Chapter 28: Inexperienced and Loser

"Murph, you can't be like this all the time."

  Just after walking into Mitton Cafe, Murphy was stopped by the owner of the place, "This is a cafe, not your office."

  Because the studio was too small and simple, after recruiting most of the positions, Murphy placed the first drama meeting of the crew's establishment in the Mitton Café, but the frequent interviews some time ago had already filled the boss here with complaints, and now of course, he was dissatisfied with Murphy's practice.

  "Lynch, we can always order coffee every time we come."

  Stopping her footsteps, Murphy looked at the old man of mixed blood leaning on the counter across the street, "The money for coffee was even less than once."

  The old man called Lynch had dealt with Murphy before and knew how difficult he was to deal with, turning his head to look at Jessica Chastain on the side, his gaze lingering a little longer above her conspicuous red hair, "This beautiful young lady, you've accompanied Murphy the scoundrel many times, you should know very well that every time, no matter how many people come, he only orders two cups of coffee, but occupies a card seat for hours! !"

  Saying this, his eyes were glaring, and when he turned this way, it was as if he was going to kill Murphy with his gaze.

  It was morning, and there were no customers in the store, so Old Lynch had no qualms about standing across from Murphy with his arms crossed, blocking his and Jessica Chastain's path.

  Murphy's eyes rolled as he walked over and lowered his voice, "Do you know what I do for a living? Do you know what I'm going to do here today?"

  Lynch said, full of concern, "I know you're a meanie, and that's good enough for me."

  Jessica Chastain on the other side almost laughed out loud, very much agreeing with what Lynch said, she accompanied Murphy to interview a lot of people, and watched him scamming free interns, trying to do everything he could to depress the salary of hired manpower, and usually all the expenses were saved when he could ...

  Not caring about Old Lynch's attitude, Murphy raised his hand and gently patted his arm, pointing at himself, "I'm a movie director, and I think that your cafe is very special and very suitable for my filming requirements, so I've put the crew's drama meeting here to discuss the feasibility of filming."

  Hearing that his cafe might appear in a movie, Old Lynch unconsciously put down his crossed hands, "Is everything you said true?"

  Murphy nodded, "Of course it's true, when have I ever lied to you."

  "That way more people will be able to see my cafe ...," Old Lynch muttered, immediately changing to a smiling face, "Good! Good! No problem, anything I can do, I'll definitely cooperate with you."

  He made a please gesture, led the way towards the biggest card seat side, seemed to think of something, hurriedly turned back and asked, "You won't charge advertising fees, right? I won't do it if you charge money."

  Glancing at Old Lynch, Murphy seriously considered for a moment before saying, "Lynch, we are all old friends, how could we possibly charge you money."

  Old Lynch's face opened up with a smile.

  Jessica Chastain at the end was staring curiously at Murphy's back, muttering darkly, "Not charging money, how is this possible? He'll change his mind?"

  "It's too foreign to talk about money between us."

  Unexpectedly to Jessica Chastain's expectation, Murphy's words rang out again, "You just have to be responsible for the coffee and catering while we're filming here."

  The words seemed to make a lot of concessions.

  Old Lynch deliberated for a moment and said with a pat on the back, "No problem, all of this is covered on me."

  Bringing Murphy and the two of them to the largest card seat, Old Lynch simply changed, "I'll have someone go and prepare coffee for you guys, you guys sit down for a while first."

  Although the card seat was big, it couldn't sit everyone for a while, Murphy pointed to the aisle around, "Can you have someone put a few more chairs? There are about ten more people on my side."

  "I'll have someone do it right away!" Old Lynch answered with a bite, then walked back over to the counter.

  Seeing Old Lynch walk away, Murphy gently knocked on the table and reminded the person across the table, "Jesse, remember to sign a formal contract with him, and put everything I just said in it."

  "Uh-huh." Jessica Chastain nodded seriously.

  Of course she could see that Murphy had been contemplating this cafe for more than a day I'm afraid, and actually did an excellent job, not only was there a free filming location to use, but the other party also provided coffee and catering, which at the very least would save thousands of dollars in expenses.

  Although not optimistic about this project, sometimes she had to admire, the opposite side of this can be regarded as a gangster from the background of the guy, show the ability is really very unusual.

  Old Lynch sent coffee not long after leaving, Murphy hired personnel arrived one after another, his lawyer Robert will also serve as the legal adviser of the crew, specializing in dealing with contracts and legal disputes that may arise from the crew.

  This is North America, where lawyers are almost an essential standard for any theater group or even company.

  Also involved in the drama board was an accountant.

  Murphy always had a relatively sober self-awareness, knowing that no one can be omniscient, like the financial work of the crew's payroll and fund expenditure, outsourced to a modest accounting firm, so that he could save a lot of time, and put most of his energy into the filming and production of the movie, rather than being overly distracted by the messy chores.

  In addition to the lawyers and accountants, as well as Murphy and Jessica Chastain, there are a lot of people involved in the meeting, such as make-up artists, props, set designers, lighting and other behind-the-scenes occupations are essential, in addition to Murphy coaxed to sign an internship contract of the three California College of the Arts and the SCAD Film School students.

  Of course, this can not be considered cajoling, just like the cooperation with the old Lynch, both sides also take what they need.

  The meeting began, and after Murphy briefly introduced everyone to each other, he had Jessica Chastain hand out the photocopied scripts to each person separately, and the labeled name on the scripts was also the name of this movie project - Fruit Hard Candy.

  The name seemed to have nothing to do with Laurie and the Weird Uncle, but those who had paid attention to the internet could basically guess the general content by the title of the movie.

  On the internet, "Hard.Candy" refers to underage girls.

  The most important thing is to let the crew get to know each other, establish a channel for smooth communication, and make the crew a team that works together while handling their respective responsibilities.

  Any movie is a product of teamwork, even greats like James Cameron and Steven Spielberg also need the support of a team.

  Murphy is well aware that in order to successfully complete this project, he, the director and producer, must get these Hollywood failures to work closely together.

  Of the behind-the-scenes staff identified so far, there are twelve in total, including him and Jessica Chastain.

  The makeup artist, Jack Watson, had been in the business for over five years and had no credentials to show for it; Murphy's biggest reasons for hiring him were one, that he was not considered to be very capable, and two, that it was cheap enough to pay him only three hundred and fifty dollars a week.

  The lighting technician, called Douglas, is the owner of a lighting equipment store and also works part-time as a lighting technician for a community theater company; he's also underpaid, making only four hundred dollars a week.

  The props master, Mia Sucre, was the most senior of all, having worked on three half-million-dollar films, and Murphy offered him five hundred dollars a week.

  The set designer is a young woman called Sunny Clegg, graduated from the California Institute of the Arts only the year before, has been working as someone else's assistant, this is her first time to work on her own, Murphy purposely lowered the price, and only gave her three hundred dollars a week.

  To put it simply, the crew was a collection of inexperienced plus losers.

  In short, excluding the lawyers and accountants, and counting Murphy as an unpaid person, there is no one in the cast who makes more than a thousand dollars a week.

  And none of these people are members of the trade unions of their respective professions; just like the actors' union, the lighting technicians' union, the makeup artists' union, and other Hollywood trade associations set their own minimum daily compensation, basically a hundred dollars or more, and hiring union members would undoubtedly cost more money.

  In Los Angeles, some people don't join their respective trade unions; for one thing, Hollywood's respective trade unions have barriers to entry, so it's not like you can just join if you want to; and secondly, you have to pay a certain amount of dues, which can be burdensome for these lower-income earners.

  And three unpaid interns ...

  In fact, Murphy would love to find a few more of these people, but not everyone eats his words, and it's not bad to have three free laborers.

  According to his plan, the work contract between the two sides officially starts from today, to the end of the filming completion of the film, at least ten weeks to fifteen weeks, even the highest estimate, the salary can be controlled within fifty thousand dollars.

  And let's not forget that it's not just these members of the crew, there are also expenses for actors, editors, and the soundtrack.

  Murphy doesn't plan on hiring a professional to compose music for the movie, and he doesn't plan for that portion of the money, planning to look to use passing music or songs that are in response to a scene for the soundtrack.

  North American copyright laws are relatively well-developed, and after choosing the songs, he can legally use those music or songs he favors by paying a fee to the relevant copyright agency.

  There are also equipment rental costs, like all Hollywood crews, Murphy plans to rent all the equipment, which is also a considerable expense, 35MM professional movie camera rental fees are not cheap.

  Then, it is to choose the main actor.

  After the meeting, Murphy took Jessica Chastain to the Actors' Guild first, spending a sum of money inside the Guild to publish a job posting, looking for actresses aged 14-18 and male actors aged 22-35.

  Leaving the Actors Guild, they drove on to the San Fernando Valley, where there was a stand-alone house for rent in the Valley District.