A/N: Okay, I can tell you are all getting antsy. Not to worry, our girls will be meeting up!
I just really wanted to set things up so I didn't have to pause constantly for exposition.
"GOOD MORNING, PARTY PEOPLE!"
Jade looked up at the large man with a freshly shaved head and a blonde goatee. He honestly looked like an old beach bum, his surfing days far behind him. But he didn't act that way. He was bursting with energy, and everyone could feel it radiating off of him.
"Hey, Malcolm!" grinned Pierce. "How's it been?"
The enthusiastic fellow shook the producer's hand with vigor.
"Very good, very good. I mean I'm always pumped to get to set but this movie..." Malcolm paused dramatically to clutch his chest. "This movie means more than the last three I made put together!"
He turned and noticed the brunette sitting near him.
"Hello there! And you are?"
"That's Jade," said Tony. "This project means a lot and we brought her on to share the load for managing the production."
Malcolm held out his fist.
Jade reluctantly bumped it back.
"Awesome, Jade!" he said as he sat down. "Welcome to the dream team!"
The pale girl shot her producing partner a look.
(Is this guy for real?)
"Now that we have our director," Dorian began. "We can get this production meeting underway. Jade, have you read the script over the weekend?"
Jade leaned forward and opened a manila folder.
"Yes, I have. And I was mulling over some possible shot choices and even camera angles based on the screenwriter's descriptions..."
She stopped talking when she saw Tony wince uncomfortably.
"Okay, chillax, babe!" Malcolm said, with a raised hand. "That's why I'm here. We can determine the schedules and everything else here. Just leave the cinematography to me and my DP. We'll figure that all out on the day."
"He's right, Jade" Pierce backed him up. "I know you're used to directing your own scripts, but this is different. You're creative, I'm sure. But our job is the nuts and bolts of the shoot."
"Just leave the storytelling to Malcolm," added Tony. "It's okay. I was the same way when I started."
Malcolm nodded and grabbed a pen and paper.
"I appreciate organization, I bet you're very hardcore, but we gotta leave room for inspiration...spontaneity! And not to beat a dead horse, but I'm the director, babe."
(If this man calls be "babe" one more time, I'm going to dump my coffee on his face!)
(But we're not gonna do that because we want the job. Just roll with it.)
Tori was jogging through the park when she eyed a fountain and some benches. A good place to rest.
She stopped to catch her breath and rest her legs.
The Latina only ran when necessary, such as filming a chase scene. But she preferred a hike or a jog. Too often would Tori witness would-be fitness "experts" who would take off on the treadmill at full gallop just to peter out in 6-8 minutes. And they would be sore for the rest of the day.
But Tori paced herself and could keep it up for about 45 minutes without having to stop.
She pushed herself a tad today, so she was taking a much-needed break. Also, her partner needed to catch up.
HUFF! HUFF! HUFF! HUFF!
Shelby Marx gradually approached her trainer, her upper half looking more like a rag doll.
"Holy..." the actress said, running out of breath. "Gimme a minute...holy shit...that...was...intense!"
"Come on," offered Tori, pointing to the wooden park bench. "Take a load off."
The pair sat down, both sighing in relief. Tori noticed her water bottle was empty and groaned as she stood to refill it at the fountain. Shelby still had some in hers and was drinking.
"You hyped for first day?" Tori asked.
"Yes!" Shelby gasped, quickly swallowing her mouthful of water. "Can't..." she coughed. "Can't wait."
Tori closed her water bottle and took a drink straight from the fountain.
"How are the legs feeling, Miss Girl?"
Shelby leaned forward and rubbed her thighs.
"They are screaming!" she grinned.
Tori nodded and sat back down to join her.
"How about we call it a day this time?" she suggested. "In fact, let's take the rest of the week off. Don't want to overdo it on the eve of shooting."
The actress stretched and leaned back, her arms hanging across the bench.
"Sounds fine to me," Shelby said. "A little relaxation while I give the script another read."
"Just remember what I told you about doing those stretches at night after filming, so you don't wake up sore."
Shelby nodded, "I will. So, how did I do?"
"What do you mean?" asked Tori.
"You know, these last few days."
"Honestly, I'm impressed."
That made Marx perk up like a golden retriever.
"Really?"
"I didn't think you had what it took but you showed me that you can push yourself. You'll do fine on the movie."
Shelby smiled in adoration.
"Thanks, Tori. That means a lot coming from you. I could sense things weren't super between us in the beginning, so hearing those words come from you lets me know you're saying the truth."
Tori smirked.
"Yeah, you're not bad, Marx. If we both just focus and remember to take our breaks, this movie will come off without issues."
"Hopefully," Shelby sighed.
The two workout buddies regarded the park as they saw people running around or playing with their dogs.
"I have to admit," the actress smiled. "I never sweated so much with my clothes on."
Tori leaned her head back in exasperation.
"Shelby?"
"Yeah?"
"Remember that discussion we had about over-sharing?"
The thespian blushed and covered her eyes.
"Oh, right. Sorry."
The third day of the preliminaries, this week marked the end of pre-production. The goal was to begin filming the following Monday.
"I am liking this schedule!" exclaimed Malcolm.
Jade was a little worried. She looked at these shot lists and they were rather ambitious.
"Now, who were we going to get for the VFX house?" asked Pierce. "ILM, WETA, all the majors are booked solid. So, we should farm it out to one of the smaller companies."
Malcolm shook his head.
"Ah! Don't worry about it! It won't matter much. I'm thinking a little wire removal, maybe some face replacements. Some digital hullabaloos if the explosion needs more debris, etc."
The production manager and his assistant looked at each other.
"What do you mean?" asked Tony.
"Look, lady and gentlemen!"
Malcolm stood and started pacing around the room.
Dorian folded his arms.
(Oh, here we go. One of his big speeches.)
"The issue nowadays is audiences are too CGI-fatigued. It's time we went back to basics with filmmaking. I propose that we do as much as possible for real! I want actual cars falling off of roofs. I want real explosions. I want to give the people buying the tickets what they came to see!"
"Isn't some of that kind of dangerous?" asked Jade.
"I got that covered," McGinley grinned. "We already have a crack team of stunt performers. Just hire a good special effects coordinator and we can do this!"
He was put off by the silence of the people seated.
"Oh, come on! I crunched the numbers myself, because I know you're worried about the budget..." he turned to his producer. "Dorian. But visual effects are crazy expensive. It ain't what it used to be where you could take scotch tape and Popsicle sticks and really create an illusion. Now it's all CG and people have been getting wise to it for years. I remember watching behind the scenes on The Fast and the Furious and I was super let down when I found out a bunch of the cars racing were CGI! Really? We can't even do car stuff anymore?!"
Dorian scratched his chin.
"He's not wrong. I mean, computer graphics is still expensive as hell. A single shot could be thousands of dollars."
Malcolm pointed to his producer proudly.
"See? And think of the press! Everybody talks about Nolan or Malick or Scorsese because they did something in the camera instead of faking it."
"But these shot lists," Tony began. "They're not the most realistic, Malcolm. What if we run..."
"...behind schedule?" McGinley finished.
Tony nodded.
"That's why we are getting all of the crazy scenes out of the way and focusing on the smaller, more dialogue-heavy parts later on."
Jade flipped through the pages and sure enough, the shot lists on later days did get more believable.
"If we run a little overlong on those first couple of weeks, then we can make up for it. But if we can pull it off, Dorian...baby...we will shake up this old industry! Besides, more time on set will not take away from post because the movie will be mostly finished by the end of production. No adding buildings, or other crap. The film will be otherwise usable before sound and music and yes, even a few minor effects are added."
"In that case..." sighed Tony. "I guess we're done here. We have our schedule down, so we'd better line up who and what we need."
McGinley clapped his hands with delight.
"This is gonna be awesome! See you guys bright and early next Monday!"
The auteur left in a hurry.
"So, what now?" asked Jade.
"Now, Jade..." Dorian said, passing over a list of contacts he printed out. "We need to spend the next few days gathering a special effects team and anything else Malcolm needs."
"Is he always like that?"
Tony shrugged.
"Pretty much. He's always been larger than life. Wait until you see him on set."
The following week came and day one of shooting for Double Agent Jessica: The Movie was underway.
Shelby Marx emerged from the makeup trailer and greeted the crew as she made her way to the set.
The director of photography, Lucian Corbu, checked the lighting of the room before having a little powwow with McGinley.
"How are we looking?" asked Tony to the extras.
The background actors with no lines nodded.
"Okay, good. Let's stay on our marks so we can get through this!"
Tony looked around.
"JADE!"
The pale woman emerged from behind a light diffusion panel.
"Yes, Tony!" she said, running up to her boss.
"Can you please check on the stunt over there," he said, gesturing yards away from where they were standing. "We look pretty good here. Please check on the car and make sure they are ready to go."
Jade nodded, "On it."
The girl raced over, the lanyard containing her crew pass flapping in the wind.
When she stopped, she checked her hip and was relieved her walkie-talkie was still clipped on. Jade didn't want to lose that. If Tony or any of the other above-the-line people need to give an order, and she was out of earshot, this was the means of communication.
The bright yellow car was being buffed by a man to make it shiny just in time for the shot.
Jade inspected the angle of the track leading up to the room designed for the big crash scene. It lined up nicely and as long as the window shatters properly, they should get the shot they want.
An identical yellow car was a few feet away with Shelby Marx inside. Jade would recognize her from anywhere. She pushed down the urge to say hi to the famous star and focused on her job. Since the car was going to get wrecked for the stunt, they had another one for shots of Shelby driving before the crash. That way, audiences would think that was her bursting through the wall.
Speaking of which, where was the stunt double?
Jade was brushed past by someone, nearly knocking her off her feet.
"Hey!"
"Watch it," grumbled the other person.
She was puzzled by the interaction because she could have sworn that was a female voice that came from who shoved her. But this wasn't logical because that person was like a brick shithouse, as in somebody you don't want to get in their way.
"And I thought New Yorkers were rude," Jade huffed.
Sure enough the woman in question got into the vehicle rigged for the stunt.
From afar, she could pass for Shelby Marx, which was good as the shot was probably going to be brief. Normally, directors try not to linger for long on a body double, as to not give the audience a chance to catch on.
Jade stood back when the buzzer sounded, which the stunt coordinator and special effects coordinator both clarified meant this was a hot stunt and anyone not in the scene had to skedaddle to where it was safe.
"QUIET ON THE SET!"
That was the final warning that the director was about to call action. If you're not in the scene, stay back. And if you're not meant to speak, shut the hell up!
Jade was far enough back that she couldn't see or hear the scene and take being announced before the clapboard was snapped. But she did hear Malcolm call action.
The car started speeding toward the false wall, complete with window fittings. Something Jade had missed on the first glance was a ramp leading to the wall, guaranteeing that the car would go mostly through the large window.
Just as planned, the yellow sports car obliterated the window, sending glass everywhere. The vehicle came down with a loud thud and after a few seconds, grey smoke came out of the hood and the director called cut.
Malcolm wandered over toward the damaged car while Tony and the D.P. trailed behind him. The car landed a little closer to the lens than anticipated.
The assistant wandered over to the scene now that it was safe to do so.
"Good news and bad news, Malcolm" sighed Tony. "Good news is we got the shot but the bad news, that smoke was a little late."
As if on cue, the smoke billowing from the hood ceased, which surprised Jade. They rigged the car to do that to make it look worse than it was. Truthfully, the car was pretty banged up from the stunt but still drive-able. If they had to another take, they would need to buff out the dents and try again. Or, if they were really desperate, utilize the hero car Shelby was filming her scenes in but they had to be absolutely sure her shots were all finished. Otherwise, they would have to keep cutting back to Marx in close-up, which the audience may find distracting.
The yellow door opened with a creak and Tori Vega stepped out of the driver's seat. She coughed as she flung her hair back.
"Did we get it?" she asked.
The director sighed.
"Well, we had a delay on the smoke effect."
"Sorry!" came an unseen guy operating the smoke via remote control.
"Hmmmm," mused Malcolm. "Let's see the playback."
Everyone gathered around the monitors to show the scene played back from multiple angles. The car came careening through the glass, looking pretty badass and the smoke was meant to come out right when they vehicle stopped. Only, the smoke held off a few seconds too long.
"Ah, shit!" huffed Tori. "Do we have to do another?"
"No," Malcolm said, shaking his head. "We might be able to save this. Maybe if I remove some frames to really sell how jarring the impact was."
Tori nodded.
"I can see that," she said. "So, we're done?"
Malcolm turned to the rest of his team.
"Let's do a quick edit of the stunt and see if we can really salvage this."
He and Tony and Lucian all ran off, the cinematographer giving a young black man in a hat some quick direction on his way out. He nodded and began checking on the equipment around him. Another guy, a bit taller with long hair and olive skin approached him and they started talking while they both worked.
"You don't think they'll ask for another take, do you, Dre?" asked long hair.
"I sure hope not," the guy in the cap sighed. "This was a pain in the ass to set up."
He looked up and noticed Jade walking and gestured for his friend to step aside.
"Beck, look out!"
The long-haired dude whipped around and smiled at Jade.
"Whoops, sorry! Didn't see you there."
"That's okay," Jade said. "Nothing got damaged, did it?"
"No," said the camera operator, taking off his hat to wipe his brow. "Thank god."
"You're Andre, right?" asked Jade.
He nodded and pointed to his left.
"And Mr. In The Way over there is Beck."
The taller guy waved.
"I'm the Best Boy," he grinned. "No, really. I help the..."
Jade held up her hand.
"Yeah, I remember your names from the call sheet."
"Who are you?" asked Andre.
"I'm sort of...I mean I am Tony's assistant," Jade replied.
"Oh," nodded Beck. "Your boss and our bosses are all buddies. Fun!"
"Good news!" came in McGinley. "The shot is good!"
"Hey, Jade!" called Tony.
The woman ran over to him, where he immediately handed her a clipboard.
"Looks like we have this shot in the can. Now we have to focus on the next setup, so let's get on it."
"Alright!" she nodded.
She pivoted and started walking, flipping through the scheduling sheets.
Jade bumped into someone and looked up to see Tori glowering at her.
"What the hell...?" blurted out the stuntwoman.
Tori eyed the clipboard dismissively.
"Great, another pencil pusher."
"Excuse me?"
She rolled her eyes and stepped around Jade.
"Just stay out of my way next time," she huffed.
Tori rounded the corner of the soundstage and was out of sight.
"Who the hell was that?" she asked.
A/N: He's kind of a braggart, but Malcolm McGinley did make some good points about how over reliant Hollywood is using computers to solve everything.
"Above the line" is an industry term meaning the most powerful people in the making of the movie: the producer, the director, the writer and the stars. They are considered essential as the replacing of any of them could severely impact the filmmaking process as well as the final product. "Below the line" covers pretty much everyone else from makeup to catering.
Best Boy is the assistant to the gaffer or in Beck's case, the key grip. He is tasked with moving equipment on set concerned with photography (lights/rigging)
And how's that for a reversal of our usual JORI dynamic: here Tori is the rude one upon first meeting.