Chapter 85 - Layman's Film Analysis

February 23, 2012 – Thursday 5 pm – Ironstone, Ouigab

The Percussive Corrections arrived at their house after a day out. None of them actually went home for the school break, but stayed in Ouigab to focus on their vocal lessons or songwriting. When they entered the living room, they did not see Tayaw anywhere. "Hey. Is Tayaw still in his damn room?" Jenna asked her band members as she worriedly walked to the direction of Tayaw's room upstairs.

"Let me join you." Bay-an, Jenna's best friend in the band said. "Come on, he's been in there for what? Three days?" Bay-an asked Jenna. "Yeah. But he has to at least step out to eat. You know how much that guy can eat." Jenna replied.

*Knock Knock Knock*"Tayaw! Are you there?" Jenna yelled outside Tayaw's bedroom. Slowly, Tayaw's door opened ajar, and Tayaw poked out his head from inside. "'Sup Baby Girl? How was vocal training?" Tayaw asked, clueless about Jenna's worry. "FINE! What have you been doing there for five days? You have a secret girlfriend or something?" Jenna asked.

For days Jenna has been worried for Tayaw since he came home from Clambu City. They would not see Tayaw all day and when they knock on his door every day, he would just say 'I'm busy!'

"I'm fine. Look." Tayaw said and opened his door to welcome Jenna and Bay-an in. "Oh wow. I surely would not let you see my room." Jenna commented and Bay-an nodded in agreement.

This is the first time, in almost a year of staying in Tayaw's house, that they saw the inside of Tayaw's bedroom. They noticed how clean and neatly arranged everything is; the bed linens and blanket are fastened and pressed on the bed with barely any creases, there is no stray clothing hanging anywhere, every surface looks spotless, and most importantly, the room smells great.

"I mean. Are you really living here? It does not have a human smell at all." Bay-an also commented. "Maybe that's because Tayaw does not smell like anything but his body soap." Jenna answered as she walked towards Tayaw's open laptop. "Are you watching p.o.r.n?" Jenna asked and was about to open the minimized windows when Tayaw plugged out the mouse.

"No. Have you guys looked enough?" Tayaw said and looked at Jenna sternly. Jenna, knowing that Tayaw looks serious stepped away from the laptop. "Alright. Gather everyone in the bas.e.m.e.nt. I have something to talk to you guys about. I'll follow in a minute." Tayaw said as he sat down in front of his laptop again.

The minimized windows that Jenna was about to open was the editing software Tayaw is using to edit his movie. Because Tayaw already did on-set editing during the production process, Tayaw's editing workload was cut by a third which he almost finished the day before after three days of editing. A 120-minute movie was also edited that quickly because he was working with the film footages in 4x speed, which his enhanced body and mind can process.

This resulted in Tayaw being less occupied today, so he spared the time to entertain Jenna and Bay-an in his room.

A few minutes later, Tayaw descended to the bas.e.m.e.nt where the band is already waiting. "Hey man. Nice to see you again. You depressed or something?" Inson asked when he saw Tayaw enter.

"I'm fine. Like I said I'm busy. Now. I have something to ask of you guys." Tayaw said as he pulled out his flash drive from his pocket and plugged it into the studio's computer. After a few clicks, a guitar instrumental started playing through the speakers, and the printer started moving.

"Hmm? New song?" Ramil asked, he could not help but appreciate the music playing. "Yeah. But no lyrics this time." Tayaw answered. After the printer was finished printing a few pages, Tayaw distributed them to the band. What they found are chords and tabs of the song printed on the paper.

"Alright. Familiarize yourselves with the chords and stuff. Then let's record after a few rounds of practice." Tayaw said. The band however is confused. This is the first time in a few months that Tayaw has asked them to record something since he asked them to record for his album last July.

"New album? What? Your first album wasn't selling?" Hoon said while he studied the chords. "What? No. They're selling just fine. AND, I still have an unreleased album, and I'm planning on making a country album with pure acoustic guitar and stomp box. This is for something else." Tayaw explained.

"Whatever, let's just play. They look good." Hoon just shrugged and picked up his electric guitar to practice. Seeing Hoon get to work, the others in the band were influenced to do so as well.

What Tayaw is making the band practice are going to be songs for the soundtrack of 'September Ninth'. During the production process, even before Jouny asked him about it, the issue about the soundtrack already popped up in Tayaw's head. Tayaw was about to follow his world's practice in regards to the soundtrack, but the instincts from the film making skills he acquired, kicked in.

Usually, film makers and movie producers from his world, when they make movies that are not musical, they would acquire rights for already existing songs be it from classical music or from the more contemporary genres, and use them for their films. After buying the rights, if the film makers do not want the songs to sound exactly as the original, they would arrange them accordingly to suit the movie. This exact practice however, was refused by Tayaw's film making instincts.

Tayaw would not have worked on the soundtrack yet but after editing for the past 4 days, he suddenly realized that it is better to edit the movie along with a soundtrack. So after saving his work as 'Draft 1', he spent yesterday and today sorting out among the thousands of his songs compositions in his computer which ones would be the perfect songs for the scenes of 'September Ninth'.

As the band practiced, Tayaw was not satisfied by the feeling he is getting from their instruments. 'I guess it couldn't be helped' he shook his head. "Alright, everyone! Eyes on me, please." Tayaw gathered the band's attention. "Gather in the living room. Sorry about that."

After a few minutes again, the band is now gathered in the living room, and Tayaw who just picked up his laptop from his room is now setting up the huge TV.

"Okay. I guess you guys were curious why I went to Clambu for a long time, yes?" Tayaw asked the band. "Yes." Is their mutual response. "I was making a movie." Tayaw said, which surprised everyone present. "Ah-ah-ah. Please. I don't have the energy to entertain all your questions. As you all know, I've been busy in my room for the past five days, so I'm pretty tired." Tayaw said which shut down the band members' various questions.

"What I'm making you guys practice are songs that will be used for this film. But because you also need play with the appropriate emotion, I have no choice but have you guys watch it first.��� Tayaw said after finishing connecting his laptop to the TV. This excited the band.

"Okay. Enjoy and don't talk too much." Tayaw said as he played 'Draft 1' of 'September Ninth' and went to the kitchen to prepare some snacks for the band.

Meanwhile, as the band watched the film, they had a hard time coping up at first. The camera angles and cuts confused them very much but they soon got used to it. After all, Tayaw's editing sets the scene very well. Wide angles to set up the location of the scene, middle shots for establishing how the characters are arranged in the location, and close up or over-the-shoulder shots for conversations.

"Are they real?" Ike could not help but ask as he watched how believable the actors' performances are. "I don't know. They have to be acting right?" Ramil replied. The rest of the band is also unsure.

["Hey Steven. What are your plans for December? I'm going kayaking!" Steven's best friend asked. "You want to know what we're doing this December?" Steven said, smiling bitterly at his best friend. "You're asking the wrong question my man." He continued in disdain, and sat straighter. "You know what we're going to do this December? Huh? I'll tell you." Steven said a little louder, bitterness becoming more and more apparent in his voice.

"We'll still be here, our hands on our keyboards and A4 papers!" Steven, continued but his face slowly contorting, his body looked stiff out of anger, as he pointed at his office table.

"We'll be here, in our cubicles, slowly getting fat, getting ugly, it's going to last 'til we're in our fifties!" Steven finally burst out yelling as he stood up, almost toppling his office chair.

After a few seconds, Steven took a deep breath and plopped back down on his chair, looking defeated. "That is..." Steven chuckled and shook his head. "That is if we're even lucky to reach that age without dying of diabetes or heart attack from sitting our asses around." Steven finished the line.

The best friend who was excited telling Steven about his December activities slowly looked sullen. "I know. Why else am I distracting myself? We're both stuck, so why don't you relax for a bit as well, huh? Look at what's happening to you."]

The band, watching the Steven's outburst, could not help but feel pity. "Is this what my mom feels like?" Bay-an wondered, his mother also being an office worker. "I hope not. Steven is lonely. Your mom isn't." Tayaw said as he served the band with carrots and celery snacks with garlic sauce dip. "Don't mind me. Keep watching." Tayaw added.

While he watched the band watch his movie, Tayaw could not help but feel proud and hopeful. The band is much immersed and they got over the novelty of the camera angles. Even Hoon, who takes a lot of convincing by the band when they go to movie nights, is watching intently.

"Tayaw. They're acting, right?" Jenna could not help but ask as she felt goosebumps when she watched as a bar drunk kill Steven in the movie. "Duh." Hoon replied on Tayaw's behalf. Tayaw chuckled at this. 'Indeed. Duh. A time loop doesn't happen in real life.' Tayaw thought. On that thought however, he could not help but also have goose bumps when he was reminded of his situation. He shook his head the next moment to shake off the spooky feeling.

"See?" Tayaw replied when the band saw Steven wake up again on his bed.

["Good morning, honey." Steven, finding Diwaya by his side could not help but smile. "Good morning to you too, honey." Diwaya felt the same. The screen faded to black.]"

After an hour or so, the band finally finished watching the film. The living room is silent even after TV screen displayed the paused media player in Tayaw's laptop.

*sniff**sniff* The silence was broken by Jenna crying. None in the band made fun of her, or even consoled her as they are also feeling the same. They watched Steven's journey within the time loop; how he became a bad man, became a hero, and suffer from helplessness. After Steven was finally released from his hell, coming out a better man with the love of his life, the band could not help but feel happy for Steven. They felt happy and cathartic they almost cried.

"So. A movie can look like this." Hoon said dazedly. "DUDE! THAT WAS F.U.C.KIN COOL!" Ike exclaimed as he began clapping. The band also started chatting amongst themselves excitedly about the movie they just saw.

"If you like it that much, then I'm glad." Tayaw said, smiling at band's positive response. His 12 million for the movie is worth it.