A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 72

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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 72

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If you look closely, film sets have a similar feel to the military.

When the news says the cold has eased up, it’s insanely cold, and when they say it’s pleasant spring weather, it suddenly gets hot.

Seeing short sleeves starting to appear on set in late April, maybe the film set military theory is actually correct?

But regardless of seasonal changes, Fingertip Walk was sailing smoothly.

Setting everything else aside, the filming speed was incredibly fast.

Just looking at the speed of knocking out individual scenes, it felt even faster than Accomplice.

However, there were physical constraints.

Accomplice was a work with almost no location shooting.

Filming took place either on indoor sets or at the Gangwon-do mountain cabin, with the lead actors always in one place.

So if we finished the day’s call sheet, we’d often bring tomorrow’s or the day after’s scenes to shoot.

But Fingertip Walk is different.

The production scale is large, and with diverse settings in the story, it’s heavily influenced by set environments.

Even if we could reuse sets, supporting actors were often out doing B-team filming.

So when conditions allowed, we’d shoot more scenes, but when conditions weren’t right, we often had to wrap filming early and rest.

However, this turned out to have better effects than expected.

Having rest time helps maintain concentration.

Maintaining concentration means shooting fast the next day too, then going to rest early again.

The leftover scenes we shot when situations allowed also accumulated to much more than I thought.

It was a kind of virtuous cycle.

With things going this way, the four words “filming wrap” are starting to shimmer before my eyes.

At the earliest 2 weeks, at the latest within 3 weeks, couldn’t we finish filming?

Should I adjust the call sheet once more?

I was thinking about that when I heard a voice.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

It was Go Team Leader getting out of the driver’s seat.

“Why are you spacing out? Didn’t you hear the horn?”

“Oh, I thought you wanted me to move so you could park. I didn’t know it was your van, Team Leader.”

“Huh, is this your first time seeing it? These days the Accomplice actors ride in this a lot too.”

“I guess you got it after I left? Well, I did deliver quite a few actors into D.P’s embrace recently.”

“Want a commission?”

“Oh come on.”

“Come on? Come on?”

“Go Sang-uk-ssi?”

“Has this guy lost it?”

While chatting with Go Team Leader whom I hadn’t seen in a while, the van door opened and Seo Jae-yeon appeared in a dress.

“Top star entrance.”

“Is there a red carpet today?”

“Yeah. It’s the production announcement and premiere.”

Show some reaction? This is a superstar’s entrance?”

“Netflix must have spent some money.”

“Seems like they sent invitations to just about everyone.”

“Wait, what. Are you two the only ones in the parking lot?”

That was right.

Today was the day of the premiere and production announcement for Netflix’s new work starring Jae-hyeok.

Actually, it’s rare for an actress with no connection to the work to attend such events.

Even though they’re from the same company, Seo Jae-yeon and Jae-hyeok had never worked on the same project.

But the four of us were an exception.

Jae-hyeok, Kim Ra-un, and Seo Jae-yeon had talked a lot about their D.P rookie days in award speeches and interviews.

You could call it an officially recognized friendship of four people?

I had no recognition so people didn’t know about me, then I got included later.

But why does she look like that?

“Why the sulky face?”

“Seeing sunbae’s face suddenly made me angry.”

“Starting a fight as soon as you see me?”

“No matter how I think about it, I’m upset.”

“About what.”

“Jeon… that unnie’s behavior.”

“You were about to say Jeon So-ra just now.”

“No I wasn’t?”

“Yes you were? Going to act cheeky to a senior?”

Go Team Leader interjected.

“Hyeon-u, you’re really something too.”

“What do you mean?”

“How do you beat them up not after they become bratty, but because they might become bratty?”

“That’s what it takes to make this thing into a human being.”

“What? This thing?”

We chatted while moving from the private parking lot to the connected private passage.

Actually, I had arrived at the premiere venue a while ago, but Go Team Leader asked me to go in together so I was waiting.

But Seo Jae-yeon really has a free pass.

When I went down to the private parking lot, I got stopped at every corner, but with Seo Jae-yeon leading the way, no one stops us.

As soon as we exited the passage, I could feel reporters looking this way.

Maybe because Netflix was strictly controlling the scene, no one was pressing shutters.

“Go on. Seo Star.”

“Go smile a bit.”

After handing Seo Jae-yeon over to the on-site staff and heading toward the red carpet exit, I continued chatting with Go Team Leader.

As expected, the topic was Fingertip Walk.

Even though I’m on set every day, I don’t really know the external reactions.

“How’s the reputation?”

“Based on industry insiders, it seems about half and half?”

“Even including actor Jeon So-ra’s buzz, it’s half and half?”

“Yeah. Without Jeon So-ra it would have been less than half and half? This industry is more conservative than you’d think. E-sports is unfamiliar to them.”

“Hmm. What about the general public?”

“More positive than the insiders. Probably about 6 to 4.”

He says it like it’s no big deal, but he’s probably not just making rough guesses.

It’s a work featuring Kim Ra-un at a crucial time, with many rookies pushed in too.

Plus we recently embraced Senior Min-sik too.

Meaning D.P’s promotion team is probably working hard analyzing data too.

“But just looking at reactions, Oxygen Alert seems stronger.”

“Because they got actor Tae-ung. He’s completely S-class now, right?”

“Everywhere he’s been, there’s nothing but praise. There probably won’t be any character controversies either?”

“Well, what can we do. We’ll have to clash and see.”

Accomplice and Youngpal had a messy underwater war, but actually that’s quite rare.

Usually it’s a fight over which promotion team does better work and which business team burns more budget.

The marketing war between Fingertip Walk and Oxygen Alert will probably be like this too.

Though it’s still unknown if they’ll launch at exactly the same time.

That’s when it happened.

One side of the press section got noisy, and familiar faces appeared from the private passage.

Ju Yeong-hun, Go Hak-su.

And Tae-ung.

The reporters’ reactions were directed toward Tae-ung…

No, are they crazy?

Why bring an actor who should be focused on filming to a place like this?

Maintaining immersion in a work might be an actor’s skill, but wouldn’t it be better to let him rest instead of bringing him here?

But that was just my own thinking.

“Ah, damn. We should have pushed ourselves and brought Ra-un too. Would’ve gotten some articles.”

Am I thinking too naively from the actors’ perspective?

Should I develop more of a producer mindset?

That’s when I saw Go Hak-su and Ju Yeong-hun, who had handed Tae-ung over to staff, walking this way.

I wondered if they were really approaching me…

“I hear you’re working hard finding your calling so late in life.”

I doubted my ears from the very first words.

Because of Director Go Hak-su’s condescending tone as he extended his hand.

I was so dumbfounded that I unconsciously accepted the handshake, and he continued speaking.

“As expected, everyone has some talent for scraping by, right? You should have quit acting sooner, don’t you think?”

“Director, your words are a bit…!”

I stopped Go Team Leader, who was angrily trying to intervene.

Something seemed off.

I knew that Director Go had plenty of old-fashioned tendencies and was someone who looked down on others.

About half of that behavior was probably just his nature.

But I was suspicious of the other half.

It wasn’t like we were alone – Go Team Leader was here too, yet he was acting like this?

Could this happen if he wasn’t intentionally trying to provoke me?

“That guy told me. Go Hak-su is keeping an eye on you.”

“He’s anxious. The director was involved in that scandal back then too.”

“Really? Then the guilty one is getting anxious all by himself?”

The story Min-sik Sunbae had told me came to mind.

My thinking was brief, and my action was quick.

I smiled slightly and opened my mouth.

“You’re right. I should have quit acting sooner. If I had known making works would be this fun.”

If there’s an intention, there’s no need to get provoked.

Acting calm would make him more anxious.

But Director Go’s following reaction exceeded my imagination.

“Where do you get off running your mouth so arrogantly?”

Wait, why is he the one getting provoked?

I didn’t say anything particularly harsh, did I?

“A guy who could barely handle bit parts, what? Fun?”

At that moment, a fact I had forgotten over the past year came to mind.

I had only been on production sets, working with Director Jeong Hee-su and Director Im Un-jae, so I had forgotten…

Right, this was how it used to be.

I had forgotten.

Among drama directors, there’s a certain type with inferiority complexes.

Those who think that despite their outstanding talent, they’re outearned by variety show PDs and outranked by film directors.

What such people particularly love is power harassment.

Showing off their superiority to actors like my past self, who didn’t need to be treated as human.

Even creating blacklists.

So he doesn’t want to sit at the same table as me.

He’s afraid that I, whom he had put on his blacklist, might make better works.

No, maybe he doesn’t even think that far?

It might just be the primal displeasure of finding something you thought you’d thrown away sitting prominently in your living room.

If Go Hak-su had stopped there, I would have just said “Ah, yes” and left it at that.

There’s nothing to gain from fighting, right?

But his next words rubbed me the wrong way.

“I hear you brought some guy who used to shoot music videos and you’re bossing him around? Do you think this industry is so easy that you can bring some clueless fool and manipulate him?”

Why did God give talent to someone like that?

Even though Go Hak-su is terrible at organizing stories, he’s good at directing scenes.

He also makes a good duo with writer Hong Hee-yeong, who’s skilled at creating characters.

But…

“Director Go.”

“What? Feeling bad?”

“More than that, I wanted to correct something. Director Im Un-jae is thirty-five right now.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know who shoots better right now, but Director Im Un-jae shoots ten times better than Director Go did when you were thirty-five. For sure.”

“You, you crazy bastard…!”

“You directed your first work around that age, right? And spectacularly failed.”

“Hey!”

“Director.”

Finally, Ju Yeong-hun intervened.

Director Go, who had been keeping his voice down even while angry, raised his voice for the first time.

Several sharp-eyed reporters started looking this way.

It seems like they’re taking pictures too?

Ju Yeong-hun glared at me with cold eyes.

The last time we met was right after Kim Ra-un’s casting, so it was already several months ago.

“Dohyeon-u.”

“Yes.”

“Are you only going to do dramas for a day or two?”

“No.”

“Then live doing things you can handle. What are you going to do if you make enemies with a director?”

Is this the first lesson I’m receiving from Ju Yeong-hun since joining SSK?

Well, if that’s his first lesson as a senior.

“Yes. I’ll try to handle it.”

I’ll try to handle it, whatever.

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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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