“Right.” Keith glanced at the table. The crew was looking restless, ready to get back to the set and start working. He pulled his wallet from his back jeans pocket and sorted through a small group of business cards until he found the one with the lobster on it. “Here it is. Indiana’s finest lobster,” he read from the card.
“You got his card?” The shock on Chase’s face grew. “No one would believe any of this.”
Keith slipped his wallet back in his pocket, picked up Chase’s clipboard from the nearest chair, and took a quick look at the scene list. Rita was in just about every scene scheduled to be filmed at the house, but there had to be something Chase could get started with. The clock was ticking. If the solution was at hand, good, but they needed to get everyone else busy. “Jake Olson’s ready, right?”
“He is. I saw him way before Rita showed up.”
Jake was the main lead, a good-looking twenty-four-year-old, recently discovered by the tabloids. The camera loved him, and girls across America were just finding out about him. After this movie, he was slated to star opposite Will Smith. The investors figured they were lucky to be getting Jake Olson now while they could still afford him. Keith ran his finger over the list of scenes. “There it is.” He held up the sheet so Chase could see it. “Switch the order, and start with Jake taking the letter outside to the front porch and reading it. Also the scene where he’s in his room looking at the letter a second time, going through photos of his father.” Keith studied the business card in his hand. “I’ll call the lobster guy and see what he can do.”
“Okay.” Doubt darkened Chase’s eyes. He took the clipboard and lifted his own megaphone toward the milling cast and crew. “Jake Olson, I need you.” He scribbled something on the call sheet. “Everyone else, break’s up. We’re shooting scenes four and six. Get to your places, and thanks for your patience.”
Keith had his cell phone out as he crossed the street to base camp. He placed the call as soon as he stepped into their trailer—a no-frills single-wide with a simple table and two bench seats on either side of it. He sat down and waited while the phone rang.
“Bloomington’s finest steaks and lobster, JR McDowell, how can I help you?”
The reason for his phone call would’ve been laughable at any other time but now. “This is Keith from the movie set down the street. We talked yesterday.”
“Oh, yes.” JR chuckled. “You ready to take me up on that swap. Gonna get me in the movies, are you?”
Keith winced. “Actually, let me explain what we need …” Five minutes later when he got off the phone, they had the promise of a hot filet of Alaskan salmon every morning for the next four weeks—starting with the piece he was putting in the broiler even as they spoke. After this morning, JR would even deliver the cooked fish to the set each day at seven. He would deliver it to the food ser vices truck, where it would be kept warm until Rita reported for breakfast. In turn, Keith had promised the guy he could be a professor walking in the background on one of the scenes set to be shot on campus next week.
The salmon wasn’t free, of course. At twenty-five and change per filet, they’d just added more than five hundred dollars to the budget. Keith had no choice. They’d have to find the money somewhere. He climbed into his rental car and headed toward Town’s Square. As he drove, he found a reason to be grateful. Yesterday when they were setting up, dozens of towns people approached him to ask questions about the film. Be kind to the locals, that’s what they’d learned in the mission field. In the two years since then, he and Chase had worked on the set of a new hit reality show, and they’d produced a few direct-to-DVD films for the Christian market.
With each project, Keith had only become more convinced about his philosophy regarding the locals—they’d get a lot farther in their goals if they were extraordinarily nice from the get-go. Loving people the way Jesus loved them. Not only did kindness foster good will among the neighbors and make them more agreeable to the disruption of a film crew taking over their street, but oftentimes producers needed a certain car in a shot, or some yard furniture moved to create a different look. Any of a hundred strange requests, and always the neighbors were more inclined to work with the producers if they’d been shown kindness and respect.
Now they could take the next step toward their goals all because he’d been nice to a local. Keith bounded up the steps of the restaurant, and after only a few minutes, JR handed him a plastic plate with a great-smelling piece of salmon and a heap of fresh steamed broccoli. Keith shook the man’s hand. “I might have to get you in two scenes for this.”
“No problem.” The man tipped his baseball cap. “Glad to be of ser vice.”
Keith pulled up on the set and hurried the hot plate to Rita’s trailer door. He knocked and waited a full minute before she opened it. She was still in her pale blue wrap, and she scowled at him, ready for a fight until she saw the plate in his hand. “Here,” Keith gave it to her. “Salmon and broccoli. The same thing will be here for you every morning from now on.”
Rita studied the plate and her expression softened. “Thank you.” She smelled the plate and a quiet, nervous-sounding laugh came from her. “I don’t mean to be any trouble, Keith. You know that. I didn’t think you’d find salmon this morning, and, well … I wouldn’t really have walked. It’s just … someone dropped the ball—not you and Chase—but someone, and …” another laugh, “I can’t work without salmon.” She smiled again. “You understand, right?”
“Of course.” Keith took a step back and checked his watch. “When can we expect you on set?”
“How about twenty minutes?” Again she looked sheepish. “Sorry if I made a scene. I can be a little … overdramatic at times.”
“We want you happy, Rita.” He tried to see her as a vulnerable human being, not as a spoiled actress wasting precious money and making unreasonable demands. His smile felt genuine as he took a few steps away from her trailer. “We’ll do whatever we can. See you in twenty.”
On the short walk back to the set, Keith thought about the change in his star actress. What if he’d fought with her and chastised her for her demands? This would’ve been the beginning of an adversarial relationship, and everyone on the set would’ve suffered as a result. Instead, she’d actually apologized. This is a mission field, too, isn’t it God? But is it always going to be this difficult?
My son, consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance …
The answer was a quiet whisper, one that danced in the breeze and soothed his soul. He would’ve preferred some kind of assurance that the filming could only get easier from here, but he had a better promise instead. One that was tried and true, straight from the Bible.
He stepped up onto the curb and walked up to the house, but again nothing was being shot. He’d been gone forty minutes, so he could only hope they’d finished at least one of the two scenes with Jake Olson. The electricians hovered over a section of wires off to the right side of the house, and Chase appeared to be deep in conversation with the director of photography and the assistant director.
Keith stopped a grip along the way. “What’s going on?”
“Cameras aren’t getting power.” He motioned to the group working on the side of the house. “Took awhile, but they finally figured out where the problem was. Looks like a cat chewed through a handful of wires.”
For a long moment, Keith stared at the guy as if maybe the man might laugh out loud and admit he was only kidding. Certainly this sort of trouble wasn’t a normal part of shooting on location. At least it hadn’t been for the smaller projects Keith had worked on. He thanked the guy and went to Chase, who confirmed the trouble and the fact that the damage had been done by a cat.
“We patched the wires and the cameras are working again. But the cord to the main light is damaged in several areas.” Chase raked his fingers through his hair and shook his head. “The university doesn’t have one that big, so I h
ave one coming from Indianapolis. It’ll be here in an hour.”
Keith allowed the news to fully register. Then once more he took the clipboard from Chase and scrutinized the scene list. “Ask the DP if we can use two smaller lights and get a few outdoor scenes shot. There are three here that we can work on. One of them doesn’t include Rita. Let’s start there.”
By the time they broke for dinner at five, they had captured just five of the eight scenes slated for day one. Keith wanted to lock himself in the trailer and cry out to God, because this pace would never do. They would have to add another three weeks to their film schedule if they crawled along at this rate. Chase seemed discouraged too, but they wouldn’t have time to talk until they were back at the hotel. He longed for Wednesday, when Lisa would be here and he’d have her arms to look forward to at the end of a day like this.
He was climbing into his car, leaving for the day, when he practically heard an audible reminder of the verse from earlier. Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds … He stopped and braced himself against his car. Pure joy … had day one on the set been so bad that he could forget what God was clearly trying to tell him? Ministry of any kind came at a price, and trials were part of the cost. He filled his lungs with fresh air and did one more walk around the base camp, thanking whatever cast and crew were still around and assuring them that tomorrow would be better for everyone.
“You guys are really different,” one of the grips told him when Keith was almost finished making his final rounds. “We’re not on the same team, you and us.” He removed his baseball cap and scratched his head. “But you and Chase, you’re different. It’s like you really care, you know? Ain’t never seen anything like it.”
“Thanks.” Keith grinned at the guy. “And you’re wrong. No matter what the union reps say, as long as we’re making this film, we are on the same team. All of us.”
As Keith drove back to the hotel, he felt a new, deeper joy filling his heart, giving him strength for whatever the next day held. His father used to tell him that when hard times came, they had all the more reason to be excited about the future. “The bigger the mountain, the greater the view on the other side,” he would say. Keith smiled to himself. The mission field in this new venture of filmmaking wasn’t only the audience who would see the movie. It was every cast and crew member who had reported for duty this morning. And if every day was going to bring the sort of mountains that cropped up today, he could only be certain of one thing.
The view on the other side must be breathtaking.
Six
CHASE LIKED THE ANALOGY ABOUT THE mountains and the vistas, but he had a copy of their bank statement in front of him when he and Keith met up in the hotel room. “We can’t do it,” he slid the piece of paper across the small table. “We have enough in the budget for a few days overage, but at this rate?” He released a defeated chuckle. A few delays midway through the shoot was one thing, but this early? “We’ll run out of money before the third act.”
“I’m still making phone calls, contacting people about investing.” Keith kept his tone upbeat.
“What about the investors who’ve already committed? Have you talked to them?” Chase still hoped more money might come from the familiar sources. If they’d already put up five hundred thousand or a million, they might be willing to put up more.
“You know the answer.” Keith sounded like he was trying to be patient.
“Sorry. You’re doing everything you can.” The two of them had been best friends for nearly ten years, and when it came to producing movies, Keith was by the far the more experienced. Chase leaned back in his chair, and with his free hand he tried to rub out the tension in his neck.
“I sent them all letters three weeks ago, suggesting they might want to invest more, increase their returns down the road.” He tossed his hands. “Not one bite.”
“What’s our accountant say?”
“I called him after lunch. He thinks we’re in trouble. Everyone expected at least one of the investors to come up with a few hundred thousand more, but people are nervous. The market’s shaky and investors are playing it safe.”
Chase tried not to look nervous. “Okay … then what are the options?” This was ministry, they’d agreed on that. But if they ran out of money, they’d not only fail in their mission, but they’d be in trouble with their investors. Chase took the paper from Keith again and stared at it for a long moment.
Keith’s tone bordered on dire. “There’s only one option. We find another investor. Someone who can pad us with another three hundred at least. Ten days of on-location filming. Otherwise we’re irresponsible to move forward.”
“I agree.” Chase leaned forward on his elbows. “Our accountant’s looking for someone, right? I thought he had a lead last week.”
“He had four leads. I’m following up on them, but no one’s returning my calls.” Keith massaged his temples with his thumb and fingers. “I’ve got a dozen copies of our portfolio, detailed information on the movie and its distribution channels, the breakdown on how investors will be repaid first and how they’ll benefit from the sale of DVDs. The package is enticing, but in this mar-ket no one’s sure of anything. I need to get the packets into the hands of the people who can help.”
“Exactly.” Chase felt the beginning of a headache. “We only have enough in the account if we stick to the schedule.”
For what felt like a solid minute, neither of them said a word. Then Keith sat up straighter and sucked in a full breath. “Well, then … until I can get a hold of one of these potential investors, we’ll have to stick to the schedule.”
“Come on.” Chase could feel his defeated attitude dragging both of them down, but he couldn’t help himself. They couldn’t make a movie without some kind of cushion in the bank. “That’s crazy, and you know it.”
Keith leveled his gaze across the table. “There we were in Indonesia, trapped on the wrong side of a rising river.” His voice was low and intense, every word hitting its mark. “Three women and twelve tribal children surrounded us, screaming for help. Rain flooding down from the skies.” He didn’t blink. “Can you see us, Chase? Remember how it was?”
Chase felt goose bumps rise along his arms, felt again the nausea that had swept over him at the certain death they all faced in that single moment. He swallowed hard. “We … we cried out to God.” He closed his eyes and he could hear the rushing water, feel the spray against his face. “At the top of our lungs we cried out.”
“And from nowhere a barge sailed up and rescued us.”
“Later, no one knew where the thing had come from or who had sent it.”
Keith exhaled and folded his arms across his chest. “Are you kidding me, Chase, buddy? You’re worried about a little funding for a Hollywood movie?” He lifted his chin, his confidence and faith so strong it dispelled the darkness from the room. “God brought us here. He will see us through to the end. Until then, we can plan and act and take all the prudent steps. But we can’t give way to fear and worry.” He smiled. “We have to believe, same as we did in that storm.”
“Man.” Chase clenched his teeth, flexing the muscles in his jaw. “I beg God to give me a faith like yours.”
“He will. Days like this can only make us stronger.” Keith stood and headed for the door. “Enough doom and gloom. Come with me. There’s fresh coffee in the lobby.”
Chase wasn’t sure about the coffee. It was after eight and call was at seven again tomorrow. He still needed to talk to Kelly about things back home, how she and the girls were doing. But right now he needed time with Keith more than anything. Every hour with his friend made the mountain they were facing seem less formidable.
They sat at a table in the lobby not far from a roaring fireplace. The atmosphere was more open, less oppressive than it had been back in the hotel room. Chase made himself a cup of hot cider and sat opposite his friend. “Doesn’t anything scare you?” He’d seen Keith show fear before. The time in Indones
ia when Andi went missing, and another season when it looked like Lisa might be sick. But most of the time the guy was rock solid. Chase breathed in the steam from his sweet-smelling drink. “Don’t you ever wonder why we’re doing this?”
“No.” He grinned over the top of his coffee cup. “I know why we’re doing this. But sure … I get scared sometimes. Scared for our culture, our country. Scared that Andi and your girls will have to grow up in a world where the lines between right and wrong have vanished for good.” He was quiet for a minute, thoughtful. “When I think about all this, about the purpose in making movies with a message, I guess it comes down to conveying one thing.”
“One?”
“Pretty much.” He took a slow sip of his coffee. “We need to tell the world the truth.”
“Not everyone’s lost the truth. Andi has her head on straight. The kids she went to high school with, they seemed pretty strong.”
“For now.” Keith narrowed his eyes. “Sometimes I’m not so sure about Andi. Once in a while she’ll say something and I’ll know she didn’t get that from Lisa and me, and certainly not from anything she learned in the Bible.” He gave a slow, sure nod. “The culture’s a powerful thing. And the culture pays attention to movies.” He stared for a while into the dancing fire. “Everywhere you look, nearly every movie out there has a lie at its core. I want so much more for Andi, for the kids of her generation.”
“And we can help with that?”
“We could.” Keith’s smile was easy. “A couple of willing guys looking to change the world … God’s used less than that in the past. A stuttering recluse to change the mind of the Pharoah of Egypt … a scrawny kid with a stone and a slingshot to bring down the Philistine army.” His eyes shone brighter than before. “A group of fishermen to bring the message of hope to an entire world.”
“They didn’t even have a movie screen.”
“Exactly.”
Chase raised his eyebrows and waited. Keith’s assessment of the culture was bleak, but it was right on. “Truth. The foundations that used to hold up our culture. If we can resurrect those, then the next generation might find the direction it’s missing.” Chase gave a low whistle. “Pretty big mission.”
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