Chapter 94 - STAR LIST

“STOP!  Stop!” called Daniel Trevane.  “Eliza, how many times do I have to tell you that you need to show more emotion in this scene!  You just saw your childhood friend who you liked for the longest time confessing his love to the princess!  Why are you as stiff a mannequin!  Do you want all of us to spend the whole day just to film your scene?”

Miria Lane – the actress who had been under the director’s scolding – became all flustered and quickly apologized.  “I-I’m sorry, Director.  Please, give me another chance!”

But inside, she was furious.  She had never been so embarrassed before in her life.  But she knew that she was at fault for not being good enough.  So, she couldn’t exactly blame the director for losing his temper at her. 

Throughout the period of filming for this movie, she was the one who’s always scolded.  Others could finish their scene after four or five takes.  But it took her about double or even triple of that before the director could be barely satisfied of her performance.   

But what could she do?  She’s not an actress in the first place.  She’s a singer!  An idol, to be exact.  An entertainer who sang and danced on stage.  She never had acting experience prior to this.  But her stupid company insisted on placing her on this movie.  Saying that her participation in this production would definitely increase her fame.  It might even make her breakthrough the top 100 of Star List.

Star List was like a ranking of all stars in the Empire.  The Entertainment Regulatory Board – the organization that was in-charged of, well, basically regulating the whole industry – was the one responsible for the ranking in the Star List. 

They basically took into account one’s popularity which was highly influenced by their [Cyberspace] followers and the number of times they could be on the trending topic list.  One other thing was the recognition they could get for their work which could be in the form of awards or something. 

The result of the ranking was released every three months.  Currently, Miria was number 153 on the recent ranking of Star List.  Which was released three months ago.  It was already a huge feat considering the number of people in this industry and the fact that she had only started her career a year ago.  That’s why the company she’s under – Kaleido – decided to give her a lot of resources. 

Kaleido was filled with actors and actresses but there’s only a handful of singers like her.  Their focus was more on their actors.  After all, the current number one on the Star List was from their company. 

But because of that they lacked strong singers.  When it came to the music scene, they were surely lacking.  Especially compared to Sonare – the entertainment company considered as Kaleido’s rival.  Sonare was the opposite of Kaleido when it came to their artists.  Most of them were involved in the music scene.  The number two on Star List considered as the ‘god of music’ of this generation was a part of Sonare.

There was a delicate balance between the two companies.  Although the number of entertainment companies in the Empire were abundant, no one could deny that these two were the biggest.  For years, they had been trying to get pass the other.  But once one started to get the lead, the other would immediately catch up.

This time, Kaleido’s strategy was to focus on a few artists of them who could make a name in the music industry and since Miria was currently on the rise, she became their focus.

They picked this movie because they knew how every movie of Director Trevane always had a huge box office turnabout.  Once this movie was released, she would be more known and her popularity would definitely rise.

But the problem was, she couldn’t act!  She simply didn’t have any talent for this.  She had a feeling that all of this would just backfire at her.  Because, surely, the audience would see how stiff her acting was.

Miria took a deep breath.  No matter.  She’d just do her best to make-up for the repercussion this thing would cause.  She had done so time and time again.  This wouldn’t be any different.

Daniel ignored Miria’s apology and just pinched the bridge of his nose.  If he responded, he might just end up shouting at this girl again.  They were done with filming and yet this girl hadn’t improved at all.  If he knew something like this would happen, he definitely would not have accepted the investment made by Kaleido.

But what could he do?  He really liked the script they’d shown him.  He wasn’t planning to make a movie at least until early next year.  But the people from Kaleido approached him and showed him the script. 

They told him that they’re willing to put a big investment and give him the script to make a movie.  He would also have full control over the whole movie production.  They only had one condition, to allow them to put their artists on the movie. 

It was a win-win situation.  But Daniel told them that he would be the one picking the artist.  After all, he couldn’t just have some talentless person play a major role in his movie.  He just didn’t expect that Kaleido would screw him over by inserting this girl in the movie. They actually cheated him in a way. He shook his head. He didn’t even want to remember that.

His only consolation was that the second female lead that Miria was playing wasn’t really that important in the overall plot of the movie.  So, when he realized that Miria was totally hopeless, he just simply decreased her screen time.

But because of what Kaleido did, he decided to no longer allow any artists they wanted to insert in this movie.  Especially after attempting to push a newcomer to play the role of ‘god’ in the movie.  The boy didn’t even fit the role.  But most of all, he also couldn’t act for the life of him.  Director Trevane simply blasted them off.  He had that capital after all. 

“Let’s all take a break,” he simply said.

The crew on site breathed out a sigh of relief when they heard that.  They truly thought that the director would continue to chew Miria out.  Then the director’s bad mood would surely transfer to them.

“Director Trevane!” called someone from the entrance of the set.

The director quickly recognized the voice as the voice of his casting director.  He turned, frowning.  But that frown solidified and bloomed into a big smile when he saw the teenager walking beside Mark.