Lights... Camera... ACTION!!: A Hollywood Quest

[X] Plan Steady as it Goes Chaps!
Steady as it Goes

If making a film was like a Voyage, then the Start of filming Conan was anything but Steady as it Goes. It had more in common with A disaster in the making. On arrival in Jordan, the crew arrived to find the set was wrecked by a group of partygoers with no respect for other people's property or care for the consequences of their actions. Worse, the security team who should have been ensuring the site was safe was nowhere to be found.

Bruce O'Brian, the lead actor, or to mangle a nautical metaphor further, effectively, the First Mate took it poorly. He had tried to be calm and reasonable. Still, everyone could see he was under pressure, glaring at anyone who crossed his path to the point that Sarah Douglas was terrified and acting like she had some dark secret she would be killed for if anyone found out. It certainly didn't help that those responsible for ruining the set seemed to get away without a trace. The only person unaffected was the incredibly busy captain of this highly stressed crew, Steven Spielberg.

And then, some bored staff decided that they didn't like the Boat they were in and metaphorically created another and let off some steam. They decided to make a movie within the movie using scraps and leftovers.

The premise was simple. A Maguffin so unimportant to the plot that several wildly different objects were used to teleport the Holder or holders or whatever the story demanded across time and space. This allowed bored writers, cameramen, and others on the set to take two to three minutes of footage to stitch together into short, humorous stories with no genuine regard for limits like story plausibility, which might get in their way of fun.

The practice started at the disastrous beginning of the Conan shoot, where it seemed that everything that could go wrong did, and instead of an orderly production, it was more or less a hurry up and wait while we dealt with this disaster. It was shot in the free moments where the work being done to make a set usable that the production was delayed but not so long as to make it worthwhile for, say a Cameraman to put his expensive camera away safely and come and assist a Key Grip to get the cabling done correctly. Well, what was a cameraman to do but take a few seconds (or minutes) of footage of anything interesting happening, you know, just to keep their hands in and skills sharp. Besides, the footage could be used after the production of Conan for a made for TV "Making of" Documentary and boost hype.

The plot of the original episode was technically developed from a series of footage captured when Bruce O'Brian got worked up at yet another production delay and "went full Conan". He would proceed to scowl menacingly in a series of badass poses while the movie crew actors and even director Steven Spielberg himself rushed around to fix the issue and get back to filming. Anyone could see how frustrated Bruce was and how hard he tried not to be and make allowances. But man, someone joked it was like the real Conan had been teleported through time, and the only way back for him was to successfully finish the movie. Cut with outtakes of scenes where Bruce ( or another actor) did a scene wrong. They improv 'ed the B script, Bruce O'Brian Being sent back to Hyboria and trying to pretend to be Conan so none of the Dangerous individuals Conan regularly interacted with would notice.

It started as a silly series of visual jokes with Bruce as the Strait man. A thing to laugh about and talk about on set as the filming of Conan went along to reduce stress, but it grew more than that. It was people from different departments truly taking and interacting with each other and coming to understand each other. It was an unspoken challenge to find the issues that would pop up in filming and solve them quickly and well so the problem solvers could put on their best awkward, nothing to see here smile and have it intercut with footage of Bruce linking suspiciously at them. It was laughing at the raw clips at the end of the filming for the day and seeing what could be done better.

Slowly, things changed. A problem was not another delay in filmmaking. It was a chance to do a fast improv skit that might be played and laughed at the end of the day or week. More people able and willing to quickly solve problems outside their department meant those problems were solved quicker, more efficiently and with an eye to not cause trouble for someone else. Fewer problems happened and were solved faster as individuals outright competed in a friendly competition to get it done. It was a group of individuals coming together to make the best Damn film they could and have a great time doing so. The ship of the movie, accompanied by its little fun tug was sailing smother than it had been before. While not full speed ahead yet the boat was at least approaching steady as it goes.

After watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind you could safely say that whatever tiny slivers of doubt in your mind towards Steven being the Director have completely vanished. Conan was going to be in amazing hands, the Star Wars trilogy was going to go out in a grand finale.

In many ways Close Encounters was sort of an inverse of Star Wars. Whereas Star Wars showed the mundane life of a galaxy, far, far away and how current human conflicts could appear in another time and galaxy, Close Encounters showed the extraordinary being brought to Earth through a potential first encounter told through an optimistic lens, where mankind takes its first steps in a greater universe. Both were stories of hope, but with fundamentally different conflicts; good vs evil with Star Wars and how do we take our first steps with Close Encounters. The story followed an Indiana blue collar electrician named Roy McNeary who has a personal encounter with UFOs and then begins an obsession and journey thanks to some sort of psychic connection with the aliens with a call to a higher purpose. Joining him is Jillian Guiler, a a single mother who had a close encounter herself and is in search of her son, all the while the United Nations and America are seeking answers for why the UFOs have come to Earth and how to best communicate with them.

At first it was seeming to be a Jaws-esque thriller of something inhuman terrorizing the heroes who must battle the monstrous unknown with the tone of the abductions and the ongoing conspiracy throughout the plot. You are so happy that it wasn't just some 50's schlock UFO action film about surviving against the aliens, but an adventure of discovering the unknown and taking those brave first steps. The absolute highlight of the movie were the actors. Everyone did a terrific performance, with fellow American Graffiti alumni Richard Dreyfuss giving off a performance that you felt was deserving of an Oscar. There were plenty of great moments of humanity, the great exhibition of the emotions of wonder and terror when facing the possibility of aliens, and the characters for the most part were a joy to watch as normal relatable people responding in different ways to this situation. Steven did a terrific job with the atmosphere, somehow managing to balance the two tones of terror and wonder and creating a realistic depiction of how such a first encounter would play out. You absolutely fell in love with how Steven crafted the story and lead the cast and when you got home you were sure there was going to be a day you spent in the theater taking notes for your directing style. John Williams returns with another amazing score, not quite the grand opera of Star Wars but one that heavily upflits the story and plays well with the action and helps strengthen the audience's emotional connection to the film. By far though the greatest star of the show was ILM. The Magicians went above and beyond the call of duty and proved to the world that Star Wars was not a one trick pony and they were the masters of special effects. The quality of the effects were just as good as Star Wars and in some select scenes better. The UFO encounters and abduction were a perfect combination of thrills and horror as the cast encounters something beyond their comprehension that they have no control over. The spaceships and aliens are an interesting combination of homage to classic alien tropes while also giving them a beautiful artistic redesign that makes them distinct. The mothership was a work of art equal to the Death Star and the climax of the first contact was honestly one of the best scenes you'd ever seen in film.

You had a strong feeling that Close Encounters would be an instant success considering it was a Sci-fi film made by the studio that made Star Wars. Still, the movie's performance went beyond your expectations with Steven doing a repeat of Jaws by making a blockbuster instant classic that became the second highest grossing film of all time below a movie that starred Carrie O'Brian. Not to mention that with Star Wars and Close Encounters alone Lucasfilms made $2 billion. Reports were coming in over the world that Close Encounters was a certified hit with even the Israeli and Jordanian theaters seeing long lines. Just like you people fell in love with the beautiful story and gorgeous visuals with there being some hope that maybe some day we can have a peaceful encounter like this. High praise was given for the cast and for Spielberg who many believed proved himself an equal to the great George Lucas, though you knew there was no competition between the two brothers of film. While it wasn't close to toppling Star Wars as the greatest film of all time, many people would come to call it their favorite, and as you would later find out there was an interesting schism within the Sci-Fi community were many fans, particularly the Trekkies and very loudly one Ray Bradbury, praised Close Encounters as the best Sci-Fi film and a true representation of the genre versus Star Wars which was more fantasy in space.

Unfortunately when it came to critics they once again for some bizarre reason didn't resonate along the same wavelength as the people. Oh it's not like the film was universally hated and panned like Five Dates, if that happened you would have lead a people's rebellion against the critics. Overall critical reception for the film was positive, but it was along the same lines as Jaws with polite and mildly enthusiastic praise and approval, a few bold ones who extoled it as one of the greatest (Ebert held it as Star Wars' equal and this is after he canned Five Dates, seriously what the hell does this guy like to flip flop so much?) and a very loud minority of harsh critics. You found those critics to mostly be nitpicking and being a bit too mean in expressing their personal tastes with common calls for complaint being the pacing, tonal differences of the first and second half, lack of exploration for the aliens, an admittedly long and somewhat tedious middle when Roy and Jillian first make to Wyoming and the government side not being as engaging.

However, one criticism that you did have to agree with the Moralists of all groups is criticism towards Roy in how he casually abandons his wife and kids and just drops everything on Earth to go exploring with the aliens. It makes sense within the context of the film and was objectively a fascinating character journey, but to you personally it made you feel ill and a bit disgusted with Roy in spite of Richard's magnificent performance. Had you watched the film a year earlier you would have not found much fault, but as a soon-to-be father, Roy being so awful to his wife and children who he dearly loved in the beginning and all due to a psychic alien experience just felt wrong and a bitter taste to a great film. The thought of being in the same position and doing it to Carrie and your future kids made you sick and pushed you to side more with Jillian who in spite of her fascination with the aliens placed her love of her son Barry first. You still loved the film, but thinking back on the plot line you had to do your best to separate Bruce the artist from Bruce the husband and future father in watching in the future.

If there was one good thing about the set clusterfuck it's that it gave Steve an opportunity to fly back to LA to attend the premiere while the set was being rebuilt. In the meantime, you reserved a couple of theaters for the entire cast and crew to watch the movie, and when it was done you could tell there was a shared sentiment of everyone involved that they were now in something great and everything was going to be alright with Steven Spielberg at the helm. When Steve returned, he was greeted with a hero's welcome, receiving dozens of congratulations and compliments from the cast and crew. After near an hour of conversation, Steve went to retire to his hotel room to recover from the jet lag and invited you to join him.

When the two of you entered his room, Steve humorously collapsed on his bed and groaned in relief. "I take it they liked the film?" He asked cheekily.

You smiled, "Everyone loved it, no doubt this is gonna be the film of the year and we'll snag a couple of Oscars. If I have to be honest, I actually kind of like it a lot more than Jaws. No offense."

Steve chuckled. "Thanks, I actually got that a lot from people at the premiere, and I kind of agree. Really happy to have this as my Lucasfilms debut." Steve then got up and offered, his hand, which you then took with him then pulling you in for a hug. "Thank you so much Bruce, for believing in me when everyone thought I was just a stupid and irresponsible brat with one good movie."

You reciprocated the embrace, "Hey, most of history's greatest artists started out being seen as insane. Really happy I get to not only live in the same age as two of the greatest filmmakers but work with them."

Steve smiled greatly at that and then settled down, "You know all that stuff George believes about poetry rhyming? Well Jaws and Close Encounters were both heavily messy in location shooting, and considering we got our fantasy land turned into a dump, I'd say it looking pretty well for Conan."

You shook your head with a smile at that. George liked to believe that if something repeated in life than whatever happened before, whether good or bad would happen on an equal scale again. Whenever something happened in Star Wars production that mirrored American Graffiti, even difficulty, he got super stoked as it felt it was a good sign. You could really do without the bullshit and stress, but the paranoid and superstitious side of your brain became a bit hopeful that this would all be worth it if so.

"How was the premiere?" You asked.

"Pretty good, went mostly about as well as Star Wars. One big difference I think is that we're not just seen as lucky hacks that everyone is waiting to fail, even by Universal. I kind of got the feeling from everyone going in that they knew they were in for a good time, not because of Jaws or Sugarland Express, but because it was a Lucasfilms movie. You know, I actually made Gene Roddenberry cry?"

Your jaw dropped at the statement, "Steve, what the fuck did you do?!" There already seemed to be a growing rivalry brewing between Star Wars and Star Trek fans, you didn't need to start beef with Roddenberry and Paramount.

Steve raised his hands, "Oh no, not like I insulted or hurt him like that, I meant with the film." He laughed to which you gave a stink eye for the faux paus. "He said he loved it, looked like it really resonated with him. Apparently he's gonna use it as inspiration for the new movies and show."

Not something you were enthusiastic to hear that the competition got a morale boost, but then again maybe great Star Trek can inspire Star Wars to become even better like how Star Wars took partial inspiration originally.

"How was Carrie?" You asked. She promised to attend the red carpet premiere in support. Part of you was tempted to fly to LA with Steve and spend a day with your beloved princess, but with the ongoing shitshow you had to at least be present to lead.

"She was doing pretty good, had a great time with Todd and Debbie. Also starting to show a bit on the waist."

"Steve, if my wife wasn't pregnant I'd clobber ya." You joked, but perhaps not delivered in the best way as Steve looked genuinely frightened for a second.

"Oh that reminds me, Carrie gave me this letter for you." Steve informed, producing an envelope from his jacket. You thanked the man then went to your room to read in private while Steve looked ready to take a power nap.

When you opened the envelope you discovered a letter and two pictures. You read the letter first, which thankfully was a generally positive one. Carrie shared a summary of some recent events, hanging out with her friends or Todd, watching over the girls who were in good shape, doing a little bit of writing for fun and taking up painting, and spending her weekdays taking some lessons in motherhood from Debbie. It seemed that the Lord was indeed watching over Carrie, and the information that she was happy and doing well even as she missed you made you feel happy and at peace.

But the greatest gift of all were the two photos. One was of a smiling Carrie posing in the backyard, her shirt raised upward while she was positioned to her side to show a small bump beginning to form. The second was an ultrasound photo, one that you had at first thought was a copy of the first one she took which you were thankfully present for before Conan's production began, but the photo showed a more developed fetus with more distinct human features, it was your child.

You sat on your bed and looked at the photo in wonder, staring at what felt like an endless stretch of time, taking in all the little details you could, crying at the pure beauty that was displayed. At the bottom right corner Carrie had signed "Our little Gosling" with a collection of cute hearts decorating the words.

"I love you."

Anatidaephobia

Sarah Douglas was afraid of Bruce O'Brian.

If she shared this fear publicly then she knew a good portion of the general public would laugh and mock at her. After all, Bruce the Goose was the beloved hero and all-American icon of Hollywood through winning gold, making awesome movies and saving lives through charity and sometimes literally. On those topics Sarah could not argue and it was not as if she thought Bruce was the devil incarnate or truly evil. However, he was an unpredictable force of chaos that could be extremely intimidating to experience up close.

Back in Britain, the film industry of the UK tended to have a rather sour opinion of Bruce. None could deny his talents as an actor, but there was also the fact that his rise in Hollywood caused the industry to go completely insane where anything could go and there was no stability and logic from the top to bottom. Considering British film was all about class and professionalism from the Shakespearean tradition, your average British star thought Bruce O'Brian was a wild maverick, opinions that were reinforced by the wild conspiracies and fodder of the British tabloids. It also didn't help that Bruce was Irish and sections of the British Right and Left tried to use him as some sort of posterboy for the Troubles.

Sarah didn't pay much attention to the gossip back in London since it didn't concern her, but when she moved to America to try her hand in acting after the strike the anxiety and rumor mill concerning Bruce's bizarre adventures brough up memories of the slander and disapproval for Sarah. By far the most frightening was the agreed consensus that if you did something that was seen as offensive to Bruce O'Brian in any way, your career was finished and he was going to make your life a living hell. Some said Bruce and Lucasfilms were in the right and it was self-defense or for good causes, but the blacklist created by Bruce seemed to grow every other month and even fame and power could only go so far with Bruce having destroyed Warner Bros for calling his mother-in-law ugly.

People only said nice things about Debbie Reynolds these days.

One day Sarah had the potential to get the truth when she had lunch with Candy Clark of American Graffiti fame. The two met one day while auditioning for the latest Airport movie, of which neither got a part. The two had some nice conversation while waiting and Candy invited the Englishwoman out to lunch afterwords, with Sarah eagerly accepting to network and hopefully get some sage advice on how to make it in Hollywood. Inevitably the conversation drifted to American Graffiti,

"So what was it like working on the film?" Sarah asked.

Candy shifted a bit uncomfortably, face turning dour and eyes flashing as if the memories were coming. "I apologize if it's something you don't-"

"Oh no it's okay. It's not like anything totally horrible happened to me. It's just...it was a real stressful time and a nightmare to work on set, I'm honestly shocked we got anything close to a good film." Candy confessed.

"Really?" Sarah said in shock.

Candy sighed heavily, "Yeah. I don't know why, but for some God forsaken reason George Lucas really rushed us to get the film done without any consideration for quality control and care. The two week filming seems like something positive, but it's absolute hell because you hardly get any chances to correct a mistake and always have to be on top of your game because they'll accept screw ups. A good amount of my scenes I kind of stumbled my performance but George kept it in because he thought it added to my character."

"I thought you gave a pretty good performance." Sarah complimented, to which Candy softly smiled.

"Yeah, that's because it's almost all from the reshoots on the last day. It was hard to do anything under the conditions and I didn't really get a lot of support from George or Bruce. Whole experience kind of feels like a daze where I didn't have any control, didn't help that we had to stay up the entire night and I had to do most of my performance in improv, which I absolutely suck at."

"How was Bruce O'Brian? Was it like meeting Radar in real life?" Sarah asked. She had to admit that she had a mild crush for the dorky and lovable clerk of the 4077th surgical unit, few young women and teenage girls of the anglosphere didn't.

"He's talented, an insanely driven professional, and really scary." Candy described.

"How so?"

"Bruce is absolutely beautiful to watch in front of the camera but he's an intimidating authoritarian when he's behind it. All work, no play, kept on trying to herd us like sheep and if you screwed up he gave you a lashing and made sure there was hell to pay. Pretty standoffish with most of us, I think the only people he had a really good rapport with were George Lucas, Ron Howard and Mackenzie Philips. To be fair he had some good reasons to be serious, most of the boys acted like frat guys early on and there was apparently some mess with Universal, but he's very standoffish and cares about the work first. Although in saying all of that, he was at least nice enough to give me and Cindy second chances when we did poorly, so maybe he's not all bad but be ready to work to the bone if you ever star with him."

It was advice that Sarah made sure to hold onto tightly in potential future work in a production with Bruce O'Brian, especially when she auditioned for the role of Valeria. At first Sarah didn't want to try, thinking it'd make for a hellish schedule alongside her role in Superman and believing that the Valeria auditions would be another hoax like Princess Leia where Bruce pretended to stretch a hand and then pull it back so he could cast his wife. Sarah would change her mind when her agent convinced her, having gained information from Spielberg himself that Conan production would take place during the bulwark of Superman I's production and a firm promise that Carrie O'Brian would not be acting in Conan at all, apparently on break.

As anxious as she was to work with Bruce, Sarah saw the role as a golden opportunity to not only cement her career but give a little push for women in Hollywood. The 70's had seen a gradual change in female roles to go beyond their cages of being helpless damsels and sex trophies. Princess Leia proved so to the world by acting as a badass and heroic leader who did just as much as the boys and wasn't defined by a romance, though it was an open secret she'd probably get with Han in the next two movies. While Valeria was Conan's love interest and a character from a pulp fantasy book, she was also a woman of action who fought as an equal to the boys and even rescued herself. If Sarah could give amazing performances as Ursa and Valeria then she would be known as an awesome action woman and could probably not only star in a leading role in the future, but maybe give inspiration to other well-written and great female characters.

Thus she auditioned, and to her horror everything that Candy said about Bruce seemed to be right. Steve was really pleasant and easy-going, but Bruce had been a rather tough and firm taskmaster who got fully into character as Conan when reading his lines with her and was giving off strong vibes that he expected nothing less than the best. Sarah thinks this likely came from a personal place, as Bruce directly admitted that Conan was his favorite book and during the audition gave a really detailed spiel about the story of Conan and Valeria from their book, and as such there was a silent statement that Valeria had to be at her best so Bruce's favorite book would get made. She busted her ass off and somehow managed to stumble her way into giving a great performance with Spielberg calling her a week later and offering the role.

Sarah tried to remain optimist about her situation leading up to the Conan production. Bruce did after all co-create the greatest film ever made and all of the Star Wars cast who were interviewed gave high praise to him, most especially his wife who seemed heavily in love with Bruce and vice versa. Although, whenever she told her fellow actors that she was working in the next O'Brian movie, half of the people she spoke with gave looks of sympathy and well wishes for working with the menace. Columbia crew and executives on the set of Superman whispered his name in fear as if he were a giant boogeyman waiting to claim their souls if Superman failed.

Then there was the Golden Globes where Sarah had attended as a +1 and the highlight of the night was Austrian newcomer Arnold Schwarzenegger who boldly gave his declaration of war against Bruce O'Brian:

"This town used to be something special, it had a great magic to spread to the world and was a land of opportunity where dreams came true. Then along came a certain anarchistic Goose and now we live no longer in a land of dreams and fantasy, but a cutthroat nightmare where we work with false smiles and hold knives behind our backs and push others down to get to the top of the pyramid, business over cinema. We have to move beyond such vindictiveness and be true artists."

It was a sentiment that many in the crowd heavily disagreed and criticized, most especially one Sylvester Stallone with the Rocky star praising Bruce in his Best Actor speech and allegedly throwing a bowl of flowers at Arnold to defend his friend. However, a good number of people seemed to be entranced with the bodybuilder and heavily agreed with his manifesto. It made Sarah unsure if she was making the right choice.

The night when she landed in Jordan with the rest of the cast and crew, Sarah got a very distressing message. Her agent called her and said that thanks to that wonder girl Kennedy having done some tricks to help speed production process along that production for Superman I had been shortened by months and Superman II was going to start just days after Conan was set to end production, meaning she had to hurry back to LA and switch her thief's tunic for a Kryptonian jumpsuit or else she would be fired not only from the second film but from Superman altogether with there being a threat that they would just reshoot the Krypton court scene with another actress.

Sarah was not ashamed to admit she had been up that night panicking heavily. She was afraid that she just screwed up her career big time to lose out on Superman, a movie which by all accounts of her co-stars was shaping up to be something legendary, an iconic forefather of a new genre like Star Wars. Still there was some hope. Sarah was only in Conan for half the film and wasn't even present for the final climax besides a brief half a minute of acting as a ghost to save Conan. So hopefully she could talk it out with Bruce and arrange the schedule so she'd have plenty of time to head back to California and get to work in Superman II.

Then the next day came and Sarah along with the rest of the cast was absolutely horrified at the state of the set with it being turned into some filthy rave party with the security just passing it off to some rockers. Nobody noticed with all eyes on the mortified and grief-stricken Steve, but Sarah had in the background quietly crying, believing that either Conan was going to get canned or delayed to the point where she was gonna be fired from Superman II.

Sarah wanted to pull a hail mary and try to talk to Bruce considering the rapid pace the crew managed to reconstruct the sets and Spielberg's genius of using the trashed remains as ruins and city outskirts so there might have been some hope. But from that point on, Bruce seemed to lose any semblance of warmth, adopting a real dour and perpetually angry mood akin to the real Conan, always tense and stressed, pushing the crew to the limits to get things back on track and just being so damn intense it was like staring into the sun. One time Sarah had trepidly marched to his tent to share her concerns, only to hear through the door Bruce cussing the life out of the people who were in charge of the set grounds and security, being more livid than a Marine drill sergeant and spouting a whole library of curses, many of which weren't even in English and sounded harsh and worse than anything in the Anglo lexicon.

Sarah was scared and stressed out of her mind and prayed and pleaded each day for some sort of miracle to occur so she could keep both her jobs and still have a career as an actress. She wondered if this was how Candy Clark felt on American Graffiti, and perhaps fortune wasn't kind to women acting alongside Bruce who weren't Carrie O'Brian.

The only day of peace Sarah had so far was when Bruce decided to take a day off and was hold up in his hotel room, allowing her a rare period to relax, memorize her lines and have a decent time with Christopher Lloyd. The next day Bruce seemed to be active and invigorated, rising at the break of dawn to do some choreography with Jackie Chan. Sarah knew she had to work with Bruce eventually but she tried to postpone it as much as possible, practicing at a safe distance away and just hoping that time would pass by.

At lunchtime, she had been minding her own business and eating in quiet isolation when Bruce approached her. "Excuse me Sarah-" He quietly asked.

"EYHUGP!" Sarah yelped as she was broken out of her train of thought, drawing all eyes in the mess hall to them. Sarah experienced a cold sweat with her heart racing, expecting to see Bruce in his usual resting scowl, but surprisingly he seemed rather chipper and upbeat, though a little concerned at her reaction.

"Everything alright?" Bruce asked.

"I'm fine, just startled and gave me a fright." Sarah explained, which in and of itself was the truth with Bruce nodding in acceptance.

She was hoping Bruce could go away but he sat across from her, "Is this seat taken?" He asked after the fact.

"No." Sarah said on instinct, almost showing a wince. At least Bruce didn't seem to notice, taking a bite of his roll before speaking, "You excited for the fight scenes? Jackie and I have been cooking up some wonderful stuff and if you want we can teach you a few tricks to give Valeria a little bit of flair." Bruce offered kindly.

"Well...I can't say they're going to be my favorite part of the movie, but I'll be sure to do my best and help move forward the film." Sarah said as diplomatically as possible, with Bruce nodding in acceptance.

"That's good. So listen, I was hoping we could spend some time covering Conan and Valeria's relationship before we begin filming." Bruce requested.

"Oh?" Sarah said, already feeling a knot tie up in her stomach as she could anticipate the stern demands to play along tow the line so he could have his perfect Conan movie.

However, instead of acting in narcissism, Bruce was surprisingly more humble and demure, "Yeah, it's my first role where I have a love interest who isn't Carrie and I'm worried that I'll screw things up because you're not her and I'll sabotage the chemistry and performance. Conan and Valeria are sort of the heart of the third act and I don't want you to suffer from my inexperience."

"Oh." Sarah said once more, blinking in stupefaction over Bruce's own admission while also being concerned for her part. "That's...good to hear. I'm guessing you want me to just copy the books?" Sarah asked meekly.

Bruce surprised her by shaking his head somewhat, "If you want to take inspiration from Red Nails I'd be more than happy, although admittedly one of the greatest difficulties of a Conan adaptation is that almost all the books are short stories, so it's hard to get an exact adaptation besides Conan and the setting when there's only so many pages.

"So what do you want me to do?"

Bruce seemed in contemplation for a few seconds before speaking, "Well, if you have any personal takes of the script that you think could be really creative or engaging I'd love to hear them and maybe we can add some small stuff when they first meet or before they accept Osiric's quest to flesh things out, Steve does really well with character building stuff like that. Most importantly, I want to make sure that things are comfortable between us when we act. If you ever feel that a scene is awkward or things aren't playing out right, just tell me and Steve and we'll try to do it a different way. Mark was actually pretty great at that, thought outside the box and script and really helped to push forward the scene." Bruce said.

It was quite a shocking contrast to say the least, to have the scowling authoritarian be heavily compromising and promise to work with what was best for her than have everything revolve around him. From what little she experienced of Superman, Donner was a fair leader but for the most part save for Christopher Reeves he was a fairly rigid filmmaker in direction.

Part of Sarah just wanted to not cause trouble and just say everything was fine and Bruce didn't need to worry, but with this open lifeline she felt something had to be said lest it go to waste.

"Well....I feel like the pacing for the second act is a bit....poor." Sarah tested carefully.

"How so?" Bruce asked curiously.

"I don't think there's necessarily a strong foundation for their relationship. They meet, Conan kills a dinosaur, they talk for a bit and then it's constant adventure until the time skip, not much reason there besides good looks. Maybe we can show why Conan is attracted to Valeria when he hasn't had a relationship and focus on the companionship and dialogue?" Sarah tested.

Bruce ruminated over the suggestion then cocked his head slightly in agreement, "Yeah that makes sense."

The two then spent the rest of the lunch conversing more about Conan and Valeria and how to properly develop things, how Conan felt about Valeria and vice versa, and even how they fought together. Sarah couldn't say she was completely relaxed or at ease, but she no longer felt like she was in constant danger and had to be on watch.

At the end Bruce thanked Sarah for her thoughts and invited her to talk with him and Steve later on in the day after he was done training with Jackie. As he left, Sarah slapped herself mentally for not having the opportunity to bring up her scheduling issues, as the longer she delayed the worse it made her look and the less that could be done. Maybe she could bring it up later, and hopefully this kind and concerned thespian was truly the real Bruce and not the goose of terror that loomed over Hollywood.

-[X]The Battle of Thieves: Steve, let me take the camera. I'm about to show you how Action is supposed to be shot. Rolled:D100 + 10 => 110

You were pretty much going to call this the greatest fight scene ever, and this was after Bob Anderson and Peter Diamond, and Mifune.

It was simple, you told Steve that you wanted to take over the action scene, to show you could take control back from this funk. From your own self-doubts.

And Steve just smiled and accepted, doing other scenes while you had a day to get the shot done.

It should have been a disaster. You only had a basic idea, the props, and a few sturdy stuntmen… as well as you and Jackie to come up with it all of two days prior.

Yet somehow, you Jackie, and the Stunt crew managed to get a fight scene that fit the great and bloody world of Conan… and also being tense and electrifying. This was not the great Barbarian warlord who would rise to become a king, who would slaughter evil and monsters with not reckless abandon, but something close to it.

Then there was the simple fact it was all done by you, Jackie, and Christopher, whom you had not realized was a comedy genius by being the squishy wizard running away, while trying to help with random firecrackers.

Honestly, the fact that you just said that having firecrackers was so funny that it fit, and it would save money on the ILM effects. After all, a wizard wouldn't be able to cast all sorts of spells, sometimes he would need to use illusions as well. Maybe they can spice it up though, just to give that reality.

And when it was over, everything was amazing. Once again, the fact that you were playing Conan came into wonderful focus, as you were not the great focus… however, you proved to be better as you were the hero. Conan still held his own.

Reward: Have an amazing fight scene for halfway through the film, that is funny, action-packed, and hilarious all at the same time. Utilizing all the actor's talents to make it engaging, fun, and easy to follow.

You are back in control. Your -10 will not be part of the next turn as everyone could see you were back.

+1 to directing Skill

You have gained the Trait: Action director: When it comes to action, you are among the best in the world. (+10 to all action scenes. When directing Action films, you have the ability to reroll any failed action.)
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-[X]A City More Ancient than Hyboria: Going to Jerusalem to shoot the scenes gives the city atmosphere something ancient and powerful. And it was perfect Rolled:D100 - 10 => 72

To say the shots of the Ancient city were of course magnificent was underselling Steve's incredible talent for composing a scene. He just looked at a place, set his camera down, and directed in such a way that it was easy.

He managed to turn one of the oldest and most recognizable cities in the world, with simple camera tricks, and some set dressing… into a foreign land of man's distant past.

It was immaculate. And it made you realize it was going to be the right thing.

And it was powerful, in a way you couldn't really understand. But you think Steve did.

Reward: Steve is just showing off his directing talent at this point. Unknown Effect.
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-[X]Sarah Douglas, and the Crazy Shit she's now in: Sarah is a little bit scared right now… no, mortified, because she just got a call that after this production, she has to go directly to Superman shoot, and she's afraid she will get fired because if she tries to talk to you. Rolled:D100 - 10 => 7 (Autopass)

You were sitting by the tent and saw that Sarah was just… sitting there as if she was mortified at seeing you. "Um… Hi Sarah, sorry to bother you, is this a bad time?"

She said nothing, but she stood her ground, in a very strange way. "Um, is something wrong?"

"No." You replied quickly. "I'm sorry if my mood and situation have affected your ability for shooting the film, and that is something that I must apologize for. Things have not been going well as of late. Even until a few days ago."

"Well, I wish you did something to not show you were a moody asshole."

That caused you to raise an eyebrow?" Moody asshole? You do know I spent almost 40 million on this film, and that I'm paying everyone right?"

Sarah than laughed. "You know, I think most people forget that you are an amazing businessman who really likes to get people paid."

"Don't let Mike hear that, otherwise he'll stop production and make sure you cough up every dime he feels he's owed." That earned an even harder laugh.

Then there was a small silent pause as she took a deep breath. "Candy was wrong, you're not a stick in the mud who's a workaholic and only cares about perfection."

That made you raise an eyebrow. "Wait what does Candy have to do with this?"

That made Sarah Smile. "Oh nothing." She then gave a chuckle. "Well, I think most people just don't know you, and that you're really a good person who just loves movies and stories. Who is under too much pressure from the reputation of his own creation."

You were confused. Very confused.

"Also that Schwarzenegger guy wouldn't know true art if it bit him in the ass unless he sees it through the eyes of Bruce O'Brian."

There was that name again Schwarzenegger? Should you know him? Why was he always coming up in conversation when people brought you up to?

Reward: Sarah has realized that you had more masks on than ever, and that, everything she heard about you was either exaggerations.

Or from her own fears. And all she sees now is a Goose who is under far too much pressure from a reputation he didn't deserve and was forced upon him by terrible people.

+20 to Chemistry and SP rolls.
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[]Finale: Despite everything this shoot has done, you were lucky to have everyone on this crew.

[]Ole Max Von Sydow: Max is an actor you never had the pleasure to be around, and you think he wants to just be calm, professional… and other stuff.

[]The Joy and Wonder of Christopher Lloyd: Chris is a huge fan, and honestly, you wonder just why he likes you so much.

[]Meeting James For the first time: James Earl Jones is a man who had been around set, but you never met him. So time to meet him.

[]Sophia Loren, and the Quest to Stay out of the Spotlight: You have never met someone so vain…no scratch that. She was just screwing with you. Wow, were you really that dense?


AN: Enjoy.

Plan format... because it's been a 5 month shoot, Carrie's going to be close to term.