A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 84

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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 84

While signing, I felt once again how significant it was for a production company to own IP.

Usually, when production companies sell broadcasting rights to OTT platforms, they contract for 3 or 5 years.

Of course, there are countless calculations involved in that.

They can include conditional revenue sharing clauses, or sell overseas and domestic broadcasting rights separately.

Sometimes they receive about 120% of the total production cost and transfer the entire IP rights.

In contrast, SSK boldly sold 5-year broadcasting rights cheaply, but secured incentive rates based on platform views and subscriber acquisition.

Considering the revenue that will come from that, I suppose receiving this much is reasonable?

While I was thinking that, I heard the CEO’s voice.

“That’s your personal incentive, and Team 4’s incentive will be paid separately.”

“Are you saying this entire amount is my personal incentive?”

“Yes. Director Do brought in 1.5 billion through personal capability, so this level of compensation is warranted.”

Suddenly I remembered Director Im saying he’d invest about 500 million of his own money.

I only accepted his sentiment since it sounded ridiculous, but I should have accepted it.

Then the incentive would have increased even more, right?

Director Im would have earned handsomely too.

Anyway, knowing that colleagues who suffered together are receiving adequate compensation made me feel generous.

“Thank you.”

“Usually our company’s CEs do one work every two and a half years, right?”

“Yes. I understand that’s the company average.”

It seems long, but of course they’re not just playing around.

Like Chae Seo-hui, Kwon Cheol, and Noh Jae-uk did, the two and a half years refers to the period of supporting same-team works while producing their own.

Cases like mine, creating two works in just two years since joining, are uncommon.

“It’s been almost a year since Team 4 was established, right?”

“Yes. Time really flies.”

“It seems like you’ve found your footing, so I’d like to start team-based production… What do you think, Director Do?”

“I think it’s an appropriate time.”

Team 4’s CEs were each securing works of interest while supporting Handtip Crawl.

Chae Seo-hui is obsessed with a Goryeo period historical drama and developing it, while Kwon Cheol is fixated on an undercover police-gangster story.

Both have clear target audiences and are genres that don’t heavily divide preferences.

I read the scripts too and they were decent.

However, Noh Jae-uk, perhaps influenced by Handtip Crawl, is holding onto some hockey sports story…

Honestly, I don’t think it’ll work.

Not because it’s a sports story, but the characters’ appeal is lacking.

However, since I didn’t have the authority to tell Noh Jae-uk what to do, I was keeping my words to myself.

I’m the temporary supervisor of Handtip Crawl, not the supervisor of Team 4.

So the issue was this.

Who CEO Han Seong-hun had chosen as Team 4’s senior.

It’s been almost a year since CE Lee Dae-han left, so it’s time to promote someone.

“How are the scripts that Team 4 CEs are holding?”

“Hmm…”

When I held back my words, CEO Han Seong-hun smiled.

“You can speak comfortably. This conversation ends here.”

“They need some revision, but I think they’re scripts worth challenging.”

“All three?”

“Um, no. I think CE Noh Jae-uk’s script would be quite difficult to make.”

“Then Director Do should take on those two works.”

“Pardon?”

I wondered if he was telling me to take the CEs’ scripts and proceed with them myself…

He wasn’t.

“I think we can remove the temporary label.”

“Then…”

“Team 4. Can you lead it?”

* * *

“Ugh, damn. They’re annoyingly thorough.”

“I knew it wouldn’t work. If I were them, I’d be too bitter to give interviews.”

“Don’t you have any heart to congratulate a colleague who’s doing well?”

“Like hell.”

Two entertainment reporters leaving MBY Broadcasting Station grumbled as they headed to the smoking area.

They had failed to get interviews from variety show PDs regarding writer Yeom Jae-mun.

While smoking, the reporter with a camera around his neck spoke up.

“Hey, but at this level, isn’t Dohyeon-u skilled?”

“Of course he’s skilled. I could understand the thriller, but E-sports is a different approach.”

“Not that. I mean casting.”

“Ah, right. How can he do that? He picks actors who’ll hit it big like a ghost.”

When the horn-rimmed glasses reporter stuck out his tongue, the camera reporter shook his head.

“I don’t think he casts actors who are about to hit it big.”

“Then?”

“He just picks actors he likes and makes them famous.”

“What kind of nonsense are you saying so seriously?”

“No, think about it. Originally Han Guk-yeong’s role was Jeong Gi-jun’s, and Sa Mo-yeon’s role was Lee Min-seon’s, right?”

“Right. And the Oxygen Warning supervisor stole them.”

The camera reporter who blew out smoke said.

“Setting aside Jeon So-ra, as soon as Dohyeon-u lost Jeong Gi-jun, he picked Kang Min-sik, right?”

“So?”

“I looked into it a bit, and timing-wise, that all happened within two weeks.”

The horn-rimmed glasses reporter’s eyes widened.

“Two weeks? Really?”

“Yeah. Jeon So-ra’s side took a while to decide, but Kang Min-sik probably took less than two weeks.”

“Wow…”

“Does it make sense to pick the third role in a drama worth over 10 billion in just two weeks? An unknown actor with nothing to evaluate?”

“…Maybe he was already friends with the actor and knew his image well?”

“No. Kang Min-sik and Dohyeon-u had less contact than you’d think. They met for the first time in years. When he was working as a filming assistant at the broadcasting station.”

At the camera reporter’s words, the horn-rimmed glasses reporter rubbed his arms as if getting goosebumps.

“Does he have some kind of divine power?”

“What divine power for a reporter? Rather, Dohyeon-u’s heart was moved. It’s touching, isn’t it? A theater troupe senior who was good to him working as a filming assistant.”

“That’s sad.”

“So he picked him.”

The horn-rimmed glasses reporter, finally catching up to the camera reporter’s thinking, added.

“…Because he can make anyone famous?”

“Yeah. Of course he would have looked at image and acting skills. Those things can’t be corrected short-term. But picking one person out of hundreds of actors in just two weeks… If it’s not sympathy, does it make sense?”

“Then Accomplice is…”

“Makes even more sense. Eum Seong-hyeon was a total mess, and the rest of the supporting actors are unknowns, right? Wouldn’t it overlap with his own past?”

“True, he would have just watched independent films to find people who fit the image…”

The horn-rimmed glasses reporter who was muttering opened his mouth.

“It seems to make sense overall, but we can’t write it as an article, can we?”

“Why?”

“There’s Luhan.”

“Ah.”

“Just like Jeong Gi-jun, wouldn’t Choi Ha-il have been quickly replaced too? With Luhan?”

“That’s what they say.”

“Their fandom has a lot of complaints these days. They’re saying whether they brought Luhan just to be a scapegoat. If we write an article, it would be about how only Luhan didn’t get a chance, can you handle that?”

The camera reporter who had been thinking for a moment said.

“What if Luhan really takes off too?”

“Would that happen? We’re already at episode 10.”

“No, there’s definitely going to be a moment where Pi Do-seon explodes. Otherwise, there’s no way they’d draw him as such a frustrating character for so long.”

“Sure, there might be content. What I’m asking is whether the acting will work. How difficult is it to act out a sudden explosion after crouching for several episodes?”

“If that works out too?”

“Then we’ll have to write the article.”

The horn-rimmed glasses said.

“He must really be confident he can make anyone famous.”

* * *

Kwon In-cheol, who had been living real life for job hunting, logged into Netflix after a long time.

He had been living too intensely and felt like he was getting burned out, so he planned to rest today.

At the very top of the app he logged into was a drama called 【Handtip Crawl】.

Handtip Crawl.

Jeon So-ra’s comeback work.

An E-sports drama.

No matter how much he tried to distance himself from dramas by closing his ears and covering his eyes, this was a work he couldn’t not know about.

He had logged into Netflix to watch this in the first place.

‘There are already 10 episodes.’

Looking at it, since it was a Wednesday-Thursday release, one more was scheduled to go up in the evening.

Since today was Wednesday.

Kwon In-cheol, who was about to play the drama, hesitated.

The name of the executive director shown in the drama playback tab was familiar.

Dohyeon-u.

“Ah! Accomplice?”

Come to think of it, before getting into real life, he seemed to have seen an article about Dohyeon-u casting Kim Ra-un.

Since Kim Ra-un was the protagonist of Handtip Crawl, naturally this was the drama Dohyeon-u made.

He knew it intellectually, but since Dohyeon-u had a Tivic well-made image, there was cognitive dissonance.

‘This person is still doing well. It feels like yesterday when he was getting criticized for dissing Kim Ra-un.’

But why is there no change in my life?

Having such thoughts, Kwon In-cheol shook his head vigorously and started binge-watching the drama.

And he got completely absorbed.

He had definitely planned to watch just the beginning.

To cool his head, he’d watch 2-3 episodes today, and the rest gradually while living real life.

But…

He absolutely couldn’t stop.

He couldn’t leave his computer all day, even ordering delivery food for meals.

When he finished all 10 episodes, Kwon In-cheol was grateful that today was Wednesday.

One more episode was up.

Episode 11, which he started like that, was Pi Do-seon’s one-man show.

Pi Do-seon, who had frustrated even Kwon In-cheol who binged it all at once, sheds his shell.

And takes his first step into the world.

“Yeah, man. That’s it.”

The moment when the awakened Pi Do-seon leads Seongwha Empire to encounter the league’s first-place team with Sa Mo-yeon behind it.

The ending OST played.

The moment the ending credits appeared, curses came out naturally.

“Ah, damn it. I should have waited until it was complete.”

The only fortunate thing was that episode 12 would come out tomorrow?

Kwon In-cheol, who couldn’t hide his excitement from watching the drama for a while, went online out of old habit.

He always did this during Accomplice too.

But Handtip Crawl’s impact was different from Accomplice.

The entire online world was ‘Handtip Crawl’…

【Luhan, the birth of the next-generation acting idol!】

【Awakened Pi Do-seon, will he lead Seongwha Empire to victory?】

【Who is that actor? He’s an idol? Netizens buzzing】

It was Luhan.

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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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