The first day's shoot wrapped at 8:00 PM.
Cassius collected $200 in cash.
The thick feel of the bills gave him a genuine rush of earning real money.
But more importantly...
In the sub-categories of his attribute panel, high-level stats like [Conviction] and [Acting with Your Back] had appeared for the first time and shown significant growth.
Walking out of the soundstage, the Los Angeles night breeze carried a chill.
Cassius looked back at the massive, brightly lit studio.
Inside, they were still filming the terrifying scene where the red-faced demon appears in the darkness behind the comatose boy, Dalton.
---
Day two on the set of Insidious.
The first lesson Cassius learned today was simple: In Hollywood, waiting is paid by the hour.
And time is the most expensive consumable here.
He arrived at Warner Bros. Stage 7 at 6:00 AM sharp.
But he wasn't called to the set until 10:30 AM.
In the meantime, he and a few other day-players with lines were stashed in a holding area plastered with blueprints of the "Lambert House."
The space was small, but the coffee was unlimited.
Time ticked away, dissolved in free caffeine.
"Get used to it, kid."
An older character actor playing a mover yawned.
"Moviemaking is 'Hurry up and wait.' I was on a Nolan set once. Waited all day just to have them film the back of my head."
Cassius nodded, but his mind was running the numbers.
Half the day gone.
He had only picked up [Rhythm Attribute: Coordination +1] from a PA and [Physicality Attribute: Endurance +1] from a camera assistant.
The efficiency was way lower than yesterday.
When he was finally brought to the set, he saw the scenery had changed. They were now in front of the iconic red door inside the house.
That bizarre red color was instantly unsettling.
The gaffer was tweaking the lights with blue gels, trying to cast an eerie, cold tone over the door.
A strange dust floated in the air.
It was a special mix of fine sawdust and talc created by the effects team to make the house feel old and creepy.
"Cass, in this scene, you're following Elise and Wilson to investigate this room," Rob explained rapidly.
"You're still holding the device. When Elise senses something wrong, you have a subconscious recoil reaction, then you deliver your line. Clear?"
"Clear!"
Cassius gripped the beat-up radio disguised as a ghost detector.
The shoot today revolved around that red door.
Director James Wan's pursuit of atmosphere was obsessive.
He demanded that when Wilson opened the door, his expression shouldn't just be simple fear.
It had to be a complex mix of fatalism and bone-deep dread.
"Patrick, I don't want 'Ah! A ghost!' I want 'Dammit... not here again...' You feel me?"
Wan gestured from behind the monitor.
Wilson nodded, took a deep breath, and let the emotion brew.
"Action!"
Wilson's hand rested on the doorknob. His muscles tensed—not from effort, but from resistance.
He pushed the door open. The light shifted across his face. His pupils constricted slightly, and his Adam's apple bobbed—an instinctual swallow of fear.
Not a single word spoken, yet the turmoil inside the character was perfectly clear.
"Cut! Excellent! Patrick, that's exactly it! Let's get a safety take!"
While Wilson was acting, Cassius saw a blue orb drop from his feet.
[Expression Attribute: Micro-expression +3] (Blue/Rare)
Cassius absorbed it instantly.
An understanding of fine facial muscle control flooded his brain.
Often in acting, controlling the face is the hardest part. Micro-expressions taught him how to use the smallest movements to convey the most complex information.
It would make his acting look natural, so no one could accuse him of being a "stone-faced eye-bulger."
This was definitely high-end stuff!
Now it was time for Lin Shaye and Cassius's coverage.
Lin Shaye, playing the medium Elise, stood at the door.
She closed her eyes as if sensing something, a look of extreme disgust and wariness washing over her face.
"There's something in here... very old... very angry..."
She whispered, then snapped her head toward Cassius.
"Son, your equipment?"
Cassius immediately raised the device.
Following the direction, he took a subconscious half-step back, trying to force a nervous expression onto his face.
"Readings... the readings are spiking!"
Even though he had absorbed [Micro-expression], it clearly wasn't enough to handle a complex performance yet.
"Cut!"
The execution director yelled.
"Asian assistant! Your recoil was too fake! You looked like you stepped on a nail!"
"And your face is working too hard. You're scrunching everything up. It looks ugly on camera!"
"Natural! You're sensing danger, not doing calisthenics!"
A few low chuckles rippled through the crew.
Cassius's cheeks burned as he quickly apologized.
In front of true professionals, his little bit of accumulated skill was still too green.
He took a deep breath.
He mobilized the [Micro-expression] he just got from Wilson and fused it with his earlier [Gravitas], trying to calm himself down.
He recalled the [Conviction] dropped by Lin Shaye yesterday, trying to truly believe this environment was dangerous.
"Again!"
Take two. Cassius's recoil was smaller, his expression more contained.
But the director was still not buying it.
"Not enough! I want goosebumps, not awkwardness!"
He failed several takes in a row.
Cassius even saw the child actor playing Dalton mimicking his exaggerated face during the break, until his mom quickly stopped him.
Pressure. Massive pressure.
Just then, Rose Byrne, playing the mother Renai, finished a take where she was alone in a hallway feeling watched.
Her performance was extremely internal.
No screaming. No big movements.
She just hugged her arms, her eyes scanning the empty hallway in terror, her breathing slightly rapid.
One take!
A grey orb dropped from her feet.
[Emotion Attribute: Internalized Fear +2]
Cassius absorbed it immediately.
A feeling different from Wilson's suppressed explosion flowed into him. This was a more enduring, yet equally tense way of expressing fear.
He closed his eyes, rapidly fusing [Micro-expression] and [Internalized Fear].
Next take!
"Action!"
Lin Shaye delivered her line and looked at him.
Cassius raised the device. This time, he didn't take a big step back. instead, his shoulders suddenly tightened, and his neck went rigid for a split second, as if pierced by an invisible chill.
His eyes darted quickly into the room beyond the red door—suspicious and scared—before snapping down to the instrument.
His voice was lower than before, breathy: "Readings... are spiking."
He paused for half a second, adding a sharp, trembling intake of breath that wasn't in the script.
Silence on set for a beat.
"Cut!"
"Not bad! That works!"
The execution director sounded surprised. "Set up for the next one!"
A huge weight lifted off Cassius's chest.
Master of the craft!
Combining [Micro-expression] with [Internalized Fear] worked surprisingly well.
This gave Cassius a new perspective.
Before, he was too rigid with his attributes, trying to use them one at a time.
But acting is a comprehensive discipline. Relying on just one aspect meant losing the soul of the performance.