A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 63
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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 63
Action 8. Can You Handle It?
The most prestigious awards that OTT productions can aim for are concentrated between May and July.
Baeksang Arts Awards, OTT Awards, Content Awards, and so on…
For Accomplice, which was a mid-June production, this was quite an unfair schedule.
However, the fact that such a schedule was set in the first place was because of the judgment that Accomplice wouldn’t win awards anyway.
So rather than having no luck with awards, wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that Tivic had no eye for quality?
Although we missed this period, Accomplice’s name was called continuously at year-end and New Year award ceremonies.
-The OTT category grand prize goes to… Accomplice!
-Congratulations!
This was because channel-centered award ceremonies had started establishing OTT categories from a few years ago.
Of course, it was treated like a side dish.
There were no awards for actors, directors, or writers – just a lumped-together award for the entire production.
And there were many cases where productions other than Accomplice won.
By Tivic’s standards, the production that heated up 2028 the most was Accomplice, but looking at the entire OTT industry, that wasn’t necessarily the case.
On Netflix, 【Goodbye, Good Night】 starring actor Tae-ung recorded an unprecedented hit.
On Dayz, 【Can Love Be Hacked Too】, which was produced without much expectation, gained tremendous popularity and caused a white hacking syndrome.
Thanks to this, middle and high school students hacking public institutions with AI assistance became a social problem.
Both productions were overwhelmingly superior to Accomplice in total viewing time.
If you look at viewing time relative to platform size, Accomplice was overwhelming, but award ceremonies don’t consider such things.
In that sense, you could say Accomplice actually did well in receiving awards.
To put it positively, the artistic value was recognized; to put it negatively, it wasn’t threatening enough to warrant checks like Netflix or Dayz dramas.
But…
-This year’s OTT category production is!
-Accomplice! Congratulations!
Nevertheless, I felt proud.
That the production I, and we, made was chosen by people around the world.
But unfortunately, I couldn’t enjoy the year-end and New Year atmosphere.
Budget usage, set progress, filming permits, cast contracts, call sheets, outsourcing contracts, and so on.
Countless mid-bosses were attacking without rest.
Only after defeating all these mid-bosses could I defeat the final boss called filming.
Still, I wasn’t working alone.
“Why are we the only ones doing this in the New Year? There’s no Happy New Year atmosphere…”
“Ahem. Making overtime a lifestyle, making ramen a staple food, unifying day and night!”
“Seriously, you’re more old-fashioned than the Manager and CEO.”
Chae Seo-hui grumbling from the next seat.
“Really… I didn’t know Hyeon-u was this kind of person…”
Kwon Cheol CE across from me.
“Ughhhh!”
Even Noh Jae-uk CE, who fell asleep in his chair and was having periodic seizures.
We all did it together.
Honestly, without Kwon Cheol and Noh Jae-uk’s help, I might have died from overwork.
I almost died while casting regular supporting actors and regular characters.
Kwon Cheol approached first and extended a helping hand, and Noh Jae-uk also joined hesitantly.
But surprisingly, the person who helped me the most was…
“I love you, our Hyeok…!”
That one.
Yun Hyeon-sol, who was looking at her smartphone with tears in her eyes.
Even when problems erupted from all sorts of places, the writing team had no issues.
Yun Hyeon-sol was the one who took care of that writing team.
From some point on, I left everything to Yun Hyeon-sol and barely paid attention to it.
Every time a completed script came in, I just organized my opinions and delivered them to Yun Hyeon-sol.
But why is she so energetic?
I feel like I’m dying.
She was watching some E-sports award ceremony and crying, but her face was glowing.
Looking at Team 4’s scene like this, gratitude welled up from deep in my heart.
“I’m really grateful, everyone. I’ll repay you all when you work on your individual projects. Bring me any scripts you’re interested in. I’ll look at them like my own scripts, no, more diligently than my own scripts. I really love you all.”
“Hyeon-u, you didn’t sleep yesterday either, did you?”
“What did I just say?”
“That you love us.”
“Ah, that’s possible. It’s okay.”
“It’s not what I said, it’s what you said, Hyeon-u.”
“What does it matter who said it?”
“…?”
As this conversation of unknown flow continued, a familiar voice flowed from the award ceremony screen on the smartphone.
-And lastly, I want to express my immeasurable gratitude to Director Dohyeon-u, who gave us this glory and miracle.
It was Eum Seong-hyeon.
-We love you, Director!
-Fighting for your next work!
The actors standing behind him also shouted noisily.
A smile was forming on my lips when Chae Seo-hui suddenly jumped in.
“I like Accomplice! No! I like Fingertip, one two three!”
“Let’s just work.”
“Yes!”
And so the early days of 2029 were passing by in paperwork.
* * *
“Jeong Reporter? How long has it been!”
“Oh, senior! Are you still in the entertainment department?”
“Well, I have to stay here until I die. Didn’t Jeong Reporter go to the social affairs department?”
Entertainment reporters with cigarettes in their mouths gathered in small groups in the smoking area and started chatting.
A few hours ago, there had been KBX’s new production announcement, and the war-like article publication competition had just ended.
After chatting for a while, someone changed the topic.
“But isn’t today Fingertip’s first day of filming?”
“So what? It’s private.”
“The script reading was private too, and the filming set is private too… Isn’t that too bold?”
A nearby reporter joined in.
“It’s because they don’t need promotion thanks to Jeon So-ra. The buzz was tremendous.”
“Right. I also told an intern who wrote an article about Jeon So-ra being in a 4th role something, but it was actually true.”
“Our interns probably churned out a hundred clickbait articles about Jeon So-ra’s confirmed appearance.”
The reporter who first brought up Fingertip said.
“Doesn’t Dohyeon-u seem to be incredibly good at stirring up buzz?”
“It seems like he’s deliberately aiming for it. The Fingertip director is that guy, the one who used to film idol music videos. What was his name again?”
“Im Un-jae.”
“Ah, right. When I heard that story, I thought he was crazy.”
“But wouldn’t he have skills? There’s no way they’d entrust a drama worth over 10 billion won to a director with absolutely nothing.”
“That would be true, right?”
Then an older reporter who had been listening quietly bluntly said.
“I don’t know about skills, but the filming set will be a mess.”
“What? Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Kim Ra-un who clashed with Dohyeon-u, Min Jae-ryul who was timing for the lead role, top star Jeon So-ra… There’s even an unknown actor with a higher role than Jeon So-ra, right?”
“Oh wow, that’s right. Just hearing about it makes me breathless.”
“Wouldn’t Dohyeon-u and Kim Ra-un be okay? They must have been cast because they resolved their conflict.”
“Does that kind of thing just get resolved like that? Don’t you know actors’ characteristics?”
“Right. When actors have one lead project fail, they hold onto it for 10 years. I’ve seen them curse at assistant directors saying it failed because the reflector wasn’t positioned properly.”
“Kim Ra-un might have agreed to appear just to make Dohyeon-u’s life hell.”
The older reporter who flicked off his cigarette ash added.
“Who’s going to control that atmosphere?”
* * *
It’s different from Accomplice.
That was the impression I got from the first filming set of 【Caught at Fingertips】.
Actually, I had felt it since the script reading.
With Accomplice, there was no sense of competition between the actors at all.
If anything, the competition was just ‘I should act better in this scene.’
But Caught at Fingertips is different.
Kim Ra-un is dying to show the acting he’s prepared all this time, and Min Jae-ryul shows his desire to lead as a two-top production.
Min-sik Sunbae, who’s an unknown actor, and Luhan, who’s from an idol background, are no different.
Even though they seemed awkward on set compared to other actors, you could see their desire to firmly imprint their roles.
The only person who stood a step away from this atmosphere was Jeon So-ra.
We filmed one simple scene, and she acted exactly as much as needed.
It was skill befitting a top star, and pace control that matched her long career.
Of course, Accomplice was abnormal, and this is normal.
There’s nothing wrong with actors prioritizing their own roles.
But even so, it’s problematic when roles take precedence over the work itself.
Behind the mindset of filming a good work, there should be the heart to prove one’s role.
When the morning shoot, where I had deliberately clustered boring scenes, ended, I approached Director Im Un-jae.
“Director. How’s the result?”
“Hmm, like a rookie boy group.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re doing well, but their enthusiasm is excessive so the overall picture doesn’t match. Should I call it acting for individual cams?”
I roughly understand what he means, and I’m relieved our thoughts align.
Over the past few months, I had conducted various exercises to confirm whether Director Im Un-jae was someone who could handle the megaphone alone.
I sent him as a C Team director for Team 1 projects that were short-staffed, and even conducted practice shoots for Caught at Fingertips by gathering unknown actors through my connections.
As a result, I realized.
My eye wasn’t wrong.
This person is a genius.
Still, directing talent and directing ability are different, but at least his eye seems to pass too.
“How do you direct in such cases?”
“Usually I deliberately kill time. If I make them dance for about 5 hours, they naturally lose energy.”
That’s a method I can’t use on actors.
If I made them do such mundane scenes for 5 hours, they’d go on strike.
“Do you have a method in mind?”
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
I’m waiting for an answer, but Director Im Un-jae just keeps staring at me endlessly.
“…Is that method by any chance me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“The staff said so. That it’s the most accurate and fastest way. They saw it during Accomplice.”
“Don’t be too swayed by what the staff says. They’re good people, but they have a lot of wild ideas too.”
“The Visual Director and Sound Director said so too.”
Ah, I should listen to what those people say.
“So? Director Do, don’t you have a method?”
“I do have one… but I’m worried about infringing on your authority as director.”
“That’s really an unnecessary worry.”
“Why?”
I suddenly looked around following Im Un-jae’s gaze toward the filming set.
Then I realized.
Everyone was just staring at me.
Right, the staff must have felt it too.
That the actors’ ambitions are excessive.
“Then… I’ll give it a try.”
Director Im Un-jae nodded.
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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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