Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70485 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 282(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Roe didn’t want much of a script, and I liked that. We had a list of things to mention, talking points, but we’d try to get there naturally.
I bent over the camera to check the shot, making sure we’d both be in it, and I asked Roe to take a seat so I could make final adjustments.
“What’s that handle thing on the side for?” he asked.
I spoke while watching him through the lens. “So I can turn the camera toward the ocean easier. I was thinking—you’ll say something like, so here we are, we wanna show you Big Sur, our backyard or whatever it was you said, and then I will turn the camera and show them the view.”
“Oh, I like that. That sounds cool.”
We’d see how the theory transferred to reality. I might have to morph two shots if the lighting became too bright and we lost focus, but it shouldn’t be a problem. The more I learned about the editing process, the easier it was to see possibilities. The sound of cars driving by would be edited out later, the cacophony of the sea gulls might fade into the background a bit more, and simple things like throat-clearing and coughing and a misplaced chuckle could be eliminated too.
Okay, last check. Everything looked good, and I’d raised the camera enough so that the road wouldn’t be in the shot when I turned it around later.
“I think we’re good to go—”
“Before we begin—before you push record,” he said quickly. “I wanna discuss something.”
“Yeah?” I sat down across from him and grabbed my sandwich bag. We’d stopped for Denny’s on the way, saving our packed lunch for now when we couldn’t show off any known brands and whatever.
“Two things, actually,” he amended. “First thing—when we get to this part of the pilot, the viewer has already gotten the gist of the show. Like, we’re doing budget traveling, the rule is we only get to spend a hundred bucks, and so on and so on. And I will make a pitch to John about our idea to use flyover footage—you will look into what it would cost to rent a drone…”
I nodded him along. That was on my list.
“So here’s the second thing,” he went on. “I know how to talk. I know how to sell an idea I believe in—but I still wanna show John as much as possible. Which is why I think we should do a second episode too.”
I frowned, confused.
He launched into an explanation while he emptied our Cokes in two plastic cups. “In short, this particular episode will only attract budget travelers in California. If you’re low on funds and stuck in Kentucky, you’re not gonna drive to Big Sur for the weekend. We’ll hopefully inspire plenty of people to put Big Sur on their bucket list—and don’t get me wrong. There needs to be more than one reason to watch us. Travel programs draw crowds from all over, so it’s not that. But if we’re always based in LA, the episodes will only take us so far before our hundred bucks are gone.”
Okay, I was with him. I was pretty sure.
“You wanna use different cities as home base,” I stated.
“Exactly. So in the beginning, when we show that flyover footage and introduce the concept, we can be like, and this week, we’re in Los Angeles, and we wanted to get out of the city for a weekend—blah, blah, blah. And then in the second episode, we could mix things up, maybe use Seattle as the starting point, and then we’ll do a weekend in the Olympic Peninsula. Or we start off in Denver, and we go camping in the mountains.”
Fuck, I wouldn’t mind that last one. Camping in Colorado sounded fantastic to me.
He made a valid point too. We should have a new origin city with each episode.
“The problem is money,” he finished.
I nodded again. It always fucking was.
I had an uncomfortable solution I’d been considering for a few weeks already, and I might have to drag Roe along with me. “When I first came out here, I met a guy whose brother runs a nightclub in West Hollywood. I was offered a job as a bartender—with the promise of insane tips—and if you want, if you really wanna go all in on this project, I can talk to him about getting you a job there too. By the sound of things, it won’t be a problem.”
Supposedly, we could make over five hundred bucks a night in just tips.
Roe tilted his head, a curious smile playing on his lips. “That sounds too good to be true—and you look like you’re about to be sick.”
No. Fuck that. It was just…
I cleared my throat and shifted in my seat. “It’s a gay club.”
“And?”
And? That was his reaction? Christ. Now I was uncomfortable. “And I’m not into dudes, fucking obviously. Are you?”