"Buckle up everyone. We are going to start the shoot in the next five minutes. Get the actors ready and check the cameras. Hey, slap that guy up. He's yawning in the middle of the shooting. I need you all to be energetic."
Phineas shouted and the steps of the crew member got faster as they worked hard to place up the cameras. They were currently shooting a scene in a church that was one of the symbols of the town they were in.
It was a very important scene that would happen straight at the start of the first episode.
In Phineas's mind, the scene was one in which Finn's personality would be set up for the whole series as a person who was questioning a lot of things. He was a detective but it was not like he was just playing pretend.
It was a calling for him and he has always felt conflicted about it.
So, Phineas would go to the church to make a confession to a Father who had helped him once in the past, using him as a way of letting his thoughts out.
"Aiden, do you have more questions?"
Phineas asked, giving Aiden a gaze. They have gone over the scene quite a lot.
"I just wanted to know where the cameras would be placed and how the scene would move forward."
"Well, we are going for two cameras on your side. One on the side, giving a full view of your body and one taking a shot of your face from the bottom that would mostly be still. As we need shots of Father Johnson too, one of our teams would be shooting in the confession booth where he would sit."
Phineas's style of directing was very quick. He didn't like to waste even a minute during the shooting and was someone who had divided his assistant directors into a few teams who would be handling capturing the scene from the narratives of different characters.
Sometimes, two scenes would even be shot at the same time like that.
After that, Phineas would go over them, so the crew had no time to rest.
"I understand. Just give me a few minutes and let's start with the scene."
"Okay."
Phineas left after that and Aiden took a deep breath. In his script, this scene was marked with special notes, meaning that it was a very important scene.
He would need to show a lot of emotions in just his voice and tone. Conflict, confusion and the craving for answers that Finn was looking for. Phineas had told him that the focus was going to be entirely on the conversation.
'Tension needs to be felt during the conversation.'
Aiden thought and briefly glanced at Jeremy. This would be the start of him showing Jeremy that he wasn't a bad actor.
'No, not just Jeremy.'
He shook his head.
He needed to make [Sherlock of the Shadows] and Finn Wheeler a character that no one other than him could play in the eyes of the audience.
In his point of view, Kai was the only other memorable character that he had played who had more inner conflicts than outer and in that, they weren't explored a lot.
Kai was his most iconic role till now and this time, Aiden wanted to up it with Finn.
***
[Sherlock of the Shadows12 July-2017Act 1Scene 3Take 1]
"Father, I'm not here to confess a sin as I have not done anything."
A voice which sounded young said as a slightly heavy tone set in the atmosphere. Another voice came out on the other side of the latticed opening. This time, the voice was a little old.
"Why are you here then?"
"I have a story to tell."
The young voice that belonged to Finn said. Father Johnson who was sitting on the other side didn't say anything, indicating Finn to go on.
"When I was little, my dad used to talk a lot about the mysteries that surrounded the world. He called himself a conspiracy theorist just on the reason that accepting everything simply on how they look and seem was boring. He used to tell me, "Everything in the world has reasons behind them. Some are proven and some just stay hidden until someone discovers them. So, observe every single thing, analyse and then try to discover — That's the most interesting part of life". He was a boxer, my dad."
A smile crept on his face as he said that.
"Not the champion kind. He was just the guy who would be paid to lose to make others look good. He only won 12 matches in his career but earned a lot of money. Lot more than other boxers. Then, one day, he got into an actual fight with the best boxer in town."
"I know that one."
Father Johnson said and Finn nodded his head.
"No one expected him to win. They thought he was a weakling who won't even stand for five minutes. Actually, the fight did end in five minutes but my dad was the one who won. After the fight, I asked him how he won when he had never shown the skills before. He said that everytime he was in the ring, he lost but he also survived. He could have always won. Just it was his choice not to as he was getting more money for my education like that. That day, he told me about a gift he has."
His eyes flashed as Finn remembered the time. He was a kid back then and his dad seemed like a hero.
"He was able to notice minor details that helped him to know what the boxer was going to do. A lot of it was also intuition, he said but that was his gift. He told me that I have one too."
"Did you find your gift then?"
Father Johnson asked and an almost maniac-like smile hung on Finn's face.
"I did." He said. "But it's not something ordinary and it scares me. It's dangerous."
"You should not be scared of your gifts no matter how they are. You should be proud of them and use them for the good. Not everyone gets to know their gifts so early."
Finn shook his head hearing that.
"You misunderstood me, Father."
"How?"
"My gift, it's dangerous not for me but for others." He smiled. "Father, I hope you have a lot of time. You heard my father's story but mine is going to be a little longer."
***
"Cut. I like the scene. Aiden, it came out really good."
Phineas said after the scene was over. Some people alongside him surrounded the camera to look at the scene on the monitor and couldn't help but marvel at how good it had come.
"The expressions are on point. Damn, Aiden gives off a scary vibe. His atmosphere is very heavy and kind of creepy. Shouldn't it be a little brighter?"
"No, it suits the narrative of the story. Don't forget that this scene is after the events of the series and here, Finn has control over his powers according to the timeline."
Phineas looked at the assistant directors who had said that. Overall, he was the happiest person out of all of them as the scene went really well.
He could already imagine how the scene was going to fit in the final narrative.
"Okay, let's quickly go over the next few scenes before lunch. I don't think we need to do more takes. We got enough footage from all the necessary angles."
He said and the crew scattered, preparing the next scene. They were shooting the scenes in the order as Zetflix wanted the first three episodes to finish as soon as possible.
Some distance away, Jeremy Hill and his 'minions' that involved a few supporting actors were sitting together.
Currently, there was a perplexed expression on his face.
Jeremy had watched the scene with a very focused gaze to find out flaws in Aiden but he wasn't able to find a lot of them. Maybe Aiden's voice modulation and accent could have been better? But those were little things and the atmosphere he was able to create was working in his favour.
Next to him, the girl who was a social media star said.
"Aiden was really good in the scene, right?"
Another actor next to her replied.
"Yeah, like I said before, he's a good actor and is improving with every project. I hear a lot of good things about him for a reason."
"Yeah, Jeremy, what did you think—"
An actor was trying to ask Jeremy about it but his words stopped in the middle as he recalled that Jeremy was after Aiden and it was better not to praise him in front of Jeremy.
Everyone looked at the veteran actor for a second before he opened his mouth.
"No, it was good. The scene was pretty well done."
He said. It would be embarrassing and childish for him to not admit that when the scene was good.
As someone who was a self labelled perfectionist who wanted the projects he worked on to be perfect, he could say that Aiden had done a commendable job.
Slowly, Jeremy's perception of him was changing.
'He did well in one scene but in a show like [Sherlock of the Shadows], the main scenes would be one with the horror elements.'
Jeremy thought in his mind
He didn't know that those scenes were something that Aiden can't mess up due to bad acting even if he wanted to.
…
