My Hollywood System

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.