Chapter 011 - Misunderstanding

Leaving the convenience store, Simon did not immediately return to the motel. Instead, he shuttled between the streets of Santa Monica to pre-plan his first film ahead of time.

The first movie Simon intends to make is "Run Lola Run".

Although the original "Run Lola Run" was not filmed in Los Angeles, Simon does not have enough capital to pick and choose, since he lives and works in Santa Monica, then he will directly film the new version of the film here to save money.

Choosing "Run Lola Run" is the result of Simon's long and careful consideration.

After all, this body is now only 18 years old.

Under normal circumstances, Hollywood's slightly sensible film companies will not risk millions of dollars to let a young director under 20 years old. And he doesn't have the capital to personally invest in the production of commercial film.

Therefore, he must show enough strength to at least to some extent dispel Hollywood's concerns about his age.

To do this, all he has to do is simply prove his strength by his work.

Although there have been some changes in the WMA side, he expects to receive the revenue from "The Butterfly Effect" script soon, this is Simon's first capital, and he must use the money to knock on Hollywood's door.

Of course, the selling price of a script cannot be too high. Therefore, has little choice and can only make an ultra-low-cost movie. Moreover, this movie must also show enough value, either by winning an award or making a high box office.

When it comes to the box office, there are a lot of low-cost films in Simon's memory that have created box office miracles, movies such as "The Blair Witch Project" and "Paranormal Activity".

But in the final analysis, more than 90% of the success of these films is based on luck and just the right commercial operation and has nothing to do with the quality of the film itself.

The obvious evidence is that after the success of these films, the presence of the directors of the films is negligible in Hollywood.

So if at this time, he made these movies, he is 99% likely to fail, even he succeed, Simon's filmmaking ability will not be recognized by Hollywood.

As for the awards, This thing undoubtedly places more emphasis on seniority and connections.

Moreover, trying to produce a great art film with just the money earned from selling the script, that can reach the level of several major Studios, is very difficult.

After repeated selections, he choose "Run Lola Run" an alternative and avant-garde experimental film, which is more suitable for Simon right now.

The original "Run Lola Run" also has a very low production cost, about 350,000 German marks, which is equivalent to about 180,000 US dollars in 1998.

Now, as long as he saves some money with the money from the script, Simon thinks he can easily get $100,000.

Although it is a low-cost production, "Run Lola Run" has enough artistic value and commercial value.

The film has not only won a lot of awards, but it even formed a trend among the young people in Germany.

Of course, for Simon, these are not the most important.

The most important point is the perfect display of the director's ability.

In 1998, because of the film's dazzling skills in editing, soundtrack, colour, montage, lens techniques and other aspects, quickly made "Run Lola Run" a classic teaching case for film academies around the world, and has a very profound impact on many well-known directors.

Doug Liman, the director of "The Bourne Identity" series has publicly admitted, that the unique shooting style of "The Bourne Identity" was inspired by "Run Lola Run". For this reason, the director specially invited the heroine of "Run Lola Run" "Franka Potente" to be the female number one of "The Bourne Identity"

Therefore, even in the worst case, the film didn't get any awards or got a small box office in the future, Simon is sure the film is a good opportunity for him to show his film-making skills to the major Hollywood studios.

Hollywood has its extremely conservative side, but at the same time, it is a circle that greatly admires geniuses and miracles.

As long as the person can prove his strength and bring benefits to the film studios, not many people will care whether this person is an angel or a devil, the issue of age is naturally not a problem.

On an Avenue north of downtown Santa Monica.

Passing by an intersection, Simon saw a castle-like dark grey building across the street. The architectural tones of Los Angeles are generally dominated by light tones such as white, making people feel monotonous and boring.

As a result, such an alternative dark grey building became very conspicuous, so Simon quickly decided to make this dark grey building one of the street scenes that quickly passed by while Lola is running.

Without a camera, Simon could only use the sketching method to create the scene in his mind.

Standing on the street curb with a hand-bound hard leather notebook, Simon first wrote down the most basic street information, re-examined the street scene in front of him, and then began to draw quickly in split-screen styles, like in the manga.

A few minutes later, while he was focusing on his work, Simon suddenly felt that someone was tapping him on the shoulder.

Turning his head in confusion, he found that two girls were standing behind him.

One of them was Courteney Cox, and the other was a pretty blonde girl, he didn't know.

At this time, Courteney Cox was watching him cautiously without speaking, as if waiting for Simon to take the initiative to explain.

Simon turned and looked around, only to find that he was standing right in front of a five-story apartment building. Courteney and the blonde girl should live here.

Sensing the vigilance in Courtney's eyes, Simon suddenly understood.

She probably thinks he is a stalker.

With a wry smile, Simon closed the notebook, and explained: "Courteney, if I say this is a coincidence, will you believe it?"

"Do not believe," Courtney shook her head, but still said: "So, what are you doing here?"

"I told you this afternoon, I'm preparing for my movie," Simon said, and simply handed her the notebook in his hand.

Courteney suspiciously took the thick notebook and opened it, The blonde girl next to her also curiously came over.

There were dozens of sub-lens drawings based on various types of streetscapes accumulated in the notebook. Although they were simple sketches, both Courteney and the blond girl can easily experience Simon's solid drawing skills. Most of the drawings were marked with many professional notes such as lights and camera angles.

After turning several pages in a row, Courteney's attention was quickly attracted by the running short-haired girl in the sketch, and suddenly she was embarrassed to look at Simon again. The blonde girl had no problem giving him a few words of praise, "You are good at sketching, is the girl in the sketch Courteney?"

Simon froze for a moment and took a closer look at Courtney's short hairstyle, only then did he understand why the other party asked this question.

In all fairness, Simon did not think of a specific object when he outlined Lola's style, and he didn't feel much about the original Lola player Franka Potente.

However, perhaps when he came to Los Angeles, Courteney was the only girl Simon knew who was in line with Lola's character set, so he subconsciously used the other person's figure in the drawing process, which led to this misunderstanding.

The sketch is very simple, it is difficult for anyone to associate the character in the sketch with Courtney. But with Courteney in front of him at this time, plus the little misunderstanding just now, it was not surprising that the blonde girl would ask such a question at this time.

Looking at the two girls who were looking at the sketchbook, he would see that they had determined a certain fact, so he can no longer refute this little misunderstanding, so he simply nodded and admitted: "Yeah, in the afternoon I invited Courteney to be the heroine, but unfortunately she wasn't willing."

"Oh, Courteney is not willing, how about I take her place, you change all the girls in the manuscript to my appearance," the blonde girl smiled slyly and reached her hand out to Simon: "Hello, I'm Kristy Swanson."

Simon reached out and shook her hand, saying: "Simon Westeros."

The blonde girl heard the words and immediately said in surprise: "Oh, You are the one Courteney was talking about...."

Before she finished speaking, Courteney reached out and poked her friend's waist, to let Kristy close her mouth, and then she handed the notebook to Simon, saying, "Well, you passed the test."

"So," Simon pointed his finger behind him and said: "Can I stay here to finish the sketch?"

"Do what you want, this is a public place."

Simon also felt that his question was a little stupid, smiled, opened the notebook, and returned to the last page.

Looking again at the dark grey building opposite, raised his pen and began to draw. Seeing that the two girls did not leave immediately, he randomly said: "Are you going out to have dinner?"