Chapter 49: Gaslight (1944)
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13th June 1997 (Friday)
Ricky Stirling (POV)
"IS EVERYONE IN POSITION? LIGHTS? SOUND? CAMERA?" Seeing the respective people in charge nod their heads, I brush my hair one last time to ensure it sticks, before taking a seat in 'Frank Conners M.D' office before the typewriter.
"ACTION!"
I start typing away at the ancient contraption, seamlessly slipping into character as the door opens, and 'Brenda' enters clutching a file to her chest.
The cameraman follows her into the room, capturing her view of me typing away, before I spot her, muttering a greeting, "Hello Brenda."
She halts before the table, greeting me back. "Hi, Dr. Conners."
The Steadicam operator shuffles out of the way without making a peep, capturing the scene from my right as the camera mounted on a low angle dolly a few meters behind me, silently begins filming, capturing my back and part of my right bodice, along with the office at large, and 'Brenda' in her entirety.
'Brenda' passes me a file that I open without wasting a beat, giving it a quick glance before adding it to the pile on the typewriter's left.
She doesn't take her eyes off me, leaning in slightly, as she opens her mouth into a wide grin, showcasing her pearly white teeth in all their glory.
I swing my eyes up from the file momentarily, 'noticing' her antics before diverting my attention to her.
She smiles coyly, forming cute little dimples on her cheeks, as she leans in a little more, "Notice anything different about me?"
I reply instantly, nearly cutting her in short, "You got your braces off!" I said, pointing towards her face with a pen before setting it aside.
She giggles in zeal, loving the attention she's receiving from me, as she walks around the table in haste the moment I say, "Come here, let me see-" before her eagerness overwhelms her as she interrupts me while on the move, "I've been trying to show you all night!"
She halts in front of me, her face inches away from mine as I lean in, cupping her chin, examining her gnashers, the perfect arrangement of her incisors, canines, and molars, mumbling, "Hn… Good Job."
"Yeah-"
"So, did it hurt when they took them off?" I ask, gazing into her blue eyes, shaking my head ever so slightly as I continued, "Mine felt so weird after."
"I keep rubbing my tongue over them, I can't stop!" She says, lathering her upper gums, with the tip of her tongue, still grinning widely as her action comes off as erotic in an amateurish way. "They're so slippery!" She continues, her voice which initially came off as bubbly, was gradually transitioning into husky.
"It feels good though, doesn't it?"
"Yeah it feels incredible." She nods, before closing the distance by an inch or two.
The camera capturing our faces from the side zooms in, as the window in the background, showcasing a rainy night, flashes with light, as thunder crackles outside.
Our eyes meet, as she halts her smile, and seeing a 'window of opportunity', I glance at her lips before leaning in hesitantly, almost closing the distance, but ceasing my advance at the last second.
The moment I notice her lack of resistance, I close the gap between our face, our lips meeting in a chaste kiss, as our eyes close.
As the tender caress ends, she leans back, her eyes full of shock and passion, as she breathes out, "Oh My."
"I'm sorry-"
Was all I manage to eke out, before 'Brenda' pounces on me, knocking my rolling chair back as she rests her body on mine, locking her lips with mine. She climbs onto her chair, her knees resting on my lap, as the momentum of the chair knocks a couple of books off the top of the wooden cabinet behind me.
The dolly rotates slightly, as the camera captures our clumsy, yet passionate smooching session, the Steadicam operator closes in slightly, capturing our actions in a wide-angle.
'Brenda' proceeds to moan loudly, clutching strands of my hair on the back of my head rupturing my hairstyle beyond repair as her left hand slides across my chin to my cheek.
I hold her by the waist, returning her enthusiasm with some of my own, and just as things are about to get more interesting-
DR. CONNERS TO THE ER!
DR. CONNERS TO THE ER!
'Brenda' leans back, resting against the desk, as she pants out, "Shouldn't you go?"
Hesitant to end the encounter, and slightly fearful of the consequences of my incompetence being found out, I whisper out with wide eyes, "No. No, no. They have a staff doctor in the emergency ward. We'll be fine." I say, as I lean in again, bringing her in by her shoulder as I place eager kisses on her lips.
She acquiesces for a few seconds, moaning before abruptly placing her feet against my chest, pushing me away as I slam to the back of my chair.
Her eyes now sincerely showcasing her worry for the fate of the patient, "What if he's in surgery?"
I ask one last time, my face turning bitter at the prospect of discontinuing our soon to be steamy bout of lovemaking, "Do you really think I have to go?"
I maintain my expression for a good 3 seconds when Daryl's voice fills our ears through the megaphone. "CUT! TAKE 3 COMPLETE!"
I instantly snap out of character, as Charlize breaths out a sigh of relief.
I was tempted to do the same, frankly.
"You mind-"
"Go right ahead." She replies at my request, retreating her legs, as I get up from my seat and make my way towards Daryl.
"Show me the reel. AND NO-ONE WILL MOVE AN INCH FROM THEIR PLACES WHILE I REVIEW THE FOOTAGE! THAT INCLUDES YOU CALVIN!"
Calvin halts in his tracks, "Sir, I need to pee… We all do. Werner has been holding it in for an hour now."
I sigh, before swiftly granting his reasonable request, "10 minute loo break commences this very second. I'm keeping track of time, and whoever's late by a microsecond is on clean-up after shoot. So move wisely."
Daryl, along with Dave the Steadicam operator rushes in, as the cinematographer rushes to check the dolly cam, striking up a conversation with Charlize while retrieving the film.
Me, Daryl and Hank (the cinematographer) all converge around the cameras, as we analyze the captured video.
We got it.
"CLEAN UP THE SET… AFTER THE BREAK ENDS, WE SET UP FOR NEXT SCENE, AND SOMEONE, GET ME JENKINS!"
"I guess 3rd time's the charm." Daryl comments half-heartedly, his exhaustion clear for all to see.
And why wouldn't he be? Every member of my technical crew was haggard by this point, considering the previous scene took 14 takes… 14 INFERNAL TAKES!!!
After the 9th take, my patience had nearly run out, resulting in the 10th take coming off as horrible and having to be discarded on account of my wooden performance.
I had to smoke a cig, and wolf down an eclair to calm my nerves, and even then, we needed 4 more fucking takes because of reasons other than my performance.
… Oh the reasons… they varied with every take, either an extra sneezed at the wrong fuckin' second, or the light flickered for a moment, destroying the tempo of the scene, or the guy playing one of the interns, goofed up a medical term.
Seriously, who the fuck stutters and says 'titia', instead of tibia? It didn't help that I caught him glancing at the minor cleavage displayed by a makeup artist behind the camera.
Anyhow, I couldn't afford to be distracted in the least here, or look even remotely fatigued, not only to keep the morale up, but also because the next scene was of paramount importance, and could quite possibly take up multiple takes.
The scene I am referring to… is the one where 'Frank' and 'Brenda' are on the bed half naked, as 'Brenda' reveals her sordid past, and 'Frank', proposing to solve her problems by… proposing to her.
Wordplay.
I'm hilarious.
Anyways, it would be a scene, where me and Charlize, hold an emotionally poignant conversation on a bed in our underwear… and apparently, she has never filmed such a scene before.
My father and other executive producers had the bright idea of winging it, as I argued for a good 20 minutes about hiring an intimacy coordinator, not only to establish boundaries and facilitate clear conversation, but also to choreograph the intimate scenes in question.
The execs believed it to be a wasteful expense for a 'fresh hire', as they called her… only after ensuring the fact that I would cut the expense from my payout, did they finally sign off on it.
My dad supported me of course, even though he was reluctant at the start… it was the others who needed some heavy-handed 'convincing', before finally growing tired of their shit and promising that it won't be on their penny.
I, on the other hand, couldn't care less about their terms. Since we only needed the coordinator for a few weeks at most, and spending a few grand every week to ensure the comfort of my fellow cast members is more than justified. So I splurged willingly from my private funds… not that anyone knows about it except the producers.
I'll still keep an official record of it though. If by sheer coincidence, when the equivalent of my OTL's MeToo movement gains traction, it would be just the kind of tidbit that would increase my public profile, and make my actions and words seem more authentic than that of my contemporaries. An errant fact, that I never revealed for the sake of publicity, but a little digging and all of a sudden, it's public knowledge 15 years later.
…
…
19th June 1997 (Thursday)
Ricky Stirling (POV)
"I'm sorry what? He's pulling out? H-Hold on who? Ok wait, keep him there, I'm on my way. No jus- keep him there. If he's pulling out at this juncture, then there is not a whole lot we can do. But I don't buy his motive. He's not pulling out cause of the accident… No I'm not sure, call it a hunch. You know me and my hunches, I'm almost always right- yeah ok, I'm on my way, just entered the car. Keep him there for the next 10 minutes. Ok bye."
I cut the call with haste as I fasten my seatbelt and close the door, before hitting the gas.
A little context here. 3 days ago, Ed Harris, my fellow co-star and all around jackass, met with a little accident. He… slipped and fell and dislocated his right shoulder. What exactly did he slip on? He didn't say mostly out of personal embarrassment I believe judging from the redness of his cheeks whenever the topic was brought up.
Anyways, he's out of the shoot for 2 weeks. The doctor said he'll be cleared in 10 days, but the insurance company extended it to 2 weeks… which to be honest, didn't really delay the production in any major way.
Sure, I had to spend a sleepless night, updating the shoot schedule, but other than that? We'd already shot most of his scenes, only a few of them were left, so we could just shoot them later.
… Then the media swooped in. This movie had always been high profile, mostly resulting from all-stars being hired in cameo and supporting roles, and the collaborative nature of it. But when the news of the accident broke out, the reporters sniffed blood, and next thing you know, they're hounding everyone outside the set, surrounding them in a frenzy in an attempt to get a single statement from them regarding the happenings on set.
And considering Ed Harris is far more famous in this AU than the OTL… I'm guessing from his previous movies, and an Emmy nominated performance in 'Who's got Time?', there was a significant hubbub from the publications regarding it.
One of them even misrepresented the facts and claimed that Ed got injured in the middle of the shoot, due to the inexperienced director's mishandling of the situation.
It took us a day to put together a press release, where Ed explicitly stated the cause of his unexpected injury, and eased my burdens significantly as the paparazzi finally toned down their antics.
But now, one of the financiers of the movie, some multi-millionaire from the middle east named Abdul Omar Nasrallah who had pledged $5 million to the film, wanted to back out all of a sudden because apparently… he had read the article attempting to defame my image, and was actually stupid enough to believe it… or that's the rationale he put forward to justify his sudden and highly irregular actions.
And since he had invested his money through Stirling Studios, it was officially my dad's headache to deal with it… and therefore mine as well.
I don't buy it.
Rescinding his funding at this critical juncture because of unsubstantial allegations… he was clearly using it as a smokescreen, trying to hide the real reason for it.
That's why I'm speeding on the highway right now, attempting to reach the office before he departs. At this point, I won't be satisfied by anything less than a face to face with this fucker, since that's my only hope to truly deduce the real reason behind his errant behavior.
… All hail the Gamer.
Let's hope I can look underneath the underneath… or just get an opportunity to use 'Observe' on him… I'll find out the true reason one way or another.
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