Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1577 Return to New York University
"First of all, you have to have works. If you don't have any works, we have no way of judging your directing ability. I don't care whether it is your student work, short film or commercial. In short, if you want to be a Hollywood commercial director, you must show your works.

I was able to give Spielberg a chance because I saw his student short film Amberlin. Yes, that is the name of his current company. In this short film, I saw that his visual style and narrative ability were very outstanding among his peers. Only then did I have confidence that he could handle a feature film...

So I gave him a chance to direct a TV movie, which is what you later saw as Duel. From this one and a half hour feature, I saw more things. The first is its ability to create tension. The second is that he can handle a more complex narrative.

I thought Steven was a good guy and I should give him a chance to direct a theatrical film. Then we saw a story about killer sharks in the shallow waters, and the rest is history..."

At Ronald's invitation, Sidney Sheenberg came to the Tisch School of Cinematic Arts at New York University and gave a lecture to the many students who came.

When answering questions, many students who study directing wanted to know how to get into Hollywood. As we all know, Spielberg was discovered by the New Berg, and then he became one of the most popular directors in Hollywood.

"I hope this little story answers your question." Sinberg waved to the students below in a pretentious manner.

The students began to applaud, but they were not very satisfied in their hearts.

Such a formulaic answer has no particular practical meaning for them. Sidney Shineberg has told this story many times in interviews with newspapers, magazines and television media. But the 1970s was a good time for new filmmakers to stand out.

At that time, most of the older generation of directors had left Hollywood with the demise of the big studios. At that time, the eight major film studios were not yet controlled by large media companies like they are now. There were also many new players from Wall Street who took over these studios.

So they basically don't know how to play in the Hollywood industry. This also gives these directors in their twenties and thirties the opportunity to direct movies with budgets of millions or tens of millions.

The current film market, especially the distribution business, has formed a multi-monopoly pattern. The production costs are rising. Today's special effects blockbusters, such as Cameron's Terminator, have exceeded $100 million in production costs.

Even ordinary genre films need to have stars in the lead roles, which means that it is almost impossible to see mainstream cinema films with a production budget of less than 2000 million. Ordinary TV movies and films aimed at the videotape market rarely have a production budget of less than 300 million.

A film of this scale is undoubtedly too risky for a student who has just graduated from college and has no previous work. There is also a lack of exploitation films like Roger Corman's in the past, which are suitable for novices to try.

"We would like to ask Ronald Lee the same question and see if he has any different answer. Few people know that he is also an alumnus of New York University. Maybe he can tell his juniors some industry secrets?"

The host was a teacher from New York University. He responded to the call of the student group and invited Ronald to the stage to talk about his views on these people's future employment in the industry.

"First of all, I have to correct that I did not graduate from NYU. After studying at NYU for more than a semester, I had an opportunity to be an assistant in a commercial film production in Hollywood. I grabbed it without hesitation and went to Hollywood. I have never returned here to complete my studies.

My Aunt Karen kept talking about it. She always told me, Ronald, you have to get your college diploma, otherwise, if you are unemployed, it will be difficult to find a job. "

"Ha ha ha ha……"

The college students were very happy to hear this indirect compliment, as if they had found an advantage over Ronald Lee, and as if he was really not as good as them, the guys with diplomas, in the job market.

"I know you might be thinking, this is a Catch-22. If you don't have a filmography, then a producer like Mr. Sheinberg won't give you a chance. But if you don't have that chance, how are you going to get your first feature?"

Ronald had already seen the dissatisfaction and confusion in the expressions of these college students. So he would tell them the real situation in this industry. Among these students who have studied film directing, the number who will work in Hollywood-related jobs after graduation is probably no more than 20%. The rest of them who are lucky enough can shoot some product instruction videos, or some local corporate advertisements, or completely change their careers to do other things.

The number of people who can really become a film director in Hollywood is probably less than 1%. What his Daydream Pictures needs is to discover this 1% of talent.

"I would say the only way to be a director is to be a director. You can shoot your student work, you can go to other film studios to shoot leftover film. Then let your classmates take turns to be the director of photography, lighting, script supervisor, and actors."

The students' expressions changed from confusion at the beginning to disappointment, but there were also a few people who looked as if they had a look of enlightenment on their faces.

"Film directing is a very small industry, and there are not many film directors in the whole of America. You can't find a book in a bookstore that teaches you what skills you need to have, what you need to do, and how to overcome difficulties when you are actually a film director.

So the only way is to learn how to be a film director while directing a movie.

In your practice, or in your short film, you will have a general idea of ​​what you will need? What other skills do you need to learn?

With these, plus some good luck, you may be able to direct your first feature film. If your luck continues to be good, maybe investors will come to invest in your first theatrical film. If your luck is very good and your first theatrical film makes money, then you will have the opportunity to shoot your second and third films. If they continue to make money, then I guarantee that Hollywood will have more films than you can finish.

If you are lucky enough to get a great script and work with some great actors, then you might get this thing.”

Ronald smiled and pointed to a photo of himself holding an Oscar trophy on one side of the lecture hall, which caused another round of laughter from the audience. It seems that the only difference between us and Ronald Lee is a little bit of luck.

Ronald then said that any student who has already filmed their own works and has a new script and wants to film it can send all their previous works and plans for new film projects to Daydream Pictures.

In this way, the new film director support plan they launched this year may select them and give them a guaranteed investment of 50 yuan. With this money, it will be much easier to attract other investments.

Most students were still frustrated because the terms of Ronald's final support plan also had the premise of the chicken and the egg.

However, some students who had made their own short films during their school days were very excited. After the speech, they surrounded Ronald and asked about the details of the plan.

"In 1988, I used a home video camera to shoot a 30-minute pseudo-documentary called Dirk Cannon, which tells the story of the porn star John Holmes. There were also student projects before that..."

The male student who had just stood up to ask Simberg a question now took the opportunity to introduce himself to Ronald.

"1988? You were still in high school then, right?" Ronald was surprised. Anyone who could make a short film in middle school, no matter how crude it was, was a person of extraordinary talent. New Hollywood directors like Spielberg all had similar experiences.

"I was in college preparatory class at that time, and the leading actors were all my classmates and friends." The boy smiled shyly.

"What's your name?" Ronald looked at the two videotapes and some documents he handed over. It seemed to be a new film he wanted to shoot.

"My name is Paul Thomas Anderson, and here is my proposal. I want to expand on the Dirk Cannon biography I made before."

"Have you graduated?" Ronald was eager to recruit him as an assistant in Daydream.

"Haha, you've been fooled. Paul is not a student at New York University. He studies English literature at Emerson College. He came here because he knew you were coming. Another short film of his received attention at the Sundance Film Festival, but that was not enough to attract investment, so he came here to try his luck."

Another student nearby quickly revealed the secrets of this guy, also named Paul Anderson.

"I actually attended film courses at New York University. At that time, I wanted to enter the television industry and work as an assistant in some film crews, so I needed some knowledge of film shooting."

Paul Thomas Anderson was clearly the type of person who decided very early on that he wanted to be a film director, and his actions were very purposeful.

"Hey, that doesn't count. You only attended two days of classes at New York University..." The student who came with me started to reveal the truth again.

"Oh?" Ronald smiled. "That's no problem. Orson Welles knew nothing about filmmaking before he filmed Citizen Kane. His director of photography, Greg Turan, told him that everything he needed to know about filming could be taught in two days."

"Ah, this..."

When they suddenly heard Ronald compare Paul to the film history genius Orson Welles, both Anderson himself and the classmate were stunned.

"This is my business card. On it is the phone number of my script supervisor David Simkins. When you call him, just say that I asked you to call him and ask him to take a look at your script. Of course, there is still a long way to go before filming, so don't be happy too soon."

Ronald smiled and took out a special business card, wrote David Simkins' phone number on it, and handed it to Paul Thomas Anderson. When the students were stunned, he turned around and called Sidney Sheinberg to go to Madison Square Garden, the home of the New York Knicks.

The Knicks had a home game today. Sheinberg and Ronald appeared together in the top-floor box, and Edgar Bronfman Jr. and his family were also invited to watch the game here.

"Real games are still more exciting. When I went to the All-Star Game two months ago, the game was exciting, but I felt it was boring without competition." Bronfman Jr. is also a basketball fan. He had connected with Ovitz during the All-Star Game. This time he came to New York to watch the game because he wanted to find an opportunity to meet Sheinberg, a key figure in the success of Universal Pictures, and talk about Seagram's acquisition of Universal.

"Of course. Although this is not the playoffs yet, I think this kind of game is much more exciting than the All-Star Game. Especially since Michael didn't participate in the All-Star Game this year."

Ronald smiled. The NBA All-Star Game was still very exciting. But the biggest star in the league in the All-Star Game in February this year, Jordan, was still playing baseball. He did not announce his comeback until the regular season at the end of the season. He did not wear the No. 23 jersey he had always worn, but changed to No. 45.

"That's why I wanted to meet Mr. Sheinberg. You are a truly talented producer who has stood out in the market competition. After Seagram acquired Universal MCA, we really want to continue to receive assistance from your wisdom and experience."

Seagram turned to Sheinberg and tried to retain him in his new role at the company.

"I didn't know Seagram still thought so highly of me. I thought I was an old man in your eyes." Sheenberg replied indifferently. Bronfman Jr.'s words also revealed that he was no longer likely to serve as the CEO of Universal MCA. He was just a consultant as a meritorious CEO.

"How can you say that? Did we acquire Universal MCA because we were attracted by Universal Studios' land in Hollywood? Even an outsider like me knows that the most valuable people in Hollywood are talents like you."

"Excuse me, I didn't feel what you said at all during this process. Like Ronald, I only found out from reading the Wall Street Journal the next day after the acquisition was finalized that the company I had worked for for so many years had been sold to a Canadian brewing company."

"I'm very sorry to have caused you unhappiness, but the acquisition is a very serious matter for us. During the acquisition process, we hope to resolve the issue quickly to avoid causing bigger, unnecessary problems. Perhaps the consultant who was responsible for advising me, Mr. Michael Ovitz, accidentally ignored the feelings of you heroes... I very much hope that the acquired MCA Universal Pictures will continue to receive guidance from you heroes." Bronfman Jr. was very polite and spoke to Sheinberg in a kind manner.

"I see. He needs to better understand how the big studios really work. But Mr. Bronfman can say that the most valuable thing in Hollywood is talent. This shows that you have a deep understanding of the film industry."

Sheinberg also began to soften his stance and flatter Bronfman Jr.

"Call me Edgar..."

The two of them were getting into a good mood, and Ronald also stood up to say goodbye, allowing them to continue to talk about more in-depth content. Bronfman was worried that Spielberg would completely leave MCA Universal with the establishment of DreamWorks. And Sheinberg was an important grasper of this Hollywood blockbuster movie.

Ronald, who left early, was also very satisfied. He had cleverly put a nail in Ovitz's dream of joining MCA Global.

"Oh oh oh..." The audience saw Ronald's figure walking to the front of the box and began to applaud and cheer for the generous boss.

Ronald also waved to them. Jordan has just returned this year, and maybe the Knicks can overcome the Bulls and compete again with last year's champion Houston Rockets. I wish them good luck this year.