Life, Once Again!

After Story 18

“You’re here.” Jihoon stood up while drinking a coffee handed to him by the youngest member of the production crew. The staff members around him also greeted Bae Jungwoon, who approached him. Bae Jungwoon was an old actor who would rarely move before being given a call, and yet he came over himself.

“The weather could really kill.”

“It is scorching.”

Jungwoon looked around. A quick-witted props management crew member quickly brought over a portable chair. Jungwoon sat down as though it was only the right thing to do and put his hand out. Jihoon told the youngest member of the production crew to bring some coffee.

“It’s goddamn tiring.”

“I heard you’ve been fishing. Anything good?”

“Only small fry. Choi Daesik, that guy boasted about how I will get big fish as long as I throw the float, and that was the result. Man, that guy is a total liar.”

Choi Daesik and Bae Jungwoon. These two were known to be very close in the industry, and they always went out to the sea when they had spare time. The problem was that they would even depart to the sea even on days before the shoot. It wasn’t entirely feasible to harshly scold two actors past their sixties, but they couldn’t entirely sit still either. Ultimately, the youngest members of the crew had to take the brunt and call the managers of the two actors the whole day.

“Director Lee, you should really stop calling. My manager’s phone might catch fire.”

“Our little guy is quite enthusiastic at work. I’ll tell him to go slow.”

“Yeah. It’s not like I don’t come to the shoot. If you keep nagging me, it makes me look like the bad guy.”

But you’re only coming because we’re calling you — Jihoon swallowed those words along with his coffee.

“My scene today ends quickly, right?”

“Of course. I’ll make sure that there are no problems with your schedule.”

“At least you’re really good at assigning time slots. There’s this young guy in MBS who doesn’t get a single thing I say to him. I told him I can’t move early in the morning and that I’ll be tired late in the evening, so the schedule should be around noon, but he always calls out me late at night. That young guy is a total prick.”

“You should be generous. Those who don’t have much experience just have it hectic because they get chased by the people above and below them. If they get more experience, they’ll find out who they need to look after.”

Jihoon was now used to listening to the grumbles of the old actor. After sharing a few more words about fishing, which he wasn’t even interested in, he looked at the cue sheet. The shoot was supposed to begin 15 minutes later, but Jihoon called the assistant director and had everyone get ready. Rather than talking to an old actor here, he would rather wrestle with the monitor.

The staff members who were spread across the set as they rested, started moving again. It was pitiful to see them since they looked like they’d fall over on the spot if nudged, but he had no choice. The shooting environment was so terrible that it might as well be hell.

Back when he first made his debut, he had the ambition to change the unfair labor environment in the industry. However, as he worked on various sets, he soon realized how absurd that dream was. He couldn’t change it, so he could only adapt. Not too long ago, he saw an article about a staff member collapsing due to heat stroke, but the only thing that happened was that the higher-ups sent a notification to be careful, and nothing else. The only path of survival was to get rest whenever they could.

“Let’s finish it quickly and go home instead of the public bath[1],” Jihoon said in a loud voice. The best thing he could do for the staff as the director was to reduce the shooting time as much as possible. That, or drag it out indefinitely so that they could get the money to go to the public bath instead.

After getting touched up by the costume staff, Jungwoon entered the interview room. Minor actors wearing suits sat next to Jungwoon. As Jungwoon looked around the set, he fixed his tie and sat down, leaning back on the chair. His arrogant attitude had totally disappeared, and a classy atmosphere pervaded the air around him, making him look like an important figure in the company.

Jihoon clicked his fingers. After all that was said and done, it was undeniable that Bae Jungwoon was a good actor. There was a reason that he kept getting cast even though he was late all the time.

“When you’re in front of senior Bae, don’t laugh like an idiot if you make a mistake. Apologize first and have a look at his response. It’s okay if he nags you in a joking tone, but if he stares at you without saying anything, then you should really get a hold of yourself. Everyone here has heard at least once that senior Bae terribly dislikes the shoot getting dragged out, right?”

“Is it really that bad when he gets angry?” One of the main actors was cautiously looking at senior Bae.

“Once he snaps out, then he’ll be uncontrollable, so you should do well. Of course, that won’t happen unless it gets really dragged out, so don’t worry too much. Also, this scene is the most important one out of all the scenes we’re shooting today, so be aware of that.”

This was a very important scene in the drama. It was the scene where the two main characters, whose charming point was that they were ordinary citizens, would undergo a change for the first time. They would have to express that they were being reborn as elites of the company well so that they could keep the viewers attracted to the drama.

He walked to the corridor with the two main actors. He had them sit down on the chair and do a rehearsal. He emphasized to them multiple times what they had to express. The actors were young but smart, so they soon understood what he wanted and showed him the acting he wanted.

“Very good. You should do just that in front of senior Bae. Mr. Junho, Ms. Ahyoung, you got that?”

After listening to the two actors, he returned to the monitor. Only after he sat down did a role he had entirely forgotten about cross his mind. He saw Han Maru standing obediently at the end of the corridor. For some reason, he had blind faith in this young man to do well.

He wouldn’t freeze up in front of the actors, right? When he glanced at Maru, he saw that Maru was only looking straight ahead of him, and not showing any interest in the actors in front of him or stiffening up in nervousness. Despite saying that this was his first time, his attitude was filled with leisure. Whether that was his innate nature, or he had experience standing on other types of stages, it seemed that Jihoon didn’t have to worry about him.

After talking to the camera director and the recording engineer, he started the shoot. Along with the assistant director’s signal, the two actors walked over from the edge of the corridor. He liked the speed of the camera that followed the actors from the back. The slight shaking of their shoulders showed their nervousness quite well.

‘Young actors aren’t as good at acting’ became a thing of old. Since the quantity of information people had access to was different, there were many young actors who had incredibly good acting skills. All four actors playing leading characters were in their mid-20s, but none of them looked awkward.

Of course, they were lacking compared to the veteran actors in Chungmuro, but the money to cast those people was a magnitude higher.

“Okay, let’s do that again, but with the camera doing a knee-shot this time.”

After shooting a few more times from the back, he went over to the next cut. There were many times when the takes he thought were good at the scene turned out to be flawed when seen in the editing room. As such, he had to shoot as many takes as possible while time allowed it.

These days, video was all about editing techniques anyway. Even the most terrible footage could be created into a decent piece if edited well.

The two actors sat on chairs in front of the interview room. The camera shot their faces from a diagonal angle. Their faces contained a suitable mix of anticipation towards success and unease toward failure. Jihoon did wish they could express more, but he decided to go with it for now, since it wasn’t too bad. He could just instruct them again on this later once he was done shooting.

“Let’s go.”

Action, cue, go, let’s go. His signals changed according to his mood at the time. When the two actors reached the peak of tension, the interview room opened..com

The eyes of the extra at the corner of the screen were a lot better than he expected. The extra spoke, in a very businesslike manner with a little bit of fatigue, “Mr. Park Haechul, Ms. Choi Areum, you can go inside.”

After saying that, he opened the door for them. Maru’s gaze was fixed on the interviewer inside the room. Even as the actors walked past him, his gaze did not waver. That was not an act that Jihoon had instructed beforehand. But at the same time, it was an act that he wanted to see.

In the final product, he was originally intending to insert a special sound effect of chairs squeaking. As for the other environmental noise, he was going to just put some white noise captured by the camera to express a near-dead-still silence.

Since this cut was going to be filled with silence, the expressions of the actors mattered a lot, but a mere extra made it quite good. He almost gave a cut sign in just one go. If the door to the interview room didn’t squeak, he would’ve gone to the next cut.

The props team and the arts team rushed out at once. Junho and Ahyoung, who were walking past the door, got startled and stepped back. Maru, who was holding the door, also put some distance.

“What is it?”

“The flooring came off here. We can fix this quickly.”

Jihoon clicked his tongue. It was such a pity since it was so good. Thankfully, the fix was done quickly as though it wasn’t a big problem. The assistant director tried pulling the door strongly.

“Director, I think it’s good now.”

“Then let’s do that again.”

The actors sat down on the chairs once more. Jihoon looked at Jungwoon, who was sitting in the interview room. That old man would probably cause a fuss if the shoot was repeated and he had to start waiting for longer.

“Cue!” Jihoon looked at the monitor.

The actors calmed down and started acting. He could see their cheeks stiffen up as they entered an unfamiliar space. Their acting was better than before. When the assistant director gave a signal, the extra opened the door and left. That extra did the same act again which made Jihoon feel like he was watching a rewound tape of what happened before.

His tone of voice, his eyes scanning the various items and the actors, and his posture as he opened the door were no different from the first take. It showed him that what he did wasn’t a fluke. This guy was smart. He probably kept designing what he had to do in his head during breaks. There was no way he could’ve acted like that otherwise.

Even though the actors were going inside the interview room, Jihoon’s eyes were fixed on the background. Only after that extra closed the door and stepped back did he get a hold of himself and look at the actors standing in front of the interviewer.

This was peculiar. It wasn’t some kind of great acting, nor was the extra good-looking enough to grab his attention, yet, he still managed to grab his eyes. No, at this point, it was better to say that he was mesmerized.

He looked at the staff members behind him. They were all looking at the monitor indifferently. He nodded; that was something he only caught because he was conscious of it. The extra managed to fulfill his job without stealing the gaze that must land on the actors.

“We’re done. Let’s go to the next location.”

The progress was so smooth that he couldn’t believe it was ‘that day’ when he would snap out at background actors like mad. It was all thanks to that extra in the corner of his eyes. He was a perfect prop placed in the perfect spot.

If he could bring that fellow with him in his pocket, he felt like he would never need any psychotherapy again. While he knew that it was an absurd notion, he still thought like that. That young man was like emergency medicine. When he looked at him, his anger would calm down and he would smile.

Now he had something he had to ask if he had the time. He wanted to ask that young man how long he was going to do this part-time job. If he planned to do it for a while, then he was planning to get his contact info, so that he could call him whenever the props ticked him off.

No, if possible, it wouldn’t be bad to keep calling him. He had an ordinary appearance, so he wouldn’t look too repetitive as long as he changed his clothes.

Han Maru. Jihoon committed that unique name to memory.

[1] Some public baths have a facility called jjimjilbang, where they can sleep overnight