CAA and the Saw Project Proposal

Two days later, Steve Kevin finally walked out of the school gates with his project proposal in hand.

Unlike education in China,

American education was exceptionally lax.

Many things taught in Chinese middle schools, or even high schools, were not taught in the United States until college.

Of course, Kevin knew it was all an illusion.

An illusion meant to mislead the lower classes.

Those middle-class families publicly supported relaxed education, but privately, they never skipped tutoring classes and the like.

The purpose was simple: to eliminate most of their children's competitors.

From that perspective, the families of those admitted to Southern California University were generally not poor.

For an orphan like Kevin, there was only one main reason he had been admitted.

His grades.

The logic behind it was easy enough to understand. Geniuses from ordinary backgrounds like Kevin were precisely the schools' calling cards.

Every year, they admitted a certain number of them.

The middle class, meanwhile, formed the foundation of the schools.

After taking a penny from his pocket and dropping it into the bus fare box, Kevin quietly arrived several kilometers away, beneath a large building.

This was Creative Artists Agency, a name many people might not recognize.

But its other name was immensely famous.

CAA, the world's number-one talent agency.

The stars it had represented included film icons such as Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, and Nicole Kidman, as well as music superstars like Madonna, Beyoncé Knowles, and Justin.

Kevin had come here to find his agent.

That was right. This body had signed with a CAA agent long ago.

He stepped into the CAA building.

"Hello, do you have an appointment?"

The stunningly beautiful, busty receptionist asked warmly.

Kevin nodded.

"I have an appointment with my agent, Dawson..."

Kevin glanced at his watch before continuing.

"At ten o'clock."

The receptionist checked the appointment register before saying,

"Room 0306 on the third floor. Your agent is waiting for you."

As she spoke, the receptionist seemed to want to say something else, a faint blush appearing on her face.

"Thank you."

Kevin paid no attention to her expression. He headed eagerly toward the elevator to the third floor. The most important task of this trip was to convince his agent.

Since 1980, CAA had grown year after year, becoming a behemoth with annual revenue exceeding one hundred million dollars.

And what CAA needed most were talented directors like him.

All of this stemmed from CAA's unique model.

CAA was committed to a model known as Project Packaging. Put simply, it was a collaborative approach centered around directors.

When a CAA director proposed a film project, CAA would seek partnerships with major film companies. Thanks to its scale, it could often bundle actors, editors, lighting crews, and various other support staff into the project.

Under this model, CAA could make the fullest use of every resource at its disposal.

Of course, this was actually a good thing for directors. They only needed to focus on creating a good film, while CAA could handle all the miscellaneous matters for them.

The only ones who might find it unacceptable were the major film companies. But with CAA already controlling vast resources, as long as one of its directors had a successful track record, funding was rarely a problem.

As a result, CAA became the stronger party instead.

"Kevin!"

The moment he entered the room, Dawson, his agent, greeted him with a smile.

As Kevin was known as a genius director at Southern California University, no one dared underestimate him before he truly failed—that was, before he made a film that flopped at the box office.

Though the odds of success were not high, there was still a chance.

"Dawson."

Kevin sat down across from Dawson with a smile. Once he was settled, he continued,

"I came today because of my film project."

As he spoke, he handed over the project proposal in his hand.

Dawson nodded and accepted it.

In fact, the reason he had been able to sign Kevin, a man known as a genius director, was because he had made Kevin a promise.

As long as Kevin could provide a genuine and viable film proposal, he would use every resource at his disposal to push the project forward.

As a low-level CAA agent, he likewise needed an opportunity like this to climb higher.

Of course, if Kevin failed, the consequences for him would be severe as well.

But after spending years at the bottom of CAA, he had long been dissatisfied with his current position. The problem was that he simply lacked high-end clients.

That was why he had tried every possible method before finally signing Kevin.

As long as Kevin rose to prominence, Dawson could promote potential actors to film crews through CAA's Project Packaging model.

Of course, the prerequisite was that they had to sign with CAA.

A high-end director client had the potential to push him into the ranks of CAA's five major partners.

For that position, he was willing to take the risk.

Of course, all of this depended on whether Kevin's proposal was truly feasible.

With that in mind, Dawson began reading the project proposal carefully.

"Saw?"

The proposal opened with the script.

With a critical eye, Dawson read it closely.

Setting aside the story itself, the script was written entirely in accordance with Hollywood standards.

It might seem simple, but many first-time screenwriters could not manage even that.

At the very least, it showed that Kevin took this project seriously and was not merely trying to fool people.

The format was fine, so Dawson naturally began reading the content.

The script was not long, only a few thin pages. Dawson finished it quickly as he read intently.

After finishing it, he fell into deep thought.

A successful film always needed several characters that people would remember.

If, years or even a decade after watching a film, its characters could still remain vividly imprinted in people's hearts, then it could be called a classic.

And in this script, Dawson undoubtedly saw that potential.

In the script, the murderer who controlled everything, "Jigsaw," did not kill without reason. He specifically chose people he believed were guilty or failed to cherish the value of life, then designed all kinds of trials for them to face.

Every one of his trials left the subjects a path to survival. As long as they paid a certain price, they could escape alive.

Many survivors changed their attitudes toward life because of this. Some even felt grateful to him, while those who failed the tests had a puzzle-shaped piece of skin cut from them by John as a mark.