The flickering cursor on Tom's laptop was the only thing moving in the cramped, dimly lit apartment that served as their unofficial production office. To anyone else, it was just a blinking line, but to Tom, it felt like a heartbeat—erratic, faint, and dangerously close to stopping.
"We're hemorrhaging, Dan," Tom said, his voice echoing off the bare walls. He didn't look up from the spreadsheet. He couldn't. The numbers were highlighted in a shade of red that felt personally offensive. "That fifteen-day gap was a black hole. We sucked the life out of the contingency fund just trying to keep the lights on while we waited for the second round."
Daniel stood by the window, staring out at the hazy Los Angeles skyline. He looked thinner than he had a month ago, his jawline sharper, his eyes rimmed with the kind of permanent fatigue that coffee couldn't touch. "The first round didn't give us a movie, Tom. It gave us a collection of actors. We had Elias for Juror Three, sure. We had Leo for Five. But the room lacked a center of gravity. If we had started shooting then with random actors, we would have been making a movie about twelve guys in a room. I want to make a movie about a world in a room."
The logistical reality was a nightmare that had nearly derailed the entire production before a single frame was shot. They had initially booked a dilapidated dance studio in North Hollywood for a two-day casting marathon. The plan was simple: see everyone, cast everyone, start rehearsals. But by the end of those forty-eight hours, Daniel had sat in the silence of that mirrored room, surrounded by the smell of old sweat and floor wax, and realized they were missing half the puzzle.
They needed fifteen days to regroup, to scout more aggressively, and to pray that the actors they did like wouldn't book a commercial or a procedural in the meantime. The problem was the studio owner, a man named Henderson who smelled of stale cigars and saw indie filmmakers as nothing more than prey. When they asked to return for a second two-day round fifteen days later, Henderson had sniffed the desperation in the air. He'd doubled the "day rate," claiming a sudden influx of interest from a yoga collective that didn't exist.
"Re-renting that dump cost us the wardrobe budget for the Juror Seven," Tom muttered, finally closing the laptop with a definitive snap. "I hope you're happy. Our 'indie feel' is officially veering into 'poverty-stricken realism.' If a lightbulb breaks on set, we're finishing the scene by candlelight."
"It'll add to the atmosphere," Daniel said, a ghost of a smile appearing. "Come on. It's time for the Read."
---
For the uninitiated, a "Table Read" is the holy grail of pre-production. In the glitzy world of big-budget studio films, this usually happens in a glass-walled conference room at a place like Sony or Warner Bros. There would be nameplates, fancy catering, and assistants scurrying around with high-end digital recorders. It's the first time the entire cast sits together to read the script from start to finish. It's where the director hears the "music" of the dialogue for the first time, checking if the jokes land, if the tension holds, or if a scene that looked great on paper is actually a bloated mess.
For Daniel and Tom's production, the "conference room" was the basement of St. Jude's Community Center. The "catering" was a cardboard box of day-old donuts from the shop on the corner and a large, communal pump-pot of coffee that tasted like it had been brewed with a copper penny.
As the actors filtered in, the room felt less like a movie set and more like a high-stakes poker game in a bunker. This was the "indie feel" in its rawest form: mismatched folding chairs, a table that wobbled if you breathed on it too hard, and a single flickering fluorescent light overhead that hummed in a low, mourning D-sharp.
"Is this the set? Or did I accidentally sign up for a 12-step program?"
The voice belonged to Victor, the man Daniel had finally cast as Juror 7 after the second, expensive round of auditions. Victor was a career character actor with a sharp tongue and a wardrobe that suggested he was constantly ready for a red carpet he hadn't been invited to yet. He tossed a designer leather bag onto a dusty chair and began inspecting the donut box with visible suspicion.
"It's 'immersive theater,' Victor," chirped Jax, the youngest of the group, cast as Juror 12. Jax was an advertising exec in real life, possessing a permanent smirk and an ironclad sense of irony. "The Director wanted us to feel the crushing weight of the judicial system before we even opened the script. Either that, or Tom forgot to pay the bill at the Four Seasons."
"The bill at the Four Seasons would have cost more than your entire salary, Jax," Tom shouted from the corner, where he was frantically trying to tape down a loose power cord with duct tape. "Eat a donut and sit down."
"I'm not eating anything that looks like it survived the Reagan administration," Victor remarked, though he did pour himself a cup of the sludge-like coffee. He turned to Arthur, the quiet, older man cast as Juror 2. "So, Arthur. You've been in the game a while. Is the basement a good omen or a bad one?"
Arthur, who was meticulously arranging his pens in a perfect line next to his script, looked up and blinked behind thick glasses. "In my experience, the quality of the coffee is inversely proportional to the quality of the performances. Given how terrible this smells, we might just win an Oscar."
A ripple of laughter went around the table. This was the "Banter Phase"—the crucial ten minutes where twelve strangers, who were about to spend weeks trapped in a room together, tested each other's boundaries.
"I just want to know if the AC is going to be this bad on the actual set," said Leo Santos (Juror 5), rubbing the back of his neck. Leo was a veteran of the first casting round, a rock-solid performer who had become Daniel's early anchor. He was also Ma's son in his free time. "Because if it is, I'm not acting. I'm just genuinely sweating."
"That's the secret, Leo!" shouted Petros (Juror 11) from across the table. Petros had a booming, melodic accent that filled the basement. "The sweat is the subtext! In my country, we do not need air conditioning. We have passion! And very large fans!"
"Well, here in Van Nuys, we have a broken radiator and a prayer," Jax added, leaning back so far in his folding chair that the metal groaned in protest.
Daniel walked to the head of the table, his presence immediately quieting the room. Beside him sat a young woman named Maya, a film student who had volunteered to be the "Reader." In a table read, the Reader is the most important person who will never appear on screen. They read the stage directions—the descriptions of action, the weather, the movements—at a steady, neutral pace, allowing the actors to focus entirely on their lines.
"Alright, everyone," Daniel began, his voice low but commanding. "First of all, thank you. I know this isn't a soundstage at Paramount. I know the chairs are uncomfortable and the coffee is... well, it's coffee. But look around this table. It took us two rounds of casting and fifteen days of agonizing over folders to get exactly these twelve faces in this room. We spent money we didn't have to make sure we didn't settle. And looking at you all now, I know we made the right call."
He looked at Elias Thorne (Juror 3), who sat like a gargoyle at the far end of the table, his script already marked up with aggressive red ink. Then he looked at Caleb (Juror 8), the man who would be the film's moral compass, who sat with a quiet, watchful intensity.
"A script reading is about discovery," Daniel continued, explaining the process for the benefit of the few who looked nervous. "We aren't performing today. We're listening. I want to hear the rhythm. I want to hear where the words get caught in your throat. Maya will read the descriptions. When she says your character speaks, you jump in. Don't worry about 'acting' for the back row. Just talk to the man across from you."
He took a breath. The "indie feel" wasn't just about the lack of money; it was about the intimacy. In this basement, there were no distractions. No trailers, no makeup artists, no studio notes. Just twelve men and a story.
"Maya," Daniel nodded. "Take us in."
Maya cleared her throat. Her voice was clear and rhythmic. "Interior. Jury Room. Day. A small, square room, the walls painted a sickly, institutional cream. A large rectangular table sits in the center. A single window looks out over the city, but it's caked in grime. The heat is oppressive. It is 4:00 PM on the hottest day of the year."
She paused for a beat.
"The Foreman—Juror One—stands by the window. He looks at the others."
"Okay," said Juror 1, his voice slightly shaky but gaining strength. "We... uh, we all know why we're here. We have a job to do. I think we should start by, you know, just taking a vote. See where we stand."
"A vote? Already?" Victor (Juror 7) cut in, his voice dripping with the character's characteristic impatience. "I've got tickets to the Yankees game tonight. Let's just raise hands and get out of here before the subway turns into a sauna."
"This isn't a ballgame, Seven," Elias (Juror 3) growled, his voice vibrating through the table. The banter was gone. The "friendly" introductions were replaced by a sudden, sharp edge. "It's a murder trial. Show some respect for the process."
Daniel watched them. He watched how Elias's presence seemed to physically shrink the actors sitting next to him. He watched how Caleb (Juror 8) remained silent, his eyes fixed on a spot on the table, waiting for his moment.
As the reading progressed, the narration—the "inside" of the film—began to take shape. Maya described the sound of the rain starting outside, the clicking of a pocketknife, the sound of a heavy wooden door being locked from the outside. In a real shoot, these sounds would be added by Foley artists months later, but here, in the basement, the actors' imaginations filled the gaps.
An hour in, they reached the first major confrontation. The script called for a moment of overlapping dialogue—a nightmare for sound mixers but a dream for directors.
"You're telling me he didn't hear the yell?" Juror 3 shouted.
"The train was passing!" Juror 8 countered calmly.
"You can't know that!" Juror 10 chimed in, his voice rising in pitch.
The room was suddenly loud. The "indie" budget didn't matter anymore. The crumbling walls of St. Jude's seemed to vanish, replaced by the suffocating tension of the jury room. Tom, sitting in the back with his ledger, had stopped looking at the numbers. He was leaning forward, his mouth slightly open.
Daniel signaled for a brief "comfort break" two hours in. The transition back to reality was jarring. The actors slumped back, the characters receding, the friendly banter returning like a safety blanket.
"I take it back," Victor said, wiping real sweat from his forehead. "The coffee didn't give me the energy. This script is basically a triple-shot espresso. My heart is doing things it shouldn't."
"It's the pacing," Daniel explained to the group as they stretched their legs. "In a script reading, you realize that dialogue is just a game of catch. If one of you drops the ball, the whole scene dies. That's why I took my time with casting. I needed twelve people who wouldn't drop the ball."
"And you're paying for the extra session with our lunch money, right?" Jax joked, though he was looking at Daniel with a new kind of respect.
"PB&J sandwiches for three weeks, Jax," Tom said, finally smiling. "But after hearing that first act? I think I can live with it."
The "indie feel" was no longer a sign of failure; it was a badge of honor. They were doing it the hard way, the long way, the expensive way. They were poor, they were tired, and they were in a basement in Van Nuys—but as Daniel looked at his twelve jurors, he knew he finally had his movie.
"Act Two," Daniel said, tapping his script. "The tide turns. Let's go."
The fluorescent light flickered once, hummed louder, and then the room went silent as they dove back into the heat. In that moment, the two rounds of interviews, the 15-day gap, and the predatory studio owner were all worth it. They had something better than a budget. They had a pulse.