Simon pushed the "Hollywood Reporter" in his hand towards Catherine and said with a smile: "Someone actually put Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep together to shoot a romantic comedy. Who made such a decision? What a 'genius'."
Catherine listened to Simon's sarcastic tone and imagined the scene of Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep falling in love, and felt a little funny inexplicably.
Out of curiosity, Catherine simply pulled the newspaper in front of her and discovered that what Simon had just read was a news article about Paramount Pictures' upcoming release of the video tape of the "Heartfire" movie.
"Heartfire" is a romantic comedy starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, released this summer. The film invested US$20 million, but only recovered US$25 million at the box office. In order to recover funds as soon as possible, Paramount plans to release the video tape at the end of November.
After a brief review of "Heartfire", this article in the "Hollywood Reporter" mainly discusses the film window period issue that the industry is concerned about.
After browsing the news, Catherine discovered that the mark Simon just made was only on a person's name mentioned casually in the article.
This is the screenwriter of "Heartfire" named Nora Ephron.
Raising her head again, Catherine asked curiously: "Simon, what happened to Nora Ephron?"
Simon drank the rest of the milk, put down the cup, and said: "I read the review of "Heartfire" a few months ago and was very interested in the plot of the movie. So, if there is a chance in the future, maybe we can work with him. The other party cooperates.”
Not many people may know about Nora Ephron. But if you mention "Sleepless in Seattle", you must be familiar with it.
Nora Ephron is the director and screenwriter of "Sleepless in Seattle."
Of course, the movie isn't here yet. Moreover, among Nora Ephron's works, Simon's favorite is not "Sleepless in Seattle", but another less well-known film called "When Harry Met Sally."
Simon has always felt that "When Harry Met Sally" should be the pinnacle of Nora Ephron's romance films.
Coincidentally, "When Harry Met Sally" will be released in the next few years. Simon was just thinking about whether there would be a chance to cut the film, so he made a mark on Nora Ephron's name. .
However, this kind of thinking obviously couldn't be explained to Catherine, so she joked casually.
In any case, it is indeed too messy to let Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep make a romantic movie.
Judging from the main creative lineup, this is obviously another CAA package project.
Catherine could sense Simon's reservations, but did not ask further questions. She actually quite agreed with Janet's point of view. The little boy in front of her definitely had many unknown secrets hidden in his mind.
Thinking of Janet, the scene in the bedroom last night couldn't help but come to mind. She glanced at Simon, who had already finished breakfast. The woman's mind suddenly became a little distracted. She quickly lowered her eyes, picked up a knife and fork and pretended to eat a piece of fried egg.
Simon put away the tableware and said to the woman with her head lowered: "Catherine, please eat slowly. I'm going to Fox Studios first."
Catherine hummed, noticed Simon's movements, and said: "Simon, I'll take care of it later. Anyway, um, there's still Jenny's."
Simon nodded with a smile and said, "Okay."
With that said, Simon sent his cutlery to the kitchen sink before walking out.
Seeing Simon leave the restaurant, Catherine thought for a while, put down her knife and fork, and followed him out.
It's already November, and although Los Angeles enjoys spring-like weather all year round, the weather at this time of year is a bit chilly.
Simon took his coat off the hanger, and Catherine, who followed him, took it naturally, unfolded it and helped Simon put it on, and even stretched out his hand to straighten the rolled collar. Simon smiled and let the woman do what she did. Finally, he picked up his bag and put it on his shoulder. He looked at Catherine, who was wearing a burgundy turtleneck, and said, "Then, goodbye."
Catherine felt Simon's slightly tentative and expectant eyes, but Janet's bright eyes suddenly appeared in her mind. She took a step back, pretending to look at Simon's clothes to see if there was anything wrong, smiled nonchalantly, and said, "Goodbye."
Simon didn't force himself, nodded and left the house.
In order to ensure as much post-production time as possible, Simon's basic work rhythm this month is to shoot the film during the working day, rough cut the sample film on the weekend, sort out various shooting plans in the evening, and also find time to write some soundtracks.
Two-thirds of the filming of "Lola Run" has been completed, and all the shots from the beginning of the film to Lola's first run have been shot. Simon's focus these weekends has been on the first segment. A rough cut of the running episode.
The development of film editing is basically a small cycle from 'non-linear editing' to 'linear editing' and then to 'non-linear editing'.
The earliest film editing was entirely based on direct film operations.
The editor can eliminate, reduce and replace the film at will, so it is non-linear editing.
But the workload of this most primitive non-linear editing is not generally large.
For a movie, calculated based on 10 hours of footage, the cumulative length of all the film is no longer a few meters, but 20 kilometers. You can imagine how complicated the whole process would be if you wanted to edit a movie from dozens of kilometers of film.
Then, the emergence of linear editing finally freed editors from being surrounded by dozens of kilometers of film.
The principle of linear editing is to record the film footage onto a tape, and then transcribe the material on the tape to another tape according to the editing plan.
This editing method greatly reduces the editor's workload, and it is a WYSIWYG mode. The editing results can be monitored at any time, so it quickly became popular.
However, the shortcomings of linear editing are also very obvious. The editor can only edit the scenes on the tape in a linear sequence. A slightly more flexible operation can only insert and replace the same length of time on the tape. However, if you want to delete, reduce, or replace shots of non-equal duration on the completed editing results, it is impossible.
This mode is actually similar to a music tape. For a five-minute song, if a person presses the record button and howls along, his or her own voice can be replaced. But if the song is five minutes, it is still five minutes. If you want to make it four and a half, you can only re-arrange the music and then re-record it.
After linear editing, more advanced non-linear editing appeared in the late 1980s.
By transcribing film images into digital images, non-linear operations similar to the original hand editing can then be performed on the editing software.
One thing I have to say is that in the film era, whether it was original manual editing, later linear editing, or even digital non-linear editing, it was actually just a means of editing. After a film completes post-production processes such as editing and scoring, the original negatives of the film must be manually edited based on the final results, so that a film copy can be obtained that can be screened in theaters.
Now in 1986, digital non-linear editing has just begun, and the technology is far from mature. Simon can only perform the post-production of "Lola Run" on a linear editing machine.
Although he had never been exposed to linear editing in his previous life, he had these experiences in other memories. Simon hired an assistant on the first weekend to help him get familiar with the linear editing machine at Fox Studios, and he has been working alone for the past few weeks.
No matter what age, being an editor is a lonely profession that tests your patience.
The linear editing equipment at Fox Studios was billed by the hour, and Simon was not willing to waste any time.
I rushed to Fox Studios and sat down in front of the editing table. I looked at the two old-fashioned CRT monitors in front of me and listened to the clicking sound of the machines. Before I knew it, a whole morning had passed.
It wasn't until the staff reminded him that Simon came back from his concentrated work and remembered that he had arranged an interview with the reporter from the Los Angeles Times at noon yesterday.
Rushing to the gate of Fox Studios, Peter Butler had been waiting for a while and greeted him a few times apologetically. Simon did not take him into the studio, but chose a restaurant on the street outside the studio.
The two sat down in the restaurant and ordered lunch. Peter Butler turned on a recorder and put it on the table. With a certain natural familiarity in his tone, he said: "So, you are still working on the weekend?"
"Yes," Simon nodded: "Isn't it the same for you?"
Peter Butler smiled and said: "It seems that we already have something in common, which is good."
Simon also smiled: "Speaking of which, Peter, why are you interested in me? Compared to the Los Angeles Times, I'm just an inconspicuous little person, right?"
Peter Butler shrugged and said: "Actually, I am also a small figure in the Los Angeles Times newspaper office. Interviewing Spielberg must have nothing to do with me."
"I understand, that's another common thread."
"It's a pity that there is no wine, otherwise we could have a drink," Peter Butler smiled and continued: "But, Simon, to be fair, I don't think you are an inconspicuous person at all."
Simon just smiled.
Peter Butler also continued minding his own business: "I did some research on you beforehand. You should have come to Los Angeles in June, and then, as a newcomer, you were surprisingly discovered by WMA Vice President Jonathan ·Friedman signed on and became the other party's only screenwriter client. Then, internal fighting broke out in the WMA, still related to you. Then, what happened in Santa Monica at the end of July, although the newspaper There’s not much talk about it, but as far as I know, we at the Los Angeles Times alone suppressed two reports that tried to explore this matter. Also, your $200,000 writing contract with Fox Pictures, Simon , even if you only count the members of the Writers Guild, the average annual salary of a Hollywood screenwriter is less than 20,000 US dollars. Then, less than half a year after entering Hollywood, you have already started directing your first movie, "Run Lola Run". What's more, Surprisingly, several big names in Hollywood, including Brian De Palma, David Giller and Robert Redford, have stated that they will be named executive producers of this film. It's very rare in Hollywood. So, Simon, you are not a nobody in any sense. Little people can't do these things."