Eric parked the car and walked towards the set of "Scare Point" which was cordoned off.
This is a community called Fox Hill in the southwest of Culver City. Of course, this Fox has nothing to do with Fox Films. If you have to care about it, it can only be attributed to the weak naming talent of Westerners.
The staff on the set recognized Eric at a glance, greeted him enthusiastically, and opened the cordon to let Eric walk in.
Ahead is a temporarily blocked street intersection. Before approaching the shooting scene, Eric can smell the pungent smell of gasoline burning. Bypassing a trailer that assembled props for the show, Eric saw a family on the side of the street. Outside the gas station, several cars were still smoking, and several staff were busy with fire extinguishers.
Looking around the scene, Eric quickly found Catherine Bigelow. The woman's typical dress was so recognizable.
A white baseball cap, a black short-sleeved t-shirt over a close-fitting white long-sleeved t-shirt, a pair of simple washed jeans on the lower body, and a shoulder bag tied around the waist, looking extremely capable.
At this time, Catherine Bigelow was holding a book in her hand, talking to the two leading actors, Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, waving and making gestures from time to time.
According to the play + ↖, this scene should be a scene where Utah discovers the identities of Bowty and others as bank robbers, squats outside a bank that Bowty stepped on, and finally evolves into a chase scene.
An assistant director of the crew saw Eric appearing and ran over and asked, "Mr. Williams, do I need to call Ms. Bigelow?"
Eric shook his head: "No, how is the shooting going?"
"Not bad. Seven shots have been completed today. Next is the scene where Utah chases Bowty." The assistant director explained.
Eric said with satisfaction: "Find me a place to rest, I'll come over and have a look, don't disturb her work."
"No problem, please come this way," the assistant director led Eric to a specially opened rest area, which seemed to be reserved for actors.
A middle-aged man with silver hair was sitting on a chair drinking water. When Eric appeared, he stood up: "Mr. Williams. Hello."
"Gary, just call me Eric. The scene just now must have been exhausting, right?" Eric smiled and shook hands with the other party.
The silver-haired, middle-aged man named Gary Busey plays Utah boss Angelo Pappas in the film. Eric had seen many movies with Gary Busey in his previous life. Speaking of which, Gary Busey was the same as Virginia's brother Michael Madsen. Ten Hollywood films, but the sense of presence has always been extremely weak actor.
"It's okay, I've finished my morning scene. Keanu and Pat will be very tired next, and they have a long chase scene to shoot. Maybe it won't be finished all day today," Gary Boo Said with a smile, took out a bottle of water from the box next to him and handed it to Eric.
Eric took it, pulled up a folding chair and sat beside Gary Busey, chatting casually with him.
As Catherine Bigelow's shout sounded in the shooting field, another shot began.
It was only then that Eric realized that the place where the two big men were sitting was facing the director's monitor more than ten meters away. Catherine Bigelow still didn't notice Eric at this time. She went back behind the monitor and ordered When filming began, the woman stood behind a monitor with her shoulders folded, staring at Keanu's Utah wrestling with a masked Patrick Swayze.
Eric and Gary Busey stopped chatting at the same time, and stared at the back of the woman more than ten meters away with great enjoyment. Some people often say that one white can cover all ugliness, but in fact, being tall can also cover all ugliness. Of course, Catherine Bigelow is not only not ugly, but also very beautiful, not to mention she is 1.82 meters tall.
After a while, Gary Busey turned his head and noticed that Eric's gaze was the same as his own, focusing on Catherine Bigelow not far away. The middle-aged man grinned and showed a mouthful of big teeth, and said with a smile: "It's very hot. , isn't it?"
Eric and Gary Busey looked at each other, and the two big men showed a little wretched smile at the same time.
"Yeah, it's hot."
Gary Busey seemed to have found a bosom friend, and said bluntly, "That bastard Cameron is really cheap."
"Ha, this..."
Gary Busey turned to Catherine Bigelow not far away again. The scene of Utah and Bowty fighting did not pass, and the woman walked over to discuss with the two male protagonists: "Eric, actually, I know Kate It's been over ten years."
"Wow, I really didn't know that," Eric looked at Gary Busey in surprise.
Gary Busey said with a bit of reminiscence: "It should be 1977. I can't remember the exact time. I was still acting in plays on Broadway at that time, and I only occasionally took on a few movies. I remember one day, I A friend of mine introduced me to Kate, saying that she wanted to shoot a short film and was looking for a lead actor. I still remember the first time I met Kate at a coffee shop in SoHo, Manhattan, when she Wearing a black turtleneck sweater, black jeans, brown hair hanging loose, a very shy look, with the unique intellectual atmosphere of Soho art young women. She is not sociable, until now she meets strangers I still blush. When I first saw her, I fell in love with her like many men around her."
"What happened next?" Eric asked with interest.
"Later, I participated in her short film, which seemed to be called "Fate Fighter", which told the story of two men fighting duel, and I became good friends with her. Over the years, our friends have all entered middle age However, no matter her appearance or figure, she hardly changed at all, which made many of her female friends go crazy with jealousy."
Eric asked ambiguously, "Is it just a good friend?"
Gary Busey shrugged: "I got married very early, otherwise I would definitely pursue her, but it must be very difficult. She is a very independent woman. She is very talented. And she has a strong ability to control herself. She is a feminist at heart For many years, she remained single, and our friends thought she would remain single, but three years ago, she suddenly married Cameron."
"What a heartbreaking result," Eric quipped.
Gary Busey laughed a few times, and nodded honestly: "Of course, seeing the goddess in my heart marry another man. How can I not be heartbroken."
The two laughed a few times, and looked at Catherine Bigelow at the shooting scene again. The woman was negotiating with the lighting engineer of the crew again, and gestured from time to time. The lighting engineer seemed to have a different opinion, and danced Arguing with women.
Seeing this scene, Gary Busey said with emotion: "In Hollywood, it's really difficult for a woman to be a director. If I had quit a long time ago, it's hard for her to persist for so long and not give up."
Eric didn't intend to step forward to help either. He believed that with Catherine Bigelow's strong personality, he would not wish to intervene. Seeing the dispute between the woman and the lighting engineer, Eric nodded and said: "That's true. As a director, in addition to personal professionalism, not only requires strong control, but also requires high physical strength. .High-intensity work is difficult for most women, so whether it is Hollywood or other film circles, female directors will not be too productive."
The two chatted casually, and after more than an hour, when it was approaching noon, the production crew temporarily stopped working and began to rest and have lunch.
Catherine Bigelow was finally notified that Eric had come to the crew.
"Hi, Eric, why are you here?" Catherine Bigelow walked over enthusiastically, hugged Eric, and asked.
Eric greeted the two male protagonists who were beside Catherine Bigelow one by one, and then replied: "I'm passing by, just came to have a look."
Catherine stretched out her finger in disbelief and drew a big circle in the air: "You mean, you 'passed' here from Malibu to Burbank?"
Eric rolled his eyes, pointed to the west and said, "Who told you that I went to Burbank, and the Firefly team is doing fieldwork in the Playa Vista area about three kilometers west, where Firefly plans to build The studio base, I came here from the regiment."
Catherine Bigelow nodded and looked to the west, and asked, "Don't you need to be there?"
"Professional things are of course left to professional people, and I can't help much by being there, as long as I look at the results they give in the end."
Gary Busey interrupted at this moment: "Eric, Catherine, lunch is ready, let's chat while eating."
The place where the crew eats is not far from a large-scale restaurant, which shows the difference from the crew on the other side of the ocean. When Eric participated in some film shootings in his previous life, he ate lunch most of the time at the logistics. After ordering a lunch box, I just find a place to make do with it.
This way of dining also means that the cost of the crew will increase, but these small details are written into the contract in detail under the supervision of various labor unions in Hollywood. As long as you want to make a good movie in Hollywood, you have to compromise with the union.
Of course, someone can also specifically sign ancillary contracts that change these rules.
However, this requires sufficient strength and confidence. There are very few people in Hollywood who can do this. As far as Eric knows, Spielberg is one of them. Low pay, but in order to be able to cooperate with Spielberg, most actors often choose to compromise.
With Eric's current strength in Hollywood, he also has the confidence to break the rules, but he hasn't encountered the time to do so.
After picking up some lunch, Eric and Catherine Bigelow chose a table to sit down. They might feel that the director and producer had something to discuss. None of the leading actors present was super lively. Although Gary Busey I really wanted to come over, but was dragged to their table by Patrick Swayze.
"Little guy, I thought you wouldn't come to the set again," Catherine Bigelow immediately changed her name to something that made Eric extremely depressed.
"As a producer, isn't it reasonable for me to appear here?"
"Of course, but when it was time for you to show up, you went to New York for more than a month, and when you came back, the movie was on." Catherine said complainingly.
"That's because I have very important things to do, don't worry, I will come to the crew often in the next period of time."
Catherine Bigelow was obviously out of a certain circle, so she didn't ask Eric how much money he made like other people did. The woman didn't even ask him what he was doing in New York, she just said: "Is it true? Don't you need to prepare your own movie?"
Eric swallowed the food in his mouth, wiped his mouth and said, "I decided to slow down, and I have to give other film companies a way to survive."
"It's... shameless," Catherine Bigelow laughed, but thinking of Eric's previous film performances, the woman suddenly discovered that Eric's exaggerated words seemed to make sense, according to the data released by the box office forecasting agency , the summer file "Ghost Love" is so far the only movie this year with a box office that may exceed 200 million US dollars.
"By the way, are you not going to direct "Home Alone" this year?"
Eric shook his head and said: "I have completely handed over this project to others, and I will never intervene in the future. At most, I will only have the title of a producer."
"I've seen the second one, and it's quite interesting."
"Thank you for your approval," Eric said.
"However, I found that your previous films were too lacking in connotation. I think that when making a film, you should convey something to the audience. This is also the purpose of my choice to be a director. I originally studied painting, but someone told me later Therefore, movies can more easily convey one’s own ideas to others, unlike paintings, which require a certain amount of accumulation to understand the meaning.”
Eric shook his head: "Catherine, I don't agree with what you said, my films have been conveying all kinds of information to the audience, but these things are more subtle, and I think this is the correct way of conveying.
Audiences often only see what they want to see, just like there are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand readers, and they will only accept the 'Hamlet' in their own ideas. So, if you want to convey your point of view to the audience, you have to resonate with them so that they can understand what you want to convey from your film without you having to say it. Otherwise, even the most ingenious preaching will often only have the opposite effect. Just like you are shooting "Point Scary" now, I have read the script several times, you know what I see in your script? "(to be continued...)