Chapter 60: Joining the Team

Henry finished filming the B-movie and switched to the Devil's Advocate production team without a ripple.

On the first day at the assembly point, military personnel handed non-disclosure agreements to all team members, including both on-screen and behind-the-scenes staff, requiring signatures.

Of course, the leads, supporting actors, directors, producers, and other key production staff were not present. With their higher status, they naturally received different treatment.

For certain productions with strict confidentiality, especially big-budget ones, having actors and crew sign such an agreement is common practice.

But today's document... was far too thick.

Hollywood actors generally have low educational attainment, and many suffer from dyslexia. Expecting them to understand the contents of such a thick non-disclosure agreement without a lawyer present was truly asking too much.

Some obvious newcomers, including Henry, helplessly began to read it carefully.

However, the seasoned veterans merely glanced through a few pages, flipped to the back, and briskly signed their names.

A newcomer who clearly knew those veterans asked in surprise, "Brother, you don't even read the contents? Aren't you afraid of problems later?"

The veteran, cigarette dangling from his mouth, said arrogantly, "Why bother so much? The confidential content of a film is always the same. We won't get the script, so the clause about not leaking the plot has little to do with us.

"It's just about not taking photos on set and not spilling details to reporters randomly. Since our filming content seems related to the Navy, there's an extra military non-disclosure agreement.

"But it boils down to not carrying unauthorized camera equipment, and moving only within controlled zones when in military areas. Also, follow military orders and don't wander around or look where you shouldn't.

"Before entering the military zone, someone will come out to explain all this. We'll just do as they say then; why read this pile of stuff now?"

The veteran impatiently waved the signed agreement in his hand, walked forward, and handed it to the military personnel. He added, "Brother, I just want to ask one thing: is there a smoking area once we get there?"

That Navy officer wasn't too serious either; he said casually, "The ship's control officer will tell you where the smoking zone is. Just don't throw cigarette butts around and cause trouble for the brothers cleaning up."

"Alright then, brother, I have no more questions."

With a veteran taking the lead, others naturally followed the crowd, not examining the non-disclosure agreement contents closely, flipping straight to the signature page to sign their names.

Henry couldn't very well stand out, but he still used his super ability to scan the agreement contents in a flash. It took him only slightly longer than everyone else.

Based on the American legal knowledge he learned in the library, the contents of this non-disclosure agreement were standard, with no traps designed to entrap people. So he signed the name 'Henry Brown'.

Incidentally, because the tax filing deadline of April 15th was approaching, Henry read the relevant tax laws himself and filled out the forms to file his taxes.

For his super brain, this was no difficult task. The only difference between Henry now and lawyers or accountants was that he lacked the relevant degrees and licenses.

This is an American regulation: without relevant degrees, you cannot take the licensing exam. At the very least, you must attend correspondence university to obtain an equivalent degree. Otherwise, Henry would have to get himself some kind of 'master' license.

With the non-disclosure agreement part settled, an assistant director came over to take over. He handed out materials and said, "The shooting schedule is roughly as written in the materials in your hands.

"More importantly, we will spend some time filming at the San Diego naval port. Everyone will stay at hotels in San Diego city, arranged by the production team.

"Those of you who have side jobs or part-time work elsewhere at night, remember to tell your bosses to take leave during this period and not schedule any work.

"If you want to run back and forth between Los Angeles and San Diego, I don't care. But if you slow down the shooting progress, you'd better be prepared to pay breach-of-contract damages.

"Filming work inside the naval port isn't something we can extend just because we want to. If something goes wrong and the movie is ruined, you couldn't afford to pay back even if you earned for a lifetime. Do you understand here?"

"Yes, Mr." A few well-behaved newcomers answered in twos and threes.

On the first day of work, they certainly wouldn't be dragged straight to the San Diego naval port to film. Everyone stayed at the Warner Bros. studio lot to change clothes and finalize makeup.

The most troublesome were, of course, the main cast. In the movie, they wouldn't wear just one set of costumes; even the same costume would have several backups. The overall tone of the entire film began to develop under the director's control from this moment.

In comparison, the extras' costumes were simpler.

Don't look down on everyone as background characters; although their individual storylines aren't specified in the script, and even a one-line character biography might not be written.

How many people are needed for which scene, and what backgrounds these people have, are all written clearly in Hollywood scripts.

Taking the simplest element of this action film, the direct confrontation, it naturally means some people play the heroes waiting to be saved by the protagonist, while others play the villains opposing the protagonist.

Most production teams keep extras separate; they won't let a specific person wear hero costumes in one scene, following the protagonist like a little lackey, then switch to villain costumes in the next scene, fighting the protagonist fist-to-fist.

Because some extremely bored haters will really play the movie frame by frame to find the easter eggs cleverly planted by the director, or mistakes accidentally left behind.

The latter usually generates more buzz than the former, and the person picked out for faults will naturally be pinned to the pillar of shame. They become a joke for a very long time, or even find it hard to shake off for life.

As for whether any production team is rich and powerful enough to replace a whole batch of people for a single scene? It can't be said that it never happens.

But using makeup, changing hairstyles, and wearing different clothes actually makes it hard to tell the difference in non-focused states.

As long as it's not an obviously contradictory problem, consistently using a batch of extras, under contract constraints, is actually more beneficial to the production team.

After all, these are people who passed auditions; if you replace the whole batch after just one scene, how much would the workload increase?

Henry was surprisingly assigned a submarine sailor's uniform. In the movie, this belongs to the villain faction, with a chance to have fight scenes with the protagonist, so mostly several action teams handled it, with very few freelancers like Henry.

However, when taking the clothes from the prop master, Henry was stunned by the man's sympathetic look. It felt like someone would open a door the next second and ask if he had washed his butt clean.

Fortunately, that didn't happen. The Kryptonian hidden in Hollywood smoothly became a member of the Devil's Advocate production team.

(End of this chapter)