"We have not gotten a chance to meet yet. You are Aiden Silvereye, right?"
"Yeah, nice to meet you."
"I liked your work in [30 days of Happiness]. You are a great musician and actor."
"Thanks."
"Come to me if you want to discuss our scenes together. If I'm not busy, we could go through them together."
That was a short conversation he had with Seth when he came to the set. From his tone, it was clear that he thought of himself as Aiden's senior.
It was true, too, as he had more work experience than him.
But he didn't act like someone who had snatched away Aiden's role for himself nor had any conversation about it. It was like it didn't exist.
That made Aiden feel like Seth didn't even think that he had done something wrong by snatching his role. It was already something natural for him.
"He seems like he's hiding something."
"What?"
When Aiden was in his thoughts, Dustin found him and sat next to him. He was wearing a sweater and jeans and looked like he was enjoying himself on the set.
His character was someone who was not in the initial parts of the movie, but as he had a lot of scenes on the campus, they were going to shoot them first and just edit them later.
"Seth, he's nice and polite, but he always acts like he's hiding something. Even now, he's not talking to anyone on the set other than Jesse."
"Maybe he's introverted." Aiden glanced at where Seth was. He was sitting with his manager, and Jesse was explaining something to him.
Dustin shook his head hearing that.
"No, I was at a party once where Seth was laughing and chatting loudly with a bunch of Zero International studio executives and some top actors. He looked like he was trying to please them."
Hearing that, Aiden couldn't help but wonder one thing.
"Why were you focusing on him so much?" Dustin looked at him like he was asked something too obvious and replied with a sigh.
"He was sitting with top actors and studio executives. A lot of people were focusing on them to get something out of it. A female actress even left with a few executives."
Dustin explained, and Aiden nodded, knowing that this was very common at parties.
"Anyway, so what you are saying is that Seth isn't talking to anyone on the set because…."
"He thinks we are below him. In better words, there's no point having connections with us, so he's not really bothering with us."
"Maybe."
Aiden only muttered that to Dustin's words. Even if it was like that, he didn't mind that kind of attitude from Seth. He had experienced that before, and it wasn't a big deal for him.
Until he started causing trouble for him.
***
"It's your first scene, so just relax. Just try to get in your character, and we could do a few takes if you can't get it right."
Jesse said, looking at Aiden, who nodded his head.
His first scene was an introductory scene in which Mark Knight and Andrew Kingston would meet in a bar where a game would be broadcasted on the television screen. Being a fan of football, Mark would keep his eye on the game, and it was then that Andrew would start a conversation with him.
It was a very important scene in which Mark's arrogant nature would take a hit.
"Jesse, can I change Andrew's character a bit?" Aiden suddenly asked, making Jesse put on a confused face.
"Like how?"
"I was just going through his scenes and analysing him, and I feel like he should be a bit more expressive."
"Yeah, but his character is of a good-hearted, timid person."
"And a genius."
Aiden added. In the script, Mark was written as a usual genius with a lot of shortcomings and quirks. One of them was his misogynistic nature about women in the tech department.
It was actually taken from the fact that women actually face a lot of misogyny in the IT sector.
But Andrew was completely the opposite. He was a kind-hearted person who looked a bit creepy due to how he had no confidence.
At least according to the script, but Aiden wanted to change it.
"What will you change about him? We can't make him a confident genius because that will greatly change the script."
Jesse finally asked, and Aiden quickly replied without wasting any time.
"Yeah, I know that well. Just that I feel like he should at least be confident about things that he's good at. He's not an idiot for not knowing what he's good at, but even in those things, he seems to have no confidence. Moreover, I feel like he should be more vocal about the wrong things that Make does on the way to a billion dollars."
"Like the only morally good voice in the room?"
"Kind of but in a more subtle way."
Jesse and Aiden discussed it more, so much so that the cameraman needed to ask if they were taking a late shot, but in the end, the director was too keen on keeping his characters the same way.
He was the type who wanted his actors to follow the script to a T.
As Aiden wasn't able to persuade him, he had no choice but to just ask for one chance.
"Just give me one chance. If I couldn't do it right in a take, then I would follow the script."
"Okay." Jesse sighed, giving him a chance to get on with the shooting finally. "Just remember that If I didn't like it, you need to go back to your portrayal that you showed in the audition."
***
Aiden was standing in a bar that the production team had booked for the shooting, and around him, a lot of extras were present. There were cameras present everywhere to get a three-dimensional view, and Jesse was keeping a close eye on him.
Seth was also going to be in the scene, and he was sitting at one of the tables and taking deep breaths to prepare himself.
At a distance away, standing beside the assistant director, Dustin was giving a thumbs up to Aiden.
'I need to do my best.'
He thought in his mind, and at that moment, Jesse's voice came out, followed by the clapping of the slate.
"Ready. Set. Camera. Action!"
Clap!
Hearing that, Aiden closed his eyes, and the immersion started.
***
[DisconnectedJan 28-2017Act 1Scene 3Take 1]
In the noisy bar, Andrew was moving around, hearing groups of friends talking among themselves about various topics that started with studies and ended with girls. Naturally, there were mostly college students here as this bar was the place where they would frequent a lot.
Andrew was unable to find a seat because of how crowded the bar was.
It was mostly because everyone was gathered to watch the football game going on the TV. From time to time, a goal or a good pass would be made, and all the people in the bar would cheer.
At that moment, a voice called him out.
"There's a seat here if you want."
Turning around, he saw a guy with spectacles sitting there. Andrew quickly walked towards him.
"Thanks." He sat down and introduced himself. "Andrew Kingston."
"Mark Knight. Are you from Harvard?"
"No, I didn't make the cut last year."
That sentence was enough to make Mark's interest die down in Andrew. In his mind, he quickly put him as someone who was in a league lower than his.
Someone who would never be able to meet with people he was going to hang out with in the future.
Andrew also noticed the change in his atmosphere but didn't say anything. Mark focused his eye on the game, and Andrew followed suit.
On the screen, Barcelona was one goal behind Real Madrid, who had mostly dominated the game. Only five minutes were left, and fans could just hope for a miracle.
"Fuck, we are going to lose."
Mark muttered, angry at the fact. He was feeling awful as he was really hoping Barcelona would win this.
At that moment, Andrew commented.
"No, they are going to get a goal."
His words managed to attract the attention of Mark, who looked at him confused.
"They are clearly winning it. Don't you see their defence? No one is going to get past it."
"Yeah, it's tough, but Barcelona just made a substitute. They went for a tiki-taka formation with their main striker on the right wing. They will make a goal. Trust me."
Andrew said with confidence visible on his face. He looked like someone who couldn't be wrong.
Mark didn't think too much about his words and just focused on the screen. At that moment, something extraordinary happened.
Barcelona breached the defence of Real Madrid with their tiki-taka formation and made a goal. The commentators on the TV were going crazy with their Spanish commentary, and everyone was cheering in the bar.
It was like it got 4-5 times noisier in just a second.
"How, how do you know?"
Mark turned to look at Andrew, shocked he smiled.
"Instincts and I once saw that tactic live."
"But how can you tell it was the same?"
"I observe well."
Andrew simply said with a smirk and stood up from the bar and walked outside. Mark kept looking at his face, wondering what had just happened.
In the end, he decided to follow him.
"Cut!"
At that moment, the sound of Jesse came out as the scene ended.
...
