A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 1

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Director Who Dominates OTT

Episode 1

Action 1. How to Survive in OTT

I held my actor retirement ceremony.

On my birthday.

By myself.

“Dear Dohyeon-u… Happy birthday.”

After awkwardly singing the congratulatory song alone, I watched all the works I had appeared in.

32 years old.

Well, it’s not too late to start living a new life.

It would be a lie to say I have no regrets, but it’s not like I have such desperate lingering attachments either.

I really tried my best.

I can say with certainty that in terms of effort, I’d be in the top 0.1%.

My mother left me with some words when she passed away.

“Live doing what you desperately want to do. But see it through to the end.”

“And no matter how hard it gets, don’t cry. I won’t be able to watch from Heaven because it’ll break my heart.”

Following those words, I became an actor.

I went from minor role to minor role, enduring all kinds of hardships and contempt while never losing my smile.

I absolutely never cried.

But…

Drip, drip.

Today, I don’t think I’ll be able to keep that promise.

And so Dohyeon-u, an unknown actor in his 8th year, retired.

* * *

“I’m going to retire. There are two months left on my contract, but that should be fine, right?”

At Dohyeon-u’s words, Go Team Leader from the actor management agency 【D.P】 looked bewildered.

“You’re retiring? Really retiring?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Don’t tell me it’s because of what Director Jang said at the company dinner? If that’s the case, I’ll get that bastard…”

“Come on, how many times do you think an unknown actor has heard words like that? I had forgotten about it until you mentioned it.”

“Then what’s the reason?”

“I’m already thirty-two. I can’t keep doing part-time jobs forever. I really want to quit driving and delivery work.”

Go Team Leader fell into thought at Dohyeon-u’s sincere-sounding words.

To be honest, Dohyeon-u didn’t have much commercial value as an actor.

An actor with good looks and good acting skills, but who strangely couldn’t get picked by directors.

An actor who, even if he managed to land a supporting role, would mysteriously get cut from the set.

When I asked a director friend why this happened, the answer was simple.

His acting style doesn’t match.

Directors’ language is ambiguous and unkind, so I couldn’t understand the exact meaning, but I could tell there was no personal animosity.

Despite this, the reason D.P had kept Dohyeon-u for 7 years was…

“Don’t you think it’s a waste? There’s probably no actor in Korea with higher audience numbers than you.”

“Haha. That’s true.”

Because his eye for choosing projects was insanely good.

He appeared in all of them as extras who didn’t even get supporting roles, but he was in 5 ten-million-viewer movies.

And about 4 five-million-viewer movies too.

Among those, three projects had received reactions like “You think this will do well?” when people only read the scripts.

Dramas were no exception either.

The works Dohyeon-u appeared in always topped the ratings.

Of course, this was just Go Team Leader’s opinion.

All the other employees thought it was just luck, and couldn’t understand why he was so protective of an unknown actor.

At D.P, only Go Team Leader and President Yun recognized Dohyeon-u’s abilities.

But, aside from all that…

Dohyeon-u was just too good a guy.

A good guy you wanted to cheer for and pray would succeed.

“Then work as a manager at our company. The president knows you’re diligent and have good social skills. I’ll count it as 3 years, no, 5 years of experience.”

“Nah, forget it.”

“Why? Where else are you going to find a better job than this? With 5 years of experience, the base salary alone would be 3 million won!”

“How can a manager who’s obviously going to be jealous of their client’s success do their job properly?”

“…”

“Thank you for everything, Go Team Leader.”

“Hey…”

“I can visit during holidays, right?”

“Why just holidays? You can come on Children’s Day too.”

“Wow, I’ll come when I’m broke.”

“You, wait a minute.”

Go Team Leader suddenly got up from his seat and headed to the storage room.

When you’re an entertainment agency managing numerous actors, all kinds of gifts pour in constantly.

Go Team Leader gathered up the small but valuable items from among them.

“What’s this?”

“Severance pay from the company. And this is a birthday present I prepared.”

The gift Go Team Leader prepared, knowing Dohyeon-u’s situation well, was a 1 million won department store gift certificate.

Dohyeon-u’s eyes curved gently.

“I can buy a suit with this and prepare for job hunting.”

“Dohyeon-u. Forget everything else, just remember this one thing. As long as I haven’t quit, there’s always a place for you at our company.”

* * *

Geez, our Go Team Leader.

He should hurry up and date or get married.

Since he has nowhere to pour his affection, he acts like this toward a guy like me.

I don’t know how someone so emotional and soft succeeded in the entertainment industry.

Thinking such thoughts, I took one last look around the D.P. Headquarters.

When I first signed my contract 7 years ago, it was just a small building in Mangwon-dong, but it had grown so much.

President Yun said the company was able to grow rapidly thanks to me, but…

Well, I just prepared for auditions for projects I wanted to appear in.

Rather, I’m grateful to Go Team Leader and the president for taking responsibility for me until the end with that mindset.

Feeling all sorts of emotions, I took the bus home, when my phone rang.

The caller was 【Sung Tae-chang】.

“Oh, Seong Tae.”

-Hey, did you retire?!

That’s Sung Tae-chang for you.

He just knows everything.

“What, where did you hear that?”

-Where else, from President Yun.

“That news already reached the president?”

-Are you kidding? You’re the president’s most beloved actor. Did you know he was even going to invest in production for your sake because you kept getting rejected in casting?

Ah, there was that incident.

I declined because I felt burdened.

If I had said okay, the president would have been ousted at something like a shareholders’ meeting.

Except for the president and Go Team Leader, the company people didn’t think too highly of me.

“But why is that?”

-What are you going to do now?

“Well. I’m not sure either.”

-You said you rejected the manager offer. You’re not planning to completely leave the entertainment industry, are you?

“If I’m not an actor and not a manager either, then I should leave. What else would I do?”

-Where are you right now? Home?

“Yeah.”

-Wait. I’m coming over.

“Huh? You’re coming now?”

* * *

Seong Tae was a D.P employee who first offered me a contract when I was bouncing between theater troupes.

Seong Tae was my first manager.

I was Seong Tae’s first actor.

That’s how we spent two years together and became brothers.

Even after Seong Tae quit D.P, we were close enough to drink together whenever we had time.

So even if he’s trying to convert me to some cult, I should believe him at least once…

Wait, isn’t this a pyramid scheme?

Is now the time?

The time to believe him once?

“You’re going to get me into TVic?”

“Yeah.”

“So how much are you planning to take as a job placement fee?”

“Hey asshole, you want to talk nonsense?”

It’s not nonsense.

What kind of place is TVic?

Full name TVictory.

A latecomer that jumped into the OTT business after Enflix, Watchout, Days, and others.

Among OTT companies, it’s on the smaller side in scale, but it’s still a global company.

It’s not a place where a college dropout, high school graduate, unknown actor can get a job through connections.

“Strictly speaking, it’s not TVic. OTT companies have various production labels under them, right? You’d be getting a job at SSK, which specializes in Korean content.”

“What kind of work would I be doing?”

“You know the OTT competition is fierce, right?”

“Didn’t Enflix eat up everything? What’s so fierce about it?”

“Don’t mess with my company loyalty.”

“Okay. Continue.”

“OTT is ultimately about securing video content and distributing it. Sometimes they produce in-house, sometimes they buy distribution rights.”

“I know.”

“So when they produce in-house, do you think OTT companies just give money? Here’s your production budget, and that’s it?”

No way.

They interfere a lot.

Unless it’s a case with really famous directors and actors lined up.

I’ve seen it several times on set too – some staff members call OTT dispatched employees ‘gosari.’

Because calling them ‘gonari’ would be too obvious, so they change it appropriately.

“Are you offering me a gosari position?”

“Yeah. One-year contract CE position. But once you build up some experience, I’ll somehow push for you to become permanent.”

Seong Tae’s face showed some guilt, but he didn’t need to feel sorry at all.

It was already an incredibly generous offer.

The problem is…

“I don’t want to.”

“What? Why?”

“Just because. I want to stay away from acting for a while.”

As time passes, maybe giving up being an actor won’t matter anymore, or maybe I could get a job in the entertainment industry.

But not now.

I decided to retire while pretending it didn’t matter, but I couldn’t say I had absolutely no lingering attachments.

That’s when it happened.

“It’s not about acting. It’s about works.”

“What?”

“From what I can see, you liked works more than acting.”

“…”

“When you discovered an interesting work, you acted because you wanted to make it richer. Your original dream was to be a director, wasn’t it?”

“That’s true…”

“From what I can see, about 50% of the reason you failed auditions was because you scratched at the discomfort that directors kept tightly hidden.”

When making a single work, there are inevitably points you have to give up on.

Because of production costs, box office concerns, or lack of proper capacity to capture it.

“Your acting always contained those abandoned parts. Why? Because you couldn’t ignore the sense that it would be more interesting if changed this way.”

“…As expected, Sung Tae-chang.”

“Stop talking nonsense. I can’t accept you giving up acting. But I can accept even less you distancing yourself from the storytelling industry.”

Seong Tae’s words had resonance, even though we always just teased each other, laughed and chatted whenever we met.

And I realized my true feelings.

That I wanted to distance myself even from works in order to avoid facing the pain of failure.

That now wasn’t the time to refuse, but to be grateful.

Moreover, though it doesn’t quite hit me yet, I want to verify whether I really have talent for seeing works.

“…What exactly would I be doing?”

Perhaps reading the underlying meaning in my question, Seong Tae smiled brightly.

I may have failed as an actor, but it seems I haven’t failed as a person.

Seeing how many people worry about me like this.

Right, Mother?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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