New Life : A Second Chance

Kyle pitched the idea to Chad that very day, and Chad was extremely excited about the opportunity.

He patted Kyle's shoulder and said, "Thanks, Kyle. That would certainly speed up the process a bit. At least you can shoot your scenes while we finish up over here."

Kyle nodded, saying, "It's all due to Samantha's help. I didn't reveal the storyline. She just knows it's a flashback scene of my training but not who I am in relation to the movie."

Kyle felt he had to explain in case Chad thought he had informed Samantha of the plot. That would be against the NDA.

"It's fine," Chad said, "I trust you on this."

Chad had been observing Kyle the entire time and it was very apparent how honest and meticulous Kyle was. There was no doubt in Chad's mind that Kyle would adhere to the NDA. So when Kyle had told him about this opportunity, Chad was simply excited and didn't think Kyle had revealed anything.

So part of the stunt team and the crew members involved with constructions went to Mansion BMX under tight security. It took them only two days to change the training room into the scene that they wanted.

Samantha had given them free rein to do anything they wanted to the room, so long as they put it back to what it was before. Most of the equipment would be used, though only one part had to be built in.

To showcase Kyle's upper body strength, they had placed holds on the wall. Kyle would then have to climb up to the top by using his hands alone. Kind of like what he did when bouldering but in this case, only hands were used.

This was one scene that Chad had inserted due to Kyle's bouldering experience. The entire 'exercise' routine was also the 'eye-candy' scene to appease the masses. At least this scene had some bearing to the movie, for it would show the sort of life John Wick's son had while growing up.

It wasn't an empty 'eye-candy' scene like a lot of movies did for women. Such as in the Transformers movie that had Megan Fox simply sitting sexily on a motorcycle while working on it, as she was waiting for Sam's call. It was pure fan service without any essence.

This would be fan service with essence.

Samantha walked into the training room with a smile. The lightings had also been changed to make it look darker and thus, more dreary. There was the 'step' wall, some basic dumbells, a punching bag, and a life-size wooden dummy.

"Impressive," Samantha said as Kyle walked beside her, "You're going to be using all of this?"

"Yeah," Kyle stated, "The shoot wouldn't last more than a day or two, but it's far better than just sitting around doing the same old thing for those two days."

He smiled at her as he walked around, "I truly do appreciate this."

Samantha smiled, feeling warm again. It was rare that she ever did anything for anyone without expecting something in return, but she liked the feeling that it was giving her. Seeing how excited Kyle was, as he went about the room and thanking her for something as simple as this was ... nice.

She felt that this ... 'nice' ... feeling was really unique and unusual. She didn't mind feeling it all the time, too.

She was also beginning to understand what Kyle meant by 'sleeping with the one you love' rather than just sleeping to find love.

Previously, her feelings were based on pure basic lust. With such a fine specimen in front of her, who wouldn't want to feel that young, lithe body? With that gorgeous face as well, it would be like heaven. Her body would feel extremely satisfied.

She had thought that if you're compatible sexually, then it means you can fall in love with the person. Yet, it never happened but she was not unhappy about it. After all, it was still fun and satisfying.

However, now, she felt that it was not enough.

Not anymore.

It felt ... empty. After the act, that is. The satisfaction or the feeling was gone the moment it was all over.

Samantha was beginning to understand what Kyle was saying. There is a difference between sex and making love.

The former was simply to enjoy the physical act whereas the latter was the expression of love that resulted in physical intimacy. Sex was pure lust. Making love, however, not just connected the bodies but also their hearts.

Right now, as she watched Kyle, she felt that her heart was fluttering and warm. She would be lying to say that she didn't still want him - she did. Yet, the desire was different. It wasn't to conquer. It was something else, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

✿✿ ✿✿

The room was ready, and Kyle stood there, listening to the instructions that Chad was giving.

"We're going to need to take several angles and shots, so you're going to have to do the sets a few times," Chad explained, as he indicated the various cameras around them.

There were three in total, though only two would be used to follow Kyle around while the third would be getting a wide angle. The scenes had to be done and recorded at different angles and later, the production team will put them together to create a seamless picture.

"You will start with the simple one first - the dumbells," Chad continued on, "Once that take is done, rest and then the punching bag. Third would be the wooden dummy and last, the wall climb."

Kyle nodded, showing his understanding of the matter.

"This should take about three days or so," Chad stated, "Since this is a static sort of shots, I'll be handing the reigns over to Raine, but I'll be checking the shots every night. If it's not satisfactory, you're going to have to do it again the next day."

Now it was Raine who nodded his head.

It was rare that Chad would let him direct solo, so Raine was determined to do a good job. This was one of the more simpler shots and any film student should be able to do it. If he couldn't, then he doesn't deserve to be here.

However, despite that, Chad still stayed for a while. He wanted to supervise the first shot at least and give a few tips. Keanu was busy practising the choreography anyway, so he had time to spare.

As Chad was discussing the concept with Raine, Kyle had to stand still while they lathered some baby oil on him. He had to do the scene shirtless, and thus, the baby oil was to create this 'sheen of sweat'. Kyle thought it was ridiculous since he'd be sweating anyway once he started.

The thing is, the oil would create a more picturesque scene, as the droplets of sweat would be glistening. Since the room was dark, and the lighting sparse, the effects of the baby oil would increase.

There were two girls that were busy preparing Kyle for the scene. They insisted that they were the ones to do it even though Kyle felt he could do it himself. After all, it was their job and Chad may scold them if he was the one doing their job.

Of course, that was all an excuse but who cares, right?

So there he was, shirtless and in 3/4 pants, as he had two girls rubbing their hands all over his chest and back. His hair needed to look 'wet' as well, so one of them expertly applied just the right amount of water to make it look realistic.

The first scene was easy enough. Just lift those darn weights.

Kyle had to look focused, and just keep on doing the motions like a robot. The point of it all was that he is emotionless and a fighting machine, which had to be shown clearly during his training routine. Although the weights weren't heavy, Kyle had to make it look like it was, so he had to strain his arm muscles even more while gritting his teeth to make the veins pop out a bit more around his neck.

It was tiring, but this was nothing compared to the sort of training Master Shifu gave him.

It also served as a method for his fitness routine so Kyle simply added it to his normal routine.

Kyle had to do the action several times, while the camera filmed the entire process. He had the head shot, the 'round the body' shot (where the camera would make a full circle around him), the left and right side shots.

After this was done, Chad, Raine, and Kyle would look at the film. Chad would often point out certain things that needed to be changed and then, Kyle would have to do it all over again. The facial expression wasn't cold enough, the tension or arm muscles wasn't clear enough and so forth.

Finally, when Chad was satisfied, Kyle had a good grasp of what Chad really wanted.

The process after that was much smoother and Chad left, feeling satisfied.