August 22nd 1978.
James sat on his desk with completed footloose script was creating a production plan for the movie.
This movie compared to friday the 13th.
Every thing was at a much larger scale than previous movie.
Just the amount of locations overwhelmed James.
Church, School, Disco, Auditorium for final dance, Town and Fields for the tractor run and many more scenes.
Cast of hundred or more people.
Crew was certainly bigger than Friday the 13th.
Soundtrack was nothing like previous one where just one orchestra recording everything would suffice.
He remembered two of the songs were nominated for Oscar's original song award as well.
Recording of the songs and album for the movie.
Finding the same singer from the original or people with similar tone and style to sing the songs.
Dancing choreographer and cordinated dances and Sheer Amount of Clothes and make up for each one.
Budget even though he was filming it five years earlier at most he can reduce one or two million from original $7.5 million budget.
James realised writing the script and screenplay was probably the easiest job of this movie.
He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes.
When he had decided to make Friday the 13th, the process had been straightforward.
This felt entirely different.
James reached for a pencil and added a new page.
FOOTLOOSE PROBLEMS
Dance Training.
Soundtrack Distribution.
Choreographer.
The word was circled twice.
James knew absolutely nothing about choreography.
Not enough to direct it. Not even enough to know if somebody was good at it.
The music wasn't much better, songs couldn't be an afterthought.
They were part of the movie.
He stared at the final item for several seconds.
Soundtrack Distribution.
That one bothered him.
Because unlike locations or choreography, he didn't even have a starting point.
Fantasy Pictures could make movies.
It couldn't produce records.
Linda stepped inside carrying two paper bags.
"Guess who remembered your lunch."
James glanced at his watch.
"You're late."
She placed the bags on his desk and dropped into the chair opposite him.
For a moment she watched him stare at the pages.
"You've got that look again."
"What look?"
"The one where you're trying to solve twenty problems at once."
James pushed the notes toward her.
Linda scanned the page.
The further she read, the wider her eyes became.
"Good lord."
"Exactly."
She pointed at the list.
"We have to teach people to dance?"
"A lot of people."
She continued reading.
Then stopped.
"Soundtrack distribution?"
James nodded.
"So we need music people."
"Apparently."
She tapped the page.
"Do we know any music people?"
"No."
"That's unfortunate."
"It is."
For a moment both sat quietly.
Then Linda reached into the bag and handed him a cheeseburger.
"Well."
James unwrapped it.
"Well what?"
"We solved one problem."
He looked at the burger.
Linda smiled.
"You're no longer hungry."
James shook his head.
"Your standards for problem solving are remarkably low."
"Yet effective."
He had to admit she wasn't wrong.
For the next half hour they sat together going through the list one item at a time.
The more they talked, the longer the list became.
Linda eventually dropped the pencil onto the desk.
"This is getting worse."
"It is."
Every solution seemed to create two more questions.
Hiring Dancer, Rehersal, Place for Rehersal, Cordinating the rehersal with filming schedule.
Forget Recording of Songs and distribution.
Who is producing the Album,
How many ?
What type? Cassete, Vinly ?
The script had somehow transformed into an avalanche of logistics.
The office door opened.
Jerry walked in carrying his bag.
He was here regarding permanent hiring that james had told him on phone few days back.
He stopped when he saw the paperwork and glum faces of two people in front of him.
"Looks serious."
James pointed at the chair.
"Sit down."
Jerry immediately became suspicious.
"Why?"
"Because I'm suffering and I want company."
He dropped into the chair and grabbed the nearest page.
His eyes moved down the list.
Then he whistled.
"Damn."
"That's exactly what I said," Linda replied.
Jerry suddenly laughed at two of them.
James and Linda were very confused and looked at each other.
"Problems... James you are an idiot."
James already irritated was on verge of outburst of anger.
"You have a solution to these problems."
Jerry chuckled at this childish provocation.
"Solution to most of these problems is hiring a well known producer, probably would be better if they have worked in production of a musical before."
James utterly flabbergasted at such an easy solution.
Jerry amused at this young inexperience director decided to scare him further.
"You're real problem is none of this, I assume you want to direct this movie."
James sobering and calming down from his irritation and anger nodded his head.
"Then you better be prepared, 18 year old director, you will be working with real actors and plenty of extra and support cast who will be eager for screen time and keeping their ego in check and establishing authority in front of bunch of 20 year old."
James had not thought about it from this angle. Certainly being the investor and producer of the movie with ultimate authority. It was easier for him to establish authority but to gain respect of each cast member to have them follow his commands just money is not enough.
Much more as filiming would proceed risk of people being fired on the spot would decrease as that will increase the budget and authority of director without respect and trust.
"I don't need to say the rest, you understand it better than me."
James realised this project was his biggest test of his ablities as a director.
Jerry decided to give final nail in the coffin.
"There is one more thing. James join a dance class or at least learn all the basic about it and study. Directing dance musical without knowledge about what you want to shoot would be recipe for disaster."
James nodded.
"I already planned that, I had linda search for dance class and private dance course on types of dance."
Jerry stood.
There is one more thing he placed the sheet of page and pointed at Choreographer.
"I know a guy who worked commercials with dancers."
"You know a choreographer?"
"No."
"Then why are you smiling?"
"Because he might know somebody who knows one."
"Welcome to networking."
James relieved took that guys number and name.