My Hollywood System

Chapter 21:

In the cemetery, Josh was shooting Heather as she stood with a dramatic expression on her face. Taking a deep breath like she was a little nervous because of Josh shooting her, she began.

“Much like a small town anywhere. No more than twenty families laid their roots here over two hundred years ago. Many of whom remain, either on this hill or in the town below.”

Josh took a step towards Heather to get a close-up shot as she continued.

“There is an unusually high number of children laid to rest here.”

The camera moved away from her face as Josh focused on the headstones around the cemetery.

As he turned it back to Heather, she continued.

“Most of them passed in the 1940’s. Yet no one in the town seems to recall anything unusual about this time. To us anyway. Yet legend tells a different story. One whose evidence is all around us, etched in stone.”

Another shot of an angel statue was taken, and that’s when the scene came to an end.

…

In Josh’s car, Heather handled the camera and shot the front view as the car moved on the road.

Although the view was of the road, the camcorder clearly recorded Heather’s excited voice.

“Yeah! Yeehaww! Well, we have shot the first scene! The cemetery scene, the opening is shot!”

She turned the camera towards Josh, and he smiled before showing her a handful of ruined and crumpled 16mm film, facing it towards the camera.

“Ahh this is our salad,” Heather called out.

“This is our souvenir.”

“Yes, this is our souvenir from our very first shot, of our very first scene on 16 millimetres. And we are proud of this salad.”

She chuckled, and the sound of laughter filled the car as the three young filmmakers moved ahead in their journey.

The next stop was asking questions from the people living in this town.

* * *

[Yes this is our souvenir from our very first shot, of our very first scene on 16 millimetre. And we are proud of this salad…]

“You found an interesting idea to shoot, and your actors trust you a lot.”

Jeffery commented with June’s voice coming out from the walkie-talkie background.

They were right behind the three of them and were following them. At the same time, they were keeping an eye on the ‘shooting’ through the walkie talkies.

“They are newbies, and they probably find this interesting themselves. I mean, no one has ever shot a movie like this.”

“Yeah, that’s why it’s innovative. Trust me; if the movie becomes a hit, film schools will tell students to research it.”

“I am hoping that would be the case.”

Will chuckled and looked outside the window for a bit.

All the methods that he was using were taken from the original movie. And it was working quite a bit for them till now.

If everything goes well today, they could finish the scenes that would take place in the town and move to the woods where the real story would take place.

After all, the start was there to just set up the tone for the rest of the movie.

“Have you planted the actors in the town?”

Will suddenly thought something and turned his head, looking at one of the crew members who was fiddling with his phone.

“Yeah, I was just texting them that we are entering the town and to be prepared for the scene. By the way, are you sure we don’t need to tell the three of them that they are actors and not real residents?”

Will shook his head and smiled.

“If we told them that, that would break the immersion. They should feel like they are really three filmmakers shooting a documentary.”

In the original, the cast never knew that the people they thought of as residents were actors. Will was planning to do the same here.

“Okay.”

The crew member nodded his head and focused on his phone.

***

Heather held the camera and interviewed an old man they had found in the general store. For their documentary, they needed to get information from the residents as their words would be more trustworthy.

“We are making a documentary about the Blair Witch.”

“Oh?” The old man smiles with a hint of surprise.

“Oh, have you heard of the Blair Witch?”

“Oh yeah, that’s an old, old, old story.”

The old man nodded his head.

They changed the camcorder to the 16mm one and started shooting for real.

“I remember Mister Parr was an old hermit.”

“Right.”

“He lived up on the mountain; he had a place up there and had been up there for a long, long time.”

The old man said, and Heather nodded in understanding. Josh and Micheal, who were standing in the back, kept an eye on the people who were giving them looks.

***

After the old man, the trio found a woman holding a baby and started interviewing her.

She was wearing black glasses; Heather pointed the camera towards her as she started asking her questions.

“Have you heard of the Blair Witch?”

“Several times.”

The woman replied in a matter of fact manner. Heather continued her questioning.

“Several times, what was the first incident?”

“Well, I’d heard stories about her from people and neighbours and stuff like that. But also I saw a documentary on the Discovery Channel or something like that once, about her, about ghosts and legends in Maryland.”

After that, they cut the scene to a man who was wearing a hat backwards.

“Yeah, it’s a story my grandma used to talk about a lot, to get us in the bed early. She used to say that if you stay up for too long, the Blair Witch will come and getcha.”

***

– …..will come and getcha.

Will and Jeffery, who have been looking at the situation from afar, were listening to every interview from the walkie talkie.

A wide smile was hung up on Will’s face as he saw how well everything was going.

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