A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 26

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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 26

I can see two meerkats.

It was Chae Seo-hui and Director Jeong Hee-su who suddenly raised their heads at the word ‘cameo’ that popped out of Seo Jae-yeon’s mouth.

“A cameo…?”

I can feel ambition in Chae Seo-hui’s soft-spoken voice.

You know how it is, don’t you?

A predator quietly waiting for an opportunity, afraid that making a loud noise might scare away the prey.

“…Hmm.”

In contrast, Director Jeong’s face looked a bit complicated.

If I had to guess, it seemed like her inner selves were fighting each other.

Split between the working professional Jeong Hee-su who says to immediately seize the opportunity to add Seo Jae-yeon to her filmography, and the artist Jeong Hee-su who only looks at the work’s completeness.

Her face looked like she might develop a split personality if left alone, so I quickly stepped in.

“What’s this sudden talk about a cameo?”

“The script was interesting though?”

“Even if the script is interesting, where is there a character for you to act in our drama?”

Originally, Accomplice is a work with almost no extras.

The sequences in the present timeline that take place in the isolated Gangwon-do mountain cabin really have 0 extras until episode 7.

The past timeline dealing with school days needs extras since schools appear, back alleys appear, and snack bars appear…

But among them, there’s no role suitable for Seo Jae-yeon to appear in.

However, Seo Jae-yeon was much more serious than I thought.

“You know the first love that’s first mentioned in episode 4? Yeon-hee.”

“Ah.”

“I think it would be good if I played her.”

Yeon-hee.

A character who doesn’t appear in the work but is mentioned several times through other characters’ mouths.

The first love of Hyeon-tae, Kang Cheol, and Seong-jin.

Actually, there are scenes where Yeon-hee appears.

But her face and voice don’t come out.

The frames are composed to show only her back and shoulders, so that the center of the scene focuses on the relationships between friends rather than love.

Of course, if Seo Jae-yeon appeared, those scenes could be replaced with frontal shots (shots where the camera faces the front of the subject).

There’s no way Seo Jae-yeon can’t act, and with Seo Jae-yeon’s appearance, it would be convincing that multiple people would like her simultaneously.

But…

“Just eat your food.”

“Are you dissing me right now?”

“Yeah. I’m dissing you refreshingly.”

“Why? I’ll do it for free? I want to do it?”

“For the same reason I rejected Ra-un. In our drama, the actors shouldn’t be visible.”

Even if it’s just a passing cameo, the moment Seo Jae-yeon’s face appears, the viewers’ immersion will be broken.

Of course, it probably won’t be in a bad way.

Seo Jae-yeon is appearing? Is this a work to look forward to?

She’s pretty and acts well.

She has better chemistry with unknown actors than expected, etc.

Positive reactions would be the majority.

But considering that deep immersion would be disrupted just by Seo Jae-yeon’s appearance, it’s a bad move in terms of the work’s completeness.

I didn’t explain this story in detail.

Seo Jae-yeon must have read the script too, so was she seriously talking about a cameo appearance…?

Her face is pouting though?

But Chae Seo-hui was one step faster than Seo Jae-yeon.

“Hyeon-u. Excuse me, but are you crazy?”

“About what?”

“I mean, Seo Jae-yeon says she wants to do it!”

“I’m the supervising director though.”

“What’s so important about that!”

Isn’t that very important?

“Hurry up and apologize, and schedule the filming right away.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Oh my!”

Perhaps because Chae Seo-hui got angry on her behalf, the sulky atmosphere on Seo Jae-yeon’s face subsided a bit.

“That person is originally stubborn. He even quit acting on his own.”

“What a terrible person.”

“You’re CE Chae Seo-hui, right?”

“Yes! I’m Chae Seo-hui!”

What’s with this formal introduction?

She’s acting like a real superior.

“Are you perhaps a candidate for new unnie?”

“New unnie?”

“Since it doesn’t seem like it, would you like to have some time to gossip about Dohyeon-u together?”

“Sounds good!”

“Where should we start? CE Chae?”

“Do you happen to know about Dohyeon-u World?”

“Oh, I’m an expert on that.”

Dohyeon-u World?

What’s that?

Why don’t I know about it when it’s my world?

Looking incredulously at Seo Jae-yeon and Chae Seo-hui who suddenly hit it off and were whispering together, I turned my gaze to Director Jeong Hee-su.

She had stopped eating, perhaps getting full, and was looking at me.

“Are you finished? Should I bring you some coffee?”

“No, rather than that.”

Director Jeong Hee-su, who had stopped mid-sentence, looks at me once and looks at Seo Jae-yeon once.

Eventually, she looks at the Accomplice set outside the window, then suddenly checks photos on her phone.

When I looked to see what it was, they were still cuts from the Accomplice filming site.

What is she doing?

“Supervising Director CE Dohyeon-u.”

“The title suddenly got grand.”

“Do you have a designated director for your next work?”

“Next work?”

We’ve almost finished filming Accomplice, but there’s no way there would be one, right?

“Of course not.”

“If there’s an opportunity, please give me, no, give me just one chance.”

“Suddenly?”

Hee-su. 43 years old.

An age honest about desires.

* * *

After the meal, Seo Jae-yeon acted unreasonably, saying she needed to check if this was a work worth dissing her over.

In the end, she ended up watching the filming.

I was worried it might interfere with the acting, but surprisingly, the actors didn’t pay much attention to Seo Jae-yeon.

It was because their immersion had reached its peak as filming neared its end.

Thanks to this, Seo Jae-yeon’s protruding mouth gradually went back in, and eventually she nodded.

“I acknowledge it. This is a work I shouldn’t enter.”

Afterward, I headed to Seoul with Seo Jae-yeon.

This ridiculous top star had come here hitching a ride on a catering truck without even a manager.

If we left him alone, he seemed ready to take the truck back again, so the directing team had no choice but to urgently rent a car.

“Is it okay for the supervising director to leave like this? I could just take the truck back.”

“The location shoot ends at 3 PM tomorrow anyway. Think of it as leaving a few hours early.”

“What kind of comment is that? Say it again with the feeling that you’d take me no matter what.”

“Even if tomorrow’s shoot ends at 4 PM, I’ll definitely take you to Seoul no matter what.”

“That’s a whole 60 minutes more affection added.”

“Amazing, right?”

“I’m touched.”

As always, meaningless chatter was exchanged, when Seo Jae-yeon suddenly brought something up.

“About Director Jang.”

“Yeah.”

“He seemed like he was planning to keep at it?”

“It’d be strange if he wasn’t. You know that guy’s personality, right? It would help promote his own work too.”

“What does Kim Ra-un see in that kind of person that he keeps working with him?”

“He’s the one who ended his unknown days. He’s probably anxious that his popularity might drop if he splits from that person.”

Celebrities who live closed-off lives are often sensitive to changes in their closed environment.

It’s a bit harsh to say, but the same goes for Seo Jae-yeon, who’s been acting like a kid around me for years.

“That’s why I came.”

“What do you mean?”

“If I, D.P’s top star, openly support my senior, at least Director Jang won’t be able to use the PR team, right?”

I take it back.

He’s not a kid.

“You thought that far ahead?”

“This is what they call the trickle-down effect. Actions from above spread downward.”

“So you’re saying you’re at the top?”

“I’m a top star.”

Though the conversation continued like a joke, Seo Jae-yeon’s thinking was actually quite accurate.

D.P’s PR team has an obligation to pump up the buzz for 【0% Algorithm】 starring Kim Ra-un.

And Director Jang is someone capable of suggesting methods for that.

He could spread rumors that Kim Ra-un got dissed by me, or damage the image of the competing work Accomplice.

In this case, D.P’s PR team would attack Accomplice under the concept of ‘supporting their contracted actor’s work.’

This would be quite uncomfortable.

Because D.P is competent.

But the moment Seo Jae-yeon openly supports me, the story changes.

From the PR team’s perspective, Director Jang’s demands would be seen as an extension of internal politics.

Of course, Kim Ra-un and Seo Jae-yeon aren’t actually in a relationship where they check each other, but competition between top stars from the same agency isn’t an unfamiliar story.

In the end, the PR team would more likely move to support 0% Algorithm rather than attack Accomplice.

Seo Jae-yeon’s actions today had that meaning.

“So you don’t need to worry about controlling articles and such.”

“I’m not sure if it’ll become news since there weren’t any famous actors on set. We don’t even have reporters coming and going.”

“Don’t worry. I already spread the source to Reporter Moon.”

“You’ve grown a lot, Seo Jae-yeon.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean Director Jang won’t attack me.

Even if he can’t use D.P’s PR team, he probably has many media contacts in his network.

But well…

It’s within expected range.

“The drama was interesting, right? The script was interesting too, but the set was just as good.”

“Right?”

“The actors were good at acting. How did you end up casting them?”

“If we start talking about that, we might pass Seoul and go all the way to Busan?”

“Jeju Island is possible too.”

Encouraged by Seo Jae-yeon’s reaction, I excitedly rambled about casting-related stories.

I didn’t mention Eum Seong-hyeon’s personal matters, but even excluding that, there was plenty to talk about.

Seo Jae-yeon, who had been listening intently for a while, casually threw out:

“It must be fun.”

“Of course it’s fun. You admitted it yourself.”

“No, not the work. The job.”

“CE? It feels like my calling.”

“Senior, you remember you originally promised to be my manager when you retired, right?”

“Well… that’s what we said.”

Choi Jae-hyeok, Seo Jae-yeon, Kim Ra-un, Dohyeon-u.

D.P’s quartet of rookie actors.

Looking back now, it’s funny, but among the four, I was the one who grabbed an opportunity the fastest.

I got cast in a supporting role in a commercial film with guaranteed success.

The screen time itself was supporting, but the power of the character was stronger than most supporting roles.

But I got dissed on set.

After shooting one cut, the director replaced me.

It’s something I could laugh about once failure became familiar, but it was quite tough at the time.

All the support I’d received felt embarrassing too.

Seo Jae-yeon was the one who cried hard for me instead.

He’s a good kid.

And that’s when he said those words.

If he failed, he’d be my manager, and if I failed, I should be his manager.

“Senior didn’t keep the promise.”

“This is too fun to be a manager?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’m sure.”

“That’s… a relief.”

Seo Jae-yeon continued.

“Then let’s set CE Do’s life goal as casting Seo Jae-yeon.”

“Isn’t that too modest for a life goal?”

“How cocky? You’ve only done one low-budget 8-episode drama.”

“What? Low-budget?”

“It’s not wrong, is it?”

“That’s true.”

If you remove the competition work tag, it’s not in the weight class to compete among commercial dramas.

Of course, I believe the final product can compete sufficiently.

Seo Jae-yeon could joke about this because he felt this too.

“Goals are better the bigger they are. Aim for superstar Seo Jae-yeon.”

“I’ll see how you perform.”

“What will you see? Outstanding looks? Peak acting skills?”

“Whether you become a has-been or not.”

“Hey! I hate that word!”

“That’s exactly why I’m saying it? And what’s with ‘hey’ to your senior?”

“You’re not my senior anymore.”

“Seo Jae-yeon, controversy over informal speech power harassment toward OTT employee.”

“When did I ever power harass?”

“Seo Jae-yeon, ‘Is this power harassment?’ controversy.”

As we laughed and chatted like this, before we knew it we had passed Misa Bridge and the Han River began to come into view.

* * *

The filming of Accomplice, which was scheduled for 10 weeks, was completed in just 7 weeks and 3 days.

While it might not be a record-breaking speed since there are productions that shoot 2 episodes per week with partial scripts, it was a pace that could be called a new record within the OTT production environment.

Now all that remained was post-production.

The work’s release had entered the final countdown.

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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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