"Live Boy or Dead Girl"

Eudaimonia and other pursuits ^ | 5-21-08 | Mike

[mft112345]

Short film:

Join recent college grad Rachael as she goes on a job interview in New Orleans that might actually kill her. Will she conspire to extort a federal official?

Please watch the video and comment.

"JOB INTERVIEWER Make a list. Name all the types of news stories someone might manufacture to push a client's scandal off the front page.

RACHAEL My job interviewer had introduced himself on the phone as Frank McCoy, a partner at one of the world’s top public relations firms.

What type of client? I asked.

JOB INTERVIEWER That's not important. Make one up in your mind for this writing test. Suppose it's a Louisiana politician accused of taking bribes."

[mft112345]

JOB INTERVIEWER
Make a list. Name all the types of news stories someone
might manufacture to push a client’s scandal off the front page.

RACHAEL
My job interviewer had introduced himself on the phone as Frank McCoy, a partner at one of the world’s top public relations firms.

What type of client? I asked.

JOB INTERVIEWER
That’s not important. Make one up in your mind for this writing
test. Suppose it’s a Louisiana politician accused of taking bribes.

RACHAEL
Someone already indicted?

JOB INTERVIEWER
No. It doesn’t matter. If you prefer, let it be a celebrity child custody suit: Louisiana native Britney Spears.

RACHAEL
I nodded, sat in front of the bare desk, and looked at the blank
computer monitor. My interviewer walked to the door. His leather
suspender straps and gold cufflinks reminded me of Michael Douglas’ character on the movie Wall Street.

I brainstormed and came up with a list of sensational topics, knowing many of these stories couldn’t be manufactured: Another Dr. Phil celebrity intervention, natural disaster, celebrity caught shoplifting, young singer pregnant. I knew none of these would work.

He poked his head into the room.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Time’s up. Stop typing.

RACHAEL
I ignored him and typed one last phrase I remembered from a Louisiana history course: “politician caught in bed with a live girl or dead boy.” Then I clicked save and sent the document to the printer.

He smiled when he read my last comment, before telling me he needed to leave the room to make a quick call. When he returned, he took the sheet and led me past several unoccupied desks to his office with a window overlooking the oaks and cable cars on St.
Charles Avenue. Right away, I decided I wanted this office for myself one day.

He pulled my resume out of a folder. It bothered me that he had written dozens of comments on it. Part of me regretted responding to a blind ad on Craigslist and agreeing to a job interview on Sunday morning. The idea of earning $50 K right out of college with a B.S. in public relations also seemed too good to be true.

I looked up at the photos of my interviewer with various political and Hollywood celebrities. The lighting in some of the pictures made me doubt they were real.

JOB INTERVIEWER
What makes you want to work for me?

RACHAEL
I remember reading about your firm’s award-winning ad campaigns.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Do you like politics?

RACHAEL
Yes, but I’m no political junkie.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Did you vote in the last two statewide elections?

RACHAEL
Of course.

He raised his eyebrows like he knew the true answer.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Have you ever done opposition research on a candidate’s voting record, tax returns, marital fidelity, that sort of thing?

RACHAEL
Not exactly, but I’m sure it would be interesting. Is that what the
position would mainly involve?

My interviewer crossed his arms.

JOB INTERVIEWER
We want this person in the trenches, sometimes even working undercover. Have you ever done any acting?

RACHAEL
I’ve been in a few school plays.

He glanced again at the final item on the list I typed and smiled.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Did you know Edwards turned 80 in prison last year?

RACHAEL
I didn’t know that, I said, guessing my interviewer meant former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards who was in prison for racketeering, and fraud.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Rachael, tell me three things about yourself, including one that isn’t true.

RACHAEL
I fired them off quickly: My twin sister and I once dated the same guy. I smoke cigarettes, and I have a black cat named Jinx.

JOB INTERVIEWER
You don’t smoke, do you?

RACHAEL
He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his suit pants pocket.

No, I do, I said. My cat’s name is Lucky.

He handed me a lit cigarette. All three of my statements were false, but I inhaled anyway.

JOB INTERVIEWER
This question is going to sound unconventional.

RACHAEL
I looked out the door through the shadows at all of the unoccupied
office cubicles. I figured a Sunday morning interview in a dark, empty office in uptown New Orleans was hardly normal either.

This guy seemed shady, but after my steady stream of recent rejections, I felt desperate for a job so I wouldn’t have to move in with my mom and stepfather.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Given the sensitive nature of the work you’d be doing. I’m going to ask you to swear on your life never to repeat the question I’m going to ask. Agreed?

RACHAEL
Your secret’s safe with me.

I looked up at the smoke alarm as I extinguished the cigarette in the coffee cup he used as an ashtray.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Technically, you’d work for me and not be an employee of this firm.
Is that okay?

RACHAEL
I looked up at the clock, surprised that a full hour had already passed.

I pleaded: Yes. I need this job, and I won’t disappoint you.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Now, here’s the question you must promise on your life never to
repeat to another living soul.

RACHAEL
Promise.

JOB INTERVIEWER
What if we asked you to seduce a powerful man to extract valuable information?

RACHAEL
I laughed to conceal my irritation: Did he really want to make me his undercover call girl? I wanted to complain to a labor lawyer and string his P.R. firm up by the balls, but I knew I lacked the proof and I had promised secrecy on my life twice.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not asking you to have sex with anybody.

RACHAEL
Who would be my assigned target?

JOB INTERVIEWER
A White House cabinet secretary thinks a call girl will be waiting in his hotel room at 11 o’ clock tomorrow night.

RACHAEL
I shivered at the idea of letting some crusty old man touch me for
money — 50 grand or not.

What information do you want from him?

JOB INTERVIEWER
Ask him about the governor’s health-care proposal and whether he’ll recommend full funding to the President.

RACHAEL
Wouldn’t that question sound awkward coming from a hooker?

JOB INTERVIEWER
Tell him your mom recently passed away because she wasn’t able to get an appointment with a doctor to detect her cancer early enough.

RACHAEL
That will be romantic.

My interviewer lit another cigarette. He offered one to me but I refused.

JOB INTERVIEWER
You won’t have to sleep with him. Probe for an answer then go.

RACHAEL
I know it won’t be that easy. What if he won’t tell me?

JOB INTERVIEWER
Then threaten to tell reporters about his call-girl habit.

…

RACHAEL
I entered the vacant hotel room at 10:45 the next night and slipped into the lingerie outfit my new employer had provided. I knew I made a mistake. I didn’t want to extort a federal official.

At 11, I heard a knock on the door and saw my new employer’s round face through the peek hole before I let him inside.

JOB INTERVIEWER
The secretary will be up in exactly ten minutes, so we have to work fast.

RACHAEL
My new employer pushed through the entrance. I backed toward the bed as he pulled a .45 caliber pistol from the holster beneath his jacket and pointed it at my face.

He took a bottle of water from the hotel mini bar and handed it to me with a handful of blue capsules.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Hurry. Swallow these.

RACHAEL
I put several capsules in my mouth, anchoring them between my lip and upper teeth as I swallowed the cold liquid.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Now open wide. Lift up your tongue. What’s this?

RACHAEL
He picked up the capsules from the carpet and hit me in the chest with the gun.

JOB INTERVIEWER
Don’t make me hurt you. Do as I say. Swallow the pills.

RACHAEL
I wanted to delay Frank in hopes that the secretary’s security team
might arrive.

Was it the last phrase on my writing test that gave you this idea?

JOB INTERVIEWER
Yes, but you got Edwards’ quip to reporters backwards. He said he could only lose the election if he were caught with “a dead girl or a live boy.”

RACHAEL
So I’m your dead girl?

JOB INTERVIEWER
Not if you follow my directions.

RACHAEL
I called out for help as I rushed to the bathroom. He tackled me by the feet and covered my mouth. He sat on top of me, pried the pills out my hands and tried to force me to chew them. I bit his hand until it bled and I heard the crunch of bones, then I kneed him in the balls. I seized the gun from the floor and held it over him.

JOB INTERVIEWER
You don’t know what you’ve just done. I’ll have you hunted for the rest of your life. You don’t know me from Adam, and we know everything about you, including your parents’ Social Security and bank account numbers.

Even if you leave here today, it won’t be long until you’re dead.

RACHAEL
I prefer live girl, dead man.

I squeezed the trigger, dropped the gun, and grabbed my clothes before I fled the room. I stopped in the hallway and wrote “BEWARE” with lipstick on the wall to warn the secretary before he entered the room.

I never saw any mention of the incident in the newspapers, and I suppose part of the omission had to do with my terrible aim at the time. Later, when I visited the firm’s website, I discovered the real Frank McCoy was taller with a full head of hair. By failing to do a little background research on the person interviewing me, I, the job hunter became the hunted.

I’ve prayed that I at least see him coming when he does try to strike, and my recent training as a U.S. Marine has made it less likely that I’ll miss next time.

I’ve often wondered if he’ll ever be willing to forget me, knowing I’ve seen his face – until last week when I received his marked up copy of my resume at my mom’s house. I’ve decided that going to the authorities now would only get me thrown out of the military and that my best option is to watch and wait.

[GeronL]

hhhmmm... nice but almost cliche, Hollywood would mess it up