Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1490: Beating TV Series and NBA Finals Ratings
"Not to mention the cost of making changes now, from the perspective of the film itself, there is only such a short time, it will definitely affect the overall effect..."

"There's no other way. If it's not revised, the problems this movie will encounter won't be as simple as The Silence of the Lambs or The Philadelphia Story being protested and openly attacked in the media..."

"Is it that bad?" Walter Murch felt that Ronald might be overreacting.

"Hey, you fly over first, and your wife and children can stay at my house as a vacation. Let's have a good chat. If I think too much, that's great. If you agree with my idea, we have to hurry up. One more day is very expensive..."

"Okay, let me talk to them. My children are all going to college in the next few years, and I, as a father, don't have much time to spend with them..."

Ronald was at his home in Hollywood Park, on the phone with Walter Murch, urgently revising the copy of Forrest Gump. Although the content to be cut was not much, it was necessary to avoid affecting the overall rhythm, and the already scheduled copy delivery schedule was disrupted. If not handled properly, it might affect the release time.

"Honey, don't worry, I believe your decision is right..." Diane came over to comfort Ronald and asked Aunt Wang to make a cup of authentic Keemun black tea sent by the Counselor.

Diane was originally reading the third draft of "Jerry Jane", which is a typical script that first has stars and then the plot is modified according to the stars. Since Tom Cruise and Diane Lane were confirmed to star in the film, all the script changes were made around the characteristics of the two stars themselves, making minor modifications to better fit the stars' box office appeal to the audience.

Since the famous Hollywood director Billy Wilder confirmed his guest appearance, it also attracted the attention of many Hollywood screenwriters. Many people would rather take less money to provide consulting and revision work on the script. Even if they can't sign their names on the final script, it can serve as a qualification that agents can use to raise the price to the studio in the future.

Many Hollywood screenwriters, when learning to write scripts, often used Billy Wilder's classic scripts as their learning materials. Being able to do something in what is likely to be Billy Wilder's last work will be something they can brag about for a long time in the future.

For example, Lee Steinberg, the prototype of the protagonist Jerry Maguire, recently did something big. He helped safety Tim McDonald get a big contract from the San Francisco 49ers under the new free agent regulations.

In the previous NFL, when a player's contract expired, he or she would automatically become a restricted free agent. If a new team offered a contract, the former team could have priority to sign the player as long as the contract was matched.

However, according to the league terms revised last year, players whose contracts expired became unrestricted free agents, which means that as long as there is a new team willing to offer a contract, they can sign freely.

This gave agents room to maneuver, but no one knew how to do it. Only Lee Steinberg took advantage of the information gap and repeatedly bargained with multiple teams interested in signing him. In the end, he sold a safety for the price of an All-Star player, which caused a sensation.

This incident was also included in the script, allowing Jerry Maguire to secure a big contract for his client and ultimately become the winner.

On the other hand, why did Jerry Maguire come up with this idea and suddenly give up lying to customers and become a good person who serves customers wholeheartedly?
Ronald's own agent, Richard, reminded him that Katzenberg of Disney had written a memo to the board of directors before. It did not contain any vague "management language", but only common sense and truth.

He told the board that all the formulas for movie success were fake. Over the years, whether it was a live-action movie or an animated movie, there was only one secret to box office success, and that was a very good story.

This idea was also announced by Ronald, who relayed it to Diane and director Cameron Crowe, and the entire script, which led to the second act of the protagonist Jerry Maguire, was revised into him promoting his memo in the office, and then everyone abandoned him, including his apprentice, his clients, and even his girlfriend, except the heroine Dorothy, the company accountant.

This also means that Rod, the only NFL player who still has him as his agent, was not poached away because he made many mistakes and was about to be abandoned by the team. Rod also became Jerry Maguire's only hope for a comeback after he became independent and started his own business.

This makes the plot more dramatic, and the rationality of Jerry Maguire's behavior is greatly enhanced. This sudden desire to be a good person is more in line with what Tom Cruise himself might do. This kind of performance will attract more audiences and have the opportunity to win awards.

Diane's character Dorothy is a typical American girl next door. Playing such a role is similar to Diane's own psychology. She is not a mean girl who wants to beat all other girls in her circle.

The only drawback is that in the movie, her makeup must not be as good-looking as the actress who plays Jerry Maguire's ex-girlfriend. Otherwise, it doesn't fit the story and the audience will look weird. But this shortcoming is also overshadowed by the advantage of becoming a couple with Tom Cruise on the screen. After filming this movie, it will not be a problem for her to star in any romantic love movie in the future (except that she must get Ronald's consent first).

"I have no problem with this. This is not an artistic decision, but a business decision. Now we need to decide how much content to cut..."

Ronald scratched his head. He now understood why many producers would have serious conflicts with directors. All kinds of messy things in business could be the reason why producers need to modify the director's cut.

Many directors cannot understand this kind of thing, and even editing masters like Walter Murch would be dissatisfied. Of course, this does not rule out the possibility that some producers use commercial reasons to mess around.

……

"Walter... let me show you this..."

When Walter Murch and his family came to Ronald's house for vacation, he and Ronald went to the study to discuss the modification of the editing of "Forrest Gump".

"Is this already so serious?"

What Walter Murch saw was a compilation of news reports that Ronald had videotaped from the day OJ Simpson escaped.

Murch's job required him to maintain a keen eye for film editing, so he didn't have a TV in his house in San Francisco. So he didn't see a lot of footage of Simpson's arrest, and only read some "processed" reports in the newspaper the next day.

The newspapers could not have reported on the people who supported OJ Simpson and cheered him on that day. In addition, the banners with slogans such as "Go OJ" and "Run OJ" were hung on the overpasses along the way. The impact of the image was still very strong, and Murch, who was sitting and watching the video, twisted and turned in his chair uncomfortably.

"So you understand my concerns?" Ronald knew that Murch was worried about the impact of these images. No one knows better than an editor how well-edited images can inspire the crowd.

"How could this happen? I don't know whether he is a criminal or not, but people of this ethnic group are supporting OJ so much. Oh my God, there won't be another Los Angeles riot, will there?" Walter Murch suddenly thought of a possibility.

"It's okay. I've kept the plane on standby 24 hours a day. If anything changes, both our families can leave immediately to any safe place." Ronald indicated that he would not cheat the editing teacher and had already considered the worst possibility.

"Is he really being wrongly accused?" Murch also became curious. So many black people wanted him to escape. Could it be that the LAPD really used the same methods they used in the past? (The LAPD's various methods of framing black people are well-known in the history of the country.)

As an early hippie, Walter Murch was no stranger to this kind of thing. Before the human rights movement, it was common to stop a car, stuff contraband into the car if you saw a black person, and then arrest them on the spot. There were even many cases of people being shot dead on the spot in the name of arrest.

This is also the reason why the last time Rodney King, the criminal in Los Angeles who actually resisted LPAD's arrest, caused such a big reaction. They are so familiar with this tactic. Every black family has such memories when they grew up.

"I don't know, but judging from the details reported, OJ is very likely..." Since they are both white, Ronald can speak frankly. If he said this in front of Spike Lee or Whoopi Goldberg, he would end the relationship.

He turned on the TV. Every day, follow-up reports on the Simpson murder case were overwhelming. Every TV station wanted to get the latest news and issued announcements, willing to pay a high price for valuable clues. Under such competition, several heavyweight witnesses soon provided the TV stations with very strong evidence.

A woman told the station that she saw a white Ford Mustang speeding off Bondi Avenue on the night of the murder, shortly after the forensic presumption of the incident, and almost collided with a Nissan car at the intersection of Bondi and St Vincent Avenues, and she recognized Simpson's voice.

This respectable white lady had the courage to tell her story to the public in a telephone interview with a TV station. In order to reward her for this heroic act of defending the public's right to know, the TV station gave her five thousand dollars.

Another man was also interviewed by the TV station. He was sitting in the dark and said that he saw OJ Simpson, who was about to fly to Chicago, at the airport that night. He also saw him throw a large bag of things into the airport trash can. If the LAPD did what they were supposed to do, they should have found that it was a bag of blood-stained clothes. As long as they found it and tested the blood, Bang! Caught on the spot!
This man is a black man. In order to reward him for his courage to give testimony against suspects of his own ethnicity in the name of fairness and justice, the TV station rewarded him tens of thousands of dollars.

A staff member of Ross Knife Shop testified to the TV station that six weeks ago, OJ Simpson bought a knife from them that was just enough to cause the kind of wounds that the forensic doctor found on the victim...

Since this clerk discovered one of the three most important elements in a murder case - the murder weapon, even though he did not appear on camera, he was still given a lot of rewards!
The TV station announced that anyone who can provide important clues to the case like this enthusiastic citizen can also receive a similar reward.

Although television made Walter Murch unhappy, it has indeed become one of the most influential and credible media in the flow of modern information.

"Okay, what parts do you want to delete?" Walter Murch understood the current situation. Not only did most black people not believe that OJ was the murderer, but the white people on the ethnic side of the victims generally believed that it was OJ who brutally killed the two victims.

The victim Ron Goldman's situation was also gradually revealed. He was not the new boyfriend of Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown as people imagined. He was just a waiter in a restaurant. He showed up at Brown's house that night to deliver the sunglasses she lost in the restaurant...

White people believed this statement very much, and their hatred for OJ deepened. Killing your ex-wife is one thing, but harming innocent people is another... Radio stations with white people as their main audience have begun calling for OJ Simpson to be charged with double murder.

In California, double murder is a special case of murder, and if the prosecutor raises this point, the probability of the suspect being sentenced to death is greatly increased if convicted.

"I mainly want to delete two parts. The first is the scene where Dr. Martin Luther King went to the streets to protest when he was young and was surrounded by police dogs. Forrest Gump went to rescue him... and the scene where he was assassinated later."

These two scenes were originally heavily edited by Ronald. Only two scenes of a dozen seconds were left. But now OJ Simpson is about to be tried by a grand jury and is likely to be indicted. Under such circumstances, any scenes with civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King will cause inappropriate associations between the already tense ethnic groups.

"Another one is here..." Ronald mentioned another place. This is the scene where Forrest Gump's good friend, Bubba, who died in Vietnam, was discriminated against just like Forrest Gump when he first arrived in the army. Bubba's IQ is normal, but because he is black, he is considered not as smart as Forrest Gump, and he is punished.

"We can delete the previous scene and keep the shot of him and Forrest Gump brushing the floor tiles with a toothbrush..." Walter Murch thought about it again and again and finally gave a solution.

Martin Luther King was left with only a photo, with Tom Hanks' voiceover explaining that he was assassinated just like JFK. A section of Bubba's scene was cut to preserve the brotherly relationship between him and Forrest Gump, allowing the audience to directly accept this setting without exaggerating the causes and consequences of their getting along.

……

"Are you really not going to Houston to watch the final game of the finals?"

A day later, Doug Jr. called. The Knicks lost Game 6 to the Rockets in Houston last night. In the last few seconds, Knicks guard Stokes had a chance to hit a three-pointer to beat the Rockets.

But his shot was blocked by the Rockets center Olajuwon who played very well in this game. The two teams will have to play the decisive game at Houston's home court tomorrow.

"Why should I go? The Dolan family likes to be associated with failure so much, so just let them go..." Ronald watched the live broadcast on TV and was also very angry. Dolan praised the guard Starks before the game, saying that his importance to New York was no less than Jordan's importance to the Bulls.

What was the result? His shot was blocked, but Jordan always shot the opponent at the last moment...

"Okay, I won't go either. I'm relieved that you are so confident. Now New York fans say Dolan wants to steal the limelight from you, so they have to go to the away game. They lost because you were not there.

"Alas, I can't go either. The ratings are being dragged down by OJ now... Aunt Wang, what are you guys arguing about?"

As soon as Ronald put down the phone, he heard loud voices coming from outside, and he couldn't help but call Wang Ma to ask.

"Sir, you don't know, they are fighting over the TV. Some maids want to watch TV series, and some other maids and gardeners want to watch the report of the Simpson case. Both sides are anxious. I went to talk to them..."

"Oh, I guess the TV stations won't broadcast TV drama reruns anymore..." Ronald also lamented the power of television media. In order to have more time to report the latest news, many TV drama reruns have been cancelled.