After leaving Griffin Supermarket, Simon did not return to the motel immediately. Instead, he shuttled through the streets of Santa Monica to conduct scenes for his planned first film in advance.
The first film Simon planned to make was Run Lola Run.
Although the original "Run Lola Run" was filmed outside of Los Angeles, Simon doesn't have enough capital to be picky now. Since he was in Santa Monica, he directly confirmed the filming location of the new version of the film here.
The choice of "Run Lola Run" was also the result of Simon's careful consideration.
After all, this body is only 18 years old now.
Under normal circumstances, no reasonable film company in Hollywood would spend millions of dollars to let a young man who is not yet 20 years old take risks. Now Simon does not have the capital to personally invest in the production of commercial movies.
Therefore, he must show enough strength to at least to some extent dispel Hollywood's concerns about his age.
To achieve this, it couldn’t be easier, it’s nothing more than proving it through your works.
Although some changes have occurred on the WMA side, the revenue from the script of "The Butterfly Effect" can already be expected. This is Simon's first capital, and he must make good use of it to knock on the door of Hollywood.
Of course, no matter how high the selling price of a script is, it cannot be too much. Therefore, Simon had very little choice but to make an ultra-low-cost movie. Moreover, the film must also show sufficient value, either at the box office or in awards.
In terms of box office, there are actually many films in Simon's memory that simply created low-cost and high box office miracles, such as "The Blair Witch Project" and "The Ghost Story."
But in the final analysis, more than 90% of the success of these films is due to luck and just right business operations, and it really has little to do with the quality of the film itself.
The obvious evidence is that after the success of these films, the directors of the films no longer show much presence in Hollywood.
Therefore, if these movies are released at this time, there is a 99% chance that Simon will get nothing. Even if there is a 1% chance of reaping some benefits, Simon's own ability in film production will not be affected by Hollywood. recognition.
As for awards, this thing undoubtedly places more emphasis on qualifications.
Moreover, with just the money earned from selling a script, it is equally difficult to produce an outstanding artistic film that can reach the level of winning awards at several major film festivals.
After repeated selections, "Run Lola Run", an alternative and avant-garde experimental film, seems to be a perfect fit for Simon.
"Run Lola Run" also had a very low production cost. In my memory, it was 350,000 German marks, which is equivalent to about 180,000 US dollars, but this was more than ten years later.
Now, as long as he saves some money, Simon feels that it can basically be done with $100,000.
Although it is a low-cost production, "Run Lola Run" also has sufficient artistic and commercial value. Not only has the film won many awards, it has even formed a trend among young people in Germany.
Of course, for Simon, these are not the most important things.
What Simon values most is that "Run Lola Run" perfectly demonstrates the directing ability of the film's creator.
After the birth of "Run Lola Run" in 1998, the film's dazzling use of skills in editing, soundtrack, color, montage, camerawork, etc. soon made it a classic teaching case in film schools around the world, and has influenced many well-known films. Directors have had a very profound impact.
Doug Liman, the director of the classic Hollywood spy film "The Bourne Supremacy" series, has publicly admitted that the unique shooting style of "The Bourne Supremacy" was inspired by "Run Lola Run". Doug Liman For this reason, Mann also specially invited Franka Potente, the heroine of "Lola Run", to serve as the female lead in "The Bourne Supremacy".
Therefore, choosing "Run Lola Run", even in the worst case scenario, this film will not be satisfactory in terms of awards and box office in the future, Simon will be enough to get an opportunity to show his filmmaking skills to major Hollywood studios.
Hollywood has its extremely conservative side, but at the same time it is a circle that extremely worships genius and miracles.
As long as a person can prove his strength and can bring benefits to the film company, not many people will care whether this person is an angel or a devil. The issue of age is naturally not a problem.
On Washington Avenue north of downtown Santa Monica.
Simon passed by this intersection and immediately noticed the castle-like dark gray building across the street, which was a club. The architectural colors in Los Angeles are generally dominated by light colors such as white, which makes people feel monotonous and boring.
As a result, such an unusual dark gray building in front of him became very conspicuous, and Simon quickly made a decision to make this dark gray building one of the street scenes that Laura passed quickly while running.
Without a camera, Simon could only use the clumsiest method to record this location through painting.
Standing on the street curb with a hand-bound hard-cover notebook in hand, Simon first wrote down the most basic street information, re-examined the street scene in front of him, and then began to draw quickly in the form of a shot script.
A few minutes later, while focusing on the work at hand, Simon suddenly felt someone tapping his shoulder.
He turned his head in confusion and saw two girls standing behind him.
One of them is Courteney Cox, and the other blonde girl is also quite beautiful, but Simon doesn't recognize her.
At this time, Courteney was looking at him warily and said nothing, as if waiting for Simon to take the initiative to explain.
Simon turned around and looked around, only to realize that he was standing in front of a five-story apartment building, where Courteney and the blonde girl should live.
Feeling Courteney's eyes, Simon understood immediately.
All right.
Being treated as a stalker.
With a wry smile, Simon closed the notebook and explained: "Curt, if I said this was a coincidence, would you believe it?"
"I don't believe it," Courteney immediately shook her head, but still said, "Then, what are you doing here?"
"As I told you this afternoon, I'm preparing my own movie," Simon said, simply handing over the notebook in his hand.
Courteney took the thick 16-karat hand-bound notebook with a suspicious expression and opened it casually. The blond girl next to her also came over curiously.
The notebook has accumulated dozens of pages of drawings based on various types of street scenes. Although they are all very simple sketches, both Courteney and the blonde girl can easily appreciate Simon's solid painting skills. Most of the drawings There are also many professional annotations such as lighting and camera positions marked in detail.
After flipping through several pages in a row, Courteney's attention was quickly attracted by the running short-haired girl in the drawing, and she suddenly felt embarrassed to look at Simon again. The blond girl had no scruples. She praised her in a low voice, then raised her head and said to Simon: "You are really good at painting, but is the girl in the drawing Cort?"
Simon was stunned for a moment, looking at Courteney's short hair style at this time, and then he understood why the other party asked this.
To be fair, Simon didn't have a specific person in mind when he sketched out Lola's look, and he didn't have any feelings for Franka Potente, who played Lola in the original version.
However, perhaps during the time he came to Los Angeles, Courteney was the only girl Simon knew whose image was more in line with Laura's setting, so he subconsciously put her figure on her during the drawing process, which led to this moment. misunderstanding.
In fact, the drawing is actually very simple. If there are not enough prerequisite hints, it is difficult for anyone to think of this aspect. But Courteney happened to be right in front of Simon at this time, and coupled with the small misunderstanding just now, it was not surprising that the blonde girl would ask such a question.
Looking at Courteney who was looking down at the drawings without speaking, the two girls in front of her had obviously determined a certain fact. Simon stopped refuting this small misunderstanding and simply nodded and admitted: "Yeah, I'm going to do it this afternoon." I invited Curt to be my heroine, but unfortunately she didn’t believe it.”
"Haha, Kurt doesn't want to, how about I take over and change all the girls in the manuscript to look like me," the blond girl smiled teasingly and stretched out her hand to Simon: "Hello, I It’s Christy Swanson.”
Simon stretched out his hand to shake the girl's hand and said, "Simon Westeros."
When the blond girl heard this, she immediately showed a stunned expression: "Oh, you are the one Kurt mentioned recently..."
Before she finished speaking, Courteney reached out and poked her friend's waist, telling Christie to shut up. Then she handed the notebook to Simon and said, "Okay, you've passed."
"So," Simon raised his hand and pointed behind him: "Can I stay here and finish that painting?"
Christie immediately laughed.
Courteney's face turned slightly red and she rolled her eyes at Simon angrily: "You can do whatever you want, this is a public place."
Simon also felt that his question just now was a bit stupid, so he smiled, reopened his notebook, and turned to the last page.
After looking at the dark gray building opposite again, Simon picked up his pen and started to draw. Seeing that the two girls did not leave immediately, he casually said: "Are you going to have dinner?"