Chapter 137 - Psychiatric Consequences of Cinematic Excellence

A few minutes later, Tayaw, Gabriel, Fred, and Steven arrived at Gabriel's house - slash - office. 

"So, I haven't seen you last year, Steven." Tayaw said. "I just got hired last… January." Steven said. "I see. Where were you working before Cognito?" Tayaw asked. "I was working at Gametail. I was a temporary contractor for 'New York Sim City'." Steven replied. 

"I see. So, what were you going to do with your side project?" Tayaw asked. "I don't really know, Mr. Dagem. I just found it cool I guess." Steven replied. "Fred, is his 'side project' be considered a property of the company?" Tayaw asked. "Yes. He's using our resources after all. It's also written in the contract. If only he'd make something that could help us make money, he'll get a bonus. We can't patent it too because he used a game engine." Fred explained.

Tayaw nodded in understanding. It is just how scientists and engineers that work for a company are. If an engineer's patent is used or sold by the company, the engineer will get some fractions of a percentage from profits. If the engineer found a good application for an already existing patent or product, they will get a huge bonus. 

"I see. That's why you were mad earlier? Because he wasn't making something sellable?" Tayaw asked, and Fred nodded. "Well. Lucky for our dear Steven here, I can see something that his software can be used on." Tayaw said. The revelation shocked Fred, Gabriel, and most of all, Steven. 

"But first, may I know what you did at Gametail?" Tayaw asked Steven. "I just built some of the buildings and cars in the game." Steven said. "Very good. That's just F*CKIN PERFECT!" Tayaw said in excitement. His reaction making the trio of Cognito anxious.

"Now, do you all know that I'm a film maker?" Tayaw asked the three, to which they responded no. "Anyway. I can see Steven's project here beneficial for movie productions." Tayaw said. "How?" Fred asked.

"You're all familiar with special effects or CGI used for backgrounds of the movies, right?" Tayaw asked. "Right." "Well, we can use Steven's project here. Imagine. You make a stadium in the game engine, make it as realistic as you can. Then, a huge room with ultra-HD LED screens for walls and ceilings. Then, just transfer how the character in the game would look around to the camera just like how Steven did. Voila! VIDEO WALLS!" Tayaw explained. 

While he did not explain it as concise and as properly, it did not take Fred and Steven to see what Tayaw is trying to say. (Please look up how The Mandalorian's virtual production.)

"T-THIS! While we're still developing software, we can use what we earn from this for our development!" Fred said, glint apparent in his eyes. "It's doable! It will take a lot of work and more people but it will work!" Steven also excitedly said. "Steven, I'm sorry for yelling earlier." Fred apologized. "It's fine Fred. I didn't know it could even be used at all." Steven chuckled. 

"That being said. Why don't we set up a new department, huh? I am going to make my next film soon, and I'm gonna be the first one to use a virtual set, produced by our company. I'm gonna pay for the construction of the virtual rooms and the screens, but by the end, I'll still keep them for myself." Tayaw proposed. "Of course! Anyway. I'm going to take some of spare people for now and work on this!" Fred said. 

"Fred, No. Just let them do what they're doing. Remember, this is only a side project for the company. The reason why I invested to the company is your vision, remember? Focus on that. Let Steven here, take care of this side project." Tayaw said. 

Steven on the other hand, was overwhelmed by what seems like a huge responsibility. "I can't supervise people, Mr. Dagem." Steven said. "Then I'll hire some sort of a project manager, you do the technical and consulting stuff, alright? Let's talk for a bit. Fred, Gabriel, I'm going to have to borrow Steven for a bit." Tayaw said as he brought Steven out with him. 

-----

A few minutes later, Tayaw and Steven are having an early lunch at a nearby restaurant. Unlike Steven's poor assessment of himself, Tayaw found Steven to be a man with good ideas.

"So, unlike NYSC, the buildings and cars have to be very close to reality, is that possible?" Tayaw asked. "Yeah. Unlike games, these will only be back drops right? Unlike games, layouts for this do not have bugs and we can complete them smoothly. It's possible. It will take a lot of time though, depending on the number of people and what you require." Steven replied.

"Okay. My movie will be set in the 30s, 40s, and 50s Italy and New York. Can you make video walls of the streets of those?" Tayaw asked. "We can take HD photos of places that still look like those times and plaster them on the surfaces of the objects we create with the game engine. Example, we take photos of houses in the Lower East Side; I lived there so I know that a lot of them are very old. 

"Now, we take the photo of the surface of a building and paste it on the surface of the virtual building, and after some easy tweaking, we can make the virtual building look realistic. The cars, we can work them too using the same process. Then after we have enough materials and virtual models, we can just drag and drop them to make a city or a town, just like what we did with NYSC." Steven explained.

"How about the going of background people? I intend to save money on hiring a lot of background actors and not just locations." Tayaw asked. "hmmm. I think we have two choices. First is the classic CGI; the blue screen will use the virtual city we will build. If you want real realism, we can use body capture like how Gametail developed the latest NBA Game. But designing the clothes in the engine is going to take a lot of work. Thank god, there are already free models on regular items like light posts or fruits and baskets, we won't have to work on that." Steve explained. Tayaw nodded his head. 

He also considered that the background will also be blurred; as most of the time, Tayaw's lenses will be focused on the actors in the foreground. Thinking about this, he figured no one would notice if the clothes of the background virtual actors will be repeated from time to time. 

He also prefers it if he will build a set inside the future LED dome. If for example, Don Gonzalo's young self in the movie is to work in a market or a kitchen, Tayaw will have to build a kitchen or a market replica inside the LED dome. 

"Okay. How about…" Tayaw and Steven discussed a bit more on their plans. 

==========

Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles

"See you on Wednesday Nathan." "I'll see you doc." Nathan replied.

Nathan's breakdown in his trailer was the last straw for him to finally seek the services of a therapist after years of refusing his agent's recommendation of doing so. By dropping all his professional commitments, he unknowingly achieved the first step that the therapist would have asked him to do; free himself of burdens and try something new. 

His therapy also helped him to deal better with hate comments. He even followed the same person who triggered his breakdown. While waiting to be picked up by his manager, Nathan is currently browsing all T.L.D Grimmauld related tweets on the internet. 

|@tldgrimmauld thanks for the recommendation #septemberninth was f*ckin cool! |

|@tldgrimmauld I thought you were bullsh*ttin, but I'm now a fan. |

|@isaacyawat Best film of the year!!! #september ninth#|

Nathan saw 'September Ninth' the day before to find everything wrong with the film, just to spite T.L.D Grimmauld. After seeing the film however, Nathan felt like a door to something bigger was opened to him. His hate towards Isaac Yawat, accessory to his hate towards Grimmauld, has turned into respect.

*Beep Beep* Nathan's manager finally arrived in his fancy car. "I have to say, I didn't expect you to actually last this long in this therapy thing." Nathan's manager said after Nathan settled himself on the comfortable front seat.

"Well, it helps. By the way, heard any news about Isaac?" Nathan asked. Since he saw 'September Ninth' Nathan wants to try auditioning for roles in Isaac's next films. 

"No. The guy just released his film, he's probably switching to music again." The manager said. "Makes sense." Nathan shrugged as he entertained his own thoughts. 

=========

Tayaw just parted with Steven and is having another lunch. He is also currently browsing his Twitter notifications. When he woke up earlier, he noticed that the twitter logo on his phone has over 99+ notifications. He didn't open it until now, and currently, he is pleasantly surprised. 

His @tldgrimmauld account now has currently over 110,000 followers while his @isaacyawat account benefitted tremendously from the film and earned 34,000 followers in only one day. 

Tayaw also found out that his film is currently trending on Twitter and he is optimistic that through word of mouth, or on this case, word of social media, his film worldwide will be recognized not only by film critics but also by casual moviegoers.

""" Best film of our Year? I never knew that movies would look like this. – Ritz Omar, Cinema Watch"""

""" 'September Ninth', an amalgamation of unexplored genres. While 'September Ninth' is labeled as a romance movie, romance is not even a fraction of what the film is. – Yan Yongliang, Shanghai Movie Post"""

""" Deserving of its accolades. Will Teungeb films surpass the great American film industry? – Angela Kelley, The Weekly Reel """

Tayaw also noticed that many film critics from all over the world who did not get to see 'September Ninth' in Sorrento, got busy and his film received hundreds of new reviews at Online Movie Database, or OMDB for short. 

Tayaw soon finished his lunch and pocketed his phone. After arranging his plans in his head, he stepped groggily out the restaurant. 

This afternoon, he will talk with a few people that knew Gonzalo in his prime.