Chapter 25: A Neat Script
"... I currently perform in a community theater,"
Having said quite a bit in front of her, Jessica Chastain was also observing the opposite side of the room, seeing that Murphy looked unmoved, she added, "I am also the director of this community theater, and I have to deal with ticketing and arranging the venue and a lot of other work."
Murphy nodded, from her previous self-introduction, it could be seen that this Juilliard senior had encountered a lot of trouble entering society, and this road to Hollywood that she wanted to embark on was, like the vast majority of people, very uneven.
Looking down at his notebook, Murphy looked at her and asked, "Why should I hire you?"
Hearing this question, Jessica Chastain gave it a little thought and said, "I have a certain amount of professional knowledge, I have worked in theater services at New York's Lincoln Center for the Arts and Off-Broadway, and after I came to Hollywood, I also worked as a temporary assistant on a production, I believe I can be qualified for this job... ..."
After a moment's hesitation, she managed to say, "I need this job, a job with close ties to Hollywood and the movie industry."
Murphy twirled the pen in his hand and asked, "You haven't graduated yet?"
"Yes." Jessica Chastain admitted dryly, "I'm interning."
"In that case ...," Murphy mused, and after a while, he said, "I can hire you."
Jessica Chastain across the room was visibly relieved.
However, Murphy followed up with, "But given that you haven't graduated yet, I can only take you on as an intern."
This was the meaning of no paycheck, Jessica Chastain understood and immediately shook her head, "I'm sorry, I can't do it, I need the money now."
Murphy's words just now were more of a test, if the other party agreed, there was a free laborer available; if she didn't agree, it would also lower her mental expectations in terms of salary.
"I'm giving you a chance to explore your career options and learn about my company." Murphy gave her hope again, "I'll see how you do later and give you the opportunity to work full time."
He made it a point to emphasize, "My company and I will be shooting a film soon, and we expect to open in a month and a half to two months."
Does this really seem like a good opportunity? Jessica Chastain was more or less heartened to hear that there was a movie to be shot soon, biting her lip but swallowing back the words she wanted to say yes.
Murphy observed these reactions, this girl clearly lacked sufficient social experience, but she wasn't a fool either.
Those words from before, more or less worked, Jessica Chastain hesitated and whispered, "I need a paycheck, I just moved out of my house and I need money."
She looked at Murphy with the look of someone who really wanted the job.
Murphy actually knew very well that his words about a movie being about to be shot had made the girl interested enough in the job.
"Well, given your actual situation ...," Murphy made a very difficult expression, "I can give you 300 dollars per week."
That wasn't a lot of money compared to her education, but it was always an opportunity and Jessica Chastain considered it for a while before finally nodding, "Okay, when can I start?"
Murphy thought for a moment, "It's Friday, starting next Monday would be good, I'll be in touch."
Jessica Chastain stood up and extended her right hand to Murphy, "Thank you, thank you for the opportunity."
Shaking her hand, Murphy said confidently, "You won't regret the choice you've made now."
Returning a polite smile, Jessica Chastain said goodbye and excused herself from this coffee shop.
In the following two days, Murphy basically finished the script, it was just a very rough large-scale model, the back will have to be constantly revised, and there was no rush, instead, there were quite a few interview jobs waiting for him, after all, this is the most developed place in the world's movie industry, concentrating countless people who came to seek the dream of film, many people saw the advertisement and called in to apply for the job.
Luckily for Murphy, he was no longer alone, and Stanton Studios had its first temporary employee - Jessica Chastain.
On Monday morning, Murphy received a call from Jessica Chastain and ran to the three-way intersection, bringing her into the Latin neighborhood.
Walking on her face, two gangly male youths with some scary tattoos exposed, and then looking at the dilapidated buildings around her, Jessica Chastain suddenly regretted her previous choice a little bit, and looking at the back of Murphy, who was walking in front of her, she very much suspected that she had encountered unsuspecting crooks.
Just what kind of movie studio would be based in the slums?
She put one hand into her pocket, pretending to look at the time, took out her cell phone and quietly pressed the "911" number, and when she put it back, her left thumb was always pressed on the dialing button, so that as long as the situation was not right, she would immediately call the police.
Can follow Murphy to here, yesterday saw those documents played an important role, if not have those real company documents, she would not follow a man to this kind of place.
Turning around in this Latino-filled neighborhood, finally coming to a small, dilapidated gray building, Jessica Chastain saw Murphy turn into the stairwell and unconsciously raised her guard, grabbing her purse with her other hand, which contained powerful mace spray.
"The company is just getting started, all the money is invested in the movie project."
While walking up along the stairs, Murphy said some basic information to the red-haired girl behind him, a human savant like him could naturally see the other party's wariness, which was normal, if Jessica Chastain was a silly fool, he wouldn't dare to use it yet, "For the time being, we can only work here, but I'm looking for a suitable house."
The suitable house was of course the movie shooting location, but Murphy didn't specify.
Jessica Chastain nodded, but did not let her guard down, after coming to the third floor, she followed Murphy to the door of the room, and after Murphy opened the door of the room, but did not have the intention to go inside, but instead observed for a while.
This is a normal person has the wariness, Murphy also do not think, open the room door to the maximum, in order to eliminate the other party's doubts.
After looking for a while, Jessica Chastain did not find anything wrong, this house is not big, through the door of the room can be seen at a glance inside the appearance, directly opposite her is the living room cum bedroom, furnishings are very simple, beds, sofas, televisions and so on, it seems relatively old, but everything is neatly packed, showing that the owner is a person who likes to clean the environment.
There was also a door open next to the living room, and from this side of the view, one could see that there wasn't much space inside, just letting go of a desk and a shelf, with a laptop and a printer on the side of the desk near the window, and only the camcorder and telephoto camera on the shelf.
After observing for a while, Jessica Chastain finally took the step and stepped into the Stanton studio.
Waiting for his first employee to walk into the studio, Murphy pointed to where the kettle was, "Water's over there, and there's a burger place downstairs and out the door and to the left fifty feet away that's cheap enough to be affordable."
He sat down on the side of the desk near the window and pointed to the chair across from him, "You'll be working here for now."
Jessica Chastain said nothing, but sighed in her mind that it was really spartan enough, worse than her worst imaginings.
Murphy took a stack of papers from a folder to his left, "I'll talk about what you'll be doing today."
He pushed over a list of names first, "These are some of the people interested in joining our movie project, it has their contact information on it, you contact them and set up a time and place for the interviews, preferably at Mittens Coffee Shop."
After saying that, he pushed over another document, "This is the camera equipment I need, haven't you spent time on a couple of crews? It shouldn't be unfamiliar, determine where there are rental vendors, look at a few more, I want the lowest price."
Immediately after, Murphy handed Jessica Chastain a stack of folded printed posters, "These are some job postings, this afternoon you go to the USC Film School and the California Institute of the Arts, put them up near the two colleges."
Among the people who contacted Murphy were also a few professional students entering their internships, and seeing that his posters were having an effect, Murphy made a special batch.
Finally, Murphy threw the script that he had just registered the copyright last week to Jessica Chastain, "This is the script for the project we're going to shoot and produce, this is the first draft, you familiarize yourself with it, I still need you to assist me in making a scene schedule and shooting plan."
Seeing this script, Jessica Chastain's hanging heart finally relaxed, the person across from her really wasn't a liar, and looked like someone who was going to do something.
"Can I read the script first?" She asked tentatively.
Murphy, who had already fetched his drawing pad and was ready to draw the subplot sketches, waved his hand and told her to make herself at home.
Jessica Chastain flipped open the script and read it carefully, she was a senior in the theater department of the Juilliard School, and had studied the script to a certain extent, first skimming through it as fast as she could, and determining that it was a very neatly structured script.
The first page of the script was the opening scene, a bit bloody and cruel, but not a bad way to attract the audience, although the text was different from the picture and the meaning expressed was a bit obscure, Jessica Chastain could still imagine that this was a scene of a perverted adult man abusing and killing an underage girl.
She looked across at Murphy, who was unusually serious about drawing something that appeared to be a subplot sketch.
"This kind of script ..."
Jessica Chastain shook her head and continued to read on, the script spelled out the theme clearly and unambiguously on page five.
Together with the pages that followed, pages 1 through 10 were standard padded plots.
In a standardized Hollywood script, the opening pages should express the tone, mood, genre and subject matter of the film, and the opening scene is a good opportunity to show the starting point of the protagonist, and if the screenwriter presents a "before" impression, then there will be an "after" overview that shows how things are going to develop. How things develop ...
The script she had in her hands clearly had all this.
Also, the opening of the script must have a corresponding beat: the finale.
A good script must evolve, and these two scenes are the way to clarify how the movie evolves.