadelphia.

In preparation for the day of the large-scale release, Columbia's labs had already accumulated enough copies for more than 1,200 theaters. But according to Universal, only a few hundred copies of Schindler's List were made, far from the number needed for release.

This situation was obviously not normal, so Ronald called Spielberg and asked him indirectly if there was anything else he could do.

Spielberg also avoided talking about this, only thanking Ronald for his letter and speaking up for him among people in the circle, and making it clear that he owed Ronald another chance, without mentioning a word about the difficulties he might encounter.

In the end, it was Michel Cannold, who was in charge of distribution, who got the news from his peers.

"There's a problem with the black and white film development!"

"Ah? Why? Universal can't even print a black and white film properly now?" Ronald was also shocked. How could this be possible? Black and white film is easier to produce than color film from a technical point of view. As one of the largest printing plants in the industry, Universal's printing plant couldn't possibly lose the technology passed down from the 1920s, right?
“There really aren’t many more people who can develop black-and-white film…” Cannold explained.

Black and white film is not like what most people imagine, that is, just washing color into black and white. When shooting, you need to think about shooting from a completely different perspective than color film.

For example, in the black-and-white film era, blonde and blue-eyed actresses would appear hollow and lifeless on full-color film, which is completely different from the fact that blonde and blue-eyed actresses were the most popular in the color film era.

When Schindler's List was being filmed, green clothing was completely banned from the set because green does not look good on black and white film.

For example, in black and white film, the contrast between the scenery and the actors is solved by their grayscale. An actor wearing red clothes standing in front of a white wall will have a sharp contrast in color film, but in black and white film, there will be dark and light parts, which makes the audience confused.

It can be said that shooting black and white film requires a completely different set of knowledge, from lighting to framing. This is true for the director of photography on the set, and the technicians in the photo processing plant as well.

When developing and printing, all the empirical formulas of the color film era are useless, and the experience gained from dozens or hundreds of movies has not been passed down. After all, if you can't make ten black-and-white movies a year, you can't make money even if you become a film director.

The last black-and-white film produced by Hollywood's experienced printing experts was "The Last Picture Show" directed by Bogdanovich in 1971.

Schindler's List was remade, and Universal also found some of the few remaining old technicians, listened to their experience, and explored some new ways to attract people. However, after all, they have to study while working and learn from their mistakes. Now they can only print dozens of qualified copies a week.

"Oh, then maybe our Philadelphia Story can take advantage of this opportunity to occupy the market that it deserves..." Ronald found an opportunity for Philadelphia Story to take advantage.