Chapter 59: Movie Buyer

Morris Theatre is located in the south of Park City, the geographical location is not good, and with a concentration of theaters in the St. Dennis Film Festival Center screening area is a bit far, can only accommodate one hundred and fifty people, the screening equipment is also very old, it can be said that the conditions are not ideal.

Even so, the Morris Theater still has a full schedule of screenings, and will show a considerable number of exhibition films every day for the ten days during the festival.

As you can guess from the condition of the theater itself, it's basically small productions by obscure people that are screened here.

This is where the screening of Fruit Hard Candy was placed, and the film has only one screening for now, with the possibility of additional screenings if word-of-mouth response is favorable, as is customary at the St. Denis Film Festival.

Just after 3:00 p.m., Murphy arrived at the Morris Theater with Paul Wilson in tow.

The previous movie had not yet dispersed, and after he greeted the manager of the theater and the staff on the organizing committee side of the festival, he stood near the entrance of the theater.

The slightly outdated bulletin board at the entrance had a list of the movies that would be shown over the next few days, Love and Madness, Poor Rosie, My Town, Long Island Enchantment ...

As his eyes swept over these movie titles, Murphy was not impressed.

"What a small crowd."

Standing next to Murphy, Paul Wilson looked over to the exit of the theater, where the last movie had just broken up, and a dozen or so audience members sparsely walked out.

"Wasted an hour and a half ..."

"The shaky camera makes me want to puke."

"What the hell is the director talking about? Inexplicable."

These audience members walked past Murphy's two, and it was easy to tell from the murmurs that they were dissatisfied with the movie just now.

Murphy roughly looked at these people and gently shook his head, these were all ordinary viewers, there wasn't a single buyer in there.

The end of the previous movie also meant that the screening of Fruit Hard Candy was about to start, Murphy stood at the entrance of the theater, looking at it for a long time, and sadly found that there was not a single audience entering.

The venue was remote, the movie was obscure, there was basically no publicity, and the screening was in the semi-afternoon instead of the evening prime time, so he wasn't surprised that this situation occurred.

Murphy remained calm, Paul Wilson's anxiety was written all over his face as he kept walking around the entrance, complaining under his breath that the organizers had lined them up in a theater far from the central screening area.

"Paul, be quiet for a moment." Murphy walked up the steps to the entrance of the theater and glanced back that way, "You're making me dizzy spinning."

The theater was so quiet, it was impossible to say that he wasn't anxious, but Murphy kept his head clear enough, it was only normal that no one paid attention to a film like this one, it would be abnormal if the audience flocked to it instead.

He took out his cell phone and looked at the time, there was still almost half an hour before the screening started, and the professional movie watchers as well as buyers that Bill Rossis had contacted with him should be arriving soon.

Where the street turns, a few people from far and near, quickly came to the front of the theater, also do not look at the Murphy standing in the doorway, directly into the theater, this theater is not completely unattended, the next ten minutes, one after another four or five people walked into the door behind him.

It was pretty much the same as the last show, with maybe a dozen or so people in the audience by the time of the screening.

There were still fifteen minutes to go until the screening, and Murphy once again pulled out his cell phone to check the time, when finally the street turned the corner and turned two cabs, and the car quickly reached the front of the theater, and had only just stopped when Bill Rossis got out of the passenger seat of the one in front of him, and took the initiative of pulling open the rear door.

Paul Wilson was very watchful, and as Murphy descended the steps, he rushed over from behind, took a few large steps to the car behind him, and, following Bill Rossis' example, opened the door.

Murphy flashed a professional, warm smile, but his eyes swept swiftly and inexorably over the three strangers who had gotten out of the two cars.

The first person who came down on Bill Rossis' side was a middle-aged man with a slightly bald forehead and a pair of round slice eyes on the bridge of his nose, who at first glance looked as if he was an old-school professional accountant.

Behind him was a man in his mid-thirties with a brown parted haircut and a gust of cologne emanating from his suit-clad body that Murphy could smell even from a bit of a distance.

There was only one other person in the cab behind him, a black man with long hair permed into broken curls, probably in his mid-thirties as well, judging by his appearance.

Murphy descended the steps, they also happened to walk over, Bill Rossis took the initiative to introduce both parties.

The middle-aged man with a slightly balding forehead was called Joel Graham, from Harbor Entertainment; the cologne man was Becky Lassiter, a professional movie watcher for Castle Rock Pictures; the female black man had the biggest head start, Jones Butler, a buyer for Miramax Studios.

They were the VIPs Bill Rossis had invited.

Murphy, now without any principal, shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with them one by one, and took the initiative to head ahead and lead the group into the screening room.

The screening hall that could seat one hundred and fifty people appeared to be quite empty, with a dozen or so audience members sparsely distributed in the center rows.

Murphy brought them to a row of seats that the theater had purposely set aside, and politely said, "Please sit."

Those three people just nodded at him, but didn't say anything.

Especially the black man called Jones Butler, who never said anything more than a hello in exchange for pleasantries.

After she sat down, she had no intention of talking to anyone else, as a buyer from Miramax Studios, being able to come see such a movie was more on the basis of having a bit of friendship with Bill Rossis, or else how could such a movie made by a director with no previous work have aroused her interest.

The other two are not much better, in this circle, distributors are at the upper level of the food chain, especially in the face of small movie project investors, producers or directors, they naturally have the advantage.

This kind of contempt and condescension was not a deliberate outflow, but a very natural situation.

Murphy can see it, but does not care, this is an incomparably realistic circle, want others to respect, you have to have the strength to make people respect.

"They can see our movie?" Paul Wilson, after all, is a student who has not yet come out of school, couldn't help but come to Murphy's ear and whispered, "It seems like all of them are very disdainful."

Murphy shrugged, "I don't know."

Bill Rosyth accompanied those three people to sit with them, but his gaze would be cast to Murphy's side from time to time, seeing Murphy's calm face, he secretly nodded.

The composure and tenacity of this rookie director was indeed rare amongst young people.

The lights on the roof went out and the screen lit up, Jones Butler habitually took out a pen and a notebook, recording the possible selling points of a movie is the basic quality of a movie buyer.