[Tyler] Interview Time

[Collin Scott Reynolds]

Collin lifted his forehead off of his desk, the phone still to his ear. “ I just want to shoot the fucking video how hard is that to ask? I’m going to see if Logan will do a cameo, trying to “mold” the guys into what they think will ‘sell’. We’ve got a few artists we wanted to make fun of. We mentioned Blake which brought about a few seconds of silence. I don’t think anyone wants to piss her off.” he said, scratching the back of his neck as he looked down at his day planner. Ellie had made him get one. Which in all reality wasn’t bad, she’d filled out most of it for him – appointments, meetings, shooting schedules. She wrote little notes on random days, to ‘save some energy’ for when he got home on busy days, colored post-its to keep it organized. He smiled softly as he thought of her, looking up at his computer, where he saw her picture scrolling as his screensaver. Headphones on, leaning against the wall in the studio, twirling the cord around her fingers. It was weird, really… How easy it seemed to be with her. Hell just recently she had pretty much taken over a drawer at his place for her stuff. “ What? I’m sorry” he said into the phone, realizing he had spaced out for a second there. “ Alright well.. lets just get the fucking building permit shit. I know that legally we don’t have to, but let’s contact the other artists we are poking fun at in the video to give them a heads up. I’ll…call Katy,” he said with a slight shake of his head. “ Alright, get to work. “ he said jokingly before he hung up the phone. Collin looked over at his sandwich, which has been brought in by Blake an hour ago and he still hadn’t been able to touch it. Just as he was reaching for it, there was a knock at the door, followed by the young kid stepping inside that he was supposed to interviewing. Today was busy as hell, and he really didn’t have time for an interview. But.. that just reminded him. That was exactly the reason he needed an intern in the first place, an apprentice of sorts. He needed to make time. “ Oh hey man” he said, standing up from behind his desk.

Collin walked over to Tyler, holding his hand out to him before he shook it firmly and gave a nod. “ Look we are really excited to have you come in and interview.. I hope you don’t mind that I eat lunch.” he said with an apologetic grimace. Once he was done shaking his hand he gestured for Tyler to have a seat before going to stand behind his own desk where he sat down. Suddenly like a whirlwind of an invasion his door flew open, Blake Parker. “ WHAT THE HELL, REYNOLDS?” she screamed loudly before he pointed towards Tyler sitting in his chair, not bothering to say anything. “ Oh” Blake said, running her hands over her skirt of her dress before she placed a smile on her face. “ Pleasure to meet you..” she said before shuffling over to Collin’s desk and placing her hands on his desk, narrowing her eyebrows as she looked down at him. “ North Carolina. “ “It has the best landscape for what you wanted.” “ Look harder” “ Come up with a different concept princess.” “ My concepts always match my songs” “ North Carolina.” “ Sound stage” “ North Carolina”. “ I’m talking to Renner” “ Oooooh” he said with a slight smile before Blake turned back to Tyler and offered him another smile. “ Have a good day sweetheart,” she said to him before shuffling out of the office. “ Look I am terribly sor-“ he started off before Anabelle poked her head in. “ Gracie” he said exasperatedly. “ Pardon me y’all.. I saw that you had company and by the looks of it.. I was right.. you didn’t offer him a beverage” she said with the brightest smile she could possibly muster on her face. “ Your mama would be so disappointed in you,” she said, bringing her finger to her lips to suggest she wouldn’t tell. Anabelle brought herself in front of Tyler, kneeling down with her tray of goodies. “ Hey there puddin’, my name is Anabelle Hart.. I’m a friend of Collin’s here.” she said, pointing to Collin before she turned back to Tyler. “ You are cuter than a puppy dog wrapped up in a ribbon floatin’ away on a balloon” she said, patting his knee lovingly. “ Here you go,” she said, placing the tray of cookies, brownies, bars, pastries in front of Tyler and quickly went to go and get him a glass of milk, one for Collin as well, before setting it down. “ Again I am so sorry.. It was beyond a pleasure to meet you, sweet pea” she said, leaning down to wrap her arms around Tyler in a hug. “ Good luck, sugar. Play up the fact that you think stereotyping all artists to be the same is outlandish. I saw your tape, I know that’s true.” she said, before kissing his cheek and leaning away to give him a wink. “ Alrighty now.. If y’all need anything at all, Collin you know where to find me. Bye boys.” she said, giving them another wave as she made her way out the door. This time Collin got up, going over to lock it and gave Tyler a shake of his head. “ Even when I’m not busy, I’m busy” he said, offering him a small smile. “ Alright,” Collin started, clapping his hands together as he made his way to the desk. Well.. milk and cookies did sound good. He reached over, taking one and placed it in his mouth before he took out the file that Kayla had sent in, along with the video she had put together. “ Look I get that this is slightly unorthodox. You’re at an interview for something you yourself didn’t apply for. So I’m probably going to start this conversation off in a way I have never started any interview off.. and one you’ll never hear again” he said, licking his lips as he started to open the case since he wanted to show the kid the video that was put together. “ Why didn’t you? Apply, that is.” he said, looking over at Tyler as he placed the dvd into the player and started working on turning the tv on.

[Tyler James Kingsley]

Tyler stepped into the office, nervous for something he wasn't even prepared for which made tons of sense. He had no idea what he was even doing, he should be nervous. Tyler nodded, "Hey man," and returned the hand shake, shaking his head, "No, it's cool." Tyler sat down but they were interrupted by Blake Parker. Tyler had heard she could be a diva sometimes but Tyler always thought that was just tabloids just trying to stir up shit. She seemed to be calling the shots. No sooner after she had left that another one of the label artists came in, Anabelle Hart. And she was definitely as country as they made her out to be, bringing in a tray of treats and glasses of milk. Tyler didn't know exactly what this internship would entail but he could definitely get used to the hospitality around this place. Tyler thanked her and she was on her way again, this time Collin locked the door.Tyler listened while Collin seemed to be getting a DVD ready and turned the TV on, asking him why he hadn't applied for the internship. For starters, Tyler didn't exactly go around looking for internships, the reason being that Tyler didn't look at himself as internship material. And Tyler had a feeling Kayla hadn't mentioned it because Tyler probably would have told her not to apply for him, or not done it himself either anyways. Though, Tyler didn't think that was what Collin was asking. Collin wanted to know why Tyler would have said no, since it was obvious Kayla had been sneaky for a reason.

Tyler shrugged, "I don't know, I guess I never really looked at myself as internship material. I mean, I don't really get good grades. I get just above passing so I can stay on the soccer team, if it wasn't for that... school isn't really my thing. That doesn't look good on applications. I never really thought employers would see me as a responsible employee if you get what I mean." Tyler hesistated, "I don't want to waste anyone's time looking over my app when I know I'm probably not what they are looking for." Tyler may not have been book smart or focused in school, but he had enough sense to know not everyone was going to look at him the way Kayla did, like the whole world was at his fingertips and he could do whatever he set his mind too. People weren't as ready to believe in him like that. He knew the first thing they saw was a skateboarding, guitar playing, goof off that wasn't responsible or reliable enough to hire. As true or untrue as any of it may be, he could at least see what people saw.

[Collin Scott Reynolds]

Collin put the video on silent as he listened to Tyler speak. And quite honestly, he got that. He understood it, completely and knew exactly where he was coming from. He nodded along, “ You’re probably right,” he said, in the sense that he might not be responsible enough for this type of situation. “ The fact of the matter is you probably aren’t. You’re in highschool and I’m looking for someone to take on the challenges that I don’t trust adults that have been in the industry for years with.” he said, licking his lips as he fast-forwarded on the tape. “ There’s a reason I called you in here today, Tyler. I saw the guitar playing soccer star athlete kid on the video-tape already, I already get that version of you. Your problem is that you’re a teenager and you think the world ends at the end of your block,” he said before giving a deep sigh. “There was something different about your application,” he said, pausing when Kayla’s face came into focus on the screen and set the remote down and turned to look at Tyler. He chewed on the inside of his lip. “ Ninety-nine percent of people that apply for internships in ..’ the business ‘ have no problem believing in themselves. Most of them are their own number one fans and their egos wouldn’t be able to make it through my door. You’re a kid, you have fun, .. you just said you kept your grades where they needed to be just for soccer. You’re passionate enough about something to put in the work where it needs to be. But what separates you is that you have someone that believes in you. Not everyone gets that.” he said, pointing the remote towards the paused frame of Kayla on the television screen.

“ When I was in highschool I used to leave during lunch hour just to get high. To this day I can’t tell you what my second half of the day was like all throughout my high school experience” he said while shaking his head. “ Internships I think.. are perfect for ..” he said, before he realized he wasn’t sure how to exactly phrase this. He made a slight face, “ You haven’t had a reason to be held accountable, yet. You’re about to graduate high school. An internship is the perfect way for you to sort of.. test drive the world as an adult. It’s not a career you can crash and burn, it’s a little taste test.” he said before licking his lips, “ Now.. I don’t think I need to sell the idea of an internship to you anymore. Let’s talk a little bit about what projects we’ve got going on, and I want to see your input, see how your brain processes things, where your creativity comes from, alright?” he said, standing up from his desk. He gestured to the television screen, “ You can watch your girlfriend later,” he said before he walked over to the whiteboard in his office that had pictureboards and drafts attached to it right now for all of his music videos that were up and coming. He had just wrapped All Time Low’s ‘I Feel Like Dancing’ so he reached up, taking those sheets down before he set them on the side. “ Most people don’t think that my job is that hard. But most people couldn’t do what I do. Not every video is going to have a message.. if you try to put something deep into every single video, you’ll drive yourself insane and wallow in your own sorrows at your failure.” he said before adjusting his pants at his hips. “ You’re a friend of Joel Foster,” he said point blankly, having already talked to Joel about him. “ He doesn’t mind you listening to this,” he said, taking his ipod out and setting it on the dock. “ He just wrote it for his fiancé,” he said, letting the beginning of ‘As Long As You Love Me’ started to blast through the speakers. “ It’s a rough edit since he isn’t done producing it, but we have to start early in the game. Here’s what I have so far” he said gesturing to the plans so far before he turned to look at Tyler. “ Your passion is soccer right? Listen to the music. Listen to what you think the message is,.. but keep in mind who the artist is, and the way they want to be presented. Use that same gut reaction that you do when you’re on the field,”

[Tyler James Kingsley]

Tyler sat and listened to Collin, not sure where he was going with this. Sure Tyler was still young, he hadn’t been given much responsibility besides homework and not losing his fourth cell phone. Collin was right though, Tyler was going to be graduating soon, he needed someone to make him accountable for something. He honestly did want to figure his shit out and not just be a nobody going nowhere. And Collin was also right in the aspect that Tyler had Kayla. Probably more than Collin realized, but either way Tyler knew he always had someone backing him. It was half the reason he was such a confident kid. Constantly having someone there telling you, you were capable of anything started to make you believe it. Tyler watched the screen, looking at Kayla. Things with them were so different now and yet not different at all. Tyler looked up at Collin, adjusted himself in his seat and shook his head, “Oh she isn’t my girlfriend…” So quick to shoot it down. But she wasn’t, it wasn’t a lie. Collin mentioned Joel and Tyler nodded, “Yeah Joel’s my bro,” sitting forward placing his chin in his hands, listening, “Cool, new music?” Tyler listened carefully, looking over the plans. It looked like Collin wanted to make it a short film type of thing. He didn’t say anything until it was finished, gathering an idea in his mind. Tyler thought about Joel for a second, almost laughing to himself because Ty had just hung out with Joel a couple of days ago and they;d just had this conversation about Joel stepping out and wanting to have a sexier, more mature image. He had literally just talked to Ty about it. And not Tyler had a hand in making him sexy. It was funny. Tyler sat back as the song ended, grinning, “I get what he meant when he said he was trying to have a sexier image,” Tyler laughed. “Okay so basically what I see is like, okay other than being poor or starving, nothing can keep them apart right? You know what sucks the worst, like the worst thing to get in the way? When your girl’s dad hates you.” Tyler shrugged, “But like, going to all lengths to defy her dad. Makes it more fun because daddy forbid her to see him.” Ty himself knew all about being with someone you weren't suppose to be. Tyler thought for a moment, “Ohh! Okay. Her dad says he can’t see his daughter anymore. But Joel and the girl are gonna run away together, except her dad finds them leaving and beats up Joel. Yeah… because actually girls will probably eat it up if you had Joel looking like a badass all scruffy and stuff.” Tyler fell silent, remembering he was in Collin’s office, this was his video. Collin probably had his own ideas. Wasn’t Tyler’s ship to sail. “So… what did you have in mind?”

[Collin Scott Reynolds]

Collin crossed his arms over his chest, keeping his eye on Tyler. He felt this was an easy way of trying to start him off. It was someone he was close friends with, he understood the image that Joel wanted. It would be something completely different if he took this fresh-faced kid and sat him down in front of some of Ellie’s music or Anabelle’s. He didn’t know them the way he knew Joel. But still.. He licked his lips, waiting for the song to finish. He gave a small laugh when Tyler said he understood what Joel meant about trying to be sexier. “ Yeah he’s on a one man mission.. “ he said quietly as he walked to pick up one of the dry erase board markers. “ Joel trying to be sexy is a lot different than the girls going for the sexy image. It’s easier for guys. If you’re a girl and you try too hard you’re labeled as a slut, when you’re not trying at all you’re seen as a prude. It’s a fucking fine line,” he said, scratching the edge of the marker against his eyebrow, “ But yeah, perfect. Him getting beaten up a little bit is the perfect way to make girls think he is appealing. Not to mention appease some of his male critics” he said before he adjusted his pants at the sides of his hips and started writing some of Tyler’s ideas down. “ That’s your foundation,” he said, ignoring Tyler’s question about what ideas he had. He had them, but what good was having an intern if he didn’t want to help cultivate him. Sure this was an ‘interview’ but Collin already knew he wanted this kid. He wasn’t interviewing anyone else. And if Tyler decided to accept, this would be one of the first projects they worked on together. He wanted Tyler to feel like they were a team, that he could learn from him, not like he was going to bark orders at him all the time.

“ Okay, so we’ve got the pissed off dad that doesn’t want Joel around the daughter,” he said, while writing on the board, “ Then we’ve got him getting his ass kicked,” he said, writing that lower along the wall. “ That’s the meat, you’re gonna need potatoes,” he said, drawing circles between where the big plot points happened for the short film they had going on. He knew that meant he wanted short little clips of Joel and the girl being ‘together’ in the video. But he wanted to guide Tyler to that answer, not blurt it out. “ So if the relationship is worth fighting for.. how do we explain the relationship between him and the girl. How do we show that is was significant for Joel?” he asked with his eyebrows slightly narrowed as he watched Tyler. “ Plus you need to keep in mind that it’s a Foster video, there will be dancing involved. Hard to be a bad ass when you’re dancing.” he said as he started writing down some more things that would make sense to Collin later, location ideas, types of angles to use for the cameras, which shutters, etc. “ Most importantly.. Does he get the girl?” he asked while he twirled the marker in his fingers. Obviously the answer was no. If you listened to the song, combined with the idea that had Tyler came up with it was only plausible that at the end it wasn’t a happy ending. With this type of plot he had going, if he ended up with the girl it would be more along the lines of ‘ I’ll always love you’. But since he was literally getting his ass kicked by the girls dad it was alright.. as long as she loved him, he’d stick around for more. She would leave, he would wait. Tale as old as time, right? “ Here,” he said, tossing a marker out to Tyler, “ Write down stuff you do with your girlfriend, and let’s not bullshit and say you haven’t fucked the little brunette in that video. I’m older than you kid, been around the block more times than you can imagine” he said before pointing at the board.

[Tyler James Kingsley]

This wasn’t so much an interview as it was becoming more like a crash course in what Tyler might be doing it he worked for Collin. Collin started writing things on the board and Tyler watched. He laughed slightly when Collin mentioned the dancing, saying it was hard to be a badass doing that but Tyler just shrugged, “Yeah I guess, unless he’s dancing with hot girls.” Tyler stood up and walked over to the board, “Nah he can’t get the girl. It’s too dark and grungy for him to get the girl. Not a happy ending. He’s saying as long as you love me, I can wait to be with you. Doesn’t get her.” Tyler reached out and caught the marker, smirking, “I didn’t say I hadn’t fucked her, I said she wasn’t my girlfriend.” Ty shrugged, he wasn’t lying, Kayla wasn’t his girlfriend. That didn’t mean he hadn’t been with her. Tyler starting writing stuff down anyways, most of it random stuff, but he and Kayla were kind of random when they hung out. Usually they just laid around and cuddled or whatever, or went on bike rides. Mostly because Kayla had that bike with the basket on it that she adored, Tyler usually just wrote his long board next to her. Or the fact that Tyler always wrote random shit on her with markers and she didn’t care. She could be studying lines and Tyler just wrote things on her. Lately he’d been writing a lot flirtier things on her… but whatever. Point was this part was easy, the laying the foundation for the relationship. Tyler did stuff with Kayla all the time. The funny part was, Tyler hadn’t really thought about what he did when he was hanging out with Jessica.

“You know it’d be cool if it started with a dialogue between Joel and the dad, so you get a feel of the situation. But then flash forward to him waiting for her, with flashbacks of them hanging out and stuff, so you go back and forth between present time and the past of how they got to that point. So at the end at the fight, everything is coming to a head at the same time. Like, by the time you get to the end, you've gotten all the pieces up to that point.” It was hard to write it all down, especially since at this point Tyler was getting a good idea in his mind of what it could be, but it involved a lot of flashbacks and fast forwarding, so you see what’s going on and the events causing what was happening right then. It’d be more effective than telling the story in order, because thought it was a short film, it was still a music video, time wasn’t there to be wasted. No one was going to sit for longer than 5 or 6 minutes to watch a video.

[Collin Scott Reynolds]

Collin nodded his head once in approval as Tyler said that he couldn’t get the girl. This kid was good on his feet, he liked it. It would be easy for anyone else to be like ‘ hey Joel is a hot young kid, of course he gets the girl’. No. Plus, not getting the girl in the end sort of leaves hope out there his crazy ass fans. Engaged or not he had some of the most psychotic fans Collin had ever seen in his entire life. They wanted Joel and they wanted him to themselves. Collin couldn’t help but laugh pretty loudly as Tyler said that she wasn’t his girlfriend but that didn’t mean he hadn’t fucked her. “ Oh to be young again..” he said as he puffed his cheeks out and sighed. “ So what’s the backstory with you two then? You fucked her, which is awesome for you. She spends days, weeks putting together an audition tape for you.. because..? What’s in it for her exactly?” he asked curiously as he started to form an idea for Tyler’s first assignment in his head. He looked up, pointing at Tyler, “ I have an assignment for you, we’ll talk about it in a second,” he said, noticing that the board was starting to get a lot of stuff written on it. “ Once I know an idea is starting to stick, I actually quit writing on the board all together. How good are you with drawing?” he asked before waving it off, “ Doesn’t matter, youll learn to get really good at it,” he said before he bit the cap off of a pen.

Collin started scribbling out some pretty detailed pictures quickly of all of the scenarios. He liked the idea of the flashbacks, that had been one of his core ideas before Tyler opened his mouth. When you had limited time to work with it was important to not waste any of it. Especially when there was already dancing involved. “ The girls watching when he is dancing won’t be looking at the other girls to consider his bad ass factor” he said with a faint smile. “ Dark lighting, sketchy area that girls are always scared of…. like a parking garage,” he said, continuing to scribble stuff out. Confrontation with the dad, lounging around on the bed, writing on each others arms, getting into a fight. All of the ideas were starting to be drawn out of regular printer paper. He’d gotten so used to drawing Joels’ face, though the face everyone else was blank at the moment considering he had no idea who they were casting. Though he had an idea for the girl. He finished up drawing just a picture of Joel by himself, standing in front of a wall before he leaned back down to add a quick bruise to his face before pushing the paper forward. “ Spacing is key here” he said, bringing the papers up to the dry erase board and started placing them up carelessly so that Tyler could arrange them in order. Collin looked up at Tyler before he started up a sketch of Joel again, this time trying to think of who Joel should try to emulate in this short film. He figured it should be a James Dean meets mob type mentality. Character development was usually a little more intensive than plot development. And the kid was doing a great job on the plot so he figured there wasn’t any sense in overwhelming him. “ So your actual girlfriend then.. would you go through this for her?” he asked, gesturing his pen to the story board. If he was going to work with the kid he actually wanted to know him, he wasn’t a complete prick.

[Tyler James Kingsley]

Tyler laughed himself when Collin commented about being young again. Yeah it sounded funny, actually it made him look like an ass if you didn’t know Ty and Kayla, but whatever. Tyler stopped what he was doing, marker hanging loosely at his side and shrugged, saying plainly, “What’s in it for her? She’s my best friend,” as if it were that simply obvious like, there didn’t need to be anything in it for her, it wasn’t a deal they’d made. They were best friends, that’s’ what they did foe each other. The same way Tyler ran lines with her time after time, or waited for her until she was done with rehearsals so they could walk home together. Tyler laughed again, it didn’t sound right, “I mean, that sounds like it’s a privilege or something, it isn’t like that. We’ve just know each other a long time.” Tyler finished writing a few things and nodded when Collin said he had an assignment for him. Alright so really Tyler was already hired this was just like, the test he had to pass. Ty threw the marker up and caught it, “Yeah pretty decent at drawing.” Of course Tyler was good at drawing, he spent 97% of his class time at school doodling. Tyler agreed about the girls, “Not they won’t, but he has a male audience too.” Sure Joel had a lot of female fans, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have to appeal to his male fans too. “Parking garages are sketchy. They are super confusing, I’m pretty sure they were designed by M. C. Escher.” He said dully, Tyler hated parking garages. He always got lost in them.

Tyler set his marker down and started rearranging things, adding a few pictures himself which he had to admit he impressed himself a little. He didn’t really take drawing seriously but that was a pretty realistic looking sketch. You go Glen Coco, he thought to himself, and then laughed to himself thinking of Kayla and how she made him watch that movie every fucking time it came on TV. And if it wasn’t on TV she just went and got the DVD. Tyler paused, looking over at Collin who had just asked him if he would go through any of this with his actual girlfriend. Would he, for Jess? Tyler thought for a long moment and then said carefully, “I might have…” yeah he might have if she wasn’t cheating on him, and he wasn’t now guilty of cheating on her. Tyler was pretty sure this relationship they were mapping out was the type that didn’t involve two loving people cheating on each other.

[Collin Scott Reynolds]

Collin scratched the edge of his jaw with the back of his forefinger as he looked up at Tyler, letting him draw out a few pictures of his own. At least the kid had gumption, was sort of taking it on his own to try and get some work done. “ She believes in you.. and you’re best friends with her..” he said, giving a small nod. “ So what is this girl going to do? Obviously she is pushing you to do something more than.. soccer after school.” he said, twirling the pen in his hands. He licked his lips, standing up to go over and look at the drawings that Tyler had done and gave a nod. “ Good,” he said approvingly before putting everything up on the board. Next he started writing down different location ideas, knowing that he would have to get some permits and talk to the owners, not to mention talk to Logan to figure out all of Joel’s schedule so that they could figure out when they wanted to shoot it. No Tori on set. That’s just the way it was sometimes. On the set of Boyfriend would’ve been fine, that was different. It really depended on the nature of the relationship and the type of atmosphere you were trying to create for the video. Newly engaged happy young teenagers being around each other on set wasn’t really the atmosphere he needed to try and create. He licked his lips, taking in a deep breath and sighed before he turned and faced his back to his desk, resting his hands on the edge of it as he sat down.

“ So tell me..” he said as he watched the kid, “ I mean, I want you to get to work with me right away, and you will. But I also want you to simultaneously be doing a project. It’ll be a way to do hands on work while you’re able to learn on the job at the same time. You learn something, you go home, you edit, revise. Figure out a new approach..” he said as he licked his lips. “ I’m sensing there’s some sort of tension going on with your girlfriend by the way you phrased that you ‘would have’ “ he said while looking up at Tyler. “ So tell me.. what are you passionate about? Because that’s what I want you to do your project on. Something you’re passionate about, whether it’s an activity or a person. Because if you’re actually interested in the subject matter, you’ll work that much harder to be proud of it. And maybe you’ll discover something about yourself. Maybe film-making is going to be for you, maybe it’s not. Either way I’d love to be someone that helped you figure out just exactly what does interest you in being happy in life.”’ Collin said as he watched the kid. He remembered being young, not knowing what direction his life was headed. Hell his life was still a mess. He subconsciously ran his thumb over his bare ring finger before he cleared his throat and sat up. “ So what are you passionate about… soccer… this girl? “ he questioned, knowing that both of them knew he wasn’t talking about ‘the girlfriend’. He licked his lips as he watched him, trying to figure out a path to try plan out what his project was going to be.