Chapter 144

[Searching for the One|August 15-2016|Act 8|Scene 4|Take 3]

“You know, Frank. Every few decades, civilisation changes. New things come up. The way people do things changes but let me tell you, a massive change happened when social media came.”

“How so?”

“The change was people becoming dumber. Do you understand how good of a thing it is for me? Us?”

Alan was speaking like he had the whole thing planned out already. Confidence was clearly shown on his face, but he also gave the impression of a scammer.

When Frank looked at him, he did feel like Alan had the look of a scammer. His hair was set up very neatly, and he was wearing a black suit, making him seem like someone who had just been in an important meeting.

But his words were something that would make anyone doubt him.

“How do people become dumb by social media, and what does it have to do anything with that girl over there?”

Frank finally asked, and Alan smiled like he was waiting for him to ask that question.

“Social media made people base their lives on how many likes they are getting on every post. Girls with very bad issues, ” Alan emphasised the last part, “They are the ones who started treating it as a tool to show off how perfect their lives are no matter how hollow their childhoods were, and this is why it’s so easy to get them to sleep with me. You just need to play around with that.”

Even though Alan explained his tactics, Frank seemed confused, mixed with a feeling of being completely weirded out. Knowing that he couldn’t explain it in words, Alan sighed and put out two fingers in front of Frank.

“Choose one.”

“What do they even mean?”

“Just choose.”

Having no choice, Frank sighed and chose the middle finger. Alan smiled like a supervillain whose plans were finally going to come true.

“Okay, Climate activist.”

“Climate what?”

“My job. Anyway, leave it. Just wait here and let me show you.”

After saying that, Alan rose up from his seat and walked towards the pretty girl who was quietly drinking by the bar.

It was then that the sound of ‘Cut’ came out as the scene ended.

“Okay, cut!”

***

The shooting of [Searching for the One] progressed like that. As the whole crew was working with a deadline hanging on their heads, they worked without any breaks.

Every day, Aiden would get up early and straight away leave for the set. After a whole day of shooting, he would return back to his apartment and sleep. Then return to the same process.

The only salvation was that, unlike other actors, he wasn’t sleeping in hotels as he lived in New York.

As the shooting progressed, Aiden got more and more into his character as his affinity rose. He, Amelia, Mason and some other writers would even talk a lot about some scenes and how they could get the character of Alan to shine even more.

Aiden really enjoyed those talks, but one thing he got out of them was that a character like Alan Geller was kind of wasted as a character who was there just to fix the personalities of the main characters.

The whole character was written as a deeply flawed guy who was scared of being alone. After Aiden had added some character traits to him, he had really become a great character with a lot of potential.

Sadly, his role was short, and only a bit of the personality and background of Alan would be shown.

There was no compromise on it, as IBC just wanted the show to be back on track without any trouble.

But it didn’t stop Aiden from thinking deeper into the character he was playing. About his backstory, his life other than being a playboy. How he had become a playboy and his other relationships. Even the place he worked at.

There was a lot of ambiguity around his character as not a lot would be revealed in the three episodes that he would appear in.

So, Aiden was obviously left without answers.

Even if he asked the writers about it, they didn’t have a clue as Alan’s whole character was made in a hurry, and they never really gave a lot of thought to his background other than a few things.

In a way, there was no backstory for him.

***

“Move the camera a bit more. I want a very long shot to start the scene; then we will do a close-up. Check the sound and lighting properly. We are shooting at night, so it needs to come up perfectly.”

Amelia Fryman shouted in her mic as everyone on the set quickly checked everything. The moon was hanging in the sky, and the atmosphere was slightly cold.

Currently, they were shooting a very important scene.

In this, Frank would run out of the bar after Alan managed to set him up with a girl due to remembering memories of Hazel, who he had just broken up with today. Alan would follow him, and they would have a conversation on the stairs of the bar.

This was the scene that would come at the end of the episode and would act as a medium for Frank to realise that he was doing everything wrong.

At that moment, he would have a change of heart, and the episode would end with him contemplating his life choices.

It was one of the scenes which would get the audience to know that Alan had more than a playboy side to him as well as giving a bit more insight into his actual thoughts.

Yawn!

“Your eyes look very sleepy. Are you sure you would be able to do the scene well?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. It’s already midnight, so I can’t help but feel sleepy. I don’t think I will ever get used to midnight shoots.”

“You will get used to doing it. The industry has a way of making actors get used to a lot of things.”

Wade said but still looked a bit concerned about Aiden’s sleepiness. As everyone was already tired, he was hoping that Aiden could give good shots and end the shooting for the night.

After all, only one scene was left.

“Anyway, you know I was thinking that the IBC and production team of the show is kind of wasting Alan’s character. He deserves way better.”

Aiden said, trying to start a conversation in order to stop himself from sleeping.

“Actually, I felt the same way after reading the script. He didn’t really get a good closure, or anything is vividly explained about him, but he’s that kind of a character, made to get the plot ahead. We can’t really do anything.”

“Yeah, I know that, but I was thinking that there’s a lot of characters like him. My role in [Shadows of War] was like that too. Directors and studios could do a lot of things with those types of characters.”

“They won’t, though. It really comes down to popularity, and that sells in the market. Even if a character is really well written, if he’s not popular or important to the plot, he won’t get a lot of scenes, especially on TV. You see popular characters coming back a lot because of fan demand.”

Aiden nodded his head, hearing that.

Like he had thought before, Hollywood was more or less a business. Even if, as an actor, he liked a character a lot, he might be disregarded depending on the public opinion of him.

‘All this really makes me wonder how the audience will take Alan or will he even be popular.’

Aiden thought as he felt a wind pass him by.

***

[Searching for the One|August 17-2016|Act 9|Scene 4|Take 1]

Frank walked out of the bar and frowned. The memories he had with Hazel were in his mind and how they had fought again before breaking it off for good.

All that still pained him. Even a night with a girl was not going to give him some relief from the pain.

“Frank, why did you run out of there? Everything was set up. The girl was all over you.”

As Frank stood outside the bar, Alan came out and looked at him, wondering what was going on with him.

“I’m sorry. I don’t really want girls.”

“Really? Are you really—”

Alan stopped in the middle of his joke as he saw that Frank actually looked sad. Instantly recognising that this was a serious matter, he let out a deep breath and looked at his friend, who he had only met two hours ago.

“What’s going on with you?”

“Ah, I… I lost the only girl who I thought was the one for me. We fought again, and this time, we broke up. I really want to go back to her and patch things up, but I know for sure we are going to fight again.”

Frank said, lowering his head and constantly sighing like he was unable to process his emotions.

“Why do you think she’s the right person?”

“Huh?”

“How do you know she’s the one?”

When Alan asked that, Frank was a bit stunned by the question. After hesitating to reply for a bit, he finally said.

“She’s pretty, totally my type. She understands me, and I understand her. We are great together. I like spending time with her and—”

“Have you never felt all that with any other girl?”

Alan interrupted Frank and asked. Unlike the playboy he was in the bar, this time, his atmosphere was completely different, and there was a slight smile on his face, giving off a very reserved aura.

This was the opposite of what Frank had seen in the bar, and his question was something that made him unable to answer it for quite a while.

…

//DreamNote//

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