Dawnbreak Boulevard plot role info

[powersthatbe]

If you are not a plot infiltrator or someone with IC reasons to share knowledge available to plot infiltrators, please do not read the comments of this post.

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Comments

Producer (Nabiki)

[powersthatbe]

The studio is going under due to your mismanagement and embezzlement. Author’s film is the last great hurrah. If a blockbuster is found in the next few months, the studio will stay afloat. You have to find a way to save the studio, and especially your own ass before things start falling down around you. Losing any of your lead actors or your writer will doom your lifestyle. Author’s film is good, but it’s not blockbuster material, you think. Perhaps if you make a few changes, it will work.

Skill: Let’s Do Lunch - You know how to work a room. Throw you at a group of random people, and you’ve got an uncanny knack for sniffing out the most important, the one with the most connections, the one with the most cash--the person you need to rub elbows with in order to get what you want done. You’ve got a finely honed sense of superficial charm that lets you dazzle your target for at least a few minutes before they’ve had a chance to really think about your approach, and if you keep at it, they may never get that chance.

Re: Producer (Nabiki)

[okanetendo]

Beautiful. They should have sent a poet.

Christina Waverly reporting in as the Producer!

[rustyhonesty]

So it looks like Jack here has some dirt on you, miss Waverly.

Re: Producer (Nabiki)

[powersthatbe]

Anything to report from week 1/plans for week 2/juicy (possibly false) rumors you'd ike to spread about your character?

Week 2

[okanetendo]

...is spent filming, making the rounds, warming up to the shining star that is Philip because she (correctly) thinks he has the Midas touch, and keeping it a secret that there was a covert product placement deal with Cadillac (makers of fine motorcars, perfect for chases) from everyone until AT LEAST the wrap party.

Producer Biography

[okanetendo]

Christina Tendou Waverly keeps telling herself that she's doing this to keep her sisters in the good life, but that excuse is looking thin after the youngest Waverly went off and married that one stuntman fella her Dad introduced her to. She views filmmaking as a business, first and foremost, as entertainment second and as fine art maybe way down there in the triple digits. It's a means to the end of getting rich, although it's a means she enjoys.

Currently, she thinks that The Phantom Thief, while there's something there, is "too cerebral" for wide appeal and is trying to retool it as less noir, more straight caper/action.

(I'm heavily inspired here by the production woes of Star Trek/I Love Lucy, and am tempted to have her married - and mutually cheating on - a Kuno type, for the Desilu Productions parallels.)

Studio Assistant (Armin)

[powersthatbe]

You know the studio is going under, but you are at a loss as to what to do or how or why. You have been working on a screenplay of your own (of any genre) for months, but you are too intimidated by Producer to actually pitch it. There is absolutely a blockbuster in what you have written, possibly what can save the studio, but you do not know how to get Producer to listen. They never do.

Skill: Every Movie’s a Circus - Every production needs someone to keep track of the nuts and bolts, the finances, the appointments, the schedules. That person is you, and this skill allows you to do that without any of the fancy modern-day conveniences we take for granted. You can juggle multiple complicated schedules with ease and handle the sorts of finances one might expect to see on a movie production.

[neverfeltthatway]

/thumbs up

Lead Actor 1 (Phillip)

[powersthatbe]

What no one, not even your fiancée, knows is that you are actually in love with the Girl Next Door. You have known her since you were children, and you would do anything for her. The engagement is just a publicity stunt that Producer pushed you into, and you’re not really certain if you want to go through with it. You have been seeing Girl Next Door at every point you can, and trying to find a way through this mess.

Skill: [name TBD] - Even the most hackneyed, ridiculous screenplay becomes Oscar-winning gold in your talented hands.

[whatsina_name]

This is the best plot skill and I love it.

[whatsina_name]

Background stuff!! Phillip Daniels, formerly Durand but his agent made him change it to sound 'more American,' grew up in and around Vineland as the child of two low level studio workers. As a child, he often hung around sets (and periodically just tagged along with people like Jack Mustang or whoever else didn't mind a cute, cheerful child who was in awe of everything) and desperately wanted to get involved in film himself. A mix of lacking connections and his parents realizing maybe that wouldn't be the best life for a child made it so he couldn't get into the industry until he was 17.

At that point, he tried literally anything- acting, singing, modeling, whatever he could think of to get him on stage or in front of a camera. When he was 20, he got his breakthrough. A movie that got cranked out with no faith that it would succeed became a huge hit, something critics and studios alike largely attributed to Phillip's talent as the lead actor. Now 26, he's still considered to be one of the most beloved and talented actors in the business, but he is still far too unsure of his position to really relax. He saw what happened to the silent film stars when the talkies took over and he's a little terrified that he'll be replaced just as easily, which is how he got talked into the publicity stunt by the produce- threats to his career are usually pretty effective.

That being said, he's already really regretting this stunt because, while it certainly is getting hype for the movie, he doesn't like what the tabloids are doing to try and smear his reputation with the public. He also just feels bad because he does like Gabe and he does kind of feel like he's stringing her along.

Lead Actor 2 (Bismuth)

[powersthatbe]

You’re tired of this. You want to go home and have an actual life, but the glitz and glamor of Vineland still compels you. Even though you have a huge heart for everyone, and do quite a lot of charity work, you like being in the spotlight. However, you have a sneaking suspicion that your fiancé (who you might or might not adore) is not as faithful as the public would believe.

Skill: [name TBD] - You’re a skilled actor. Really skilled. And if you want the audience to cry, then by golly, they’re gonna cry. You can throw out a moving performance that’s going to bring your audience to tears under just about any circumstances.

[letsgetdowntobismuth]

Checking in!

also can I just say I'm fucking loving that Bismuth is in a bullshit love triangle with Rose Quartz

Girl Next Door (Rose Quartz)

[powersthatbe]

You’ve been friends with Lead Actor 1 for as long as you can remember. Whether it is a platonic friendship or a true romance, you do not want to lose him from your life. You’re certain that Lead Actor 2 isn’t right for them, for whatever reason of your own, and you would much rather see both of them actually follow their hearts than sell their souls to the Vineland glitz.

Skill: You Can Always Count on Me - Give you a couple of toothpicks, a wad of chewing gum, and a few yards of vinyl sheeting, and somehow you can work that into a super believable cityscape.

Re: Girl Next Door (Rose Quartz)

[diasterism]

HELLO YES I AM HERE FOR THIS.

Also how ironic is it that Rose gets a skill about building while Bismuth gets one about crying????

Re: Girl Next Door (Rose Quartz)

[diasterism]

Rose is a former child star in the Shirley Temple mode who retired during her awkward puberty and never went back, mostly because she realized that she enjoyed making movie sets way more than being in front of the camera. Her mother, Blanche de Witte, is a famous director whose work was very much in the German Expressionist style. Rose grew up running around the studios with her best friend Phillip, whose parents were often working on her mother's movies.

(Currently, she has a terrible crush on Phillip's co-star and fiancee, Gabe LeBlanc, but ssssshhhhh, it's a secret.)

Director (Naoya)

[powersthatbe]

You’re between a rock and a hard place here. The Producer is pushing you to make more changes to the Author’s work than you think are really feasible, you’re not sure whether your stars are fighting, and to top it all off you’re pretty sure something’s up at the top of the food chain. But do you have time to dig into that while trying to keep this project afloat, especially when you’re keenly aware that everyone’s livelihood is at stake if no movie is produced?

Skill: [name TBD] - You can take a disparate group of highly variable individuals and tell who needs to go where and do what. More importantly, you can get them to listen, at least temporarily. Once per Jaunt, you can coax a group into cooperating on a given task.

[crouching_sin]

I am here for this and it will be hilarious.

(Though please note that I will be away from my computer from November 21 - 25 due to American Thanksgiving, but I will try to tag a bit from my phone.)

[crouching_sin]

Name: Sampson Kennedy
Age: Mid-40s(?)
Often Found: On set. ... Does he ever leave, other than to go to the bar?

Stressed and overworked, Kennedy (though for most that's "Mister Director" to you) is a large man who has turned skinny due to stress over all this bullshit. He's never been the most patient, and is known for being somewhat demanding of his actors, but it's because he really believes in making the best quality films possible.

Unfortunately, there are too many people pulling in too many directions on this project, and he's about one more executive demand from having a goddamn meltdown. That said, he can motivate like no one's business, and can absolutely get people on board with things that need doing.

Former Star (Jean)

[powersthatbe]

You left the movie business years ago, pushed out by talking films and newer, younger actors. Lately, you’ve been a bit bored, and would like to get back into the scene. You know for a fact that Producer is embezzling from Transcendent; in fact, you have the evidence to back it up in your possession. Perhaps you can use this to get back in front of the cameras.

Skill: With One Look - Acting for the silver screen--and only the screen, none of this new-fangled talkie business--is its own set of skills. The emoting is different, the dialogue is different, even the makeup is different. You know all of the subtleties and differences like the back of your own hand, and you can apply them extremely well.

[rustyhonesty]

Checking in! Jean's name will be Jack Mustang.

How old would you say he needs to be?

[rustyhonesty]

Jack Mustang is in his early fourties (42). His parents were relatively normal; both of them were someway or another involved in the film industry, just never too famous. His sister (Juliet, 30, Usagi's overlay) is currently working in catering and hoping to run her own business one day. (Unrelated but he also has a Norwegian Forest Cat called Marco von Buttercup the Third).

Either way, it was a way for him to enter the movie world, and with his natural ability and determination, he became a very bright star in the silent film era. One of the movies he was a star in was made by Rose's mother. He also has met Phillip before (when he was younger) and gets along with him rather nicely. But Gabe annoys him with her ever-so-cheerful attitude.

Jack is filthy rich and really bored. So bored. He wants to act again. He wants people to remember that he IS a star. Not that he used to be, but still is. You can't take his shine away. It's not theirs to take. He wants to prove everyone who says his career is over wrong.

So, with the evidence he has on the producer, he's going to somehow make it, even if it means using dirty tricks. Somehow, he's going to take his rightful place again.

Author (Wash)

[powersthatbe]

You are an extremely popular pulp detective fiction author, and your character (you and Lead Actor 1 brainstorm a name) beloved by people all over the country and world. You have come to Vineland as a script consultant to have The Phantom Thief made into Vineland’s next blockbuster. However, the longer you are in contact with Producer, the more you are worrying that she is trying to make Phantom Thief something it was never intended to be in the first place.

Skill: Knack for the Spectacular - You can churn fiction out like a machine. A talented, talented machine. You’ve got a natural knack for plot, character, and dialogue, and, if left alone, can crank out a significant amount of prose.

Re: Author (Wash)

[dino_zarf]

I feel like that plot skill will amuse Rose in the future.

Re: Author (Wash)

[dino_zarf]

Hoban Gregory Washburne started making up stories with shadow puppets to entertain people far from any movie theatres. Eventually it became clear that his little shadow plays actually had some pretty solid story structures to them, so he started to turn them into the Dick Firestorm mystery novels under the name H.G. Washburne. He will admit that the G is for Greg but the H is just part of the penname if anyone asks.

Since marrying notable stuntwoman Zoe Alleyne, he's actually been working on a new series with a female protaganist. But the Dick Firestorm stories are still dear to his heart due to all the people associated with their origin and dammit he wants to see them done right.