A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 76

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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 76

* * *

Two days after filming ended.

The Fingertip team gathered at a barbecue restaurant in Seoul for a company dinner.

Everyone’s faces looked refreshed and pale after sleeping for two straight days.

No matter how relaxed our schedule was, drama filming couldn’t help but be exhausting.

Fortunately, since it was a drama with few night scenes and many day scenes, everyone seemed to have recovered quickly.

“Director, is SSK paying for today?”

“Of course. Please tell the managers they don’t need to worry about splitting the bill.”

“The CEO will be happy about that.”

“Won’t our CEO be sad about it though?”

I exchanged jokes with the supporting actors smoking at the entrance and headed inside the restaurant.

The place was bustling with people.

I think I mentioned this during Accomplice too, but it’s not easy to get all the actors together in one place.

After filming a long drama, personal schedules tend to pile up.

But today was an exception.

Why?

Because we finished filming the drama a whole 3 weeks early.

We even pulled the call sheet forward once in the middle, so compared to the original plan, we finished 4 and a half weeks early.

Thanks to that, all the actors were able to attend the dinner.

Of course, it wasn’t just the actors who came.

The on-set staff.

The actors’ managers.

Even SSK employees like Chae Seo-hui, Kwon Cheol, and Noh Jae-uk who had frequently visited the set to back me up.

Everyone involved in creating the work called 【Caught at Fingertips】 was gathered here.

But the table I was sitting at consisted of people who had never once visited the drama set.

Yeom Jae-mun, Gil Sanghun, Go Yeongtae.

And Yun Hyeon-sol, who had taken care of them, was sitting there too.

Actually, I had sent Writer Yeom several messages asking him to come to the set.

Each time, his reply was that he wanted to enjoy the work he had waited 15 years for in its entirety.

Since I’m not a writer, I don’t exactly understand what that feeling is.

I thought it would be fine to at least come see the set.

But since there was no reason not to respect his wishes, the writing team didn’t visit the set.

“Shall I fill your glasses? You three writers worked hard revising the script. You too, CE Yun.”

“Not at all. It was fun.”

“Me too. Accomplice felt like work, but this felt like play.”

Writers Go Yeongtae and Gil Sanghun spoke as if it was nothing.

The two who had joined Fingertip with pure hearts stayed with us until the end.

They don’t know it yet, but their names will appear in the credits too.

Originally, assistant writers don’t appear in credits, but these two weren’t simple assistant writers.

By the way, it was Writer Yeom who first suggested it.

“How was it for you, Writer Yeom?”

At my question, Writer Yeom, who had been silent for a while, slowly opened his mouth.

“They say writers follow their titles. So I thought I had chosen the wrong title.”

15 years.

An unimaginably long time.

My unknown actor life, which I thought had been full of ups and downs, was only 8 years.

He probably wanted to give up dozens, hundreds of times.

Each time he turned back, it was probably because it was caught at his fingertips, as he said.

“But if I spent 15 years to see this scene… that’s not so bad either.”

I looked around.

Countless actors and staff were filling the space with laughter.

In their laughter, I could feel satisfaction with the filming and anticipation for the ratings.

The position of being in charge of all of that is sometimes heavy, but…

“Me too. It feels like I’m being compensated for the past year.”

It’s also joyful.

“Hey, excessive melodrama is poison to a work.”

“Director Do will make it a hit anyway, so shall we just drink?”

I burst into laughter at Gil Sanghun and Go Yeongtae’s words and downed my drink.

“Writer Yeom. Your next work shouldn’t take 15 years, right?”

“Of course not. I’m in a position where I don’t even get a salary now.”

“You don’t have financial problems, do you?”

“No. Actually, I have some investments…”

“I thought so. You made such a bold decision to quit.”

We had conversations in such a harmonious atmosphere.

I felt a bit sorry for Yun Hyeon-sol, who was silently grilling meat beside us… or so I thought.

But looking closely, she’s eating it all herself?

She’s eating an incredible amount while pretending to check if it’s cooked or not.

Then someone sat down at the table.

“Ahem, I heard the drama turned out well?”

It was Director Jeong Hee-su, whom I was meeting after a long time.

She didn’t come for any particular business, but followed Writers Go Yeongtae and Gil Sanghun.

She had visited the Fingertip writers’ office several times, so she was acquainted with Writer Yeom too.

“Are you still sulking?”

“Who’s sulking?”

“You were sulking last time.”

She said I took all the Accomplice directing team except for her.

I thought it was a joke at first, but she seemed seriously upset, so I made time to have a drink with her.

That’s when Director Jeong started speaking casually to me.

“What have you been up to lately, Director?”

“I’ve been helping a close junior with his independent film and preparing for my next project.”

“A drama?”

“A movie. Movies are my main field. But doesn’t Director Do do movies?”

“I like watching them, but…”

I’m not sure.

Does my superpower activate for movies too?

Actually, it would be problematic even if it did.

There are many aspects of movies where production companies find it hard to intervene.

Since there aren’t many cases where intervention worked out well, they usually leave it completely to the director.

That’s why the term “movie writer” is more unfamiliar than “drama writer.”

Because directors handle the screenplay too.

Moreover, from a production company’s perspective, movies are a field with high peaks and low valleys.

Dramas can accumulate profits even with moderate success, but movies leave only scraps after recovering production costs with moderate success.

And that becomes the operating funds for the next project.

“I’m not sure. SSK hasn’t touched movies yet.”

“Think about it. Seeing how you filmed Accomplice, there’s no way you can’t do movies.”

“Director.”

“What?”

“A moment just came to mind. When you were about to curse at me during the script reading but got blocked by the writers.”

“Right. If I wasn’t that kind of person, Accomplice wouldn’t exist in this world. What director would just sit there watching a CE fold during script reading?”

What, the deal isn’t working?

“Why the sudden praise? Are you interested in movies?”

No, that wasn’t praise though.

* * *

Min Jae-ryul was feeling a strange sense of alienation at the company dinner.

He had felt it throughout the drama filming, but the dinner made this feeling of alienation even more apparent.

Am I perhaps…

‘Being ostracized?’

It was certain that everything revolved around Director Dohyeon-u.

Whether he did forward rolls or tumbling, nothing changed.

So everyone was forming their own rapport with Dohyeon-u.

Kim Ra-un, Kang Min-sik, and Jeon So-ra too.

Even Oh Ha-eun from the same company, though she didn’t talk to him, seemed to have had some incident with Dohyeon-u.

But only I don’t have that.

Only me!

It wasn’t that there had been any problems.

Director Dohyeon-u had always respected him, praised his acting, and treated him with a smiling face.

Far from problems, he only had good impressions.

But…

‘There’s no rapport, is there?’

If they met on another project, it felt like he would smile brightly and say, ‘Nice to meet you. Mr. Min Jae-ryul, this is our first time meeting, right?’

Just as he was thinking that.

“Jae-ryul. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Oh, Director!”

Director Jeong Hee-su, who had been wandering around with a beer glass, sat down next to Min Jae-ryul.

“How long has it been?”

“I think it’s been exactly 10 years.”

“Wow, has it been that long already? Well, I guess so, since we met on my first feature film. Have you been well?”

“I’ve been well. Oh, but Director, please speak comfortably with me.”

Director Jeong Hee-su pondered for a moment and then nodded.

“Should I? Actually, it’s harder to speak casually to actors who are too young.”

“I’m not too young anymore. I’m already twenty-six.”

“Wow, already?”

After that, Min Jae-ryul had various conversations with Director Jeong Hee-su.

In Min Jae-ryul’s opinion, Director Jeong Hee-su was a person of considerable character.

Even more so when he thought about the directors he had met since starting acting at age 14.

Thanks to that, the conversation atmosphere was smooth.

“Director Jeong, you’re close with Director Dohyeon-u, right?”

“Well, much closer than with ordinary directors. Why?”

“No, it’s just that after the project ended, I feel like I’m the only one who didn’t become close with the Director.”

It was something he said on purpose.

Director Jeong might relay his words to Dohyeon-u.

But the response that came back was unexpected.

“That guy is surprisingly good at ostracizing people.”

“What? Ostracizing?”

“Since we’re talking about it, he took everyone from the Accomplice team to Sonkkeut-geol except me. Does that make sense?”

If I say it doesn’t make sense, wouldn’t that be like attacking Director Im Un-jae?

Min Jae-ryul swallowed the words that had risen to his chin and smiled.

“Well, that’s the director’s jurisdiction, so I don’t really know…”

“No, think about it. We all filmed the project together, but when I look back, only I’m left out. Even the Sound Director and art director…”

At first it was awkward, but listening to the story, Director Jeong Hee-su’s situation was similar to his own.

“Actually, I also…”

Eventually, the two of them grabbed a table and started drinking.

Min Jae-ryul did build rapport.

* * *

I came outside because my head hurt.

Not because of the alcohol, but because of the management staff who were clinging annoyingly.

Originally, you’re supposed to build connections at these kinds of gatherings, but it was a bit excessive.

Starting from next project plans, whether I’d continue staying at SSK, what my criteria for selecting unknown actors were, whether I had thoughts about outsourcing acting direction…

They even knew that I had received a scouting offer from Netflix.

At first I thought it was just social behavior toward the general CE, but it felt a bit excessive.

“Is there something?”

I muttered to myself, but an answer came flying back.

“It’s interesting.”

It was Jeon So-ra.

Still standing there wearing a super oversized windbreaker.

No, I really want to meet her once in summer.

What would she be wearing then?

“We can’t know about the project yet. It might be a hit, or it might not. But Dohyeon-u is interesting, isn’t he?”

“What kind of interesting?”

“Changing a 15-year-old work into an E-sports piece, attaching Accomplice writers as assistant writers to fill in the young sensibility. A 100 billion value manager in his second year, and when money was short, he pulled it in advance, right? Plus the music video director he brought from somewhere is capable. Most importantly, he caught me.”

Jeon So-ra shrugged her shoulders.

“Wouldn’t it be strange not to become friends?”

She has a strange talent.

Usually when you hear praise, you’d feel embarrassed, but when it comes from this person’s mouth, it’s like analyzing a script.

“Now that you mention it, that’s true.”

“Originally in this industry, capable people and interesting people succeed, and Dohyeon-u has both.”

I suddenly became curious.

“You’re also capable, aren’t you, senior?”

“Of course.”

“Were you interesting?”

Jeon So-ra chuckled.

“Contact me if you need a female lead for your next project.”

That seems to be an answer that she was quite interesting…

“That would be a bit difficult.”

“Why?”

“Seo Jae-yeon might beat me to death.”

Sa Mo-yeon was a character that Seo Jae-yeon couldn’t possibly play.

The original setting that Lee Min-seon was going to play was 45 years old.

When Jeon So-ra joined, it was lowered to 42, then with the chaebol second-generation setting, it was brought down to 40.

Accordingly, Han Guk-yeong’s age was also cut to 44.

But Jeon So-ra looked too young to play forty, so she had to do aging makeup throughout filming.

So Seo Jae-yeon playing Sa Mo-yeon doesn’t make sense, yet I don’t know how many times she grabbed my hair.

Asking why I didn’t cast her.

That’s not something rational explanation works on.

But casting Jeon So-ra as the female lead for the next project?

I’d probably die at Seo Jae-yeon’s hands before making the project.

Just recently, when she asked if Jeon So-ra had become a has-been and I said she’d probably become a has-been faster, I almost died.

“What’s the relationship between you two? It seems to go beyond senior-junior relationship.”

“It’s like Hwanung and Ungnyeo.”

“…?”

“I created a person, you see.”

Jeon So-ra laughed as if she found it absurd.

“So you’re really not going to use me?”

“Honestly, I will. How could I not?”

If the script calls for someone in their 20s, Seo Jae-yeon would be first choice, but if it’s someone in their 30s, wouldn’t Jeon So-ra be first choice?

“Then what’s the relationship between you two? I’ve never seen Seo Jae-yeon be so wary of someone before.”

“I acted better than him. He said it was the first time he’d experienced that in his life.”

“Ah.”

Right.

Seo Jae-yeon is also an acting genius, but in the movie they filmed together, it wasn’t even a contest.

Jeon So-ra’s acting back then was truly divine possession.

“He was determined to outdo me the next time we met, but I went into hiding. He said I won and ran away?”

“You know what?”

“What?”

“On the last day of filming, Jae-yeon was going to send a food truck. He said if he won the last round, that would count as winning.”

“Ahaha.”

Jeon So-ra laughed as if she found it ridiculous, then pointed to the barbecue restaurant parking lot.

“Isn’t that it over there?”

“Huh?”

When I went to look, it was a beverage truck.

There was coffee, carbonated drinks, hangover remedies, and even slushies.

Sending something like this to a company dinner location isn’t common, but it’s not extremely rare either.

It’s nice to come out while drinking and have something like kudzu tea.

The problem was….

This wasn’t sent by Seo Jae-yeon.

[Wishing for the great success of 【Caught at Fingertips】 – Jang Gi-un]

A name I’d been living without thinking about for a while….

What is he thinking?

“Oh, what’s this? A beverage truck?”

“Director, can we drink these?”

I nodded at the actors’ questions as they came out of the restaurant and picked up a slushie from the beverage truck.

My head throbbed from suddenly eating something cold….

But it tasted good.

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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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