章節 42: Chapter 42 Projection
"Thank you, thank you, everyone. First, I want to thank the judges of the Academy for awarding me the Oscar for Best Director.
I also want to thank my first boss, Mr. Roger Coleman, who gave me my first opportunity to hold a guide tube... I want to thank all the crew members... I want to thank my aunt Kai Lun...
Finally, I would like to thank one of my fellow directors. I don't want to say their name, but I could get here thanks to their support!"
Ronald finally stepped up to the Oscar podium and received his first Oscar for Best Director, feeling very upbeat. Marla, dressed for the evening, smiled at him from the audience, while the plump Michael Cimino looked dejected on the other side...
"Ring ring ring ring..." The alarm clock went off at exactly 6:30.
With big dreams in mind, the road still must be traveled on your feet. Ronald still ran to New World Company early in the morning to see the preview of "Rock and Roll High School."
"Ronnie, are you here? Help me move the copies." Director Allen stopped Ronald, who was standing at the door of New World Production.
"Isn't there an afternoon preview?" Ronald picked up a reel of film and took it to the van.
"Roger temporarily changed the time yesterday. It was moved to 10:30 this morning. He said there were free preview screenings available." Allen flashed an ironic smile of "you know."
"Are there free tickets for the preview screenings?"
"Yeah, we're actually selling tickets," Joe Dante chimed in from the side. "I heard that resellers can get between 5 and 10 dollars per ticket."
"What? Ten dollars each?" Ronald looked incredulous. Normally, the ticket price for a movie is only 2 yuan and 50 cents. How can someone pay 10 yuan for an exploitation film like "Rock of Ages"?
"I'm just saying you can't fool him, Joe," Director Allen laughed, "Ronald's price sensitivity is very similar to Roger's."
Well, this is a good way to praise yourself... right?
"So, what's going on? Why are there free preview screenings available?" Ronald asked, "Why did it come early in the morning?"
"It's the new movie by Francis Coppola, 'Apocalypse Now,' which is also premiering this afternoon," Joe Dante explained.
Generally, before a movie is officially released, it finds an audience for one or two test screenings. It gathers some audience feedback and makes final revisions based on that feedback before the release.
In general terms, to conduct a test screening, the film studio needs to spend money and find people whose age, sex, income, and target audience are as consistent as possible to watch the movie. The feedback you get this way is more genuine.
The general method for screening involves calling cinema members and conducting a phone survey to ask them if they want to see a certain type of movie. Before the test screening, the audience doesn't know what movie they want to see.
However, Francis Coppola is famous enough that his two "Godfather" films topped the box office worldwide, and he also won the Oscar for Best Director for the second part of "The Godfather." When it was said that it was a Vietnam War film released by United Artists, most viewers guessed it was his new film "Apocalypse Now."
The demand to see the test screening was very strong, and the feedback from the theater members who called the theater was very good. Some people even learned about the test screening of "Apocalypse Now" and came to open a membership card to request tickets.
The 1,000 internal tickets for members were quickly distributed, and the theater put the remaining 1,000 tickets on sale to the public.
Roger Corman was also invited to a test screening of "Apocalypse Now," Coppola spoke with industry experts, and there was another exclusive screening.
He learned about the popularity of the preview and immediately became interested. For those viewers who queued up to buy tickets but couldn't get them, they were presented with a show of "Rock and Roll High School" free of charge.
Isn't this killing two birds with one stone?
By 8 a.m., people were already lining up at the theater entrance waiting to buy tickets. The ubiquitous scalpers knew this and began speculating with second-hand bills.
Coppola decided to hold only one public test screening in Los Angeles and then return to the San Francisco Peep Show Company to continue revisions in preparation for the Cannes Film Festival.
The van headed to the theater where the test screening was taking place. The line at the door was so long that it almost wrapped around the theater. Although it was stipulated that one person could only receive one ticket, the 1,000 preview tickets for "Apocalypse Now" still couldn't withstand the flow of people. When Ronald and the others arrived, they were declared sold out.
"Well…!"
The soft sighs of everyone converged into a loud noise that ran through the entire line. Reluctant people took various actions, covering their faces and sighing, hitting their chests and feet…
There was also a fan who probably missed a few spots in line and had already started to dry her tears. Ronald seemed a bit fascinated. This is the style of a great director.
"I heard that the Commander-in-Chief specifically requested a copy and sent it yesterday to the White House." Joe Dante and Alan Aikush also seemed envious. In 1979, Coppola was like one of the gods of Olympus in film, descending to the earth to possess it, and the public's admiration for him couldn't be greater.
The film began shooting in 1976 and was followed by numerous press reports. However, the lead actor changed, a hurricane destroyed the studio, and military conflicts broke out in the Philippines, where the filming took place. After several accidents, the release date was postponed repeatedly.
The industry had lost hope in this film, and newspapers even changed the film's title to Apocalypse When? to ridicule Coppola's filming delays.
However, the moviegoing public did not accept it. In their opinion, Coppola remained the magical director who made two parts of The Godfather. Who else could film the Vietnam War better than Coppola?
Although the tickets were sold out, there were still many film enthusiasts who were unwilling to leave for a long time. Some people held placards and wrote high prices on them, hoping someone would be willing to sell them.
The cinema quickly took down the sign reading "Preview of the Vietnam War Film" and announced "Preview of New Movie: High School Girls, Punk Rock, Disco Dance, Must-See, Free Preview."
There were quite a few disappointed viewers who bought tickets as if they were here. They couldn't see Apocalypse Now, but it was good to see a youth film.
Ronald frowned. This didn't seem to be the target audience for "Rock and Roll High School."
The audience that came to see "Apocalypse Now" were fans of Coppola or lovers of war films, and some were readers of the original novel "Heart of Darkness." Among these people, there weren't many high school students.
"Alan, Joe, are these test screenings okay? Can such test screenings reflect real evaluations?" Ronald asked the two directors in the past.
"Don't worry, Roger has a lot of experience," Joe comforted Ronald with a serious look. Maybe he was also comforting his good friend Alan Aikush.
"Roger will get the desired reaction from a small number of teenage viewers." Allen also said: "He won't look at the final survey data, but will directly observe the reactions of the target customers."
"Our cinemas are mainly drive-ins, late-night theaters in cities, old cinemas, and cinemas in small towns, where the audience is not demanding," Qiao added.
The two seemed a bit worried and distracted. Ronald understood that this was the natural reaction of the creator and had experienced it himself, so he stopped trying to dissuade him. It was up to the audience to judge whether they should be excited or anxious after the film.
Ronald helped move the copy to the projection room, found a seat to the side of the cinema, and sat down. There were still 10 minutes left before leaving the venue, but the crowd was not full, probably more than a hundred people. Ronald counted the gender ratio, and there were still more men than women, with only a quarter of the audience being women.
As soon as the lights dimmed, the film officially began. Ronald had seen the movie countless times in the editing room and had long lost interest. He only watched the phone booth scene where he appeared. He spent most of the time leaning his head, secretly observing the audience's reaction.
Some male members of the audience enjoyed watching the show, shouting and whistling loudly during the beauty dance scene in the gymnasium. The images of the Ramones entering the school and the students rebelling also earned their applause.
On the other hand, the rock music part, which had high expectations, did not receive much applause. Perhaps they don't listen to the Ramones much.
After the movie, Ronald went to the bathroom. Several men inside were deliberately imitating the dance moves of beautiful women in the movies. It seemed they liked these scenes.
After washing his hands and drying them, Ronald arrived at the entrance lobby. The sound of some women talking came from the other direction.
"I especially like Liv Randall. She's a very independent woman!"
"Yes, I wish I could be as brave as she is."
"Oh, I'm really scared of my high school principal. There aren't many people who can withstand power and freedom like she can!"
"Yeah, now I'm really scared of my boss. He's like Principal Toga. He's an old-fashioned person. He also reads the Bible to us in the office every day."
Ronald glanced over and saw several young women waiting for a seat outside the bathroom, chatting about the plot.
Unexpectedly, when the female audience saw this movie, what attracted them the most was the independent and rebellious rock candy played by PJ Soles. Not handsome boys, nor punk rock, nor dancing, but the independent spirit of the protagonist Liv Randall.
The trend towards female independence makes young women in general envious of those independent professional women who can go to work and earn money, live without having to look at men, and not have to take care of children or do household chores. Liv Randall is exactly what those independent career women were like in high school.
Ronald returned to the entrance of the screening room. Director Allen and several staff members were handing out questionnaires to the audience to collect their feedback on the film. I took some photos in the past and looked at them, and the ratings weren't very high.
Ronald quietly stopped Director Allen and told him what he found in the bathroom. Allen was also a bit surprised and immediately went to discuss it with Qiao.
"Hey, Jim, what are you doing here?"
Ronald noticed a familiar figure passing quickly, and Cameron was also at the theater.
"I came here with Mr. Coleman. He just officially promoted me to head of the stunt model department and I'm also responsible for designing the stunt photography track."
Cameron was smiling, having just been promoted by his boss, Roger Coleman. He lowered his voice a bit:
"The method you mentioned last time was very helpful. When Roger walked into the workshop yesterday and saw the complete model, he was full of praise. He called me in today and decided to put me in charge of the entire model fabrication department."
"Congratulations, Jim. You know, Roger is very cost-conscious." Ronald winked.
"Ronald, Jim, take this." The one who spoke was Roger Corman, who approached and handed each of them an envelope. "Tonight, Coppola will show it again in the theater for the industry people. It's a great opportunity for you to go see it; it will be very beneficial for improving your artistic level."
Ronald took it and saw that it was an invitation to an internal preview from United Artists, starting at 5:30 p.m.
Then, Roger Coleman went to deliver tickets to other employees.
"Roger told me that Coppola was once his assistant." Ronald silently passed the gossip to Cameron.
"Oh, Roger is very well-connected..."
End of chapter
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