Chapter 247 Editing Should Have a Story

"Mr. Mancuso is giving you two a chance, don't let him down."

Chris and Billy, editorial partners working together. They were brought in by Paramount to cut the footage that Ronald shot.

"What happened to this hapless Ronald? Why is he being denied access to the editing room now?"

"I heard that he kept Mancuso from stepping down from the stage. After this accident, he was retaliated against. It's none of our business anyway, just do our own thing well."

The two were pure techies, and when they got the business, they started to pick up the samples after Ronald shot, and started from the synchronization of sound and picture.

"Is there some film missing? Why isn't there a main shot that explains the main line of the story?" Chris looked up and asked his partner Billy after seeing more than 30 short rolls of film.

"It doesn't seem to be, it's all here."

"How do you cut this? It's all five-second short shots, no script, no storyboard, we don't even know the story. Did they hide the main shot?"

"Don't worry, here is the script handed over by Ronald, as well as the shot log and table of the shooting. You will find it if you search slowly."

"Is this the final version of the script? Why is it only fifty or sixty pages long?" Chris picked up the script and found that many places were left blank, especially the love scene between Lone Ranger and Charlie, and some scenes of aerial combat , neither a detailed description nor a storyboard draft.

There is only a sentence like "The Lone Ranger was highly skilled in the air battle, launched an attack, and shot down three hostile MiG 28s", and then attached (three minutes) such a time to deal with it.

"There is no omission, it is true that the film is all here, the shooting time, location, the lens position used, these shots with special effects models, and the words 'special effects' are specially written on the board, and the record book is correct on."

Billy was stupid too.

You said Ronald and the two producers were playing tricks, they did hand over all the scripts and dailies. You tell them to be honest, and their script is very simple. When shooting, they are all short shots of a few seconds, and there is no main shot to explain the overall plot of a play.

For example, in the three-minute air battle, if there is a main shot, they can have the idea of ​​editing if they shoot from above how the planes fight, how to approach, and how to get rid of them. Now all the plot is in the director's head, and only he knows how to connect all the shots.

"What should I do?" The two editors suddenly realized that what they got was not an opportunity, but a cauldron.

"Fuck it, we'll cut it according to our own imagination. Maybe the director is a fool. He was born in exploitative films, and he made this kind of aerial combat. Maybe it's only now that he realizes that he can't make it?"

"That's right, we have to come up with a first cut version anyway."

The two editors decided to cut it according to this script, and no one watched the air battle scene anyway.

...

"Cindy told me that the mv you helped her shoot was edited by herself, and I have a editing problem here that I need your help to solve." mj in the editing room of his "One World, One Family" single mv , said softly to Ronald.

Ronald accepted mj's invitation to watch the mv of his new song "we are the world" and discuss the editing of the single's TV special.

Since the new song "One World, One Family" was recorded on that day in January, it has been playing well on the radio and on the charts. The first week the new song was on the list, it rushed into the top 20 of the list, creating the best result of mj's new song since "Thriller".

On the night of the recording, mj arranged for someone to shoot the material for the whole night, from rehearsal to finalization, as well as the dozens of big-name singers who participated in the chorus, one-by-one solo singing, all of which were recorded on the tape by the camera.

"The main problem now is this. The lead singer of one person and one sentence must maintain a balanced appearance time when editing, but some people are late, some people refuse to participate after they arrive, and mj's key position, you know."

mj's manager, Frank Diglio, a short, stout Italian, briefs Ronald. He also pushed for the man who asked Ronald to solve the problem.

"Well, there's about five seconds of each of them coming out, and then it's going to be mj's solo, that's fine." Ronald pulled back and forth on the editing table, looking at the footage.

"The trouble is in the back." Frank Dilio told him to continue watching.

"Isn't that Bob Dylan?"

After Ronald saw the singing parts of more than 40 singers pass, what was left was a single singer, Bob Dylan, who sang twice as many lyrics as other singers.

"What's going on here?" Ronald looked at Dylan's material as if he was the only one in the studio. "And he seems to be out of tune?"

"Pfft!" mj couldn't help laughing. Bob Dylan is an excellent songwriter, but his voice is not very good, and his basic singing skills are also lacking.

"So you want to tune Dylan's singing to the same duration as everyone else, and then highlight the climax of mj's singing. He is the core of the song, right?"

"You know it." Frank DiLio laughed and lit a cigar.

"In this way, you can still give each person a sentence of singing, which is about three to five seconds long. Then it smoothly transitions to the four lines of mj's lyrics, which appear twice before and after. Dylan's lyrics are supplemented separately. We can use fade and picture-in-picture to get close-up of several other famous singers, so we can keep the balance of playing time.”

Ronald quickly found a way to cleanly solve the editing arrangement of more than 40 singers.

"How did you get so many famous singers to sing at home?" Ronald wondered. He added Bruce Springsteen, Cindy Lauper, Diana Ross, and Lionel Lee. The close-ups of Qi and others were picked out and given special treatment.

These singers have been famous for a long time, and they are not necessarily the same record company as mj. Although his current record has broken the sales record, it seems that inviting these people to come one by one does not seem to have such a big appeal.

"This is to raise money for refugees in Africa. Last year, there was a severe drought in Africa, and there were food shortages in many places. Last year, singers from Britain got together and sang a song of 'Do they know it was Christmas?', and all the income went to the disaster victims. Donate. So our American singers also have to cooperate once.

Quincy Jones had this idea, let mj take the lead, and invited Lionel Richie to produce, and then the team got bigger and bigger, everyone wanted to come in, and finally a total of forty-five singers were invited to sing. "

"So it is," Ronald nodded after listening to Frank Dilio's explanation. He was very quick on his hands and feet, and cut a seven-minute song mv.

"Now everyone is arranged in order according to the click position, distance and distance." mj is very satisfied. He enjoys four lyrics of his own, repeated twice, and is the champion of all singers.

"Forty-two, forty-three..." Ronald silently counted the heads, "Aren't there forty-five people here?"

"Hahaha, Prince gave up himself." Frank Dilio couldn't stop laughing. Originally, Prince and mj are now in a competitive relationship, and because he starred in the autobiographical film "Purple Rain" last year, which was a great success, he also faintly overwhelmed mj in the entertainment industry, so this time the chorus is reasonable. to invite him.

Frank Dilio ordered a large sign on the door, "Please leave your ego at the door". Prince, who is known for his ego, turned his head and left after seeing the sign. This allows mj to enjoy two long lyrics solo.

"But will the audience be surprised that so many of us sing together?" mj was worried again.

"Indeed, I felt the same way when I watched it. I don't know what brought all the famous singers in America together."

Ronald played it back and forth quickly twice, and he found that there was also an acquaintance, Kenny Loggins, who participated in the bidding of the episode of "Top Gun", also sang a solo line in this song. Because he painted a very strong rock makeup, I didn't recognize it before.

"Then what?" mj wants to do things perfectly.

"You need a storyteller. This kind of short shot of three to five seconds for each person, it is difficult to naturally form a story that the audience can understand, so you can either gradually adapt to the audience's cognition and be able to tell the story. Know the ins and outs of the story, but you don't have enough material here.

Or just be lazy and let someone tell the story of donating to the African victims at the beginning, so that the audience can be immersed in the story. "

"So, what kind of person is better to find a narrator to tell a story?" Frank Dilio introduced Ronald to satisfy mj's perfectionist tendencies and to be more trusted in front of him. Hearing this, I hurriedly asked Ronald who was the better candidate.

"I think you need a star with a good image, preferably a woman. Her public image is best and charitable, peaceful, and naturally sympathetic to the audience."

"Isn't that what you're describing as Jane Fonda? She's the embodiment of the goddess of peace, the anti-war films she made in the seventies, tsk tsk."

"Ah, yeah, she's a good candidate," Ronald agreed.

"Ms. Jane Fonda, this is Michael Jackson's manager, Frank DiLio, and we'd like to invite you to do the opening narration and tell this story for a song that calls for donations to African victims."

"Why are you looking for me? I can't even sing." Jane Fonda didn't refuse, but she was a little surprised.

"Someone here strongly recommends you."

"Jane, it's me, Ronald. This mv suits your image well."

"Oh, hahaha, it's you, Ronald. Okay, I'll be there, you tell me the location of the shoot."