justtherightlense-blog

[justtherightlense-blog]

Jamie’s brow furrowed instantly at the tone of Sean’s voice, instantly realizing he’d said something wrong (which wasn’t unusual for him). Focusing on the computer, so as not to make the situation worse, he lifted his shoulders in his best shrug and started pulling up information on a haunting he’d been researching earlier. “I don’t--” He forgot how much some of the people in this group took the whole project--it was fun for him, but it was real for them and he’d need to remember that or he’d end up pissing them off more. “Yeah, you’re right.” Flicking his eyes briefly to Sean, he tried to grin but it wasn’t as carefree as it might usually be. “Jay’d probably skin himself alive before faking the footage, right?”

The words of the other man made Sean’s breath stop for a quick moment. The journalist let out a huff as he looked at Jamie with a raised eyebrow. “Are you serious? I mean, was that the plan all along? For Jay to edit things in case we didn’t find anything?” This wouldn’t work. If he got caught participating in something like this, then he might as well say goodbye to practicing journalism. He was desperate to find something, but not at the possibility of jeopardizing everything that he had worked for. “That may be what other shows do, but that’s not what we’re going to do, okay?” His eyes followed the other man’s to the screen, shaking his head again. “I’d rather be called a failure than a cheater.”

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Jamie simply grinned, but remained silent about his own encounter with said squirrel, choosing to let the embarrassing moment center around Jay. It gave the athlete undue joy to find new and interesting ways to poke at their ‘special effects creator’, if only because he spent so much of his time buried in his computer and ignoring the world around him. Shrugging a shoulder he tapped idly at his computer, making the footage skip slowly through frames of empty hallways, “It’s not really going to make a difference either way. We either find something, or Jay makes it look like we do.” Jamie flicked his attention to Sean briefly and back to his screen, chin moving to rest in his free hand. “Isn’t that what all the otehr ghost hunter shows do anyways?”

"I’m not even going to ask how you know that," he teased, shaking his head and taking one last glance at the video of their companion freaking out because of a squirrel, letting a faint grin creep out from the corner of his lips. He then turned his attention to Jamie, listening to him answer the question Sean threw in his direction. "That’s a good way of looking at it. I mean, I know what you mean. I’m so sick of lifestyle videos pieces about the university. And this is such a nice breath of fresh air. I just hope Dorothy’s not wrong about this, you know?" He said the words without a hint of malice, not because he didn’t trust Dorothy, but because he knew he needed her to be right.

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Jamie wasn't a negative person by nature, forever willing to look on the bright side of things, no matter the situation, but Tommy was one of those people who seemed to bring out the worst in people, regardless of his intentions. Swallowing down the words he wished he could say, his thoughts covered by the flat expression on his face, Jamie forced himself to remember that this was the man that was bankrolling their project. Dorothy's voice in the back of his head reminding him that now was not the time to call their producer a number of terrible things.

Forcing a deep breath into his lungs, Jamie pulled his laptop back towards himself, and let out in a controlled tone, "Well, looks like I'm going back tonight to get the same footage. Thank you, for your help. I really appreciate it." There was no sincerity in Jamie's voice as he started to pack up his equipment, already trying to see if he could wrangle someone else to come with him. He wasn't afraid of 'ghosts', but someone had messed with his camera, and Jamie wouldn't mind the extra company through the night.

He tried to mask the contradicting tone slipping into his voice.

”Well, unless you got an answer for me as to why your footage went ghostin’ on outta here, then we ain’t finished.”

Tommy was hiding it so well. 

"I figure we got ourselves three options here." He counted dramatically on his fingers as he enunciated each point. " One, we got some punk runnin’ around here, lookin’ to shit on the project. Two, there’s some paranormal-fuckin’-activity goin’ on around here, and the frequency tapped your feed.” He didn’t believe the second. “Or third, I hired some brain dead cracker jack who don’t know high quality from one’a them Razr flip phones.” He paused, letting his blatant distaste for the entire situation cling to his closing sentence. 

"Now, you gonna figure out which problem I’m lookin’ at here?”

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Jamie watch the loop of Jay jumping and screaming in the air a few more times, before canceling the feed and sliding his laptop back to his side of the table. "Then, I would suggest not hanging around the East side of campus during lunch. That's where this guy seems to hang out with his buddies, and one crazy squirrel is more than even Jay could handle." Pulling up the footage he was supposed to be looking through, the strangeness still bugging at the back of his thoughts, Jamie shrugged, "It's something different. How many documentaries have the students here done about 'college living'? Given the chance between another expose on the cafeteria's lax health standards, and the chance to prove paranormal existence?" Jamie paused in running the footage to send Sean a pointed look, "I know what I'd choose."

While Sean wasn’t exactly the type to find things like this amusing, he had to admit seeing their companion freak out on screen was more gratifying than he had expected. Mostly because he didn’t see anything but one side to Jay. “Don’t get me wrong. If I were in his shoes, I’d probably learn all sorts of things I didn’t even know I could do,” he laughed, shaking his head. The change in topic made him move his eyes from the screen to the other man. “Ah, right,” Of course it made sense that Jamie would sign up for something like this because it was cool. He looked the type, after all. “I guess I’m just shocked so many people are involved with this thing, considering how… fictitious it sounds like, you know?”

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Jamie's grin grew even more, if it were possible, and he let his feet fall to the floor with a dull thud as he shifted the laptop so Sean could see. It only took a few moments to pull up the footage he'd managed to capture of their wayward 'special effects' guru, and Jamie felt the familiar laughter bubble up his chest. "Man, never thought I'd see someone jump that high because of a pissed off squirrel, but gotta hand to him. He definitely knows how to catch some air." Chuckling, he set the section of video to play on a loop, before chancing a look at Sean. Out of the entire cast of characters that made up Dorothy's ghost hunting brigade, Sean was the first that had asked about his involvement. "How did any of us? Class. The professor mentioned it one day, and I decided to join in on all the fun."

The journalist let out an uncontrollable snort of laughter, before leaning forward. “See, now that you need to let me see.” Sean sat back, pulling out his own hand held and connecting it to his computer. “How’d you end up signed up for this thing anyway?” he asked Jamie silently, slight curiosity piquing his interested.

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"It wasn't a complete waste of time." Jamie flipped through his comic and idly watched his screen as the computer transferred the camera's footage to his hard drive. "Got to see Jay jump and scream because of that squirrel."

"Okay, so how long are we supposed to wait for something to happen again? I feel like last night was a big waste of time," he sighed, tapping his foot almost impatiently as he waited for a response.

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If Jamie was expecting anything else, he would've been sorely disappointed, but the way Tommy's entire focus shifted had a surprised laugh leaving Jamie. "Well--we called this place a bust, didn't we? I thought Dor was researching a new place to investigate, so I can't exactly--go back there, can I?"

As Tommy’s fingers began tapping against one another, an involuntary hmm escapes his lips. He believed it was a glitch in hardware, or owner— but voicing his disapproval would prove fruitless. This was a chance for him to be proven a believer, a man with full faith in the cause. 

"You might be onto somethin’. Get a different camera in there tonight. Same position, lighting— whatever the fuck. I wanna know why our footage is gone, you hear?"

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 jamesrmatheson:

"I won’t tell her you said that," Jay said, affecting a prim tone of voice that he dropped almost immediately. He sniffed, once, for good measure. 

Jay waited for the software to load up. He wasn’t exactly using Avid or anything monstrously heavy, but the files stammered as they imported into the editor. Jay frowned, not a fan of that. He moved a few into the timeline, blazing through them. The audio in his headphones squawked as voices raced past at high speeds. 

"It looks fine?" Jay shrugged. He chattered, picking up speed as he explained. "I’m pretty sure you must’ve forgotten what side the room you shot at the time … or like, it just imported out of order or something. Which’ll be a bitch for me to go and match up, but that is kinda my job, y’know?

"Next time, maybe, do like a little sketch for reference? Lots of people do that. I do that, too, when I need to do stuff like lines of sight, or motion … anyway, it’s totally workable. Don’t worry, man."

Jamie chuckled at the vague threat, Dorothy not as scary (to him at least) as everyone made her out to be. He sat back in his chair and waited for Jay to cycle through the footage, as much as he hated to admit it (sometimes) Jay was more experienced at this than him. Jamie may have been able to pick up on the many different facets of shooting a camera, but Jay seemed to have a sixth sense with these sort of things. If anyone could figure out what had happened, it would be him.

Biting at his lip, unsettled, he scrubbed a hand over his head, making his hair spike up even further. "Yeah...alright." He hadn't thought about sketching his shots, it was a good idea, and would keep the confusion he'd felt this morning when he reviewed his footage at bay, but he still couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. Jamie had an amazing memory, there would've been no way he could've gotten a full ride and gotten his team to the championships without it, and he knows, without a doubt, that he hadn't forgotten where he'd placed the camera. "Sketches, got it."

Shoving away his discomfort, he grinned and kicked his feet up on the table opposite the laptop, "Can always count on you, huh Jay?"

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Nodding along, he shifted the computer closer to her and pressed play on the footage. "There's nothing noticeably different, not unless you were the one to set up the cameras, which I am, but the angle this footage shows is completely different than what I set up." Despite the calm tone of his voice, Jamie was a little unsettled thinking that someone might've gone behind him and moved his cameras. He'd worked hard to get over his first fumbling days and didn't like to think he wasn't doing his best--enough so that someone was double-checking his work when he wasn't looking. "Now, if there were paranormal interference, I'd have to say I'd be impressed, considering the camera would've had to have been moved from one side of the room to the other. Twice."

After grinning back at him, she looked at the laptop, inspecting it. “I think “wonky” could go under that category.Completely different than what you shot? How did that even happen? I’m happy I’ve not dealt with any of the tech, besides watching what I can, of course. —- Can I see?” Her eyes lit up with excitement, hoping he’d say yes. She didn’t really have much better to do, her brain was too full of trying to analyze certain ghost pictures. “Do you think — maybe — you know. Paranormal interference? Possibly?”

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"What, does she get all--" Jamie lifted his hands and mimicked claws while letting out a roar that quickly devolved into chuckles. "I think I can handle her." Jamie sat back in his chair, idly watching Jay do his computer mumbo jumbo, unable to help the soft snort at his reply. "Angles, I get. The fact that the camera is shooting from the exact opposite side of the room than where I set it up--that I don't get."

"You haven’t seen her during the last hours of a deadline, then," Jay said, a little dryly, but he flipped open his laptop again, and scrolled through some files, setting up a new structure for the footage.

He pressed his lips together, blowing about half a raspberry. “I bet it just looks like a different angle. Camera stuff can get a bit tricky. As long as we still have the majority of coverage, we’ll be fine. Pinky swear. I’ll make something work.”

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"No worries, Dor. We'll find your ghosts and you'll have more money than you can shake a stick at, yeah?" Jamie regretted not talking to her, or a number of people on this project, before he'd started up as the cameraman, but he took full advantage of the opportunity given to him to get to know them better. They all had their quirks, and made their 'ghost hunting team' quite eccentric, but it was all turning out to be more fun than even Jamie had imagined it could be. Despite their lack of 'evidence'. "Oh, if that's all. Glad we got that out of the way early on, souls can be such pesky things to bother with."

"You caught me there," she replied, tucking back a piece of hair behind her ear as she let her mind wander a bit from the problem at hand. "If only it paid more to chase ghosts then maybe I’d have something else to offer rather than the chance of a lifetime." She felt her smile widen slightly, not enough to forget entirely that she was stressed beyond belief but the distraction was a nice one. "That was the selling of your soul. No big deal or anything you need to worry about."

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"Overnight. None of the other footage I shot was affected, only this one. I tested the camera and it's all in working order. All the footage I shoot with it is fine, it's only this file that seems to be corrupted." Jamie guessed it might've happened when he uploaded it, something about the data stream, or file extensions, or whatever else Jay spouted on about that Jamie didn't bother with because it wasn't relevant to making a shot look good.

Eyes squint as the harsh light hits him, the man trying to decode the supposed problem at hand. He saw nothing— opaque space. His teeth sunk into his bottom lip as he surveyed the footage- needing a solution. “Did you film this on spot, or is it an overnight cam?”

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"Mum's the word." Tapping the side of his nose, Jamie grinned and shifted the laptop so she could see the screen better. "If by 'wonky' you mean the footage is completely different than what I shot, then yes, and I'm not heartbroken because, well--it still looks good, it's just...weird."

"I won’t tell if you don’t?" Of course she was a bit bummed, but she tried to look over at the laptop anyways — maybe another pair of eyes would help? "What’s the exact problem, Jams? Did it go all wonky? You don’t seem too heartbroken about it,” Clara pointed out, raising her eyebrows.

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Blowing out a sigh, Jamie collapsed back into his chair and pushed his own laptop across the table for Jay to get a look at. "She's not that scary." Even Jamie didn't believe his words, and tugged a hand through his hair as he waited for Jay to look through the footage. "I can't figure out what happened to it. It was fine this morning when I checked it, but now--it's like they're all shot from angles I didn't shoot."

"Don’t you use those hang dog eyes on me, man. You know that I’m going to be the one going through the raw stuff, right," Jay said, a muscle in his cheek twitching as he frowned. "Just tell me so I’m not like up at 3AM tonight, cowering from Dorothy’s wrath."

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"Well..." Jamie's sheepish grin didn't lessen under the other man's almost palpable ire, shifting the laptop so he could get a look at the screen and pressing play. "It's better if I show you." The video started to play, an empty hallway in a darkened room made brighter by the night lens Jamie had used. Everything seemed to be fine for a few moments, until everything blacked out, three seconds passing in darkness before the screen flickered back on, nothing having changed. "The same thing  happens every five minutes. On the dot. Can't figure it out."

Tommy can feel his throat clenching, a closed fist reaching up to his mouth to collect himself before he blew. Hard eyes flicked up to the boy before him, taking in the sloppy grin— trying to figure out its meaning. “Homie, you better be tellin’ me something an’ not someone erased them tapes.” 

At least then they’d have a feasible story. 

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"Well..." Jamie leaned back in his chair, hand rubbing across the back of his head as he shrugged. "Not really, no."

Jay closed his macbook part of the way, steepling his fingers. “Okay. Wanna elaborate?”

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This time Jamie did chuckle, abandoning his comic book to an empty table and shifting his feet to the floor so he could give her his whole attention. "Hey, I'm not here to believe, or disbelieve. You just tell me where you want the camera to point, and I'm there. Diseases, ghosts, and all." 

Dorothy watched him over her shoulder, knowing that he didn’t believe but she didn’t let it bother her. Even if she surrounded herself with people who didn’t believe, it wouldn’t change how she felt or why she was doing it in the first place. “Laugh all you want, camera boy. We will find something and when we do, I’m going to be the first person that does a little ‘told you so’ dance when you’re seeing things that you can’t explain. We just have to find the right place. And that house was nothing more than a cesspool of disease, not ghosts.”