de POV]
After the movie ended, Julie and Donnie grabbed my arm and pulled me
to the front of the theater. Ophelia grabbed Donna's arm.
The crowd applauded greatly as we all stood together at the front.
Whistles and cheering could be heard also.
"Speech! Speech! Speech!"
The crew were chanting for me to speak.
Taken aback, I walked forward one step and asked, "Did you enjoy the
movie?"
"YES/ DEFINITELY!"
I smiled in satisfaction and asked, "Any questions?"
A lot of people raised their hands up. "ME! STEVEN! PICK ME!" Jackie
shouted desperately.
I sighed and said, "Alright. Jackie."
She stood up and asked, "What happened to Angie after Allie and Noah
got married?"
I turned to Donna and asked, "You want to take this?"
"She found love too, with a good man." Donna said loudly.
Tifany also raised her hand. I pointed at her and she stood up slowly.
"After the wedding, did they go to Paris?"
"No. They went to LA or New York. A place where they both can pursue
their passion." Donna replied again."Is this a real story?" Fez asked.
"This is complete fiction Fez." Donna sighed.
Patty suddenly raised her hands up. She asked, "Whose idea was it to
include the veteran displacement and show the isolation the soldiers feel
after they came back from the war?"
Donna looked at me instantly. I replied, "I did."
"And the dead friend. Why did he come to the wedding?" She asked
again.
Donna was still looking at me.
I sighed and replied, "The trauma lingers. Love helped him live again,
but the ghost didn't disappear. The act of love just makes it easier for
him to live with the trauma."
Patty asked again, sharply, "Why did the friend applaud if he's still
haunting him?"
"The friend clapping at the wedding means Noah finally stopped seeing
him as guilt. A lot of veterans sufer from survivors' guilt."
I paused and added, "But if we think deeper about it, his friend never
blamed Noah for his death. It's Noah's internal self blame that caused
him to see the ghost of his dead friend."
As I talked about the deeper meaning behind the movie, the audience
went silent.
"Did I go deeper than necessary here?" I chuckled slightly. "Anyway,
that's it about the movie."Living in the modern age, I already saw the personification of traumas
multiple times in the media. People talked about their own traumas
openly.
Patty asked again, "Why did he choose Allie instead of Angie?"
"Yeah! Angie was with him the entire time!" Someone shouted from
behind.
"The question doesn't have a simple answer. Noah still loves Angie. And
if Allie never returned to the town, he might've truly fallen in love with
her."
The crowd was dissatisfied with the answer. It seemed like people were
torn between Angie and Allie, which was a good thing for me.
People would keep talking and debating about it once the movie was
done. Which meant greater words of mouth for the movie.
I stopped the Q &A and said, "The movie will be released in late August.
So make sure to wait for it to drop."
Patty raised her hands again and asked, "In the meantime, what are you
going to do?"
"I'm working on some new projects. A comedy movie, a racing movie,
and a horror movie. So I will be very busy this summer." I chuckled and
said to the people there, "So clear your schedules people! We're going
to lock in and get it all done before school starts again."
Gordon was confused and asked Patty. "Why before school starts?"
Bruce grinned, "You don't know? He's 17. He still has his senior year of
high school."
"Good god!" Gordon was flabbergasted.…
Back at the ofice. It's already 7 in the evening. But I couldn't go back
home since Patty, Jonathan, and Bruce were in a heated discussion
about the movie.
"We should definitely submit it to Cannes!" Bruce argued.
Patty said with annoyance, "He should not focus on any awards and just
focus on his craft right now. He's vulnerable without enough connection!"
Jonathan said, "I agree with Patty. It's better to just release it
commercially now. It'll help the distribution company too, since we're in
the reds already."
I let them talk while I sipped on my cofee and ate a chicken wrap.
"If you're done, I'd like to talk about the trailer and how to market the
film." I spoke up after their energy was gone.
Jonathan rubbed his forehead tiredly. "The marketing alone is going to
hurt us. Film prints, regional rollout, advertising— all of that costs
money."
"It'll balance out." I replied casually.
"No it won't." Jonathan sighed. "Not immediately."
I finished the last bite of the chicken wrap before answering.
"That's why I'm making a comedy movie."
Bruce frowned slightly. "How does that help?"
"Because this time, the distribution company owns the movie directly." I
explained.The room became quieter. Patty got what I was saying immediately. "I
see. So a studio."
I continued calmly, "Yup. Not only distribution rights. Ownership."
"If the company owns the movie, then the profits don't leave the
company. We use cheap commercial movies to cushion the company
expenses. Hopefully, this comedy movie will be a hit so we can distribute
a lot more movies."
Patty interjected, "Or. You can work with us. WB has a lot of money. You
don't have to sufer through the startup period."
"I'm not going to." I shook my hand slightly. "Although, I do need a
showrunner, if you're interested."
She chortled and said, "I'm trying to poach you, but you want to poach
me back?"
I shrugged and said, "I really do need a showrunner if I want to pump out
the films."
"How about this? Give me 150 thousand." She said suddenly.
"For what?" I asked.
"I can get you the rights to a superhero that WB owns. Of course, we
retain the first right to purchase the movie from you. So, you–"
"Nah, do explain. I already get what you're trying to say. Get the rights,
do the movie, and sell it back to WB, right?"
"Yup." She explained cheekily. "Or sell WB an actual movie. I can protect
you and make sure you get the cut you deserve."
"But I'm going to have to move to LA for it?" I asked."Unfortunately, yeah." She replied with a dificult smile. "You really don't
want to move?"
"I can't move. Not until 1980. So, just keep it on the back burner for
now."
Bruce suddenly stood up and said, "I'll build a studio here in Point Place
if you stay with us."
"Bruce, he's not going." Jonathan pulled him back down.
Bruce was taken aback and he laughed nervously.
"I do need a studio. A place to work. But I already bought almost all of
the big places in this town. The closest I can target is Sheboygan. But…
ugh, Sheboygan." I grimaced with disgust.
"What about Kenosha? It's only 30 minutes farther than Sheboygan."
Bruce ofered.
"Is there a place there?" I asked.
"Yeah." He nodded. "My warehouse. I'm not using it anymore. You can
do whatever you want with it."
"Nice."
Before they left, Patty asked me something, "So you have a hookup to a
film lab?"
"Yeah. Do you want to print anything?"
"I do. 50 prints of the movie 'Oh God'. I'm paying it out of my own
pocket."
"Alright." I agreed instantly. "Give me the film later on."She gave me a check for 125 thousand and the film print.
Patty was the one who's handling the movie, so she knew how much
they needed to supplement the existing print. The movie was a surprise
hit, so no one was ready.
It would take at least two months for them to get a new print made. But
by that time, the movie's impact would've slowed down.
I paid the lab 12,500 dollars for the print and pocketed the diference.
Once Patty could vouch for me, I could get a lot more customers who
wanted to print their own films.
WB would reimburse Patty later, and she could even mark up the price
to 4000 dollars.
She has no losses here.
A lot of the 70s film bottleneck came from printing and rollout speed. So
Patty was taking a risk here.
"Think about what I said," She reminded me before she left. "They are
making Superman right now. If you release yours around the same time,
you can ride the Superman wave."
1977 Superman was the most expensive movie ever made in this era.
So Patty has high hopes for the movie.
"Can I get Lynda Carter and Wonder Woman?" I asked her teasingly.
She paused and thought about it. "Maybe summer next year. Not right
now. For now, I can get you Green Arrow."
"So low tier heroes huh?" I grinned.She smirked and said, "You can't touch the top IP without getting the
studio involvement. The Spectre, The Question, or Green Arrow. I'm
handling that IPs, so I can get it to you. But with supervision."
"Whose?"
"Mine. I'll come to watch over the production." She replied.
"That's… tempting. Can you help me with the other projects too?"
"That's why I'm ofering the IP." She said immediately. "Of course, I
expect a premium payment."
"Nice."
I checked the characters online, and I pitched an idea to Patty. "What
about a dark, noir style investigative movie with The Question?"
"It's a deal." She shook my hand immediately. "Figures you'll pick that
one."
"A conspiracy nut job? Yeah, I'm definitely going to pick that one. On a
scale of 1-10, how insane can I make him be?"
"Five." She replied. "Don't make him too crazy."
"Got it. On the level of Battle of Tonkins is a hoax the government did to
justify going to Vietnam."
She changed her words instantly, "Maybe three."
"Moon landing is a hoax. Spielberg did it and that's how he landed
Jaws."
Patty paused and said, "Alright. I can live with that."
…In the basement. Donna was still excited about the movie. She talked
about it the entire time and forced Forman to listen to her.
"Don't you need to go write the script?" I asked her with an annoyed
scowl. She was bothering me while watching TV.
Her mood soured and she said, "Give me a break will ya? I'm not you."
"I thought you were a professional?" I teased.
"Look. My hand has a big callus because of the pencil." She showed me
her hand.
I quipped, "Forman not going to enjoy your hanky panky session now."
"What? No, I'd still enjoy it." Eric said to Donna instantly, which made her
laugh.
"But I do get your point. It's hard to write on paper, do revisions, and the
entire thing becomes a nightmare to organize." I thought solemnly.
She smiled and said, "Last time, I had to write on 134 pages of paper.
Then, I needed to type out 10 full scripts using the typewriter. And you
only paid me 3 thousand for my work."
"That's already high enough for a newbie." I scofed. "I'll see what I can
do about your thing."
There were computers in 1977, but it has very limited capability.
I opened up Craiglist and typed out, {Looking for experienced retro
programmers familiar with CP/M systems, floppy disk architecture, and
lightweight text editor development.}
Then I paused and deleted it all.'If I posted this publicly myself, I'd probably get scammed. That'd be
really embarrassing.'
So instead, I searched for tech recruiters online. I found one, located in
Canada.
It's a small headhunter agency that specializes in weird freelance
software contracts.
I contacted them without hesitation and talked with their agent.
{Need programmers for a retro-computing software project. Urgent
turnaround. Payment negotiable.}
I attached a technical requirement sheet afterward.
{— 64KB RAM limitation
— Text-only interface
— Fixed-width font only
— Black screen with green text/ White screen preferable.
— Floppy save/load support
— Printer formatting support
— Script formatting
— No graphics
— Must boot quickly
— Compatible with 1977 hardware}
{Agent: That's really specific. Can I ask what this is for?"
{A movie.}
He stopped asking questions after that.
{Agent: We can do it in a week.}{I'll triple the payment if you can do it in 24 hours.}
The agent went silent for a while after that. Then, he finally replied to me.
{We'll do the job.}
They wanted 20 thousand. Triple that was 60 thousand dollars. I only
needed to pay 6 grand, so it was still cheap for me.
'And the software can be used by a lot of my employees, not just
Donna.'
The hard part was the printing. They needed to connect the computer to
a 1977 dot or line printer, and it was like connecting a fork to a spoon.
Because once I realized computers could store information reliably, a lot
of my business problems suddenly had solutions.
Scripts were only the beginning. A cafe could use it for payroll. The auto
shop could use it for inventory. The print shop could use it to organize
customer orders.
Even my movie production could use it for scheduling and budgeting.
The possibilities kept expanding the more I thought about it. All I needed
to do was to make it compatible with the current hardware.
'I should start a software selling company. Wait, I can just throw it to the
lightbulb salesmen. They can sell this too.'
Once I signed a digital contract with the software company, I went into
my room and rewatched the Daily Life of Highschool Boys again to know
what it was I had written down.
I lit up a blunt while watching to make it funnier.A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door. I stored my laptop
into my system storage and opened the door.
"Hey Steven." Jackie grinned and forced her way inside.
"What do you want?" I asked curtly.
"To smoke." She replied as she saw my fat blunt.
"No." I rejected her and smoked. "Get out."
"Come on." She whined and sat on my bed. "I just want to hang out with
you. What are you watching?"
"I'm not watching anything. I'm just resting." I replied.
Taken aback, she said, "Cool. Let's just do nothing then. Can we… listen
to music?"
"No."
"Should we get some snacks?"
"I don't want any."
"Um… At least, let's watch TV. Or give me a magazine to read!" She
became antsy as she never had done 'nothing' before.
I chuckled and watched the anime using the system website while
ignoring her.
She only lasted for a minute before she began speaking about Bowie,
cheerleading, and her hair.
"So Steven. I think you should shave your sideburn if you want to be a
rockstar.""No."
"Oh COME ON!" She exclaimed exasperatedly.
…
The next morning, I went to Kenosha with Bruce to check out the studio
lot.
"So it's a furniture warehouse?" I asked him as we got out of the car. The
place was in a quieter part of the town.
"It used to be. But it's bleeding money. People don't want their furniture
to look like wild animals." Bruce sulked slightly.
I paused and asked him, "How many businesses have you run to the
ground?"
"Around 30." Bruce smirked. "Why, are you afraid?"
"Nah. Just don't make any decision on your own." I grimaced slightly.
The place has a tall ceiling, and a few ofices inside. Bruce owns this
place, so it wasn't a lease.
It has a red brick exterior, wide open interior, a furnace, and a few
bathrooms.
I paused and thought deeply. "I'll do some modifications first before we
start shooting. Maybe in a week's time."
My building company could handle the modification I wanted. Cleaner
bathroom, air conditioning, and also putting in solar panels on the roof to
keep the energy cost down.A studio would drain a lot of energy with the lighting rigs and all of the
equipment, so I need to ensure adequate wiring here too.
"Here are your keys. Go wild." Bruce gave me the keys to the place. "I'm
going to Italy for two weeks with my wife, so I'm not going to be able to
help. If you need anything, call Jonathan."
He drove away after saying that.
As I was left alone there, I checked out the WB studio equipment I got
from the system before.
"I have fake New York street, apartment rigs, stage and rain rigs, lighting
rigs, fake walls, and a lot more stuff I need to create a soundstage."
The 2025 lighting system, the climate system such as snow and rain,
were all included in the gift.
"First I'm going to need to insulate the whole thing."
I still have the Lowe's hookup, but for a warehouse this size, I needed a
foam insulator.
The normal pink insulation rolls would take forever. Not to mention,
movie studios were basically giant ovens once all the lighting rigs turned
on.
Especially with enclosed soundstages, generators, and filming crews. If
the place wasn't insulated properly, everyone inside would slowly melt to
death.
"Let's see… I still have 75 rating points."
I bought two more Build Mode from there and began fixing up the studio
space with materials from Lowe's and Home Depot.They sold the foam insulator there. I also have direct hookup to the wall
panels so I bought hundreds of acoustic boards.
Using Build Mode, the construction went on really smoothly. I spent 3
hours in the place, and I was already done with everything I needed the
building company to do.
From solar panel hookup, air conditioning, new wiring, the lighting rigs,
the ofices, and the insulations, this place had already become a new,
professional movie studio in Wisconsin.
It cost me around 45 grand, which was around 450 thousand dollars in
2025.
Expensive. But considering I had around a million dollars in my account,
the cost barely mattered anymore.
In modern terms, I basically had around 10 million dollars to throw
around.
I looked around the completed studio and muttered, "When I'm not using
it, I can rent this place out to other productions."
Then I paused. "Wait. This is Bruce's warehouse. Do I split the rental
money with him?"
The first set I built was a basement set for a comedy movie. It looked
really similar to the Forman's basement.
"Now I just need the script and actors."
I tested out the lighting, and it could mimic the basement lighting
perfectly.
"Let's add a few more skits into the movie. The Jeff Winger speech in
Community, where a man could relate with anything. Family Guy's Bach
and Debussy skit. Maybe I'll add in a song too. Since I need this to be asmainstream as possible."
A lot of comedies in the 70s were teen raunchy comedies. It wasn't
exactly a family movie night type of film.
I wanted it to be at least PG so that once the theater tail was over, it
could be sold to TV.
After I was done with the setup, I drove to the lakefront in Kenosha to
hang out before the drive home. I ate a sandwich Mrs Forman packed
for me while watching the water.
"Hey." A pretty girl in a bikini walked up to me as I sat on the hood of my
car.
She was tall. Almost my height. Built similarly to Donna, but with blonde
hair, a button nose, and big eyes and also a giant pair of breasts.
My mood brightened slightly as I thought I was being hit on.
Then she said, "Can you help us? Our tire is flat."