Fated (A Chris Evans Series)

The Bet

It was a tough job, turning a script into a movie. It wasn't all fun and games, more a long, arduous, and mostly painfully tedious process. At least, it was in the beginning. Denise thought after her time at UCLA and three years with Chris, she'd be prepared and she'd understand; she was wrong. She knew there'd be a lot of meetings before she could get to anything remotely interesting, but she'd underestimated how many.

Work began in January, immediately after she signed with Sony Pictures. Though she was preoccupied with Sebastian and Luca's wedding planning, she managed four solid weeks of work that helped move the production process in the right direction. In that four weeks, Denise and Emilia completed the initial script breakdown so a schedule and a budget for the project could be estimated. But that was pretty much all that was done as she was quickly swept into a whirlpool of personal events like her best friends' wedding and the birth of her son. Denise had to thank Chris for how understanding Emilia was being because if she wasn't his wife, she probably would've lost the opportunity a long time ago. She was a twenty-two year old graduate with no experience and zero credibility in their field of work, for them to invest in her the way they were- it was all in good faith and a great deal of kindness. Or so she thought. Truth was, Emilia saw the same capabilities Chris saw in her. Even with the setbacks her personal life had placed on the project, Emilia knew the end was going to justify the means.

Denise was also doing everything she could to make up for the lost time, pulling long days and even longer nights. Whatever they wanted from her, whatever time they needed her to give to the project- she did without hesitation. She was hard working and dedicated which was why they didn't feel the pinch when she had to ask for all that time off; they knew she'd come back with a hundred and ten percent. It would've been easy to take advantage of her work ethic, to push her to speed up the process that had been pushed back a couple of times. She wouldn't have complained if they did, but they didn't. Emilia was big on family and she wanted Denise to have time for hers, making sure she sent the girl home in time for dinner every night. "The best part about our job is that we can work from home, Denise," she'd say when Denise would argue with her.

15th of June was when she returned to work, and it was now 15th of September. Three months had passed and she was still yet to start filming. She'd sorted: how she was going to market her film; a money strategy consisting of equity funding, crowd funding, and tax incentives; prospective investors; favors and freebies which came easily due to the connections she'd gained since meeting Chris; and a lawyer to help with contracts and releases. Denise was now up to re-finalizing her script with the help of Lena Hill- a more experienced screen writer- while Emilia scouted for directors, so scenes could be numbered and the script broke down once again. Denise needed a final schedule and a final budget before she could work out the cast and crew, see which actors and actresses she could afford to hire and how many crew members she'd have to cut. She had a fairly tight budget considering she was new to the business, so if the job wasn't something crucial or something she and her current team could do yourselves- that money was put aside for something else. For example, a scout locator; Denise was going to do that herself.

Denise didn't realize how much of the production process consisted of numbers. Math wasn't her strong suit which was why she was glad she had Chris. The production team Emilia and Sony Pictures provided her with did most of the work when it came to the more corporate stuff, but she occasionally had to chime in. It was reassuring to have Chris to come home to with her work, to sit and talk and ask for advice. He was like a fountain of knowledge that she happily drank from; all the information he had stored in his brain and notes he'd taken about film making from his past experiences aided her.

Denise secretly wished Chris didn't decline his offer to be the director because she could've really used his presence on the project. But she was also glad he wasn't the director because it felt good doing something on her own, away from his name. She may have been turning to him for advice, but it was advice as her husband. It would've been different if he was a co-worker, she wasn't sure if she was ready for that yet. She knew herself and she knew with her lack of experience, she would've turned to him for everything and it would've become his film. Chris knew that too, hence why he would've declined the offer even if Jack wasn't in the picture. Denise needed to experience it on her own, especially because it was her first film. She needed to feel the exhilaration of being the one everyone turned to, at least until the director stepped in. Word on the street was Emilia was trying to find Denise a director who had a fair amount of experience, but was new enough to allow her to comment without their ego getting in the way. Three weeks and she was still having trouble.