Blurred Boundaries (3 page)

“I must agree,” Rock chimed in. “Time is money and we have neither to waste.”

After another moment, she gave a solemn nod. “Okay then. The unit production manager, I think her name is Tanzi? We meet with her to see what money we can move around. She’s going to have to work out a new schedule with the first assistant director. After that, we meet with the department heads. Get them up to speed.”

Evan nodded his agreement. So far, she was making sense. He was more than willing to go along with things as long as the script was everything she’d promised. That was making him a bit nervous. “We need to rehearse.”

“Yes. We should get the cast back to the hotel for a table read ASAP. That way, the set will be free for any construction that needs to happen.” She turned to Rock who was looking almost as impressed with her quick decision-making as Evan felt. “Assuming you’re okay with suspending the shoot for the day.”

“Of course, of course. We are all doing double duty. My suggestion? Tanzi should handle the department heads while we read with the cast. Save some time, no?”

Tam smiled at him. “I like how you think. Do you want to bring her up to speed? Evan, can you round up the cast and herd them back to the hotel in an hour? I’m going to go on ahead and get us the space. I’d prefer not to do this in the lobby.” She held up a thumb drive. “Do we have anyone who can make script copies?”

Evan took the drive. “I know just the person,” he said and opened the door to find the PA still diligently guarding his post.

With one more smile and a wave, Tamara left Evan and Rock on the soundstage. He couldn’t help but marvel at the confidence that seemed to ooze from every single one of Tam’s pores. Evan envied her that calm. He was a professional so he knew his easy smile didn’t hint at the state of panic he was currently being sucked toward. This whole situation was a nightmare and one that he’d never thought could happen in a million years. Yet, here they were.

Evan clapped the kid on the back to encourage him to walk along. “Remind me of your name?”

“Justin.”

“Well, Justin, I need you to do something else for me.” Evan showed him the thumb drive. “I sure hope you’re up for the task.”

Tam slid behind the wheel of her rental car. She was totally on the verge of having a panic attack. It took her three tries to get the key in the ignition, her hands were shaking so badly. She wasn’t even a staff writer. She had absolutely no clout in this situation at all. Yet, both the star of the show and the episode’s director had agreed to go along with her crazy scheme for them to continue shooting on their own. Talk about a serious lucky streak. Or mad desperation.

She finally got the car in gear and managed to get out of the parking lot onto the street without hitting anything. Fortunately, the hotel was nearby and not that complicated to get to so only a confirming glance at the GPS was enough to point her in the right direction. What in the world was going on here? And where was Gavin? He was the one who was supposed to be supervising this shoot. Not her. Then again, the mistake had happened on his watch. Maybe he’d figured it out and decided to lay low for the time being.

Not her. This was her one shot. At the very least, she wanted it to be good. She was proud of the script she’d turned in and hadn’t been able to wait to see it on screen. Now, she was dangerously close to that not happening. All because of a stupid mistake. Thank God, Evan had summoned her to the set like he had. At least she now was in a position to try to salvage her episode. Things could be a whole lot worse. She could still be sitting on her couch in L.A. waiting to see a finished product that would never materialize. But she was here on location now and completely ready to cock block any other impending disasters that would keep her dream from reaching fruition.

She parked at the hotel and texted Gavin again. She was kind of worried that no one seemed to know where he was. Hopefully, he’d get back to her soon. In the meantime, she had a ton of logistics to conquer.

The fastest hour of her life was spent getting permission to use one of the ballrooms. In the midst of setting up the table read, something she’d never done before, she realized that it might be nice to have snacks available. She texted Frederico, their craft services person, to ask him to relocate to the hotel. A short time later, the PA who’d been standing outside the office at the soundstage raced in with a box of scripts. The two of them were still setting up the table when cast members started trickling in. That was when she’d realized that she’d left her laptop back at Evan’s trailer.

At that point, she was living in a perpetual state of panic so her anxiety really couldn’t climb that much higher. She decided she’d go old school and hand write notes on her script during the rehearsal. She’d go back to the trailer once they were finished. With one crisis effectively back-burnered, Tam and the PA she’d come to know as Justin helped Frederico set up a food table. More than once, she and Justin exchanged annoyed looks over the craft services guy’s constant grumbling. Still, it wasn’t something she had time to address at the moment, so Tam let it go.

The room was rapidly filling up. She caught Rock’s eye and he gave her the tiniest nod. From what she’d heard of his reserved nature, that was high praise indeed. She sent a smile his way then turned and locked gazes with Evan who had just arrived with his co-stars, Audra Teckler and Marc Kramer. He held up her laptop bag when he caught her eye. She clapped her hands over her heart in gratitude. The man had totally just saved her life.

“We have much to do. Shall we start?” Rock raised his voice over the ruckus. There was a bit of meandering, but not a lot as everyone found a seat around the table.

Rock waited at the head for them to settle. Everyone turned curious gazes his way. “I am sure you are all wondering at this abrupt schedule change.” Tam heaved a sigh of relief. He wasn’t going to put her on the spot to explain to this room full of strangers. “The network has decided that we are to go a new direction. They sent Tamara Keller to us with the new script. Let us read.”

“I’m sorry. New script?” Audra spoke up and flipped her luscious red tresses over her shoulder. It took everything in Tamara not to shift under the woman’s green-eyed scrutiny. She addressed the next part of the question to her. “As in completely new?”

Having only thumbed through the old script, Tam couldn’t answer that question with any confidence. However, she did her best. “There are substantial changes,” she said with more confidence than she felt. Almost twenty pairs of eyes were on her. Quite a few looked as suspicious of this last minute change as Audra had sounded. Tam looked to Evan for support, but he was texting. So much for his having her back. When he looked up, he gave her a nod. Or maybe she’d been too hasty.

Audra’s phone flashed on the table. She checked it then looked between Evan and Tam. She still looked tense, but she sat back in her seat and opened the script. “Let’s read.”

For the next couple of hours, Tam had the experience of her life. For the first time ever, she heard her words read back to her by people who were worth every penny of their nice salaries. The beginning was a bit rocky because there was still an element of wariness in the room stemming from both the unusual situation and the fact that she was a complete stranger crashing their little family.

By the end of the teaser, they began to trust her and got lost in the story. Most of them anyway. Audra continued her skepticism well into act one. She was completely wooden in her delivery and kept shooting searching looks Tam’s way. It was almost like she was trying to determine if Tam was a friend or foe. The reveal at the end of act one was an emotional high point for Audra’s character, Emmaline. That scene seemed to be enough to win Audra over and solidify her support. For now.

Tam allowed herself a little smile. It was simply amazing the way the scenes came alive in her head as the actors breathed life into the characters. As the story progressed, the cast relaxed and laughed at her jokes. She even heard a couple people gasp at key plot points. Overall, she’d delivered a solid, entertaining script.

However, there were a few places that caused people to get tongue tied. Tam had found it easier to keep up on paper and abandoned her laptop. She noted the lines that needed work. There were a couple places where the actors ad libbed. She noted what was said so she could incorporate it into the draft that they’d ultimately shoot. On occasion, Rock would give a brief note of direction to the actor and have him or her reread the line. Tam jotted that down, too.

When they’d reached the end, they surprised her with a loud round of applause. Tam applauded them right back.

“You guys are so amazing,” she complimented. “Thank you.”

Before she had time to get a big head, a tiny woman with short electric blue hair pulled back in two ponytails sidled over to her and stuck out her hand. “I’m Tanzi Harris. Can we talk?”

“Sure.” Tam and Tanzi found a quiet corner away from the group.

Tanzi gave her a wry shrug. “I just love being a Donna Downer, but if we shoot this, we’re going to be over budget by about thirty-eight thousand dollars.”

Tam took a fortifying breath. “Wow. That much, huh?”

Tanzi nodded. “Normally, that wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but we’re at the end of the season and Schenecki’s episodes next week sucked up our extra cash. They’re the two-part season finale.”

Tam shot a glance Rock’s direction. “And Rock is done if we don’t cut that number down.”

“Unfortunately, yeah.” Tanzi agreed. “But he’s also done if we don’t turn in a cut.”

“Okay. So how do we cut thirty-eight thousand dollars and still finish in four days?”

Tanzi bit her lip and studied Tam as if she were trying to decide if she should proceed.

“Out with it,” Tam encouraged.

“Okay. We’ve got to go guerilla. I can shift money from craft services and some other areas that will make you and me the most hated people on the crew, but I don’t see any other way. I’m not even sure why they insisted we shoot this on location. Aside from the airfare, this hotel is costing us an arm and leg.”

Tam looked around the room at the milling actors. Some were rehearsing their lines, while others were horsing around. Most were chatting with one another and enjoying a snack.

“When I checked in, I was given my own room. Is that the case with everyone?”

“Yeah. Why?” Tanzi asked.

“How do you think folk’ll feel about roommates for the rest of the week? That could save us some money right there.”

Tanzi laughed. “I can get the crew to fall in line but the talent might be another story. Especially since they don’t know what really happened.”

“Let’s start with the crew and move on from there. Let me see what I can do about the cast.” Tam flipped through the budget Tanzi handed her. “Any other cuts we can make?”

The UPM shrugged. “Set ups. We have quite a few in this script. Fewer set ups mean more shooting time.”

Tam nodded. “That’s on me. I’ll go over the script with a fine tooth comb tonight. Figure out what we can consolidate. Where were you planning to start in the morning? You know, so I don’t cut those by mistake.”

Tanzi smiled. “Yeah. That would be bad. Scene 42a, interior Emmaline’s house is up first. I thought we should get the big stuff out of the way. Call time is at four tomorrow morning. We should be rolling by five.”

Tam checked her watch. Ten hours seemed reasonable. She just had to get cracking. “Got it.” She started to walk away, but paused. “Is there any way I can see the dailies from today? Maybe I can salvage something.” Tanzi hesitated a moment so Tam backed off. Maybe she was overstepping. She’d already come in with a wrecking ball. No need to make things worse. “I don’t want to impose.”

Tanzi shook her head. “It’s not that. I was here for most of the rehearsal. Let’s just say that your script goes in a completely different direction.”

“That bad, huh?” Tam sighed. “Okay. I guess I really need to take a look now.”

“Done. I’ll have them sent to your room.” Tanzi smiled at someone over Tam’s shoulder then walked away. Tam turned and nearly ran into Evan. He steadied her with a hand on her arm.

“Oops. Sorry. What’s up?” Tam gave him a smile despite the enormity of her task settling hard on her shoulders.

“Audra and I are running out for a bite and to run lines. Come with?”

Tam was surprised that her mouth felt dry all of a sudden. Maybe it was the casual way he maintained contact with her. How many times had she sighed at her television screen and dreamed of just meeting the guy? Now here he was in the flesh asking her to join him for dinner. Of course it wasn’t anything romantic. After all, they worked together now. She couldn’t believe that either, but here she was, if only for the week. The thought brought her crashing back to earth. She had one shot at this. Besides, she’d see him tomorrow on set.

“Wish I could. I’ve got some tweaks to make based on the rehearsal. Oh yeah, and I’ve got to cut about thirty-eight grand worth of locations to keep us on budget.”

“Ouch.”

“Rain check?” she asked.

“Of course. You’re saving our collective asses.” He affected a stern expression. “Now hop to it.”

“Yes, sir!” She gave him a mock salute and shouldered her laptop bag. “Talk about saving asses. Thanks for bringing this over. I can’t believe I forgot it.”

“Glad I could help. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.” Already on the same wave length, they left the ballroom, together.

“Actually. There is something that might be best coming from you.” Tam paused to see who might be in earshot. Other than a well-dressed woman who wasn’t with the show and the hotel employee completing her check in, they were alone in the lobby. Designer heels clicked across the blue marble floor when the woman gathered her bag and headed for the elevators. Confident that no one was paying them the slightest bit of attention, Tam brought Evan up to speed on the plan to share rooms to save money.

“Audra might be the only tough sell, but it’s doable. I’ll handle it.”

“You’re a lifesaver.” Tam tapped the button on the elevator to bring it back to the lobby after the woman had already gone up. “Tanzi just needs a list of roommates. We’ll do the move tomorrow.” The elevator doors slid open with a dignified ding worthy of this five star hotel. She stepped on and held the doors open. “Rock and the DP? I don’t know his name, yet. Are they besties?”

Evan snorted. “Not even close. Although, they seem to have called a truce lately. Why?”

“Got it. Make sure they don’t room together. Give the two at least some time apart. The days are going to be long and stressful enough without them having nowhere to take a break from each other.”