The black Ford sedan made its way north through the city of Burbank, known as the media capital of the world, and gradually approached the northern part of the Los Angeles Basin, where there was an urbanized valley as famous as satellite cities like Los Angeles, for example, Burbank, and it was the San Fernando Valley, which would later be renowned all over the world.
Although it was just now entering the second millennium, the adult industry in the San Fernando Valley had developed tremendously over the years.
Entering the valley, Murphy slowed down slightly and turned into Coldwater Canyon between Burbank Boulevard and Oxnard Street, and his eyes and those of Jessica Chastain in the passenger seat began to look to either side frequently.
The walls on either side of the road were lined with a 2,754-foot mural, considered one of the longest in the world.
Murphy didn't stop to look at it for that reason, however, and turned at the next intersection onto Ventrell Avenue and drove along the straight road all the way to the northern fringe of the San Fernando Valley.
The house Murphy had requested for filming had to be far from the tumultuous downtown area, and a man with an unspoken secret and a desire to continue it couldn't possibly live in a busy part of town.
Such a house isn't hard to find in Los Angeles, but there aren't many at the right price, so after Jessica Chastain contacted a realtor about this property away from downtown Los Angeles, Murphy immediately took the time to rush over.
"The real estate agent said that house is often used for filming ..."
Flipping through the information that the real estate agent couriered over yesterday, Jessica Chastain introduced some basic conditions to Murphy, "Because it is often used for rental filming, the owner of the house has undergone a special remodeling, and a lot of places have been reserved for camera filming positions, and it is very secluded, with other residents only nearly 1,000 feet away from each other, and all of these conditions are more in line with the needs of the filming. "
Murphy's eyes flicked over to the passenger side, "That doesn't sound too bad."
Jessica Chastain did have some ability, lacking the most in social experience, for example, she didn't ask what movies or TV shows had been filmed in this house.
But Murphy had called to find out a bit more, and the house had shot the most San Fernando Valley specialty films.
"Right." Jessica Chastain seemed to remember something else, "There's a crew filming there right now."
"What?" Murphy frowned, "Why didn't you say so earlier, can we go in?"
Hearing this questioning tone, Jessica Chastain was more or less unhappy in her heart, but still explained, "The realtor has already contacted that crew, they allow us to enter, as long as we don't disturb the normal filming."
Murphy nodded and said nothing more, just driving towards the north.
Jessica Chastain peeked at him, the curiosity in her heart jumped out once again, she had learned that this guy was once too poor to eat a few months ago, and could only work as a porter without any protection in a small auto repair shop, how could he suddenly be able to come up with three hundred thousand dollars for the filming of the movie?
How on earth did he raise this huge sum of money in a short period of time?
Frankly speaking, to work for a person whose education, age and experience are not as good as her own, Jessica Chastain's heart always feels unbalanced, and there was even a period of time when she thought that the other party was not as good as her own ability, and that at best, he was just thick-skinned enough and insidious enough in his heart.
But it was such a person who had the opportunity to shoot and produce a movie, while she, a senior student graduated from the Juilliard School, instead had to look at the other party's face and act ...
"Jessie!"
That familiar voice came from her ears, Jessica Chastain hurriedly snapped back from her rambling thoughts, "You called me?"
Murphy quickly turned his head to look at her, "Did you get the pictures of the girls I asked you to collect done?"
"Basically done." Jessica Chastain exhaled softly, "I've collected photos of twelve girls, and Attorney Robert has signed authorization agreements with their guardians, so there's no problem at all with using them in the film."
Turning the steering wheel, the car turned into a secluded road, Murphy nodded, this is also an expense, if there is no authorization, in the future, in case a situation arises, it will also be trouble.
Thinking about the fact that the crew had just been set up, from salary to rent to authorization fees, there were already tens of thousands of dollars in expenses, Murphy's brows were tightly wrinkled.
Fortunately, according to the signed agreement, in addition to the advance of about one-third of the personnel's salary, the remaining ones would have to wait until the start of filming and the end of filming to be paid, and the money could still lie on top of his bank account for a while longer.
According to Hollywood practice, mainstream crews often wait for the film to be released from North America before paying the last third of the salary, but no one would be stupid enough to sign such a contract with Murphy, those people are not stupid, and they know very well that the film will most likely not enter the theaters at all.
Hollywood annual output of thousands of films, the final can enter the theater is only about one-third, which one-third of the inside, there are a lot of theater week or even three-day tour.
"Jesse ..." Murphy asked next to him again, "I remember that you studied at the Juilliard School in the theater department?"
"Yes." Jessica Chastain nodded, a not-so-good feeling rising in her heart.
"Then you must have studied acting."
Squinting to see Jessica Chastain on the passenger side acquiescing, Murphy gently tapped the steering wheel, "That's great, Jess, I've got a role in the cast just for you."
A role? Or specialized? Jessica Chastain wasn't stupid at all, she had read the script and immediately thought that her role must be the female neighbor who only had one scene.
She asked tentatively, "What about pay?"
"Pay?" Murphy looked surprised and said, "Do the people behind the cast and crew still need to be paid for a cameo in the movie? We're a team!"
Hearing this, Jessica Chastain closed her mouth, but in her heart, she kept muttering, "I knew it was like this, I knew it was like this, this miser, he's practically trying to squeeze the value out of everyone!"
She felt very sad and helpless when she met such a boss, but the seniority of being able to participate in a movie on the ground was like a carrot on top of a stick, seducing her to keep going.
If there was a budget of tens of millions of dollars in hand, Murphy wouldn't have done it, but with a total investment of only $300,000 and too many places for a crew to spend, it might not be possible to complete a project even if all the money was invested in it, if it wasn't finely budgeted.
Big projects have big project planning, small projects have small project survival rules.
The trees on both sides of the road more and more, more and more tall, the road around the quieter and quieter, in addition to the motor of the Ford car, can no longer hear other sounds, and traveled for about five minutes, a typical American suburban community appeared in the field of vision.
This community is not large, far away from the past, more than twenty houses scattered in a small hill below, probably deliberately designed for the sake of all the houses are farther apart, the most edge of the several buildings, each other spacing thousands of feet, one of which is the target of Murphy's visit.
Black Ford sedan parked near a gray bungalow, Murphy pushed open the door and got out, first looked around, the environment here is very good, behind the house is a small forest, there is no courtyard in front of the house, opened up into an open front garden, standing here to look into the distance, you can also see a small lake with rippling blue waves.
Quiet, secluded, and away from other residents ... these external conditions are very much in line with his requirements.
On the other side of the room Jessica Chastain had pulled out her phone and dialed the realtor's number, and a short half-minute later a thirtyish Latina pushed open the front door of the bungalow and stepped out of it.
"Hello, Ms. Chastain." He greeted Jessica Chastain, who was waiting in front of the house, and then walked briskly toward Murphy, extending his right hand warmly before he could reach it, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Stanton, you're the youngest director I've ever met."
Murphy shook his hand, "Nice to meet you too, Mr. Wayne."
A few pleasantries were exchanged and Wayne, the realtor, led the way, "Let's take a look around outside and I'll give you the basics."
Following behind Wayne, along the periphery of the house, Murphy walked and looked around, and did his routine sales pitch in front, "This house was built in 1995, masonry structure, the original owner of the house is the owner of an adult movie company, when it was built, the possibility of filming a movie on this side was taken into consideration, and it was purposely chosen to be far away from the other residents, and the interior of the house also has specially reserved camera positions ..."
After circling around before and after, Murphy was generally more than satisfied.
"Mr. Stanton." Returning to the front door of the house, Wayne asked with concern, "I wonder when your crew will start filming."
Murphy thought for a moment, "The earliest would be next month, no later than the tenth of next month."
"October tenth." Wayne flipped open his laptop and took a general look at it, saying, "Now after this crew finishes, there are two more crews coming over to shoot, and they'll be free by the end of the month, which is just the right amount of time."
He asked again, "How long do you need to shoot for?"
"At least a month." That was Murphy's most optimistic estimate.
Wayne, the real estate agent, looked at the time, "We should have finished shooting a scene inside, I guess it's time for a break, let's go in."
He walked over and pulled open the door of the room, made a gesture of invitation, and waited for Murphy and Jessica Chastain to go in before he closed the door and followed.
After passing through the entrance hall, there was a huge living room, which was decorated with various equipment such as visors, magenta lights, cameras, etc., and a stout man wearing a baseball cap was directing the personnel to set up the venue, which seemed to be the director of this theater group.
On the long sofa in the living room, on the other hand, there was a heavily made-up blonde woman sitting, and a make-up artist was fixing his make-up.
When he walked into the living room, the blonde woman happened to look this way, and Murphy also saw her front side, this face is very familiar, if not wrong, it should be a superstar.
Despite the fact that the blonde woman seemed to be wearing nothing underneath the blanket she was draped in, Murphy didn't linger but followed the realtor to check out the house first.