Rise To Stardom - Chapter 94

Chapter 94: Private Screening
“That truly was a blast!”

“Yeah. This is probably my fourth seating and yet, I just can’t get tired of that frenetic and visceral intensity every action scene in the movie had! So glad I won the lottery contest for this private screening.”

“I don’t know if a lot of you guys noticed but in that bar fight scene, Alex used a standard Glock 26 that had exactly 10 bullets each in two magazine rounds…”

“Yeah I noticed too! The reload happened only after ten bullets were used up! That’s some nice attention to detail. And what the hell is with that superfast magazine reload flip he employed! It was so cool!”

“And let’s not even add the arm reload thingy during he and Sam’s confrontation! Dude’s a freaking badass!”

“I wonder if Sam was able to recruit Alex into the EMF at the end of the movie. Hopefully Dot Production realizes how profitable this movie can become and capitalize on it for a franchise…”

As the audience excitedly clamored and discussed about [Epoch One], the reporters in the room, impatiently waited for Director Clyde and the main cast to take the stage.

Dot Productions, having already broken way past even since last week, organized a private screening session with an online lottery contest where over 1000 people could apply for, with only 500 being picked.

As the room brightened up, applauds, cheers and whistles filling up every corner, the host introduced Mark, Bruce and Kyle whom were walking onto the stage for the Q/A session.

Jeffrey was quite busy with his granddaughters today so he couldn’t make it to the show unfortunately.

The old man, truly prioritized his down time with his family more than anything else.

“Now, now. Let’s be civilized people. One question at a time please.” the host said and no sooner had he done that, the first question was taken from a reporter.

“My question goes to Mark. How did you come up with the inspiration to shoot the movie in long, clean, singular takes?”

Clearing his throat, Mark casually spoke;

“Yeah. That’s a good question.” he began.

“Hmmm…” he mused a bit and crossed his legs before he then spoke again;

“So, just two years back, I shot a movie called [Crazy Night Out]. It’s a slapstick comedy movie that wasn’t that well-received critically or commercially but, there was one scene in particular that really stood out to me…”

“And that was a fight scene between the hipster and the man with an afro haircut.” he gestured with his hands as he said.

Some people in the audience chuckled at that, at least those whom had watched it. It truly was a hilarious scene… though the movie itself had still tanked at the Box Office.

“Yes. Yes. I know it was probably the only worthwhile scene in the movie…” he added with a fake sigh and this time, a few more people in the audience chuckled along.

“But still, the scene itself, really stood out to me because despite how ridiculous the fight itself was, it was very clean and easy to follow. I truly felt like it really elevated and added more to the overall comedic feel of the scene.” Mark continued on after the chuckles had subsided a bit.

“So then, I simply wondered if I could learn from it. Pivot and improvise. Try to replicate that with an action movie and possibly, have a much better reception with it…”

“And well, the rest is history as you all know it.” Mark pointed backwards to the poster of [Epoch One] behind him and some people in the audience clapped while the reporters quickly jotted down a few notes.

It was a nice sight to see a Director being so chill about his failure but the fact that he learnt from it, really stood out to them and elevated his standing in their eyes.

“We’ve all seen the behind-the-scene clips but really, how were the gun fight scenes shot?! They just looked very realistic in the finished product that I can’t help but be curious.” a nerdy-looking guy from the audience asked, his eyes expectant.

This time, Mark proposed that Kyle should answer, an offer which the young man willingly took.

“Alright. See the thing is, in most action movies, there’s usually an A to B cutting. We, the actors, fire a blank and the camera, instantly cuts to the place or person it’s fired at.”

“But when Mark was discussing the filming technique he was planning to use to film, we knew using blanks was out of the picture. Those things, unsurprisingly, can still kill someone even from a few meters away.” Kyle continued explaining.

A bunch of reporters and people in the audience nodded in agreement to that. There was still a gunpowder charge in a blank so at close range, it really could kill someone.

“Prop guns were also out of the picture since they can’t simulate the ejection and cycling of a magazine round so we had to use Plug Guns.” Kyle concluded with a gesture of his hands, passing the rest of the explanation to Bruce who explained even further.

“And the way a plug gun works, is that there’s a steel rod inside the barrel that kicks back the ejection and is able to cycle the rounds with literally no gunpowder charge.”

“So yeah, since Mark needed us to have all these cool, close quarter combats and gunfights, incorporated into the action choreography, he decided to have the prop-crew and artists, make safe guns that would pose no danger to anyone whilst filming.”

“That said, the flash of the gunshots and the blood were all done with the help of CGI and, that was that.” Mark picked it up from Bruce and concluded, resulting in the audience giving them a big round of applause.

That had been very insightful stuff, especially when it was more on the technical side of a movie’s production, something that’s rarely discussed in private screenings like this.

“My question goes to Bruce and Kyle; Did you really punch each other in the face?” a guy in the audience couldn’t help but ask again, an underlying excitement in his tone.

Even though he had watched the talk show a few nights’ back and clips of it were literally shared around the internet of that exact part, he, just like many others, still wanted to hear it straight from the mouth of the men themselves.

This, was the first time a lot of them were seeing celebrities in the flesh so their excitement was understandable.

“Yes. I most definitely did. And mind you, Kyle himself instigated it.” Bruce quickly replied while Kyle chuckled a bit before answering.

“It was just something I felt was necessary for the scene. Sam and Alex are literal tanks in their own right and I guess I just wanted the audience to really feel the intensity of their confrontation the way we, the actors, must’ve felt it when we were shooting the scene. That’s why I proposed the idea.”

A few reporters quickly jot down a few notes again as he said that and for the next few minutes, more and more questions were asked;

“Director Clyde, what kind of constraints did you have whilst filming?”

“Are you going to be taking more movie roles soon Bruce or is this just a one-time thing?”

“How many auditions did it take before Kyle was selected to play the role of Alex Hunt?”

“Kyle, what was your daily routine whilst training for the movie?”

Unsurprisingly, Kyle got just as much questions as Mark and Bruce, a scenario that had really surprised him.

But, nothing could’ve prepared him for a certain question one peculiar lady in the audience directly asked him;

“I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but, do you know, there’s now a Jeddit page of you titled ‘j/ShirtlessKyle’?”

Hearing that, Kyle just blinked his eyes in stunned silence, his mouth parting in disbelief as words failed him.

Mark and Bruce on the other hand, shared a genuinely hearty laughter along with the rest of the audience as they watched the young man struggle to understand if he had just heard things right.

* * *

Jon Quentin was the youngest to ever become a Major Executive of DreamLand Inc.

Just a few years back, the broadcasting company hadn’t been all that sought after as people, both the audience, directors and artists, would rather spend their time on far more convenient OTT platforms like ChillFlix, StarPrime and the likes.

However, after a few massive flops here and there, the other executives had finally decided to listen to the man’s ideas.

Due to these, the man, aged 36 at the time, pointed out that if they wanted to beat ChillFlix, or other OTT platforms in general for that matter, they would need to have their own brand, create something unusual and then, target a specific demographic.

That would be their core audience.

Once that had been done, they would need to grow that core audience, and eventually, that core audience would spread to a wider audience, far more than they could ever anticipate.

There was no point in trying to imitate ChillFlix and other successful OTT platforms by catering to every single type of audience.

That would only spell an eventual demise for them if they went down that path.

Sure they could create their own OTT platform to keep up with the times but, that was only a weak placeholder if they focused on it and didn’t innovate with their actual content.

Those were the core message of his words.

And so, taking those words deeply into consideration, DreamLand Inc revamped their entire shows and contents on their OTT platform, focusing mainly on family friendly animations, sit-coms, fantasy-adventure and most especially, sci-fi themed series.

They had also decided to focus mainly on the YA (young adult) demographic.

All of these decisions they had made, had been fifteen years back.

Currently though, as a result of those past decisions, DreamLand had seen an exponential increase in the number of people whom had rapidly become a frequent user of their OTT platform and Broadcasting Channel over the years, some of which even deemed the platform as their favorite.

Their TV shows, series and movies didn’t become particularly innovative by any stretch of the imagination (with the exception of a few) but, they were fun and fresh. Exactly what most people wanted.

As a result, they were always in business as lots of scriptwriters, screenwriters, directors and producers, pitched their many ideas for various TV shows, series and movies to them.

[The Curator] especially, was the poster child for the platform.

The series was a perfect blend of sci-fi, sprinkles of history and the occasional mystery, all of which explored the life of a titular time traveler that went by the moniker of ‘The Curator’.

Now, after running for nine seasons, each with ten episodes, the show was one of the most popular series in this world, period.

This peculiar show, one that other OTT platforms had now tried to replicate but had failed miserably at, was all as a result of the brainchild of the same Jon Quentin.

He was the one who had created the show and had spearheaded a lot of the show’s popular and most beloved episodes by hiring top-notch writers and treating them exceptionally well.

However, due to him going on an exceptionally long hiatus due to health concerns after finishing up the production for the fifth season, which was also the best season till date, the show had started to perform far worse than when he was helming things.

Newer writers, now under greedy showrunners who couldn’t really replicate his success, seemingly just kept copying the same template from his past five seasons with literally next to no innovation, all of which stunted the show’s growth and plummeted its viewership ratings.

After having had enough of people ruining his legacy though, Jon was now back to head the tenth season of the show, to which he was, mostly and presumably, given full creative control of how the season would go.

Also, asides from the need to prevent his best work from being ruined, no other showrunner in their studio was willing to helm the project due to its repeated failures so there was that.

Currently in a well-furnished office though, a bunch of DreamLand employees were actively engaged in a pretty interesting discussion.

“Why not Miranda Lane?” a male employee asked.

“Don’t even bring her into this discussion. Everyone knows her agency can be real assholes to deal with. And she’s also a narcissistic little witch so no.” a female employee countered, her words, right on the money.

“How about Justin Baker?” a male employee dropped a name.

“I don’t know about that guy… He might be famous but his fees are also too darn expensive!” another employee, responded with a groan.

“But he’s a really great actor. I’m sure we can negotiate a good offer!” a female employee pointed out.

“Would rather we invited Theo Roberts. With his acting chops, he’d be a natural in the shoes of The Curator…” another lady gave her own opinions.

“That womanizer?! No can do! He might further ruin the show’s currently bad rep with his scandals!” a male employee argued.

“Lois Allen maybe?” another employee name-dropped another actress.

“I think you all keep forgetting one important thing. And that’s the fact that no one, wants to play the role of The Curator anymore! Neither, are they interested, in being, on the show itself when there are other, far more successful ones!” a female staff pitched in this time, and everyone went silent for a few seconds.

Considering how terribly rated the past few seasons had been, almost every actor, especially the more accomplished ones, were evading the role of the titular time traveler and the series itself like the plague.

Yet, it didn’t even take a few seconds more before the employees, began pitching less renowned actors this time after that reality set in.

Regardless of how true the employees’ words were, they still needed to find an actor for the role.

As all the discussions were happening and bunch of names were dropped, one particular employee moved over to the front of the room to ask their showrunner who had his head buried in his laptop.

“Sir, which potential actors are we going to be screening for the new season?” Jon’s assistant, a sharp-looking young man with a serious demeanor, asked the man.

Jon who was jotting down a few notes on the laptop while scratching his head at intervals, paused for a brief moment.

Gently closing the laptop, the man removed his reading glasses and then propped his chin up with a half-curled fist.

Staring at the other employees sitting around the rectangular-shaped table, all of them having gone silent in anticipation for his words, Jon casually stated;

“First off, we won’t be using older actors this season…”

Hearing those words from the man, a genuine wave of surprise cascaded over everyone in the room.

“I’m certain you’ve all seen the analytics. We have an increased number of teenagers than young adults watching the show for the past three years now and it’s being an upward trend.” the man kept speaking.

“Times change, and so must we…” he added with a shrewd gaze.

“That said, I already have a few good candidates in mind for the various roles. I’ll contact them in due time for a private screening.” Jon added nonchalantly, causing everyone in the room to widen their eyes in further surprise.

“So, let’s get back to pitching ideas for the scripts. I want to see what some of you have come up with.” he ordered and swiftly, all the employees in the room returned to their professional demeanor.