Reset Life with Infinite Talents - Chapter 247

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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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Infinite Talent Reset Life Episode 247

“Wow.”

The large conference room at Wolf Pictures with chairs and tables arranged.

Johann enters the empty space and makes a subtle expression.

“Before, I came in as an actor…”

This time he came in as a screenwriter.

Perhaps because of that, the atmosphere feels different from before.

A different kind of excitement than before.

A different kind of pressure than before.

“Soon this space will be packed with people…”

“Everyone will pour out their passionate enthusiasm.”

If you fall behind, you’re out on the spot.

Until they stand in front of the camera, neither leads nor supporting actors can feel safe.

A filtering time that weeds out those who are inadequately prepared, lack character analysis, or don’t fit their characters. In Hollywood, script reading was exactly that.

“How do you feel?”

At Baz Luhrmann’s question, Johann looks around the conference room again.

“I can’t wait to see it.”

The individual characters that the cast actors have studied for the past month and a half.

The figures from the early 18th century Venetian Republic who will soon come to life.

‘Really can’t wait…’

“You’ll probably be very surprised.”

“…Ah! Haha! I’m looking forward to that reaction too.”

The writer and screenwriter of Casanova who hasn’t been revealed to the actors yet.

‘How will they react?’

He wanted to see that quickly too.

“Good day!”

‘Oh.’

After an unnamed extra arrives first, actors begin entering one after another, filling the conference room.

Even excluding Ewan McGregor and Sean Bean, the lineup is spectacular. All faces seen on TV and screens.

Particularly surprising is Bradley Cooper, who’s participating in the role of Casanova’s father.

‘It’s probably because of A Star Is Born…’

Bradley Cooper seems to have joined with the intention of awakening his acting senses before playing a declining star.

He’s truly grateful, but worried.

‘Can we afford all these salaries?’

The actors looking at Johann, who’s worrying internally, are also confused.

This is a script reading.

A space for actors and directors only.

It’s an unspoken rule that production companies and officials don’t participate at this time, so as not to interfere with directors and actors giving their all.

The bewildered actors each introduce themselves, and Baz Luhrmann also stands up.

“I’m Baz Luhrmann, in charge of overall direction and Team A direction, who directed The Great Gatsby. Please treat me well.”

Clap clap clap clap clap!

“I’m Matthew Payton, who directed Only the Brave. I’m in charge of Team B direction, so please treat me well.”

Clap clap clap clap clap…

Now it’s Johann’s turn.

As everyone’s attention focuses on him, Johann stands up.

“I’m Johann Jefferson, the original creator and screenwriter of the drama Casanova: The Beginning of Sensuality.”

Thud!

“Since this is my first work participating as a writer rather than an actor, I plan to work hard, so please treat me well from now on.”

All the actors who knew Johann shifted in their seats.

Johann chuckled and let his gaze grow cold.

“Now that introductions seem to be finished, let’s start the reading. Scene number 1-2. Giuseppe Casanova enters the dressing room. He discovers his son Giacomo Casanova.”

“…Did your mother send you?”

‘Oh?’

Giuseppe, Casanova’s father, glares coldly at the child actor Casanova.

Bradley Cooper instantly immersed himself, and other actors hurriedly began their immersion too.

Johann clicks his tongue.

‘He’s more Giuseppe-like than Giuseppe himself.’

Giuseppe Casanova, who never once considered his children as his own, thinking they were the result of his wife Janetta Parisi’s affair.

The contempt subtly embedded in his voice and gaze perfectly transformed Bradley Cooper into Giuseppe Casanova.

Thus the full-scale reading began.

* * *

“You were my shackles.”

Janetta Parisi, Casanova’s mother, drives nails into her children’s hearts as she turns away.

“Brother! Don’t worry. I’ll earn money with my paintings and gather all our siblings!”

Francesco Casanova, who overflowed with talent for painting.

And the younger siblings with other talents.

“Finally, I won’t have to see you anymore.”

Casanova’s grandmother closes her eyes with a relieved smile.

“I accepted you because of your wet nurse, but if you want to take money from my pocket, you’ll have to prove your worth.”

The cold and calculating nobleman, Niccolò Grimani.

Crack!

“Show restraint. God is watching.”

Albise Malipiero, the noble and strict clergyman, strikes teenage Casanova’s back with a rod.

The reading progressed rapidly through episodes 2, 3, and 5.

Some kept stumbling and were eliminated, some broke their lines and burst into tears, some clenched their fists at performances they thought were perfect.

As the actors who performed passionately from sunrise to sunset finish, one thought occurs to them.

‘Casanova is definitely an incorrigible playboy, but…’

He certainly shows bad signs.

From groping his father’s colleague actress’s chest to always looking for women first wherever he goes, young Casanova constantly thinks about how to touch those breasts.

He’s different from ordinary children.

‘While it might be his nature, didn’t his environment make him that way even more?’

A father who didn’t consider his child as his own, a mother and grandmother who saw their child as a burden.

Whining younger siblings and a patron who pressures him to prove his worth.

A clergyman who wields a rod demanding restraint while molesting young singers himself.

Everywhere there are only oppressive and suppressive situations and environments.

It’s not an environment a young boy who lost his parents could handle.

In such circumstances, at age 15, an incident where his first love, whom he tearfully let go due to his priest status, is violated by some lecher becomes the trigger.

‘I will no longer restrain myself.’

Love as an emotion toward reason.

Passively reading the room.

Thus he awakens as the incarnation of a playboy, as the monster Casanova.

‘There might be pitiable aspects too.’

Because such emotions arise, they become more immersed.

Reading writer Johann’s intention, they push Casanova further.

“Are you that artisan?”

Hayden’s eyes, playing 15-year-old Casanova, scan the supporting actors sitting at the table.

A figure who will become another mentor for teenage Casanova.

An artisan that Michele Grimani really put effort into bringing.

A character who doesn’t appear in the original novel and an important figure who greatly contributes to awakening Casanova’s talents and making him into a true monster, a scoundrel, until he enters Padua University at age 17.

Murmur.

The actors sitting at the table are flustered by lines that should be spoken but aren’t coming out.

Hayden urgently scans the actors sitting in chairs behind the table, not at the table itself.

That’s when it happened.

“What are you supposed to be?”

Gasp!

Everyone turns their heads in surprise.

It wasn’t because of the awkwardly poor Italian that was painful to hear. It was because the person who spoke that line was Johann, the writer sitting at the head seat.

A crumpled expression as if looking at dung scattered on the street, and eyes full of displeasure.

“What are you to interfere with my time? Don’t tell me… young master?”

Everyone’s eyes shake with confusion.

Under Johann’s gaze that wavers with anxiety, Hayden barely holds back his immersion that’s about to break and forces out the next line.

“Why did Mr. Grimani bring you here?”

“Mr.? Hey, you’re just the same kind of guy as me, aren’t you? Get lost, kid.”

“W-wait?!”

Smack!

“Casanova freezes after being slapped. He stares blankly at the potter who staggers around drinking wine straight from the bottle. End of episode 6.”

As Baz Luhrmann finishes reading the stage directions, all the actors stare with mouths agape at Johann who made such an intense entrance.

Johann then stands up.

“I’m late with introductions. I’m Johann Jefferson, who will play Chang, the genius potter kidnapped from the Qing Dynasty, from episodes 6 to 10.”

Chang, a character who will poison the protagonist’s heart in every way, and currently the only Asian character to appear.

“…Puhahahaha!”

Surprise.

Baz Luhrmann and Matthew Payton burst into laughter, and the actors were completely floored.

* * *

“You really are…”

“Hehe. Shh. You know, right?”

“…Don’t worry. We even wrote this confidentiality agreement.”

A confidentiality agreement stating that nothing seen or heard at the reading would be disclosed to anyone. This was a strong measure to prevent any noise until the first episode aired.

‘It’s even stricter for supporting actors and extras.’

What production company would welcome incidents from the set or spoilers? Speaking carelessly would mean expulsion from this industry.

After Johann shockingly revealed his identity, the reading continued for two more days, and while the exhausted actors looked at Johann once, shook their heads, and left, Johann couldn’t do the same.

Neither could Baz and Matthew.

“I think this is sufficient.”

“Whew. As expected of actors carefully selected by the casting directors… Johann, what did you think?”

Johann opens his mouth without hesitation at their question.

“I can’t wait to see them acting on set.”

To see the actors perform in period makeup, wearing period costumes, in the streets, houses, and various spaces of that era.

“I’m really glad I wrote all the scripts up to season 3.”

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to see that sight while writing scripts.

Flinch!

“Huh? Season 3…?”

“Yes. Writing bit by bit, it just turned out that way.”

“This is why geniuses are so annoying…”

‘You wrote it, Director.’

Even though various people were involved, the main writer was ultimately Baz Luhrmann.

Knock knock!

“We’re coming in… Whew. Look at this humidity.”

Staff members carrying boxes click their tongues as they enter.

Perhaps because they experience this regularly, they quickly compose their expressions and begin taking photos from the boxes they brought, sticking them on the conference room walls.

Photos of the stages that would serve as backgrounds for the drama “Casanova: The Beginning of Sensuality” – the remodeled noble mansion and various sets, plus CG perfectly recreating the streets of Venice.

These were the results of the staff’s efforts over the past month and a half.

This was their work that wasn’t finished yet, or rather, was just beginning.

“Wow…”

‘These people were the ones who moved around the busiest.’

There was a reason he couldn’t meet them properly during this time.

‘If I had followed these people around…’

Emily might have packed her bags and returned to her family home.

Johann shudders at that chilling thought and looks at the exterior photo of the mansion that will become Michele Grimani’s mansion.

“Oh, is this the place?”

Michele Grimani’s mansion that he couldn’t visit due to various problems, so only Baz Luhrmann and Matthew went to select.

“That’s right. It’s a mansion in Austria.”

“Oh, it really gives off the feeling of Grimani Palace… Hm?”

‘I feel like I’ve seen this somewhere…’

A scene buried in memory stirs.

“Heh. How is it? We’ve properly prepared the white porcelain you mentioned, Writer!”

Oriental white porcelain that was considered a symbol of wealth and power by 18th-century Europeans, especially those in power from countries with coastal territories.

“How about this lustrous color!”

Johann’s mouth opens at the real white porcelain being lifted up.

“It looks terrible.”

“…Excuse me?”

‘Oops.’

Johann’s mouth had opened automatically due to the ‘Potter’ talent he forgot to withdraw and was currently absorbing.

But looking at it again, it still looked terrible.

“Th-this is Meissen!”

Meissen from Germany, one of the world’s three major porcelain brands and the first in Europe to successfully produce hard-paste porcelain.

Johann looks at the shaken people and falls into thought.

“Hmm… Do you know why Europeans considered Oriental porcelain a symbol of wealth and power?”

“Because it was hard to obtain…?”

“That’s also correct, but ultimately it was because of the color and graceful curves.”

Italy and Europe had been making colorful pottery called maiolica since the 16th century.

“Unlike the loud and flashy maiolica, white porcelain that was white as the moon and snow with graceful curves felt as refined as they thought themselves to be as nobles.”

Proud, noble, weighty yet captivating, simply existing yet impossible to look away from – it perfectly matched the image of blue-blooded nobility they desired and envisioned.

It was even difficult to obtain. Like how commoners could hardly see the faces of real nobles.

“But the moon and snow aren’t just pure white.”

They’re faintly blue, so subtly that you have to look very carefully to notice.

That’s what Oriental porcelain was like – what Europeans had been obsessed with for centuries.

“This is just porcelain made in Europe, not the Oriental porcelain that nobles desperately wanted to own.”

“This is driving me crazy…”

“We can’t exactly rob a museum… I mean, they wouldn’t have treasured such old pottery anyway.”

‘That’s true.’

What the nobles of that time wanted wasn’t faded artifacts but pristine white porcelain.

Johann nods while watching the staff enter an emergency meeting, then falls into thought.

‘Hmm… Should I just make it myself?’

Chang, the genius potter from the Orient – a character he added without thinking about such problems because it seemed fun, and which Baz and Matthew also agreed to include.

Plus, his current major class was pottery. It felt like fate was telling him to make porcelain.

‘But if I’m going to make it, this becomes a much bigger project…’

There were so many things to consider, from clay to glaze and kilns, even the weather.

“Hmm.”

Johann fell into deep contemplation, and Matthew Payton looked at Johann with trembling eyes.

‘What kind of trouble is he planning to cause now?’

Fire is always targeting us. Just like back then when he pondered and invented smoke liquid and smoke bombs, Johann.

His heart began to flutter with anticipation.

* * *

The next day, Johann enters the UCLA Ceramics Studio Building.

As soon as he stepped into the building, the scent of wet clay, regular earth smell, and various chemical compounds and glaze materials wafted through the air.

Johann, whose sense of smell was superior to ordinary people, wrinkled his nose while looking at the ceramics displayed in acrylic cases along the corridor.

‘Definitely impressive.’

Works that made even the ‘ceramicist’ Johann had absorbed admire them. He said that each of the works displayed in the acrylic cases showed mastery-level skill.

Though these were works that caught his attention and made him observe for a long time every visit, Johann walked slowly admiring them again and stopped in front of one piece.

A teapot with a fire-red background painted with golden phoenixes and flames.

Even through the ‘ceramicist’s’ eyes, even through Michelangelo’s eyes, it was a magnificent masterpiece.

“To think this was made because she wanted to warn about the heat of tea…”

It was an incredibly humble and absurd reason.

“Why are you admiring my embarrassing past again?”

“Because it’s among the top five pieces displayed in this building?”

Johann looked at the ceramics professor Evelyn Nova, who approached with a frown.

Despite being in her 50s, she looked like she was in her 30s with a youthful appearance and small, seemingly fragile build, but she was among the top five ceramicists in America.

“Look who’s talking?”

Professor Evelyn pointed to a blue plate displayed next to her graduation work.

An ocean with wild reeds rising, a large fish swimming in foaming waves.

It was breathtakingly beautiful and serene, but the reason for making it was ridiculous.

“I just happened to want sushi at the time.”

“…Sigh. So what brings you here? Want to make more ceramics?”

“I came to experiment with something…”

“What kind?”

“I want to experiment with whether I can recreate centuries-old Eastern white porcelain using an oven.”

Using an industrial oven that could control temperature to decimal points.

Flinch!

Professor Evelyn smiled bitterly at those words and beckoned with her finger to follow.

Following her into a certain space, Johann’s eyes widened.

White porcelain. Plates, vases, water bottles, teapots, bowls – the small space of about five pyeong was filled with white and celadon porcelain.

Seeing this, Johann realized.

“…It’s impossible.”

Surely any of the white porcelain here could easily fetch tens of thousands of dollars if sold.

But there were subtle differences from those of that era. In the realm of sixth sense that human eyes couldn’t easily distinguish.

“I’ve been trying for decades.”

It wasn’t just her. Hundreds of thousands of ceramicists who fell in love with Eastern ceramics had attempted it, but all failed.

China, which lost countless artisans due to the Cultural Revolution.

Japan, which kidnapped numerous potters from Joseon but couldn’t fully inherit those techniques.

Korea, where ceramic techniques gradually declined partly due to losing many potters to Japan, but also because during the Joseon period, craftsmen including potters were looked down upon and received no proper support.

While the white porcelain techniques of that time weren’t completely lost, they couldn’t be fully passed down due to various changes and deterioration.

“Ceramics are artworks that capture beauty born from imperfection.”

Modern times use refined clay and glazes, but back then they mixed different clay and glazes each time, creating subtle differences even with the same process.

Also, since it was impossible for humans to control the kiln’s flames, air flow, and weather, truly unique colors and patterns were created through momentary coincidences.

And the ability to create ceramics in such uncontrolled environments was precisely the technique that only the artisans of that era possessed.

Since those techniques weren’t passed down to modern times, contemporary ceramicists had no choice but to pursue the most precise work while eliminating variables.

That was why modern ceramicists couldn’t recreate the ceramics of that time.

‘So it really is impossible with an oven.’

He had expected it, but it was disappointing.

“Sigh. If only we could build a traditional kiln from that time, we might be able to try somehow…”

Wood-fired kilns were very difficult to control temperature and had large temperature differences within the kiln, causing high defect rates even for skilled artisans, making them unsuitable for mass production.

However, to even slightly follow the natural irregularity of ancient ceramics, wood-fired kilns were essential, not modern kilns.

“Hmm? I can build one though?”

“Huh? No, I’m talking about the really old method, traditional kilns that were lost even before ceramic techniques were lost.”

Kilns that looked simple but varied depending on what clay was used and how it was shaped and stacked.

More specifically, from the fire boxes for inserting wood to the kiln floor, walls, ceiling, and chimney – nothing was simple from one to ten.

However, there couldn’t be traditional kilns from centuries ago that remained intact to modern times, and even in Korea, the oldest traditional kiln was made in 1949 at best.

Setting aside whether one could fully handle such a kiln, since kilns from that era didn’t remain, proper attempts couldn’t even be made – that was the current situation.

Despite this explanation, Johann calmly spoke.

“That’s what I mean. The traditional kiln you mentioned – I can build one?”

“…What?”

Professor Evelyn’s eyes widened.

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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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