A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 93

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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 93

Action 12. What Are You Holding

Manager Gong Seok-jun made an expression of disbelief.

“Hyeon-u. You use hypnosis, right? Don’t you?”

“Yes. Should I put you under?”

“Come to think of it, I think I’m already under. Why didn’t I think to use my position to pressure you into working with Writer Moon Ah-yeong?”

“Perhaps because you’re a person of outstanding character who knows how to trust your subordinates?”

“If only you couldn’t speak… But seriously, how did you persuade her? Writer Hong Hee-yeong didn’t throw salt at that crazy talk?”

“She said all she had at home was imported herb salt.”

“That’s a bit… What about water?”

“Evian.”

“She’s rich.”

The manager, who had been looking dazed, suddenly startled.

“What am I saying? Is this really hypnosis?”

“What hypnosis.”

“No. Right. Fine. She might allow Season 2. But what’s this about writing it herself?”

“She demanded a share of the web drama, didn’t she?”

“Do you think she asked for it because she thought it would make money?”

That’s not wrong.

Writer Hong Hee-yeong demanded a 10% share of the drama as payment for writing.

And this is a very favorable condition for me.

Twelve 20-minute episodes is the same volume as four 60-minute episodes, and when I asked, Writer Hong Hee-yeong’s fee is around 7 million.

In other words, normally I’d have to pay 280 million.

The web drama would need to make 2.8 billion in revenue for the original amount to reach Writer Hong’s hands…

Honestly, it’s not easy.

More than half of web dramas don’t even break even.

I don’t plan to take a loss, but I can’t guarantee it will make a lot of profit.

“She seemed passionate.”

“Talking about passion. Would a 20-year veteran writer move based on passion? By that point, she’d have a dragon in her belly.”

Well. Maybe she became a real dragon because everyone treated her like one.

But in her heart, she still treasures that passionate moment when she wrote the first letter of her first script.

I wonder if those without such feelings could write dramas that manipulate people’s hearts.

While I was thinking such thoughts, the door opened and President Han Seong-hun entered.

Since we were in the president’s office.

“Ah, sorry. The phone call ran a bit long.”

“It’s fine.”

“Let’s start with Writer Moon Ah-yeong’s story. How did the script look to you, Director Do?”

“When I read up to episode 6, it was very interesting.”

“Do you think it will be a hit?”

“Yes. Even if we’re really unlucky, I think it will easily surpass 10%. She’s a writer with a rare fandom.”

I’m not making this guarantee because I have great insight, but the reactions of people who read the script were similar.

The manager also said he found it very interesting.

“Manager.”

“Yes.”

“Contact Tivic and check if Senior Ryu Hyeon-seok from Team 1 can handle it. Since Senior Ryu has worked with Director Kim Dae-hyeon several times, it should be positive.”

“Understood.”

“Let’s set that aside…”

The president turned his gaze toward me.

“When I offered you the Team 4 leadership position, you said you weren’t confident in yourself yet, right, Director Do?”

“Yes.”

“I thought you were talking about luck. Accomplice and Handtip Crawl were both works with many coincidental elements. You said you received the Handtip Crawl script at a variety show filming set, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“While Director Do was the one who breathed life into the script, it’s also true that luck played a big part. In terms of casting and personnel selection too.”

“Yes.”

“So I thought you were trying a small-scale web drama. A work you could make entirely according to your own will from start to finish. A work where there’s no room for luck to intervene.”

It would have been an accurate story if you just replaced “luck” with “supernatural powers.”

“I thought it was a good attitude. I liked that you seemed to take the senior position seriously.”

“Thank you.”

“That’s why I don’t understand the current situation.”

President Han Seong-hun looked straight at me and asked.

“The original work has high prestige, the writer has a strong ego, and even the actors are practically already decided.”

I think I could change the actors, but since this is the general perspective, I didn’t add anything.

“The original actors were in their early thirties during the show, right? The perfect age for acting. Still young, but with presence. But now they’re over forty. And it’s not like their acting careers went well enough for them to be at the top.”

I know.

The actors from 【Push and Pull】 ended up as one-hit wonders.

They couldn’t accept that and caused trouble in salary negotiations, missing many opportunities.

I’ve even seen an assistant director grumbling, ‘He still thinks he’s Destiny from Push and Pull.’

I’ve worked on the same project with him.

“If you bring those people to act, from the original fans’ perspective, it might be like dragging out the brilliant drama from their memories and ruining it.”

President Han Seong-hun asked.

“What exactly do you want to achieve with this work, Director Do? I don’t understand.”

It was a sharp question.

I heard a similar question from the manager a few days ago, but the nuance is different.

The manager asked about my choice, while the president is asking about the result.

And I had an answer.

“When making works, there are moments when certainty comes. The certainty that this work will succeed.”

I still don’t know if supernatural powers guarantee success.

Just because I possess a script doesn’t mean I receive guidance like ‘This work’s viewership rating is X percent.’

That’s why I put my all into making both Accomplice and Handtip Crawl.

What’s interesting is that while making them, at some point certainty emerges.

“If Accomplice fails, then something in this world is seriously broken.”

“So if Accomplice fails, I’ll quit being a CE.”

Enough to say this to the anxious unknown actors.

Even while Oxygen Warning, which launched two weeks earlier, was succeeding, I felt no particular anxiety.

This certainty doesn’t come from supernatural powers.

It comes from my insight.

And yesterday, I had the same experience.

I received something interesting from Writer Hong Hee-yeong.

“Read this once.”

“What is this?”

“I first wrote it about 8 years ago? It’s a script I’ve been holding onto for a long time.”

I was very surprised after reading the script.

It was too similar to the Season 2 storyline of Uyeon-gwa Pillyeon that I was refining.

When I asked if she had already thought the same thing as me.

“No. The character names are different. It was a new work.”

“A story about a couple who loved passionately like in a movie, then meet again after 7 years of separation. But I just realized.”

“This was… the story of Uyeon-gwa Pillyeon.”

She had unconsciously known it too.

That U-yeon and Destiny didn’t have complete love, but only temporary love.

Their story wasn’t completely finished yet, but his immature 10-year-ago self had forcibly brought down the curtain on the stage.

The moment I heard Hong Hee-yeong’s story, I became certain.

If the writer and I had the same thoughts, why couldn’t the viewers?

If they could think, what would be difficult about empathizing?

So….

“No matter how I look at it, I think this work will succeed.”

“How much?”

“As much as it can succeed.”

“You mean it will surpass the limits of web dramas?”

“I think that depends on how we make it. We could be number one within the web drama market, or we could surpass it.”

“Do you have a plan?”

“Yes.”

President Han Seong-hun, who had been watching me intently, spoke.

“There’s something Director Do needs to know. If you say that and the work fails, you’ll lose the opportunity to become Team 4’s general manager.”

“Yes. I think that’s natural.”

“Hyeon-u, you….”

The Manager was about to say something, but President Han Seong-hun raised his hand to stop him.

“Director Do says he’s confident, but I’m not. To satisfy the original fans, we can’t fall behind in visual quality, and we’ll need to cast the original actors too. We’d need to spend 2 billion won, right?”

“Yes. Even with a tight budget, I think it would exceed 1.5 billion won.”

“There’s no budget calculation before you create a reason for SSK to invest in it.”

It was a cold attitude.

It definitely seemed like a cold attitude, but….

Was I mistaken in feeling like he was placing expectations on me?

The expectation of whether I could turn my confidence into numbers, and turn those numbers into a work.

I nodded coolly.

“Yes. I’ll make it happen.”

* * *

A strange silence lingered in the President’s Office after Dohyeon-u left.

Gong Seok-jun was the first to speak.

“That guy really doesn’t get intimidated, does he?”

“Right. I wanted to pressure him a bit…. It feels like he saw through my true intentions.”

“What were your true intentions, President?”

“The Manager should know.”

The Manager shrugged and asked.

“But will you really cancel the Team 4 general manager position if that work fails?”

“I’d have to.”

“Then we’d need to find a new Team 4 general manager, right? The team is running well with Hyeon-u at the center right now.”

“We’d have to find one if necessary.”

Gong Seok-jun, who had been thinking for a moment, asked.

“There’s punishment, but no reward, right? What if it really succeeds?”

“Then we won’t need to play pretend anymore.”

Gong Seok-jun, who was wondering what he meant, was startled.

“You want to promote him? To Senior?”

“Mm.”

“That’s ridiculous. What company makes someone department head level in their thirties? Especially mid-thirties. The other team Seniors will definitely object.”

“That’s why he needs to achieve results that won’t cause objections.”

“With a web drama? Is that possible?”

Han Seong-hun recalled Dohyeon-u’s eyes as he spoke.

“I’m curious too. What will Dohyeon-u create?”

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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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