The Haunting of Hip Hop by Bertice Berry

Author:Bertice Berry
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780767913881
Publisher: Crown
Published: 2002-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

26

getting to know you

Ava and Freedom arrived for the meeting. They were met by the same fanfare that Freedom had seen the day before. This time, though, there were printed proposals in front of each department head. Scott Baker was always proud of his ability to impress, but today he would go even farther. He knew a lot about Ms. Ava Vercher. She would not be won over as easily as most lawyers whose greed outweighed what was good for their client. Scott would win her and her client’s confidence as well.

“So, I hear you want to make a movie using Freedom’s music,” Ava began.

Scott laid out his idea, as if for the first time. This time, though, he brought along visual aids in the form of charts and graphs. He had charted the ratio of blacks to whites who go to the movies, then his movies. He broke it down by regions and income. He then presented the numbers of folks who buy Freedom’s music, where they lived, what video and computer equipment they had, and how many people from age eighteen to forty lived in their households. He’d done his homework. Still, Scott Baker was not ready for Ava Vercher.

“Impressive,” she admitted to the room. “So where do we go from here?” she asked.

“Well, we’d like to start developing a script based on several of Freedom’s signature songs. Then we hash out the ‘who gets cast as who’ details. Then we shoot,” Scott said.

Ava smiled. “You think you can do this and still have it released in time for Oscar consideration?”

Baker, who had also been smiling, stopped. “We just want to make a good movie that depicts the life of the underclass,” Baker said.

“According to whom?” Ava asked him. “Naw, brother, you want to exploit, or excuse me ‘expose,’ ” she said, using the gesture she heard he’d used the day before. “We don’t intend to participate in any further exploitation of the ‘underclass.’ Thanks for your time and for planting the idea. I think I know who would be willing to roll with this right away.”

Ava had packed up her notes, dropped the proposal in the trash, and was on her way out of the conference room when Scott stood up and stammered, “There’s no need to be hasty.”

“I’m not hasty. I’m in a hurry. We need to make our announcement before you do.”

“Okay, okay,” Scott said. “What’s the problem with our proposal, and what do you want?”

Freedom had the good sense to be right behind Ava, and while Ava paused to give Baker another chance, Freedom was already outside of the double glass doors. Ava made a mental note to thank him for adding to the effect. She called Freedom back inside and told Baker how things would need to proceed. “We will give you a script. We will go over it with you after it’s completed in, say, two weeks,” she said. “Maybe three, tops. We’ll give you a list of principals, and you can play with it.

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