Everyone on the set was able to see that Jesse wasn't happy with the scene just now. It was going very well, but he had suddenly called 'Cut' and was now looking at Seth Douglas.
Not a lot of people had realised why Jesse hadn't liked the movie. Their eyes were too focused on Aiden, and they were thinking that it was going great.
Jesse's eyes were very disappointed as he glanced between the screen and Seth.
"Seth, you need to put on a better performance. You are getting overshadowed by Aiden. You are an important part of this scene."
He said, looking at Seth, who hadn't realised what had gone wrong. In his mind, he was giving a fine performance, but when Jesse said that, he subconsciously looked at Aiden.
"I will try to do better."
"Okay, this is just the first take. Let's go at it again."
Jesse said, and everyone went back to their position. Although the director was disappointed as they were getting a really good scene, he didn't mind it too much due to it being only the first take.
They started the scene again, and the sound of a clapping board came out.
This time too, Aiden put on a good performance. On the screen, only Andrew Kingston could be seen, and the way he portrayed 'An idea to connect the world' was pretty amazing.
It was almost like a comic book scene.
After the post-production, Jesse was sure that it would become one of the highlighted scenes of the movie.
On the other hand, Seth did display the confusion his character would feel when Andrew would be talking about his idea, but he was completely missing out on the part where Mark would realise how much of a valuable idea it is.
There was no line about it on the script, but one could guess that easily after reading the script and knowing about Mark.
But that was a big missing piece.
On the side, two staff members who were watching the scene were talking among themselves in hushed whispers, taking care not to let their voices be caught up by the recording equipment.
"Hey, isn't Aiden a great actor? I always thought he's not that good, but he seems to have a sort of a charm. My eyes are constantly moving to him."
"Yeah, he does have that quality. Charism is pretty rare. Though, I don't think it's helping Seth a lot. He's basically being a prop in the scene who could talk."
"Yeah, the first take was bad because of that."
They talked as the scene moved forward. Aiden took out the paper and pencil and drew the chart, and explained that this idea could connect the whole world together - Something unprecedented before.
At that exact moment, Jesse again opened his mouth.
"Cut! It's not good."
His eyes were still looking over at Seth. He had no complaints from Aiden, and the only reason this scene of being bad was because of the lead. Pursuing his lips, Jesse walked up to Seth and tried to explain the scene again.
He even gave him ideas as to how the scene could be better.
"I understand. Don't worry, I will do great."
"Okay."
Seth convinced Jesse that it would be a good take, and the scene started again, but it was another bad take.
This started a series of bad takes that was the same as yesterday.
"Another bad take!"
"Seth, try to put more emotions and body moments in the scene. You look too stuck."
"Cut! Let's try another. I think we are getting close to a good take."
"Uh, again, bad take!"
"Seth, do you want a break or something? You are becoming worse and worse with each take."
It was already afternoon, and Jesse was frowning more and more every second. On the screen, the 16th take was going on, and there was a feeling that this might be a good take.
Aiden was currently on the last part of the scene.
"Yes, Mark, it could work. Remember, you are a genius." He said, and Mark, who was listening to his explanation, nodded.
"I know that, but connecting the whole world. Do you really think I could do it?"
"We could." Aiden smiled. "Every inventor and innovative person has second thoughts. It's normal, but I know we could do it. We already have a bit of an idea. Both of us could code it."
"Yeah, we…"
Seth suddenly stopped his sentence in the middle and frowned, coming out of the character. He stomped his feet in anger as everyone who was focusing on the scene wondered what had happened.
"Cut!" Jesse shouted. "Why did you stop in the middle?"
"I forgot my lines," Seth said and looked at Jesse. "Can't we just take it from here? This scene is too big anyway. We could fix it in editing."
Hearing that, Jesse's expression broke, and he couldn't help but glare at Seth. He wanted to do the whole scene in one shot instead of several small ones, but it looked like that was impossible.
"Yeah, I think we need to do that. After all, you can't act for more than 2 minutes on the screen."
Jesse insulted, and Seth, who hadn't expected it, wondered if he had misheard.
"What did you say?"
"If you are not deaf, you would have heard it."
The atmosphere froze!
Frustration and anger were clearly visible on the face of the director, who was already going through a lot of pressure. On top of that, Seth wasn't cooperating at all as the lead actor.
His attitude was also not serious, as Jesse had himself seen him spending more time talking with female actors rather than thinking of his role.
All of his frustration that was piling up was blowing out now.
"Hey, Jesse, let it go." The cinematographer tried to calm him down, but Jesse shook his head.
"You can't talk to me like that even if you are a director. Don't forget how you got the chance to direct this movie."
Seth fired back, unable to take in the insult. His managers quickly walked close to him, trying to pacify him a bit, but he was having none of it.
"I can talk to you like that, and let's not talk about how someone got the movie. You won't have a lot to show for yourself in that case." Jesse shouted.
'This is bad. I need to stop it.'
Aiden, who was just a spectator in all this till now, couldn't help but intervene at this moment.
"Seth, calm down. Jesse is just frustrated due to the bad shots. Every actor has a bad day—"
"What are you trying to say? Are those bad shots solely because of me? You are acting with me too, but he's not talking back to you at all. It's clear as day that he's trying to target me."
Seth shouted towards Aiden, but he didn't lose his calm.
'I can't lose my cool here. There are too many people watching the whole drama. It will be the headline of some tabloid tomorrow morning like this.'
He didn't want the audience to get negative news about the movie right from the start. Conflicts between directors and actors were never a good thing for a movie.
"Seth, no one is targeting you. Just calm down and don't let a fight start like a fool." Aiden insisted, but Seth didn't look to be in a mood to calm down.
"You are the fucking fool! I'm not someone who would run away from a fight."
"You will if you care a bit about your image. Look around yourself. Everyone is probably thinking of you as a spoiled actor who gets riled up due to a few words. You are ruining your whole career."
When Aiden said that in a whisper, Seth's manager also came close to him.
"He's right. It's too much of a public place. We can deal with this later in private." The manager said, but Seth didn't want just to walk away. He looked conflicted, but in the end, he just frowned and stepped towards the parking lot.
Fair to say, the shooting wasn't going to go on for the day at least.
"Everyone get to work. We might have an early end of the day today."
Jesse said, and everyone dispersed. He wasn't in a good mood as the shooting of his movie had stalled in the middle, but he was not able to help it.
He was just too bottled up with different types of feelings.
"Hey, Aiden. Are you okay?" Dustin quickly walked towards him, with Tom following behind him.
"Yeah, I'm fine, but I can't say the same about the movie." He frowned, thinking that all this would just ruin the schedule.
"Do you think Seth would walk away from the project?"
Dustin asked, but Aiden shook his head.
"A lot of the movie is already completed. Black Line isn't a top studio that they could afford to shoot with a different actor. In the first place, SGA is the main investor."
He said. There was even a lesser chance that Jesse was going to be replaced as he was the director and scriptwriter. Every director had their own style and idea for a movie.
Even if the studio somehow got another director, he would insist on shooting the scenes again. One can't underestimate the nature of a director.
"It's much more likely that they are going to just come to terms with each other just to complete the movie." That was Aiden's conclusion.
"Yeah, but Seth is still going to be very angry. I'm pretty sure he's going to let out his anger one way or another."
Dustin let out a deep sigh.
...
