Chapter 31

He was to be grounded for a year and would receive no jobs or gigs, etc.

As he sat at home, he decided to take some directing classes or scriptwriting courses to bring back the classics lost to time, and prove that he was right.

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The year went by swiftly as he took on the required courses, of course, owing to the inferior quality of the current scripts, he focused on the more technical classes. As for the screenplay, he studied the modern format while ignoring everything else, following the extinct Earth format.

The script for the movie was a single actor movie, called Trials.

The script focuses on the only character in the story, Henrik Halong. He is a traveller, following the times, who ends up stranded on an island, with his ship on the other side of a tropical planet. The story follows him as he escapes from the island, using extinct survival skills alongside current techniques to leave the island. Then, making his way through the jungles to the location of his ship. All while, surviving the dangers on the planet.

As Airic did not trust any other actor or actress, he opted to do it all himself. Not just the script, but the cameras, locations, etc. However, he did discuss it with Lunaria, his head bodyguard and Drala.

Lunaria was intrigued by the script idea, as no one had thought to do anything similar. The market consisted of romance movies, or adventure/action. Even the plots were somewhat identical, as there had not been a new idea in years. Airic was intrigued by this fact, as he was shocked at the lack of creativity spanning years since the re-establishment of the Entertainment industry.

Airic wrote the script swiftly, as there was very little dialogue involved, but as a result of this, it made the role even more challenging, as Airic would have to use his expressions alone to seize audience hearts.

It was apparent that this would be a test of both skill and the right background music to pull people into the scenes. As he was determined to make it perfect, he composed the music for some of the scenes, though, it would need to fit the scene once filmed. Drala had yet to find a planet suitable for the movie, as it would be difficult to do in a holo room, so filming had still to start. No matter the advances in holo room technology.

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It took months to find the right planet to begin filming, spent looking through the approved list and visiting each in the shortlist. At some point, Airic looked at informal 'undiscovered' planets- which were deemed relatively safe but had yet to be catalogued or surveyed. Then, as he was choosing, he heard about the new planet just placed on the list.

It was harrowing to get the approvals in place, as it was the first of its kind, regarding filming and permissions needed to film.

Airic bought cameras capable of following and recording him, setting the auto features to follow him and choose varied views during the different scenes. Along with hidden microphones, along with some mechanical animals and plants to 'battle'.

To get a classic shot of the planet closing in with the ship, he utilised several cameras, drones from and cameras' on the vessel. Filming continued when they landed, with Airic exploring the jungles of the planet. He spent days exploring, with the occasional log recorded on his terminal. He spent days like this, immersed in the character. Then he would look through th footage, delete some and redo some scenes, before moving on. This pattern, continued for weeks as he had to look like a stranded traveller, including the dirt, tan and threadbare clothing.

Once many scenes had been recorded, he moved to one of the islands for the stranded island scenes. In this scenario, he had been attacked by an unseen creature while on his portable boat, losing his traveller's pack and boat, becoming stranded. He once again spent days surviving on the island, using both ancient and modern skills to stay alive. Then it was time for the swimming scenes. Here he had to fight several aquatic creatures to return to shore amidst the trees, before making his way back to the exploration ship on the other side of the world. It was supposed to be a suspenseful film, as the main character would face through tribulations before finding their home.

It took several weeks of filming but then came the post-production. Airic took courses on using digital software to edit the movie. It took him some time to understand what he was doing, but in the meantime, Lunaria hired an editor who was directed by Airic.

Another few weeks went by slowly or quickly, depending on who or where you were. For Airic and his meagre crew, it went swiftly, as they worked against the clock to release the film to platforms in time for the year's best film award. They just barely made it, with Airic composing as they put together various scenes of the movie. Then, Airic realised that the crew had no money for the final marketing shoot, which was needed to draw attention to the film.

In the end, Lunaria watched a preview and agreed to market the play.