The wind whips the clean half of my blonde hair around. I want to get this done already. Why couldn't she just tell me what to do and be done with it? That's what a director's supposed to do. I know. I've taken a class in directing.
Which is why I should go easy on her. She's three years younger than me, and she volunteered to help with my second Batman movie. So she's a great person…
Just really bad at directing. But then again, I'm not so hot at that myself.
"Come on, George, your wife died here. Let the emotions dictate what you do," she says for the eleventh time. I counted.
"Lisa, if you'd just tell me what to do, I can add the emotions into it."
She shakes her head, sending her long, dark, and wavy hair around her and the camera she held up. "If I just tell you what to do, it'll be mechanical and not real. You're supposed to be Harvey Two Face Dent. I should tell you half of what to do. The other half you flip your coin for."
She's joking. Obviously. That stupid little smirk means she's joking.
I want to wipe my face. My whole face. But I can't, as half of it is made up to look like the bad half of Harvey Dent. The suit I'm wearing is alternately half white and half black…and yes, I am wearing two different color shoes. I feel ridiculous.
"Can't you trust me?" she asks, aiming those big brown eyes at me.
Aw crap. I'm a sucker for that look. Especially as she's a lot shorter, so she has to tilt her face up and did she pout like that on purpose? I take a deep breath and roll my eyes.
So I try it. I walk up to the side of the building, resting my hand on the brick. Here, I think, she died here. Heavy with understanding, I take another step forward. I look up, out, around…that much was in the script. Too heavy, I sink to my knees. It makes sense, I guess, when something hurts that bad. My hands go to my head in torment.
"Cut!"
I think I've gotten it right. She's smiling. Smiling's always a good sign.
Why couldn't he trust me? I might be just outta high school, but come on! I've been in theater since I can walk. I know about mechanical. I know about performances being unbelievable. I know.
I also know George isn't a professional actor. He'd never even been in theater. He's a movies guy. He's studying movies in college. So, yeah, he knows about the shooting, directing, camera angles, whatever, but I know about acting. I saw the first Batman movie he made and…well… the acting. That's all I'm saying. So excuse me for trying to make this movie something better. Something great.
He looks great. For dollar store make up, anyway. He did find better stuff, but he wanted to look the same from the first movie. Whatever. I just have to keep myself focused on the task at hand and not on how his green eyes are really dreamy…
Snapping back, I notice he's not doing anything. "Come on, George, your wife died here. Let the emotions dictate what you do." Yeah, that is the eleventh time I say this. Because, you know, maybe he's just got a short attention span. What am I saying, maybe?
"Lisa, if you'd just tell me what to do, I can add the emotions into it."
I shake my head. Sure, we could do it that way. But not everything has to be planned. I gave enough room in the script for this little insight into Harvey Dent. I'm the script writer, too, by the way. I'm primarily an actor, and I would have killed to be given free space to help characterization. But no, I give this little block of time to an amateur who needs his hand held. I'm done arguing. I'll state my case one more time.
"If I just tell you what to do, it'll be mechanical and not real. You're supposed to be Harvey Two Face Dent." Then a thought hits me.
"I should tell you half of what to do. The other half you flip your coin for." I like it. He doesn't. I sigh. I imagine he wants to be done. Time to break out the big guns.
I look up into those dreamy green eyes, set my mouth a tad lower, bring up my shoulders and shoot, "Can't you trust me?"
When he rolls his eyes, I know I won. He steps on to the taped X a couple yards away. I can sense the change already. He's honestly stepped into character. Excitement builds as he takes those leaden steps of the burdened. I was right! He looks up, out, around. I added that to help him get into it a little better. We'd already shot the looks, as I like the camera looking where the actor's looking…just a little habit of mine.
Is he kneeling? I resist the urge to dance in triumph. I expected a sigh or something less dramatic…but no, he's on the ground. Grabbing at his hair in torment.
"Cut!" I love him. I love him. Well, I do, he doesn't know, but that's besides the point. I love this shot. He smiles in response to my grin. Smiling's always a good sign.
Lisa jumped into his arms to hug him. As she landed, shots rang out like a machine gun. The two flattened against the wall.
"What's going on?" Lisa asked.
"I don't know," George responded, trying to see if anything was going on around them.
There was nothing. Except for the figure coming slowly toward them, an odd loping grace to his walk. As he came closer, details about him made the clean hair on George's head stand on end. He turned to Lisa, who was just as paralyzed as he was.
"We should run," she whispered.
Neither of them moved.
The purple suit, the green oily hair, the face. He was just about to them now.
"Why so serious?" George muttered back to Lisa. He attempted a smile.
"Are you kidding me?" She raised her eyes to heaven. Putting the camera down on the ground beside her, she tried to get a better look at the man.
His face was covered in cracked white face paint. He was holding a gun. "Hello, kiddies," he chuckled. "This is an odd make out spot." When he laughed again, Lisa sank to the ground. He saw this and stopped laughing. "Stand up, both of you, and move away from the wall." This order was curt, snappish.
They stood up, and George moved in front of Lisa. "Look, Mister…"
"I'm the Joker. But you already knew that." He chuckled slightly. "My face has been around enough for you to know…but Dent's? Not that that's what he looked like. Next time you want your make up done, call me. Here's my card." He threw one of his joker cards. "And you might want me to make you a better costume, too. You look more foolish than I do. Haha!"
"If that's all, Mr. Joker, sir, we'll just leave…" Lisa tried to stammer.
"If that's all? If that's. All. No, I don't think that's all. I've been watching you two since you set up your shoot. And if there's one little tiny itsy bitsy microscopic pet peeve of mine, it's canon."
"Please sir, we follow comic book canon—" Lisa tried again. George pushed her further behind him.
"Comic books," he laughed. "Comic books." He shook his head. "You think we're in a comic book? DO I LOOK LIKE SOMEONE OUT OF A COMIC BOOK!?"
He moved closer and grabbed at George's face, pushed his back against the wall. "So, if you know all that, do you know how I got these scars?" He paused for dramatic effect. "I was on set for this little movie a friend of mine was making, and the director wasn't pleased with my performance. So, he takes out his red paint, and draws this line along my face. So I'd always have a smile, he said. The character had to be lighter, but my character's girlfriend just died. So he couldn't be funny." His other hand on George, he lifted the gun to Lisa. "Well, he went off the deep end." He nodded to punctuate his story. "and he grabbed one of the grips' knives and he came up to me," he threw the gun on the ground and pulled a knife from his pocket, "he came up to me and said, 'Why so serious?'" He put the knife in George's mouth.
"Please, don't hurt him!" Lisa cried. She wanted to shake so bad her knees were buckling against each other.
"Oh." The Joker looked at her as though he just remembered she was there. "She doesn't want me to maul your pretty face. Isn't that sweet?" He dropped George and started in on Lisa.
"Am I right in assuming you scripted this travesty?" he asked, accenting the last T in 'travesty'. "Dent wouldn't like it, you know." He towered over her. "You messed up." This seemed to make him angry, and he grabbed at her face. She whimpered.
"How did you mess up? Well, for one, Dent never married. So he didn't have a wife to kill. That would'a been too easy. No, no, he had a fiancé, that's harder. That's messier."
"Let her go, Joker," a deep voice growled from the fire escape above them.
He sighed and made a face. "Can't you see I'm busy? You want these kids messing with canon? Just a minute, Batsy."
"Kids?" Batman replied.
"Yeah, there's the guy dressed up like Dent…" Joker looked around and could no longer see George. He seemed amused. "Lookie that. Your boyfriend has deserted you. Didn't expect that." He laughed a maniacal little laugh. He took the knife and pressed it to the side of Lisa's throat. He turned his head again. Surely the boy would see this and come out of his hiding spot. He pressed the knife in harder.
Lisa started to cry. She didn't want to die. If he didn't want her making their movie, she'd stop. Really. A trickle of warmth bloomed from a nick on her neck.
"Let her go, Joker. She's nobody."
Ain't that the truth, Lisa thought.
"I'm doing them a favor. Either they'll never talk to each other again, or they'll be inseparable for the rest of their lives."
"They're just a couple of kids. What do they have to do with anarchy? With the destruction of Gotham? What plan do you have now?"
The Joker threw his head back and laughed. This was a full out guffaw. "You still think I have a plan? Still? I thought you knew me better than that!" He continued laughing. "And…even….if." He had to pause to laugh and breathe. "And. Even if. I had a plan. Do you really think I'd tell you? HAHA!" He was now booming with laughter so fully he dropped Lisa to the ground.
She crawled away, gripping her throat. Curling into a ball, she stared at the Joker and his giggling.
George came out of nowhere with the tripod they'd elected not to use and smashed it against the Joker's head.
"Now that's more like it!" In the Joker's turning towards George, Batman struck quickly. Still laughing, Joker was being carried away by Batman, back up the fire escape.
Maybe smiling wasn't always a good sign.
Hey everybody! I hope you enjoyed this...it may be the opening to an actual full out story, depending on how well it goes over. I would like to know what you think. It's the first thing I've written in a while...a long while. so, you should review. Please?