By the middle of June, the shooting for [30 days of Happiness] finally ended. The shooting had started in May and it took it more than a month to complete.
But everyone was very satisfied by it.
They all had fun working on the movie and knew that the quality of the scenes were high, especially the last scene of the movie. It was one where Aiden had truly mixed both of his major talents of acting and singing.
That's why, after his performance had ended, he had been presented with a lot of system notifications.
[You have mixed your acting talent with your singing. A unique feat had been achieved. Rewards have been granted.]
[A huge amount of experience has been given.]
[The song 'Lost in the sky' had gotten a boost. The chances of it captivating the listeners and making them lost in a trance has increased.]
[You are now close to breaking into Intermediate Grade 3 from Intermediate Grade 2.]
When Aiden had gotten these notifications, he was very shocked as he didn't know that mixing both his talents would have such an impact on the song.
It was something that he had seen for the first time.
But it did make him think that he still didn't know a lot of his system and at the same time, he felt like this ability would be really useful if he ever decided to be in a musical.
Though the shooting ended, Aiden's job as the film composer was far from being over.
He had been able to nail down 'Lost in the sky' which was going to the soul of the movie, so after that everything else felt very easy. To complete the soundtrack, Aiden stayed in Paris for three more weeks.
Leo also stayed here with him, wanting to oversee the production of the score as after the last scene, he had gotten more interested in film music.
Aside from 'Lost in the Sky', Aiden created two more songs for the movie. Though the lyrical version of them won't feature in the movie, the music was way more than enough.
One of the songs was 'Take me back home'. It was pretty much a romantic song about the feelings of a person in a relationship and the fears, doubts and complexes that come with it.
Although the meaning behind the song wasn't bright, the melody was bright and the song was sung in that way too.
The second song was titled 'Journey'.
It was pretty much a soulful, soft and breezy road trip song that Aiden had thought of while roaming Europe for shooting. Leo had liked it a lot when Aiden had sent the guide track to him and because of that, he had added lyrics.
All these songs were sung by Aiden and with that, the soundtrack of the movie was completed.
After that, the only thing left in the movie to do was to edit it out, add the dubbing parts and record the songs in a studio, so they could release the whole soundtrack in a digital album later on.
One more thing was that Omar and Leo finally decided on the film festivals that they were going to target. They were the Toronto International Film festival which was one of the major film festivals in the world and the Venice Film festival which was a part of the Big three (Cannes Film festival, Berlin Film festival and Venice Film festival).
They had decided on Toronto and Venice just because the dates aligned to them. Both of them were going to be held in September which was an ideal period.
Actually, Leo wanted to target the Cannes Film festival as it was just the biggest one but it had already passed away this year and no one had the patience to wait a year for it to come back again.
So, with everything decided, [30 days of Happiness] was more or less confirmed to be released around September-October after the screenings in the film festivals.
Though it was three months away, Aiden was still excited as this was his first movie in which he was playing the lead.
He had given everything to it, so he was very excited to know what the result was going to be.
***
On the screen in front of them, an electric rat monster was waiting for a turn to attack. On the other side, a dragon-like creature was standing. With a click of a button, the dragon-like creature changed postures and let out a fiery breath.
The attack was too much for the electric rat, and he fainted, ending the battle.
"You lost! Hahaha, I told you. You can't beat me in this game. I have grinded a lot to reach the status of a champion."
"You just won because I have not played it for years. I don't even know half the monsters in the game now. There are like more than 1000 in total now."
"That's just the kind of words a loser will say."
Aiden shook his head a bit, seeing his uncle relish beating him up in a famous video game. Uncle Sam was really someone who enjoyed victories no matter how small or big they were.
His carefree attitude was pretty childish, but that was just one of his good points.
His daughter already had her own family now and only Aiden was someone who he treated like a son, so whenever he would be free, they would get together to spend time together. It was also a way for Aiden to relax after days of working nonstop.
"Anyway, let's play some other game. Valhalla Knights just released and there's a co-op mode in it. We could slash enemies' necks together."
Uncle Sam said, sitting up to take out another game from his collection.
It was then that the door opened suddenly.
"Wade, you are finally here. Ah, wait, why are you wearing a suit?"
Aiden said, a hint of surprise in his voice. They planned to meet together today but as he was in his uncle's restaurant, he had called Wade here.
"Were you attending a wedding? Or a funeral? The suit looks expensive."
Uncle Sam asked, raising an eyebrow. An agent's work was pretty tiring and sometimes they needed to move around a lot, so clothes were easier to get dirty. So, Wade would always wear cheap clothes.
Completely different from the black suit that he was wearing right now.
"No, uh, I have a date."
Wade casually said but both Aiden and Uncle Sam looked at him with widened eyes, then gave a look to each other.
"I thought you already joined the club of 'Lonely Married/Divorced guys'. Are you sure the one who you were on the date with looked older than 18?"
Aiden couldn't help but chuckle at that jibe while Wade just glared at Uncle Sam.
"Shut up, Sam." Wade frowned. "She's in her 30s. Pretty much in the same phase of life as me. She works in an ad agency and it's going pretty well. I passed the second date today, I think."
Wade smiled and sat down. Aiden could clearly see that he had a big smile on his face and he even looked to be in a very good mood.
He was sure that he wasn't lying about the date going well.
"When did you even get time to date someone?" Aiden couldn't help but ask.
"I have actually known her for two years and I took time out when you didn't have any activities. I'm getting old with time and I don't want to die alone."
Wade shrugged his shoulders. Aiden knew that he was divorced once so Wade was pretty much just trying to give another chance to a relationship.
"That reminds me." Uncle Sam suddenly said and looked at Aiden. "What's going on between you and that Katie Brooks that you worked with in your last movie?"
His question surprised Aiden. He hadn't heard from Katie after the shooting had ended. In the first place, she wasn't the type to put in the effort to stay in contact.
"I don't remember anything happening between us." He said. "Why are you asking?"
"I saw your Skygram posts with her on the set and it's a rom-com." Uncle Sam said, trying to imply something. "These things happen easily between actors. In my time, I have seen so many of them have affairs on set. Even married ones give in to temptation and sometimes you will encounter some very gross affairs."
Uncle Sam said, shuddering a bit like he was remembering a bad memory. His words were enough to make Wade look at him in doubt, trying to see the changes in Aiden's expression.
"Is there anything?" Wade asked. "As your agent, it's better for you to tell me so I can prepare in advance."
"Trust me, there's nothing. I don't really think I will get in any relationship currently because it would be too hard to maintain it with me taking on different projects every other month and I need to like someone first."
Aiden gave an explanation. It was true that he never saw Katie as anything more than a friend and even with relationships in general, he was kind of avoiding them to not let it affect his work in any way.
He was just waiting till he met someone good and was ready for a relationship.
"Anyway, let's do this talk later. Why did you want to meet me today? The break doesn't end until Thursday, right?"
Aiden asked and Wade got serious, remembering the reason why he was here.
"Yeah but I got something good."
"What?"
"A radio show."
...
