Tales of a BB Girl

Chapter 3: Meeting

School started to pass in a blur, as it always did at that point in the year. We were being snowed under by work – it was so easy to fall behind on homework. Keeping up with it was tiring enough.

Melanie was periodically sending me updates about the film in the works. Nothing major for quite a while – then they wanted to talk to me.

‘You’ll need to bring a parent or guardian,’ Melanie had told me, ‘since you’re still a minor. Don’t worry about it – it’s your book, you can’t be wrong. I have a very nice deal for you up there, you’ll like it.’ She’d smiled, then. ‘Go get ‘em, tiger.’

I’d been so scared of her when first looking for representation, but now she didn’t hesitate to email me funny articles that had caught her eye. Strange, but I wasn’t complaining.

The meeting was held in some executive office that I could never quite remember the name of, try as I might. I took the plane with my mum, as requested, and was shown the way by a smiling attendant with something that looked like ‘Mike’ on his name badge.

‘Thanks, Mike!’ I called as I walked past.

‘My name is Miles,’ he said, still smiling.

Oh, crap. Barely in the door and I’d already embarrassed myself. I ignored my nerves and knocked on the door of a conference room. The room number matched the one on my card, so it must be right. I was let in after a minute or so and guided to a chair at the side of the table.  

I was drawn to the window immediately, to the incredible view of the city. London. Just barely restraining myself from walking over and pressing myself against the glass in the interests of professionalism, I clasped my hands together and smiled tightly, trying to hide my nerves.

Melanie had spent ages assuring me that they wouldn’t pull the plug on the whole thing if I messed up and that I had nothing to worry about, but I couldn’t help it. Winter sunshine beamed down on me, I sat in a plush, expensive chair, and it was all I could do to keep from shaking.

It didn’t help that I was getting odd looks from the others in the room. We seemed to be waiting for a boss, and in the meantime all the others were looking from me to my mother, probably wondering if it was her movie deal and  I was her daughter. I shook my head, trying to dispel thoughts like that. No, of course they knew what this was about. This was their job.

And mine now, a voice inside my head whispered. All the trip’s doubts were replaced with a mounting joy, silently screaming you’ve done it you’ve done it you did it it’s happening right now in real life.

I looked up as the door swung shut and a young man – he looked to be in his late 20s entered the room breezily and sat down in the top chair.

‘Morning, everyone,’ he said. I liked him already.

‘Today we have the author of the original book and her parent with us to talk a little about the adaptation, so I hope you’ll all make her feel welcome.’ He turned to me. ‘While it’s not all fun and games here, Ms. Gabrielle, we certainly try to enjoy ourselves along the way.’

I grinned. I couldn’t help it – he seemed to leak positive energy. ‘May I ask your name?’

‘I’m Landy,’ he said. ‘I’m the newly appointed Director. Beside me is Ragnor, Producer.’ Ragnor waved. Landy pointed. ‘There’s Dennis, he’s a script writer. I expect your agent has been in contact with you and him and that you’ve been over this plenty before we got the green light.’ He went around the table, introducing everyone. There was no chance I’d be able to hold all the names in my head, but the first three stuck. Everyone else I could learn along the way.

Then Landy turned to me again. ‘Alright, Gabrielle, we didn’t bring you here for no reason.’ He handed me a bundle of paper. ‘Have a look at that. I know you and Melanie have already given the go-ahead for the script, but we wanted to talk about how we’re going to convert that into a film.’

I scanned the sheets. They held the script, with action tags underlined in red – under consideration, I guessed.

‘What’s important to you, that we get across in the film?’ he said. ‘Melanie and I were talking and we agree that it’s best to do this right.’

 I didn’t want to sound too demanding, but then again it was an adaptation of my book and I didn’t want it to go wrong. ‘I don’t want romance where I haven’t written it,’ I said. ‘No ‘Hollywood romance’, none of that stuff. Anything that’s implied, I’d appreciate being given a look at how you want to show it.’

Landy pulled a copy of my book out from his bag. ‘This’ll be very helpful, then.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. He said something to the rest of the executives and they left the table, so that only him, my mum and I were left. We spent the next couple of hours marking things to take note of while Mum watched videos on her phone before going to lunch break.

‘I’ll keep in contact with you,’ said Landy as we were leaving. ‘I know you live in Ireland, so we’ll try not to have you flying over all the time. But we’ll keep in touch and make sure it’s a good fit. The next big thing we’ll be taking care of is a meeting with the Casting Director. You’ll enjoy that.’ He went with us to the airport and we waved goodbye.

‘Never thought I’d have a film Director drive me to the airport,’ Mum said, shaking her head. ‘But you still have that French test in a few days, don’t forget.’

I laughed and agreed with her. I’d completely forgotten about that. My priorities were all over the place – but whatever, a Casting Director! I knew what they meant; real, proper actors. Crazy.