"See this review from our latest boxing drama series [Knockout]. This one is pretty hilarious. '[Knockout] is not a sports romantic drama but a fantasy series in which every other teenager is ripped, and winning a high school tournament is akin to being a world champion. Add it with every character coming from a dysfunctional household, and you can see how the makers have tried to make the cast diverse. By giving them mental illnesses'. It's really true that bad series and movies produce some hilarious reviews."
An old man laughed as he went through the reviews of Zetflix new teen sports drama [Knockout]. The employees in front of him didn't know if they should laugh or cry hearing that.
After all, that comment was coming straight from the Executive of Content creation in Zetflix. The old man was one of the directors, and he was laughing at his own product.
"Director, don't you think it's very alarming?"
"Is it?" The old Director made an amused smile.
"Yeah, our subscriber count is falling. Bad reviews are just increasing, and other platforms are easily going to take over our monopoly like this in a year. It's extremely bad for our company."
Hearing that, the old Director nodded.
"I know that well. I have seen reports, and the shareholders aren't happy. That CEO is constantly putting pressure on the content department to make better series, but the thing is, this is something I have warned everyone against. Targeting teens is one thing, and giving them the same dumb content in different wrappers is another thing."
Zetflix strategy for original content from the last few years had always been teen content and movies. It was because one of these series had worked wonderfully once, and then it just created a streak of it.
Moreover, it was pretty easy to make.
You just need to buy the rights to adapt a popular fiction novel that's the rage on online websites among female teens and make a script out of it. The production value wasn't much, and they were getting the numbers.
It wasn't like they didn't make anything else. From sitcoms to spy shows and documentaries — They tried to delve into a lot of other genres, too, but they never came out as good as they had hoped.
It was then that other platforms came up. Dream + with his superhero shows and Xtra prime with unique stories that seemed very fresh to the people. Zetflix slowly lost its dominance like this and was now desperate.
The old Director had already told the bigwigs in the company that they should try to evolve with time and create better shows. He even had grand plans like delving into making whole franchises and universes.
But the board didn't like it.
"Director, we all know what happened, but we need to do something. All the blame is just going to come on the content department as we are the easy target."
A female employee said. She was the assistant head of the department and looked extremely worried due to [Knockout] failing badly.
"I know. That's why [Sherlock of the Shadows] is a big series for us. This is not a show for only teens and all age demographic. Moreover, we have a great production team due to our partnership with Titan studios."
For the record, Titan studios had a 23 percent stake in Zetflix, and that's why they were trying to work with them.
"Do you think one project would be enough?"
"It would be a start. The board is worried, too, and they are letting me do whatever I want without any restrictions for the first time. So if we pass, the board is going to give us full freedom to make whatever we want."
The old Director said, smiling to himself. He didn't care about shows like [Knockout]. He was never happy approving them, but [Sherlock of the Shadows] was a unique attempt at the detective genre, and he wanted the show to create a trend.
"For this show, we have already got a great production team and director. The only thing we need now is great actors. Actors who can actually make people in their acting. If they see a ghost, they need to make it believable like they are actually seeing one."
***
'Now that I took a look at the script, I'm a bit scared.'
Aiden thought, looking through a particular scene in the script. Wind from the opened window was messing up his hair as the car drove, but he didn't care a lot.
He was thinking about a particular problem that's going to arise with him acting as the male lead in [Sherlock of the Shadows].
"You look a bit weird. Are you not good today?" Wade asked, glancing at him, and Tom, who was sitting in the back, also looked at him. "If you are not good today, we can schedule the audition sometime later."
"No, it's not that." Aiden shook his head.
"Then?"
"What do you think about the horror elements in the series?"
Wade made an expression like he understood what Aiden was saying. Horror movies were very tough to shoot due to many of them just featuring ghosts. If they are in human form, then an actor could play that part.
Otherwise, one actor had to just give off expressions alone in front of a green screen. It was very tough to imagine it, and many times a lot of takes are necessary for one scene.
[Sherlock of the Shadows] mostly focuses on a detective in a fictional town, slowly solving cases with the help of ghosts. The supernatural aspect was very vivid in the script, and it plays a big part, and some of these scenes were very horrific.
One could even say that [Sherlock of the Shadows] was a horror detective series. Though, it also had comedic moments in its narrative.
"Horror elements would be hard to portray. Not like the ghost in the script even had human forms. Most of them are just deformed creatures that would be made by the VFX team. Just try to imagine them as best as you can. You never did horror movies before, so I'm pretty sure the director would let you take your time even if you can't do it properly."
'The problem is that I might just do it too perfectly.'
Aiden gulped down his saliva.
His immersion made it easy for him to get into the scene as the world practically changed to the movie's world. Once when he did his death scene in [Shadow of War], he literally felt that he had died.
It was that strong, and the level had increased since.
He was sure that he might just see a real ghost this time due to immersion. Aiden didn't know what to feel about that.
It was a challenge as an actor and his path to becoming even better, but at the same time, he didn't know how it would affect him mentally. Kai was the character that had affected him the most till now, but he now had most of the control over it.
Even then, Kai was just a crazy gangster. He, at least, wasn't some supernatural being.
'I could just hope that my system won't let me go crazy with this.'
Aiden thought, frowning, wondering what was going to happen to him.
***
At the Zetflix office in Los Angeles, Aiden and Wade were currently meeting with the main people behind [Sherlock of the Shadows].
"It's very nice to meet you."
Aiden shook hands with a scrawny man who looked to be in his early 40s. He gave off a pretty serious expression, something one would expect from a director of his kind.
His name was Phineas Flinch, an Emmy award-winning director who had directed almost everything in his 15-year-old career. He was a very respected figure who was known for moving from one project to another, citing reasons that he doesn't like to continue a story for more than a season or the first movie.
He was against sequels as he felt that they ruined the original product.
Moreover, he was also one of the writers of [Sherlock of the Shadows].
"You look better than your photos. I liked whatever I have seen of your work till now, young man."
An old man next to Phineas said. He was one of the Executives in Zetflix, handling the content department.
"I think we should go straight to the audition." A female voice said as Aiden looked at her with an awkward expression.
"Aren't you in a hurry?"
"You could say so. I'm curious to know if Aiden here would be ideal for the role or not."
The voice was of Ava Adler, the woman who Aiden had met at the Oscars after party of Titan studios. One could say that they were acquaintances, if not friends, but currently, Ava had a blank expression on her face that even came out as cold.
Aiden wasn't surprised to see her here as she was one of the producers handling the project from Titan studios, but her attitude was certainly more work-oriented than casual.
'I should not think a lot about it and just focus on the audition.'
They walked towards the audition room after that, with Phineas exchanging pointers about the script with Aiden.
As the director, he wanted to know how much Aiden had understood the character.
When they reached the audition room, where some staff members were already present, and cameras were set up, Phineas opened his mouth.
"I think we should begin with the scene in which the main character sees a ghost for the first time."
Hearing that, Aiden froze.
...
