Screenwriting

"Always market for the rich" he shouted from the end of the hall. "The poor won't feel unrepresented; if anything they'll project themselves into the rich people easily." His voice reverberated through the hall and his echo followed up dragging his confidence somehow.

I hated his gutsy statements. Especially I hated this particular phrase because by rich people, he meant East Asia, particularly Japan and South Korea. It was a rebuff to my request to include a sequence a Central Asian country reacting to an incoming apocalypse into our movie. I am a script assistant from Mongolia, and this particular douchebag is a Hollywood big name. Or at least he is behind the big names, controlling their movements like puppets. He is a screenplay writer in a word.

We were working on a run-of-the-mill disaster film. You know, the ones that go like a monster or an alien mothership has inexplicably arrived or contacted North America, and for the sake of reality, a montage of people from other continents are briefly seen being affected. Usually there's somebody from Europe, Caucasians with a British accent. Then there's a group from Africa, particularly Egypt of Algerians (I'm saying this because all I remember is some elders in traditional tight fitted skullcap. And then there's Asia, where usually women and/or children, in Hong Kong or a coastal city, stares timidly as an off-screen catastrophy is unfolding or broadcast by TV or radio.

My suggestion was if the Central Asian cast could also be shot by the secondary photography team. After all, this other continents reacting to the apocalypse had become so cliche that I promised myself that I would change this even when I was a little kid watching Hollywood movies.

As an assistant writer, I thought, it's good to make some creative changes to break out of this cliche. And down it goes, my idea.

He is right in a way. Japan and South Korea are developed nations. They have huge economies compared to ex-communist countries like Mongolia, Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan. But these countries had their own similiarity that if you show one on the screen few others would readily relate to it. Hell, with Genghis Khan's DNA being in most people, a lot of people would relate to it.

I remember bringing up this topic as one of my pet peeves in an after premiere dinner in a New York City's posh restaurant. I was sitting with a group of writers from my previous movie project. This was one of my first projects so I wanted to impress people in the beginning and went all diplomatic and schmooze-y. But as the night advanced, I found my colleagues getting hooked up with pretty ladies and few other nerds getting filtered into the solitude table as unripe fruits.

There was Nishant from Wisconsin, Gary from Chicago, and two other dudes whose name I didn't know. Nishant and I were already in a deep conversation about the British colony, the other guys had their one ears pointed to us, while sipping their beer nonchalantly and scouting for prospective hookups.

"When I was a kid, I used to collect all Hollywood references of Genghis Khan" I said "You know, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Star Trek--"

"Star Trek?" asked Gary with one brow raised.

"You know, Khaaaan!!!" I did my best impersonation of William Shatner.

"Well, the worst of it is you don't get any Indian coverage in Hollywood movies, too" Nishant lamented.

I nodded.

"But then again, you can represent all you want in Bollywood,Hollywood is not some all-endearing, equally representing donor organization. It's a money making industry, we need tried and tested tactics" Gary chimed in.

"You know, four years ago, I would hate myself for thinking like this... so racist." I said.

Both Gary and Nishant looked at me, as if to say something but stopped. Awkward silence discreetly stormed in.

I sighed, excused myself and walked up to the balcony to get some fresh air. This was the life I dreamed of, the Hollywood life, but it was not a movie, everything was painstakingly real. You still had to abide by a rule, you still had your own preconceptions about certain things...