Chapter 7: Armed robberies
When he returned home, the eastern sky had already turned a hint of fish-belly white, but Murphy didn't have any sleepiness, and came to the workroom to open his laptop, fetched the car-mounted police receiver that he had brought back from his car, and looked up the instructions stored on top of the computer, as well as the LAPD's police code.
The memories left behind by the previous Murphy told him that this was an essential tool if he wanted to make money through the profession of freelance journalism.
This police receiver captured every public contact from the LAPD whenever there was an unexpected incident.
For example, in last night's car accident, if someone had called the police at the time, the police's control platform would have contacted the nearest police officer by calling the car receiver, allowing them to arrive at the scene as fast as possible.
With this police receiver, Murphy would be able to receive a similar message, pick the desired type from it, and rush over to shoot it.
But the police used codes a lot of the time, and those who didn't understand them didn't understand them at all.
And that predecessor was kind of a thoughtful person, the laptop had detailed records on it of the types of LAPD police codes and what they stood for.
For example, 148 incident represents resisting arrest, 187 incident represents homicide, 211 incident represents armed robbery, etc. ...
After looking over the police codes and studying the usage of the police receiver for a while, Murphy finally couldn't help fighting his eyes up and down and went to another room to sleep.
This sleep until half an afternoon, downstairs casually bought some fast food to solve the problem of eating, Murphy returned to the dilapidated building, sat in front of the laptop computer, concentrating on the keyboard, continue to perfect the script that has been written for a long time.
Even if he knew that the likelihood of the newcomer's new script selling was infinitely low, Murphy did not give up hope.
In the following half a month or so, Murphy quit his job at the auto repair shop, and his life was divided into two parts, driving off with a handheld video camera and a police receiver after dinner, circling around West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and the Santa Monica neighborhood, looking for any valuable news clues, and as long as he got useful information from the police receiver, he would rush to the place of the incident as fast as possible to film it, and the former Murphy's knowledge of the entire Los Angeles area played an extremely important role in his familiarity with the area.
On the other hand, after returning to his dilapidated apartment in the early hours of the morning, Murphy would first take a nap, and then get up in the afternoon to perfect his script or check the open job ads, not letting go of any opportunity to actually get into Hollywood.
Perhaps it was just that the time had come, or perhaps the job where he didn't have to look at other people's faces suited him better, Murphy's work life for the past ten days or so had gone much smoother than it had before, with nearly two dozen videos shot back and forth on car accidents, fires, and brawls, most of which he had successfully sold to Fox's local Los Angeles station, Channel 6.
In particular, he also had the stroke of luck of filming in West Hollywood with Madonna? Ciccone and British director Guy Ritchie. The video of Madonna Ciccone's date with British director Guy Ritchie was introduced by Carla and sold to Fox's Entertainment Channel, earning her three thousand dollars.
With a more stable source of income, Murphy did the first thing is to pay off the debt, the car, as well as the borrowed cell phone and the dollar all returned to Ross, and then from the second-hand market for their own replacement, especially the purchase of second-hand Ford sedan, specially modified in the passenger seat of a video camera bracket, in order to be able to drive the car can also be shot.
Then he will organize the two scripts to print multiple copies, respectively mailed to the six major Hollywood companies, as well as other large and small dozens of film companies and studios, the results are not too many surprises, for the time being, did not receive any letter back.
In addition, Murphy also went to a number of theater interviews, are not very ideal, he will be a British director head out of the problem and the experience of having a previous conviction, so that these crews do not dare to use him easily.
Nearly a month after his release from prison, Murphy managed to solve the basic problem of survival, but entering Hollywood remains at the level of a dream.
Los Angeles in August is dry and hot, even if the sun has deflected to the sea, the temperature is still high and scary, Murphy parked his car next to the Santa Monica Esplanade, the sea breeze blew in from the open windows, bringing a rare hint of coolness.
Looking at the time, Murphy fetched his cell phone and dialed a number once again.
"Hello ..."
Unlike the busy tone from ten minutes ago, a formulaic voice rang out inside, "This is Twentieth Century Fox Editorial Review Department."
"Excuse me, I'm a screenwriter." Murphy said as simply as he could, "My name is Murphy Stanton, I'm a screenwriter, and I've submitted a script to your company, and I'd like to ask about the results of your review."
"Thank you for your support of Twentieth Century Fox."
The voice that rang in the receiver was polite and very calm, "Sir, we will contact you after we have read your script."
Murphy wanted to say something else, the other party was polite and courteous and said two more sentences, then hung up the phone.
"Again!"
Throwing the phone onto the passenger seat, Murphy was more or less unpleasant, "Why are all movie companies like this?"
The person just now didn't even ask for the name of the script he was pitching!
Today's day, recently waited for some heartburn Murphy to a number of movie companies have called, get the same answer with just now, the person who answered the phone is very polite, say the words also like routine.
Looking at the west is getting closer to sea level sun, Murphy sighed, basically sure to submit the script this road is very unreliable, the newcomer new script is enabled by the odds, not more than their own lottery tickets to win a few million dollars.
No connections, no money, no fame, no capital, even if you have your own special experience, in a short time you want to shine in Hollywood, this incomparable reality of the circle, the difficulty with epic level can not be described.
A newcomer's script, attracted countless people and companies to fight for, there is a more ridiculous joke than this?
At this point, Murphy basically gave up the idea of relying on the script for quick success, and the idea of moving forward step by step on the ground became more and more firm.
The sun finally fell into the sea, went outside and simply ate dinner, Murphy returned to the car, turned on the police receiver, as in the past this period of time, from the police signal to sift through the information that is useful to them, but tonight the day's luck is not very good, until the sky is completely dark, but also did not get any valuable clues.
Starting the car, Murphy drove towards the Santa Monica Valley side, the law and order in the United States is indeed bad, but that's in the downtown area, like Santa Monica as well as West Hollywood's rich elite gathering area, the police's degree of attention as well as the arrangement of the police force, is too much better than the Latino community or the black community.
The law and order in the rich neighborhoods keeps getting better, and the law and order in the slums is getting worse and worse, which is Murphy's perception through his field experience.
But unless there is a large-scale fire or serial murder in the slums, there is not much value in the news there, and the anti-elite culture and mentality of the general public who like to see the elite or the rich fall on their asses is the same in North America as in any other country in the world.
It's just that the law and order in rich neighborhoods has gotten better, making news like this appear less and less on TV, but also highlighting the value of Murphy's work, after all, scarcity sells for a high price.
From the time he sold his first video, Murphy spent most of his work time hitting the rich neighborhoods relatively close to the beach and the valley, and downtown was rarely rushed over even when there was a breaking story.
The Ford sedan raced east along Santa Monica's Seventh Street, Murphy's eyes gazing ahead, his ears constantly catching every sound from the police receiver, and perhaps his good luck had run out lately, there was no information worth rushing to film until he'd circled Santa Monica.
The night was getting darker and darker, this was the bustling Santa Monica, the traffic on the streets instead of decreasing had a tendency to increase, Murphy made it a point to go around the streets lined with bars and nightclubs again in the hope of getting a stroke of luck in encountering a Hollywood celebrity drunk and disorderly or some such incident.
Although Santa Monica is the residence of many Hollywood stars, but such a good thing can not be encountered every day, Murphy turned a circle without any gain, had to leave here to Santa Monica Valley to try his luck.
Santa Monica Valley is inhabited by people with a lot of money, such as engaged in Murphy's profession, want to buy the property here, in the short term do not even think about it.
Murphy drove slowly along the main road, the whole valley area seemed unusually quiet, ordinary people would like the quietness of this place, he would not.
"Hurry up and something happens, even if it's a burglary."
Controlling the steering wheel, Murphy kept muttering to himself in the car, hoping that this quiet residential area, hurry up and have some accidents or violent incidents so that he can shoot something valuable, at least earn back the gas money tonight.
Bought this second-hand Ford, the cost of modifying the passenger camera mount, plus find a lawyer for himself, Murphy actually does not have much money, people are poor is short of ambition, such as his situation, the most urgent is undoubtedly to be able to hurry up to make a fortune, to avoid sitting on the mountain empty.
Things go against his wishes, until about to drive out of the Santa Monica Valley, the police receiver also did not send out valuable clues, but the West Hollywood area has a vehicle crashed in the street lamp above, the police command desk summoned the nearby patrol police car to hurry over.
Murphy couldn't help but step on the gas, also ready to go over, after all, it's not very far there, if you go over in time, you might be able to capture valuable footage, at least you can change some gas money back.
Just as Murphy stepped on the gas, and the car was just picking up speed, the car's police receiver suddenly rang out an urgent female voice.
"All units located in Santa Monica, there is a 211 incident at the residence at 17 Bill Road in the Valley District! Repeat, this is incident 211 ..."
Hearing this, Murphy didn't even think about it, immediately stepped on the brakes to turn around, and the car rushed towards the road it came from at a much faster speed than it did just a moment ago.
Bill Road is not far from this big road he is traveling, only three intersections.
The Ford sedan was like a bolt of black lightning, and Murphy, who was driving, was not only energized, but obviously also a little excited.
The 211 incident meant armed robbery, if he remembered correctly, the Valley District Bill Road neighborhood living are very rich people.
What kind of big price can the news of armed robbery of extremely rich people sell for?