FIRST STEP ON PRODUCTION HELL

The plane trip to the Philippines was sickening enough, the cramped space of the helicopter ride to the location of the shooting was a ride through hell. Moving through the humid intense rays of the clear sun above bushy coiled trees of the jungle that hid whatever didn't want to be found. Thankfully the report said no signs of storms for upcoming months. A rare good news among the piles of bad ones that were only increasing by the minute.

Caine's face was drenched with sweat, with his bushy facial hairs soaked. His stomach was already rumbling as he flexed his soft and round shaped body within his seat as he had boxes of a few pieces of equipment.

Things were not good in terms of shooting the movie in the jungle, as some equipment had gotten ruined due to unpredictable content of the jungle: weather, animals, and temper of crew caused by the first two. Plus other unexplainable things that he couldn't even put his mind into as a lot of ideas were squishing in and out of his mind.

The box only contained cameras, lenses, a new drone with controller and batteries for different equipment, that was all what Charleston said Joyful Nation was willing to offer, plus he had a backpack of some clothes he bought on his way here along with boots and other essentials.

He hadn't even had a good time to stabilize his situation in a new life, he was receiving calls from friends and families which he had to cut due to him not even knowing what to do.

Right now, he was tightening his sweaty hands as he scribbled ideas of what he was going to do for the movie onto a plan sized notebook he bought on his way, it was evident that the moment he got down was when his work started. He had to make 45 days work to make the film, which he had already accepted he would have to change a lot of things to fit in the tight schedule as a normal studio during a neutral environment was about 3+ months, and what he had was anything but.

Plus, the author of Bastard Brothers Of Pale Garden, an elderly Englishman of 70 years in age, having French roots- Edmond Grey. He wrote the novel, according to him, after fighting a war with his brother which led to his brother dying, which he wished they both did.

The novel was high at the time, socialist and all claimed the story was refreshing as the writing contained high level Grammer and words that was a roadblock to understand the scene without picking up a dictionary.

The English version of the original French language book in his backpack. It was a 750 page story, which he couldn't read past half the book, he already felt the problem Joyful Nation had, it was too long and also too slow paced of a story which depended on the internal monologues which they won't make good use of for the film. Whatever the film would have was depending on what they could do and get from unpredictable weather.

How he was fearing in the mosquito romance paradise of the damp jungle and heat was a concerning question, even more concerning when he realises that his book can't be page by page adapted. Plus, the crew was also not mentally and physically stable. It wasn't going to be easy to get them to do this, and he wasn't expecting hugs and kisses when he stepped down. It was what it was.

He closed the notebook, calming himself down and wiped sweat off his face, he had not even started the movie under the hot humid conditions of the jungle, it would be way worse. He felt his throat getting dry, and pulled out an arm sized metal bottle, opened it, and took a calculated gulp of chill water that flowed down his throat, which still had the sourness from his drinking with Charleston. He really hated that drink.

All these things he had to regrettably buy out of need, the former owner of this body had some money he could use, like 600 something dollars left in the account, and that was the only account he had. And all together he bought for the scenarios of the unknown jungle:

Arm-sized metal bottle: ~$25

Backpack (water-resistant, durable): ~$60

Small notepad and pen: ~$15

Small knives: ~$40

Torch light: ~$30

Lighter: ~$10

Basic first aid kit: ~$30

Insect repellent: ~$15

Portable rechargeable hand fan: ~$20

Solar power bank (20,000mAh): ~$60

Long-lasting chewing gum: ~$5

Light shirt: ~$40

Quick-dry trousers: ~$50

Jungle boots: ~$80

Grand total: ~$450

He knew how important each of these items would be and how much he would abuse them in the coming days, he was already dressed in shirt, trouser and boots he got. He went heavy on spending, which now looked stupid but it was important his mind and body was working perfectly when entering a jungle environment. The last thing he needed was a situation where he nearly lost his life, at least he knew he would get paid after the movie was completed.

But deep down, he wanted this movie to succeed. And a lot of stress in him would happen if such was to happen.

The helicopter was descending, he closed his eyes. This was happening, he needed to make this work, he needed to make sure he could make everyone's effort worth it. He needed to.

He felt a rumble through the helicopter, and a bit of fear flew into him. But, the helicopter landed with its blades still spinning, and the pilot wanted to leave instantly. Caine crouched down, and stepped down, while dragging the box with him down- it wouldn't be funny if the blade sliced his head off when he wanted to start a new life- one he hadn't yet even settled properly into.

He dragged the box across, and clutched his backpack through the dust and leaves from helicopter blown ground. When some feet away, he gave the pilot a nod which was returned. There was not a single conversation, but the vibe was good. That was acceptable enough for Caine.

He turned around… He wasn't shocked.

A group of sagged tents, some had duct tapes plastered in different designs, few faded hammocks, reinforced with duct tapes, were tied between trees, where crew members laid, some chewing and smoking cigarettes, others frozen and staring at canopy. Scattered snack nylons and empty water bottles sprawled around them.

The set was decapitated, only remaining metal curled structure, painted in floral design and fruits.

The camera crew were grouped in a makeshift table- crate with wooden planks, lying on table were playing cards that had seen better days, lenses without caps, a camera with its back panel hanging loose, and a drone with its propellers snapped off in different pieces.

By the side, the prop designer was arguing with a stunt coordinator, holding what looked like a giant bell.

Casts rehearsing something together as they played with a broken cocunut.

Finally the lead actors.

Two of them — playing the main characters of the brothers— were off to the side. One striding up and down a short distance, sweating face blushed red from heat, shirt tied around belly as he swiped at flying bugs. The other was laid on rock, fully clothed, obviously soaked in sweat as he whispered things.

Caine accepted what was before him, and rushed forward. His entrance had been noticed since, his approach made them alert of him

Crew members rushed towards him, cut open clothes damp in their own sweat, while trying not to trip on anything. Today was going to be a day indeed, it was 2:00PM. Wind was just flickering, hopefully nothing too dramatic.

First to reach him was a slim man, bald head reflecting some rays of son, Caine nodded to him, but no response- just a locked jaw face as he adjusted his dangling headset, and a clipboard that was soaked to earn the name paper mache.

He dropped the box, and waited for what was to be said.

"New director?"

Caine nodded.

"I am Donald, first and only assistant director. I think you know you are late-

The rest of the crew interrupted Donald with questions that he couldn't get due to everyone trying to let their words get heard first.

Caine pointed to the box, and a chubby man, who had a busted camera gear, was sweating more than everyone, crouched to open the box as everyone kept going on. Caine knew he was the cinematographer

"Okay, calm down. Everyone should calm down. These are some of the replacement equipment, I see the ones here can't do anything yet, what happened?" Caine tried to understand what was happening, he needed to know the situation as quickly as possible.

"Storm, we didn't see it of course as we were asleep but we woke to feel like shit. Name's Winston, cinematographer who is pissed that the equipment the cheap bastards gave you won't do a great job. Drone is manageable, but if there is a not so clear shot. I am not going to like being held responsible, especially in this near unfilmable condition, Felix! This is Felix, production assistant." The chubby man responded, admiring the cameras, lenses, and drone. Felix ran forward, heaving and wiping out sweat, he was a muscular man- looking just entering adulthood, came and heaved the box up before carrying it.

The rest of the crew rushed their introductions, but the two that Caine focused on today were the Ergar brothers. Tim and Jones, former was the scriptwriter while latter was the script supervisor.

Lunch was by 4:00, and by lunch- calculated prepackaged food that could be easily cooked on the stove.

The whole cast wanted to have words with him, not all of them being nice but he had beg them that they would all the time to talk to him but right now he needed to get the script of the story right, Charleston wanted him to rewrite the whole planned script of former director as not have opposing ideas.

They were in a small tent, four of them sitting around a sturdy table that had a small lantern bright light around, as they had piles of paper in the centre. All were passing around Caine's electric fan as they were about to discuss the story.

The addition of one man being the author, Grey, who was a bulky owl face man, who he was just meeting for the first time, he already accepted they were most likely not to get along.

Grey coming here himself instead of sending a representative, meant an obvious thing. He wanted to overlook the movie making so that he had his dream of page by page adaptation of his novel to the big screen. Which was not going to be possible, looking at the situation.

"I guess you haven't read my book yet, like why would you want to direct my artwork. I am sorry mister Caine, but I am not so keen on seeing your version of my work. I just want you to at least convince me on trusting you, it won't take much out of you to just talk to me." Grey accused Caine, who was calculating the next words he would give out.

"Mister Grey. I might not have done so, and I agree it isn't nice to hear. But, we are to make this movie on a tight schedule, an unromantic budget, and we are in a toxic relationship with the weather, plus, my job is to direct the movie to the best of what we can get. Now I like to talk about the script." Caine answered back.

Grey huffed in response, murmuring a curse at the Caine's words of not being able to achieve to perfect adaptation of his book dream.

The Ergar brothers had their heads bowed down, they had read the story and had problems with it but needed Caine help them as a mouthpiece, they didn't like entering confrontation like this. Caine didn't either, but he had too.

"Listen, can you talk to him about why we can't use the original script of 3 hours duration. Like please talk to him about that." Jones pleaded in a sleepy tone as he used his turn of the fan to blow on Tim, who had just finished his turn. He was still really sweaty.

Caine frowned, 3 hours was too long of anything to him. This movie wasn't going to have the necessity to make it an eye treat for audience and you want to make 3 hours, was their situation not obvious.

Grey eyed Caine, wanting to see what he would say.

"No. You know why, your book is really long. So let's discuss how we can this… at max, 2 hours."

Grey's face morphed to one of disgust, which got on Caine's nerves.

"Are you saying you want cut out of my-

Tim, having not been active, interrupted Grey.

"Yes, we have to cut it. Like we can make the novel into parts. Like part one, we see the brothers situation and debt before going into the garden, then the survival story, and possibly more. Like I said before Caine came that this is a damn small budget movie, people want to watch an interesting story. Look, that 3 hours I did with Tony and Jones, that 3 hours wasn't even the whole novel. We cut a lot."

Grey closed his mouth, shaking his head at Tim in shame, which caused Jones, who just gave the fan to Grey to ask.

"What does the shaking mean?" Caine was getting ready to put a brake on this

Grey, receiving the fan, frowned now at Caine.

"That's the thing with you people. You want to entertain everyone, but you can't, the slowness of my story was what made my novel go with people-

Grey was once again, interrupted, this time by Jones, whose eyes never left

"What does you people mean, my brother and I made so much effort to elevate what you put down, I don't like doing this whole fighting. I should have just dumped the whole novel into a script, but for the sake of everyone in this set to have a good career out of this. I don't know if you agree Caine."

Caine nodded, receiving the fan from Grey, understood that Jones had now dumped the responsibility of talking to Grey onto him, but they needed to be at some level of agreement as if not, this movie wasn't going to do positive.

"I understand that you want your pages on the screen, but you know we can't do that currently. I mean look at us, we are all going through a lot, and we haven't even started shooting. Look Mister Grey, I understand your frustrations. But I must sadly tell you that I can't relieve it, you signed on for Joyful Nation to adapt your book. You never said, onto what accuracy, as of right now, we are passing around a fan to cool ourselves while the rest of the people to make this movie are outside wondering why they got themselves into this movie. We might never like each other again, but, do we really want to have all this things that we are going to through, and yet make a movie that doesn't work in box office, cause you aren't going to affect as you are an author only, but I surely will and so will everyone. We are surely not going to be friends but I sure hope we won't let that affect this movie production."

Grey's face twitched throughout the speech. Tim would let out a cough

Grey would reply with a 'bless you', as his eyes lurk around, obvious gears turning in his head.

Whether Grey agreed or not, Caine would still direct the movie his way but he didn't want any division in the crew, if it wasn't possible then so be it but he wanted to make sure he put all effort to ensure it didn't. They enough of nature antagonizing them to be doing the same with each other.

Grey spoke. "Mister Caine, whatever you do with this movie will never be satisfactory to me. I will never lie that I enjoyed you and everyones' presence. But I am a reasonable man, I have experienced a lot more that everyone here combined to know what Hollywood is like, so by all means. Proceed to make my artwork into your story."

Caine accepted the speech, now quickly wanted to plan the movie scripts after seeing that there was almost no hope of being level in thinking with Grey.

Grey stood up, and shook his head in shame again at Tim. Who jumped, and connected his fist to Grey's face.

Caine flipped the table away, and constrained Tim, Jones just sat by with a smudge.