After the call with June, Will was motivated again. He already knew that the industry would treat this movie as a gamble no matter how good it was.
He went to two more distribution companies on that day but still got rejected.
After that, his days of struggle started as he started to go to every movie distribution company, no matter their standing in the industry.
He even realised that James could be considered particularly polite at some point because some companies didn’t even bother to listen to his pitch.
Some who listened won’t bother watching the movie because they considered it a failure as soon as they heard it was shot on a camcorder.
*Sigh*
Will sighed after coming out from the office of ‘Rear Creations’. Rear Creations was considered a medium-sized firm in the industry due to many reasons. Still, their arrogance when rejecting Will was way above a top tier distribution company like Foxstar Studios.
Will was slowly getting tired of the rejections. It wasn’t like not a single person recognised the movie’s value, but the people who recognised it were hesitant about investing in a movie that was more like a home recording.
Destiny Productions was also one of the top distribution companies, they got interested in the movie, but they said they already had their hands full with projects. They even asked Will to sell all the rights of the movie for 1 million dollars, which wasn’t small considering how little he had invested in it.
But Will firmly rejected the offer.
It’s already been about a week since his visit to Foxstar studios and in between, June and Jeffrey had called him many times and motivated him to not feel down about this.
*Trnng* *Trnng*
His phone rang as he was in thought, sitting on the bench in a public park.
He looked at his phone and saw Jeffrey’s name on the screen, making him smile faintly.
By now, Jeffrey and Will had developed quite a friendship, and Jeffrey would often call him to give him motivation and ideas as to where he should try his luck.
“Hello Jeff, how are you doing?”
– I’m good, Will. How are you? Any luck yet?
From Jeffrey’s tone, it was clear he didn’t expect any good news from Will, at least just yet.
“Not yet. Don’t worry; I’ll get someone to distribute the movie sooner or later.”
Will said, his tired voice completely aversing to his fake enthusiastic tone.
– I’ve called you about that too, actually…..
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***
After Jeffrey’s call, Will had gotten another straw to hold on to. And he was standing in front of that straw.
‘Wheel Works Studios’
It was the studio's name that couldn’t be called famous or unknown in the industry. There was a time when they were doing relatively well, releasing one horror hit after the other.
But recently, 3-4 of their movies flopped back to back, which had affected both their reputation and finance.
Since Wheel Works Studios was a medium-sized distribution company, the distribution head of the studio was an acquaintance of Jeffrey.
After seeing Will struggling for days, Jeffrey couldn’t just sit around. So he contacted the distribution head of the studio for an appointment with Will.
They were a horror production house, to begin with; if everything went well, maybe Will would be able to distribute his movie from them.
A rotten apple was still better than a healthy potato.
Even if they weren’t doing well right now, they could distribute and advertise the movie to the perfect audience if they took on Will’s movie. After all, they had a great foundation in the horror genre.
Carl Sallow, the head of distribution, personally came out to greet Will and took him inside while chatting very friendly with him.
He looked like an average friendly neighbourhood uncle, who most people would greet but wouldn’t be too close with.
He gave off a friendly vibe with blond hair and light brown eyes. Will somehow knew how Jeffrey, who was terrible with communicating with most people, got acquainted with Carl.
“Haha, Jeffrey told a lot about you. A talented young man who is skilled in directing and scriptwriting. You’ve knowledge about the ‘Found Footage Technique’, which can now be called ancient by the lads of this generation. Ah, I remember the days when I was merely twenty and got engaged in my first movie, ‘Janitor of the Asylum’.”
Will, who heard that, was inwardly surprised but didn’t show it on his face. After recalling for some time, he remembered that Wheel Works Studios was the one who released the last ‘Found Footage’ movie on this alternate earth.
Carl talked like Will should know about it, and he actually should since he had made a movie with a technique that their studio used years ago. But Will had already forgotten about that.
After a while, they went to the projection room, where they’d watch the movie. Unexpectedly, the CEO of Wheel Works Studio was also present; he was an old man who looked to be in his mid-60s, almost bald.
He was George Carter. He had come on a normal visit to the office when he found out what was going on and decided to tag along.
As the movie started and went into its engaging phase, Carl couldn’t help but comment.
“Such perfect use of the first person. The actors are too good.”
George didn’t comment anything, but from his eyes, one could see the appreciation in them.
As the movie ended with a glimpse of Blair Witch’s shadow, Carl could be found gasping for breath; George took out an inhaler and started pumping it down.
“...too good.”
After calming down, Carl couldn’t help but comment. He had never seen such an engaging movie, the direction and execution were so flawless that one would get absorbed right into the movie from the very beginning.
‘Janitor of the Asylum’ was a movie that had earned enough but couldn’t be considered a hit. When comparing [The Blair Witch Project] with it, it was simply obvious that there was no comparison.
After some quiet discussion between Carl and George, Carl finally came up to Will, his hands held out for a handshake.
“Will, we will help you distribute this movie at the right time to the maximum audience.”
Even though he was holding back, a charming smile formed on Will’s face, his tiring day of distributor hunting had finally come to an end, and he was sure the future would be much easier.