A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 87

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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 87

Action 11. A Reason to Hold Hands

Korea is a country where trends start and end in fast cycles.

Well, that’s what the statistics say.

It’s not like I’ve lived in other countries to compare.

Maybe that’s why I started feeling the interest in Handtip Crawl beginning to decline around two weeks after it ended.

But the interest in me was growing from around that time.

What’s funny about this is that it’s not because I’m some incredibly amazing person.

It’s because I’m all that’s left.

Everything related to the drama has been used up, variety shows with the actors have been filmed or are scheduled, and E-sports industry people have already been booked.

Everyone wanted to slap on the title “Dohyeon-u’s First Appearance” before the Handtip Crawl buzz died down.

During Accomplice, I went on YouTube, did interviews, and appeared on variety shows, but this time I didn’t do anything.

But wait, if I hadn’t gone on that show in the first place, wouldn’t this whole thing not have happened?

There wouldn’t have been that damn meme either.

Am I the only one who finds it weird that a director, not even a coach, is on the list of broadcast casting targets?

But it seemed too late to regret it now.

-Hyeon-u. Just go on any variety show. Preferably with us.

In the end, I was swayed by Go Team Leader’s brilliant and amazing eloquence and filmed a variety show.

【Night of Counting Stars】.

It was an ordinary healing variety show.

The kind where they gather close celebrity friends, send them on a trip, and observe them.

The main character of this episode was Jae-hyeok, and the format was him inviting friends to New York while handling his overseas schedule for his solo concert.

Those friends were me, Kim Ra-un, and Seo Jae-yeon.

The variety show itself went well as usual.

It was already a program with decent ratings, and with Jae-hyeok and Seo Jae-yeon appearing.

Kim Ra-un had appeared on variety shows quite a bit, but those two rarely appeared on them.

Viewers also showed interest in behind-the-scenes stories of Handtip Crawl and the solo concert, as well as episodes from the DP days.

However, someone’s edited compilation 【Seo Jae-yeon Getting Completely Ignored Moments】 became quite a big topic.

I didn’t feel it at all during filming…

We did ignore Seo Jae-yeon a bit.

Not ignoring him as a person, but completely ignoring his dramatics.

The most representative scene was the mouse.

-A mouse! There’s a mouse! Kyaaaah!

Seo Jae-yeon was screaming that a mouse got into his suitcase, while the three of us were calmly hailing a taxi.

Without giving him a single glance.

We probably thought he was lying.

The reason I can’t be sure is that I didn’t even remember such a thing happening until I watched the broadcast.

I think we just took a taxi straight from the airport.

-lol why is Seo Jaeyeon getting completely ignored lololol

-I think the passport is funnier than the mouse lololol They told me to call because I lost my passport lolol

-Seriously didn’t worry about it one bit lol

-All three are surprisingly indifferent lol

After finishing that filming and returning to Korea, some very absurd news was waiting for me.

[【TOOL】 Announces Pro League Launch for March 2030!]

[【TOOL】 Achieves #1 Concurrent Users in Korea! Word of mouth spreading overseas too?]

Recently, Tool has been doing really well.

They’re aiming to launch a pro league next March, and people’s interest is tremendous.

And the new champion that will amplify that interest…

[【TOOL】 to Release New Champion Hypnotist ‘Dohyeon’ to Commemorate Pro League Launch!]

“This is me, isn’t it?”

-No?

“You were going to release it as Domen, but when that didn’t work, you changed it to Dohyeon.”

-No?

“The skill names are weird!”

Interest Amplification, Discovery, Casting, Hypnosis.

The passive is…

Purple Rage?

Damn, are they crazy.

-You seem to be misunderstanding because of the concept of controlling enemies like marionettes, but it really has nothing to do with you.

“I’ll give you permission, so just give me a little bit of the skin sales revenue.”

-Oh, would you really do that?

“Then it really is me!”

The CEO of TT Engine hastily hung up the phone, spouting nonsense about how part of the profits would be donated in my name.

Don’t do it in my name…

Please…

As such times passed, I left for Cebu, a resort destination.

Not alone, but with the Handtip Crawl team.

It was a reward vacation.

What was interesting was that since the lead actors were too busy to attend, the supporting actors also dropped out, so in the end it was just the staff who went.

In some ways, it wasn’t bad.

There are many inconveniences when going around with celebrities.

When the 5-day reward vacation ended like that, I really felt like Handtip Crawl’s schedule was completely finished.

That I no longer needed to be intoxicated by sweet satisfaction.

It felt like every cell in my body was clamoring that it was time to dive into a new project.

The first start was a meeting with the CEO.

“I heard the report came up through the Manager. I’ll decide after trying to make a web drama.”

“Aren’t you convinced by Accomplice and Handtip Crawl? Those two?”

“No.”

“I think that’s a good attitude. General management carries more than you’d think. Still, I hope it doesn’t take too long.”

“6 months. I’ll finish filming within that time.”

The CEO smiled and nodded.

* * *

The exclusive supply contract between Tivic and SSK has ended.

Timing-wise, a conclusion should have been reached long ago, but Tivic dragged out the negotiations.

According to rumors (Sung Tae-chang’s account), Tivic headquarters strongly reprimanded the executives, but SSK’s attitude was firm (Manager’s account), so it ultimately fell through.

That doesn’t mean the relationship is completely severed.

Tivic secured SSK’s first look and matching rights.

Simply put, they took the priority review and priority rejection rights.

The right to review SSK works first, and other platforms can only get them after Tivic rejects them.

It sounds like a very powerful right just from hearing about it, but in actual practice, it’s not.

For example, it’s like this.

I’m trying to make my next work, so Tivic reviews it first and offers 10 billion.

But when I show the work to Netflix, they offer 12 billion?

Then I have to go back to Tivic and say this.

Netflix offered 12 billion for our drama, do you have any intention of matching it?

If Tivic says “That’s a bit much…”, I can just go to Netflix.

If Tivic okays the 12 billion?

I go back to Netflix and say “Because of the matching rights, I think I have to go to Tivic for 12 billion.”

If Netflix absolutely can’t give up and offers 15 billion, I can go to Tivic again.

In the end, Tivic only has the right to match or give up, not the right to produce content.

Well, it might be useful in terms of not missing out on IP with guaranteed success.

However, those who felt the aftermath of this exclusive contract termination first were surprisingly the CEs.

Why?

Because the number of scripts coming into the company drastically decreased.

According to Chae Seo-hui, to the extent that CEs who had been postponing script selection because nothing caught their fancy were now panicking.

Until now, they could review all scripts within Tivic’s boundaries, but not anymore.

From now on, they’d have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to secure writers.

Fortunately, Team 4 is doing okay.

We have few CEs, and each of us has our own script.

Noh Jae-uk is…

“Would it be better if I went with ice hockey instead of field hockey?”

Let’s just leave him be for now.

It doesn’t seem like it’ll be easy, but his determination seems too strong.

Anyway, he’ll get rejected at the production review stage and move on to another project…

Huh? This is exactly what I used to hear all the time.

I think I’m starting to understand how the SSK employees who looked at me pathetically must have felt.

Still, I didn’t look at Noh Jae-uk pathetically.

Even if the results might not turn out well, I’m rooting for him to push through to the end with passion.

Kwon Cheol and Chae Seo-hui, excluding Noh Jae-uk, said they’d request my review when the time comes.

Actually, I was the one who urgently needed a writer.

I needed to get a web drama script.

After thinking for a moment, I called Yun Hyeon-sol who was sitting behind me.

“CE Yun.”

“Yes…”

“No, why did you become timid again as soon as Handtip Crawl ended?”

“This space no longer smells of games…”

“When it smells of games, does your confidence just shoot up?”

“Yes. I’m a named player, after all…”

What on earth is she talking about.

Still, she’s much better than when we first met.

Now she’s starting to take interest in dramas too.

Back then, I nearly died of frustration just asking what coffee she wanted to drink.

“But why do you ask?”

“What do you think I’ll do for my next project?”

“What do I think you’ll do?”

I added an explanation to Yun Hyeon-sol who tilted her head.

“You know how it is when you observe from the side. This person is good at this, but bad at that.”

Go Hak-su is good at directing scenes, but bad at organizing stories.

Ju Yeong-hun is good at picking material, but bad at balancing.

Chae Seo-hui has good sense, but can’t convey it to others.

Sung Tae-chang is ugly.

Like that, I was curious about what kind of director others see me as.

The reason I was asking Yun Hyeon-sol was simple.

Because her intuition is strong.

Her intuition often leads to incoherent over-immersion because it’s not organized, but the direction of her intuition itself is very sharp.

I didn’t put her in the writers’ office for nothing.

After thinking for a moment, Yun Hyeon-sol opened her mouth.

“Director Do is good at casting and good at tightrope walking.”

“Aren’t both of those compliments?”

“Tightrope walking isn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I had a thought while binge-watching Handtip Crawl over the weekend.”

“You binge-watched that again?”

Doesn’t she get tired of it?

“Our drama seemed to have no low points.”

“Low points?”

“No matter how I look at it, doesn’t it seem like it would have failed if just one thing went slightly wrong? Like if the lead actor couldn’t act, or if the coach had filmed it statically, or if the writer couldn’t organize it.”

Yun Hyeon-sol, who had gotten excited, started speaking faster.

“But Oxygen Warning had high low points, you know? Honestly, from my perspective, it stumbled several times, right? But it was a familiar taste, a taste we were used to, so we thought, ‘Hmm? Did they mess up the cooking today?’ and ordered delivery again next time. Then it was edible again.”

“Hmm…”

Accomplice is the same. It seems like a work that would have failed spectacularly if just one thing went wrong.”

“So you’re saying low points are low and high points are high?”

“No? It’s either 100 points or 0 points.”

Honestly, that resonates a bit.

At the same time, another thought came to mind.

“You’re not stopping me?”

“Actually, I kind of expected this.”

“What?”

“I would have been more surprised if you came with an obvious drama and said you’d make it well.”

What Seong Tae told me when I said I was producing an e-sports drama.

Now I understand.

Why the executive position felt so burdensome to me.

Because I’ve been making works that only I could make.

In the way most distant from a senior’s duty to oversee a team.

“Okay. Noted.”

“What?”

“The genre of my next project.”

“What is it?”

“Rom-com.”

Seeing Yun Hyeon-sol’s mocking expression, I felt genuinely hurt.

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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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