On Camera

Clara Alderson was just an ordinary English major. She had some good friends, some bad grades and some wild memories. What she didn't have was more of a problem: money.

Her parents had always warned her there were no jobs for English majors, and it turned out there wasn't much of a demand for them halfway into their degree either. She had taken on some freelance work and done a few internships, but none of it was steady work, and none of it would be near enough to pay tuition.

It was right then, when Clara was at her most desperate, that Carter Trulaine came onto the scene. He was a bit over weight and a bit too confident, but he had big ambitions, and one of them involved someone like Clara.

He called her smart. He called her beautiful. He called her perfect for the role.

She ignored him. Until he told her he would pay her.

Then, well...what were two years of her life really worth?

×÷×

Jacob Price hated the word 'motif', and he barely even knew what it meant. All he knew was that his stupid screenwriting teacher was obsessed with them, and that if he hadn't failed that stupid class, he would still have been a student at one of the most prestigious film schools in the country.

As it was, he was an out of work college dropout with no marketable skills. The world needed more of those.

Carter Trulaine was a mockery of everything Jacob stood for. A trust fund kid with no creativity of his own, he funded ambitious projects and took credit for their success. He was lazy and arrogant, and Jacob would have hated him if they had conversed for more than five minutes.

As it was, Carter was looking for a new cameraman, someone with a lot of extra time and few attachments. All he asked Jacob was if he could point a camera at the same person for two years straight.

At first the job had seemed condescending, demeaning, even patronizing.

Then he offered the money.

Then, well...what kind of film student would he be if he couldn't point a camera at someone?