Bab 3: Chapter 3: Finalizing the First Choice
The next day after returning home, Duke temporarily organized his luggage, visited his mother's advertising company, retrieved a typewriter from her office, and set up an empty room on the second-floor balcony facing the ocean as a temporary workspace. After finishing all this, he made a cup of black tea, sat in the rattan chair on the balcony, and enjoyed the cool sea breeze while contemplating what kind of movie to choose.
It had been a long time since the other world in his memory, and he didn't have a brain like a computer with perfect recall. Many things had become vague, and even though he remembered the main plots of the Hollywood films he had studied intensely, he had forgotten many of the details.
Especially the movies he had only seen once or twice—they left only a faint impression. Without some sort of prompt, he couldn't even remember them clearly.
This limited his options.
Moreover, although he had over twenty years of combined learning and accumulation from both worlds and had directed two experimental films in the past few years, he had to admit that he had never directed a formal film project independently. He lacked real experience and was, in essence, a complete novice. According to his and his mother's understanding, the chances of him getting an opportunity were minimal. But to leave room for some hope, he had to choose the genre he was most familiar with and best at.
With that in mind, the first thing to eliminate was art films. He had studied them before, so he knew that he wasn't suited for this genre at the moment. Even if he got the chance to direct by sheer luck, he would surely mess it up.
There were also horror films, which were typical examples in North America of low-budget, high-grossing productions. Unfortunately, Duke wasn't a fan of horror films and had seen very few of them.
Tapping lightly on the armrest of the chair, Duke's thoughts slowly shifted to the present. Movies were deeply influenced by the social environment, and even if a film that had been successful in the past was remade to the same standard, it could still flop in the early 1990s. The film he chose had to be something popular and widely accepted by contemporary audiences.
What was popular in Hollywood now? Romantic films and explosive action films!
He could also discard the former. As for the latter…several movie titles and basic plots immediately popped into Duke's mind.
Considering the plot direction, camera language, actors' performances, lighting and set design, post-production editing, and sound and music design, the action films he had carefully studied before were the most suitable choices.
After finishing his cup of black tea, Duke left his temporary workspace, made a few appointment calls, and drove his second-hand Chevrolet out of Santa Monica straight to the Writers Guild of America's West Coast office in Los Angeles. After paying a fee, he searched through the scripts currently registered with the guild. Fortunately, everything was now stored in computers, and the script names and brief summaries were clearly displayed.
After spending the entire afternoon searching, Duke finally confirmed that the scripts for the few films he remembered hadn't been registered with the Writers Guild, which meant there was a much smaller chance of collision.
Of course, it was also possible that the scripts were still being written or hadn't been registered with the guild, but even if they did overlap in the future, it would only be a "coincidence."
The remaining task for today was to choose the most suitable film from these options.
This wasn't difficult. By the time he drove back home, Duke had already made his decision, as the one with the lowest budget was undoubtedly the best fit.
His mother had an engagement in the evening, so after eating dinner alone, Duke returned to the upstairs workspace. Sitting in front of the typewriter, he worked hard to recall the film he had once studied as a model, gradually organizing his thoughts.
The structure of the film was simple, the theme was simple, and even the title consisted of just one word "Speed"
Of course, it could be called something else, a name Duke was even more familiar with "Speed"
This was one of the most classic action films of the 1990s in Hollywood. Duke's main concern was that the film's budget was by no means small, even though it was the least expensive among the action films he was familiar with.
Luckily, the Soviet Union hadn't collapsed yet, and Bill Clinton hadn't taken office. Even though the U.S. dollar was depreciating, it wasn't as badly battered as it would be in a few years.
Nonetheless, this would still be a film with a budget of over ten million dollars.
"Unless money rains down from the sky…"
Shaking his head, Duke let out a long sigh and then typed the first letter on the typewriter.
Just like he said, the chances of success were slim, but by making an effort, there might be a tiny bit of hope; if he did nothing, there would be no chance at all.
"Only those with tenacity can achieve extraordinary things!"
Duke found great truth in that statement.
For the next week or so, Duke set aside his financial concerns and worries about the future and poured all his energy into developing a detailed character profile and script outline.
This way, Duke had a ready-made template. All that was left was to follow the standard three-act structure of a Hollywood script and fill in the blanks of the template to create a typical commercial script.
Even many of the details he had forgotten could be filled in through this assembly-line approach to screenwriting.
To maximize the slim chance he had, the script had to align with Hollywood's operational model and aesthetic standards. As an unknown and unproven novice, trying to be innovative or unconventional at this point would be a surefire way to fail.
By mid-May 1991, Santa Monica was basking in the scorching sunlight, and only at night did the cool sea breeze provide some relief from the daytime heat and dryness.
On the balcony of the second floor of the villa, white lights illuminated every corner. A round plastic table was set up in the center, and Duke sat in a wicker chair, deep in thought. So focused, he barely noticed the occasional mosquitoes buzzing around. When another cool breeze blew in from the west, Duke's hands slowly rose and landed on the typewriter's keys.
With the "click-clack" of the typewriter, lines of letters appeared on the white paper, slowly rolling out of the machine.
[The first scene, the first act.
The safety door to the ground-floor elevator lobby of a building is pushed open from the outside, and a security guard holding a walkie-talkie walks in. Following a faint shadow and some sounds, he walks forward and finds an elderly repairman working on something.
"Hey, this area is off-limits!" he says as he walks over for a routine check.
"I know." The elderly repairman, whose left hand is missing a thumb, says, "Someone called me to fix the wiring."
"Why wasn't I notified?" the security guard asks, puzzled and alert. "Show me your work order."
"One moment." The repairman bends over to look through his bag for the paperwork. "Got it."
As he slowly stands up, the knife in his right hand, hidden behind the paperwork, swiftly and cleanly stabs the security guard in the ear.
"This isn't personal!"]
With a template in place, Duke's writing speed increased significantly. This film wasn't complicated, and most of the scenes used typical Hollywood techniques. The only difference was that they were reinterpreted using time, speed, and the tension of life and death. In fact, Duke could find examples of many of these elements in the videotapes he had watched in recent years.
The writing process wasn't without its difficulties. Despite his long-term learning and accumulation, Duke still had areas he wasn't skilled in, such as romantic scenes.
Luckily, this film didn't need to emphasize romance. The male and female leads only came together after enduring hardships, so the romantic aspects could be mostly glossed over.
For several consecutive weeks, Duke stayed home. Since he didn't have close friends, he fully embraced the life of a 1990s recluse. Only occasionally, when Mrs. Leah wasn't too busy, did he have the chance to talk with his mother.
"You don't know how to write romance?"
At the dinner table, Mrs. Leah squinted at Duke. "If I remember correctly, you had quite a few girlfriends after you turned fifteen, didn't you?"
"Mom, my time is precious. I wouldn't waste it on romance."
Perhaps because he hadn't spoken to anyone in a while, Duke had been talking more lately. Given that he was speaking to his mother, he didn't think twice before continuing, "I was just having fun with them."
As soon as he said it, Duke noticed the change in his mother's expression and quickly added, "I'm done eating. I need to get back to work."
Back upstairs, Duke read through the script he had written so far. After going over it once, he began to finalize it. Including the outline and character profiles, it had taken him a full six weeks to complete the **"Speed"** script.
The main plot hadn't changed much, but he had added a lot of new details. In addition, he attached an estimated budget at the end of the script. Although Duke wasn't a professional, he had spent a lot of time on set and was familiar with Hollywood at the time. While his estimates weren't entirely accurate, they weren't far off either.
According to Duke's calculations, by cutting out unnecessary scenes, renting most of the props, shooting some expensive scenes using scale models, and limiting the number of shots, the entire production should cost between 14 and 15 million dollars.
"But this is still a terrifying budget figure."
"No film company would invest such a large sum of money in a new director."
After the script was completed, Mrs. Leah naturally became the first reader. After reading the script, she first expressed her thoughts on the budget at the end, saying, "Even though Hollywood production companies have multiple financing channels, and a lot of the money lost comes from investors, but..."
She paused, as if weighing her words, and then finally shook her head and sighed, "A rational person wouldn't take such a big gamble."
"Then..." Sitting across from his mother, Duke asked seriously, "Mom, do you think any film company would take on this script?"
"Aside from the fact that the danger is confined to enclosed spaces like elevators and buses, and that the race against time and speed adds some creativity," she said, shaking her head, "to be honest, Duke, I've seen plenty of movie and commercial scripts, and this one is only average at best."
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