Rise To Stardom - Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Baby Steps
Having already being paid twice now by [GrooveBox], a total of $99,524.14, Kyle was quite literally, very financially stable for a while, a situation the past Kyle would’ve never anticipated in his wildest dreams.

This amount was of course after both DiscoTune and Oliver had taken their own cut so the rest was all his.

Considering his songs had collectively gotten twelve million streams and ten million streams each for the past two months, that sort of amount wasn’t particularly shocking since [GrooveBox] usually paid a sum of $0.005 per stream, all of which would be tallied and paid at the first week of the next month.

But even then, it was still a lot to Kyle as it was his very first time having such large amounts in hand.

But that wasn’t all.

In addition to the stream earnings from his songs, there was also his ViewTube account earnings.

[Sparks] had fizzled out after reaching 300K views, [Embers] at 690K and [Needs To Be Loved] at 998K, bringing it to a collective sum total of 1.98 million views.

Since ViewTube payed about $0.016 per view, his total earnings for the last month had come down to $31,808.

The very first thing the young man had done though after getting all that money, was to rent a fairly nice and well-furnished three-bedroom apartment that cost him $3,350 per month.

Kyle had also bought a professional-stage digital piano; one that cost him $5,799.

Since he would need one in case he had any inspiration or idea for a new song and he needed to get a tune down as soon as possible, it was a worthwhile investment.

Now that he had graduated from college, he was very intent on focusing on trying to move his career forward and to do that, he needed a space of his own to be able to think, and come up with good ideas for his songs.

Although he had a few half-baked ones swirling in his head, he wanted to elevate them as best as he could if he decided to settle on one, as opposed to releasing mediocre stuff just because he wanted to stay relevant and not lose his small popularity.

Quality over quantity. That was the mantra Kyle loved to work with.

Today though, Oliver was in his apartment and as the young man exited the kitchen, two mugs of hot coffee in his hands, he couldn’t help but speak as his gaze locked onto the table Oliver was sitting by.

“Granted there’s only one script, I’d never expected an acting audition to be coming up this fast”

“And lets not even talk about the multiple single gigs you already have lined up for me…” he added.

Hearing that, Oliver simply relaxed into the comfort of the chair, a thin smile on his lips as he commented;

“Well, I have had two months to pick out the best ones for you so this much is expected”

“Singing aside though, this is a pretty nice opportunity for you to kick-start your acting career. Give it your best shot” the man added.

Handing over one mug to his agent, Kyle picked up the script on the table as he remarked;

“Yeah. That’s a given but still, just how well connected are you?”

“Enough to get you jobs like these” Oliver shrugged and then continued;

“Anyway, there are some other projects that you might need to audition for next year. Some of them are even from fairly well-known studios so you can be rest assured that it will give you a bit more visibility if you star in them”

“I see. Which ones though?” Kyle questioned.

“BlackBox Films and Silver-Line Studios”

Nodding his head, Kyle realized that both were truly one of the fewer well-known ones in Hollywood.

Both had made a lot of popular films over the decade with BlackBox Films mostly making intense action and action adventure movies while Silver-Line Studios, focused more on low-budget drama and romantic comedies.

‘Hmmm. If I might need to star in an action movie, I should probably put on some muscle and stay fit. Just in case…’ Kyle mused.

Not wanting to ponder too much over it though, he soon returned his attention back to the script in his hands.

Scanning through it, his head instantly memorizing everything due to [Recollection] being in effect, the young man read through the entire script within minutes.

Having done that, he could now solely focus on the qualities of the character he was tasked with playing and try to get into said character’s skin.

But more than that, there was a particular part in the script that caught Kyle’s eyes.

Written simply, the line stated; ‘Harry convinced Matthew to confess his feelings to Layla.’

The reason why this line was particularly curious to him, was because it was the only line in the script that really should have had a dialogue interaction judging by the way the story was unfolding.

But surprisingly, it didn’t, making it a bit odd and out of place.

‘Weird…’ Kyle thought.

Pondering a bit further over what the cause could be, his thoughts soon drifted over to the series itself.

“[Grow Up] huh…” he muttered out loud this time.

A popular series that anyone who was keeping up with the trends would know, the story followed a dysfunctional young teenager by the name of Matthew Callagher as he tries to navigate his way through all the highs and lows of high school, while also trying to find out more about himself as a person and coming to terms with it.

It wasn’t a particularly innovative spin on the typical coming-of-age story but it was the execution of the story that really sold viewers on it.

The show had been critically acclaimed by both critics and viewers alike and one of the reasons for that was because actual, young teenagers and fresh faces were cast for the roles of all the characters as opposed to Hollywood casting famous actors whom were already in their late twenties or early thirties.

The first few seasons of the show had also been the best, with the TV series showcasing the poor communication skills of a dysfunctional Matthew and how he tried to be less anti-social towards the people around him.

As the series went on, Matthew also begins to learn more about himself as a person and gradually learns to become more social with people, which in turn, gave the viewers great life lessons, hilarious moments and at times really emotional scenes that really stood out.

That was the major appeal of the story and for a lot of people, it was their comfort series.

But like most TV series, it eventually started to lose the core of its story when the fourth season rolled around with a newer director who didn’t really get what made people love the show and only seemed to like to self-insert himself into the story.

The episodes he directed felt incoherent and aimless a lot of the time and useless drama took up too much screen time, an attempt made by him to spice things up that had backfired horribly.

The fifth season, not learning from the previous season’s mistake, only upped the antics and the issues of the fourth.

This had inevitably, ended up, immensely pissing off a lot of fans of the show, most of whom were of the teen demographic.

Having gotten tired of the terrible writing of their once beloved show, they banded up and review-bombed the fifth season without mercy and rightfully so too.

Realizing that their main audience was getting furious with the terrible writing, the Executives of the show instantly booted the current director in charge and requested for the previous one who was more than happy to take back his position, even if they had been a dick to him the last time he was suddenly fired and replaced with another director due to creative differences.

And so, the sixth season, and also the last season, finally came along and once again, the series, although was still getting mixed reviews, wasn’t hated by fans anymore and if at all, most felt like it was coming back to form.

The role Kyle was going to be auditioning for however, was going to be of Matthew’s elder brother, Harry, whom had always been teased from the very beginning of the series as someone that really understood his younger brother but had travelled overseas for his studies.

“Hmmm… I think I can manage” Kyle then said after a short while.

“Well it’s not a big role but it’s still very impactful nonetheless, especially since the character shows up in the season finale to help the main character” Oliver added his own thoughts and Kyle absent-mindedly nodded in response.

His head was already coming up with the best way to tackle the task at hand and Oliver seemed to notice that as he watched Kyle’s eyes dancing about the script.

The audition was going to happen a week from now so he understood why Kyle was so focused on it.

Finally taking a sip out of his coffee, the agent then also pointed out;

“We should also head on over to the Actors Guild to have you registered tomorrow Kyle”

Tearing his gaze away from the script, Kyle widened his eyes in mild realization.

“That’s true! Should’ve done that a while back really”

Previously, actors had to earn their memberships into the guild, a sort of badge of honor one might call it.

But a few years back, things had changed, considerably.

Now, anyone could get the membership as long as they had the money to pay for it.

Considering he wanted to pursue an acting career as much as he wanted to be a well-known musician, Kyle knew that getting a membership card in the union was necessary.

Although the membership itself cost about $3,000 for its initiation fee, it was a still a necessary rite of passage for anyone who wanted to pursue a professional acting career.

“Yeah. Well, now you can. I’ll drive you over” Oliver took another sip out of his coffee as he said.

Nodding in appreciation, Kyle gratefully replied.

“Thank you Oliver. I really appreciate it”

“Also, I think I should start taking driving lessons. You can’t keep driving me everywhere all the time” he quickly added with a smile.

In response to that, Oliver simply chuckled a bit and leaned back into the comfort of the chair while Kyle returned his attention to the script.

…

…

…

Late into the night, far past 12:00am, the lights in Kyle’s apartment was still on as he constantly penned down a few notes here and there while perusing through the script for the umpteenth time.

For the next few minutes, save for the occasional distant sound of a vehicle roaming about the streets, the scribbling of Kyle’s pen filled up the silent ambience in the room.

Having listed out certain qualities that he felt would bring Harry to life, Kyle nodded with a satisfied gaze, stretching a bit to relieve his stiff joints.

Gently closing the notebook, Kyle then relaxed onto the comfort of his chair, his eyes lingering on a certain line in the script as he muttered;

“Now, how would Harry, based on what I’ve gleaned from the script, have his dysfunctional younger brother, confess to a love interest…”

Picking up the script, and gently circling that part with a pencil this time, the young man began to brainstorm, his eyes focused and dedicated.

Oblivious to the fact that he had spent the past five hours solely dedicated to gleaning as much as he possibly could from the short script, Kyle seemingly had no plans to make his way to slumbertown because in his mind, he felt like there was still so much more he could do.