~First-Person Narration: Jasmine~

???: “Places, everyone, places!”

    Yup. That was Daniel. He was . . . well, a tad eccentric to put it nicely. Okay, some days, I was pretty sure he was borderline crazy, but that didn’t matter. He was a good guy, and he was always looking for new things to do. He may have stayed up ‘till five or so in the morning only to get up at six three or four days a week, but he was a nice guy.

Daniel: “Jasmine! Do you remember your scene here?”

    He called to where Angela was doing my makeup diligently. She always insisted that she do it, and quite frankly, she was talented. Always brought out highlights in my skin, or made my eyes or lips pop and make it look natural.

Jasmine: “Course, Danny! Be there in a minute!”

    Angela just rolled her eyes.

Angela: “You don’t have to be so nice to him, Sugar. He’s just an overtired maniac.”

    She dusted a bit more powder on.

Jasmine: “Oh, come on, Angie. He’s a sweetheart.”

Angela: “He’s crazy is what he is.”

    I smiled; she and Daniel always acted like they hated each other, even though I was certain they got along swimmingly when no one was watching.

Daniel: “Angela! Get my girl over here now!”

    Yup. It was one of those days. I laughed when he called me ‘his girl’. He wasn’t actually staking a claim on me or anything, he was just that kind of person. Anyone he worked with was ‘his girl’ or ‘his boy’. Like I said, eccentric.

    And lately, as in, pretty much my entire movie career, I was his ‘number one girl’. He hated when other directors or producers tried to recruit me. I remember one time when he nearly lost it and tried to call the police.

    Of course, that was one of his sleep-deprived days, but still.

Angela: “Shut up, Daniel! I’m almost done!”

    Angela’s response only made me laugh more. She was just as crazy as he was, I was certain of it. But hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Jasmine: “Would you two quit acting crazy and hateful? We all know you love each other!”

    Yeah. I just went there. And they. Were. Stunned.

    I was actually pretty sure Angela was trying to refrain from hitting me in the back of the head, which just made me laugh.

Jasmine: “Kidding! Kidding! Now if we’re done, let’s shoot the scene!”

    Angela looked at me crookedly, but couldn’t stop a smile and shake of her head.

Angela: “And I said he was crazy.”

    She pointed to the set.

Angela: “Get out there before I really lose it, you nutball.”

    Hey, they weren’t yelling at each other any more, right?

    Daniel just stared at me as I made my way over to the set. We were shooting the distant death scene today, so we were set up for a hotel bedroom. I sat down on the bed, and the lights were dimmed.

    I then crawled under the covers and ‘acted’ like I was sleeping. Quite frankly, I don’t think it takes much to feign sleeping, so I don’t really consider it acting.

    I didn’t pay attention whatever scene it was, take one, blah blah blah, I’d heard it all before, so I just paid attention to the ‘action’ and waited for the prepared phone to ring.

    A few seconds of darkened silence later, the phone vibrated and spit out some generic tone, the caller ID clearly reading “Jacob” on the touchscreen.

    I took a few drowsy moments to move myself closer to the nightstand, picked up the phone, and read it for a second or two before answering drowsily.

Jasmine: “Hello?”

    Unfortunately, no voice would answer me. That would be stitched in later, so for now, they just played the recording off-set, so we could get the timing just right.

???: “Hi Mommy!”

    I smiled, as if it were my real child calling in the middle of the night. The sound of rain would be added to it later.

Jasmine: “Hi Baby, how are you?”

    The pre-recorded voice of the little girl came back to me.

???: “Mommy, Daddy wanted me to call.”

Jasmine: “Is that right, Baby? What’s up?”

    I smiled a little more, obviously still fatigued but energized by the voice of my child.

???: “Mommy, Daddy says to stay at the hotel in Chicago.”

    I sat up slowly, obviously a bit distressed at the sound of this.

Jasmine: “Baby, what’s going on?”

    The palm of my hand swept back the hair that was in my face.

???: “Daddy says there’s a storm coming. A bad one, and he said we should call and say we love you.”

Jasmine: “Baby? Where’s the storm?”

???: “Outside.”

    I bit my lip, my face contorting in concern.

Jasmine: “Kelly, Baby, I love you, too. Why didn’t you leave?”

Kelly: “Because Daddy’s hurt and I won’t leave him.”

    A tear slipped out, streaking down my face.

Jasmine: “Baby, where are you?”

    My voice squeaked painfully.

Kelly: “In the truck. By the road.”

    I sniffled, a hand covering my face carefully.

Jasmine: “What road, Baby?”

Kelly: “I don’t know. The big one.”

Jasmine: “Where’s Daddy, Sweetheart?”

Kelly: “Daddy won’t wake up anymore.”

    I made a short, painful sound, hand moving from my face to my heart.

Jasmine: “Baby, what’s the storm like?”

Kelly: “It’s really dark and rainy and there’s funny clouds everywhere.”

    A small, choking sound escaped me, another tear falling down my face. I pulled up my knees to my chest.

Jasmine: “Baby, where are the clouds?”

Kelly: “Really close. They look like the funnels we have in the kitchen.”

    I pressed my lips together in a show of stress, a few tears flowing down my face freely now.

Jasmine: “Baby, is there a ditch nearby?”

Kelly: “No Mommy, just power lines and-.”

    Her voice was cut off with a small scream.

Jasmine: “Kelly?! Kelly?!”

Kelly: “Mommy the cloud’s stealing the truck!”

    I closed my eyes, crying silently.

Jasmine: “Baby, I love you! Don’t ever forget that, okay?”

    I heard small sobs rack through the off-set recording.

Kelly: “I love you too, Mommy!”

    Another high-pitched scream, and the signal was gone.

    I bit my lip, beginning to sob violently on the bed. I curled up, my face buried in my knees. Gone. My baby was gone . . .

    The tears kept falling and falling until-,

Daniel: “Cut! That was perfect, Baby! Take a break!”

    I looked up, wiping the tears from my eyes and jumping from the bed.

    And yes, I did that scene without fake tears. That was all me. I’d learned that trick . . . well, I’m not really sure. All I know is I’ve been able to do it throughout my career.

    I went over to where the food was set out and got a few pieces of this and that and whatever.

    We would shoot the same scene a few more times today from different angles and distances and whatnot, but tomorrow we’d be taking a break. Those girls from MYT, at least, I’m fairly certain that’s what it was called, would be arriving.

    Daniel and Angela were going to go to pick them up, of course. Daniel because he was the Director, and Angela because, well, Daniel couldn’t really be trusted alone on this kind of thing. We were all well aware that if he was left alone for any period of time, he would either get distracted or fall asleep. Mostly just fall asleep lately, given all his late nights and early mornings. I swear, that man is helpless.

    Soon enough, we were back on set, shooting the scene again and again, I messed up  a couple times, but Daniel was sure it would be taken care of with some angle changes. No biggy. That’s what those angle changes were for, anyway. An actor or actress messes up a line or something? Change the angle, cut the right words in over some other image and voila. Perfection.

    I still always gave it my all in scenes though, but ones like this were emotionally taxing and I couldn’t get it every time without exhausting myself.

    Not like I didn’t have plenty of inspiration with my freaky nights, but hey, I can only handle so much at once.

    We’d started filming around ten a.m., and we’d finished around five p.m. Yeah, it’s a lot of work. Daniel sent us all home after that, and I was grateful, I wanted nothing more than to flop down on my real bed with four wall around me instead of three, with a real window instead of an opening with a green screen.

    But I always wanted to come back to the set soon enough. This was my livelihood for a reason; I loved to act.

    Call me crazy, but it was soothing. It’s like . . . an outlet for all my overpowering emotions, and trust me, there’s plenty of those.

    But hey, it was nothing I couldn’t handle, right?

    Well, if there was anything I wasn’t comfortable trying to ‘handle’ it was some of the creepy people who followed me around. Akane was never fond of them and was always sure to  . . . dispose of them properly before they ever got too close, with the help of some of the other guards, of course.

    Especially when a few of them carried guns.