A Genius Director Who Dominates OTT Platforms - Chapter 97

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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 97

When I visited Surfer Entertainment, it wasn’t a director or team leader waiting for me, but the president himself.

Even though I’d had meals with Min Jae-ryul and Oh Ha-eun after filming Handtip Crawl, we weren’t particularly close…

There was a reason.

“I wanted to see your expression in person. My head trusts Director Do, but I was a bit anxious.”

“You trust me?”

I understand being anxious, but what made him decide to trust me?

“I saw how Director Do works, didn’t I? I also looked into your track record. Looking at it, Director Do is stubborn, but it’s all well-founded stubbornness.”

“Did you think there would be grounds this time too?”

“No. SBX has no intention of selling rights, if it ends as a web drama it’ll definitely be a loss given the scale, Push and Pull Season 2 looks uncertain… I couldn’t see any grounds at all.”

The Surfer Entertainment president smiled as he added.

“That’s when I realized. Since there are no grounds, you’re not just being stubborn. You have a plan.”

“That puts pressure on me. Things need to go according to my plan.”

The president smiled brightly, understanding what I meant.

“And most importantly, Ha-eun really wanted to do it. She’s also a fan of writer Hong Hee-yeong, and she found the script so interesting.”

When I turned my head, Oh Ha-eun showed me a stiff, wordless smile.

She seems nervous…

But wait, there’s nothing to be nervous about?

Is the president a difficult type?

“That’s fortunate. But is Ha-eun’s schedule okay? You’ll probably be busy after Handtip Crawl ends.”

“It’ll take some time before filming starts anyway, right?”

“We’re expecting early January.”

“By then my schedule will lighten up, so if we coordinate well, I can accommodate it as much as possible. But there will be some overlapping days.”

“Yes. We’ll need to be considerate of each other.”

Surfer Entertainment doesn’t know when their opportunity will come either, so they need to row hard.

Honestly, giving up Oh Ha-eun as the sub-female lead was already a big decision.

Depending on what work she does after Handtip Crawl, Oh Ha-eun’s acting career could be determined.

I originally wasn’t going to include her in the script, but she seemed to fit the role of the naive new employee so well…

I’m really glad.

“Have you found the sub-male lead?”

“No. I’ll probably have to look among unknown actors. All the actors I wanted got rejected.”

“Normally I’d be disgusted at the mention of unknown actors… but Director Do is a master of unknowns.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that nickname.”

“Haha, can I give you some of our newcomers’ profiles?”

“Of course. But it would be difficult if they’re too young, so please give me actors who can play new employees.”

“Mid to late twenties would work then.”

“That’s perfect.”

After that, I had various conversations with the president and made eye contact with Oh Ha-eun.

“What is it, Ha-eun? Do you have questions?”

“Um, well, can I ask just one thing?”

“Of course. Feel free to ask.”

“Uh…”

Oh Ha-eun hesitated for a long time.

We’ve been through months of filming together and she’s still shy?

Then why did someone like that go on a variety show and lie about me pressuring her?

I wanted to ask once but held back.

I didn’t want to seem like someone who scolds a rookie actress for making up stories on a variety show.

Then Oh Ha-eun asked.

“Right now SBX is interfering with you, Director Do, right?”

“That seems to be the case.”

“Are you going to leave them alone?”

“Leave them alone?”

What is she talking about?

“Like beating them until they cry…”

Beat them until they cry?

What kind of expression is that?

Oh Ha-eun is really a strange actor too.

Seo Jae-yeon was the most bizarre creature I’d ever met, but she’s strange in a different way.

Oh, could this be some meme I don’t know about?

Suddenly thinking that, I smiled and nodded.

“Of course. That’s my hobby. I’ve probably made quite a few cry so far.”

Oh Ha-eun suddenly looked down demurely.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ll work hard…!”

“Oh, yes. Please take care of me.”

* * *

If Surfer Entertainment gave me an important actor, there was another place that gave me something different.

Namely, D.P, which is like my family company.

I didn’t contact them for this project since there were no D.P actors I wanted to use, but President Yun called me.

To have some pork belly and soju.

I expected to get scolded about casting…

“Hyeon-u. I have something I’m curious about, can you answer honestly?”

“Yes. Please go ahead.”

“What would you have done if Director Jang had stayed quiet during Youngpal?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean, Director Jang went after you relentlessly. That’s how Accomplice’s scale expanded so much.”

“That’s right. What is Director Jang up to these days?”

“He’s raising a rookie actor and doing well. He’s skilled after all. But it seems like he’s thinking about going independent.”

Independent?

That doesn’t seem like Director Jang’s style.

That guy is the type who calculates everything, and he hates the risks that come with uncertainty.

But well, I probably won’t have any dealings with Director Jang anymore, right?

I still don’t know why he sent a beverage truck on the last day of Handtip Crawl filming.

“Will you answer my question? What would you have done if Director Jang hadn’t gone after you then?”

“You’re asking what my plan was if Director Jang didn’t bother me?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what kind of results Accomplice would have had if Director Jang had stayed quiet. It probably wouldn’t have flopped, but it wouldn’t have blown up like now, right?”

That was something I was curious about too.

But it’s also a question that can’t be answered unless I gain the superpower to go to parallel worlds.

Still, I had an answer to President Yun’s question.

“It wasn’t in the plan from the beginning.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“The scenario where Director Jang doesn’t attack me didn’t exist. If he just went after me, Youngpal would get promoted – why wouldn’t he go for that low-cost, high-efficiency option?”

After hearing my story, President Yun thought about something deeply and then burst into laughter.

“Ah, the web drama is the same way? SBX selling the rights…”

I quickly stuffed lettuce into the president’s mouth.

There are many production companies and agencies around here.

There’s no guarantee there aren’t listening ears.

“Hey, if you’re going to wrap lettuce, you should wrap it with meat. If there’s a ring or something in there, I’ll consider a third divorce too.”

“Oh, please stop saying that.”

“Wow, this is so interesting. How did you come up with that idea? Does your brain work so fast when it comes to scheming?”

“Scheming? I’m on the good side.”

“I thought so, but now that you’re a CE, you’re surprisingly cunning. You didn’t even submit scripts to our company. We have lots of newcomers too.”

After scolding me for a while, President Yun got to the main point.

“You heard from Seong Tae, right? That you’re setting up production in earnest?”

“Yes. I heard I’ll be joining D.P after the handover is complete.”

“That web drama. How about we film it?”

“D.P directly?”

“Yeah. When you set up a studio, you usually start with smaller projects to get the team working together. We were considering starting with web dramas too.”

That’s not wrong.

Just because you gather experienced people doesn’t guarantee a new production company will run smoothly.

“Honestly, I’m a bit worried? It seems to have grown beyond the size to entrust to a new production company.”

“Are you looking down on Seong Tae?”

“I said I’m worried precisely because Seong Tae is there. If it weren’t for him, I would have refused outright.”

“Then how about this? I’ll do it for free.”

“For free? Really?”

“Yeah. Whether we do this project or not, the salaries go out the same, and we just need to pay filming allowances… I think I can handle that much.”

My brain started spinning rapidly.

With 20-minute episodes and 12 of them, we’d need about 20 filming sessions…

If we shoot with OTT quality, it would probably cost around 600-800 million won.

“What are the conditions? If it’s really just for practice, there’s no reason to film dozens of episodes.”

“We’ll invest up to 100 million won. How about 10% equity?”

Just by the numbers, it’s a contract where D.P loses out.

They’re valuing the web drama at a minimum of 7 billion won.

But from D.P’s perspective, it’s a chance to widely announce ‘We’ve started production too.’

If the web drama does well, including intangible benefits, it’s definitely not a loss.

“How about 200 million investment?”

“Oh my, look at this guy? You’ll save 700 million in filming costs but you’re being greedy?”

“Hey. 700 million is what we’d pay if we hired an A-grade production company. D.P is new, so we should think around 400-500 million, right?”

“Hey! D.P Studio lacks portfolio, but we filled it with A-grade people!”

“That’s exactly why this is an amazing opportunity to build that portfolio. And in your calculations, you only need to account for filming allowances, right? You said the salaries go out anyway.”

“I wasn’t planning to set this up so quickly originally.”

“Ah, if you don’t want to, then don’t. Our drama is going to be a huge hit.”

“Are you really going to be like this?”

“These days, with the profits D.P has earned thanks to Ra-un and Min-sik Sunbae, a commoner like me can’t even imagine how much that is. If I saw it in the bank account, I’d probably get circle phobia from counting all the zeros.”

“You’re going to cry if this doesn’t work, aren’t you.”

“I haven’t acted in so long that tears don’t come easily these days. You know how actors who can’t act cry, right?”

“How?”

“Cover your face and just raise your voice. Loud enough to shake the restaurant.”

President Yun laughed as if absurd and said.

“Geez. Fine. If I’m going to lose to anyone, it might as well be Hyeon-u. 200 million. Deal.”

“You have to maintain the original’s quality, okay? We can put quality conditions in the contract, right?”

“Got it!”

The calculator in my head disappeared, and a warm capitalist smile spread across my lips.

“I love you, President.”

“Ugh, your smile has become disgusting.”

“Is the third divorce canceled?”

“I’ll have to think about it.”

* * *

After finishing my rounds of entertainment companies, I started going through actor profiles.

About 30% of these came with responses like ‘We can’t give you the actor you want, but how about our newcomers?’

The remaining 70% came directly to SSK.

After Handtip Crawl’s success, many unknown actors started sending me their profiles by mail.

Since they were obviously desperate people, I’d been looking through them whenever I had time, and I planned to check them all this time.

But this turned out to be a more time-consuming task than expected.

These days, when actors send profiles, they share YouTube channels with their acting videos.

To properly review them, I had to check each one individually.

Then…

“Wow, what the hell.”

I was struck by one actor like lightning.

Kim Tae-seong, 28 years old.

3 years of acting experience.

No agency.

Even though my ability didn’t show me anything, I was hooked as if I’d seen it through my ability.

That’s how it felt.

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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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