Hollywood What If Chapter 252
Reputation was a very important thing. This aspect would determine how people would look at you. How they would respect you or ignore you.
Kazir experienced being ignored. When he tried to sell Se7en to many production companies, almost all of them ignored him. If not for New Line Cinema which was interested in his script, perhaps he would never reach his current position.
'But I can't deny that New Line Cinema is not a company you can trust. What they did to Peter Jackson was not something to be proud of. They basically scam the director.'
This thing still didn't happen since Lord Of The Rings was still in production, but Kazir was 100% sure that New Line Cinema would definitely fuck Peter Jackson up.
"Reputation is hard to build, but so easy to destroy. Once you make a mistake, it's impossible for people to forget it."
Kazir muttered to himself while watching the crew preparing the set. The place had a green background all around.
Kazir intended to use green screen technology for some scenes. This technology was also called Chroma Key Compositing or Chroma Keying.
A visual-effects and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two or more images or video streams together based on color hues (chroma range). (Google)
This technique was mostly used for background. The crew could film the scene in real places but there were situations when it was hard to do so. For them to film in public such as public roads, they have to contact the local municipality and time was their main problem in this regard.
A green screen could fix this problem. Although Kazir only intends to use this technology for a few times... He wanted to practice while using Sony-Columbia's money.
Kazir's expertise was more in horror movies back in his past life, using dark shades and such to scare the audience... His movies were never popular. His experience with the green screen was basically non-existent.
So yeah, he used this moment to ask for a green screen studio to expand his knowledge.
Kazir knew that the future of most blockbusters from now on would rely on heavy green screens.
Marvel's movies.
DC movies.
Pirate Of The Caribbeans.
'Sony-Colombia put a huge investment into this movie, spending some of it on a green screen is not a crime. Besides, I'm not using my money anyway.'
He slightly grinned. This was the power of respect. Sony-Columbia respected him because he could generate a lot of profits.
So yeah, he milked the company to learn green screen.
'Speaking of respect...'
Kazir glanced at his surroundings and found that Kirsten Dunst seemed uncomfortable. The actress tried to act like nothing was wrong but Kazir could see through her lies.
The set was packed with men. The reason was because of the fact that many women resigned from their job after being berated by the producer.
In this project, three people had the most authority. Kazir Grey, the representative of Marvel, and Jezebel Salome.
Unfortunately, Jezebel loved demeaning the women in the crew. One by one, women left the crew until only a handful were left.
From the looks of it, it seemed that Kirsten Dunst suffered from the producer as well.
Kazir thought of firing the producer but he knew that he could not do it without a real reason.
'I can't say that she's affecting the production since there's no substantial effect. The production is going as smoothly as possible.'
Kazir admitted that Jezebel had bad blood with women but overall, her work ethic was good. The production was in the right direction because of her.
The producer was responsible for keeping, organizing, and managing the crew. So far, Jezebel was doing right.
'Jezebel works for Sony-Columbia, even if I'm the director, they can't put all of the trust in me. At least, Jezebel shows respect for me. Whenever I said my opinion, she would agree for most of it.'
He could say that his authority over the crew was amazing, even though almost 2/3 of this crew had first time working with him.
Kazir decided to approach Kirsten Dunst, he wanted the actress to have a steady mind so that she wouldn't affect the filming.
But before he could talk to the woman, an old actress comforted Kirsten Dunst.
The old actress was Rosemary Harris, the Aunt May of this movie.
Rosemary Harris had been in the industry since the 50s. They hired her because her salary was within their budget.
Rosemary talked to Kirsten and the young actress slightly smiled.
Kazir got closer and heard their conversation.
"I can't believe that she will call me fat and ugly. I didn't eat anything today because I don't want to look fat in the camera.]
"She really said that word per word?" Rosemary asked.
Even Kazir was surprised. He didn't expect that Jezebel would say that straight up.
"No, she just said that I need to be slim and pretty since Mary Jane is the queen of the campus. She said that to me thrice on different occasions, saying that she wanted this project to be perfect. Since then, I can't help but be conscious of my body. This is my biggest role and I don't want to make a mistake. You know how hard it is for a woman to get a huge role. Competing for this role is not that easy and I don't want to get replaced."
The woman touched her flat stomach... She might be hungry right now.
"Oh, honey, you don't have to think about it seriously. You are pretty and young."
The standard for women's beauty was outrageous and sometimes fucked up. Women had to shave their legs, suffer in diet to keep their figure and use make-up to mask themselves. In all honesty, men were responsible for this problem as well.
Hollywood What If Chapter 253
The two women started talking and Rosemary comforted Kirsten Dunst.
Kazir felt like he didn't need to talk to the actress anymore. Someone already did it for him.
Suddenly, Kazir realized that Rosemary was staring at him and signaled him that everything was fine.
Kazir nodded and walked away, giving the two more time to talk.
The mentality of the actors was very important. Their mental status could affect the filming.
Just as Kazir expected... Kirsten Dunst had dozens of NGs. She did her best but she couldn't help but be conscious of the cameras.
'She is trying to show her beauty...'
Kazir sighed. It was fortunate that they were not late. Kazir had this passive ability that made the filming faster. He knew what to shoot and his plan was firmed. There was no reason to stack many useless scenes since the movie was already completed in his head.
However, it was a different thing if the actress had the problem. It was outside of his influence.
The best he could do was encourage Kirsten and never lash at her. Her mental status was sensitive and negative comments would be bad.
"Kirsten, come here."
"Yes director."
The woman realized that the director reached his limit.
Directors had short fuse and they were vocal about that. They would scream in rage if the actress kept making NGs(No Good).
Kazir was known as a calm director but everyone has his limit. It seemed that Kazir reached his.
Kirsten gulped hard and approached the director who was currently sitting on the chair.
"Kirsten, what's on your mind right now? Your eyes are always darting at the cameras. You're consciously trying to act sexy. What's with that?"
"Director... I want a lasting impression."
The director sighed...
'This is the typical mentality of extra and vase.'
Extra and Vase characters were background characters. They didn't have lines and were not important at all. So the actors/actresses had this mission to give a 'lasting impression' so that they had a chance to work on another project.
But Kirsten already passed this stage before she even became an adult.
She was part of the cast of Interview with the Vampire, together with Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, and Brad Pitt.
She was part of the cast of Jumanji.
Kazir could berate the woman right now. But he knew that it was the wrong thing to do.
The best answer was to give the confidence she needed.
"Kirsten, do you know why I decided to cast you even though some of the crew was against it?"
"Director?"
"Because I see something in you. I see the potential in you. You're young and your future is endless. Furthermore, you're beautiful. The way you smile makes me smile. So don't think about leaving a lasting impression. Because in my opinion, you already leave a strong impression on everyone in the cast."
Kazir didn't give a fuck about anything of what he uttered. Sounds heartless but Kazir would never hesitate to praise a literal shit if that shit would give them a huge box office.
"Don't think about some people who make fun of you. In my opinion, they are trying to destroy your mentality because they don't want to see you succeed. They are jealous of you."
So yeah, he lied with a straight face. Kazir was never fond of Kirsten Dunst, that was the truth. But business was business and he would do his best to make things work right.
'... Am I a sociopath or a psychopath? I didn't study psychology and I never knew the definitions. Perhaps Palenque knows the answer, my assistant director knows a lot about human psychology.'
Suddenly, Kirsten's eyes widened as if she realized the truth. She looked at Kazir, slightly blushing, and nodded.
"T- Thanks, director!"
Kirsten glanced in the direction where Jezebel was standing. She gave the producer a smug smile and returned to the set.
Jezebel just tilted her head. The producer was actually mad that Kirsten kept making a mistake. She reminded Kirsten that she should be perfect in front of cameras yet she had so many NGs.
Surprisingly, after that conversation, Kirsten Dunst rarely had NGs. Even her smile and expressions seemed genuine. As if she was a recent graduate who was blooming in society, the role of Mary Jane in the movie.
...
...
...
"Damn, did you see read the newspaper?"
"Shh, we are in the office. You shouldn't talk about movies that are not related to us."
"Why, it's still early in the morning. Most of our managers and supervisors are going to arrive half an hour later--"
"What are you guys talking about?"
Tom Rothman appeared behind the two interns. He always arrived early.
"C-CEO! Good morning!"
The two interns greeted their boss and immediately walked away. They were just new in this job and didn't want to make a scene, not in front of the CEO.
Tom Rothman glanced at the newspaper that one of the interns was carrying and thought of something.
When he reached his office, he asked his secretary to bring him the newspapers for the day.
Most of the front covers were about Wanted.
--The fourth 1 billion dollar movie in the history of cinema! Wanted!
-- The movie that Director Kazir Grey directed surpassed 1 million in the first month of November.
-- After six months of screening, Wanted surpassed 1 billion dollars!
-- The movie of the year 2000. Wanted.
Reading the headlines, Tom Rothman could not help but shake his head.
There were no What Ifs. Not anymore. Everything left was regret.
Regret over the fact that they didn't hold hands with Grey Pictures.
"X-Men was released in July and it had a great reception. But if I knew that Cinematic Universe has this kind of impact, I should have postponed the project and waited for the chance to work with Kazir, or at least hear his opinion about a possible X-Men Cinematic Universe."
[I sincerely thank you guys for supporting my novel. It means a lot to me. Next week, I decided to give my all and update TOFD and RDD as well. I pray that motivation possessed me and keep my promise.]