"Make way, make way," René shouted through a megaphone on a street outside the Helen Community in Los Angeles.
Behind him, more than a dozen movers carried various billboards and graffiti stickers and placed them on the walls on both sides of the street to set the scene.
People on the street turned their heads to look, but because a few crew members were blocking the way, no one came in to disrupt the work.
In fact, when shooting outdoor scenes in the United States, the biggest fear is capturing pedestrians, as this involves citizens' privacy rights. Minor cases would result in deleting the footage, and in serious cases, substantial compensation would be required. So, it's essential to communicate with local government agencies and actor unions and have a contingency plan.
Inside the Helen Community, they were busy with renovations. Among them, the room rented by the crew, which was Maggie's home, needed to be adjusted to better suit the female lead's character.
René was carrying filming equipment alongside Lyman and reminded, "We only have a two-hour shooting window. If things don't work out, we'll have to negotiate with them tomorrow."
Indeed, the time the crew had to close off this section of the road for street filming was only two hours. Whether they completed it or not, they only had this much time today.
"Don't worry; it's just two shots; it should be easy to accomplish," Lyman reassured, brushing dust off his hands.
"I hope it goes smoothly."
As they spoke, a man wearing a floral green robe entered the set, looking ostentatiously impressed by the gradually completed street scene. He exclaimed dramatically, "Wow, so much product placement!"
The newcomer was none other than Nicolas Cage.
To be honest, Lyman didn't want to trouble anyone with this minor role that had only two scenes. He could have easily found any actor who fit the role's image.
However, this guy had just finished filming "National Treasure" and had nothing to do at home. When he heard that Lyman was making a new film, he immediately called to ask if there was any way he could help.
Lyman initially thought, "Why bother having Nicky, a rising star, play a minor supporting role with just a few lines of dialogue? It's unnecessary."
Perhaps it was to save face.
But Nicolas insisted, feeling that they were being too polite, worried that their close cooperation during the Revolutionary Friends period was being questioned.
So what if Lyman was thinking this way? Nicolas wasn't willing.
He even thought that he was being polite to Lyman. On the evening before shooting began, he specially traveled from his property investment in Miami to Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
After reading the script, he said nonsense like the character had depth, and he really liked it.
For heaven's sake, it was a minor supporting role, with no background information provided, and it was simply a consoling figure for the female lead after she failed to become a boxer, a kind of spiritual mentor, designed to highlight the female lead.
But he thought it was great and wanted to take it.
Perhaps he also knew that his current market value was too high, and Lyman's low-budget production couldn't afford to pay him much. So he took the initiative and said it was a friendly appearance, no fee required, just provide meals.
To be honest, Lyman was touched by this.
The entertainment industry is indeed very pragmatic. When you've seen too many real examples and heard even more, you'll realize even more how valuable these actors are and why they deserve your favor.
Heath and Nicolas were like that.
Of course, Nic's motives were straightforward. "Fury" followed the failure of "Windtalkers" and brought his acting career to a new peak.
"Miscreant" was even more impressive, directly propelling him to the top among the A-listers.
"Now, every major production studio is clamoring to offer him collaboration contracts, willing to pay him hefty salaries. How this all came about, Nicolas understood better than anyone else.
Furthermore, from a profit perspective, Lyman's films were box office benchmarks. Although playing a small supporting role wouldn't impact his career much, even if the box office was explosive, but...
Some things couldn't be measured solely by immediate gains and losses.
...
"Why are you here so early when your scenes won't be for a few days?" Lyman, seeing Nicolas, greeted him with a hug.
"It's fine, I didn't have much to do during this time, so I wanted to get into the shooting atmosphere early," Nicolas explained.
"Oh, by the way, are these ads all from sponsors?" He pointed at the billboards being set up by the crew.
"Yeah, more than $2M. Just a quick shot for the sponsors."
Warner Bros. was quite considerate. After considering the advice on the set's construction, they immediately brought in several sponsors, including Nike.
A shot that lasted less than a second actually cost over $800,000. Lyman wondered how those sponsors were thinking, but they were willing.
Well, Lyman had underestimated his own value now.
In the past, when he made films, there were sponsors' support, but most weren't this generous and had more demands. Sometimes he refused several of them.
But times had changed. As his works became more successful, some sponsors redefined the promotional value of his films.
For series films, the merchandise-promoting ability was even stronger.
Whether it was the long-standing "007" or the newcomer "Tomb Raider", or later "Fast & Furious", relying on the sponsor daddy's sponsorship alone could solve a significant part of the funding problem with the best example being "Tomb Raider." The film had a budget of $130M and hadn't been released yet, but it had already recouped the entire investment.
Envy...
After Nicolas arrived, he chatted with Lyman, René, and Thomas while helping with some small tasks.
Busy with work, he suddenly asked, "Do you know Oscar's PR team?"
"Why are you asking this? Do you want to get an Oscar trophy too?"
"It's not that. My cousin has made a movie and wants to compete in next February's Oscars. I wanted to ask if you have any good recommendations."
Come to think of it, that was true.
Sofia Coppola had indeed made a movie, "Lost in Translation", this year.
"Does Focus Features not have a good PR team? They have Universal behind them."
"No, they have their considerations. I want the movie to win the Best Director Oscar."
At this point, Lyman understood.
Perhaps the distributor and Cage had different goals, and Cage wanted his cousin to receive the honor belonging to the director himself.
So he wanted to invest in some public relations to increase competitiveness.
"But I think it won't be of much use," Lyman tactfully replied.
"Let's give it a try. Getting a nomination is still good," Nicolas was quite indifferent, having experienced Oscar's various rules.
And having a nomination would make future Oscar competition more favorable if there were opportunities.
"I'll ask Kevin; he used to help with this."
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it, it's just a small matter."
About 15 minutes later, everything was ready, and filming began..."