When he returned to Los Angeles, Murphy made another trip to the Actors' Union, the project of Fruit Hard Candy was so unremarkable from the investment to the production company, that in just one day, no actor had left their job application information.
Murphy also decided to go back to the newspaper and then publish the recruitment information, just like the manpower he had already recruited, there were also many actors in Los Angeles who had not joined the union organization.
He then took Jessica Chastain to the Directors' Union, the Cameramen's Union and the Screenwriters' Union, wanting to ask about the possibility of joining on his own, especially the latter, where a screenwriter who joins can file a script with the union, and also look up scripts filed by other people, which avoids a lot of unnecessary hassle.
Indeed, he could register the copyright at the Copyright Office like Fruit Hard Candy, but that would cost a hefty sum, although the writers' union would also charge for registered projects, which was comparatively quite cheap.
The price directly affects Murphy's choice now.
Unfortunately, Murphy ran a trip for nothing, organizations like the Directors Union, the threshold of entry is really not too high, but there are certain entry requirements, the conditions of a newcomer like him are not qualified at all.
However, this trip was not a waste of time, but also allowed Murphy to understand some of the cognitive misunderstandings brought about by cultural differences and translation problems.
The first thing was that labor unions and associations were not the same thing at all.
The so-called trade unions are organizations that unite people in a certain industry or type of work to fight with employers for rights such as higher treatment, better working conditions, minimum wage and health insurance; associations are non-profit organizations formed by professionals in a certain field for the purpose of cultural exchange, information sharing, education and research.
The difference between the two also lies in the fact that unions are open to all practitioners and have a very low threshold for joining, while associations or societies are more like high-class clubs for senior people.
Organizations such as the Producers Union, the Directors Guild, and the Screen Actors Guild, once Murphy's perception, are not actually associations, but unions.
Although unions allow any practitioner to apply for membership as long as he or she meets its very low basic requirements, Murphy is disappointed that, for example, the Cinematographers' Union, which he wants to join, stipulates that all that is required to apply is that he or she has had 100 days of paid work experience in cinematography on a non-union film production within three years or 30 days of work on a unionized production... ...
Murphy was clearly not qualified.
Putting off plans to join a formal Hollywood organization for the time being, Murphy placed casting advertisements in several local Los Angeles newspapers the next day and began scheduling preparations for the small production, renting camera equipment with Jessica Chastain, purchasing special ketchup for the plasma with props designer Mia Sucre, and going to the San Fernando Valley to check out the interiors of the house with set designer Sunny Clegg. ...
A sum of money was drawn from Murphy's account, and the days of just getting in and getting out and having less and less money made his life a living hell.
During this period, there are also a dozen actors called, Murphy in the Mittens Café conducted a preliminary interview, the results are very unsatisfactory, the actor is either the appearance of the conditions are not suitable, or the acting skills are too poor.
The vast majority of this project's drama, which takes place mainly between two characters, inevitably has relatively high requirements for actors.
Regardless of how Murphy's project progresses, Hollywood is running on its own established track.
The Screen Actors Guild, with its huge membership of over 100,000, has its West Coast offices located in the Hollywood area, and every day a large number of actors come in and out of the city, many of them stopping to check out the job bulletin boards to try to find the best opportunity for them.
After all, the actors who make it across the country and get their hands on a movie are a minority of a minority, and most of them are like Murphy, fighting hard for their dreams.
There is a category of people who are not in this bracket, and they start from a much higher point than the average person.
A girl with short blonde brown hair, carrying a large file bag, walked into the Actors' Union, she was not very old, she looked to be fifteen or sixteen years old, and unlike white women who are naturally precocious, the girl was born with a baby face, looking playful and cute, together with the large eyes that kept inciting, as if Vladimir? Nabokov's girl in the present life.
"Uncle Julian!"
As she walked past the recruitment bar and came to the front of an office, the girl looked back in dissatisfaction, her mouth pouting to the sky, "Can you please hurry up hey?"
Her voice was crisp and pleasant, with an unusually obvious London accent.
Not far behind, an old man with a bare forehead, who had just parted the crowd gathered in front of the job board, panted and walked towards this side, "Kerry, you're the one who's walking too fast, you have to consider the old man's body."
The girl scratched her short hair, "You have to understand my urgency, you know, I've wanted to be an actress since I was a kid, but my stubborn parents wanted me to go to college instead of pursuing acting, and now I'm taking the opportunity to come to LA as an exchange student ... "
Her eyes kept boning up, "I'm so excited that you took the time to help me sign up for the Screen Actors Guild, I'm so excited."
"Hurry up! Hurry up!" The girl looked like she couldn't wait.
Julian Fellowes finally caught up with the girl and led her into that office, he was a veteran actor who was somewhat famous in Hollywood, and with his introduction, the girl didn't have to put in much effort to join the union and become one of the relatively secure actors.
Things were just so unfair.
Leaving the office, Julian Fellowes said to the girl walking beside him, "The union can guarantee your working conditions, guaranteed minimum wage and health insurance ..."
The girl was smart enough to immediately interject, "But only if I can get a job as an actor."
Julian Fellowes nodded and asked as he walked away, "What type of roles do you like?"
With him as a relative looking out for her, it wasn't hard for the girl to get some small roles in Hollywood.
"Well, I have to think ... about it," the girl's large eyes twinkled, "I think Lolita is pretty good."
This answer was completely out of Julian Fellowes' expectation, he turned his head and looked over in slight surprise, the girl immediately realized that she had said the wrong thing and hurriedly added, "Uncle Julian, I was joking with you."
She hurriedly changed the topic, pointing to the crowd gathered there at the recruitment bar in front of her, and asked, "What are they doing?"
"A lot of theater groups post job openings here," Julian Fellowes explained briefly, "but they're for lesser known projects."
The girl didn't seem to hear the latter sentence, and with a leap of a freckle, her crisp, clean words jumped out of her mouth, "Great, I'm going to check it out too."
Her baby face was full of excitement as she ran directly over there, not caring about the old man who was walking slightly hobbled.
Running to the vicinity of the job board, the girl realized that there were too many people here, in the periphery from a distance can not see clearly, want to get closer, but simply can not enter.
Right in front of her, on the notice board, there was a job posting densely pasted, having just registered as a member of the Actors' Union, the little girl was at her most urgent time, eager to find a suitable role and try out her acting skills that were usually highly praised in the school theater troupe.
She had been interested in acting since she was a little girl, and many people had also said that she was a genius in acting, even veteran actors like Julian Fellowes, who was following in her footsteps.
"I want to see it, I want to see it, really, why are there so many people."
The girl pouted, her big flashing eyes turned and suddenly brightened, deliberately changing her voice with a childish tone, "Hey, hey, hey, hey, all pay attention!"
No one paid attention, she wasn't discouraged and continued to shout, "The casting director for Spielberg's play is recruiting in the west yard!"
These words immediately attracted the attention of many people, and some even turned their heads to look to the west, but the west courtyard of the Actors' Union was separated from here by two corridors with corners, and it was impossible to see that way.
Immediately, someone asked, "Little girl, are you telling the truth?"
"Spielberg's crew, how is this possible ..."
"Are you cheating."
Hearing these messy voices, the girl took out her most adorable expression, carrying a pair of small hands, blinking her big soulful eyes, and said in an exceptionally adorable manner, "I'm a good student, how could I cheat?"
Such an age, such a look, even steel would dissolve for it ...
"Let's go and take a look well ..."
"I think it's true."
Obviously, quite a few people chose to believe the girl and successively walked towards the west courtyard side.
Although many people were unmoved, after walking away from those people, the place was no longer so crowded, and the girl easily burrowed her way to the front, raising her head just to take a look at these job announcements, when a voice suddenly rang out beside her.
"Are you an actor too?"
The girl followed the voice to look, it was a man with long brown curly hair, about twenty-two or twenty-three years old, very handsome looking, especially when he looked this way, the corners of his mouth hung with a trace if a smile, looking very charming.
"Yes!" The girl gently tapped her pointed chin, "I just registered as a member here."
The man's smirk became even more pronounced, "Dave was right, the cuter the girl, the better she is at fooling people."
"What?" The girl looked at him in surprise, seemingly not understanding what those words meant at all, "What did you say? Who cheats?"
A very innocent and slightly curious expression naturally appeared on her face, as if she was surprised at who exactly the man was talking about.
"Nice acting." The man couldn't help but laugh as if he had found something very amusing, "Especially for an age like yours."
"Hmph!"
The girl wrinkled her nose, and like all people who lie and are seen through, she couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed and a little annoyed at the man next to her, her eyes turning to the job board across the room, just in time to see a job posting.
"Stanton Studio's 'Fruit Hard Candy' project is looking for 14-16 year old actresses, requires a cute appearance, some acting foundation, and preferably familiar with the work 'Lolita' ..."
Seeing this, the girl couldn't help but gulp, hurriedly jotting down the contact information, and when she wanted to continue looking at the other job postings, the man next to her spoke again.
"Those people you scammed are back." He reminded.
"Huh?" The girl looked back, only to see that quite a few people were coming quickly from the west, not bothering to look at anything else, she turned around and drifted out of the room, and the brown-haired man glanced at her back, his eyes also resting on top of Stanton Studio's job posting.
Pretty and cute little girl, wasn't she?
He then stared at the girl's back until it completely disappeared.