My Hollywood System

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.”