Schular sat in the director’s chair. The cloth attempted to cradle his weight, but it was really uncomfortable. He was looking at his lead actress, a young college student, a theater kid, who was as close to an Emily doppelganger as he could find. Without some shape shirting alien race anyway.
“Sorry.” Her voice cracked, and then disappeared halfway through the word. She cleared her throat and tried again, but it didn’t come out any better.
Next to her, was her brother, Schular’s other actor. “She screamed her throat raw between yesterday's shoot and practicing.” He shrugged and rubbed his thumb along his jawline. His acne raged, bright red, all along the path he traced.
“Sooo…” Schular didn’t bother finishing the sentence. He reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Fine. She can’t talk.” He waved his hand. “Or scream.”
It was practically useless really. Screams being vital to the illusion he was wanting to portray.
“We’ll film.” Schular sighed. They only had this small studio space for so many days. “Looks like you’ll be the only one saying lines.” He pointed to the brother. “Hopefully what we got yesterday, sound wise, will work for your sister.” That was a bridge to be crossed if the recorded screams were not up to snuff.
“Sounds good.” The brother nodded.
“Great.” Schular waved his hand. “Go get ready. I want you back in less than ten.”
The two sauntered off to the tiny closets dedicated as their dressing rooms.
“Henson.” Schular snapped his fingers. The bulky man who had been studying film before joining the military snapped to attention.
“Yes sir!”
“You better be able to isolate the screams from yesterday and put those sounds with the best footage.”
“Yes sir.” While Henson’s eyebrows rose for a moment, and his voice lilted just a tiny bit higher pitch,the man still saluted and went back to his job. At the moment, he was showing another agent how to work the camera.
Everything was fine. Schular stood up and stretched his aching lower back. It was going to look great when everything was finished.
It would only be a matter of time before Skylar would spill their true reason for coming to Earth. He just had to get through recording first.
Word count: 380
