"Mr. Harper, I have some good news."
"What is it?"
"We've found some investors for the production of your new movie."
"Ah, that's good. What did they say about investing in the studio?"
"Umm, they said they'll think about it after the movie."
"I guess that's a no, then."
"...Yes, probably sir."
There were many people in the industry who were willing to work with Ian and investors were always calling about James' new movie.
James just had to make sure that they weren't a liability of dropping out last minute or trying to influence the production. As long as they had the money, James was more than willing to take their money, but not many people were willing to invest in his studio.
For one, James hadn't really ironed out all the details yet, and studios were constantly closing down from lack of support or opportunities.
Many people had already questioned James on why he would take that type of risk.
It seemed people were going to take a wait-and-see attitude, before trying to invest, probably until James released his next movie.
While James could take some money out of his stock investments, James didn't want to do that.
It was better to shoulder the risk with other investors instead of doing it all himself.
With the current state of taxes, the economic downturn, and his lack of experience, it would give him more leeway to work as he pleased if others could pitch in.
That way, James wouldn't need to worry about constantly trying to liquidate his assets every time he needed to work on a project.
He could expand his options and work on more than one thing if he had more funds from investors.
Although, this would mean he needed to find reliable and competent investors who could manage these other tasks with him.
And frankly, there weren't too many of those. Especially not ones he could trust.
So James had to figure out a way to get these competent people to work with him somehow. The best people to work with in this situation are those who don't need him. Finding established studios who are self-sufficient would be best as investors as they would be ready to work on one of James' already established ideas.
But, who would trust James enough to work under him?
They would need something more solid than James' storyboards.
Someone like Dubois would be a good partner.
Catheryn's father was competent and he had many connections with other production studios.
He had even recommended some of the management staff that James picked up.
They had been recently let go and James figured they would be much better than anything he could assemble with his limited knowledge.
Her father told him that he even knew some of them personally. He compiled a short list of numbers and gave it to James.
James ended up having to personally interview them, though, to make sure they were qualified.
Most had still been looking for work and he couldn't convince them all to join, viewing the current entertainment industry too risky to work in. The ones who left opting to find something more stable.
While those who stuck with James being desperate to find work, ambitious, or just having a lot of passion for the industry.
Sometimes people just can't seem to let go of a certain pattern that they're used to, James being one of them.
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At first, James just simply wanted to be a big part of the entertainment industry. Just so he could say that he did it or that he made it big. He wanted to be like one of the big companies that could proudly boast about their accomplishments and say they were on top.
But now, James is just used to working on movies. He was also getting used to being in charge. It was natural for James to start working on another movie. It was like clockwork. If James wasn't working on another movie, he would get restless.
James just wanted to get his hands moving and being still for too long would make him anxious.
"If I'm not working on a movie or something, then what the hell am I supposed to do all day?" James would say to himself.
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Anyways.
The current way that James' business structure was set up was a little awkward.
This is all due to James' current predicament of him having "spent," or repurposed as James would like to say, all of his money.
This left James in a bit of a bind as he still had to pay all of his employees some form of a salary.
James didn't want his team to just leave on him because he couldn't pay the first week of salary. Them losing confidence in him could also cause problems later on, like ruining his reputation as a bad boss to all future employees.
So, James had to quickly find work.
James would use his newly acquired management team to help him do this.
Although, it was mostly James just doing the work.
It was also pretty easy for his team to find studios who wanted to work with him as he was currently part of some of the biggest box office draws in the past 4 years. James had probably the most success out of anyone outside the big 3 in that same time as well. This would be considered doubly impressive and attractive given the current market.
His management team would effectively act as talent agency with James being their sole client. This is something that many influential people would have to more effectively manage their time and get the most opportunities.
The main reason James wanted some form of management is because they would be the most important part of building his company
What they were doing right now was slightly outside of their job description, but in the future they would be in charge of making sure everyone knows what they're supposed to be doing, and that it gets done.
That would be the best way to explain it.
Management has a large amount of tasks in terms of directing and consulting with the various jobs in the company.
So, unfortunately for them, instead of directing others on what they should be doing, they have to do it themselves. Which is something James felt a little bad for as he still hadn't filled some of those key positions.
The only good news is that James is their only client and he would be working with a different studio to produce the movie.
His management team would be mostly in charge of his schedule and he would give them the phone numbers of everyone the studio needed him to personally contact regarding production.
In this way, James no longer had to sweat over every little detail, he could just ask his team to help him out. But, later on, James would learn that he may have overestimated his management team...