Chapter 5

The second day after meeting Helen, Ryan began to busy himself with the preparations for shooting "The Blair Witch."

Shooting a film is a very meticulous affair.

Even if it's a pseudo-documentary mainly for promotional purposes, there can be no room for sloppiness.

Hollywood never has anything that can succeed easily. Behind every success, there are countless hardships.

The first thing to address is finding a suitable small town near New York as the shooting location for the crew, while also selecting three suitable actors.

There are no special requirements for the actors, they can be relaxed a bit, but the actors' appearances cannot be too low.

Male actors are relatively easier to find, two young and cheap ones can be found casually.

Such young male actors are easy to find, and Helen has suitable ones under her wing.

Female actors have relatively higher requirements, and coupled with Starry Sky Talent Agency just starting out, it may take some time to find a suitable female actor.

In addition, shooting also requires someone to coordinate miscellaneous tasks for the crew. Even in small crews, there are many trivial matters that need to be handled by someone dedicated.

Fortunately, almost all of these tasks are being handled by Helen herself, and even Starry Sky Talent Agency's first employee, Heidi, is acting as an assistant.

It can be said that the entire business of Starry Sky Talent Agency is almost on hold for now, with everyone preparing for the filming of "The Blair Witch."

According to Helen, the filming of "The Blair Witch" is the most important business of Starry Sky Talent Agency at this stage, and there can't be even a single outsider involved. Everything must be based on secrecy.

Unless the film is finished and released, no one can leak even the slightest bit of information to the outside world, including everyone, including Heidi, has signed a confidentiality agreement with a frighteningly high penalty for breach.

In just three days, Helen selected a small town as the shooting location.

The location of the small town is extremely remote, with a total population of just over two hundred. Very few outsiders come and go on ordinary days.

Meanwhile, Ryan was busy with actor auditions, which basically meant watching each signing actor from Starry Sky Talent Agency perform poor acting.

Actually, there's not much to choose from. Almost all of them are low-level Hollywood actors who usually hang around various sets, serving as extras or passersby, corpses, and so on. So, just picking two would suffice.

It was perhaps the first time auditioning for the female lead, and perhaps the only audition for the female lead in the film, so Ryan was somewhat looking forward to it.

As for the female lead's acting skills, he didn't care much either. For a pseudo-documentary like this, there was no need for any acting skills to speak of.

Helen, on the other hand, was very cautious. If the film succeeds, the three main actors involved will surely gain some fame.

Even the voices of countless media and fans cursing them would still be a kind of fame, which is much better than being obscure forever.

Next, the development of Starry Sky Talent Agency mainly revolves around them, so casting is a matter she takes even more seriously than Ryan.

Upon entering the Starry Sky Talent Agency, Ryan found that there were more than ten young female actors in the room, arriving earlier than him, each with delicate makeup and slender figures, pleasing to the eye.

It can be said that all of them passed the minimum standard in terms of appearance.

There was nothing strange about this. Hollywood never lacks beautiful women. On the contrary, the competition among female actors in Hollywood is the most fierce.

From the positions where these female actors sat, it can be seen that they were all cautious, keeping a considerable distance from each other and not talking.

The water and food prepared by Heidi remained untouched by anyone.

Most people only see the glamorous side of Hollywood actresses, never the behind-the-scenes.

Many actresses who have just become famous often face the problem of age. In Hollywood, there are no evergreen trees for female actors, and they all rely on their youth.

Unlike male actors who become more popular as they age, many top male actors are still active on screen in their seventies or eighties.

So, those who come to Hollywood with dreams of fame will not miss any opportunity.

Ryan had long been accustomed to this. Only when someone talks freely, drinks water, or eats food casually would he find it strange.

Regardless of past or present, various rumors or true stories are always commonplace.

Especially in terms of diet, most actresses only eat their own food and drink plain water. Even if it's prepared by the crew, they won't touch it.

This is the most basic self-protection.

When they arrived on the third floor to set up the office, Ryan joked with Helen, "I thought I would see a red sofa or a red carpet."

The red sofa or red carpet joke has long been circulated worldwide.

In Hollywood, when actors attend auditions for roles, if they want to secure the role, and upon entering the audition room, they see a red sofa placed in the middle, or a red carpet spread over the sofa.

Then, if any actor wants to get that role, they will voluntarily close the door, take off their clothes, and lie naked on the sofa.

Of course, Hollywood has long abandoned this rule. Everything is transparent now, and the tradition of using a red sofa, which has been around for decades, disappeared from people's sight a few years ago.

The main reason is that it's no longer necessary. If there's any interest, they can just invite directly.

"If you think a red sofa looks good, I can have Heidi bring one over for you," Helen said nonchalantly. "But nowadays, newbies probably don't know the meaning of a red sofa."

This old-fashioned rule, unless it's some veteran actors, there are probably not many people who know about it now.

"Let's forget about it. Heidi is already busy enough. If I ask her to bring a sofa, I'm afraid she'll kill me." Ryan naturally didn't really want a red sofa.

After chatting for a while, they officially began the auditions.

Auditions in Hollywood have long been standardized, and they're almost all the same.

The only difference is that the office in front of them was relatively simple, with no cameras prepared.

The female actors who came in first introduced themselves, and then performed a random piece of dialogue. There was no script, no interpretation of the characters.

The main reason, of course, is to maintain secrecy. Only Ryan and Helen know the script or plot of "The Blair Witch" to this day, and even Heidi is kept in the dark.

By the end of the morning, a total of eight female actors had finished their auditions.

But not a single one of them seemed familiar to Ryan. They were all some unknown or even extra actors that he couldn't name, or some decent extras from his past life.

"Ryan, as the film director, I need your opinion."

Seeing Ryan remaining silent, Helen had to speak up herself.

Ryan tapped his fingers lightly and said, "Firstly, we can rule out black, Asian, or Latino actresses, as they completely do not fit the requirements of the film."

"It's better if they're younger, with a petite figure, and preferably with a hint of sweetness or vulnerability in appearance. This way, it's easier to evoke sympathy from the media and

 fans."

A black, Asian, or Latino female lead would obviously not attract the attention of the public, which is not conducive to the film's promotion.

Only native-born Americans can arouse the attention of the media and the public.

The key to the success of "The Blair Witch" is the film distribution company's use of media and public attention and sympathy to attract a large audience to the theaters.

That's the core of the film.

A female lead who can evoke sympathy from the media and the public is what he wants.

Helen looked at him deeply, somewhat meaningful, and said, "Hollywood never lacks actresses with acting skills."

Almost all actresses' personas are fabricated. For them, appearing sweet or vulnerable is not difficult.

It was Ryan's performance that surprised her.

Hollywood also does not lack talented directors, but there are few who truly understand the demands of North American audiences.

If a director who understands the demands of North American audiences and can promote shamelessly, perhaps in the future, he won't be liked by film critics or academic old men.

But he will certainly win the favor of film companies.