My Hollywood System

by Cui Shi yi

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1. 1

My Hollywood System

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Will, an aspiring director and a college student was busy dreaming about becoming a successful figure in Hollywood when he found himself on an alternate earth. The world is almost the same, but wait... all the celebrities, brands, and even renowned works from his world are no more!? Armed with the Hollywood System, Will Evans will rise to the very pinnacle of stardom. MCU and DC? I will create them! F.R.I.E.N.D.S and the Office? I will write them! Harry Potter and the Lord Of The Rings? I will direct them!

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My Hollywood System #Chapter 1: - Read My Hollywood System Chapter 1: Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

Chapter 1:

It was a sunny April in Los Angeles, and the weather was incredibly peaceful. A spell of freezing rain had just passed, gradually giving way to the boisterous warmth of summer.

Young students dotted the lush, green lawn at the EUC School of Cinematic Arts, lounging, reading, and chit-chatting among themselves. A few could be seen tapping on their phones and laptops.

The air was filled with youth, optimism, and promise.

Among those, a single student walked with a deflated expression on his face. He held a cardboard box in his hand which was filled with miscellaneous belongings as he made his way out of EUC.

His name was Will Evans and he had just dropped out from EUC.

"I can't believe I have transmigrated into an alternate earth…"

He muttered under his breath as he walked, his eyes looming over to the people he could recognize from his memories from time to time.

Last week, Will had found himself in the body of a person he couldn't recognize. Coincidentally, both of them shared the same name and interest but there were many things that were different.

First thing was that he wasn't in 2021 anymore but 2010. There was no covid going on and anyone can roam out freely without any care of a virus.

But there was one more thing that really shocked Will.

He was on an alternate earth. Will found it out after he had heard his ex roommate talking about a top actress that would star in a romantic comedy next month.

But to his surprise, Will has never heard of her.

After going through all his memories, he realised that although this earth was the same as the one he knew in technological advancements, there were many things that were different.

For starters, most of the movies, celebrities and songs he knew of didn't exist and they were replaced by something else.

Will was in the same situation as Zhang Ye now!

The first thought in his mind after knowing this was that he can emulate the movies and TV shows he knew and become rich.

But this wasn't simple at all.

Even if he can remember the plot for some of the movies, he didn't remember it frame by frame or every single dialogue.

At most, he can create a crude screenplay. And even if he can write Harry Potter, there is no guarantee that it would work the same.

After all, even in his universe, Harry Potter was rejected quite a lot of times. Luck was always a factor!

'Moreover, I'm dropping out of one of the best cinematic schools in America.'

The original owner of the body always has the dream to make it big as a director. Because of it, even after his mother had died, his father has worked hard to pay for the tuition fee of EUC.

Two months ago, his father died due to alcohol poisoning, a habit he had gotten due to the death of his wife, leaving Will alone in this world.

With his death, Will was all alone in this world and there was no money to pay his tuition fee. Although he could ask for financial help from some of his father's friends, he decided against it.

At first, the original owner worked hard to pay off the fee by doing part time jobs. But he wasn't able to maintain both work and studies.

So in the end, he decided to drop out but two days ago, his body was taken over by Will in an unknown circumstance.

Sigh!

Sighing dejectedly, he walked away from the campus.

'Not even a week of transmigration, I've no family, no money and dropped out of college. God bless my future.'

He took a cab and went to his rented apartment. It was small and devoid of any furniture. He dropped the box carrying his stuff from school and walked out of the apartment.

He didn't want to face the landlord again, whose mouth only moved to ask for rent.

Walking around aimlessly, Will couldn't help but think about his future choices.

Like other transmigrators, he wasn't given anything convenient like a cheat. He even tried out weird poses to see if he'll suddenly shoot out spider webs from his hands.

But that didn't seem to be the case.

Like the original owner of this body, even Will wanted to become a successful director and earn enough money to live a peaceful and convenient life.

He could still work on his dream, but his future would be a lot harder as he was a dropout.

Not being able to come to a conclusion, Will kept walking around aimlessly till he found himself near a cinema hall.

A big movie poster displayed right outside. The movie seemed to be related to the army as the protagonist on the poster was looking at the dead bodies of his fallen comrades.

Putting his hand in his pockets, Will found a $10 bill. He smiled wryly as he decided to spend the last bit of money he had on a movie he didn't know about.

The movie ticket cost $8 and he didn't even have enough money left to buy popcorn.

Sitting on the theatre seat, Will watched the commercials playing before the movie started.

The movie went on with a story of the protagonist joining the army for the first time. His enthusiasm soon dies when he looks at the dead body of the soldier being brought back to the army barracks.

The story went on to tell how a major character changes the Protagonists thinking about war, soon that character dies too.

All in all the movie was pretty patriotic and showed the dark sides of a war. The movie ended as the audience cheered.

Will, who had never watched this movie in his previous life, felt weird. Although this world didn't have the movies and stuff from the earth he came from, It had its own history and culture prospering from generations.

As Will was about to leave the theatre, his head suddenly felt light for a second as he fell back to his seat.

His head didn't hurt, it just suddenly felt light as he tried to stabilise himself.

"Hey dude, you alright?"

He could hear the muffled voice of the guy next to his seat.

"Yeah, I'm good. Don't worry, just got a bit dizzy for a second."

Will replied while still trying to regain his bearings.

"It's alright man, the movie was really harsh. It hit me hard too, just take it easy."

The other guy said as he patted his shoulder and walked away too.

The theatre soon started emptying up as everyone walked out one by one.

Will was already feeling alright, but the reason why he couldn't move from his seat was due to the shock he was currently feeling.

A blue translucent screen was hovering above his eyes as few texts appeared on them.

[???? ?? ?? ????? ???? ?? ???? ???????????? ???? ?? ?? ??? ????????? ????? ? ???? ???? ???. ??????? ????, ?'? ??? ????????? ??????.]

Seems like he wasn't as helpless as he thought he was.

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Chapter 2:

[Want to be rich? Want to date supermodels?Want to be the Hollywood King? I will help you. Welcome host, I'm the Hollywood System.]

The translucent blue screen sent Will into a trance.

Unconsciously, he reached out towards the screen, his hands passing through it like it was merely an illusion.

'Am I really getting that desperate that my brain is showing me illusions?'

He thought while rubbing his eyes. The screen was still there. It didn't go away.

Anticipation started to build up inside Will as he thought.

'Is this actually real?'

Near the left corner of the screen prompt, he saw an option to continue.

He gently touched 'Continue' on the translucent blue screen as if it were a smartphone.

This time too his finger passed through the screen but the earlier prompt disappeared and a new screen appeared.

"Hey kid, the theatre is empty. It's about time for the next show. You can't watch the movie twice on one ticket."

Will finally came out of his trance as he realised he was still in the theatre.

He immediately got up and apologised to the middle aged man for the trouble. He immediately ran back towards the location of his rental apartment.

Reaching his rundown apartment. He immediately closed the door and sat down.

The screen has disappeared like it never existed, which made him anxious.

As soon as he thought about the screen, it appeared again.

For trial he tried to make it disappear, and it disappeared. He tried it a few more times as he realised he could control it at his will.

He looked at the screen which currently showed a different prompt than before.

[You can claim a beginner gift before logging into the system, the gift will disappear if you decide to skip this part.]

He looked at the screen which showed a gift box icon and thought about claiming the gift.

As soon as he thought of that, the box suddenly started shining as it's lid flew open and the whole box disappeared.

A new prompt appeared in front of him.

[Beginner Gift Box Rewards]

The Blair Witch Project (Script)

17 Again (Script)

'Huh?'

Will was confused as to what was going on, as he thought of a way to make sense of the situation.

He thought about focusing on the gifts he received and more information popped up.

[The Blair Witch Project (Script)

Type – Consumable.

Use this item to gain the movie script of 'The Blair Witch Project'.]

[17 Again (Script)

Type – Consumable.

Use this item to gain the movie script of '17 Again'.]

Slowly but surely, Will was getting a hang of how this worked.

All he had to do was focus on something for it to work.

Now the question was, none of this proved the actuality of his situation as nothing about it provided anything physical, something more solid as proof.

And so, he thought about using the item.

[The item 'The Blair Witch Project (Script)' has been consumed.]

Soon, information regarding the movie started to fill Will's brain as he could recall every single information about the movie.

A copy of the script was laid bare on the screen too.

'All of this is real.'

Will finally made sure that everything he was seeing was real and indeed something like a transmigration cheat to him.

This was the first good thing that has happened to him ever since his lazily written transmigration.

Will soon used 17 again script too and gained the whole movie's plot in his head.

After exploring the system for a while, he found out it had many things.

From movie scripts to songs and skills. All of it can be bought from the system from Fame Points, the system's currency.

A single Fame Point was worth $10. Real money can be converted to Fame Points and vice versa.

Currently he had 0 Fame Points. He can earn Fame Points from various quests and tasks that he can take on from the system.

For now, he had to work with the two scripts he has gotten and make something out of it.

The Blair Witch Project was all about 3 friends who set out to film a documentary about the fabled Blair Witch.

This was a very low budget movie which was released in the year 1999. The 'Found Footage Technique' from this movie became so popular that later it was used in the movies such as 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Cloverfield'.

The movie had earned almost $250 million worldwide, making it a hit movie way above its initial budget.

The other movie, 17 Again, was the story of Mike O'Donnell. Who left his sports career when he was 17 because he heard his girlfriend was pregnant.

As he grows to 37 years old, he finds his life boring as everything starts going downhill, from his upcoming divorce to his beloved wife and his children not caring about it at all.

He wishes to go back to when he was 17 so he can right his wrongs. With a chance accident, his wish is actually granted as he becomes his 17 year old self.

The story follows Mike as he helps out his own kids with their affairs and couldn't help but love Scarlett, his wife even in the body of teen.

All in all, both of these movies were a hit.

The Blair Witch Project was a cheap movie with a budget of $300,000 which earned $250 million worldwide.

17 Again's budget was $40 million as it grossed around $140 million.

The choice was obvious for Will as to which movie he should opt out for.

He'd still need an initial budget even for a cheap movie, so the best course of action would be to write down the 17 Again script, handle the copyrights for it and sell it to some famous production company.

Even for all this he'd need some type of backing, so he doesn't get rigged.

Luck was also a major factor.

After all, there were thousands of scripts going around in Hollywood and even established screenwriters would fail in selling their scripts sometimes.

Trring Trring!

At that moment, his phone, which he hadn't used at all in the previous two days of transmigration, rang.

Will looked at who had called him.

[Uncle Benjamin.]

As he rummaged through his memories, he found out the name of the caller 'Benjamin Charles'. He was an agent from MCA (Martis Collins Agency) and the best friend of his dad.

He'd call every week to check on him as to how he was doing.

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Chapter 3:

Unlike many small and unknown agencies in Los Angeles, MCA was one of the relatively well known. It handled several artists but mainly focused on acting and movies.

However, it had been going through a bit of a downfall for the last two years.

It happened due to a change of management, and after that, many of their artists left for other companies. One of their top stars, Tommy Williams, left for a rival agency ICM (Innovative Creative management).

This was nothing uncommon in Hollywood, but all these collective failures lowered the stock of MCA by a lot, but they were still working hard to get back on top.

As for Benjamin Charles, he was a senior agent in MCA and his dad's best friend. They used to be college roommates, and after his father's death, the former called him weekly to check upon him.

"Hello, Uncle Charles."

After going through his memories, Will picked up the phone and replied in a bright voice.

– Will, how are you? Have you already moved out of your dorm room?

A middle-aged voice answered back.

"Yes, I moved out just today."

"Good. Then, come to my office tomorrow."

"Your office?"

Will asked, confusion evident in his voice. It was then that he recalled that the original soul had asked Benjamin for a job before dropping out.

– Yes, I will introduce you to a film crew I know. You can work there for a while and pick up stuff.

Originally, the previous soul had decided to get practical experience of a film set and then work his way to be a director.

It was a hard but practical one, and it wasn't like there weren't directors that had gone the same path before.

But Will is different now, and he has the system to help him out. That's why his following words were entirely unexpected for Benjamin.

"Uncle Charles, I'm sorry, but I don't think I want to work on a set like this."

– What are you saying?!

A shocked voice came through the phone.

"Well, I have been going through some movie ideas these days, and I would have a script ready by the weekend."

– You want to be a scriptwriter?

"Yeah, and I have a favour to ask of you, Uncle."

Will said as he got an idea. He was worried about how he could sell the script of [17 again, but an incredible opportunity was now infront of him.

– What favour?

"I want you to look through my script."

Benjamin's voice ceased for a moment, and after a while, he said in a way like he was trying to convince Will.

– Will, you know, even if you are the son of my best friend, I can't just buy your script. There are rules in the agency–

"I don't want you to buy it straight away. I just want you to look through it. If it's bad, you can reject it."

Will cut him off and said. Benjamin thought for a moment before agreeing to this.

"Okay, come meet me at my office on Saturday."

With that, the call ended, and Will took a deep breath. But this time, it was filled with the excitement of a new beginning.

If he had money and time, he would have gone out to celebrate due to getting a system.

But currently, time was tight, and he needed to write down a whole script.

'I have four days to write [17 again].'

He thought and sat down on his desk. Switching on his laptop, he clicked on the 'Word' software and immediately began writing.

[17 Again]'s script was relatively simple to write as it was a modern drama mixed with time travel. But it mainly focused on love, family and relationships.

At the same time, the protagonist was a very likeable guy as he gave up on his dreams for his pregnant girlfriend.

But Will still had too many difficulties while he was writing the script.

There were many references to Lord of the rings and other movies in the script, and aside from that, the movie also used several other things that just didn't exist in this world.

That's why Will furiously changed the references to be in a match with this universe, taking help from his memories and even watching some other famous movies.

After working for four days, he finally completed the script on the morning of the day he was supposed to meet Benjamin.

Rubbing his eyes that haven't slept much in the last few days, he walked out of his apartment and headed straight towards a printing shop.

Leaving that shop with a copy of the scrip in his hand, he got into a taxi.

His destination wasn't the MCA office but the Writers Guild Association of America (WGA) office.

Before meeting Benjamin, there was one thing he needed to do: get the copyright registered for [17 Again].

The fastest way to do so was through WGA.

Usually, it would take 5-6 months to get copyright registered for a script. But that was too slow and not efficient at all.

That's why, after the change in rules, anyone can get a script copyrighted for 100 USD, and they would do it in an hour. But the downside was that they would need to renew the registration every few years.

Will was okay with it, and that's why, after spending two hours in the WGA office, he could register the copyright.

After that, the only thing to do was to go to the MCA office. It was located on Carberry road, a high-class area in this universe Los Angeles.

Reaching it, he waited a while in the lobby as his appointment still had time.

Finally, at 3, Benjamin's assistant came to pick him up, and it was finally the time for his meeting.

With the script in his hands, Will prepared his heart as he walked inside Benjamin's office.

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Chapter 4:

Benjamin Charles was sitting in his office with a pile of papers in front of him. Just now, another actor under him decided to quit MCA without giving a proper reason.

All this pile of work with low output was making him depressed.

First of all, the people on top were in a mess for a long time now, failing to even stabilise the position. Secondly, their actors haven't been making any real hits lately, making the shares of MCA drop.

Just last month, one of the actors, Kyle Myers, a promising young actor, starred in a romantic comedy that MCA was investing in. But it failed at the box office, not even breaking even.

Sigh!

Benjamin sighed for the nth time after thinking about all this.

Shaking his head, he thought about the next appointment he has today and remembered that his late best friend's son, Will, was coming to meet him today.

Thinking of him, another sigh leaked from his mouth.

He was a nice boy with proper etiquette, just his self-esteem didn't allow him to take money from Benjamin as help.

Since he wasn't taking monetary help, Benjamin offered to introduce him to a film crew. So that he can at least work and earn a decent amount, while he gets experience and can one day finally be able to become a director.

But surprisingly, that kid declined his help and even asked to read his script and buy it if he liked the script.

Benjamin didn't have any idea that Will had an interest in writing screenplays since he always dreamt of becoming a director and directing his own movie.

So Will's sudden declaration to sell his own screenplay that he wrote came as a surprise to Benjamin.

Still, Benjamin didn't have any hopes for the script. Good screenwriters were always in demand, but that also meant that there were very few good screenwriters.

So it would be foolish to expect anything good out of a script written by a young dropout. He probably even rushed the plot and would have made a lot of rookie mistakes too.

Still, Benjamin was willing to check it out, after all Will was his dead friend's son. The best he could do was to look after him.

As Benjamin was busy thinking about various things, he heard a knock on his door.

"Come in."

He said while settling down on his chair. The door opened as Will walked in.

"Uncle Charles, it's been a while."

He said as he greeted Benjamin. With an average middle-aged American face and a potbelly, his uncle resembled most of the depressed middle-aged office workers.

"Will, how have you been? Got yourself a girl yet?"

Benjamin asked as he came forward to shake Will's hand. His eyes moved a little towards the script in his other hand as Will took his seat.

"Haven't found one yet and I'm not looking for one. It's too soon for me to settle down."

"That's true. When I was your age, I was going from one girl to another. That was the best time of my life."

Benjamin smiled as he and Will did a bit of small talk. But in his head, he was evaluating him as a faint curiosity of what type of script Will was going to show him sprouted.

After a while, he finally started the main topic.

"Look, Will, I can only give you 30 minutes. So, let's start with your script quickly."

"Sure."

Will nodded his head and passed Benjamin the script.

Holding the thick document in his hand, Benjamin opened it and saw the name of the script that clearly intrigued him.

"[17 again]?"

"Yes, that's the name of my story." Will began giving a short introduction to the story. "The story is a romantic comedy in its core but there's a soft touch of science fiction and fantasy. It focuses on Mike, a star basketball player who gave up his dreams to handle the responsibility of his pregnant girlfriend. But twenty years later, he's going through a divorce and his life is falling apart. A chance encounter makes him 17 again and he now has another chance to go through high school."

The plot of 17 again was inspired a lot by time travel movies but it was mostly a body regression plot.

As the makers wanted it to be light and not like the dark time travel movies, it mainly focused on love, relationships, regrets and the importance of family.

Will personally liked the movie a lot.

Although there was nothing too surprising in it and the plot was even predictable at times, there was a lot to enjoy.

That's why it emerged as a box office hit and became one of the best commercial movies in the year it was released.

Listening to the brief explanation by Will, even Benjamin was impressed. Though he didn't try to show it on his face.

He silently went over the script and the first few pages were enough to make him see the potential of it.

'A time travel movie with teen drama. Perfect for the actors I'm handling.'

Just like any other Industry, Hollywood has its 'trends' and currently, time travel movies were selling way better than pancakes.

Just six months ago, a movie called [A leap in Time] made 500 million dollars at the box office and even got several nominations.

After that, many studios were trying to emulate it's success and Benjamin was hearing a lot about new movies based on this concept that was going to release in the next one or two years.

Even he wanted to get his actors in a project like this cause it basically guaranteed a hit unless the story was too messed up or the actors weren't well known.

Though, he has no luck.

After all, it was really hard to find a specific type of script in Hollywood and even if he found one, most of them can't be made into a movie.

Just the revisions in them would take a long time.

But now, there was a good enough script in his hand and it had come from a chance encounter. Who would have known that Will was capable of writing something like this?

After reading the first 15 pages, Benjamin was convinced that it was not just another mediocre script.

That's why taking a glance at Will, he put down the script from his hands and picked up the phone on his desk.

Then, he called his assistant.

"Cancel my appointments for the next two hours."

Sitting in front of him, Will silently smiled.

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Chapter 5:

For more than an hour, Benjamin kept reading the script of [17 again]. From time to time, he would ask questions related to the story and Will would answer it.

After reading through more than half of the script, Benjamin rubbed his forehead and smiled towards the script in his hand.

He has more appointments today and it would take too long if he just kept reading the script. Anyway, he has already ensured that the script was not bad at all.

In fact, it was really great.

Unlike most scripts going around Hollywood, [17 again] seemed like a fully revised one. There was a major difference in the first draft and a revised version of a script.

Normally, studios would only keep the basic plot of the script and change a lot of stuff, mainly to make it a better screen experience as most first drafts just can't be used as the final script of a movie.

But it was quite different with [17 again].

The story seemed fleshed out and the characters looked nice. Although some dialogues need revisions, most of them were on point.

'It can definitely be used.'

Benjamin thought and after gathering his words finally opened his mouth after a long time.

"Will, how long are you writing this script for?"

"Around half a year. I was planning this for my first movie after finishing college. But now that things have come to this, I decided to sell it."

Will lied, making up a made up story but his uncle believed it without being suspicious.

It was because Will was a talented person in his eyes who had gotten into EUC, one of the best cinematic schools in Los Angeles and even America.

Many of the aluminis of it are already popular directors.

Just he didn't know that Will also has a talent in scriptwriting. It was a surprise but definitely a good one.

"This script of yours is really interesting. As you are family, I won't try to go round and round with words with you. I'm interested in signing a contract for the rights for [17 again]."

Will flashed a smile hearing it.

He was just taking a chance by meeting Benjamin but it has worked out really well for him. It looks like luck was really on his side.

"Then, Uncle, we need to discuss the contract."

"Yes, but first, I should tell you some things. Even if everything goes well with [17 again] and it begins pre-production, you won't have too much power on the casting and the director and the investors can even make changes to it. Do you understand?"

Benjamin asked and Will nodded his head.

He knew that these types of things were just too common in Hollywood. Scriptwriters never truly have much power unless one is a really big name.

If he didn't need money and had a bit of power, he would try to negotiate but currently other than money, he has no conditions he wanted to negotiate about.

[17 again] was just a fast way for him to get a good amount of money.

"I understand that, Uncle Charles."

"Then, okay. I was actually thinking that maybe you could sign with MCA as a screenwriter. Though, it's rare, we do sign them and in my eyes, you are a talent."

Benjamin proposed with genuine words.

If he could recruit a talented and young screenwriter like Will, the agency would surely take good care of him and he would even be able to give him a better share in the profits of [17 again].

But unfortunately for him, Will shook his head.

"Sorry, uncle. I don't really plan to be a screenwriter or even be tied down to an agency."

"What are you going to do then?" Benjamin asked, confused.

"You know me. I always wanted to be a director and I still want to do that. I'm currently thinking of directing an independent movie and writing more scripts on the side."

Benjamin frowned hearing that and thought that Will was being too impatient and his lack of experience was coming in his way.

"Will, even if you direct a movie currently, I don't think it will earn a lot. Even if it's good, it can only make a splash in some film festivals but it's almost impossible to pull this out. Even the most talented writers are over 30 when they start on their project."

Will just smiled lightly at Benjamin's concern. He knew where he was coming from and didn't take it as Benjamin was looking down on him. He was just seriously worried that Will would do something foolish with the money he earns from the script, so he was trying to persuade him.

"Don't worry Uncle Charles, I'm not going to spend all the money I get from the script on a fool's errand. I would make sure to use it wisely. Just trust me on this one."

Benjamin sighed again as he shook his head. There was no use trying to pursue these hot blooded young men, as he was someone who has gone through this age too.

He just hoped that whatever Will was planning would succeed, although he didn't have much hope.

"Okay then. I've other appointments that have been delayed already. Let's discuss the details of the contract in our next meeting. I would need to discuss this with higher ups too. So give me some time, I'll contact you in a few days."

Will understood that Benjamin was already doing way more than he expected when he came here, so he wouldn't make things difficult for him.

Will left Benjamin's office, but not before Benjamin reminded him to call him at any time he needed help. Will felt extremely grateful to Benjamin for everything he did so far, including checking up on him while not many people remembered him.

Since that was aside, Will planned to go home and start typing down the script for 'The Blair Witch Project'. Although he wasn't sure how long the shooting would take, how he would gather a crew for shooting and how much the movie will earn, he was sure that it'll be a hit nevertheless.

With a soft smile and a beaming heart, Will walked out of Benjamin's office.

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Chapter 6:

June Roberts was an aspiring actress working in the Hollywood industry since she was 14.

She debuted as an extra character in a popular movie. Since then, she has done many such roles but none of them was anything special.

She made some contacts and was getting work regularly, but there weren't big roles. The infamous 'big break' never came to her.

Lately, she has even started being depressed over it.

She yearned to be part of the main cast, always dreaming to make it big someday. Her dream was the same as many other aspiring actresses but she really felt like she would make it big.

Just she needed that one big break.

She was already 22 years old this year, without any major success. As she grew, her desire and desperation to hit it big grew too.

June was confident in her looks. With black hair, fair skin and a sharp face with green eyes, she was called pretty by most people she will meet and she has been honing her acting skills since her teenage years.

All she needed was a chance.

Due to all this, two years ago, one of the agents in MCA even noticed her and offered her a contract.

But it was just her luck that it was then MCA started going downhill.

Usually, it was an actress's agent's job to look after roles and get her the ones which she could do well.

There's a saying in the industry – 'An actor is as good as his agent' and it really applied in her case.

In the last two years, her agent was only able to give her mediocre roles in small movies. There was one moment when she was even asked to act nude but she rejected it and ran away.

Despite her constant bickering with her agent to get her better roles, nothing had come out and she was even thinking about getting out of MCA.

It was then she heard a rumour that one of the senior agents, Benjamin Charles, was planning to cast his actors in a movie with a big studio behind it.

Hearing it, an idea has struck her mind.

What if she was able to impress Benjamin? Maybe she would at least be able to get a supporting role? She didn't know if it was gonna work but at least, she could try.

After all, she would rather step out and seek someone who can potentially change her future rather than relying on her agent who has practically done nothing in two years.

She has been coming in front of Benjamin's office a lot recently in the hopes of getting an appointment with him.

But all her attempts till this day were for nought as his schedule was too packed to consider having a meeting with an uninvited guest.

Today was the same and yet again, his assistant has already rejected her.

As June was talking with Benjamin's assistant, trying to persuade him into fixing a meeting with him, she saw the door of Benjamin's office opening up.

A young man who looked to have just entered his twenties walked out. The first thing that caught her attention was his dark black eyes. He had wavy black hair, a defined cheekbone and a concrete jaw.

He had enough facial features to be called handsome and stand out in a crowd. He was wearing a normal blue shirt and black jeans, which went well with his overall personality.

As she analysed him from head to toe, a habit she had gotten ever since her debut in Hollywood, his eyes fell on her.

He looked into her eyes, and when he noticed their gazes had met, he awkwardly nodded his head. For a moment, he kept looking at her. Maybe trying to see if he can recognise her.

It was common to walk across famous actors and actresses in this office. But she has never seen the guy before.

After realising that she wasn't someone he recognised, he started walking away. June unconsciously followed him and opened her mouth, trying to sound as polite as she could.

"Urm, Hello. I'm June. Do you have a minute?"

She held her hand out for a handshake. She had been looking for a chance to talk to Benjamin while this guy came out of his office as if it wasn't a big deal.

Maybe he was an actor? At least someone who could help her out.

Although she couldn't recall his face, he had a rather peculiar air about him.

She wanted to get acquainted with even slightly increase the chance of talking to Benjamin. And Hollywood was all about contacts, even if she couldn't meet Benjamin, she would at least build another contact that could potentially be fruitful for her future.

As she looked at him, Will thought in his head.

'Who is she?'

He stared at the girl in front of him and felt confused.

He was just happily going out of Benjamin's office when she suddenly stopped him and asked for a minute while offering a handshake.

In a moment, he understood what was happening as he looked at Benjamin's assistant, who was sighing in the back.

'She is an aspiring actress!'

He thought in his mind.

This was pretty common in the industry, from what he knew. She probably was a struggling actress who wanted to talk to Benjamin, probably desperate to land a role.

Honestly, if he didn't have his system and didn't know Benjamin, he would be struggling too.

That's why, feeling a bit sympathetic, he shook her hands.

"Hello, my name is Will, and yeah, I do have a minute."

He said and smiled at her.

Later, while releasing her autobiography, June would describe this meeting like the one which changed her whole life.

If it hadn't happened, she would have always continued to be a small actress.

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Chapter 7:

Getting a positive response from Will, June asked after shaking his hand.

"Are you also an actor?"

Will shook his head, and after a pause, he said.

"Well, you could say that I'm a screenwriter and an aspiring director."

He flashed the script in his hands and June's eyes went wide.

"Oh, is that so?"

June replied, a bit sceptical. It wasn't her fault, in the eyes of actors, screenwriters were the originator of whatever characters that they played.

So the respect and admiration an actor held for a screenwriter were above the general audience, and mostly all screenwriters were well above their 30s.

And that's why June just couldn't take the words of the 21-22-year-old looking man at face value. If he said he was an actor, she'd have believed without such doubts.

Looking at her expression, Will chuckled inwardly.

"Yeah, what about you? I bet someone with your face is a well-known actress."

June smiled at Will's blatant flattery but still remained humble.

"Oh, I'm an actress alright, but I'm not that renowned, yet."

Will, who had already rummaged through his memory and already knew that she wasn't that famous, raised an eyebrow.

It was interesting how she phrased the sentence, as if she was trying to say she's not famous just yet, it won't be the same in future.

"Wanna grab a cup of coffee? I'm kind of thirsty and need something to soak my throat. We can have a small talk too if you want. You sure seem like someone with a story."

"Ah, well."

June hesitated. Although she was the one to call him out, she was here in hopes of having a meeting with Benjamin.

Seeing as to how June was looking towards Benjamin's office, Will inwardly felt sympathetic towards her.

"Oh, it's fine if you're not free. Maybe another time. By the way, if you want to meet Uncle Charles, I could set up a meeting for you."

Will proposed although he was in no way a charitable man, he didn't back out from helping people in similar situations as him.

It would be up to June if she can impress Benjamin or not. Will was simply making another contact, as Hollywood worked with contacts.

It would be great if June can really impress Benjamin and land a role in some movie. She'd at least remain grateful and Will could use this to ask for a favour in future.

June, who saw Benjamin's assistant closing the door to his office, sighed inwardly.

'No meeting today either.'

Then she looked up to the man talking to her. Even though she was sceptical, she couldn't deny the fact that he just walked out of Benjamin's office.

Benjamin wouldn't allow any random youngster in his office, so the man in front of him must have some talent.

Moreover, she was curious about his identity.

As there was no hope of meeting Benjamin today either, she decided to go and have a coffee to freshen up her mood.

"About the coffee, let's go. My treat."

In this industry, connections mattered more than wealth. And to get acquitted with a screenwriter or a director is almost like a once in a lifetime opportunity for most of the actors and actresses.

This was why after some hesitation, June accepted Will's invitation and even agreed to turn it into her treat since Will was a screenwriter, and one day might become a very important connection for her.

Will had somewhat understood her thoughts. There was a special reason why he was inviting her for a coffee break, and since the other party even agreed to pay for it, he already had a better impression of her.

Minutes later, the both of them were seated opposite to each other in the building cafeteria.

Once both had ordered a coffee, Will didn't beat around the bush and asked her.

"So, June, if you don't mind, my guess is you were here to meet Uncle Charles?"

June paused for a moment and then nodded.

"Yes, I wanted to have a meeting with Agent Charles, but unfortunately he's too busy. Ah, by the way, are you his relative?"

Will slightly nodded his head.

"Not a relative, but you can say he's a family friend. My father and he have the same alma mater, so he treats me like a nephew."

"Oh? That's nice,"

June smiled.

"Were you also here for work-related matters?"

Will nodded.

"Yeah, but let's see how much time it takes. Anyway, what about you? Seeing that you're an actress, are you presently working on any movies or shows?"

June's smile faltered a little as she remained silent for a moment and then spoke.

"Well, not currently. You wouldn't know, but I have been acting in movies even before I turned fifteen, and over the years, I have acted in a few, so I do have considerable experience."

"But the thing is, none of the roles was big enough, and in the eyes of the audience, I am still a child actress, even though I am already in my twenties."

Just then, a waiter approached their table and served them two cups of cappuccino.

Once he had left, Will asked.

"That's sad, what do you think could be the reason behind this standstill in your career?"

June had a thoughtful expression on her face as she took a sip of the coffee and after a long moment of silence, she finally spoke.

"I think the fault lies in me. I remember the years when I was working as a child actress, I was quite overconfident in myself, which even made me… um… a bit egoistical. And because of this, I had unknowingly created a lot of difficulties for myself. Mainly by being inconsiderate to the friends I made along the way."

After a moment of silence, June shook her head as she laughed awkwardly.

"What am I even saying, we have just met and I am already blabbering nonsense. Maybe all the stress is getting to my head-"

Will interrupted her and spoke with a smile on his face.

"It's alright, sometimes, you have to let it out. And trust me, I would be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for an answer similar to this. In fact, your words are what I wanted to hear."

"…What do you mean?"

June was confused.

Will adjusted his thoughts and said.

"Well, I will explain everything to you, but first, I have something to offer. Would you be interested in auditioning for one of my future projects?"

"Hn…" June thought for a moment, and then replied, "I would like to know more about it."

Although Will seemed like a nice guy, there were a lot of people in the industry with such a front.

She was already a bit sceptical about him being a screenwriter. She couldn't just agree to act in the movie of an aspiring director.

Most of the time, new directors would try to be a bit extreme and release movies that garnered a lot of attention, as well as criticism.

They'd make the struggling females of the industry act nude or something similar to make the movie trending.

She didn't wish to agree right away, only to find out later that she has to do something unspeakable like a nudity scene.

She had already offended a director by going back on her words, and she was not going to repeat that mistake.

Will explained to her.

"Well, the project I have in mind is of the horror and thriller genre. It will have three main leads, one female and two males. The female lead's role is what I am offering to you."

"But why me?"

"Because your history resonated a lot with this female character,"

Will replied after a moment of thought,

"Over the course of the project, the female lead will have a transformation, and from an initially egotistical and overconfident girl, she will become humble and face despair towards the end of the story."

June asked

"Oh, will it have any explicit scenes?"

Many directors use explicit scenes to spice up horror movies.

Will understood her thoughts and shook his head.

"No, don't worry about that. We don't need anyone to do any explicit scenes"

June replied.

"Then I'll definitely think about it. I'll inform you when I come to a decision."

"Yeah, it's fine by me. Take some time and maybe we can have another coffee and talk about the details."

June laughed lightly at that. If anything, Will was a charming man.

Although new directors or projects failed 8/10 times, June had a feeling that working with Will would change her life, in a good way.

Still, she didn't agree to it straight out. After some talk, June paid the bill.

Will said his farewell and walked away home, inwardly pleased with himself.

If things went as he was predicting, he would not only manage to sell [17 Again] script but also get one of the leads for his first movie.

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Chapter 8:

The next day, Will woke up early and went for a run. In his past life, he was lazy and didn't like exercising.

But after he has found himself in this world, his thoughts have changed and he wanted to at least have a healthy body.

This was mainly because the original soul used to like exercises and that part of the soul has affected him a bit too. Though it wasn't a bad thing and Will even thought that it was for the better.

During his run, he kept thinking of the [Blair witch project].

Now that the deal of [17 again] was mostly done, he was planning to start on the horror movie soon. Not just as a screenwriter but a director.

He always wanted to be one and this felt like the right time to start his career.

Of course, he never thought that he would debut with a horror movie but he was a little desperate and [Blair witch project] looked like the best option.

A horror movie that was rarely seen in Hollywood.

Not a classic but something that will surely gonna give the viewers chills.

Originally, the makers of [Blair witch project] made it after noticing that paranormal documentaries made them more terrified than the traditional classics.

That's why, they have decided to opt for the almost dead 'found footage technique' and after the movie has released, it has ended up reviving the technique.

As a result movies like [Paranormal activity] and [Cloverfield] have later used it and even they have emerged as a sleeper hit.

In layman terms, it meant using a camcorder to shoot the movie and make it seem like a 'mockumentary'.

In this world, the found footage technique did exist but it was dead for decades and no movie has utilized it well.

At the same time, horror movies have become a planner with time and the scare factor has been taken away due to useless subplots.

This gave Will a chance to create something that can be even a bigger hit than the original.

The story of [Blair witch project] was pretty simple.

It happened in October 1994: three student filmmakers travelled to Burkittsville with their DV camcorder, planning on investigating the legend of the fabled Blair Witch. In order to find Blair Witch, they entered the woods near the town, but before long, they vanished.

After that, people in the town and the American government started to search for them, even using helicopters and satellites. However, no trace was found so people had to give up the search.

One year later, another group of students entered the woods for exploration and discovered a package in an extremely secluded cabin. In the package, a diary of the missing student was found as well as a copy of an edited film, which recorded the terrifying story of how the three students disappeared one year ago.

The edited film was the movie the audience will see.

That was the very basic plot of [Blair Witch Project].

When this movie was on promotion, the crew told the world that this film was directly edited on the copy in the story. It seemed that the movie was real, but, in fact, it was just another fake story.

These types of marketing techniques worked like wonders for the movie and it emerged as a big hit.

'Rather than the plot, the movie worked because of the realism factor, marketing and luck.'

Will thought after he returned from his run.

Sitting in front of his desk, he wondered about how he was going to go on with this project. As the plot wasn't the biggest factor, there were things he could change.

He just needed to maintain the factors that proved to be the reason behind the success of the movie.

"The script is only 35 pages. Most of the lines were improvised by the actors… The plot can be a bit faster… and there are other things…"

Will muttered as he began typing on his laptop.

He wasn't going to just copy everything and make the exact same product.

He wanted to do it better. Way better.

"June, I'm sorry. You got rejected from James West's next movie."

A rather shrewd looking man said as he sat down in front of June.

He was her agent and hearing his words, June even felt like crying.

They were in a coffee shop where they would usually meet and once again, she felt disappointed.

"Did they give out a reason?"

She asked, trying to hide the sadness and disappointment from her voice.

"No, they just said that you didn't fit the part." Her agent said with a frown. "It's just bullshit. They gave the role to Brittney Corvus because she slept with one of the producers!"

"She did?"

"Yeah, I did tell you, that producer liked you. But you didn't want to meet him alone and Brittney took the chance. That's how the industry works. If you aren't fast, someone else will grab what could have been yours."

The last line was something that her agent would often tell her and she knew he was right.

But she didn't want to sleep with someone for a role.

It felt like she was using her body instead of her talent to get work. Though, many people will tell her that using your body is an art in the industry itself.

They talked more for a while about some other roles June can go for and how there are some auditions coming up but June was not listening fully.

Her mind was a mess with another rejection.

'Like this, I would always stay as a small-time actress.'

As she thought that, the image of the guy she had met yesterday came to her mind. He had told her that he was planning to direct a movie and was writing a screenplay for it.

It was an independent movie and he wanted her to audition for it.

'If it's an independent movie, won't I at least get the lead.'

That was the thought in her mind as she contemplated his offer. Maybe, just maybe, it will be worth something?

She pondered and hesitated to wonder if she should call him.

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Chapter 9:

Will started working hard on writing the script of [The Blair Witch Project].

Although the script was pretty short, he did his best to upgrade and change stuff according to this world, while trying his best to make out a better version of the story. Even though the movie was considered the scariest movie of the 90s in American history, Will wanted to add a few things and make a few changes here and there to make it a bit more interesting,

Like in the actual movie, the Blair Witch was never shown. Many reasoned that it was because of the lack of budget and technology back then, but the truth is that they had four alternate endings and chose to go with the one which didn't show the Blair Witch to create a sense of unknown and uncertainty among the audience.

Even though this gave a real outlook, there were many who criticised this too, mainly because to them, the movie felt like a video of a low-rent horror outing with no real scares.

Will decided to add an actual background plot for the Blair Witch and a character that will play the role of Blair Witch.

Although all this would only increase the cost of production, the produced movie and overall thrill would increase by threefold at the very least.

It took him a week to write down the whole script, in a revised version.

Unlike for [17 Again, this time he wasn't in immediate need of it nor had a due date, he didn't sacrifice his sleep or workout time. Hence, he wrote it slowly and in a relaxed manner.

Now, he was thinking about how he'd go about with the production.

And for that, he needed a group of technical staff who would help him in creating his movies, and this group of staff is generally called the production team.

But for a newbie director like Bill, acquiring a good production team alone was an impossible task.

He'd need connections and recommendations from people who have been working in the industry for a long time.

As the movie was solely his project, the expenditure would be his too. He was sure to lose a lot of capital that he was going to make from the script of [17 Alone].

He would need to gather a crew of actors and would need to find the locations for shooting.

It was surely going to be hectic, but Will was still full of smiles. After all, even if he didn't know how the movie would turn out to be, he'd still be completing his dream of two lifetimes.

"Hahaha, Will, congratulations on the successful contract signing."

Benjamin laughed after Will signed the contract.

It was the contract for the film [17 again] and now MCA has bought the rights to it.

Only after reading through the contract two times that Will had signed it but now that he did, he felt both regretful and happy.

Happy because he was getting 500k USD for the deal and regretful because he knew that he could have earned way more if he had used the script of [17 again] to make a movie.

But currently, he doesn't have the resources and making a movie like [17 again] would cost at least 40 million dollars.

'Anyway, it's a nice start. There will be more opportunities in the coming future.'

He thought in his mind and Benjamin suddenly changed the subject.

"You know, I was in talks with Edward Friedman yesterday and he seemed interested in [17 again]. I will send him the script today but I think this will go ahead."

For the record, Edward Friedman was one of the directors associated with MCA. He particularly made thrillers at the start of his career but had delved into romantic comedies lately. He was a well-known figure in the industry and had the skill to back up his reputation.

"You mean [17 again] is going to be a movie?" Will asked, surprised as projects don't go ahead this fast normally.

It was normal for even good scripts to take 1-2 years before they are taken on and made into a feature film.

"Yes, Edward is a good friend of mine and he wanted something like [17 again]. It's in the trends and is a fairly well-written rom-com. That's why he wants to hurry up with the production."

"Then, I hope he makes a good movie out of it."

"I can bet he will." Benjamin laughed.

He and Will talked a bit more about movies and stuff.

He told him that there was an actor he was handling that he will propose to play the lead in [17 again] and talked more about Will's future.

He even advised him to not spend all the money quickly and save something for the future as in Hollywood, you can be rich on Monday and go bankrupt by Saturday.

After talking for a while, Benjamin asked.

"Will, are you really going to direct an independent movie? Why not just take screenwriting as a career for a few years before moving to direction?"

He was still sceptical of Will's choices and didn't wish for the latter to ruin a good chance in a new career.

"Uncle, I already told you that I don't have too much interest in screenwriting. I want to be a director." Will replied, shaking his head. "Moreover, I don't like doing commissioned scripts."

As there were too many screenwriters in America and only a few hundred movies and series that get adopted every year, it was really hard for an average screenwriter to make a living.

Due to this, they take jobs like making commissioned scripts or adapting scripts.

"I understand that. If that's what you want."

Benjamin said and decided to give up on persuading Will. After all, it is hard to do anything when young people have decided on something.

They don't listen to experience.

As the contract signing was already a success, Will was given a credit card with $500,000 in it.

Most of the time, people in the industry deal with cheques or credit cards. A money transfer or cash were rare.

After that Benjamin and Will talked about his dad. Benjamin felt regretful about how his best friend left him.

He consoled Will that everything will be fine as long as he acts mature and doesn't get impulsive when making decisions.

Life in America was faster than a bullet train, the one who adapted to its speed became successful while the slow ones were left behind.

There wasn't much to talk about after that and as Benjamin had work, Will quietly left the MCA office.

Now that he has money, he decided to head up to a mall and buy some clothes, and have a haircut later. His hair was already grown and he needed to shave the stubble that had grown out.

But as he was on his way, his phone suddenly rang.

[Unknown Caller]

[1 650 * ]

It was from an unknown number. Will picked it up.

– Hello? Is this Will Evans?

It was the voice of a female.

"Yes hello, and who are you?"

– Ah, Will, it's me, June.

Unexpectedly, the caller was June. Will wasn't even sure that she would contact him again since he was almost a nobody right now.

'Did she come to a decision yet?'

What she said next answered Will's question.

– I'd like to audition for the role if It's still available.

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Chapter 10:

After talking to June on call, Will invited her for dinner at a restaurant to talk about the details.

As this would be the first time Will had officially invited a girl over to a restaurant, even if it was for work-related purposes, he still didn't want to come off as someone inexperienced.

So he searched on the web regarding various things one should take care of when inviting a girl for dinner and to make himself presentable.

Most of the articles were related to dates and such stuff, so they didn't really help that much.

Will had bought a few clothes on the same day he got money from the [17 Again] script.

It wasn't anything fancy or expensive, as Will believed a good personality defined a man, not his clothes.

Even the restaurant he called her at was a normal restaurant, not too expensive or too cheap.

He could account most of the credit to him saving money for making [The Blair Witch Project, but most of it was just because he didn't care much about what he wore or what he ate as long as they were clean and hygienic.

Later that evening…

Will wore a plain black shirt and black pants. He tucked in the shirt, making his black leather belt visible.

He had a haircut, with his hair being quiff cut. He looked quite good looking because of his well-maintained body and fitting clothes.

His hairstyle suited him well, although it was new for 2010. Even the barber was surprised when Will guided him to trim all his side hair; he told Will to not blame him later.

All things aside, Will had rented a cab till Lakeside Restaurant, where he had an appointment with June.

A young man and a young woman were meeting at a restaurant for an appointment, that alone would make anybody laugh, either in disbelief or at the weirdness of the situation.

Will seated himself by a table near a glass fountain. The lighting was relatively dim, as this was a place frequented more by romantic couples than businessmen.

A waiter came to Will to ask for his order, and Will told him he was waiting for someone and would order when she came.

The waiter then excused himself, and Will put his head on his hand, seemingly thinking about something.

He was looking at the screen in front of him, to be specific. He had received a system prompt when he had signed the contract, he didn't check it there so that it doesn't come off as something weird.

He was the only one who could see the screen after all.

[Congratulations on a successful contract signing and earning $500,000. You've been rewarded with 50,000 Fame Points.]

So he basically earned 1 million USD from the script sale. $500k from MCA and 50k FP, which was equivalent to the same amount.

He thought if he could buy something from the system in that amount, but he was still taking things rather slowly.

There was no need to rush, rushing things would only make him regret some if not all of his actions later.

As he was busy thinking about all this, his eyes suddenly wavered from the system screen, the screen disappeared, and a beautiful June appeared in front of him.

She was wearing a grey bodycon dress with a long cream coloured trench coat on it. She held a small leather handbag as she walked in Will's direction.

She waved a little and smiled as she saw that Will had noticed her.

His eyes couldn't hide the appreciation for June, as she looked really beautiful with her dress-up.

She wore light make-up, making her green eyes shine especially brightly in the dim light.

"Hello, Will."

"Hi, June. Please have a seat."

Will shook hands with her and gestured towards the seat opposite to him.

As she sat down, she complimented.

"You look handsome; you should debut as an actor."

Will just smiled and complimented her back,

"You look gorgeous today, and I love that handbag. Is it Mikyaa's?"

June's eyes lit up as soon as he talked about the handbag.

Girls loved talking about their belongings or stuff like their nail polish. It was always the right choice to mention something like that if you wanted them to open up to you.

This was something Will learned from the internet.

Later, June realised she was blabbering a lot and apologised. She then asked.

"Oh right, can I know what the plot of the movie is like?"

"Sure, why not? So it goes something like this…"

Will started to explain how the plot went and how he was planning on shooting it. They told her about the shooting style, about the different characters and how their role and plot would create a movie enough to shake the audience's heart.

"The plot is very good. Although the idea of recording from a camcorder is interesting, I don't think you should use it."

June gave her opinion. She already saw Will in a new light after listening to the plot. It was well thought of; nothing gave out the vibe that a beginner made it.

But she couldn't help but feel averse to the idea of using a camcorder to shoot a whole movie.

Will had expected such a reaction as nobody uses the 'Found Footage Technique' in movies nowadays.

He did some research and found out that the last movie that used the 'Found Footage Technique' on this world was made 30 years ago.

After that nobody had made a movie using the same method. Hence, it'd be common for people to be complaining about the method.

But Will knew what was the plus point of such a method, and he would use the same point to persuade June.

"Just watch the movie 'Janitor of the Asylum'. It was made 30 years ago using the same method. If the movie scares you, you can contact me tomorrow."

Will had watched the movie, although it was old and it didn't have much graphics and such, it still managed to give him quite the scare.

He was sure if June watched it, she'd know what's so good about the 'Found Footage Technique'.

As he thought that, he couldn't help but ask,

"By the way, how did you come to a decision so early? I mean, about the audition."

He was really curious about this. He was sure he didn't leave that deep of an impression that she'd agree to audition so fast.

June smiled at his question as she teasingly said,

"Maybe I just wanted to see you again?"

Will rolled his eyes at that as she laughed.

He asked again and she replied truthfully.

"I'm trying to take a chance here. I'm already 22 and haven't gotten any major roles, even in small movies. I'm tired of acting as an extra. I just want one chance to prove myself, to prove what I'm really capable of."

"Since you're planning to give one of the lead roles, I'm going to take a chance here and audition for it. Maybe, you'd turn out to be the lucky charm that I needed? You can call it a fool's gamble, I guess?"

She said as she couldn't help but let out a bitter chuckle at the end.

Will could sympathise with her, but he had to praise her for her boldness. She was willing to act in a small movie to just show her talent to the world.

Will could feel it. If he didn't hold out his hand towards her, it'd only take a few years before she got famous on her own.

It was good that he held out his hand during her desperation; it'd make her owe him since he was sure that [The Blair Witch Project] would be a big hit.

As they were talking, the waiter came again and asked for an order. This time, Will ordered the food that June selected for them. They ate and talked about various things.

While coming to a conclusion that she'll contact him tomorrow about what she thinks about the 'Found Footage Technique' by watching the movie Janitor of the Asylum.

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Chapter 11:

On her laptop, June was watching the movie that Will had recommended to her.

[Janitor of the Asylum]

It was a horror movie released 30 years ago, and its quality was terrible. But right now, June was completely invested in it.

This has never happened with other horror movies she has watched. Maybe it's because of the first-person narrative?

It was just that she couldn't help but clutch her teddy bear tightly in her hug as the movie progressed to the climax.

On the screen, a girl frantically ran through the hallway, with the screen shaking as she ran. Creepy sound effects were coming from the background.

Then there were sounds of someone chasing her— with a menacing laugh and slow footsteps.

All those were enough to make June's heart beat wildly, and as the girl fell down, she screamed out loud.

A bloody handprint appeared on the screen as the figure of the janitor finally appeared. Watching him smile, June's soul nearly left her body.

The movie ended then, and she hurriedly turned her laptop off and switched on the lights. She has a feeling that she won't be able to sleep if she turned off the lights tonight.

After calming down, she slowly muttered.

"He's right… Will is right… this can really work."

She stood up from her bed and went to her wardrobe. Taking out a dress that she could wear tomorrow to meet him, she thought of the young director she met today.

'His ideas sound crazy, but I feel like he can really succeed with them.'

She smiled, thinking about him.

In her heart, she had a feeling that maybe, her time had finally come. She was going to get famous one way or another.

And Will was going to pave the way for her.

In the morning, Will was again on his desk, scribbling down notes to use during the shooting for [Blair witch project].

During the shoot, he won't have the time to think about every frame from the start, so it was better to make notes. After all, it was going to be the first time he would be a director; he didn't want to mess it up no matter what.

That's why he was scribbling down how they will shoot every frame.

Although his drawing was bad, it was still enough to understand. On [Blair witch project, he would handle most of the stuff.

He was the director, screenwriter and editor. If he can find some people who can help him out, it would be nice.

'Maybe, I should ask Uncle Charles about it.'

He thought and at that moment, his phone rang. He picked it up, smiling at the caller's name.

"Hello, June. So, how was the movie?"

– Scary. I wasn't able to sleep properly, thanks to you. I even kept the lights turned on for the whole night. Nevertheless, now I understand your point.

"Will you audition?"

– I definitely will. I have already talked with my agent, and to be honest, he wasn't happy and was constantly telling me to change my opinion, but I don't care. I really want to be a part of this project.

"Glad to have you on board. Though, you would need to pass the audition. Otherwise, the role will go to someone else.

Will chuckled, and a confident voice came out from the other side.

– Don't worry, I will!

They talked for a while longer, and after that, Will called her to his apartment.

. . .

Half an hour later, Will heard a knock on the door. He remembered the bell was broken, and he had yet to fix it.

Shaking his head, he went to the door and unlocked it. June was standing there in casual clothes.

"Hello, Come in."

June entered the small house and looked around. Although it was small, it was clean, and everything seemed in place.

"Wow, an upcoming director sure has a big apartment."

June commented teasingly.

"Rented apartment."

Will corrected her while laughing after seeing the weird look she gave.

"Are you sure you've enough money to at least produce the whole film?"

She asked sceptically. With Will, she could never let her emotions relax. Sometimes he seemed like her ticket to stardom; othertimes, he seemed to like her ticket to hell.

She chuckled at herself and at her nervousness. Since she has decided to work with him on this movie, she'd see it through no matter if her ship sinks or sails.

"Come sit."

Will pointed towards the couch he had laid for her.

June sat down without complaining. Will started to tell her about how he planned to work on the movie.

From the start of the movie as to how three friends would go out to shoot a documentary on The Blair Witch and how each and every one of them would disappear slowly by the end of the story.

He explained how the 'Found Footage Technique' can make everything seem so realistic and thrill worthy.

This time, June didn't complain. She was already so scared because of the movie she watched yesterday that she couldn't even sleep much.

As he went on, he talked about how he needed to gather a crew together, and he'd start tomorrow.

"By the way, you'll need to give an audition tomorrow too."

June readily agreed as she was confident in her years of experience and practice.

He told her to accompany him in the rest of the auditions too, as they've already become acquaintances.

Then he told her to accompany him to an antique shop. She was confused at that.

"We'll get a camcorder from 1994 or 1995 to make it feel real. Later, if the movie succeeds, we can earn just by selling the camcorder."

June couldn't help but marvel at the young director's genius. Not only was he a screenwriter, but also a director and a business-minded person.

Her appreciation for Will grew every second.

After that, they went to an antique shop.

They did find a camcorder from 1994, but the shopkeeper was trying to sell it for $3k, saying things like it is a relic of the past.

After much haggling, Will brought it down to $1700. The shopkeeper won't go down a penny after $1700, so Will had to buy it at that.

June just stayed speechless throughout the whole haggling and purchase process.

Her opinion of Will kept changing, from a normal young man to a screenwriter to a director, to an extremely poor director, to a haggling uncle.

He had so many sides to him that every one of them seemed funny, absurd and refreshing at the same time.

As the purchase was done, Will and June decided to part ways and set up a time and place for meeting up tomorrow.

Will directly came home after that and noted down all the money he has spent till now, including the money he used on clothes, haircuts and the restaurant.

He added down the camcorders purchase as a business purchase. After that, he brought up the system screen.

He had already browsed through the system and found out everything was quite expensive, but not absurdly expensive.

He had decided to spend his money on two things.

[Intermediate Level Direction]

Type – Skill

Cost – 40,000 Fame Points

[Beginner Level Acting]

Type – Skill

Cost – 5,000 Fame Points

He bought both of the skills for a total of 45k FP, leaving him with 5k FP that he decided to keep with him.

Miscellaneous information filled his head, and he even felt like he had gotten the experience of directing and acting, although he has clearly never directed or acted before.

Although he could have just bought the directing skill, as he was a young and new director, there would be times where he'll face questions like 'If you think acting is so easy, why don't you show us'.

He wanted to buy acting skills immediately, but he didn't have enough FP for that.

He was preparing in advance for a circumstance that may or may not appear. That's how cautious Will was about his life as a director. After all, directing was his dream.

Tomorrow, his new life would truly start.

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Chapter 12:

Aside from the crew, the crucial part of a movie were the actors. A good actor can make or break a movie.

That's why some people would watch even a bad movie if the lead actor is outstanding. Sometimes, just actors would save a bad movie.

That's how important actors were, and even though it was just a horror movie that would be shot on an old camcorder, Will wasn't going to get just any actor.

Many people think one just has to scream in a horror movie, but it was way more than that. You need to be as real as you can in showing fear and despair.

In the original, [Blair witch project, the three leads have just used their own names. In a way, they were playing fictionalised versions of themselves.

All of them have done a good job but using their real names hindered them later in their career. For the female lead, Heather Donahue, she wasn't even able to find work due to the marketing strategy of [Blair witch project].

Will changed it and made the characters completely fictionalised as the three original actors didn't exist in this world.

As for finding the actors, it wasn't a hard job for Will.

He has enough money to hire good actors, but he wanted to hire relatively unknown faces with good acting quality.

This matched the original movie's theme, and Will wanted to continue it.

In this world, like the original Hollywood, there were actor and director guilds that protected the rights of the artists. And currently, Will was on his way to one of them.

'Screen Actors Guild.'

It was a guild that came into view in 1933, and since then, it has had more than 70,000 members, becoming the biggest guild in Hollywood.

There were other guilds in Los Angeles, but this one was the biggest.

For a director to get actors, they would usually go through agencies, and then the agencies will scout the best possible actor for them.

But this is only possible if you are an established director.

In America, too many movies are made every year, and not all of them are from established directors. There are quite a number of them by independent directors too.

Will was one such director.

He needed to post an offer in the guild and would need a guild's agent to officiate the audition. An agency was necessary to oversee every audition. Otherwise, it's not a legal one.

"How many actors are you gonna go for?"

June asked, walking next to him with a smile on her face.

"Umm 7-8. I'm just looking for important roles currently. We can ask the locals to act during the shooting."

Originally, the same had happened, and it was a nice way to save some money.

"You are so cheap." June chuckled, smiling at him.

"Hey, don't forget I will give you the payment if you are gonna be the lead."

He joked, and like this, both of them reached the guild. Entering it, Will saw a lot of people moving around.

Some of them looked at June due to her beauty but then shrugged their shoulders and went on their way.

Looking around the interior, he came to the desk.

"Hello, are you looking to sign up with the guild? We protect your rights, and you only have to pay–"

"No, no, I'm here to make a request. Maybe I will sign up in the future. But not today."

He cut off the enthusiastic receptionist and said.

"Request?"

"Yeah, I'm directing a movie, and I need actors for it. It's a horror movie."

The receptionist nodded her head after he said that and then handing out a form to him, she instructed him to fill it out carefully.

Will sat on the side with June, and she helped him with the form. He just needed to fill in basic things like a basic plot of the movie or how it's going to be shot. In the end, he needed to write the amount for each role.

"15k for the lead and 10k for the others. You are rich."

June remarked as he handed the form to the receptionist.

"I wish to get even richer."

"How much do you think the movie is going to earn?"

Will thought for a moment before a smirk appeared on his face. Turning around to look at June, he said.

"200 million dollars."

June laughed out loud hearing that, thinking he was joking. Even top director's movies don't earn that much.

Last month, Blake River's new movie earned 100 million dollars at the box office, and that was only possible because the studio spent 20 million dollars on just marketing.

After a moment, the receptionist handed him a basic contract that he needed to sign.

He did that, and she told him about how the audition will go on.

"The audition will take place at Cuba Cafe tomorrow, and an agent will be sent there to officiate. Good luck!"

"Thank you."

After the signing process was done, Will left the screen actors guild along with June.

On the way, he got curious about something and asked June.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

June looked at him then smiled playfully as she said.

"Why do you ask? Is Director Evans looking for a girlfriend? Does he like me?"

Will waved his hands as if shoo-ing a cat as he said with both his hands folded behind his head as he walked.

"Nah, I'm just asking so that you can break up with him before you get rich. Otherwise, he'll leech on you later."

June raised an eyebrow at that. Sometimes she could not understand what this man, almost similar to her age, had in his mind.

He can be so random that you'd doubt every second word he says.

"Why do you think I'm going to get rich?"

"If you pass the auditions, doesn't that mean you'll get rich?"

Will said matter-of-factly. He talked like the movie was already a hit. She couldn't understand where his confidence came from, but deep down, she wanted nothing more than his confidence being spot on.

After all, if the movie really earned a lot, the director would be obliged to pay some bonus share to the whole crew, including the actors.

It wasn't compulsory, but it was necessary to keep your crew happy after a successful movie. Or the director would have a bad reputation within the industry, which will affect his career in the long term.

Will definitely didn't seem like the type to be stingy with people he worked with.

As such thoughts clouded June's mind, she couldn't help but dream of a brighter future.

Once again, she looked at the young director. He seemed exceptionally handsome today for some unknown reason.

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Chapter 13:

The next day, Will woke up early, ate breakfast and ran towards the cafe where the audition was going to take place.

He was confident that many aspiring actors and actresses would be there as there was no lack of strugglers in Los Angeles.

However, it would be interesting to see if any of them would come just because of the movie or the technique used to direct it.

Will was sure most of them were going to be attracted by the money. After all, $15k was a reasonable amount of money for an unknown face.

The audition was at 10 AM, and Will arrived an hour earlier, but as he entered the cafe, he noticed that June was already there and a middle-aged man next to her.

"Will, here." She waved at him as he entered, and following her gaze, the middle-aged man glared at him.

"Hello, June." He greeted her and turned towards the man. "Who is this?"

June sighed, seeing her agent's hostile gaze towards Will and introduced him with a helpless expression on her face.

"This is my agent, Michael Erkinson."

Will immediately understood what was going on. After all, June had already told him that her agent wasn't happy with her wanting to do [Blair witch project].

"It's nice to meet you, Mr Erkinson." He held his hand towards him, but all he got was grumbling in response.

"Hello. So, you are the guy that's been fooling June? I am telling you now. She with not do this movie!"

"Micheal! We already discussed this!"

"June, you have a bright future and doing a movie like this is just going to leave a bad spot on your filmography."

"I said I don't care. I genuinely want to do this movie!"

"I know you like this guy but–"

"Shut up!"

June said with a red face, and Will didn't know if it was because of embarrassment or just because of anger towards her agent.

Shaking his head, he tried to calm her down.

"June, calm down."

"I'm calm, Will." She said, frowning. "I'm sorry for Micheal. He is just like this. I apologise."

"It's fine."

Will said with a smile.

He didn't feel bad about it as there would always be people who would be sceptical of a movie like this, especially in this world where a movie shot on a camcorder never became a hit or even remotely famous.

"Mr Erkinson." He said, turning towards the agent, who raised his eyebrow.

"What?"

"I know you are unhappy with this project, but June wants to do it. And trust me, this won't hinder her filmography, and I take full responsibility for that."

"What do you know?"

Micheal shouted out loud, attracting attention from the other tables. It was then that Will played his trump card.

"You work in MCA, right? Then, you must know Benjamin Charles."

His eyes widened at the mention of one of the senior agents in MCA.

"How do you know him?"

"He's my uncle. If you have any dissatisfaction, I can contact him, and you could talk to him."

To finish it off, Will took out his phone and showed him the contact of Benjamin, which was written as 'Uncle Benjamin'. Seeing this, Micheal wasn't able to say anything for a while.

June chipped in at that moment.

"Not only this. Will sold one of his scripts to MCA just a few days ago, and it's called [17 again]. I don't think you would want to argue with him, Micheal."

"Well, uh…"

Micheal just lowered her head after hearing that. June was clearly not on his side, and if the guy in front of him was really related to one of the senior agents in MCA and was a screenwriter, it was better not to say anything rash.

Sighing, he stood up from his seat and turned towards June.

"Do what you want. You will understand after this movie fails."

Saying that, he strode away. Reaching the door, he glared at Will once before leaving.

Will just smiled seeing this and sat down in front of June. He wasn't exactly going to call Benjamin, but it was an easy way to scare Micheal.

"Thanks. He's such an ass."

"I understand why you have such a hard time dealing with him now."

Will said, and they ordered two cups of cappuccino. Just like the first time they had met.

They chatted for a while about the movie, and June kept asking him questions about the role, which Will was more than happy to answer.

After all, it meant that June was trying to give her best to this audition.

It was around 9:30 AM when the agent sent by the SAG showed up. He was wearing a suit and glasses, but his beard was unkempt, and he hadn't even combed his hair properly.

Will noticed a playboy magazine in his hand and thought even if the world was different, some things would never change.

"Hello, my name is John Dawson. Are you the Director?"

John shook Will's hand and smiled at him.

"Yeah, I'm the one."

"You are really young." He said, then curled his lips up. "Let's hope this audition is going to be successful."

"Let's hope so."

Will replied, and at that moment, John's eyes wandered to June, and he couldn't help but be impressed by her looks.

"Is she your girlfriend? She's really pretty."

He said, and June frantically waved her hand in denial.

"No, no, I'm not. I'm just his friend and also someone who is going to audition for the role."

While saying that, she couldn't help but glance at Will and be a little disappointed when she didn't see much of an expression. Since when was she so concerned about what he thinks?

John just laughed at the flustered girl.

…

/DreamNote/

Hi guys, this will be the last chapter of today's mass release. I am grateful of you for reading my book, and I hope you keep on reading this and please do not forget to share this work among your friend on discord or reddit.

And as usual, please leave a review if you haven't yet and drop a powerstones to keep me motivated so I can continue to write for you daily.

See you guys tomorrow with more chapters.

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Chapter 14:

Now that John was present, there was no need to delay the audition. Will wanted to settle on most of the actors today, and the first one to audition was actually June.

Since she was tagging along with him for some days now and they were also actively talking about the script, she already had a good understanding of both the plot and her character.

In [The Blair Witch Project, there were three main characters, two of them male and one female.

June was going to audition for the female lead, Heather, and by now, she had already gotten a great grasp of this character.

Even in Will's mind, he had already selected June as the female lead.

After all, she was pretty experienced, and they had already talked a lot about the movie. There was no reason for him not to consider her for the role.

He felt like she could do the role perfectly.

The audition was just something to dissipate even a tiny bit of doubt in his mind.

"I will give you a scenario, and you need to act it out."

Will said after June sat in front of him. Now that the audition had begun, her eyes didn't look playful anymore, and they were resolute like she would do her best to pass the audition.

From the back, John saw the change in her atmosphere and smiled before moving his eyes back to the playboy magazine.

"Think that you are sleeping in a tent, and you hear the sound of grass rustling and twigs breaking. You feel like you have heard footsteps outside the tent. What will be your first reaction?"

"Give me a minute to think."

June said and closed her eyes, imagining the scenario in her mind.

She was trying to imagine everything and how she'd react if she was really put in such a situation.

"Mr Dawson, would you mind stomping your foot as I act?"

June asked John, and John just smiled at what she was doing. Putting his magazine aside, he said.

"Just call me John, and why not? Let's do it your way then."

Will, who was waiting for June to start acting, was slightly impressed by her actions. She was telling John to stomp his foot to make the sound of footsteps, so she could better indulge in the situation.

"3, 2, 1 and Action!"

Will counted down, although the situation didn't have any dialogues, June had to show how afraid and terrified she'd feel if she was Heather.

The acting shouldn't feel like an 'act' and should feel real and natural.

June was now immersed in her character and acted like she was alone in the middle of a forest at night, getting scared of low noise and gulping in fear.

Even though it was clearly a coffee shop they were doing the audition in, June's performance made it seem like they were already on the set of a horror movie.

Without a doubt, her acting skills were really way above average; it could even be called expert level after she gets more hands-on experience. She could give seasoned actors a run for their money, all she needed was a chance, and Will would become that chance for her.

"Okay, cut. Well done, June, welcome on board, officially."

Will said that with a smile on his face. He was already sure that June was a good actress. But he had to make sure of it, personally and officially.

June, who had a terrified expression seconds ago, was now beaming with smiles. She ran towards Will and hugged him tightly.

"Uh, umm…good job."

Will said, feeling surprised and speechless at the same time by the sudden hug.

"Well done, June. Director Evans, it seems you have got an eye for talent."

John praised. He was used to coming and overseeing auditions from new directors, but rarely has he seen that someone brought by the director was anything good.

Most of the time, new directors would involve their friends and family in movies to lower the costs, sacrificing the quality of the movie with untrained actors. John was expecting the same from June since Will has brought her to audition himself.

But June was outstanding. Although John was no professional in acting, years of attending auditions had given him a keen eye to judge these actors and actresses.

After hearing John's comment, June returned to reality and realized what she was doing.

She immediately loosened her arms and backed off. Although she seemed a bit embarrassed at the abruptness, there was nothing bad about hugging each other, so she just smiled sheepishly and waited for Will to proceed with the auditions.

After that, people kept coming to give auditions for the roles, mostly because of the high pay. There wasn't really anyone super talented or overly good, but Will had to work with whatever he had.

During the auditions, a fat guy had also come with his manager. He said he'll audition on his own script instead of the one by the director.

Will reluctantly agreed, and the fat guy started acting. His acting was more of a gag-filled drama, which didn't match the theme of a horror story at all.

He would have been a good comedic character if only the movie had any comedy. Will told him to act in a horror scene, and although he did the horror scene, somehow, he even made a horror scene seem comedic.

Maybe it was due to his body type, or maybe his way of acting, but he wasn't cut out for a role in a horror movie. And even if he was, he was more suited for movies like [Scary Movie].

Will had to reject him for some self-explanatory reasons. After him, there was a crazy girl who took out her upper clothes and tried to seduce Will on performance.

She went as far as to feel all his body, kissing him even from his lips to his necks. Will felt like Simon Cowell from America's Got Talent from his previous life.

Although Will, as a man, secretly enjoyed the strip show, he rejected that girl too.

As he proceeded with the auditions, the number of people gathering around to see what was happening increased by a notch.

…

/DreamNote/

Hello

Release schedule will be 1ch/d for sometime, and later I will increase it to 2ch/d. For now, I would rather focus on quality rather than quantity.

Please don't forget to drop your power stones. They are the source of my motivation to write more.

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Chapter 15:

Will quickly noticed that June's mood was sour after the free stripping show that he had gotten. It was not like he didn't understand the reason behind it.

They have spent a lot of time together in the last few days, and for her, Will was one of the very few people who believed in her.

Though she acted confident in her skills, she sought validation because of the constant failure she had gone through, and Will gave her that.

'I need to talk about this later.'

Will thought inwardly as he secretly glanced at June, who was pouting her lips with a displeased expression.

Nothing good would come out by talking about stuff like this in the middle of the auditions.

He didn't want any external factors to ruin his first movie. So, he decided to deal with it after the shooting ended.

For now, he just wanted to go on with the auditions.

"Do you think there are going to be more strippers?" Will asked John who was still laughing while thinking about the public strip show.

"Once in a while, there are those desperate ones. They will do anything for roles, and fifteen grand is a lot of money, so they don't mind sleeping with or seducing someone. You do know the unspoken rules of Hollywood, don't you?"

Will nodded his head and decided to not overthink about it.

Hollywood was the center of many immoral things, and sleeping with someone for a role was one of the everyday things.

Sometimes, even known actresses or actors will do it. Just to play a part in a big movie.

That's why it is said that the more you go up in Hollywood, the more you will dirty your soul.

Will didn't know if his soul would stay clean or not. But he was strictly against sleeping with someone for a role or making someone sleep with him for one, and that was one thing that he would never change his mind about.

The auditions continued for hours as more and more people came. A small audition like this will still get 300-400 people, but it was still hard to find good actors and actresses.

Most people came because of money and didn't even understand the fundamental essence of [The Blair Witch Project].

While some of them just wanted to try out for a lead role. Still, it was really hard to find a person with good enough skill.

Then, some would start crying after being rejected. Will had a tough time dealing with them because of feeling bad.

But he can't do anything.

Crying won't get an actor role. People are always desperate in places like Los Angeles, and most of them won't even become third-tier actors no matter how much they struggle.

That was the cold and harsh reality of Hollywood.

By the time they had gone through more than 100 people, it was already lunch. Other than June, they have only found four more actors to fill up the supporting roles, and Will was slowly getting anxious.

No matter what, he needed to sign the two lead actors other than June today.

After eating lunch, a thought slowly started messing with his head.

'What if I don't get the two male lead actors today?'

In this case, he would have to come back tomorrow again, but Will has already planned to look for the crew that he would need and start the shooting next week.

Any delay would mess up his plan like this.

"Will, don't worry. We will find the other leads today."

June said, noticing his anxious expression.

"We need to hurry. The scheduled time to finish this is 5:30 PM, and it's already 3:07 PM. I think you should lower your requirements and just choose the one with basic skills. Going by the shooting method, a really good actor isn't essential."

John advised, slightly annoyed because of sitting in the cafe for so long. If they can finish early, his job would be over too.

"I can't just select anyone."

"I know, but you at least have to give 100k for a good actor. 15k is a lot for strugglers, but most of them won't be strugglers if they are good actors."

He just nodded in response to that, and at that moment, a black guy walked into the cafe.

He looked around a bit before heading towards Will.

"Hello, is this the place where the audition for [Blair witch project] is taking place?"

"Yeah, I'm the director and producer. What's your name?"

The black guy was surprised to see the director being so young, but he didn't say anything and introduced himself.

"Marcus Brown."

Marcus sat down after that, and Will started reading his portfolio. Honestly, he wasn't a bad choice, and he gave the same vibe as Will was looking for in one of the lead characters, Joshua Leonard.

But till now, there were many people Will thought would suit the role, but none of them had the acting prowess to back up the character.

He looked young, the same age range he wanted, and he had a unique charm about him. But Will was still skeptical about his acting skills.

Will told him to act a part from the movie where the three friends fought among themselves as they realized they were lost. The fight was a unique arc in the movie because most of the horror parts began after this.

The character of Josh during this time was peculiar as he was devastated, like his friends, that they were lost, and he was angry at Mike that he kicked out the map due to frustration.

Josh was also the character that disappeared first in the movie. All in all, like the other two leads, Josh was a special part of the movie, without whom the movie wouldn't have been as thrilling.

As soon as Marcus replayed the given scene in mind, he started acting according to it. John, who was already yawning and wanted to go home, looked at Marcus in surprise, his mouth still wide open because he forgot he was yawning.

Will, looking at Marcus, widened his eyes a little; after a moment, they turned into a curve as he smiled softly.

He finally found his second lead.

…

/DreamNote/

Do not forget to drop your powerstones so I can massage my fingers to help me type more.

Chapter 16:

Chapter 16

Will didn't hesitate too much before signing Marcus for the role. There wasn't much time left in the audition, and he was the only one who ticked all the qualities that the young director was looking for.

His vibe was just perfect, and his acting was way better than he had initially thought.

On the other hand, Marcus couldn't believe that he had passed the audition.

"I really passed! You are not joking, right?"

He asked, his face showing disbelief as his eyes roamed at Will, June and John.

"Yes, congratulations! Welcome to the team of [The Blair Witch Project]. I hope we will work well together."

Will said and shook Marcus's hands.

The black guy looked tough, always stood uptight and didn't say anything, but at this moment, he wasn't able to control his emotions.

That 15k will help his family a lot, and it was the first time he had passed an audition. And it was even for a lead role.

His mom would surely cry hearing this.

For a while, Marcus just sat there and tried to take in the fact that he was now the leading man of a movie.

Suddenly, he stood up and took out his phone.

"I'm sorry, but I need to inform my family about this."

"It's fine. After talking, just come here and give me your number, and we can sign the contract tomorrow."

Marcus nodded and went outside to call. June smiled next to Will, seeing this.

"We got a nice lead."

"Yeah. Now, we only need an actor for the role of Micheal."

Micheal Williams was the third lead of [The Blair Witch Project, and he was also the character that was the last to die. At the movie's start, he would be a comic relief character, but as the movie becomes more and more horrifying, he will lose himself and break down.

This character needed a good actor with both comic timing and a wide range of emotions.

It was really hard to find an actor to play Micheal, but Will's luck was not bad.

As Marcus called his family, a guy slowly walked inside the cafe in a suit. For a moment, Will thought that he was an office worker, but when he walked up to him, he realised that it was an actor here to audition.

"Um, hello. I'm Zach Dickson, and I'm here for the audition. It's not over, right?"

The guy said as he scratched his head, worried that he was too late. But June suddenly laughed out loud hearing his nickname.

It was just that Dickson was a rare yet funny nickname, and she wasn't able to control herself.

"I'm sorry, really sorry."

She apologised and waved her hand. Her laugh turned into a thin smile as she looked at Zach.

"Anyway, you are not late. Let's start the audition."

"Okay."

Zach said and hastily sat down while Will looked over his portfolio. He felt surprised that Zach had already been a part of quite a few famous blockbusters, but those roles were of extras.

This was a good thing as it meant he already had the experience of being on a film set.

"So, Zach, what attracted you to try for this role?" Will asked, still looking through the portfolio.

"Um, the money was the first thing that attracted my attention." He smiled. "The next thing was that it's going to be a unique movie. I have never seen a movie that has been completely shot in first-person narrative, and it made me want to be a part of it at least."

Will was satisfied with that answer, and he started asking some more questions. In the end, he asked Zach to act out a scenario.

"Imagine that your friend has been killed mysteriously. You feel really guilty because of this, but you suddenly hear a strange sound and break down at that moment. Act this out."

Zach was surprised with this scenario straightly, but he nodded his head.

"Give me 10, no, 5 minutes."

"Take your time."

Will leaned down in his seat and waited for Zach's performance. His portfolio has already impressed him, and he felt like Zach was going to be perfect for Micheal's character.

'I really hope this is it.'

He wished in his heart, and it was then that Zach's performance began. His body suddenly started shaking, and a painful expression appeared on his face like he was feeling grief over something and was guilty because of it.

Suddenly, he jerked his head like he had heard a strange sound.

Zach bit down on his lips and put his hand on his heart like he was trying to calm himself down. But it didn't work as a tear slowly rolled down from his eyes.

The performance ended there, and Will couldn't help but clap out loud.

"It was perfect!! You got the role!"

"What? Really?"

Zach wasn't able to believe it. After wiping the teardrop from his face, he started dancing weirdly in the cafe. He completely forgot that he was in a public place and just jumped around everywhere.

June could not help but giggle seeing this behaviour.

"He's like me after I got my first role."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was a small role, but I was really excited about it. We have most of the cast now."

Will smiled hearing that and took a deep breath.

John came up to him at that moment and patted his shoulder.

"You got a good group of actors here, Will. Trust me; these are quite talented. Let's do the contract stuff tomorrow, and don't forget to invite me to the premiere!"

John said and laughed.

"I won't. Thanks for your help today."

"Call me again next time too."

Now that he had finished the casting, finding a small crew and starting the shooting was left.

He already had an idea of how he would get a crew. So, Will couldn't wait till he got to the shooting part.

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Chapter 17:

After the casting was finished, there was only one more problem that Will had, and that was finding a crew for [The Blair Witch Project].

Finding a crew was really hard for someone like Will with almost no connections.

If [17 again] was released by now, then Will would have a few connections as the screenwriter.

As a talented screenwriter, he would be able to find a crew easily, but [17 again] was just in pre-production, and it would take a long time before it was released.

Will urgently needed a crew, and for that, there was only one connection he could think of, and that was his uncle.

That's why, after taking contacts of both Zach and Marcus, Will bid farewell to June.

John had already left earlier since the auditions were over, and he had wanted to go home since the start.

After going to his rented apartment, Will took out his phone and called Benjamin.

– Haha! Hello, Will. How are you doing?

A lively voice came from the other side. It was rare these days to see Benjamin in such a mood.

"I'm great. How are you, Uncle?"

Will asked in a voice that matched Benjamin's enthusiasm.

– I'm good, everything is going great. You sound happy too. Did the auditions go well?

Benjamin asked, sensing the happiness from Will's voice.

"Yeah, it went great. I found all the three leads for my story, and they're all great actors."

To Benjamin, great actors were only the ones who were at the top, but still, he laughed heartily and said.

– That's nice. The preparations for [17 Again] are going great too. Edward accepted the script immediately after reading it. He even praised you for blending so well with the trend and directly coming up with such a plot.

"It's good that you're doing so well."

Will didn't speak much and let Benjamin talk since he was so excited. He'd get his turn sooner or later.

After a while, when Benjamin was finished talking about [17 Again] and told how it'd be better for Will to be present during the casting so that he could make some connections while seeing his script come to life.

– Oh, yeah, Will. What about the crew? Have you gathered a crew yet? Or at least have an idea as to what you're looking for?

After his talk was finished, Benjamin asked the question Will had been waiting for.

"Actually, Uncle, I contacted you because of this too."

As he started talking about how he had yet to find a crew, Will said. He mentioned his requirements and how he didn't need a big crew.

– If it's like that, maybe I can help you. I know a person, I'll give you his contact, and you can talk to him. Just his personality is a bit….

Benjamin said, and Will immediately agreed. He didn't care about their personality as long as they could do the work properly.

Benjamin gave him the contact number and address of the said person. After some small talk, they hung up the call.

The next day, Will went to a small studio where Benjamin had told him to go. It was here that the cinematographer that he has recommended worked.

Jeffery Houlston.

He was the cinematographer for a couple of movies MCA has invested in, but his career was primarily dead for a long time.

Last year, he even opted to work in some porn movies to make a living.

The reason Benjamin has told him to be careful of his personality was also the reason for Jeffery's downfall in the industry.

His stubborn personality.

He has rejected many movies for reasons like not liking the director, the script being bad, or just because he felt like the movie won't work.

There was a high chance that Jeffrey would reject [The Blair Witch Project] too, but Will has to take this chance.

After all, a cinematographer is the most important person for a director. He was the builder of the building Will had designed, so it was imperative to have a good cinematographer in any movie.

As Will entered the small studio, he could see posters of some movies on the wall, and there were even photos of almost nude girls on the wall.

As Will was looking at the posters, someone came out from the inside and stood near the glass table filled with various movie CDs.

"Oh hello, I'm looking for Jeffrey Houlston. Where can I meet him?"

Will asked politely to the small-framed man.

"I am right in front of you. What brought you here, kid?"

Will was surprised at the gruff voice coming out of such a person. Jeffery was shorter than him, but he had a strong voice, and he looked like someone who would be annoyed at every little thing.

He thought Jeffrey Houlston would be a towering man with manly stature from the description he got.

He immediately hid his surprise behind his polite smile as he introduced himself.

"I'm Will Evans. Benjamin Charles would have told you about me?"

"Ah, yes. The talented screenwriter who is making an independent movie and needs a crew." Jeffery nodded his head. "Come in."

He walked inside with Jeffrey, and they both sat down at a table. Will was just about to tell him about his movie when he opened his mouth.

"First of all, I would tell you that if the script doesn't satisfy me, I will reject the offer no matter how much money you give me. And I also need to make sure that we can work together well and you know how to handle directing a movie."

Will nodded his head, confident that he would be able to satisfy Jeffrey. He pulled a script out from his bag and passed it to him.

"This is a short script. Are you making a short movie?"

"No, I just want most of the scenes to be improvised. That's why the script is small. My horror movie is trying to be as realistic as possible, and I want my actors to act the same."

Jeffery was satisfied with the explanation, and he slowly began reading the script.

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Chapter 18:

Jeffrey started reading the script after Will's explanation regarding why it seemed short satisfied him.

Quite honestly, Will could already empathise with the directors who got frustrated with him.

It wasn't just due to his picky personality but also how he talked.

"How are you planning to shoot this? The dialogues are not much, and adding too many sound effects might backfire on us."

Jeffery was direct, to say the least.

Will shook his head upon hearing the question, "The technique we are using sits perfectly with this script. We're going to use a technique called Found Footage. It will-"

"Found footage?" Jeffery interrupted him, "Are you for real? This technique was last used thirty years ago…" After a moment of pause, he shook his head while adding, "I don't think it will work. The movie might become monotonous."

Will nodded, "I understand that, and that's the reason why I am here for you. Since we will be presenting the whole movie as if it was a discovered film or video recording, we will need a lot of sound effects to add a tone of uncertainty and create the fear of the unknown among the audience."

Jeffery remained silent for a few moments before asking. "You know, this is not my first time working on a horror project, and I agree with your last point, but aren't you going to show the Blair Witch? That will take away the fear of the unknown."

"Oh?" Will frowned.

In [The Blair Witch Project] of his world, the moviemakers hadn't shown the Blair Witch's face to the audience and had left it to the audience's imagination.

But here, Will wanted to make a slight change to give the Blair Witch character a strong base, and the best way to do it was by showing it, even if it's for just a millisecond.

"Uhm… I suggest not showing the Blair Witch will have a better reaction," Jeffery put out his thoughts.

Will shook his head, "I thought of this scenario, but as you said before, there's a high chance the movie will become monotonous, especially since we're using Found Footage technique to shoot it."

"We will use it for the whole movie?"

"Yes."

"Oh…" Jeffery lightly nodded his head, "then yeah, I guess it will become monotonous."

Will smiled, "There's another reason why I want to add the Blair Witch instead of leaving it up to the audience's imagination."

"Oh? And that is…?"

"The satisfaction. The audience will feel satisfied and consider the money spent well on the tickets after catching a glimpse of the Blair Witch. I bet some might even come for another show, just to have a second look."

Jeffery nodded, "I agree with that. However, since you're planning to use Found Footage, the movie will be in first-person point-of-view. That brings everything to a whole new level because the actors will have a lot of close-ups, and their facial expressions will be very important. Have you started the auditions for this script? Or are you planning to audition actors soon?"

Will shook his head, "I am not planning any audition now, since… I have already arranged it, and I have even selected about ten very talented actors."

"Oh?" Jeffery asked, "By any chance, did you bring in anyone famous?"

"No." Will shook his head, "I am just a nobody in this industry, at least for now. But to be honest, I don't want to have famous actors in this movie."

"Oh? And the reason behind it?"

"Realism." Will replied, "Since it's found footage, it will be more believable if we use newbie actors or someone who isn't well-known by the people. That, in my opinion, will cater to more viewers than bringing in a well-known actor or actress, which may also bring in their fanbase. Still, at the end of the day, the audience won't feel the realism because they know who the person on the screen is, and this will, in turn, hurt the box office potential."

Jeffery was satisfied with Will's answer, and then putting down the script, he asked, "Have you decided the locations for shooting?"

"Montgomery County, Maryland."

"Oh? Why there?"

"Well, the terrain, of course. It's perfect for this script, and I have heard there are some old civil war era mansions and cottages in the woods too, which makes it even better for us."

"Oh, you have researched all of this?"

Will nodded, "This may be my first project, but I am also considering it as my last night, and that's enough reason for me to give everything I have got."

Nevertheless, Jeffery was a bit taken aback by Will's words but was satisfied with his enthusiasm.

"Very well, I would like to be a part of this project. When are you planning to begin the shoot?" He asked with a smile plastered on his face.

The smile on his short stature and gruffly face created a weirdly unique vibe, and it was surprisingly a positive one – something which others would rarely get to witness from Jeffery.

On the other hand, Will felt a sudden gust of relief upon hearing Jeffery's words.

"The schedule for the shooting is yet to be finalised," Will replied, "Even though I want to start it as soon as possible, to be honest, you're the first person I have come to invite to join this crew after selecting the actors."

"Oh?"

"Yes," Will nodded, "And it will take some time to create the whole team. I have even given myself a deadline of two weeks to get the film crew ready."

Jeffery thought for a moment and then asked, "How about we use my crew?"

"Huh?"

"You heard it right. I have a small crew of myself, and this project will need outstanding video editors, and the people I know are, in my opinion, the perfect choice for this type of filming. What do you think?"

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Chapter 19:

Jeffery's crew was actually from a film company that went bankrupt two years ago. The crew liked working together, so they didn't disband and instead formed a temporary crew that other directors and production houses could rent.

Jeffery was the crew's boss, and as he had agreed to work with Will on [The Blair Witch Project, the crew would obviously tag along.

Will liked this a lot as it meant that he wouldn't have to waste time when an experienced crew was ready to work with him.

For a few days, Will and Jeffrey talked a lot about the movie, the best way to shoot it and which parts could be done better.

Will found out that Jeffery was really knowledgeable about movies and shooting. It was only because he had bought the intermediate level director skill that he could understand the latter's words and add his own.

Now that Will had everything, he just needed to finalize the contract of the cast and crew. For these, he took the help of John, who had overseen the auditions.

He knew people who made contracts for all this, and he readily agreed to help him out.

It took a whole week to get all this done, and during this time, Will also got permission to shoot in Montgomery County, Maryland.

This was the place where the original was shot, and Will had decided to shoot it there this time.

Most of the film would be shot in Seneca Creek State Park in Montgomery County. A few scenes would also consist of the historic town of Burkittsville.

Will was really excited about the shooting, and after they got the official permission, he even had sleepless nights because he was finally going to be a director.

Finally, on a warm Sunday, they boarded the flight to Maryland. The crew already left some days ago to set up.

Jeffery has told him that he should come later with the cast, and that's why he was sitting with the whole cast on the plane.

Though, to save money, Will had only boarded the tickets in Economy class.

As everyone boarded the plane and settled down on their seats, June, who sat beside Will, couldn't help but tease him.

"You're so cheap, to think you'll take such beauty in economy class even when you have the money to afford better."

Will, sitting beside her and still trying to figure out how to put on the safety belt, raised an eyebrow at June. He understood she was teasing him, but he couldn't help but comment,

"Well, in my opinion, cheap places tend to be romantic; otherwise, Romeo wouldn't have been meeting Juliet at her balcony."

June looked at Will's expression that seemed to be satisfied with his own words, and couldn't help but laugh.

She wasn't able to conclude as to which type of guy Will was. He would pay $15k for no-name actors but haggle with a shopkeeper for a camcorder. He would talk about earning millions from his first movie, then avoid talking about cheap plane tickets by bringing in Romeo and Juliet.

This man's randomness knew no bounds, and by god, she liked his random self so much.

Will had already found out that famous philosophers or scientists still existed, with their works even in this alternate universe. So the classic piece of Shakespeare, Romeo Juliet, existed here too.

Although he was curious how these people existed, but normal people and things didn't, he couldn't come to a conclusion. So he just took it as these types of people and their works were necessary to run the world, and as long as it didn't interfere with his life, he couldn't care less.

After all, he wasn't some mad scientist that would spend his life researching why he was sent back in time, only to die of old age even before his research came to an end.

Will had better things to do, to name the top one amongst them, it'd be to become the King of Hollywood, literally.

It was too ambitious of a goal, and he was willing to do his best to achieve that goal.

"So, you're saying this situation right now, you and me sitting here in an aeroplane, is romantic?"

June asked. Although her voice was playful, somewhere in her heart, she was expecting a romantic comment from Will.

"Nah, I just don't want to spend money on higher class tickets when I've to save every single penny that I can to make a better movie."

Will, who knew what June wanted, dodged the bullet again.

'Not yet; no matter what my hormones are telling me right now, it's better to delay this till I've something to back me up.'

Will thought inwardly and promised himself that he'd take care of the situation with June after the movie was produced.

Not like there weren't other girls around him, there were a few from the auditions, and there were some in Jeffrey's crew too, but ever since his transmigration, June was the first girl who got close to him.

Recently, she has been giving clear signals, and even he liked her a lot, but he can't just go ahead and get caught up in a relationship at such a crucial point in his career.

After listening to Will's reply, June became all pouty. She felt really bitter in her heart and couldn't understand if she was just being too unclear or Will was just too dense not even to notice her feelings.

After that, they didn't talk much, so Will just made himself comfortable and took a nap.

About 6 hours later, Will and the whole cast landed at Montgomery County Airpark.

After deboarding from the airport, Will found Jeffrey outside the airport, where he had rented a bus so that the whole crew could go together at once to the location where the shooting would take place – just outside a town called Burkittsville, formerly Blair.

…

/DreamNote/

Hi

I have seen quite a few comments about the pacing of the novel. I will say that I am working on these and even plan to increase the every day chapter release schedule from 1ch/d to 2ch/d from monday or tuesday (depending on my stockpile)

Join discord for more updates: https/XpJgunSMZ4 (also in synopsis)

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Chapter 20:

Montgomery County Airpark is about thirty miles from Burkittsville town, but their first destination was not the town, rather, a car dealer's shop.

In the movie, the three protagonists – Heather, Josh and Mike – reach down in a car, a 1987 Dodge Daytona, whose counterpart in this world was a 1989 Chryslus Drift – both of these looked similar and featured pop-up headlights.

By afternoon, they reached their destination – the car dealer's shop, Will bought a second hand Chryslus Drift and then as they stood beside the car, he began to explain the scene to the three main leads of the movie.

"From now on, we'll refer to June as Heather, Marcus will be Josh, and Zach will be Mike. We will use the code word – taco. And when I say taco, I want you to be like the characters; I want all of you to act like them. And if any of you get tired or want to take a break, you all three must say taco, or you will have to stay in character."

The three of them nodded as Will continued while gesturing at the car beside them.

"The scene we're shooting right now is not the opening of the movie; rather, it's what will happen after about two minutes have passed. As for the first two minutes, we will shoot those after we're done with the rest of the shooting."

Zach (Mike) slightly raised his hand at that moment to ask a question.

"Yes?" Will focused his attention on him.

"Sorry to interrupt, but… why… are we skipping the first two minutes? Aren't those the easy parts? I feel like we can get them done tomorrow morning; why wait till the end of the movie?"

Will nodded, "Yes, those are quite probably the easiest shots in the movie, but I want us to shoot the first two minutes of the movie at the end because… well, let's say, to lighten up the mood. And trust me, you all will thank me for this."

The other three smiled at this, and Will resumed his instructions.

"You guys have already read the script, and I am giving all of you permission to improvise the dialogues as you like. The more raw your actions are, the better shot we will get. And for this scene, we will start with the car."

Will then called someone from the crew and asked for a bag. Out of the bags, he first took out the cameras – a CP-16 and a Hi8 Camcorder – and then handed them to Josh and Heather, respectively.

(DreamNote: Pics of CP-16 and Hi8 Camcorder.)

"Josh," Will spoke to Marcus, calling him in his character's name, "This is the camera I was talking about earlier. This will be used to film the 'documentary' about the witch."

And then he glanced at June and handed over the Hi8 camcorder to her; he added, "This camera will be used to record the everyday moments of your group. This camcorder will be passed between all of you; we have a few more, but try not to lose them."

And then he said to the three, "And yeah, take these too."

Putting his hand in the bag while holding it with the other, Will took out three walkie-talkies.

"You guys will be driving right in front of the bus, and these walkie talkies will be with you, and we will be listening to the chat you guys are having."

As the other three nodded, Will gave them the last instruction, "Now, get into the car and start working on it. Oh, and remember one thing – from this movement, till the end of the shooting – do not stop shooting. In the car, you will find a few more camcorders."

"Taco!"

…

The Hi8 camcorder, facing Mike, who was sitting at the backseat of the car, was flipped open by Heather.

"How are you, Mike? It's nice to meet you."

Heather asked as soon as she opened the camera.

It was late morning, and Mike's face was half-covered with bright sunlight, and he was having a hard time keeping his eyes open because of the direct sunlight reflecting in them while also replying to Heather, "I'm doing good, and I'm very excited about this. Thank you for the opportunity."

Heather's satisfied voice came from behind the camera, "Well, thank you for getting the equipment together."

The three of them continued to chat and even talk about the number of batteries they had in this car, thanks to the film crew (which, of course, they did not mention and put the reason behind it on Mike).

"Mike, with this much battery power, we could fuel a small road country for a month!" Heather commented in a nonchalant voice.

…

After about half an hour of driving, the team entered a town, and Will instructed the three not to stop for the next scene, which was at a superstore, and told them to continue driving to

….

They continued onward and soon reached Burkittsville town. Will instructed them to stop just outside the town entrance signboard and told them to follow the next scene. As the three prepared, the bus also stopped, and the rest of the crew also got down and began to help Zach and Mike set up the scene. As for June, she was being told instructions by Will, with Jeffrey standing beside him, on how she was supposed to shoot the next scenes.

…

The Hi8 camcorder began to record another important scene, with Josh in the video, and Heather was holding the camcorder.

Josh was sitting on one knee and was filling a film-shot slate with a black marker, whose cap he held between his teeth.

"Here he is, filling out our first slate for our first shot," Heather spoke as she showed the slate over Josh's shoulder.

[Production: ????? ????? ????.]

[Director: ??????? ???????]

[Camera: ?????? ???????]

[Date: ???? #? Take: ?]

In response, Josh raised his head, and with the sun on his face, he asked with one eye closed, and the corner of his upper lip raised, "Should we all like…"

Putting the cap back on the market, he continued, "Cut our fingers open and bleed on it?"

As Heather chuckled at this, Josh added, "A little bloodletting on the slate?"

Hearing this, Heather nervously laughed while replying, "No, we'll save that for later."

"Kiss it!" Josh put the marker back, kissed the slate, and passed it to Heather.

She also kissed it without showing her face in the camcorder.

"It's the first slate!" Josh's voice was heard as he took the slate.

"First slate. Marked by my lipstick." Heather replied, and then turning the camera, she showed Mike, who was holding the CP-16 and arranging it; his both hands busy, and a headphone over his head.

"First slate, kiss it!" Josh called out to him while putting the slate near Mike's mouth, who then, instead of kissing, bites down on the cracker part of the slate.

"Awe, he licked it, god bless him. You're not supposed to eat it; we need that for the rest of the shoot."

With the camera set, the CP-16 began to roll and record the town sign of Burkittsville, with Heather speaking in the background.

[??????? ?? ??? ???????? ??????? ?? ????????????? 1894 ]

"This is Burkittsville, formerly Blair. It is a small, quiet Maryland town." Heather said in a professional tone.

"Cut!" Will called out.

The next scene was going to be in a cemetery.

…

/DreamNote/

Weekly reset today. Please vote with your powerstones ?

Ps. Do you know we have a discord server?

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Chapter 21:

In the cemetery, Josh was shooting Heather as she stood with a dramatic expression on her face. Taking a deep breath like she was a little nervous because of Josh shooting her, she began.

"Much like a small town anywhere. No more than twenty families laid their roots here over two hundred years ago. Many of whom remain, either on this hill or in the town below."

Josh took a step towards Heather to get a close-up shot as she continued.

"There is an unusually high number of children laid to rest here."

The camera moved away from her face as Josh focused on the headstones around the cemetery.

As he turned it back to Heather, she continued.

"Most of them passed in the 1940's. Yet no one in the town seems to recall anything unusual about this time. To us anyway. Yet legend tells a different story. One whose evidence is all around us, etched in stone."

Another shot of an angel statue was taken, and that's when the scene came to an end.

…

In Josh's car, Heather handled the camera and shot the front view as the car moved on the road.

Although the view was of the road, the camcorder clearly recorded Heather's excited voice.

"Yeah! Yeehaww! Well, we have shot the first scene! The cemetery scene, the opening is shot!"

She turned the camera towards Josh, and he smiled before showing her a handful of ruined and crumpled 16mm film, facing it towards the camera.

"Ahh this is our salad," Heather called out.

"This is our souvenir."

"Yes, this is our souvenir from our very first shot, of our very first scene on 16 millimetres. And we are proud of this salad."

She chuckled, and the sound of laughter filled the car as the three young filmmakers moved ahead in their journey.

The next stop was asking questions from the people living in this town.

[Yes this is our souvenir from our very first shot, of our very first scene on 16 millimetre. And we are proud of this salad…]

"You found an interesting idea to shoot, and your actors trust you a lot."

Jeffery commented with June's voice coming out from the walkie-talkie background.

They were right behind the three of them and were following them. At the same time, they were keeping an eye on the 'shooting' through the walkie talkies.

"They are newbies, and they probably find this interesting themselves. I mean, no one has ever shot a movie like this."

"Yeah, that's why it's innovative. Trust me; if the movie becomes a hit, film schools will tell students to research it."

"I am hoping that would be the case."

Will chuckled and looked outside the window for a bit.

All the methods that he was using were taken from the original movie. And it was working quite a bit for them till now.

If everything goes well today, they could finish the scenes that would take place in the town and move to the woods where the real story would take place.

After all, the start was there to just set up the tone for the rest of the movie.

"Have you planted the actors in the town?"

Will suddenly thought something and turned his head, looking at one of the crew members who was fiddling with his phone.

"Yeah, I was just texting them that we are entering the town and to be prepared for the scene. By the way, are you sure we don't need to tell the three of them that they are actors and not real residents?"

Will shook his head and smiled.

"If we told them that, that would break the immersion. They should feel like they are really three filmmakers shooting a documentary."

In the original, the cast never knew that the people they thought of as residents were actors. Will was planning to do the same here.

"Okay."

The crew member nodded his head and focused on his phone.

Heather held the camera and interviewed an old man they had found in the general store. For their documentary, they needed to get information from the residents as their words would be more trustworthy.

"We are making a documentary about the Blair Witch."

"Oh?" The old man smiles with a hint of surprise.

"Oh, have you heard of the Blair Witch?"

"Oh yeah, that's an old, old, old story."

The old man nodded his head.

They changed the camcorder to the 16mm one and started shooting for real.

"I remember Mister Parr was an old hermit."

"Right."

"He lived up on the mountain; he had a place up there and had been up there for a long, long time."

The old man said, and Heather nodded in understanding. Josh and Micheal, who were standing in the back, kept an eye on the people who were giving them looks.

After the old man, the trio found a woman holding a baby and started interviewing her.

She was wearing black glasses; Heather pointed the camera towards her as she started asking her questions.

"Have you heard of the Blair Witch?"

"Several times."

The woman replied in a matter of fact manner. Heather continued her questioning.

"Several times, what was the first incident?"

"Well, I'd heard stories about her from people and neighbours and stuff like that. But also I saw a documentary on the Discovery Channel or something like that once, about her, about ghosts and legends in Maryland."

After that, they cut the scene to a man who was wearing a hat backwards.

"Yeah, it's a story my grandma used to talk about a lot, to get us in the bed early. She used to say that if you stay up for too long, the Blair Witch will come and getcha."

– …..will come and getcha.

Will and Jeffery, who have been looking at the situation from afar, were listening to every interview from the walkie talkie.

A wide smile was hung up on Will's face as he saw how well everything was going.

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Chapter 22:

This was the seventh day of the shooting, but they were already very close to the end of the script, and if everything went well, they were practically going to wrap up the shooting before even a whole week passed.

Will stared at papers on the table and a walkie talkie in his hand while sitting on the couch of a cottage they had rented a few miles away from the town. There were always about ten to fifteen crew members and actors at the cottage, and because the space was limited, they had to sleep on either the couch or on the floor.

For Jeffery's crew, this was one of the most intense filming sessions they had ever done, especially since the whole filming was going non-stop 24/7.

As for the three main leads, they were mainly in the tents and had the walkie-talkie with them, through which Will was constantly in contact with them. The main reason why Will brought the walkie-talkies was to prevent them from getting lost in the woods.

But still, Zach, who was playing Mike, managed to get lost more than once in the three days of shooting itself.

He was terrible with his sense of direction.

Over the course of the last seven days, as the shooting went on, Will wanted to get as raw reactions as possible from the three main leads, and that was why he was trying a few low-blow tricks, but just in case, he had already given the three actors a subtle warning.

However, before that, Will had made a slight change in the contracts. This was the most important clause for the contract, and for some reason, his mind had been too preoccupied with other things that it had slipped his mind.

"This contract will allow me to add some external factors and improvise the plot on the spot, without informing you, and this is done to get a raw expression of yours. A few things might happen which may mess with your mind, but if you think it's too much, just come to me. Also, I will provide a psychological doctor's appointment for you three, with the first two visits paid from my own pocket."

The three of them had agreed to this, not taking Will's words seriously.

In his previous life, [The Blair Witch Project] was an instant success and raised the bar for horror genre movies.

People regard it as one of the must-watch movies before dying.

The movie was such a hit that even two decades later, many people believed it to be real, and when it was released, some conspiracy theorists had even started a man-hunt for the three main leads of the movie.

But in all this success, what the audience and viewers didn't know of, was the real-life effect it had on the lives of the actors who were part of the movie.

All actors had used their real names in this movie, under the instructions of the director, to make everything as realistic as possible for the audience.

And it had worked in terms of bringing money, but in the case of the real lives of actors, this movie made things even worse.

The main lead, Heather, had to quit acting because she couldn't find another job because many believed that she was actually a ghost because, in their minds, the movie was real footage.

In fact, her mother received letters of condolences and sympathy cards from the audience because many assumed it to be real footage and thought that her daughter was either dead or missing.

The thing was, the production team had also made the actors sign a similar contract with the actors, which allowed them to "mess with their heads." The only difference was that Will would not push the actors to their limits and exploit them with this new clause.

While the word 'exploit' may sound a bit absurd for the first clause, and even for the actors, who were unknown people at that time, it didn't sound like a big deal.

However, what they did not expect was how the previous world's production team "messed with their minds."

While most of their techniques were alright, some of them were quite right, exploiting and taking advantage of the contract.

The most infamous of them was when one night, the actors were sleeping in their tents, and the production team quietly began to shake their tent.

This mind sounded like nothing, but the problem was the actors were not aware of this, and neither were they warned about it, and because they had already signed the contract, they couldn't even speak anything against it because of the strictness of the production team.

Will chose not to make any contract and used a less subtle way of creating in-depth horror.

Instead of keeping the actors fully in the dark, Will told them a bit about the plot and then he would make it so that there's something unexpected happening, which in turn would generate confusion, and that was how he would get a lot raw expression from the actors.

"There will always be one scene which I will change on the spot, and that scene won't be revealed to you."

For example, he just told them that they would hear a kid's laughter, but what they didn't expect was the laughter from not one but tens of kids, overlapping with each other. This laughter came from a pre-recorded clip that Will had himself recorded from a nearby town's kindergarten.

Another thing Will did was replace the sound of crackling wood to someone running through the forest. This one had a much better effect.

But there is one thing worth mentioning. Out of all the inhumane techniques which the previous world's production team used, Will chose to take the two most… crippling ones.

As per the script, as the plot progressed, the three actors began to have discord among them, which was very important in the movie's success because their anger and frustrated expressions were very genuine.

However, those emotions were not fake; instead, they were real.

The production team gave the actors less and less food as the days went by, and Will followed this one.

And the second one which he chose to do was the ending of the movie.

The ending was set in a basement.

Will did not tell Heather and Mike about what to expect in the basement of the house at the end. He instructed Mike to run up and down the stairs while also yelling for Josh before running to the basement, and to keep Heather as far behind him as possible.

When Mike reached the basement, two production assistants dressed in black grabbed him and told him to stand in the corner.

When Heather arrived, they also grabbed her and gently placed her 16mm on the floor while gesturing to her stop screaming.

And then in the camera recording, on the floor of the basement, a shadow was seen, coming from behind the camera screen, but as Heather's cries faded, the shooting came to an end.

But for June, who was acting as Heather, this scene was too unexpected and adding on the 'unexpected improvisations' by Will; she was so scared that she had to be calmed down by him.

In fact, Will had even called in a psychiatrist before the ending shoot began – this was his final measure, if the situation went out of hand.

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Chapter 23:

"I, I don't know… hiccup!"

"Calm down. I'm here with you. It's all over."

"Sob… sob…"

In the woods, the ending scene for the [The Blair Witch Project] was finally shot, and it has left June crying and too scared that Will has to hold her in his arms.

The ending of the movie was scary, even to Will, and in the end, his improvisations left June so scared that she wasn't able to stop crying.

Finally, after consoling her for a long time, June stopped sobbing, and in the warmth of his hands, she started feeling better.

"Hey, June. You okay now?"

Will asked, his eyes looking into hers, but she shook her body and snuggled more.

"I'm still scared. Let me be for a few minutes."

"Okay."

He didn't know if it was just because of her feelings for him or if she was really too scared, but he let her stay in his arms for a while.

Jeffery and the other crew members didn't say anything seeing that and just chuckled. They left Will and June alone and tended to Marcus and Zach.

Both of them were in much better shape than June, but they were scared nonetheless.

The next morning, all of them have a compulsory meeting with a psychiatrist that Will has called.

After all, actors would often get traumatised after the shooting of a horror movie. And [The Blair Witch Project] was even shot really realistically.

In this world's Hollywood, there was even a conspiracy theory about a popular actress in the 90s who was found dead in her apartment after shooting a horror movie.

There were reports that she was having mental health issues due to her character in the movie and ended up taking her own life.

Will didn't want any of his actors to have any problems like this, so he has prepared everything in advance.

The following day after the meeting with the psychiatrist, they shot the final scene and like Will had said at the beginning of the shooting, all three of them were glad to shoot the scene.

It was a young girl's room filled with books and posters. Heather was standing in front of the camera, and Mike was shooting her.

This was the first scene that the movie started with, and Heather smiled as Mike asked.

"You look a little blurry. Let me zoom out, okay?"

"Okay. Huh."

"Okay, got you."

"This is my home, which I am leaving the comforts of, for the weekend. To explore the Blair Witch."

She said, and Mike closed upon a pile of books. There were some books that were famous in the 90s.

"Some essential reading. How To Stay Alive in the Woods, cause you never know what's going to happen."

She said, picking up one book. Her words were enough to show how excited she was about her upcoming adventure.

Turning her head, she picked up one book and showed it to the camera.

"And this is a very important book, because it has the article about what happened at Coffin Rock."

"That's pretty old." Mike remarked, and Heather nodded.

"Yeah, it's totally old."

"And this is my field notebook."

With that the scene ended, and they finally got more than 20 hours of footage which was enough to edit into a great movie.

"Cut! That's a wrap!"

As Will's voice resounded, all the cast and crew took a sigh of relief.

The shooting was finally over!

As the shooting had finished, everyone, including the crew and the cast, finally took some breather. It was time to fly back to Los Angeles.

Although it was a fast and lively city without much peace, they were already missing it after this horror ride.

Everyone started packing up. June, who had finally calmed down after the lively last scene shoot, kept glancing at Will after every minute.

As the whole cast and crew readied themselves to depart themselves from the same bus they had come from, Will told Jeffrey that they both would go in a car.

Although June wanted to complain, she decided not to be nosy.

On their way to the airport, Jeffrey was all smiles. Nobody can compare this guy to the one Will had first met. His temperament and atmosphere had changed a lot.

"You seem especially happy for someone who rejected the idea of recording a movie in a camcorder."

Will teased, making Jeffrey laugh as he patted his shoulder and said.

"Haha, you know it just as well as I do, just how crazy that idea sounded at first."

Will didn't refute it, of course, for an alternate universe like this without any success in such a type of movie; the found footage technique would seem like a fool's errand at first.

As he thought that, he suddenly remembered something and said,

"Ah yes, Jeffrey. Do we have any good editors in our crew? We need to cut out these 20 hours of raw recording into a movie. We need to add many types of sound effects and such; I'd really appreciate a good editor."

Will was really worried about this. He didn't know where this world's technology stood; although he had researched it, he didn't know how hard it'd be to find a good editor. So he couldn't help but ask Jeffrey.

Jeffrey, who heard this, smiled as he said,

"About that, actually, my wife is an editor too. She is the best one I know of. Why don't you give her the work? You can make her edit a short clip and check her capabilities."

Will was surprised after hearing that. He knew Jeffrey was married as Jeffrey would mention his wife in almost every talk. What surprised him was that she was an editor too, a good one at that.

Will knew Jeffrey wasn't the type to lie about someone's capabilities just because they were his family or friend, so Will couldn't help but sigh in relief that his last concern related to the movie production was taken care of.

"By the way, have you decided which distribution company you're going for?"

Jeffrey asked. Since the movie was produced, now the main concern would be its distribution. Thousands of movies are produced every year in Hollywood, but not all get the chance to be played on big screens due to their distribution methods.

"Don't worry about that; I've decided to send them to some distribution companies after the final clip is ready."

Will replied, and Jeffrey didn't ask more about it.

As they reached the airport and showed their boarding passes to get entry, Jeffrey couldn't help but comment.

"Don't forget your promise, okay?"

"Yeah, I won't."

Will chuckled in his reply. He had promised Jeffrey that he'd organise a big afterparty if the movie crossed the 100 million mark at the box office.

Although Jeffrey didn't believe in that promise before since he didn't think the movie would earn so much after the movie was ready, he somehow just couldn't stick to his previous opinion.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 24:

After reaching Los Angeles, the crew and Will parted ways.

He would meet Jeffery after two days for the editing and post-production, and then, they would talk more about the distribution and how they were going to go ahead with it.

After the shooting, the three leads were also tired and went to their homes. The sessions with their psychiatrist would still go on for a week, but aside from that, they were free.

Now that Will had two days to rest, he immediately went to his rented apartment.

He has spent around 80k dollars in the movie till now, which was more than the original, but he was shooting this movie in 2010, and the original was shot in the 90s.

He had already guessed this before, so he wasn't much surprised.

Will rested for a whole day and watched some comedy movies to get out of horror. At the same time, he made a list of the studios that he could use to distribute [The Blair Witch Project].

There were 4-5 major studios, but he didn't know whether they would agree to distribute a movie like this. They would most likely disparage his movie because it was not like a typical movie that could bring easy money.

It was just a common way of thinking.

The normal way to make a mark in Hollywood was to make connections for years before pitching a good enough idea that fits well with the ongoing trend. Only after that, you could debut as a director.

However, Will has already skipped a lot of steps.

'Well, it didn't matter now. I will get [The Blair Witch Project] on the screens one way or another.'

Musing over it for some time, he threw the worry of distributions on the back of his mind. He would think about it after the editing is done.

The next day, Will threw a small party for the cast. Rather than a normal American party, it was more of a get-together to get to know each other better.

The reason behind it was that he wanted to thank the cast for their efforts during the shooting and get to know them better. He invited Jeffrey too.

Will's small apartment already seemed full after a few people gathered there.

"So, there was one time when I was in a movie with Alex King, and girls were flocking around him. Like girls straight out of college, not caring that he was in his mid-30s and married. He apparently took 4 of them to his hotel room in the end."

"So, it's true that he's a playboy and his wife let him?"

"Yeah, it's common gossip that Alex and his wife are in an open relationship. They are just together because of the brands that sponsor them because of their power couple image."

One of the actors that have played the role of a resident in [The Blair Witch Project] was talking about a famous actor's love life, and both Zach and Marcus were intently listening to it.

Aside from them, a middle-aged actress was also sitting at the table. They were the cast that was able to make it to the party.

Will, sitting beside Zach, shook his head upon hearing the conversation.

Gossips like this were really common in Hollywood, and some famous actors and directors would even participate in orgies. Compared to that, a famous couple having an open marriage was quite normal.

This was just the dark side of Hollywood, and it didn't interest Will much. Though, it did intrigue the two male leads, especially Zach.

After getting to know him, Will has realised that Zach is a playboy and would hook up with many girls. He had even made moves on June after the shooting, but the latter gave instant rejection.

Ding!

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Will stood up from his seat.

"That must be June with the pizza."

He said and walked towards the door and opened it. June was standing outside with a couple of boxes of pizza.

"Hi, Will." She said with a smile.

For a second, Will wasn't able to say anything to her. He just kept staring at her.

Maybe, it was the way her slender collarbone peeked from beneath her low-cut t-shirt and a leather jacket or the way her curves popped slightly through her black leather pants or just the way her long hair smelled sweetly of shampoo.

She had clearly made an effort to look good before coming to the apartment, and Will would be lying if he said that he didn't make him feel anything.

"Hello, June. Come in."

He said after a while, and June didn't miss the way his eyes danced on her. She has worked hard in setting herself up today, and she was happy that it has worked.

Smiling to herself, she walked inside and out the box down on the table. Everyone cheered seeing the pizza and couldn't stop themselves from taking a slice.

"Oh, pizza is perfect for the evening."

"Definitely."

Zach and Marcus talked among themselves as the experienced actor again began one of his stories. It seemed like the man had a bundle of them, and he was quite happy that everyone was listening intently to his words.

Will listened to two more stories about a director sleeping with the male actor and how once an actor's wife made a big scene on the set after catching him cheating on her with the lead actress.

Those stories were funny, but Will wasn't interested in them.

He took his piece of the pizza and went to his apartment's balcony silently, feeling the soft wind and thinking about his new life in this world.

"Will, what are you doing here?"

As he finished his pizza slice, June joined him on the balcony. He glanced at her and spoke.

"Nothing. I was just thinking about the movie."

"Oh."

June leaned down on the balcony, gently tucking in a few hair strands that fell on her face behind her ears.

…

/DreamNote/

We did a poll regarding chapter length, and most of you want 1.9k-2.4k words long chapter instead of 2 chapters a day with 1k words each.

As I'm new to webnovel and everything, I'm continuously taking the reader's feedback about everything; I hope you'll understand.

You'll notice this increment in word count from the 36th chapter since I will be doing this from the latest chapter, which is the 36th, on pat reon.

You can read them in advance, on pat reon ofcourse, visit: pat /dreamthree.

Don't forget to drop your power stones to keep me motivated.

Chapter 25:

Looking at June's leaning posture, Will couldn't help but think how beautiful she was.

She wasn't like those supermodels and such, but she carried a natural aura about her that would attract anyone as they spent more time with her.

badump* *badump*

Will's heartbeat increased in intensity without him realising.

"What are you gawking at?"

June asked mischievously after noticing that Will was looking at her so intently. This time, not at her body, but at her face

"Nothing much. You look nice in that colour."

He said, looking deeply into her eyes. This was something he had learnt from his girlfriend in his previous life. Commenting about something tasteful would be more of praise than saying something raunchy and sounding cringe.

June was inwardly pleased with herself. She had been practically screaming for attention, but the young director was too busy directing to even notice her advances.

Her efforts to make herself stand out seem to have worked as he finally praised her.

They didn't talk at all after that, as both enjoyed the peace of the balcony with loud voices coming from inside the apartment.

Will munched on his pizza slice while looking towards the sky. A blanket of darkness had engulfed it as the night approached, and stars lit up the sky like Christmas decorations.

"Thanks for the get-together, but don't forget your promise. This is nowhere enough to make up for it."

As everyone started leaving one by one, Jeffrey met Will and reminded him about the promise again.

"Don't worry, Jeff. I'll make sure to throw a grand party after the movie hits a hundred million."

Will said with a smile.

"As long as you remember your promise."

Jeffrey patted his shoulder as he laughed and left too.

One by one, everyone had left the house except June.

Will looked at her and raised an eyebrow as if asking what she was still doing here.

"Your apartment looks like a mess; it'll take a while for one person to clean it. I might as well lend a hand."

Will didn't complain as they started gathering the boxes littered around.

Again, both of them didn't talk as they did their work.

After everything was cleaned, they both bumped into each other as they were trying to put the trash in their hand out at once.

"Ouch."

June rubbed her forehead as Will mouthed a 'sorry' in a barely audible voice.

Will put his trash bag outside and waited for June to put hers out. As she threw it outside while making a 'Huup' sound, she turned around to say something only to bump into Will once again as he was waiting for her right behind her.

This time, none of them made a sound as they stuck their foreheads to each other, not backing off.

June closed her eyes and bit her lips in anticipation. But what she was expecting didn't happen as Will let out a sigh and backed off again.

"Why..?"

Will could hear a quavering voice from June. She had her head down, looking almost at the verge of crying.

"Don't misunderstand here. It's not like I'm trying to push you away."

Will said in a sympathetic voice, making disgust boil up inside June. She had hoped that Will was just too dense to notice her advances, but it seemed like she was the fool here. She felt disgusted with herself that someone who kept rejecting her was now pitying her.

She couldn't control her tears as droplets of salty liquid flowed out from her burning eyes. Her face felt hot with emotions as she couldn't help but shout while crying.

"You always knew, you always know, but you kept rejecting my advances. Why? What's so undesirable about me? Why don't you like me when all I could do is think about you every moment of my damned day?"

Will looked at her with a bitter expression. He put his right hand on her quivering shoulder as he held her chin with his left hand and looked into her flooding eyes.

"It's not like that. It's not that I don't like you. I like you. I like you a lot. But I also care about you. I'm sure after this movie; you'll get the popularity that you always wanted. I don't want to involve you in any possible scandal, making it seem like the director who made you popular was like everyone else."

"I gave you the role because I genuinely thought that you deserved it, but I don't want you to confuse gratefulness for something more. I, for one, was not expecting anything in return apart from a performance worth seeing. Are you really sure you like me?"

"Hiccup, hiccup…I…"

June finally seemed to have calmed down as she heard Will's explanation. All along, he was thinking about her, and she thought that he kept pushing her away because he didn't like her.

"I…sob….I love you, Will. I love you a lot. I only had one goal all my life, which was to get what I deserved. You noticed me. You noticed my talent. You provided me with an opportunity to prove myself. You made me reaffirm my self-confidence. And I'm grateful for all that."

"But I don't love you for such shallow reasons. I've seen you, your persona. I love the person you're. I love your company; I love myself when I'm with you. I just love you for reasons I can't explain, but trust me….I …really do…"

Most of her sorrow had subsided by now, replaced with embarrassment.

Will, who heard June's words, was in a mental uproar. He knew she liked him, but he wasn't sure if that love was brought up by the gratefulness she felt for him or something else.

After listening to her confession, his heart beat loudly as he felt a sudden rush inside of him. He had never felt this way before, not even in his past life. Right now, he felt so attracted to the embarrassed June that he couldn't help but think about how 'cute' and 'lovely' she looked.

…

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 26: [R:18]

Reader's description is advised. Mature content ahead

…

June was all wobbly after confessing and letting out her feelings.

She felt as if she was drunk and was on clouds while still having the clarity to understand what was going on.

"Um..are you okay?"

Will asked, worry evident in his voice.

Without replying to him, June grabbed his hands tightly, dragging him inside while shutting the door close with her legs.

June aggressively pinned Will to a wall as they walked in, as her hands on his chest felt his heartbeat.

After that, her head slumped down again. She didn't know what she had just done, but she was again feeling embarrassed after regaining clarity.

"That's it?"

Will asked with an amused smile hanging on his face.

June felt her head turn hot from embarrassment. She was, after all, a virgin due to her catholic background.

She had pledged herself to give her first time to her husband, but the situation right now asked for something else.

Will leaned a bit near her ear as he whispered hotly,

"You were being all aggressive a few seconds ago; what happened now?"

Feeling his hot breath tickle her ears, she couldn't help but wince a bit.

Without giving her time to react, Will dived into her mouth, sucking on her lower lips.

June's eyes widened, but she didn't resist the kiss. Instead, she tried to reply to his kiss with unpracticed movements.

As the kiss went on, both of them started to aggressively suck each other's lips.

Will placed one of his hands on her plump ass, giving it a tight squeeze and catching her by surprise.

As her lips parted, he immediately dived in again and sucked in on her upper lips, tasting her lipstick.

June's eyes narrowed as she clumsily replied to his kiss with her own. She placed her hands behind his head, rustling through his hair while still passionately kissing him.

Soon, a battle of lips and tongue began with each party trying to overpower the other one.

As time passed, June grew more and more confident.

Still wildly kissing each other, their hands started to explore each other's bodies as their body temperatures went up a notch.

June's soft hands rustled throughout Will's body as it started rubbing his crotch, making a slight bulge appear on it.

Will's hands rubbed her huge ass, her back, her neck as it travelled from one place to the other, finally reaching her modest breasts, groping them firmly, making her yelp and moan in his mouth.

Still kissing each other, June unbuttoned Will's shirt while Will got rid of her low cut dress, leaving her in a black pair of bra and panties.

Finally breaking from the kiss, Will took a step back and scanned June's body, admiring it like it was a piece of art created by God, and he was the appraiser.

Will laid down a mattress and threw June on it. Slowly massaging her breasts, he unhooked her bras, leaving her mountains naked and in their glory.

June's cherry-like erect nipples succeeded in seducing Will as he went down and bit one of the nipples lightly while pinching the other one with his hand, making her moan.

June had never felt like this ever before; the sheer shame and embarrassment she was feeling moments ago were replaced by lust and excitement.

As he continued to bite and pinch on her nipples, his other hand travelled down, sneaking below her innerwear as he felt her vagina with his fingers.

It seemed like she had prepared for this before as he felt her shaved pussy, rubbing it with his fingers.

"Mhmm…Will…"

June placed a hand on her mouth as she tried to suppress her moan from all the pleasure she was feeling. Her whole body felt shivers of ecstasy as she approached an orgasm.

"Will…I-i…think I'm gonna….*hyah*.."

She couldn't even complete her sentence before her waist jerked upwards, and transparent musky fluid came out of her snatch, soaking her panties wet.

"Ha…hah..hah.."

She took heavy breaths as the orgasm felt like she had found an oasis in a desert. Her whole body relaxed as Will finally took his mouth off from her twitching nipples.

"Damn….you're hot."

He couldn't help but comment, looking at her bare body, only a thin piece of fabric covering her nether lips.

June, who was still trying to come back from the pleasure land, commented,

"Says you…hehe."

Thump*

Will's heart thumped again at her comment. June slowly got up, taking out her panty sexily with a single finger, she said.

"What are you waiting for?"

Will gulped as he thought how sexy June looked right now. He took off his underwear too, making June yelp in surprise.

"…is..is it supposed to be so big?"

She asked, looking at Will's erect dick. June had seen porn videos before and was well aware of the normal size; although Will's penis was just an inch bigger than the average American's, its thickness could give even famous pornstars a run for their money.

She looked at his cock, and then looked at her pussy; she couldn't help but feel a sense of terror inside her heart as she smiled wryly and asked.

"How would it even fit…. inside?"

Will chuckled at her absurd remark as he smiled like a fiend and said.

"Well, you were the one who was so desperate."

"I…no.."

He didn't even give her a chance to react as he pointed the tip of his dick near her vagina, rubbing it on her clitoris.

Although June was scared, she was even more excited and waited in anticipation.

Will slowly pushed his cock inside her, making her bite on her lips as a single teardrop couldn't help but slip down from her eyes.

'Why is she so tight… ugh.."

Will's throbbing cock entered her pussy as a warm feeling engulfed his shaft. He looked down, only to notice traces of blood flowing out from her vagina.

'She is a virgin??"

Will couldn't believe someone who lived in America and was nearing 23 years of age was still a virgin. It was very rare. Well, he wasn't one to be commenting as he was a virgin, too, technically.

His eyes softened after looking at her painful expression as he asked.

"Are you okay?"

"..yeah… I'm fine…you can move."

June meekly said as Will started to slowly thrust his cock into her.

As time passed, his pace started to increase as June's expression turned from a painful one to one of pleasure.

"Ahh…yes…nghnn.."

June moaned as the pain she felt earlier had completely disappeared, replaced by a pleasurable feeling.

A flesh hitting flesh sound resounded as an enormous amount of pleasure engulfed the duo, turning the atmosphere around be filled with a thick and musky scent.

As the pleasure started to build up, June who was laying in a missionary position with Will above her, started to moan louder and louder.

"A-again…. I'm gonna…c-cum again…"

"Ughh.."

Will was also at his limit as he groaned and took out his cock outside, his cum painting all over June's pussy and stomach as she came too.

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Chapter 27: [R:18]

Reader's descrition is required. Mature content ahead.

…

Will had an incredibly erotic dream tonight. He saw June confessing to him, and they ended up doing the deed. What annoyed him was that he kept feeling slippery at his crotch, making his dream lack vividness.

"Unghh…"

As the slippery sensation got more and more clear, Will's eyes slowly opened in an annoyed manner. He wasn't sure exactly what or who woke him up from such a nice dream, but he was not letting them off.

He saw June sucking and slurping on his dick, giving it occasional licks after bobbing her head around it.

He was still feeling sleepy a moment ago, now fully awake as recollections of last night came to him.

"Gummmowinggg…"

June said while still sucking on his erect manhood. She tucked a few hair strands that were falling on her face back at her ears as she continued with his sucking.

"G-good morning. ughh….what are you doing?"

Will asked, still unable to believe what was going on. He woke up to a blowjob first thing in the morning by a girl like June at that.

June put his cock out of her mouth while still giving it gentle rubs from her hand.

"Well, your little bro here seemed to have woken up before you and was asking for attention, so I was just giving him a bit of love."

Will chuckled after hearing her remark. As he tried to get up, June pushed him back on the bed.

"You're above me at night; it's my turn now."

As she said that, she slipped her underwear as she positioned her nether hole just above his erect cock, taking it in her snatch in a single motion. She slowly started moving her hips up and down.

"Ohhhh…..Mhmm.."

She suppressed a moan as she remembered the pleasurable feeling from the night, this time much more enjoyable because of no pain and only pleasure.

Will, who was still unprepared, felt her soft and squishy pussy wrapping and squeezing his cock, making it twitch inside her as she kept moving. His twitching cock sent her to new heights of pleasure.

As the pleasure increased, Will couldn't help but grab her buttcheeks, tightly squeezing them, making June moan even louder.

As he neared climax, he started moving his hips on his own, thrusting into her hard and fast.

"Ohhh my goddd, Yesss yes yesss."

June was wholly overtaken by pleasure as Will thrust his rigid member inside her overflowing pussy at a rapid pace.

"Fuck…I'm gonna cum."

"M-me too, I'm gonna cum too."

June replied as she bent over and wrapped Will's head with her arms, ruffling her fingers through his hair as he groaned with a climax.

As June climaxed, white semen covered her pussy too, spurting musky liquid all over Will's crotch.

"Hah…hah….hah.."

Both of them panted as June smiled and said,

"It was so amazing."

After an intense morning and half of the afternoon, Will could barely walk out of the door. Honestly, if he could, he would have stayed with June the whole day.

But there was work to finish.

Now that they have 20 hours of footage, the real work will start, which is editing and post-production.

Both of them were one of the major parts in making a movie. One could say it was just as important as the shooting of the film itself and took the same amount of effort.

In the case of big film productions, considerations would also be given to dubbing, soundtracks, colour grading, and many other things.

But [The Blair Witch Project] was supposed to be a movie shot on a camcorder.

It would not need any fancy embellishments.

An editor had only to select and piece together separate film sections to form a continuous whole. And thankfully, Will already has an editor.

Jeffrey's wife Emilia was a good enough editor from what he has told Will, and currently, he was outside Jeffrey's house to meet his film's editor and discuss how he was going to distribute the movie with Jeffrey.

"Will, come in. Lia is waiting to meet you. We were just talking about you."

"I myself can't wait to meet her."

Will said and walked inside. Emilia was waiting for him in the living room, and as she saw him walking in, she stood up and shook his hands.

She was a woman in her 40s and still looked really pretty. Will was sure that she exercised daily. Otherwise, it was hard to look like this for a woman after a certain age.

Jeffery hasn't been lying when he said that he spent all his luck to marry his wife.

"Nice to meet you, Will. My husband has been talking a lot about you and [The Blair Witch Project] since he returned from the shooting."

"I hope they are all good things."

"Most of them are."

Emilia chuckled, and they all sat down to have a discussion.

As they talked, Will thought of the information he knew about Emilia. She has been working in the industry for a while now.

Actually, both she and Jeffery met while working together on a movie together. The movie has flopped, but their love has blossomed.

Just last year, Emilia had worked on a movie that has won a lot of awards in film festivals. And she was even a writer on the side.

"Jeffrey showed me some of the footage, and it had been shot really well and suited the narrative style of the movie. But there's still a lot of parts that need to be cut down."

"I know that well. I want the movie not to drag and be as crisp as possible."

Will said, and Emilia smiled at his words.

"You can leave that to me. Why don't I show you some of the parts I have already done? It's just the first ten minutes, but I think you will get a good idea."

"Okay, I was hoping to see it."

…

/DreamNote/

One more chap coming soon as today's chap was smut. Longer chaps coming from Chap 36.

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Chapter 28:

With Jeffrey beside him and Emilia leading the way, they reached the basement where Emilia's office was located.

Her office was messy, to say the least. Papers were scattered everywhere, and many books were opened up on the tables. There was even a pizza box with a slice on top of it lying on the floor.

"Sorry, I haven't cleaned up in a while."

Emilia said, embarrassed at the state of her office. She would clean it once every week, but she didn't have the time lately to edit [The Blair Witch Project].

"It's fine."

Will shook his head with a smile and looked around the messy room. Emilia quickly sat down in front of a computer with Will and Jeffery moving behind her.

"I have done the first ten minutes of the movie already."

She said and looked through some files before playing a clip. It was titled 'Blair pt 1'. Glancing at Will's face, which was full of expectations, she added.

"Don't worry; I have tried to go by the inputs you gave Jeffery. Though it's really a hard job editing when you have so much footage."

"We just shot everything we could."

"I know that. I was surprised when I even found the footage of the three leads sleeping in the tent, and three hours of the footage was just that."

Will smiled bashfully hearing that, and Emilia finally played the clip.

The clip started normally like Will had wanted with the interactions between the three friends, showing a bit of their personality, and then they talked about the Legend.

Will noticed that many scenes that he had thought would be good enough were missing, but it didn't do anything to the pace of the movie. In fact, it made it better in a way.

He could clearly see that Emilia was really experienced in her work, and as the 10-minute clip ended, he felt satisfied.

"How was it?" She asked, turning her head.

"It was good." He smiled in response. "Actually, better than I expected."

"That's nice to hear. Editing [The Blair Witch Project] made me feel like I'm back to my college days where my roommate and I used to shoot videos, and I would edit them out."

Unlike cine movies, [The Blair Witch Project] was more of a home video that anyone can easily edit. The only reason he was going through a professional was that he felt like the quality of the movie would be better like this.

He and Emilia discussed a bit more about the movie. Will told her about some specific scenes which he wanted to keep no matter what, and she just smiled hearing that.

As she had worked with many directors, she knew that almost all of them had specific scenes that they wanted to keep in the movie no matter what.

Will was the same, and it was actually a good thing as it meant that Will has the soul of a true director.

At least Emilia felt so.

After he finished talking with Emilia, Will returned to the living room with Jeffrey. He wasn't here to just meet the editor of his movie.

Jeffrey has some important stuff to talk about with Will.

"As I told you before, Emilia is the best editor I know, and you don't have to worry about the quality. Now, we have more important matters to talk about. You said you have some ideas as to how to get distributors?"

The important stuff was finding a distributor for [The Blair Witch Project]. Without a good distributor, they were helpless.

Like his previous worlds, film studios and corporations were at the top of Hollywood, and a newbie director like Will had to struggle a lot even to get an appointment with one of the creative heads of these studios.

"I talked to Uncle Charles about it just yesterday, and he told me that he had set up a meeting with the distribution head of Foxstar on Sunday," Will said, and Jeffery's eyes went wide.

For the record, Foxstar was one of the top studios in Hollywood, and almost all the top directors and actors had once worked on a Foxstar studios movie.

"That's a good starting point." Jeffery nodded his head but soon changed his expression. "Though, Foxstar doesn't really invest in horror movies a lot. You do know that they have been trying hard to create a kid-friendly image for a long time."

"I know, but this is a good opportunity. Not like our movie has any scenes that are sexual or gore. It will get a PG 13 rating most likely."

"You are right. Just that, I have worked with Foxstar in the past. They are really overbearing and want everything to go their own way, and they are often accused of taking all the creative liabilities from the director."

Jeffery said, his voice wary. The last time he worked with Foxstar, it was a terrible experience.

He has worked on a modern-day fantasy movie, and he had felt like it would be a success. But Foxstar has taken out a lot of scenes because they just didn't like it.

In the end, the movie flopped.

"I understand your concerns, Jeffery. But think about what if they agree to distribute this, and our movie will reach more people and will be marketed everywhere."

It was not like Will didn't understand where his friend was coming from. But this was a huge opportunity.

In Will's previous world, this was equivalent to getting his movie distributed by a company named Disney.

"I know that the chances of [The Blair Witch Project] getting rejected are high, but there's still a what-if scenario that could happen. Maybe it will impress the people in Foxstar."

Not like Will depended on 'What ifs'. He still had some ideas and methods to coax other distribution companies if this one didn't accept it.

But as Benjamin had already said that he had set up a meeting between them, it'd be impolite not even to consider them, no matter if they accepted or rejected the movie.

…

/DreamNote/

Deal of the day: 2 Chapters for tomorrow too if this fanfic is on top of powerstones rankings.

Let's see you lose.

Chapter 29:

After giving directions to Emilia and talking with Jeffrey, Will finally went back home.

Looking at the small apartment, for which he had to pay rent every month, he decided he'd buy a house after [The Blair Witch Project] showed up at the box office.

After that night with June, she came around often to hang out at his place; although they didn't do anything because of how busy and focused, Will was regarding everything.

He wanted everything to go perfectly and didn't want to have anything bad happen to the movie because of his lack of attention.

On Friday, the editing was finally finished as Will booked a small theatre to watch the movie with the whole cast and the crew.

As the movie finished, cheers could be heard from the enthusiastic group. Will was very satisfied with the editing.

Emilia had kept the scenes he wanted, and the end result was much better than the actual [The Blair Witch Project].

Instead of showing the Blair witch throughout the movie and making the audience numb to her appearance and fear factor, Will had just made a single glimpse of the Blair witch at the movie's end.

That one glimpse was enough to implant fear, and many would come back to watch the movie again just to get that one glimpse again.

As Will had called everyone at the theatre, he had told them that it'd be the day everyone would get their payments.

All in all, he had spent $100k just on shooting, which included the props and every other cost for shooting.

He spent a bit less than $100k on the main and supporting cast of the movie and spent around $50k on the crew and editing.

Everyone involved wasn't famous or anything, the overall cost can be called way less than an average movie, but that was still enough to give huge quakes to Will's pocket, which didn't have much money.

After handing payouts to everyone personally and commenting to them a 'good job' or a 'well done, Will had around $250k left in his card, which he got after selling the [17 Again] script.

After that, everyone went home apart from June, who had already taken over Will's house as her personal abode, which Will, of course, accepted very willingly.

It was fun to have her around, and she helped a lot by providing her ideas and feedback about everything.

Two days passed, and Sunday arrived, the day on which Benjamin had set a meeting with Will and The Distribution Head of Starfox Studios.

The office of Starfox Studios was very close to MCA since the whole of Hollywood had decided to make 'Hollywood Areas' in every city, making studios and such things nearby each other.

Will was wearing a dark grey coat over a black shirt and pants. Although he didn't care about appearances much, the same couldn't be said for everyone else.

Appearance and good personality mattered a lot when doing new things and making new connections, which would give an excellent first impression.

As he entered the office, he approached the help desk and informed the lady gawking at him that he had a meeting with Chandler Davies, the head of the distribution department at Starfox Studios.

The lady confirmed and made some calls, after which a person that could be easily misunderstood as a pole came out.

He had a frown on his face which was covered by oversized spectacles.

"You're…Will Evans? Right? Mr Davies has informed me about your meeting before. I'm James Dankworth, his personal assistant. He has given me the right to proceed with today's meeting since he's busy."

James had an annoyed expression on his face as he looked at Will. Chandler didn't want to meet with a wannabe director, but since a senior agent from MCA asked him, he couldn't outright reject the meeting.

Hence, he told his assistant to go out and meet Will, make some excuses and reject his movie indirectly.

There were many small-time independent directors with movies ready for distribution; it didn't mean Chandler checked every movie and met with everyone personally when he already had a packed schedule.

Honestly, James disliked such young directors who thought that they could make anything worthwhile.

Their movies were poorly directed, lacked real plot, and had low-grade editing, not to mention that Will was here to show his horror movie.

Starfox Studios rarely created horror movies due to the reputation that they had created throughout the years.

"I thought I was meeting with Mr Davies. Where's he?"

Will said, noticing the scorn that the assistant seemed to have for him.

"He is doing something urgent. You can show me your movie or leave. Your choice, kid. I don't have too much time to chat with you."

James' tone was blatantly rude, and his body language was showing his annoyance. For a moment, Will wanted to hit back at him but decided not to do so.

After all, he was here to sell a movie and needed to be polite.

Even if James was a rude asshole, he needed to bear with it for a while. Just for his movie.

"Okay." Will simply said.

"Follow me."

Will followed James to the media room, and as they entered the room, the annoyed assistant asked.

"What type of movie is it? The same witch horror stuff."

At that moment, Will realised that the assistant didn't even know that [The Blair Witch Project] was shot on a camcorder and wasn't the typical movie he expected.

Smiling to himself, Will explained.

"It's about the story of three friends who try to unravel the mystery behind a local legend called the Blair Witch."

"I have seen a lot of movies like that. Most don't even give any scares."

"I'm pretty sure my movie will be different. After all, it's one of its kind."

"What do you mean?"

James asked, confused and Will replied with a smirk.

"It's a horror movie shot on a camcorder."

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Chapter 30: [Bonus Chapter]

"A movie shot on a camcorder?"

James muttered the words with a shocked expression on his face. For a second, he thought Will was joking, but the young director simply nodded his head.

"Yeah, it's a movie shot on a camcorder. An old camcorder at that."

"Are you joking?"

"I'm not." Will shook his head, but James interrupted him before he could add anything else.

With an exasperated expression, he said, "Are you kidding me? Do you think anyone would want to pay to watch something on a camcorder? You can't be serious; you're giving me a video recording, calling it a movie. Do you think we're running a circus here?"

Will pursed his lips. If this was normal, he would have backed up and left the place right now, but another plan concocted in his mind, so he chose to stay behind.

"You can judge that after watching this movie," Will replied.

James stared at him for a moment, and then shaking his head, he added, "Alright, I will watch it, but on one condition."

"Oh, what?" Will asked.

"Don't call it a movie."

"…" Will smiled but chose to remain silent, for now at least.

They both then went to one of the rooms with a projector on a big table.

Both Will and James sat on each side of the table as the movie began to play.

"So, what's it about?" James asked, "The plot."

Will organized his thoughts and told him the gist of the story, "It's about three students who decide to go into the Maryland backwoods to cover the mystery behind the Blair Witch incidents. However, they end up losing their map and later, things take an unexpected turn."

"Oh?" James frowned, "This is pretty generic… I am surprised why you are so confident in this? I don't even have high hopes in terms of execution, considering everything was on a camcorder."

"Not everything, but most of it," Will smiled, "And the reason why I am confident, well, you will know in the first scene."

"Oh? Let's see, then." James shrugged and switched on the projector.

[A black screen appeared, and three slightly shaking words appeared in which – The Blair Witch Project.

It remained like this for a second, giving an old movie type of vibe and then, the screen blinked, and two sentences appeared on the wall.

In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods in Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary.

A year later, this footage was found.

The two sentences remained on the black background, and the screen was slightly shaking, which foreshadowed the grim nature of the story.

It remained like this for about ten seconds, and suddenly, the screen blurred, and slowly, Heather appeared in front of a camcorder, which a stranger was holding, maybe her brother.

"It's coming blue; wait a sec."

"Okay," Heather smiled while arranging her hair in a bun.]

"You weren't joking…" James commented while staring at the wall, "So you're planning to make it from a real-life incident? But… isn't that what everyone does? All horror movies are… based on a true story."

Even though he did have a valid argument, James was about the natural and rawness the movie gave, especially with camcorder – which felt like a perfect choice for this movie from the get-go.

Will didn't respond with anything and simply waited for James to finish the whole movie first.

But this isn't the only reason why Will was confident that James was going to watch the whole movie. It was also because of the near-perfect editing done on the video.

While shooting the movie, they had recorded as much as possible, and by the end of the last day, they had more than twenty hours worth of video recording, which then went through extensive editing for days and finally, only about eighty minutes long movie was left.

Will wanted the movie to be as crisp and clear cut as possible, with each scene being meaningful, either to the plot or the character development.

James continued to watch on, and with just a few minutes in, he was going to have his fit huddled above on his chair.

On the screen was Heather showing the ????????????? town landmark while speaking from behind the camera.

[??????? ?? ??? ???????? ??????? ?? ????????????? 1894

"This is Burkittsville, formerly Blair. It is a small, quiet Maryland town." Her tone was professional, which signified that she wasn't here to have fun rather enjoy.]

Because of the black and white recording, there was an added grim vibe to the movie, which was like putting petrol on fire in terms of a horror movie.

The movie continued on, James' face was already serious in just the fourth minute when Heather introduced the graveyard of infants.

["There is an unusually high number of children laid to rest here."

The camera moved away from her face as Josh focused on the headstones around the cemetery.

As he turned it back to Heather, she continued.

"Most of them passed in the 1940s. Yet no one in the town seems to recall anything unusual about this time. To us anyway. Yet legend tells a different story. One whose evidence is all around us, etched in stone."

Another shot of an angel statue was taken, and that's when the scene came to an end.]

"Did you guys create this cemetery?" James couldn't help but ask.

"No," Will shook his head, "It's a real place and a real town, with a real history."

"Oh," James nodded and continued to watch.

This was his last comment for the remainder of the movie because he was fully immersed in this horror survival incident, and with how perfectly the editing was done, it was just a matter of time before he got scared shitless.

Not only the tent scene, where the three main characters themselves were terrified of the noise outside, there was also the scene of children's laughter coming from the forest.

But what stole the saw was the millisecond appearance of Blair Witch's shadow, which alone gave a jolt so suddenly to James that he almost fell off the chair, staring at the screen with a terrified expression.

"This…" He regained his composure after an unknown amount of time, and when he turned towards Will, he found the latter taking away the movie files from the projector and putting them back in the bag.

"Um… let's go." James stood up.

"Hm?" Will raised his eyebrow at him, "How was it?"

James gulped and sighed, "It was not bad…"

His words trailed off as he looked at the young director. He has thought that the movie would be even worse than a third grade independent movie, but it has clearly given him a scare, and he couldn't remember the last time he had been this scared by a horror movie.

But in the end, can he really call this a movie?

It was more like a home video in James mind. He couldn't help but be sceptical of his decision.

…

/DreamNote/

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…

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Chapter 31:

"Not bad?" Will took his seat and put his chin between his index finger and thumb, with the elbow on the desk.

James nodded, "I don't want to sound rude. I can see the effort you have put in, but… but this kind of movie will never work."

"Oh?" Will squinted his eyes at him, "And why not? It's not like this is the first time such a technique is used."

"I know," James replied, "But the last time it was used was thirty years ago. It's not just one or two years… but three fucking decades!"

"And?"

"And?" James frowned, "Can't you see my point? One, your technique is very old. Right now, a single movie costs millions of dollars, with crazy CGI and VFX, and what you're giving me is a home video in some cheap camcorder. What do you think the audience will choose? Home recording or something which a company has invested in millions and has breathtaking visuals and effects."

Will slightly nodded and then stood up, exhaling a sigh, "So, it's a no?"

"Um, let's say, give me your contact, I will contact you if there's anything," James replied.

He may not have given a direct answer, but it wasn't hard to see from his response that he was not impressed.

'And if he's not impressed, then no one in the Foxstar will be.'

Because James was the guy whose words will be taken as truth since he's the one who has reviewed the movie.

Will clutched his bag and moved forward his right hand for a shake.

"I will see you then."

James just smiled and stood up and white buttoning his blazer, he said, "Give your contact to the receptionist. I will see you around."

Without waiting for Will's response, he turned around and left the room.

Will stared at his back while slowly retracting his hands.

After a moment of silence, he exhaled once again and left the room, heading towards the exit without stopping at the reception.

Five minutes later, he was standing near the exit of the Foxstar Studio, looking around at the passing cars.

Nearby, there was a small park. Taking a soda from a vending machine, he sat on a chair and clicked the can open.

-gulp!

'It will take time.'

Will may have gotten rejected, but this was not the end of the world.

Just then, his phone rang.

-ttrring, trring.

[Incoming Call]

[June]

Will stared at the caller id for a long time and, taking a deep breath, he leaned forward, put his elbow on his knee and palm on his chin while clicking the green button on his phone.

"Hello." He spoke. His voice came out a bit gruff and suppressed because of his mood and the hand on his chin.

-…Will?

It was June on the other side. She was waiting for the good news, but the tone of Will's voice froze her.

-Is it you?

"Yes," Will replied.

-What happened? Don't tell me…

"Yeah, they rejected the movie."

-Hmm

June pursed her lips, and after a moment of pause, she lied.

-It's alright. I wasn't expecting instant success.

Even though she wished for the best and couldn't even sleep properly because of the nervousness, she chose to tell the opposite because she didn't wish for Will to feel even more disappointed.

-Will, don't worry now. And I will be real, everyone in the cast, and you – the director – are still no-name people in this industry. And we're not alone. Hundreds and thousands of struggling actors and directors are trying to make it big. And they go to these big companies with their ideas, scripts, talents and videos but rarely get selected.

-In fact, the company themselves views the struggling artists as nothing but plebs. This is your first work, and the struggle to make it a reality has just begun. These big companies don't want to take risks by taking projects of the no-name artists. Once you get over this hurdle, things will be much easier.

Will remained silent at her word, which only made June even more worried.

-Are you listening to me, Will? Do not be discouraged, alright? This is nothing but a setback. And setbacks are nothing but stairs to success. Okay?

"Yes," Will smiled.

His mood lightened up a bit after hearing June's words.

-Good.

June smiled as she continued.

-And don't forget that Foxstar isn't the only studio in this city.

Will nodded, "I understand. I will go and knock on the door of every studio in this city. I bet there will be at least one studio that will accept this movie."

-Yes. Will, you're a diamond in the rough. There are many struggles that you will face in the future, and they will only make you more cut and slick. And trust me, those companies which will reject you today will regret it later when they see you succeed. I am sure there will be a day when these companies will come to you, begging you to make them a part of your projects.

Will smiled, "You will spoil me, June. What if I become arrogant after listening to your coaxing?"

-You won't be. And even if you do, I will be there with you to encourage you to be a better person.

"Oh? And how will you encourage me?"

-Hmm, come to my apartment; I will let you know.

"Oh…." Will laughed, "Now now, I still need to roam the whole city, don't tempt me, what if I skip all of them and come to you right now?"

-Well, I hope you don't, but I won't mind.

Will smiled, "Alright, I will get this done and come to you later.

-Sure.

June removed the phone from her ear as the call got disconnected.

She then closed her eyes, folded her hands near her chest, and she prayed.

"God, please be with us and help Will succeed."

Although she wanted the movie to work out for her personal benefits, too, now her prime reason for wanting it to work was for Will's success.

….

/DreamNote/

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Chapter 32:

After the call with June, Will was motivated again. He already knew that the industry would treat this movie as a gamble no matter how good it was.

He went to two more distribution companies on that day but still got rejected.

After that, his days of struggle started as he started to go to every movie distribution company, no matter their standing in the industry.

He even realised that James could be considered particularly polite at some point because some companies didn't even bother to listen to his pitch.

Some who listened won't bother watching the movie because they considered it a failure as soon as they heard it was shot on a camcorder.

Sigh*

Will sighed after coming out from the office of 'Rear Creations'. Rear Creations was considered a medium-sized firm in the industry due to many reasons. Still, their arrogance when rejecting Will was way above a top tier distribution company like Foxstar Studios.

Will was slowly getting tired of the rejections. It wasn't like not a single person recognised the movie's value, but the people who recognised it were hesitant about investing in a movie that was more like a home recording.

Destiny Productions was also one of the top distribution companies, they got interested in the movie, but they said they already had their hands full with projects. They even asked Will to sell all the rights of the movie for 1 million dollars, which wasn't small considering how little he had invested in it.

But Will firmly rejected the offer.

It's already been about a week since his visit to Foxstar studios and in between, June and Jeffrey had called him many times and motivated him to not feel down about this.

Trnng* *Trnng*

His phone rang as he was in thought, sitting on the bench in a public park.

He looked at his phone and saw Jeffrey's name on the screen, making him smile faintly.

By now, Jeffrey and Will had developed quite a friendship, and Jeffrey would often call him to give him motivation and ideas as to where he should try his luck.

"Hello Jeff, how are you doing?"

– I'm good, Will. How are you? Any luck yet?

From Jeffrey's tone, it was clear he didn't expect any good news from Will, at least just yet.

"Not yet. Don't worry; I'll get someone to distribute the movie sooner or later."

Will said, his tired voice completely aversing to his fake enthusiastic tone.

– I've called you about that too, actually…..

After Jeffrey's call, Will had gotten another straw to hold on to. And he was standing in front of that straw.

'Wheel Works Studios'

It was the studio's name that couldn't be called famous or unknown in the industry. There was a time when they were doing relatively well, releasing one horror hit after the other.

But recently, 3-4 of their movies flopped back to back, which had affected both their reputation and finance.

Since Wheel Works Studios was a medium-sized distribution company, the distribution head of the studio was an acquaintance of Jeffrey.

After seeing Will struggling for days, Jeffrey couldn't just sit around. So he contacted the distribution head of the studio for an appointment with Will.

They were a horror production house, to begin with; if everything went well, maybe Will would be able to distribute his movie from them.

A rotten apple was still better than a healthy potato.

Even if they weren't doing well right now, they could distribute and advertise the movie to the perfect audience if they took on Will's movie. After all, they had a great foundation in the horror genre.

Carl Sallow, the head of distribution, personally came out to greet Will and took him inside while chatting very friendly with him.

He looked like an average friendly neighbourhood uncle, who most people would greet but wouldn't be too close with.

He gave off a friendly vibe with blond hair and light brown eyes. Will somehow knew how Jeffrey, who was terrible with communicating with most people, got acquainted with Carl.

"Haha, Jeffrey told a lot about you. A talented young man who is skilled in directing and scriptwriting. You've knowledge about the 'Found Footage Technique', which can now be called ancient by the lads of this generation. Ah, I remember the days when I was merely twenty and got engaged in my first movie, 'Janitor of the Asylum'."

Will, who heard that, was inwardly surprised but didn't show it on his face. After recalling for some time, he remembered that Wheel Works Studios was the one who released the last 'Found Footage' movie on this alternate earth.

Carl talked like Will should know about it, and he actually should since he had made a movie with a technique that their studio used years ago. But Will had already forgotten about that.

After a while, they went to the projection room, where they'd watch the movie. Unexpectedly, the CEO of Wheel Works Studio was also present; he was an old man who looked to be in his mid-60s, almost bald.

He was George Carter. He had come on a normal visit to the office when he found out what was going on and decided to tag along.

As the movie started and went into its engaging phase, Carl couldn't help but comment.

"Such perfect use of the first person. The actors are too good."

George didn't comment anything, but from his eyes, one could see the appreciation in them.

As the movie ended with a glimpse of Blair Witch's shadow, Carl could be found gasping for breath; George took out an inhaler and started pumping it down.

"…too good."

After calming down, Carl couldn't help but comment. He had never seen such an engaging movie, the direction and execution were so flawless that one would get absorbed right into the movie from the very beginning.

'Janitor of the Asylum' was a movie that had earned enough but couldn't be considered a hit. When comparing [The Blair Witch Project] with it, it was simply obvious that there was no comparison.

After some quiet discussion between Carl and George, Carl finally came up to Will, his hands held out for a handshake.

"Will, we will help you distribute this movie at the right time to the maximum audience."

Even though he was holding back, a charming smile formed on Will's face, his tiring day of distributor hunting had finally come to an end, and he was sure the future would be much easier.

…

/DreamNote/

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