My Hollywood System

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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