Page 16 of The Cuffing Game
Mia’s head whirled. She hadn’t even thought of eliminatingpeople, but if this was a dating show—with all the drama—then they’d need to contrive ways to bump people off. Even the idea made her slightly queasy.
“We’re doing six days, right?” Damien asked. “Why not just make it simple and do an elimination every other night? We can have challenges and random events here and there that’ll also change things up, but the gist will be that whoever can’t pair up—orcuff,if you will—with someone else gets eliminated until we’re down to the last remaining couple. We can change some things later on, too.”
An elimination every other night?Mia took a deep breath to settle her stomach. MakingCampus Crushinto a zesty reality TV dating show calledThe Cuffing Gamehad already been a huge shift. But it seemed like with every new idea, it was becoming more and more a totally unrecognizable show to the one she’d first envisioned.
“You’ll learn quickly that the industry revolves around collaboration,” one of her professors had said in the first week of classes. “Sure, we have auteur directors like Christopher Nolan, but even they still work with crews of other talented people. And for TV, we have writing rooms, where ateamof writers work on scripts for shows. Not just one person.”
Mia knew all of that in theory, but it was harder in practice, especially since she’d spent the last ten years coming up with ideas for shows alone in her room.
“Mia?” Kallie asked. “Are you feeling okay?”
Mia blinked and looked around. All three of her friends were staring at her now, various looks of concern on their faces.
“Yeah!” Mia exclaimed, putting some extra energy into her voice. “Sorry, some part of me is still reeling from all the changes we’re making to the show.”
Kallie frowned in understanding. “Yeah, wearemaking a lot of changes. Are you okay with them?”
“It may beourshow, but it’s stillyouroriginalidea, Mia,” Damien said, matter-of-factly. “You’re allowed to say if you don’t like something. Trust me when I say that Hollywood can be a dog-eat-dog world. If you don’t speak up, people can walk all over you.”
Mia shook her head. “It’s not that I don’t like it per se. It’s just a lot. You know I don’t like surprises. Or change.”
Damien nodded. “Even so,pleasedon’t hesitate to speak up if I, Kallie, or Alex say anything you don’t like, okay? We’re not in Hollywood yet. And we’re all in this together. If you’re not comfortable with any of the changes we’re making, we don’t have to do them.”
A burst of warmth and gratitude loosened the knot in Mia’s chest.
“Right,” she said, looking around the room. “I’ll probably want to make a few adjustments here and there, but let’s discuss and plan out the details some other time, since we should pick the contestants ASAP. Thereisone thing from our original idea I’d like to for sure bring in, though. If everyone else is okay with it.”
“Yeah of course,” Kallie replied. “What is it?”
“You know how, withCampus Crush,we planned to have interviews of the people with crushes? It’d be cool if we kept that part. Sort of a confessional interview at the beginning of each episode.”
Damien nodded approvingly. So did Kallie and Alex.
“That sounds cool,” Alex said. “How about you and I handle that part, since Kallie and Damien will already have a lot on their hands?”
“Yeah, that’s perfect.” Mia smiled. “And, going back to the entries, how about we divide them so we each review fifty? Unless that’s too much.”
Damien stretched out his fingers and moved his head from side to side, getting into full producer mode.
“Itisa lot,” he said. “But we should sort through them all by tonight since we have so many other things to take care of. We only have a month left until the first day of shooting.”
“Sounds good,” Mia said, trying to settle her nerves. At least they had a plan. “Let’s get started then.”
Through the glass walls separating the different conference rooms, Mia could see other student groups working on their own individual projects, burning the midnight oil as many often did in Carlisle.
This is going to be the first of many sleepless nights,Mia thought.
But instead of feeling weary, Mia felt almost giddy as she started flipping through the entries. After months ofplanning something that they weren’t even sure could be a real show, here she and her friends were, one step closer to making their dreams into a reality. Her fingers tingled with excitement.
They hadn’t reached Hollywood yet, but they were getting there.
List of Contestants forThe Cuffing Game
The following version of this document is meant for thecrewofThe Cuffing GameONLY! Please make sure to erasecrush informationandinternal notesbefore sending it to the contestants. Thank you! —Mia
CELINE HUANG
Sophomore
