I’m in Hollywood - Chapter 19

[Chapter 19 Director Williams]

“I don’t like you, Mr. Williams.” John Aniston, who was sitting opposite Eric, said with a sullen face while his daughter went to the bathroom.

Eric was speechless, he could only shrug and said, “Can I know why, John?”

John Aniston said, “For so many years, Jenny has hated me in her heart, and I am also sorry for what happened back then. I feel very guilty, and I always hope she can forgive me. She called me last night, you know? It was the first time she called me, and I almost jumped up with joy. The reason my daughter called me was actually Help her boyfriend, the guy who might have taken my daughter.”

Well, the reason is very strong, the sentence that the daughter is the lover of her father’s previous life is not just talk, usually, the father-in-law and son-in-law’s love Relations are not very good.

Eric could only shrug again, and the two men fell into awkward silence.

Aniston quickly came back from the bathroom and sat beside Eric with a smile, the intimacy made John Aniston even more upset.

However, it is not easy for her daughter to take the initiative to make up, and he will not be stupid enough to attack on the spot.

Under Aniston’s reconciliation, on the surface, the meal was quite enjoyable. John Aniston just took the air of an elder and scolded Eric for a few words of lofty aspirations, and his daughter’s angry eyes glared at him. In the end, John Aniston promised to help Eric contact the actor as much as possible.

With the help of John Aniston, who is well-connected in the TV circle, Eric quickly found actors for most of the roles, and because John Aniston brokered it, the pay was not high, which made Eric Very relieved.

Only Marvin of the duo duo, Eric was hesitant about several candidate lists, until Aniston brought his classmate and friend to Eric, looking at the face with a natural decline , Just after a little try on the camera, Eric made a decision, because this guy is Matthew Perry, one of the six members of the “Friends” in the previous life.

Next, Eric flew to Canada with Jeffrey Hansen a few times, and finally found the filming location of Kevin’s family in a small town. He was busy day and night, making Eric lose weight in just one week. Several pounds, Aniston was both distressed and envious when he learned of this.

On October 17th, Eric’s first directorial work was officially launched in Los Angeles. The crew sent a few people to the selected Canadian town to set the scene for Kevin’s house. Most of them stayed in Los Angeles to shoot the airport and police station. Scenes that don’t require snow scenes, after all, this is the world’s largest film base, and it’s much more convenient to shoot.

The entire crew, from the lighting engineer to the actors, basically agreed to shoot this movie because of money and the face of Jeffrey Hansen and John Aniston, although they were worried about Eric, But it’s not that I don’t have my own thoughts in my heart. To use the words of Eric’s previous life: What if I accidentally get angry?

They have all understood the content of “Home Alone”, and they are very fortunate that this young and somewhat excessive director did not make literary films like other young directors. The million-dollar shooting cost, relying on Eric’s current aura brought by “Return to Seventeen” and “Jurassic Park”, may be able to make a small profit, and Eric may be able to make a small profit when he starts the machine. Maybe promise, if the movie makes money, it will give everyone extra dividends.

After all, it provided a job opportunity for the team left by his wife. After the filming started, Jeffrey Hansen appeared on the set on time every day. Originally, Jeffrey wanted to use his years of experience to

help Eric This ‘newbie’ offers some help.

But one day later, Jeffrey directly began to doubt life, how unfair God is.

Eric didn’t have the hassle of directing the film for the first time. From the moment the film was turned on, he was like a director with many years of shooting experience, discussing the placement of props with the set designer in an orderly manner, and with the photographer in very professional terms. In the next shot, I directed the lighting engineer to produce the desired effect, and patiently told the actress who was more than ten years older than me who played Kevin’s mother…

Of course, when there were continuous mistakes in some shots, it also showed Out of the director’s unique talent skills of this race: the director’s roar!

“Ms Leslie, what I want is a look of doubt, doubt, not curiosity! From what I’ve observed, you must have some obsessive-compulsive disorder, so this look should be a breeze for you, imagine lying in bed at night In bed, thinking the door might have been left unlocked, the kitchen faucet might be dripping all the time, but you can’t be sure what’s wrong, and that feeling of being caught up in those conflicting emotions, imagine these scenarios. Oh shit, we can only Rent this plane for three hours, three hours, all right, everyone ready, do it again. Nikkor, do you want to see the clouds in the sky through the titanium ceiling of the plane, take it seriously, FUCK!”

Due to Eric’s excellent performance before, everyone in the crew basically recognized Eric’s director status for a short time.

So when Ms. Leslie, who played Kevin’s mother, was on the plane and remembered the repeated mistakes in the few shots of Kevin being forgotten at home, Eric became anxious because the shooting plan might be disrupted, and couldn’t help roaring out. , Everyone unknowingly forgot Eric’s age and became silent.

When the photographer named Nickel Frank in his thirties was reprimanded by Eric, he completely forgot that the young man in front of him was an 18-year-old boy, and subconsciously apologized: “I’m sorry, Director Williams, I’ll keep an eye out.”

Years later, as Oscar-winning cinematographer Nickel Frank stood on the podium at the Kodak Theater, his first words were to recall the moment, saying, “At that moment, my Subconsciously, I completely regarded Eric as an authoritative director, not an 18-year-old youth, as if he was born to lead the entire crew.”

After another NG, the scene finally passed, Ai Rick also breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately regretted his gaffe just now, and took the initiative to apologize to Ms. Leslie: “I’m sorry, Leslie, my tone was a little heavy just now.”

“It’s okay, Director Williams, It’s true that I didn’t do a good job, and it’s me who should apologize. Speaking of which, the way you just got angry is actually quite charming.”

“Uh…” Eric wanted to remind her that you were a precursor to Stockholm Syndrome. , need treatment, dear.

In the next few days, Eric found that the crew members who originally called him Eric unknowingly changed their names and called him ‘Director Williams’, even Jeffrey Hansen was no exception.

He knew that this was the performance of the crew members who completely recognized him as a director from the bottom of their hearts.

So he directed the crew to become more hands-on. In just four days, the crew completed the Los Angeles shot and moved to a small town in Canada.

The crew had already sent several staff members to set the scene for Kevin’s house. Although they were only directing by phone, Eric was very satisfied after seeing the layout of the apartment. At the same time, he also made up his mind to keep Jeffrey’s wife behind. This troop of swayed over to his subordinates.

This small town in northern Canada has never been filmed, so the residents of the town are very enthusiastic and curious. Before Eric came, many people had already asked about the job that Eric sent. Can the personnel play some minor roles or something?

Moreover, because the Christmas scene was filmed, all the residents in the town took the initiative to dress up their homes, and the whole town seemed to be celebrating Christmas in advance, full of joy.

Faced with these, Eric of course wanted to reciprocate, and generously invited several children in the town to make cameos in the movie.

The main film in the town is the life of the little protagonist Kevin and the process of spoofing two stupid thieves. As a pure Christmas comedy, the film does not need any connotation at all, just be funny.

In addition, Stewart’s performance was much better than Macaulay Culkin’s in his previous life. The shooting process can only be described as fast. Eric was sure that all shots would be shot within a week.

Another thing happened during the period. Penny Marshall, who was nervously working on the post-production of “Return to Seventeen” in Los Angeles, needed Eric to dub some scenes in the movie, and suddenly found that they couldn’t find it. Eric has.

I didn’t answer the phone, and went directly to Eric’s house and the door was closed, which made Penny Marshall even have some bad associations. When he was about to call the police, he only learned of Eric’s whereabouts through Aniston. .

On the phone, Penny Marshall was very complaining, restricting Eric to return to Los Angeles within a week. In addition to the dubbing of the movie, the promotion of “Return to Seventeen” is also inseparable from Eric’s participation.

Of course, the fact that Eric was filming “Home Alone” also naturally came to light.

In this regard, Penny Marshall, like an elder, criticized Eric for some words such as being too ambitious, but also did not pay much attention to Eric’s movie, she is not like the staff in Eric’s crew Feeling the same way, it is natural to think that this is just a work by a young man.

Eric, who was caught up in work, was basically two people in reality. Although he got along well with the people in the crew, it was just that.

On the contrary, Matthew Perry, who was introduced by Aniston, would get close to Eric from time to time, chatting or something.

Eric was also very interested in Matthew Perry, but unfortunately at this time, his purpose in completing “Home Alone” is above all else, and of course, there is no chance to have a deep friendship with Matthew Perry for the time being.

A week later, the film was successfully completed in the small town. Because of the reasonable planning of Jeffrey Hansen and Eric, it has only cost more than 600,000, and there are more than 300,000 dollars left, which is more than enough to complete the post-production. .

So Eric generously threw a party in the town and invited the crew and everyone in the town to party all night.

The next day, when many people were still hungover, Eric had already taken the finished film and boarded the flight back to Los Angeles.

It took half a day to complete the dubbing of “Return to Seventeen”. Eric plunged into the late-stage studio introduced by Jeffrey and began to work frantically.

These days, Eric basically worked more than 16 hours a day, and it took only five days to complete the post-production work of the film under everyone’s astonished eyes.

Because everything in his mind is ready-made, Eric can finish everything so quickly.

The speed at which all the shots were perfectly edited in less than a day made the editor who cooperated with him now look at him full of admiration.

Five days later in the morning, there were more than ten people crowded in a shabby theater with only five or six seats. Most of them were cast members of “Home Alone”. Aniston also came to watch Eric’s director. The first female work.

With the slight hum of the projector, the film officially begins with the blue silhouette of the house in the dim moonlight…

[End of this Chapter]