Passing through the triplet arch and bypassing the Van Punk sculpture, Ronan arrives at the USC Film School Film and Television Department, enters a small office building, and soon arrives at the office of his former dropout mentor.

He knocked on the door, and a familiar voice came from inside: "Please come in." ”

Ronan pushed the door in, saw the old man in his sixties, and said, "Good morning, Professor." ”

"Oh, Ronan. Professor Johnson took off his reading glasses and said, "Sit down." ”

Yesterday, Ronan called Professor Johnson, and he was not polite, found a chair and sat down, and said with a smile: "Professor, I'm bothering you again." ”

Professor Johnson turned to this side: "Don't say such polite words, you shouldn't have dropped out in the first place." ”

Ronan knew that Professor Johnson used to value little Anderson very much, so he only came to USC a few times, so he could only sigh and say: "I was indeed a little impulsive at that time, but Shahai Entertainment is my father's effort, and someone has to take over." ”

The words were so emotional that Professor Johnson could no longer dwell on them and said, "You're in too much of a hurry." ”

Ronan nodded: "After failing once, I realized that many things are completely different from what I do." ”

Professor Johnson looked at Ronan, remembered these meetings, and said, "You are more mature and stable than before. He advised: "Ronan, you must remember that movies cannot be based on impulse. ”

"I know. Ronan followed the professor's words and said, "So, I'm here to ask the professor for help." ”

Professor Johnson asked directly, "Production?"

Ronan replied, "Yes. I feel that my ability is insufficient, and the knowledge I have learned in school is far from enough to cope with my current job. ”

"I've been out of the front line for almost 10 years, and I haven't been very successful before. Professor Johnson is getting older, and he has a little less of a view of success or failure: "Eighty percent of the projects I worked as a co-producer on ended in box office failure, and I can't help you much if you want to say that the experience of success." ”

He opened a filing cabinet, took out a few black-covered notebooks that were obviously some years old, and said, "Here are some of the work notes and personal experiences I made back then, which contain the reasons for the failure of my analysis project. Also, these are some of the film projects that I have documented when I talk to some of the students after they enter Hollywood, and there are many failures and few successes. ”

Ronan hurriedly took it, these are valuable experiences, which are what he lacks the most at the moment.

"Actually, I've been watching you a few times you've been here. Professor Johnson said slowly, "If you are still like when you first dropped out, I can't help you." ”

Ronan understood what he meant, and when little Anderson dropped out of school, he was arrogant and did a lot of stupid things that young people were passionate and impulsive.

"I was dizzy. Ronan smiled embarrassedly: "Fortunately, the professor reminded me that I didn't get lost." ”

Everyone is willing to listen to good words, and Professor Johnson said one more sentence: "Some of these records I took out to make lesson plans, failure is actually a kind of gain, you can summarize some lessons from the failure cases, and avoid stepping into it again." By the way, you take it out and make a copy, and return the original. ”

Ronan could guess that he was not the first person to receive this, after all, Professor Johnson was known for his enthusiasm and often helped students, but this was very rare for him, and he hurriedly said, "Thank you, Professor, for reminding him." He added, "There's one more thing I'd like to ask the professor for help." ”

"Say it. "Professor Johnson has always been stingy with his students.

Ronan stopped going around in circles and said, "The film I invested in producing, "Human Removal Project", lacks an editor who is good at editing horror thrillers, can the professor help me recommend a personal choice?"

Anyone who knows a little about the USC Film School knows that the school never teaches more than just theory, some of the school's teachers are even practitioners in Hollywood-related industries, and many graduates have become the backbone of Hollywood's behind-the-scenes technical work.

If you only teach theory, your eyes will be black when you go out of school, and your head will be bled out, especially in an industry like film, which requires hands-on ability.

Professor Johnson asked directly, "You need editors?"

"yes. Ronan looked sad: "I found a few, but none of them are suitable." ”

Professor Johnson said directly: "Let me introduce you to one, a graduate of the film and television department who is three years earlier than you, and is also my student."

Ronan scratched his head, seemingly embarrassed: "Is the charge high?" He smiled slightly embarrassedly: "My crew has a low budget. ”

Professor Johnson asked, "Isn't it a public budget of $11 million?"

Ronan was not afraid of being asked, and said directly: "This is all for propaganda needs." ”

This kind of thing is very common in the circle, and Professor Johnson doesn't care, saying: "Her name is Jessica Felton, and she is a genius in editing, having worked as an assistant editor on Friday the 13th Part 8, and as a lead editor on the bloody horror films "Deadly Run", "The Age of Guns and Blood" and "The Wild West...... Oh, and all three films are direct-release videotapes. ”

"Female?" Ronan was a little surprised.

Professor Johnson found a phone book and pointed to Ronan: "You go and see the three films first, and contact her if appropriate." ”

Female editors are rare in Hollywood, but Ronan has little Anderson's memory of Professor Johnson, a very reliable person who immediately jotted down Jessica Felton's phone call.

After chatting with Professor Johnson about the "Human Eradication Project" and asking for advice on several difficult problems in preparation, Ronan left the USC Film School and specially found a Pepsicard chain rental store to rent the three videotapes to watch.

Entering the store, Ronan reported the titles of the three films and said to the clerk, "I want to rent these three films, where can I get them?"

The clerk pointed to the right with his big hand: "That's the horror and thriller classification area over there, let's find it yourself." ”

Ronan saw several large rows of video tape shelves and dense video tapes placed against the wall, and felt dizzy: "Which shelf which layer exactly?"

"Who can remember that little film?" the clerk shook his head: "You can go and find it." ”

Ronan had no choice but to come to the horror and thriller section, several large shelves, densely packed with thousands of videotapes, except for those popular films, if you want to find a colder film to watch, you really have to look carefully.

It took him more than 20 minutes to find two of the three films, and he couldn't find "Running for Death".

There was no way, Ronan had to go through the rental procedures for the two films, and because there were more customers, he queued for nearly ten minutes.

Out of this Passcard storefront, sitting in the car, looking at the huge Passcard signboard, Ronan has a personal experience this time, compared with online shopping or online leasing in the previous life, this traditional video tape rental model, is really about to fall behind.

Retrieval is not cheap, and it is quite troublesome to find non-popular films, with long waiting times and cumbersome procedures, which can easily be annoying.

These few points alone can be quite fatal.

The future is an era of faster and faster pace, and the patience of the general public is getting worse and worse.

Think about Netflix's model, you can search freely, there are almost no procedures after registering as a member, the fee is calculated according to the monthly subscription, there are no lease late fees, etc.

I have to say that when it comes to movie rentals, Netflix is the future.

Fortunately, he has set his sights on Netflix, and the highly-paid investigative company sends out a report on time every week.

Ronan went straight back to the office, and it happened that George and Robert, two experienced guys, were there, called them in, and after a brief talk, they began to watch the tape together and study the editing of the film.

These two tapes were watched several times, and even the lunch was ordered for takeout, and it was not until they were about to get off work that the three of them turned off the TV and VCR.

Ronan was basically satisfied, worried that his inexperience would lead to a mistake in judgment, and asked, "What do you guys think of the editing?"

Robert took the lead in saying: "The footage of this film is very average, and I won't talk about the picture quality or anything, but the editing is very skillful." He looked down at his notebook: "The ninth minute, the seventeenth minute, the twenty-third minute, the fifty-fifth minute, and the final ending, the director's shot is obviously problematic, and the editing not only corrects the director's low-level mistakes, but also creates a particularly strong atmosphere of plasma horror." ”

George's face was full of wrinkles, and he didn't talk much, but he was crisp and neat: "This editor has the ability and has not yet been discovered." ”

This situation is very common, and there are quite a few capable people in Hollywood, but only a small percentage of them are really mixed up.

Ronan nodded, "I'll visit tomorrow." ”