I’m in Hollywood

Chapter 242 – True freedom is without shackles

After a short half-day rest, the crew took a chartered flight to New York the next day.
Jeffrey was still in charge of picking up the passengers.
There was also a Firefly team here, responsible for the pre-production preparation of 《Sleepless in Seattle》 and 《Home Alone 2》.

Compared to Seattle, most of the roles are for the father-son duo, John and Noah.

Shooting scenes in New York is going to be troublesome, just in terms of characters.
In the scenes shot in New York for 《Sleepless in Seattle》, not only is there Annie's family, but also Annie's friends, co-workers, etc.

Eric felt that this plot design was likely to weaken the presence of Annie's boyfriend Walter, just like the few shots of Sam's late wife Maggie.

Although it was indeed a very romantic love story for Sam and Annie.

For Walter, who had already proposed to Annie, it was very sad when he was dumped on Valentine's Day for some 'mysterious' reason.

Eric remembered some reviews from his past life in which there were comments about this matter, mostly criticisms of Anne's infidelity and sympathy for Walter.
However, in this country with a divorce rate of up to 50%, it seems that people don't care too much about these things.
To put it simply, whether it's politics or love, people in this country are all pursuing two words: freedom.

Eric remembered seeing a phrase somewhere that said that true freedom is not doing whatever you want to do, but rather not doing whatever you don't want to do.

Although this sentence has a suspicion of being deliberately obscure, it fits Anne in 《Sleepless in Seattle》 very well.
Even though they were engaged, she still refused him without hesitation when she found out that Walter was not the one destined for her.

“How is the discussion about the Empire State Building and the Twin Towers going?” As soon as he got off the plane and got into a business car with Jeffrey, Eric's first words were about the two matters he was most concerned with.

These two things are about 《Sleepless in Seattle》 and 《Home Alone 2》 respectively.
Jon and Kevin will shoot on the two tallest buildings in New York, respectively, and until 《Sleepless in Seattle》 starts shooting, these two things have not been determined.

“It's all taken care of,” Jeffrey told Eric with a reassuring look, then added, “but the management of both buildings doesn't give us much time.”

“It's okay.
There aren't many shots anyway, mainly the Empire State Building and a few aerial shots of the tops of the Twin Towers.” Eric nodded contentedly.

Jeffrey said again, “There's one more thing about the snow.
I asked the meteorological department in detail.
The earliest New York can see snow is November, possibly in the first week of November, but it's not certain since it's only September now, you know.
Weather forecasts are never accurate.
Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll snow at the end of October, or maybe not.
It might not snow in New York until Home Alone is released.
“In any case, you have to be prepared for it.”

Eric nodded: “It's nothing.
Just have someone prepare artificial snow.
I'll try to put the outdoor scenes of Little Boss 2 at the end of shooting, but even if we delay it, it won't be for a long time.
So I think there's a 90% chance we'll use artificial snow.”

“I have already had someone estimate according to your script, although it does not need to be filled with scenes.
However, artificial snow needs to be realistic enough for the audience to believe.
The budget will increase by around 1.5 million US dollars.”

Eric could tell from Jeffery's tone that he was in emotional pain, so he patted Jeffery's shoulder.
Although Firefly had grown increasingly in scale, Jeffery was still the same thrifty person that Eric had first seen him as.
But such a personality was also best suited to be a producer: “Jeffery, it's not last year now.
When we were making the first 《Home Alone》 last year, we had to be thrifty and even had to go to a remote Canadian town in the north to shoot.
But our budget for this movie is very generous, so there's no need to save money on where it should be spent.”

“I also know, I just subconsciously think, if the schedules of 《Sleepless in Seattle》 and 《Home Alone 2》 were switched, then maybe the 1.5 million could be saved.”

Eric smiled, “According to what you said, we could save 1.5 million if we wait for natural snow, however, by delaying 《Home Alone 2》 to Christmas, we may lose tens of millions in box office.
You should know that from the box office performance of 《Home Alone》, it is a children-oriented movie that is suitable for long-term release, so we must try to extend the schedule within the holiday season, and the peak of the Christmas box office will start in late November.”

“Why not put 《Sleepless in Seattle》 in late November as well, even if it doesn't compete viciously with 《Home Alone 2》? I think it could be delayed by a week too,” Jeffrey asked again.

“Because 《Sleepless in Seattle》 is not only heading for the Christmas season, but also rushing to the Valentine's Day season in February, as it is a romantic comedy, if it's released one month in advance, then by February, the popularity of the film will be almost exhausted.
But if it's released around December 24, after two months of screening, then when entering the Valentine's Day season, it can give the romantic film a rebound in box office.
You know, my movies, the large-scale box office harvest period is more than eight weeks, such as last year's first 《Home Alone》, took 10 weeks of box office champion, and later 《Pretty Woman》, 《Running Out of Time》 are the same.”

Jeffrey smiled and said, “I really don't know where you learned all this.
I was going to tell you about the schedule of 《The Others》, You encouraged Michael Eisner to put 《The Others》 on November 1st, and I also think it's not very appropriate.
Halloween is indeed suitable for horror movies, but those are small-budget horror movies with no box office ambitions.
Although 《The Others》 is also a small budget production, we have high expectations for its box office.
Now it seems that you must have your own ideas.”

Eric nodded, not explaining further to Jeffrey, who didn't press for an explanation.

In fact, the concept of movie schedules in the US is relatively mature now, but it is still very crude compared to more than twenty years later.

Although Erick from later generations did not direct the movie or do distribution work, he naturally understood some of the distribution rules of the movie under the influence of the information explosion in that era.