Reese had a lot of info about movie critiquing. It was her thing, basically. Seeing what went wrong in a film then fixing it. That it was happening in front of her didn't change her feelings. She'd stopped herself from changing their film multiple times.
It was just...Reese had seen so many plot holes.
But Phineas had admitted that there was a problem in production. Reese could hardly turn away someone asking for the help. She pointed out the problem, and how it had basically infected the entire production which is why Phineas and Ferb felt blocked.
Once they fixed it, the video they uploaded was their most popular one yet.
Reese got a promotion.
==W&R==
Reese walked into the backyard. Phineas and Ferb were already cleaning up the effects from their last production.
"Hey Phineas. Hey Ferb." Reese greeted.
"Hey Reese." Phineas greeted back, while Ferb just gave a short wave.
"Did you know there's a production team up your block?" Reese asked them. They had made it hard for Reese to get to their house. Hard, but not too difficult. She'd trained for getting past security- well she'd trained how to be security so sneaking past them was just...easy.
Phineas dumped some more of the destroyed set in the trash. "Yeah. Mom saw them."
"Huh." Reese hummed. Her phone rang. Reese pulled it out, confused. Usually the people calling her this early was just Phineas. The ID wasn't Mr Martin's, which is most of the reason Reese answered. "Hello?"
"Yes! Hello! Is this Reese Martin, with Phineas and Ferb Productions? This was the number on the website for people wanting to reach out."
Reese huffed. She pulled the phone back, blocking the receiver with her hand. "Phineas! Did you add my personal line to the website of your vids?"
"Yes?"
"I told you to use the workline!" Reese reminded him.
Phineas hummed. "Oh yeah. Ferb will fix it."
Rolling her eyes, Reese went back to the phone. "This is she. To whom am I speaking?"
"I'm a big time movie producer. I wanted to ask if I could get your guys on my movie?" The producer asked. "It's a live action version of the Princess & the Sensibilities."
Reese pulled the phone down. "Hey. You guys wanna direct a big budget movie?"
"Ferb?" Phineas asked. Ferb held up a thumb. Phineas grinned at Reese. "Yep!"
"Great!" Reese went back to the phone. "Alright, hit me. What's your offer?"
"A moderate payment for a first time director plus 2% gross."
"Moderate payment? Excuse me, sir, but Phineas and Ferb Productions are the hottest new thing in online entertainment." Reese argued. "We'd be putting aside our own projects to help you complete your's. And we want 5% gross."
"5?! Uhh...I can give you it 3."
"Thank you. We also want a piece from the back end." Reese bargained.
"Sure. Fine.
"The payment?" Reese prompted. "Don't think I forgot about that. If it would help, we can get our own team for cameras and set."
"You can?! Then you can definitely get a better cut of the budget! Oh boy, this'll be a big hit!"
"Pleasure doing business." Reese clapped her phone shut. She turned to the boys. "I'll get the Fireside Girls together, I bet they could get some movie making badges from it. You two head on down. Make sure they give you the scripts so you can look them over."
Phineas and Ferb proudly saluted. With an exchange of excited grins, the two ran from the backyard.
Reese opened her phone, calling Isabella. "Isabella? Are you heading over?"
"I was just about to, yeah."
"Change of plans. How does your trope feel about earning some Movie Making badges?"
There was a rustling of paper. "Oh! We can earn our 'Camera Operation' badges. I don't think we have those yet. There's also the 'Stage Work' badge."
"Call the Girls." Reese instructed. "We're meeting at the movie set down the street."
==W&R==
Reese loved this. She loved the many moving parts of movie work. She helped get the Fireside Girls settled at the various spaces around the movie set. Together, she and Isabella had made sure that all the Fireside Girls were somewhere they had the best chance of getting another badge. Reese was on and off the phone with the writers, and other members of the movie team.
Every part of this was the best part of this. Even the lead actress that had decided to work for free, so that they could even afford Phineas and Ferb productions.
"Candace, baby!" The producer brought over the talent to the first set. "Let me introduce you to the directors of this film."
Phineas and Ferb came down from the overhead camera. They were searching for good angles with the cameras before they started shooting. "Hi, Candace." Phineas greeted.
"Phineas and Ferb? What are you doing here?" Candace asked, horrified.
"We're directing the movie. Our agent arranged the whole thing." Phineas pointed with a thumb towards Reese.
"I told you, I'm not afraid to pull us out of this project." Reese scolded the studio. "The original direction was shoddy, and full of plotholes that nobody in your age demographic was going to follow. Kids want what we're making. So either take it, or leave it." She clapped it shut, opening it again with another call. "This had better be Syd. Please tell me you have the third act in line? Oh thank you Syd, you're saving my life here."
"Wait, wait!" Candace pulled the producer aside. "Don't you think they're a little young to be big-budget movie directors?" She pleaded.
"With 176,000,000 hits, they could be in diapers for all I care." The producer countered.
==W&R==
Costumes had finished with Candace's look. Phineas and Ferb had gone over to make sure Candace was actually wearing it. Reese was watching over the set, watching over the Fireside Girls as they worked. Isabella had them working like a well oiled machine.
Reese was still fielding calls left and right. It was a good thing she'd added the unlimited data package for her phone, otherwise she would've used up all her minutes. She still had the rubber snakes from the rollercoaster, it was just the spiders and rats that were giving her trouble. Same for the kitchen equipment. At this rate, Reese was just considering it easier to let real ones fall onto Candace.
But she couldn't. Causing an incident like that was liable to get them sued. Reese was a lawyer, that didn't mean she wanted her clients getting in trouble. It would be bad for their brand. So fake kitchen sinks were a must.
Thankfully Reese had managed to get some fake spiders and rats. While the Candace reaction shots of her screaming were great for the film, the last thing any of them needed was to clean those things up. Also Reese hated spiders too. She wouldn't put her own worst enemy through having spiders dumped on them. So she'd spare Candace too.
"Hey! Ugly monster! You're needed on the set!" Someone shouted.
"I'm coming!" Candace yelled.
Reese called out to the Fireside Girls. "Who has my fake spiders and rats?"
"I do!" Gretchen raised the box up high.
Reese clicked a finger gun at the Fireside Girl. "Yes!"
==W&R==
Candace was standing in the middle of the stage set. Reese had finished setting up the props for Ferb, and making sure everything else was ready. Yes it may be a bit obsessive to make sure everything was perfect, can Reese be blamed? It was a Phineas and Ferb Production. With Candace on the payroll.
Reese was allowed to be paranoid.
"Okay, Candace. This is a very important scene." Phineas explained to the lead. "It is nothing less than the emotional backbone of the whole film. Oh, and the villagers are coming at you with everything they've got." He clapped the movie slat.
Reese popped the top off the camera, letting Ginger run the camera. The two exchanged thumb-ups before going back to the filming.
"Uh, what do mean the villa-" Candace asked.
"Action! The air force!" Phineas ordered.
Ferb started throwing toy airplanes at his sister. Candace took the hits, trying and failing to dodge them. The giant lizard head was blocking her view.
"The space armada from the planet plumbing supplies!" Phineas called out.
Ferb and the Fireside Girls worked together to throw kitchen sinks and drains at Candace. It all collapsed on Candace- who had been unprepared.
"Beautiful! That's a print!" Phineas cheered.
Candace just groaned.
==W&R==
Reese clapped the movie slate. Phineas had finished tricking Candace out with a banana hat.
"Wow! Is this banana hat for some cool tropical dance number?" Candace asked, looking actually excited and had no idea what her brothers were like, apparently.
"We're trying to come up with some exciting camera angles for the big chase scene." Phineas explained. "So we strapped a camera on to this starving monkey."
The monkey- a big hulking one that was basically a gorilla- was just outfitted with a camera hat. Reese was proud of finding gorilla strength velcro. Also confused. Why was that even a product?
It caught the scent of the bananas. With a roar, he chased after a screaming Candace.
That idea was scrapped. Reese and Phineas put something else together.
"Sorry that monkey cam didn't work out. We're gonna try it with Ferb this time." Phineas handed his sister a sub sandwich from the craft service table. "Now take this sandwich and remember, Ferb hasn't eaten lunch yet."
Candace took hold of the sandwich.
Reese jumped back just as Ferb caught the scent. He roared- an exact copy of the gorilla- then ran. Candace screamed as she was chased and tackled.
Afterwards, Reese was helping get the camera off of Ferb's head.
"We're just using CGI for the monster face, right?" Reese asked.
Ferb nodded, taking another bite of his sub.
"That's okay then." Reese nodded, set firm in the idea.
==W&R==
Candace's costume was fixed up. The monster hat was back on her head, but you could still see her enraged blue eyes glaring at everyone smaller than her.
"Okay. In this scene, the monster; that's you, gets attacked by 800 cubic feet of rats, spiders, and snakes." Phineas told her.
"There is no way I am doing that!" Candace snapped.
"Don't worry." Reese assured her. "The snakes and rats are rubber."
Candace relaxed. She walked over to do the scene.
"What about the spiders?" Phineas asked.
Reese smiled. She pulled a remote from her pockets. "Oh those are robots." She pushed a button, activating all the robotic spiders. "I figured out how to make their moves realistic, though."
All the props were dumped on Candace. She screamed.
"AAH! Get em' off me! Get em' off me! Get em' off me! Get em' off me! Get 'em off me! Get 'em off me! Get 'em off me!"
"Maybe too realistic..." Reese made a note to fix that later. "She'll be fine."
"Yeah. Plus we got a great shot!" Phineas cheered.
==W&R==
They had been filming for most of the morning. Reese had made sure all the other scenes without Candace had gone smoothly. The talent they were able to get was incredible. Even when they had scenes with Candace, they weren't even annoyed with her obvious lack of training.
Reese wished she could give them all gift baskets.
Still everything was going perfect. Syd has given them the third act- finally. They could put together the final scene with no delays.
Candace was on a bed. Her orange hair was a wild mess. The monster head was gone. She was just a normal pretty princess.
"Okay. Candace, this is your beauty shot." Phineas explained in a calm voice. "The curse has been lifted, and you are no longer a monster. Now this scene is what the heart wants, but the mind can't have. Take one."
He walked off set. Ginger started filming.
"'To dream... To be free of the curse'." Candace recited, tiredly as everything from the day was starting to get to her.
"Beautiful. Keep going." Phineas encouraged. He grabbed a megaphone. "Cue the magical girly dust!"
Ferb started tilting a box of fake fairy dust over Candace.
"'Whether 'tis nobler to be loved…' Achoo!" Candace sneezed. The box of dust was dropped into her.
"Cue wind machine!" Phineas instructed.
Reese rushed over, flipping the switch. The giant fan activated.
Candace was blown by the fan. The strength had her gripping the bed rails to keep from flying away. Good thing they bolted down the bed. "'TO BE CURSED... BY LOVE…' PHINEAS, MAKE IT STOP!" Candace shouted over the roar of the fan.
"CUT THE WIND MACHINE!" Phineas instructed.
Reese flipped the switch again.
Candace flopped down on the bed.
"Okay. Drop the flower petals!" Phineas instructed.
"Whether 'tis no-"
Reese winced. She forgot to take the kitchen supplies away from Ferb.
"Wrong prop. What the heck. Let's keep it!" Phineas cheered.
"It won't make sense cause we said the leader of planet plumbing supplies died in the attack." Reese reminded him.
"Oh yeah. Better reshoot then." Phineas agreed. "You hear that, Ferb?"
Ferb held up a thumb.
They did a quick reshot with rose petals falling on Candace. She still stuttered through her lines but it was better than before.
It was a relief to Reese to hear Phineas finally about "Okay people, that's a wrap!"
==W&R==
Reese wasn't on the cutting room floor. She was responsible for cleanup. Luckily for the team, they wanted to seel the spiders for props in other movies. Reese accepted the deal, with the stipulation if they wanted more they had to work with her. She knew a good buisness opportunity when she saw one.
The movie was finished before 4 o'clock. They had a movie theatre full of teenagers as a screen audience. Reese knew that was gonna fall through- thanks Doofenshimirtz- so she made sure to have a copy of the finished product in another location so they could upload that to their website too.
Another great chance to increase the brand. Besides, she couldn't give the actors gift baskets before they went out of town. This was the best she could manage.
==W&R==
Reese was sitting with her snake, watching The Curse of the Princess Monster from her laptop. The reviews were coming in. People loved it. Luckily all the other actors spread info out to their fans, so everyone was coming to the site to look.
She pet her snake in pride. "I know you can't hear me, but I'm really proud of today. The movie came out better than expected too! Ferb did a great job with effects."
Salazara hissed in reply.
"Yeah, Candace was alright." Reese replied. "I don't like how her Ferb chase scene worked out on film. It could've gone better but...minor complaint."
Her snake hizzed, sliding down from her owner. Reese scoffed.
"You just don't like the truth." Reese snarked. Then she smiled. She had no idea what the snake was saying, just hoping it was entertaining. Even secret agents deserved a good laugh after all.
Agent Long S couldn't tell her owner that she enjoyed it. Thankfully, she didn't need to. Reese understood her well enough.