[Hyde POV]
"So, are we trying to find the next Al Pacino?" Eric said teasingly.
I snickered and said, "No. The next Michael Kelso."
"That's silly. You don't get a Michael Kelso at an audition. You get a guy like that at a mental institution." Donna joked.
Ophelia was staring at the three of us with confusion.
We went through twenty people in the audition. Five of those didn't even pass through the first round of audition– the looks.
But I did take note of the people with a good delivery and characters.
"Next, number 21." Mary Elizabeth called the actor.
A young man in his early twenties entered the room wearing only a white tank top undershirt, ditching the traditional look.
He was quite sweaty too. He has a face that reminded me of a young Johnny Depp, but with a slight difference.
"Hoo." I placed my pen on my chin, looking at him, slightly impressed.
"You're Don?" I asked. "Don… what?"
"Just Don." He replied. "It's short for Donatello."
"You're Italian?" I asked.
"Yes. Although I don't look like one." He said confidently.
"Did you take off your shirt to look more like the character?" I asked again.
He nodded and said, "He's a blue collar worker. I've worked construction with my uncle before. This is what we wore in the summer."
He took out his resume and placed it on the table. I checked and he has no experience in acting other than doing theater in high school.
I didn't mind that.
"Can you show me your interpretation of the character?" Donna asked.
"Sure." He nodded and his gaze turned deep and sorrowful.
"I miss you." He reached out his hand, but at the last second, his eyes widened and he pulled back away immediately.
I smiled in satisfaction and said, "Everyone picked the easier scenes. You're the only one who picked the PTSD scene. Why?"
He went silent for a bit and said, "The story. It's familiar to me."
I checked his resume again, and it turned out he went to Vietnam when he was 18 years old.
I nodded and said, "Ophelia. Why don't you go there, and see if there's chemistry with you two? Start at scene 13."
Ophelia nodded and walked next to Don.
They acted like high school sweet hearts. Being giddy and playful.
"Now stare into each other's eyes and slowly move towards each other."
They followed direction, stared into each other's eyes.
"Cut." Donna called before they could kiss.
"That'll be all. Thank you." Eric told Don with a polite smile.
"Wait. Don." I stopped him before he could leave.
He turned around, confused.
"Can you pick a stage name? I like Donatello, but I feel like if you have two words, it will be much better. Like Donny Osmond."
His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"What do you think will work best for me?" He asked.
"What about Donnie Brasco?" I suggested.
His eyes lit up immediately.
"Donnie Brasco. That sounds nice. I think I'll make that my stage name now." He said with a grin.
After he left, Eric asked me, "So. Do you think he's our guy?"
"Let's take a look at the rest of them first. He's close, but maybe we can find someone better."
The audition went on till 9 in the evening. Eric yawned and said, "I'm hungry. We have gone through everyone, right?"
"There's still ten more people waiting outside." Donna sighed. "Let's make this quick."
On the casting call, there were a few roles instead of just the male actor. A young widower, an old lady in her mid 40s, a guy best friend, and a girl best friend.
A waitress entered the audition, her white shirt had coffee spilled on it. The stain was already quite dry now.
"I'm Julia Samberg." She trotted to give her resume to me.
I picked it up and studied it closely.
Twenty-two years old. Studied acting in Goodman School of Drama. Has a couple of TV appearances.
"You can begin now." Donna said tiredly.
Julia nodded and began reading her lines as the girl's best friend.
I watched her closely and finally called it.
"Cut."
"Is there anything wrong with my performance?" She was taken aback.
"No. You're really good. You're in." I said casually.
Taken aback, she widened her eyes in shock and stammered, "I'm– I'm in?"
"Yeah. It's a two week filming starting this Friday. Can you take time off from work?" I asked.
She nodded seriously. "Yes. I can!"
"Good. About the payment?"
"Do you have an agent?" I asked again.
She shook her head slightly.
"You should get one. I can tell you now, you're getting paid 5000 bucks for the role."
"That's plenty." She grinned and said, "Where do I sign?"
"I'll call everyone who passed the audition tomorrow." I said dismissively.
With everything done, we finally had time for dinner. Then, as if energized again after the meal, we ended up going to a nightclub too.
"Ah. I'm so tired." I groaned tiredly as I laid down on my bed, still wearing my suit.
Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door.
"Hmm? Did Eric forget his keys?"
I sighed and went to open it up, only to see Ophelia standing there.
"What are you doing here?" I asked tiredly.
"Um. Donna and Eric… They are… on the bed–"
"Say no more." I invited her inside the room. "You can hang out on Eric's bed."
We had separate beds in the room. I went to the bathroom to change into my pajamas– tank top and sweat pants, then laid down on the bed, eating chips while watching TV.
Ophelia flipped through the script and tried to talk to me about it.
"So, this scene. Where she finally–"
"Zzz." I pretended to snore to avoid talking. She got pissed and threw a pillow at me.
"You just laughed a second ago." She snapped.
I chuckled and said, "Can we not do this? I'm so tired right now. I don't want to talk about the movie."
"You're a director. You're going to need to direct people during the shoot. Tell people what they should do! Help them understand the character better!" She nagged.
I dropped my head down on the pillow, which made her even angrier.
"I'm so tired." I whined.
"Well. Tough. I want to know why my character went to Paris."
Ophelia asked me a lot of questions about the character that night. Eric never returned to my room. That bitch.
The next morning, I woke up groggily. Ophelia however, already had a shower and was ready for the day.
"Chop chop. We need to get breakfast. Go brush your teeth." She nagged me.
That afternoon, I called the actors who had passed the auditions. They came back to the same room they auditioned in.
"The shoot is going to start tomorrow. In Point Place. If you don't have transport, you can come with us."
With the contract, they were obligated to be at the town for the shooting. But I tried to help whenever I could.
Most of them have their own car, except for Julia who opted to ride with me.
Finally, it was time for me to test out my skills as a director.
…
Point Place. Megan's house.
I set up a camera facing the front porch.
Ophelia opened the door in a rush and giggled as she saw Don in front of the house. She hugged him, grabbed his hand and pulled him as she ran.
"Cut. Nice." I shouted. The camera still rolled and the cast broke from their characters, laughing slightly.
"We're not shooting any dialogues." Ophelia laughed with disbelief.
I grimaced and said, "I need to set up the set first. Give me a break."
Suddenly, Jackie approached me with a letter in her hand.
"Huh?"
"The school said you can use them for the shoot." She said with a smug smile. "And I already called the students to become extras for the shot. So, you're welcome."
I accepted her help readily and said, "That's actually really helpful. Not in a bad girl way, but more of a good girl kinda way."
Her eyes flickered at the hidden sarcasm and she said, "Hmm, maybe I should be a bad girl and just rip off the letter?"
I grimaced, "I never asked you to go pick it up anyway."
"Just say thanks."
"Okay. Thanks."
For the extras, I had already hired them through a talent agency in Chicago. But most of them looked pretty old. I mean, they were in their early twenties, but seemed like they were in their early 30s instead.
Chain-smoking, not even once.
I still use them for scenes around the town.
Jackie helping me with calling actual students was actually pretty helpful.
After the shoot, Ophelia and Donnie approached me.
"Don, how are your living arrangements?" I asked him.
"I'm living at a motel for now. Some of the other actors also live there." He said, trying to hide his displeasure at the motel.
"Is it the 66 motel?" Eric asked. It was the same motel Eric and Donna went after prom.
"Yeah." Donnie replied casually.
"That place is really bad." Eric turned to me as he turned off the lighting. He helped me with the camera and lighting at times.
"You're living with your girlfriend right? Why didn't you get a hotel room?" I asked him.
"We're saving everything for us to get married." He replied. I already gave him five thousand dollars in advance for the role.
Both him and Ophelia would get twenty thousand each for their roles as the main lead of the movie.
I thought about it and said, "I'll see what I can do about it."
"You don't have to. I'm fine with the motel." He said with a satisfied laugh. The concern was already enough for him.
"No. Since I'm going to bring a lot more important people to the town, I need a place to store all of them."
I was thinking of buying a small apartment, but there was none in town. The closest thing to an apartment here was a motel.
'Maybe I'll buy the motel and change it up?'
…
Five days passed by very quickly as we started the shoot. Eric and I had to learn a lot of skills on the go, which made both of us feel frustrated.
"Aww. Eric, you worked really hard. I've been watching you from the side, and you look really handsome while you're working." Donna placated Eric.
Taken aback, Eric pretended and said, "Yes. That's why I do this. To seduce you."
I grimaced and said, "get a room."
"You're just jealous because you don't have a girlfriend." Eric snarked at me.
"What?!" I snapped at him angrily. He flinched and ran away with Donna quickly.
"You single bitch." Donna teased me. "Go get a girl if you're so jealous."
"I'm busy." I checked the call sheet and finally ended the filming for tonight.
…
The next day, I filmed the scene inside the house. By the dining table, a picture window was installed.
Ophelia held a painting of hers made 7 years ago. Her eyes widened in shock as she realized her painting had come to life.
The apple tree, the lily bush, the farm in the backyard, the green watering can, and so on.
Tears slowly flow from her eyes.
"Idiot." She turned and ran outside the house. It began to rain heavily.
The camera followed her until they found the man who was walking away.
"I LOVED YOU!" She shouted.
The man slowly turned backward.
"I LOVED YOU NOAH!" She confessed loudly. "And.. I STILL LOVE YOU!" She panted heavily.
Noah walked towards her, and she walked towards him. Then, they ran to each other. She jumped on his arm, and made out with him in the pouring rain.
"Okay. Cut." I shouted.
The two actors who were kissing in the rain broke away from each other. Donna and Eric went to them, wrapped them in towels and brought them back to the tent.
"Donnie. Well done. The after shot is all done, so shave your beard off. We're going to go 7 years before." I told him.
"Are you sure? What if we need to reshoot?" He asked with concern, touching his beard slightly.
I smirked and said, "Then you might need to stay here until your beard grew."
He flinched slightly before smiling. "Hey, I have nothing to do anyway. I might stay here."
His girlfriend, Serena, quickly approached him and kissed him passionately on the lip. I saw her glaring at Ophelia for a few seconds before pulling Donnie away.
Ophelia rolled her eyes and muttered, "Like I even want her boyfriend."
I laughed and said, "Your acting's too good. You really look like a woman desperately in love. That's why she's insecure."
Ophelia smiled mischievously as she looked at me. "I see. I'm just too good."
I grimaced slightly. "Now, don't get your ego all inflated. I'm going to need the innocent girl for the next scenes."
She giggled slightly.
"Your character, not you." I sighed.
She widened her eyes and cackled like usual.
Big Red approached me as I was talking with Ophelia.
"Hey, are we really shooting in Paris?" Donna asked, her eyes glittering.
"I'm only taking the bare bones crew. Only Ophelia, me, and… that's it." I replied.
"So you're going on a date with her to Paris?" Donna was jealous. "I'm the scriptwriter. I want to go there too!"
"Fine then. Ask your parents if you can go."
She got deflated immediately. "No, they won't let me go alone."
I planned to go to Paris for one day to shoot the montage on the streets in a few days.
"So we're going to Paris alone?" Ophelia was blushing.
"For work." I was exasperated. "This is just a work thing."
After the shooting, I went back to my office.
The marketing office that I used to set up meetings with the Radioshack people before had turned into a temporary space for the production company.
The place used to be empty. Now it's filled with all sorts of props. Wardrobes, artworks and such.
I turned on the projector and watched Shannon Tate's movie with the scoring in place.
The music elevated the film greatly.
I made a fictional sound company called 'Echospace', and registered it on Cayman Island with Bruce's help.
It sounded like money laundering, which was partially true. The music I used in the movie was copy-righted to prevent future hassle.
Since the music was made by a company in 2025, I need to make sure the movie could trace the origin since there was a huge risk of lawsuits if I didn't.
People could just claim they were the one who made the movie and tried to get a piece of the profit.
"Knock knock." Bruce entered the office happily, carrying a huge bag with him.
"Who's there?" I said.
"Bruce."
"Bruce who?" I smiled slightly.
"Bruce, the owner of AIP and is rebranding it to be Rockwell Pictures." he said happily as he sat next to me, watching the movie too.
"Ah. This is nice. My wife really loves this movie." He said with a satisfied smile.
"She didn't beat you up for wasting money?" I teased.
"No. My brother almost did. But he watched the movie and changed his mind. Although, Patty said the movie needs the sex scene at the end."
"I'm not doing that." I grimaced. "We never had sex."
"She also said that if you're in LA, people will fight all over you for your editing work."
Bruce chuckled and took out his cigar. "Maybe even pay you a quarter million for it."
This time, we could light it up and smoke it in the office.
"Ah. This reminds me. I got a guy to handle the distribution company. He's the butler's son. He's pretty loyal. He'll answer to you after today."
"Good." I nodded slightly. "Are you really going to let me handle the direction of the company?"
He smiled softly and said, "I'm pretty lazy. So I will not be manning it at the helm. You have a vision. It's better for you to handle the company direction now."
"Hmm… 70-30?" I tried to haggle the profit share with him.
"How about 75-25?" He grinned. "Once you give me 5 million, I'll make it 70-30."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" I was confused.
"What are you talking about?" He was confused too.
"Profit sharing from a movie." I explained.
"Oh. I'm talking about shares of the company."
"What?" I was shocked. "You're giving me 30% shares?"
"Yes. I wanted to do 40%, but my brother took 40% already. So I split the rest of the shares with you."
"So you have 30% too?" I was really surprised.
"Yes." He smiled innocently. "We're partners. I have to give my brother 40% since I used his money, and all of his lawyers to do this."
The bastard in front of me didn't even use his own money to create the company. Ross Rockwell had to fork out 20 million dollars to buy the production company.
Bruce said he'd use his own money to finance a production company and buy movie rights.
I gave him the list and a check for two million dollars to get the rights for the movies I wanted. Whether its distribution rights or buying the whole movie outright, it depends on the capability of the butler's son in negotiating it.
"Are we really not going to do anything this summer?" Bruce was a bit depressed.
"Star Wars is going to dominate the summer. We should wait until the fall before releasing anything."
Bruce nodded dejectedly. He has connections with the theaters now, so he has itchy fingers. He really wanted to put movies into the big screen.
"What's in the bag?" I asked him.
"Oh. Right. I forgot. Here." He gave me a bag filled with tapes.
"You gave me 400 thousand two days ago to buy out the rights for Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
He furrowed his eyebrows slightly, "The company is having a legal battle right now, especially for this movie. So I managed to get it for 300 thousand, for you to have the US distribution rights."
I grinned in satisfaction and said, "You want to put a movie in theaters? Now, we can do it."
"The movie's 4 years old. If it's going to succeed, it'll have succeeded already." Bruce was skeptical about my plans.
"It did succeed. It made 16 million on a 140 thousand budget." I looked at him with disbelief.
"Really?" Bruce was shocked. "It didn't look like it succeeded."
"Because the company who has the right was a front for the mafia. They covered it up so they didn't have to pay the production company their true cut."
"Oh." Bruce was shocked.
I laughed and said, "Just wait and see. But first, I'll need to edit the movie. My printing company can make posters now. So we can save some money there."
I stood up and said, "I'll see you tomorrow."
He threw his hand in disbelief. I left and went straight home.
I put in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film reels into the film scanner and began editing it again using my laptop. Just to fix the pacing of the film.
I alternated between shooting my movie and editing the film that very same night. The most important thing for a horror film was the sound.
The jumpscares, the uneasy music, everything was elevated with the help of my future software.
The next day, I gave Bruce the new version of the movie.
"We can start it up at drive-ins and late night theaters." I told him. "Star Wars are conquering the mainstream timeslots, so we can only do this."
He was confused at first by all of the cinema release dates, but he decided to just trust me on this.
"I'm going to buy this town's drive-in theater." He said suddenly.
"Why?" I was confused.
"I just want a place to test this." He smirked.
I nodded and said, "I too want to buy a theater. I talked to the mall about turning the upper floors into a cineplex. But it will cost me like half a million dollars."
Bruce was surprised. "In this town?"
I nodded and said, "Yeah. In this small town."
Bruce's strip mall was already filled with new businesses. Otherwise, I could just transform one of the lots there into a cinema.
"Instead of buying the drive-in, why don't you let me handle this?" I told him.
"Sure. I'll leave it to you."
…
I went to the mall to talk with the owner the next day. We had already communicated before, and I was just there to sign the lease.
"A 10-year lease." He said with a nervous expression. Mark was quite slim, and he had fully white hair at 40 years old.
I shrugged and signed the papers. My trust manager then helped me officiate the document since I was only 17 years old.
"I want to start the construction today." I told him.
He nodded gleefully and said, "The west wing is now yours. Do whatever you want with it."
"Pleasure doing business with you." I said and left his office.
First, I went to check the place. The entrance was covered with a white wall. There was a small door at the side.
I entered through the door and frowned slightly as I saw the place.
"This is just an empty space huh?"
I immediately took photos of the place and contacted an architecture firm. I wanted a design for a cinema. This time, I picked a place outside of the US.
Malaysia.. One of the most mall-heavy countries in Asia.
Their cinemas were built inside malls, not as standalone buildings like in the US.
That meant every square foot had to be efficient. Everything was designed for flow. How people walked in, where they stopped, what they saw first.
If I was going to build a cinema inside a mall, I might as well copy from people who already solved the problem.
'Can I really make it in three months?' I was quite nervous about it.
Then, I went back to the film shooting. This time, I was shooting the scene at school.
Donnie had already shaved off his beard. I even made him cut his hair to seem more like a student.
I filmed the two of them from the school window as they stood face to face with each other underneath a tree.
It was a full body wide shot. The two of them were standing on the right side of the shot, and the tree balanced them out on the left side.
"Great. I got the shot I wanted." I smiled in satisfaction.
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