Dreams of Stardom (Hollywood SI)

I feel giddy seeing my performance on the computer scene. I know I'm only a novice when it comes to acting, and I have a lot of scope for improvement, but it was surreal, yet exciting seeing myself out there.

“Hmm,” Dad hummed thoughtfully, “Total length comes out to be 52 minutes.”

I beamed, “Isn’t that good? We won’t have to edit this much as it is already pretty close to 45 minutes.”

He shook his head, “That’s not how it works. Currently, there are some shots that need to be shortened. If the movie drags unnecessarily, people will get bored while watching. We have to shorten this further. My goal currently is to shorten it as much as I can without compromising with script or viewing experience..”

That did make some sense I guess.

“That’s enough work for today,” Steve announced.

I was a little startled by his declaration. Seeing my reaction, he smiled, “It’s been more than three hours Troy.”

Then he showed me his wristwatch and yup it had been more than three hours alright.

“Come on. You have to do your vocal and Guitar practice as well.”

“Alright, alright. Let’s go.” I acquiesced thinking about the practice I was supposed to do.

My lessons are actually very simple. Every Saturday, I take up an hour each of vocal and guitar lessons. Then during the week, I have to practice the same. I try to practice for at least an hour every weekday.

Though from what it seems I’ll have to cut short the time as we got carried away editing the movie.

(Break)

It wasn’t until January 1998 that Steve told me about the success of Harry Potter books. The Philosopher’s Stone had sold more than 100,000 copies in the UK till that point and hopefully, the trend will continue when it is released in the US. However, from what Steve told me, we cannot pitch the idea to any major studio until they see a reaction in the US market.

The problem here lies in the fact that a big production with hundreds of millions of dollars would be difficult to recover from the UK market alone. So until the book becomes a hit in the US as well, the studios will place unnecessary restrictions on the production. So it would be better to wait for a couple years at least.

Also in January, I officially turned 9. Yeah, yeah, I know, not a big deal. You’re just 9 and can’t drink, drive, or fuck. True.

But if you look at things optimistically, I am already halfway there and within another 9 years, I can legally do all three.

Steve and Kathy threw me a little party where they invited all my classmates and we had my favorite, chocolate truffle cake. While I didn’t like many people besides Evan, I tolerated them and always acted polite.

If I do become a successful actor in the future, I don’t want spiteful children to harp on to the media about how I was aloof and arrogant.

Evan, being the best pal that he is, gifted me a set of guitar picks and strings. It was a very thoughtful gift as he had observed the brand and size of my guitar before ordering the strings.

And of course, the best gift I received was that our short film, ‘Sex Education’ had been submitted by my parents to the Sundance Film Festival to be held this month between January 16th and 26th.

They had planned to take me to Salt Lake City, Utah for a period of four days from the 16th to the 19th. I’d miss two days of school, but it wasn’t much at this year's level, with me being top of our class.

Evan wanted to accompany me badly and had even begged his own parents to let him come with me. Unfortunately for him, our parents explained to his parents the content of the film and why it wouldn’t be good for a child who is not the star of the movie to go there and watch it.

As expected, his parents put a stop to all his begging by not allowing him to accompany us to Sundance. It was a nightmare to see him moping for a week after that day.

(Time Skip-2 weeks)

The wait was agonizing. While I was allowed to visit the Sundance Festival, I was given one of the two options. Either I could go visit the festival during the premiere of our short film or wait for the ending ceremony to visit during the award ceremony. I had deliberated hard. I knew the film was good, but I didn’t have high expectations of it receiving an award.

Keeping that in mind, I decided to just go see the premiere to gauge the audience's reaction. And what a reaction it was.

(Flashback)

I eagerly sat in the screening hall with my parents on either side of me and Bobby and Amy sitting on my mother’s other side. My eyes kept wandering around, observing the number of people present for the screening. It was a small hall supporting only 150 or so seats. Because it was a self-financed short film, it didn’t take much money to screen the movie, only $100 or so. Still, for a small hall showing a short film, there were some 40-50 people present.

Guess it’s true that sex sells.

Steve had spread the word among a few of his friends that we would be presenting our movie here, so a few executives of production companies had come to attend the premiere because they knew of Steve’s reputation.

“How are you doing, Steve?” A burly caucasian man in his late 40s with brown hair came forward and shook hands with the man in question.

“Peter, so nice of you to join us.” Steve stood up and smiled at the man, “This here is my son Troy who is the star of the movie and you already know my better half.” Steve nodded towards me and Kathy while making the introductions.

“Troy, this is Peter Jones, he is a film executive at Warner Bros.”

I shook the man’s hand, “Pleasure to meet you, sir.”

Peter smiled indulgently, “Well aren’t you the polite one.” Then he turned back to the older man, “Steve, I specifically came to see your work, but I hope you understand that short films aren't my forte.”

His blunt response came out like a surprise. I couldn’t help but smile at that.

“Yes, I am aware.” Steve answered back with a smile of his own, “This is more for Troy’s sake actually. Just watch the movie and you’ll understand.”

Before Peter could say anything else a loud voice rang, “Well, well, well. If it isn’t the returning prodigal son and family.” I turned my head sideways to look at the new arrival who was a man of a similar age to Steve. While his words may feel to be harsh, the smirk on the man’s face was anything but malicious.

“Barry!” Steve excitedly exclaimed as he hugged the said man.

“Troy, this is my best friend Barry Mendel. Barry, this is Troy, and of course, you know Kathy and Peter.” Steve made another round of introductions.

After exchanging pleasantries, we all went back to our seats as the time for the film to start finally came.

As soon as the projector turned on, the screen lit with the words, ‘Sex Education, a film by Steve Kloves’.

The movie started rolling and I watched in fascination as the story unfolded with the three main characters showing a different perspective.

Mark’s POV (that’s my character) shows the loneliness of a child with overworked parents and the need to get any worthwhile attention. Still maintains a happy front for others, especially in the presence of his sister. Whenever alone, he will go back to loneliness.

From Jenny’s POV, we see the desire of a young woman to be free from the responsibility of her brother and be on her own. At the same, the love she has comes before any youthful rebellion. That is especially shown in the last shot where she shows her decisiveness in following her gut feeling that something wrong was going on between her brother and Dylan.

Finally, Dylan shows the future of a person like Mark with a lack of good parental figure. If Dylan were to be successful, then it’s entirely possible that Mark could follow in his footsteps.

On the surface, it may seem to be about sex, which it is, but it has many deeper undertones that have been explored by the director. And all of that is within thirty minutes because the rest of the screen time is spent on my and Amy’s respective monologues.

There was laughter throughout the movie. While the subject was dark, it was presented in a humorous way. The only disturbing scene was the assault scene and its follow-up. My monologue had more than one whistle and catcall and I couldn’t help but feel giddy.

When I explained the meaning of snogging to the ‘American twats’, there was an uproaring laughter in the hall. I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought people would be offended. I guess being bad-mouthed by a kid doesn’t seem to be too offensive.

When the end credit rolled, I didn’t know what to expect. So it was truly a novel experience when all the members in the audience stood up and clapped loudly.

I looked around myself in shock as people were actually looking at me with smiling faces but they didn't stop clapping.

For a full five minutes.

Yes, I checked the time on my wristwatch.

I turned towards my parents to see both of them smiling at me with a proud look on their faces. A sense of accomplishment bloomed inside my heart. This was probably the best award I could’ve received for this movie.

After the applause, the people started moving out one by one, barring a few people. The first to approach us were Bobby and Amy.

“Woah dude, that was an awesome performance,” Bobby fist-bumped me which I reciprocated. “If only I wasn’t playing such a despicable character.” He sighed in mock annoyance.

“And your speech at the end,” He immediately flipped back to being cheerful, “I loved it! I abso- fu..fudging-lutely loved it.” He changed the word at the last moment after receiving a deadly glare from my mother.

“Thank you,” I answered simply.

“That was indeed some great acting,” Amy replied from beside her boyfriend. “I loved the whole film a lot. Do you think Steve would give us a copy? I would love to show it to our dramatics class.” She glanced back at Steve who was talking to Peter, Barry, and Kathy.

“There’s no harm in asking, is there?” I answered with a smile. “From what I know, short films like this rarely get distributors, they are only made for artistic purposes or to spread the love of cinema and movies. I think he would be happy if you spread it to your class at the very least.”

Amy nodded at my deductions, “You know, you are really smart sometimes, but other times you go back to being a kid, it’s like a switch has been flipped.”

“Aww Amy, you are smart too.” I gave a dramatic pause before saying, “Sometimes.” I grinned at her cheekily.

“You brat,” she pulled my cheek playfully while Bobby watched us in amusement from aside.

“Alright, kids. It’s time for us to go,” Kathy’s voice came from behind us as she escorted us out of the hall while Steve was still talking to the two men. Probably some catching up to do.

After the premiere, we spent two more days there but didn’t watch any film because most movies weren’t kid-friendly and there was no rating system of MPAA. So she simply banned watching any movies there for the foreseeable future.

Thus all we did was enjoy the sights of Salt Lake City.

(Flashback End)

I came back to LA with Kathy, Amy, and Bobby while Steve stayed back to watch some movies and to wait. Totally unfair, I say. I know for him it’s his work, but still.

Sometimes I regret my decision to not just complete my schooling in a couple of years. The problem with that would be, I would get totally bored. I mean, I am not an adult, so I wouldn’t be getting many roles and I definitely won’t be joining a college until I am 16 at the very least.

Come on dude, college is for having fun and parties and sex and all that jazz. Yes, I could go and study to make a career but I don’t want a boring life in a large corporation, crunching numbers all day long.

It would’ve been somewhat better if my school had a joint building for elementary and high school. Then I could’ve read up on advanced stuff to see my actual level of knowledge or to merely challenge myself.

But here I was, stuck in the classroom with 8-9-year-olds, studying sentence formation, when I could write a full novel if I really wanted.

ring

Finally!

I put my stuff back in my bag and raced towards the door. Today was the day that jury and audience awards would be announced for the festival.

“Hey wait for me!” A voice came from behind me. I slowed slightly and saw Evan catching up to me.

We rushed to the school gate, only to find my mother standing there.

“Mom! Did the result come out?” I asked impatiently.

“Your dad hasn’t called yet,” Kathy answered, “but I’m sure he will as soon as they do.”

“Alright,” I grumbled, annoyed.

“Evan,” Mom turned towards my friend, “your mom called. Your nanny had an emergency so she had to go home. You’ll be coming home with us, okay?”

“Yes!” He exclaimed in joy.

“You shouldn’t be so happy,” I said and he mellowed down a little. “Whenever someone says emergency it is usually bad news.”

He nodded in contemplation, “Yeah, sorry.”

“It’s alright dear,” Kathy smiled at the two of us, “let’s hurry back.”