"And.. Cut!" The Director said. 

POPULAR - Chapter: 02

"Mam, you have a beautiful and natural blonde hair! Why do you keep dyeing it black!" Said her stylist, Naomi. 

Avery had her eyes closed just listening, not saying anything. After couple hours, the assistant director came and gave Avery the scene papers. She went over them quickly, got in the costume for the scene and walked to the motel room where the crew had set up the camera and lights. The director explained the scene to her, telling her exactly what she has to do in front of the camera.

"So when I hear the sound, I quickly put my dress back on and turn around?" She asked. 

                 The camera is focusing on her back, showing her struggling to reach her bra hooks. Once she got hold of them, she unhooks and removes it. The director mimics the  sound in the mic. She starts to hook her bra back, and the camera zooms out, showing her quickly turning to face the camera.

"Cut it!" The director said on the microphone. "Nice shot, mam, you can take a break while we set up the next shot." 

What a waste of time. I need to wait until they set up the next shot? Why can't they just do the whole scene in single take? It's a pretty simple scene. Maybe I'll just go back to the trailer. I was checking my freshly dyed hair in the mirror. 

“You have a beautiful and natural blonde hair, mam” Which is what Naomi said. I wish someone told me that sooner.

It happened when I joined middle school. In my class, I was the only one with blonde hair. Everyone else had beautiful black and brown hair. At first, it gathered me a lot of attention within my class. Boys would eye on me, I even had some ask me out. But some girls in my class weren't happy about the attention I was getting.

Rumors about myself got spread behind my back, plus I wasn't the brightest kid. So when I scored badly in some of the tests, they started calling me "Retard" and names like "Brainless blonde", "Weird hair girl", "Dumb blonde" etc

I couldn't really do much about it. When I was in 8th grade, the bullying only got worse. Scribblings in the washrooms, stealing my lunchbox, pouring ink into my backpack and so on. It was part of the reason why no one gave me any role in any of the school plays.

So I decided to switch schools for high school. All the bullying I gone through, I started to hate my hair. I didn't like it's color, it started to feel alien and weird. If only I had a normal looking black hair. Before I entered highschool, I decided to dye my hair black. I didn't want the bullying to continue. I wanted to go there as a new person. 

And, it really did help me. I became popular among guys, dated a few, it was a good experience. That change made me think it is all because of my hair color. I still like to think that way. And I like having black hair. So it became a habit,  dyeing my hair. I have tried those permanent hair dyes, but those just wouldn't stick to my hair and would fade within months. And the chemicals on them was pretty harsh on my hair.

So I stuck to the one I usually use that lasts a good 3-4 weeks. If there's one thing I'm insecure about, its my blonde hair. It might sound dumb, but my past experiences conditioned me so. 

         While the camera crew is setting up the next shot, with the assistant directors, the Director came to Avery's trailer to discuss about the next scene.

They had set the next shot up. It's a close up shot for the gun man and Avery. The gunman is played by a stuntman, Jade Harrison. He's a fan of Avery. Harrison entered the  room, having the director instructing him on what kind of expression he needs to show to the camera. He acts in front of the director once before the scene to confirm with him. He was asked to have more of a smirk and gradually turn it into a dead expression and slightly open his mouth.

Avery came right after. Harrison just shook her hand and kept his head down, didn't wanted to make it obvious that he's a type of guy to put a random woman' picture in his wallet because he find them attractive. The camera started rolling, first they had the camera behind Avery, getting a full shot on the gunman. Then a close up to the gun man' face, he smirked as he held the gun straight to her head. Camera stilll focused on his face, his face slowly turned into a expressionless one and his mouth slightly opened on its own.

Camera turned around showing Avery, topless. He drops his gun and goes in for a rough kiss. "Cut," Avery's assistant came and covered her with a soft robe right after the director said it.

"We're doing a retake.", this went on for almost an hour at which point the retakes seemed intentional. She's used to such retakes. After the 16th take, director said, "Shot okay."

The next scene was a scene of Harrison tailing Avery to the motel, which in the movie will happen before the scenes they had just shot. In filming, they don't need to film in the order the scenes are in the scripts. They just film scenes in their most convenient order. In this case, the car tailing scene is an exterior(any outdoor area) scene, that happens in the evening.

So they shot the interior (indoor) scenes first, and now that it's almost evening, they can shoot the exterior scene. 45 minutes passed, they finished filming that final shot as well. Time was 6 pm, the crew had packed up.

Avery went to her trailer to get changed. She went in and Naomi was waiting in there. She removed Avery's make up. After she's done, Naomi went out so Avery can change.

             Avery started removing her clothes, one by one. Suddenly she hears a sound. She turned around quick, half naked to check out the sound. A man was standing with a gun pointed to her head. It was Harrison. This time, there was no director to say, 'Cut.'

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