A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 88

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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 88

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“Director Do. What is all this?”

I saw a strange sight as soon as I arrived at work.

Lee Yu-jun, the assistant CE assigned to Kwon Cheol, was building a mountain of scripts on my desk.

A mountain might be an exaggeration, but it was definitely not a small amount.

Just looking at it, there had to be over 50 scripts, right?

Maybe around 70?

Lee Yu-jun bowed his head in greeting and answered.

“The Manager told me to put them on your desk, CE.”

“The Manager? Why?”

“He said these were scripts that came in for Director Do.”

“All of these came in for me? In just one day?”

I couldn’t understand, so I asked back while picking up my smartphone.

It seemed faster to communicate with the Manager directly.

The call connected quickly.

-Oh, did you see the scripts?

“Did all of these come in for me? Not for Creative Line?”

-These are the ones that came in specifically asking for you. The assistant CEs filtered out the substandard scripts, so take a look and review them.

“When did they start coming in?”

-It seems like they’ve been coming in steadily since Handtip Crawl aired? I’ve been keeping them because I was worried about what you might get obsessed with.

I understood immediately.

The Manager, who had been driving me into work addiction, had been holding onto them because he was worried I might get obsessed with something strange.

“Didn’t I tell you I was going to do a web drama?”

-Can’t you stop with that damn web drama talk?

The Manager was not pleased with me doing a web drama.

He had told me to either help Team 4 CEs develop scripts leisurely, or start a completely new project.

He said if I chose a work, he would consider it as a 100% SSK production.

This was possible because we had made so much money this time.

But even though I want to do a web drama… I do need to check my abilities.

“I don’t want to.”

-You’re probably the only one in this company who openly says no to me. Even the CEO doesn’t do that.

The Manager let out a deep sigh and continued.

-Then at least review them thoroughly. If there’s something that catches your eye, I’ll look at it right away.

“Can I toss any good ones to the CEs?”

-Not to other teams. These came in hoping Dohyeon-u would touch them. Team 4 is fine though.

That works.

I don’t interact with Team 1 anyway, and I don’t get along well with Teams 2 and 3.

What I cared about was finding a script to give to Noh Jae-uk.

Besides, there might be a decent romantic comedy writer among these, right?

After hanging up and sitting down, the CEs who had arrived at work gathered around.

“I overheard the call, but did all of these really come in for Director Do?”

“Yes. That’s what he said.”

“Are there cases where scripts come in specifically asking for a CE?”

“Even if there are, there should be prior communication. It’s rare to send them randomly like this, right?”

“I think Senior Ryu Hyeon-seok had something like this happen before.”

Ryu Hyeon-seok was a senior in Team 1.

“Everyone get back to work. It’s already nine o’clock.”

I sent away the CEs who had gathered around my desk and began reading the scripts in earnest.

A total of 34 works.

With only episodes 1 and 2, that’s 68 episodes.

And simple proposals were attached to the first page of each episode 1.

In terms of pages, it would be almost 3,000 pages.

Are there any 40-minute episodes mixed in?

With a mix of excitement and overwhelming feelings, I started reading the scripts.

Since I couldn’t look at all of this at once, I decided to look at the proposals and episode 1, then eliminate the uninteresting ones.

It would be efficient to gather only the surviving scripts and then look at episode 2, right?

But after reading scripts for a while, something felt strange so I stopped.

Why is this like this?

Is something wrong?

It wasn’t that the quality was low.

Since the assistant CEs had filtered them once, there were no substandard scripts.

The problem was the genre.

Every script I had seen was mystery, mystery, or thriller.

Thinking they might be organized by genre, I started looking from the bottom, but nothing changed.

The only difference was that there were one or two sports or uniquely themed scripts mixed in.

But how did someone even think of a story about a boxer who fights by being possessed by ghosts?

It’s even more absurd because the script is actually worth reading.

But what is this really?

Puzzled, I set aside the scripts and read only the proposals, then realized.

All of these were…

“As expected, the king of hipsters.”

These were scripts that I couldn’t deny Chae Seo-hui’s comment about.

But how did Chae Seo-hui know without even seeing the scripts?

The answer was simple.

“Do I need to see them to know? The fact that they sent them specifically asking for Hyeon-u means they’re scripts that Hyeon-u would do best… Wouldn’t they be either mystery thrillers or scripts with unique themes?”

“Handtip Crawl had a lot of romance though? The response was good too.”

“That’s true, but anyone could see it was a sub-track. The main tracks were E-sports and the AI company. Unique themes, right?”

Damn, I know that too.

I just wanted to try denying it.

But how is there not a single romantic comedy?

Out of 100 scripts that come into production companies, 70 would be romantic comedies, right?

The remaining 10 would be passionate melodramas?

“What can you do about your own track record? Anyone can see you wouldn’t even glance at conventional stuff.”

“This is quite unfair.”

Contrary to people’s misunderstanding, I don’t dislike romantic comedies.

No, I actually like them.

After all, K-dramas have expanded based on romantic comedy techniques, and they’ve proven that this works worldwide too.

Think about it.

Are there any emotions that can gain empathy from all humanity as much as love and laughter?

However, if there was one problem, it was that romantic comedy was the genre that unknown actors had the hardest time experiencing.

There’s no way there would be romantic comedies among independent films.

Even if there were, they would have twisted either ‘romance’ or ‘comedy’.

Like cruel romance or paradoxical comedy.

So I was just unfamiliar with romantic comedies.

I absolutely didn’t avoid them because I disliked them.

Chae Seo-hui, who had been listening to my passionate explanation, suddenly covered the monitor with her hand.

“What?”

“Write that on social media.”

“I don’t use social media.”

“Create an account and pour out your passionate arguments. Otherwise, there’s no way the misunderstanding will be cleared up.”

Suddenly create social media to praise romantic comedies?

Wouldn’t that be even weirder?

But because people are like this, it makes me want to do romantic comedies even more.

It’s like having the desire to beautifully produce a work in a genre that I think I’d absolutely never do.

“I guess I’ll have to do a planned project.”

A planned project.

A work where the production company decides the genre or subject matter in advance and finds a writer who suits it.

It’s more common than you’d think.

However, planned projects often become double-edged swords.

Since it’s a script that starts from the producer’s idea, there’s a high probability it will actually lead to production.

Because they consider things like budget reduction, location frequency, and filming crew logistics in advance, production companies easily think ‘this seems doable.’

The problem was that the probability of failure was just as high.

Why?

Since it’s not a work born from their own inspiration, writers often fail to immerse themselves.

If not that, they often get tired of repeated feedback and write thinking ‘I’ll just go along with what you say.’

But I think that’s also part of a producer’s capability.

You have to consider the writer’s preferences when selecting them, or reflect the writer’s preferences in the script.

“Your resolve is stronger than I thought?”

“Since people say I won’t do it, it makes me want to do it even more.”

“Does even that count as hipster syndrome?”

“…”

Lately, I feel like I’m losing whenever I have conversations with Chae Seo-hui.

“So? You have the genre, but do you have a story?”

“I’ll have to look for one now.”

* * *

My daily routine became extremely simple.

After coming to work and finishing the tasks I absolutely had to do, I devoted myself entirely to watching dramas.

What I realized then was that I hadn’t watched many works since becoming a CE.

When I was an actor, I used to seek out all the launched works, but once I became a CE, I couldn’t do that.

When filming Accomplice, I watched tons of thrillers, and when filming Handtip Crawl, I watched tons of sports dramas, that kind of feeling?

Thanks to that, there were quite a lot of romantic comedies accumulated over the past two years, and it took me two weeks to get through all of them.

Around that time, rumors spread at SSK that I was preparing a romantic comedy planned project as my next work.

Rumors that it would be a web drama also spread, but this was quickly denied.

Logically, would someone who made something like Handtip Crawl do 10 or 20-minute episodes?

I clearly said it outright, but seeing the atmosphere like this, I guess Team 4 really is ostracized.

The Manager wouldn’t have gone around telling people not to talk nonsense, would he?

After finishing monitoring the new works, I then sought out masterpiece romantic comedies.

Works that dominated a season, a year, an era.

They were all works I’d seen before, but quite a few had faded memories.

What was interesting was that the top-tier romantic comedy writers from 10 years ago are still top-tier now.

Even Hong Hee-yeong from Oxygen Warning hit 25% viewership ratings 10 years ago with a work called 【Push and Pull】.

I remember it vividly because it was when I had just joined Theater Troupe 【Admiration】.

I really enjoyed watching it back then, and it was still fun when I rewatched it.

Thinking I needed to make something like this, I watched it twice.

‘The genre’s writing techniques haven’t changed.’

It’s just that the times have changed, and the preferred character types have changed.

I feel like I’m getting some inspiration… but it’s still vague.

While I was spending such days, I received contact from someone I was glad to hear from after a long time.

-Director! You’ve been well, right?

It was Eum Seong-hyeon, who had started filming the movie 【Contempt】 a few months ago.

-Would you like to appear on a radio show together?

The request wasn’t welcome.

The request was unwelcome.

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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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