Hollywood King

The next day, Ian woke up with a raging headache.

“What the fuck?!” Ian shook his head while he felt Raelynn shift in her sleep.

He quietly got out of bed, while trying not to wake Seraphina up. He walked in front of the mirror and looked at himself.

His eyes were looking exhausted, and so was his face. The glow that kept him looking good felt a bit dried as he realized the past couple of months had been tiring.

His hands came up to wipe his face down. His red eyes burn from the sensation.

“I fucking need some rest,” Ian whispered to himself and ran his fingers over his hair.

“The shooting is coming to an end. You can rest after,” Raelynn’s voice made Ian jump back.

“I didn’t realize you were awake…”

Ian walked towards Raelynn and saw how she had just woken up.

“Yeah, I woke up the moment you got out of bed. Today is going to be weird, is it not?” She asked while looking at Ian with worried eyes.

“I doubt they know it’s the end of shooting. I can’t believe honestly the time flew so quickly,” Raelynn mumbled.

Ian placed a hand on her head while slowly tugging on her hair.

“It’ll be fine,” he reassured, although, on the other hand, he was the one who needed it.

The days had been rough, but the end of shooting just meant the beginning of a new movie for the world. The Saga he so badly wanted the world to see was finally beginning. But the shooting, which had been exhausting and fun at the same time, had to come to an end.

An end he didn’t think he’d dislike.

“Yeah, it will. The real work begins after this, and did you talk to Niko? He needed to discuss the rest of the schedule yesterday,” She looked up to look at Ian, who looked exhausted even after getting his night's sleep.

“I slept for almost four hours,” Ian said and stood up.

Raelynn sighed loudly and kept watching Ian who walked out of the room and inside the bathroom to get a shower.

She propped back on the bed and sighed again.

-

[On Set]

Ian and Raelynn who sat next to each other, kept looking at the little screen while listening to the silence from their headphones.

As the music was yet to be added, they were simply looking at the act closely.

Luke, Han, and Chewbacca enter the huge ruins of the main temple. Hundreds of troops are lined up in neat rows. Banners are flying and at the far end stands a vision in white, the beautiful young Senator Leia. Luke and the others solemnly march up the long aisle and kneel before Senator Leia. From one side of the temple marches a shined-up and fully repaired Artoo-Detoo. He waddles up to the group and stands next to an equally pristine Threepio, who is rather awestruck by the whole event. Chewbacca is confused. Dodonna and several other dignitaries sit on the left of Princess Leia. Leia is dressed in a long white dress and is staggeringly beautiful. She rises and places a gold medallion around Han's neck. He winks at her. She then repeats the ceremony with Luke, who is moved by the event. They turn and face the assembled troops, who all bow before them. Chewbacca growls and Artoo beeps with happiness.

…. The entire scene was taken by not a single attempt, but by shortening it into many scenes and trying over and over. However, when the last scene was cut, Ian felt a ping of happiness.

“This is it,” he whispered to himself.

Niko kept standing behind Ian and Raelynn, looking at Ian with gleaming eyes.

“That is it? Ian!” Niko yelled while his voice echoed through the walls of the set.

Ian stood up and looked around.

All the actors and the crew were scattered around in different places. Some were tired, while some were busy doing their jobs.

Ian saw how Mark Hamill was using his phone without giving a single heed to anything. And his eyes roamed around to see everyone doing their work, even Carrie.

Without another second, he walked to the front and stood in the middle of the set.

“Alright, so… This is it!” he said with the microphone, making everyone yell.

“What?!”

“Was it a perfect shot?!”

“What?!”

Mark looked shocked as he stood up immediately.

“Yeah, it’s officially a wrap. And we’ll need to meet again if there’s anything more,” Ian said and looked at the happy faces.

“Alright! It’s a party night then!” Niko yelled, making the people on set chuckle.

Niko was officially the party man who needed drinks after every good news. Seeing everyone agree with him, Ian couldn’t help but smile.

“Wrap it up, we’ll talk when we’re at the club,” Ian said, making everyone cheer again.

The days while shooting had certainly been rough, but Ian couldn’t help the excitement that crept through him.

He suddenly remembered the original movie. It was said that George Lucas was so sure this movie would flop that instead of attending the premiere, he went on vacation to Hawaii with his good friend Steven Spielberg, where they came up with the idea for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

It was mainly due to how before the release, George Lucas showed an early rough cut to a group of his movie director friends. According to Lucas, this version still contained a lot of stock footage from old war movies in the place of special effects shots and did not make a lot of sense. Most people in the room had a "what were you thinking?" response toward it; Brian De Palma reportedly called it the "worst movie ever." Nearly everyone, including Lucas, felt the movie would be a flop; the only dissenter was Steven Spielberg, who predicted that the film would be "the biggest movie of all time" and make millions of dollars. Lucas admitted that everybody in the room looked up at Steven and thought "Poor Steven."

‘What if this became a flop?’ he shook his head immediately removing the negative thoughts in his head.

‘This will work for sure. The numbers will be there when everything is out to the public,” he thought to himself while trying to gather his belongings.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw the crew packing things up, and one man took the lightsaber to pack.

With the little action, Ian remembered how in the original movie to make the lightsaber sound, Ben Burtt mixed the humming of an old 35mm projector at the university where he worked with the sound of interference from a television set. The sound of the lightsabers clashing was a mix of carbon arc noises and the pressing of metal against dry ice.

“Come, let’s go,” Niko said while pushing Ian, holding the blades off his shoulders.

Ian let out a chuckle and followed along to have a good night after a rough day.

“Pack everything up! Don’t forget your glasses!” When Ian was walking out of the room, he could hear someone yell.

“It is over,” Ian thought to himself as he passed the gates of the built-in set.

-

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