My Hollywood System

Chapter 136:

Exiting ‘The Bar with No Name’ Leo could already tell that he was being followed out. He checked his pockets. Unfortunately, he only had a knife.

Walking out and into the streets of East Harlem, he looked back and saw that four men, each carrying a variation of either a club, a bat, or a machete, were looking right at him. He continued walking ahead, increasing his pace, not wanting to alarm the police car of the motives of either him or the men that were chasing him.

Taking a turn down the street, he had to stop. On the other side of the street were similarly dressed men that were briskly walking their way. Turning around and into an alley, Leo ran at the full sprint at the wall at the end of the alley.

He ran up a few steps of the wall and jumped off of it onto the fire exit. He could see that the men had followed him and ran his way now.

“Get him!” He heard as he climbed up the ladders of the fire escape.

The ladders rattled as he looked down at them, slowly gaining on him. Reaching the top of the exit, he banged his head on the entrance to the building’s roof. It was locked.

Looking down, he noticed the men were only two stories away from him, and he needed to find a way on the roof.

Vaulting over the railing of the top part of the fire escape, he balanced himself as he tried to gauge the distance he had to jump to latch on to the fire escape of the building opposite him.

Seeing that the men were just one story below him, he sent a quick prayer to god and jumped.

He caught the ledge of the fire escape of the opposite building and climbed his way onto the roof.

As soon as he was on the roof, he heard a loud voice saying, “AND CUT!”

Looking around him, on the roof, Leo could see that Will was waiting for him, and he had a wide smile on his face.

“That was a really good shot. You have gotten really good at monkey jumping your way up ladders and across narrow buildings. If not an actor, you would make a really good stunt artist.” Will complimented.

Leo couldn’t keep the smile off his face. He had elected to do most of his stunts and fights in the movie himself, despite Will’s offer to hire stuntmen for him. He had done that in lieu of Robert’s advice. Robert also had elected to do most of his stunts himself, and he wanted to follow in his friend’s footsteps.

Will was really happy with the way that this scene had turned out. He had set up cameras all around the alley, from the entrance of ‘The Bar with No Name’ that they had set up to the ledge of the building’s fire escape, to capture footage of the scene that he wanted to build.

He wanted to get raw footage that he would later edit in sequence to build his entire scene.

They had acquired permission from local authorities in Upper East Harlem, from the local Police, with the help of Mega Works. Their deal had gone through, and after getting the document with the extra clause that Will stipulated, he had his legal team go through the document to check for any hidden loopholes. After finding none, he had signed it, and Mega Works was on board with [Liberty City], and the shooting had begun with extreme fervour.

Dream Vision wouldn’t have been able to acquire the filming permit as quickly as they did, block Harlem’s busy streets, and set up their on-location set without Mega Work’s help. They would have eventually acquired it, but the soft power that Mega Works brought along with its name was something that Will could easily utilize.

They were able to use the help of city officials to set up lights, clean the streets a little to make them just a little bit more presentable, and import fake models of period vehicles. The local community of Harlem had helped set up extras, and Will made sure to invest in the local community to help it develop along the way.

They helped Jeffery do odd jobs on the street while his Cinematography team took care of the heavier workload.

Shaking his head, Will got back to discussing the continuation of the scene that they had just shot, which was to be on foot chase scene with Leo over the rooftops. The entire scene would take upwards of three days to complete and accurately takedown. Will knew that Leo was extremely excited to get it done with.

****

“Alright, Robert. I want you to show your character, Don Vulpe’s violent side, mixed with his irritably patient personality.” Will said to Robert, who looked to be thinking the role over in his head. Will turned his head to look at Reagan and said, “Your reaction to his movements is what will sell this shot. He will aim his gun at you. I need genuine fear from you, but still, show complete loyalty to him. You must fear for your life while trying to get out of the situation while simultaneously looking like your brain is working overtime to find solutions to the problem here.”

“At the start of the scene, I have to show that while I am patient, I get easily irritated and work hard to maintain my cool over having to wait. I was thinking of adding a twitch to his movement. Like a quirk, something like tapping his foot, or tapping his fingers on the table or his cane.” Robert interjected.

“Robert, you can do whatever you think is necessary to sell this character. Just make sure that you can enact his increasing anger throughout the scene.” Will answered.

Robert was dressed in a black vest with a white shirt. A gold pocket watch was in his trousers, and its chair was connected to his breast pocket. He was wearing a gold ring on his right finger and had a mahogany walking stick in his left hand, which was due to his slight limp in his left leg.

Reagan was dressed in a white T-shirt, whose sleeves were rolled above his elbows. His arms were covered in tattoos depicting skulls, snakes, and wolves in a triad. His hands were covered in white gloves, and he was wearing brown trousers to complete his outfit.

“Alright, I will get Jeffery to set up the lights, and we will start the shot. Why don’t you both go over the scene, and I will call when we start, okay?” Will said, and with their nods, he walked over to Jeffery, who was fiddling with the camera.

They were in the studio for this shot, and they had built an office room to take the scene. They had built the office to be a little darker but elegant in its design, with wooden flooring and a bookcase by the side. The window blinds were down, and there was an ashtray on the table, slowly rising smoke showing that someone had recently stubbed a cigarette.

“Jeffery, is the set ready? I want to take the scene.” He asked as he reached his friend.

“Yeah, I am just adjusting the settings here, and I have instructed my team to get both clear audio and video in this scene. The props are ready, the gun is ready, with blanks in the magazine. Whenever you give the signal, we will start rolling.” Jeffery informed him.

“Alright then, let’s get this show on the road.”

***

“Boss, we have a problem,” Reagan said as he entered the office.

Robert, who was writing in a few documents, sighed, looked up and said, “Did you know, Alfie, that my ex-wife once said those exact words to me. ‘We have a problem’. She said those words to me because apparently, shit wasn’t going according to how she wanted it to. Do you know where she is now?”

Reagan stopped, noticing that the tension in the room was increasing by the second. He could see that Robert was tapping his fingers on the desk as he stood up from his seat. He shook his head and said, “No, sir, I don’t.”

“She’s on the beach, in the Bahamas,” Robert said as he looked at Reagan. “She’s there with her family. I gave her exactly what she wanted.”

“I- I don’t understand, boss.” Reagan stuttered.

Robert chuckled and walked to Reagan as he said, “She wanted to enjoy her life, have fun, enjoy. You know, I too wanted that for sure, but I told her to wait for a while. She didn’t want to, so I sent her and her family to the Bahamas permanently.” He finished ominously, “So, you better say the next few words carefully, Alfie or I will arrange a similar holiday destination for you to enjoy permanently. What is the problem?”

Reagan gulped, and he said, “Sir, T-Tommy Vercetti’s men, t-they…”

“They what, Alfie?” Robert frowned as he brandished his gun.

“S-sir, they torched our warehouse and killed our delivery boys; we had no drugs delivered for the past four days.” Reagan squeaked out.

Silence. His words were met with complete silence.

He watched as Robert took a deep breath, as he continued tapping on his cane, and walked to the cabinet. Robert opened the cabinet and took out a box.

BANG!

There was a loud noise as Robert fired the gun from inside the box, the bullet impacting just inches away from Alfie’s face, and Alfie ducked for cover, checking his body for injuries.

As he looked at the splintered wall, Robert sighed and said, “I want all the men involved in that hit caught. Their families, tailed. If Ol’ Vercetti wants to go to war, We will give it to him. NOW GET OUT!”

“And Cut!”

…

//DreamNote//

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