Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1506 Having both sides
"I really can't sue him..."

Attorney Lindsay Doll quickly gave Ronald an answer. Because America is a country protected by the First Amendment, when politicians "review, criticize or satirize" a movie, quoting some typical lines of typical characters in it is usually considered fair use.

Since Newt Gingrich quoted some images of Forrest Gump in his speech, and quoted some of Forrest Gump's lines from the "Forrest Gump Quotes" which has been on the market, which were limited to one or two sentences, it is impossible to be convicted of copyright infringement in this case.

President Ronald Reagan once quoted lines from "Casablanca" in his speech at the National Convention to win over TV viewers, which had a very good effect. With such a precedent, even if Ronald Reagan filed a lawsuit, it would be difficult to gain public support.

Anyway, Ronald himself doesn't really want to sue the party whip, but to restore his influence among the Donald Party voters.

But we can't just sit back and watch this happen. Otherwise, if Gingrich uses the popularity of Forrest Gump to mobilize voters to support congressmen from the Elephant Party before the midterm elections, it will really cause trouble.

It seems that a group of audiences have been pleased, but they are not regular moviegoers. According to Hollywood standards, only those who watch a movie more than once a year can be counted as moviegoers. There are many audiences in Forrest Gump who were attracted to the movie and went to the cinema. They usually don't go to the cinema to watch it, and at most they rent a video tape to watch it.

If Forrest Gump is truly seen as a conservative endorsement movie, then those progressives will soon hate this movie. Progressives are mostly concentrated in big cities, especially those minors or college students who have not yet become independent. They were the main force in promoting the progressive movement and participating in the hippies.

The fact that Forrest Gump is really loved by conservatives will not bring much box office revenue to Ronald's future films, but will risk losing a lot of box office revenue.

There was really no other way, so Ronald called in Michael Gray and public relations crisis expert Pat Kingsley to discuss how to nip this dangerous trend in the bud before Gingrich's speech caused a storm of public opinion.

……

"What you need to do is turn the revolving door and find the angle that is favorable to you in this story." Pat Kingsley is a very strong woman. She was very dissatisfied when she heard Gingrich's speech. Her words and actions showed a disgusted expression.

Maybe she was also secretly wondering if Ronald was making this movie to promote conservatives. But professionalism is the foundation of a public relations manager, and Pat Kingsley was able to separate her personal likes and dislikes from her client's current situation.

"What you said makes sense, what should I do?"

Ronald was very happy. He had spent a huge amount of public relations fees to invite this person just to listen to her ideas. Before she served Tom Cruise, there were many scandals related to Scientology, but they were all eliminated in the bud. There are almost no scandals about Tom Cruise circulating in the market.

"First of all, you did the right thing by coming to Michael and me before the incident became a big issue. The key to stopping the spread of the virus is to take action before people form a conclusion. By the time... I estimate that in three to five days, this news will be widely cited by hundreds of congressmen who are up for election across the country, and it will definitely be reported in major news media. By then, it will be too late for you to change the situation."

"Looks like I'm lucky..." Ronald poured coffee for the two experts himself. At a critical moment, one needs to be courteous. If the two most successful marketing experts and public relations crisis experts in Hollywood were willing to consider Ronald and come up with the best response plan, then this matter could still be saved.

If due to personal reasons or other factors that make them unhappy, and we fail to provide the best solution, we may suffer heavy losses.

"The crux of the matter is that Gingrich's speech is too easy to spread. Forrest Gump is a phenomenal movie, and thanks to the pre-recorded version of Forrest Gump that you released, even if you haven't seen it, you can still recite a few lines from the movie, such as "Life is like a box of chocolates..."

"You never know what the next one will taste like!" Ronald was so angry that he made a joke. Things are unpredictable. At that time, it was a clever trick for the film promotion, but now it has become a burden for the dissemination of this matter.

"Ha ha ha ha……"

Pat Kingsley and Michael Gray laughed out loud. As soon as this vulgar joke came out, everyone felt more relaxed and less stressed. Giving advice to a big shot like Ronald also carries some risks. If your idea doesn't work well due to execution problems, then what will be spread in the industry is not the client's execution problem, but Pat and Michael messed up Ronald's business...

Ronald served a lot of snacks, which is a characteristic of daydreaming. When doing creative work, the company will provide snacks from all over the world to let them feel the deliciousness and find inspiration in their brains.

“First, we have to find a different storytelling angle, which is your revolving door…”

Pat Kingsley ate two slices of salami and began to talk. Everyone treated each other equally, and Ronald listened carefully to what the two experts said. This made her feel respected and trusted, and she began to come up with a plan that only the best clients could hear.

It's not that she is hiding it on purpose, but some Hollywood clients are not very skilled themselves, do not understand some operating methods, lack trust in them, and are easily influenced. They often listen to the opinions of so-called family and friends and go back on their words, so that in the end no strategy can be executed, and the result is embarrassing.

People like Ronald, who has run a media company and listed it, are more like businessmen when communicating with them. So as long as you really have a solution, it is the most joyful thing to serve them.

"I don't quite understand what the revolving door means?" Ronald acted humbly and asked for advice, which made the two of them feel respected.

"Let's say you're a viewer and you hear Gingrich tell a story about Forrest Gump that's relevant to his campaign. You think it's funny, so you tell it to your friends.

But you don't remember the technical terms, nor do you remember what Gingrich promised. All you remember is that we are all Forrest Gump, and we want to restore common sense...

Every fact has many sides that can be used to tell a story. Gingrich found an angle that was beneficial to his storytelling and told his version of the story. We also need to find an angle to tell our version of the story.

Those people are like guests waiting to enter the hotel lobby. We and Gingrich are competing for control of the revolving door. See who can control the revolving door and make it stop in a position that is beneficial to us first, so that guests will walk in from the route we set. Then tell others our version of the story. "

"You mean offense instead of defense?"

"Right, that is it……"

Ronald suddenly realized that the plan was actually very simple. He could use his own media resources to release an "official idea" of his own to decouple Forrest Gump from the conservatives, and then spend money to amplify his own voice in the media to divert people's interest to other places.

This made Gingrich feel that there was no profit, so he would no longer use Forrest Gump as a hot topic in this midterm election.

After all, politicians are like producers, and Washington is Hollywood. Everyone wants to do big things with little money. It is best to use newspaper editorial articles for free to advertise rather than spending money to buy space yourself.

"But what should our story be?" Ronald couldn't think of it, and looked at Pat Kingsley and Michael Gray, as if asking, "What do you think? Is there any solution?"

“You have to ask yourself, sometimes the best solution can only come from the client himself, because it is the most original and the most spreadable.”

"Um, can you give me a hint?" Ronald had to remain polite, but if you said that again, he would be unhappy. I gave you so much money to solve the problem, not for you to ask questions.

"Okay, let's get this straight, Ronald. What do you personally think of the story of Jenny and Forrest Gump? Do you really think Jenny is a bitch who has accomplished nothing? And that her behavior of joining the hippies and protesting the Vietnam War was an irresponsible and dissolute act?" Kingsley asked, then stared at Ronald's lips with his sparkling eyes to see what he would say.

"Of course not!" Ronald denied it without hesitation.

"I am a director. My job is to tell a story through the lens of film. As for the audience's perception of the characters, this is not something a director should dictate. Everyone can have their own opinions. Whether it's about Forrest Gump or Jenny, there is no standard answer."

What Ronald said is true. There are many cases where the audience's final consensus on a certain character is inconsistent with the director's expectations.

Unless you are making a Hitchcock-style film without too much plot design, don't expect to be able to control the audience's entire view of the characters.

"That's not my problem..." Kingsley was a little aggressive. She wanted to know Ronald's true thoughts. Because the true thoughts would help him find a suitable revolving door counterattack.

"My thoughts? Although my thoughts are not important, I can talk about them. I don't think Jenny is a bitch. In fact, due to the rating of this movie and the current social environment, I have to hide my thoughts on certain issues.

I had filmed some scenes involving Jenny, but they were deleted in the final copy. For example, Jenny's father was drunk and Jenny and her sisters started a cotton harvester and strangled him to death with a knife.

"Oh? Was he strangled by a harvester?" Pat Kingsley seemed to have discovered something.

"Yes, I had to make some of the plots obscure. You may have noticed that when Jenny was a child, she ran to Forrest Gump's house every night. What was she hiding from? Why did Jenny pray with little Forrest Gump in the cotton field? Was she praying that one day she would leave this place like a bird? Why did the local police come and send her to her grandmother's trailer in the end?"

"Oh, God. So that's what it means..." Pat Kingsley didn't think about it too much, but now that the film director explained it himself, all of Jenny's psychological reasons for lacking a sense of security and always wanting to fly away came to light.

"Is this the same story as the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel 'A Thousand Acres'?" Pat Kingsley was referencing Jane Smiley's novel, an adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear," which relocated King Lear to the present-day life of a large farmer in Iowa.

"I don't know..." Ronald said that I have never read this kind of novel. Would you like to get back to our topic?
"This is our revolving door, Ronald. We can use the theory you told me, that the director cannot determine the audience's opinion of the movie, as the content of your interview, and then stir up a discussion in society to speculate why Jenny repeatedly left Forrest Gump...

That way no one will pay attention to Gingrich's bullshit."

……

"The following guest is the director of a recent hit movie and the owner of a listed company. He is known as the leader of the next generation of Hollywood directors, Ronald Lee..."

"Hi David, long time no see, I actually really miss your show..."

Ronald went to the Late Show with David Letterman on CBS for an interview.

"So, everyone thinks that Forrest Gump represents himself, and it wasn't your design? I know some people are trying to say that recently." After making a few jokes, David Letterman asked the question that had been discussed in advance.

"The audience has the right to make any interpretation of the characters in the movie, and this is a power that the director cannot restrict..."

"Okay, we get it. Ronald is just like Forrest Gump. He's not as smart as the audience. Hahahaha..."

The interview went smoothly, and the ratings performance of Current Affairs proved that Ronald's words that the audience was smarter than the director pleased many viewers who had seen the movie.

Everyone thought this movie was very interesting, and there seemed to be many details in it that they had not noticed before, so they had to rent or buy a video tape to enjoy it slowly at home.

If the director hadn't explained it personally on TV, we wouldn't have known there were so many metaphors. It turns out that the things Forrest Gump encountered actually happened in real history.

“Okay, here’s another question that many of our audience members would like you to answer.

Ronald, why does Jenny always leave Forrest Gump? Does she love him?

"Of course she loves him, just like he loves her." Ronald replied with a smile, "Do you remember that Forrest Gump had just had an argument with Jenny and told her in the heavy rain that he was going to the Vietnam battlefield? Although Jenny was still angry, she turned back from the rain and told Forrest Gump to remember to run... But Jenny's childhood was not as happy as Forrest Gump's. Although they were both from single-parent families, Forrest Gump received much more love than Jenny..."

"Then why does she leave Forrest again and again?"

"I guess everyone has their own interpretation..."

"So, you're not going to tell us your explanation?"

"No, I don't want to spoil the fun for everyone. It's a very interesting movie, and I think everyone can come up with their own thoughts after watching it once."

"Okay, let me tell you what I think. Is Jenny worried that Forrest Gump can't find a job and support his family?"

"Like I said, everyone has their own interpretation. I'm not going to give a standard answer. After all, you're right, sometimes the audience is smarter than the director..."

"Okay, thank you Ronald Lee, the director of Forrest Gump!"

After the show was broadcast, the last part of the conversation was replayed several times in other programs, sparking a great discussion among fans. Soon, those who had not seen the movie also had their own guesses and answers based on their own life experiences.

For a while, everyone seemed to be discussing why Jenny and Forrest Gump didn't get together from the beginning. The free space that Gingrich had finally gotten by touching Forrest Gump was no longer popular. After all, ordinary people are still more willing to understand the love story of the two protagonists from the perspective of some trivial family matters. No one is thinking about the influence and promotion of conservative and progressive thoughts on American history.

Ronald's interpretation of Jenny and Forrest Gump's happy childhood also attracted attention. Many women's rights organizations noticed that Ronald's hint of a "Thousand Acres" tragedy also happened to little Jenny. They expressed their views in the media, believing that the historical background of Forrest Gump is very profound, and that it is greatly underestimated to regard it as an entertainment film...

For a time, progressives in big cities also began to feel that Ronald was on their side and agreed with progressive ideas.

Ronald, who was able to get along with everyone, laughed at home. This kind of thing didn't happen often. He signed a check to Pat Kingsley, and the money was well spent.

"Ronald, this is Shirley (Lansing), can you come to Paramount?"

Ronald, who was happy, was interrupted by a phone call.

"What is it Shirley?"

"It's not convenient to talk over the phone, but the White House forwarded a letter and a videotape..."

(End of this chapter)