Life, Once Again!

After Story 17

There were days when he would feel dizzy like he had a fever, and that day was today. The trivial things on the screen, such as props, the background, and the extras would catch his eyes for some reason. He would console himself, saying that the actors were doing well, and the composition was good, but he would still end up saying harsh words. He knew that it was no time to be stubborn and that he didn’t have the time to do so, but once he started, he could no longer control himself.

“If your feet hurt, then say it! Or do it properly!” director Lee Jihoon shouted as he jumped up from his seat. He was directing his words at the background actors running behind the actors.

After shouting, he scratched the back of his head. On any other day, he would not have made a fuss about it. However, for some reason, they were unsightly, and he couldn’t bear to keep looking at them.

“I mean, am I asking you to do something difficult? Just run. What am I supposed to tell you when you look like you never ran before?”

A man and a woman with decent-looking faces apologized, looking afraid.

Jihoon clicked his tongue and sat down. His anger was aimed at the background actors, who weren’t up to par, but also at himself for not being able to control himself. He knew in his head that shouting at people wouldn’t get him anywhere. The extras would just become even more nervous and act even more strangely, and he would get frustrated even more.

You’re good with everything, but you have a problem with snapping out like crazy every once in a while — these were the words of a junior producer of his that he was close to. He knew that he had to fix his personality, but whenever that day came around, he would go on a rampage without him knowing as though someone else’s brain had taken over his.

“My, my, director. I wonder what kind of good picture you’re trying to create today, hm?” said senior Choi, who was preparing for the next scene. This person was one of the people Jihoon was very close to.

Jihoon sighed. “I know I shouldn’t be like this, but they keep ticking me off.”

“Take it easy on them. I know you’ll go and apologize to them once you’re done with the shoot.”

“Hyung, this isn’t the first time you have seen me like this, is it? I would’ve fixed it a long time ago if I could. On days like this, nothing I do works. I have to vent it out first, or I’ll die.”

“You’re such a bad guy.”

Jihoon waved his hand at senior Choi in dismissal before signaling the assistant director. The assistant director shouted standby in a loud voice. The actors in the distance got ready to run. Jihoon gave a hand signal. The camera started moving along the rails, and the actors started running at a constant pace. The two actors showed him satisfactory acting. Even as they ran, their pronunciation wasn’t mangled, and their expressions were just what he instructed them to do as well.

Just when everything was going well, the background actors entered the frame. The man and the woman with decent faces were running past the actors.

“Cut!” Jihoon shouted in reflex. He was so angry that he could feel his blood vessels thumping. He tried to calm down to no avail.

“I’m sorry,” said the woman first.

He was about to shout ‘okay’ in a good mood, but the extra misstepped and faltered. Jihoon got up from the front of the monitor and stood in front of the woman who looked scared.

“You can’t even run properly?”

“No, it’s not that.”

“God, dear me….”

There was an insult at the tip of his tongue. Senior Choi’s advice to go easy on them barely made him hold onto his reason.

“I’m only being nice to you since you’re a part-timer. If you were an actor, I would’ve sworn at you already. If you’re here to earn money, then do it properly. Did I ask you to display emotions? Did I ask you to fly in the sky? I just asked you to run, and you couldn’t even do that properly and almost fell over? I mean, you could do that if you wanted to when you were outside the camera frame. What are you doing faltering as soon as you enter the screen? Are you trying to screw me over? Every single person here is wasting their time because of you.”

He knew that this was nothing to be so harsh about, but he couldn’t stop. He vented all of his negative emotions on the extra.

The woman lowered her head. The leader, who had been watching, came over and spoke with a smile, “Director, should I swap her out for someone else?”

“Forget it. I was using her because she had a decent face, but I’ll just do without her. Anyway, are you accepting any random person for the job? This is something people get paid to do, so you should at least bring people who are reasonable.”

“Kids these days are all like that. It’s because they think this is an easy job and think that they should have fun. You should be lenient and let them go this time.”

Jihoon pressed above his eyes with his palm and returned to the monitor. He felt dizzy. The blade of words he wielded against the background actors was attacking him — Are you out of your mind? This isn’t something to get mad at them about.

“Should we take a break?” the assistant director came over and asked. Jihoon shook his head. This wasn’t something that taking a break would resolve. He had to get the scenes done quickly and finish the shoot.

He looked at the two background actors who left the scene after getting an earful from the leader. He had to remember their faces since he had to go apologize to them later.

As he seriously considered getting psychotherapy, he resumed the shoot. Maybe because of the lack of background actors running past the center of the frame, the screen looked a lot more empty now. He wanted to fill it with something else, even though he felt that using anybody else would not change anything. He stopped thinking about it and asked the camera director to shoot from up close.

Jihoon focused on the screen. He fixed his eyes on the actor. He tried to ignore everything around them as much as possible, whether it was the elderly couple on the bench, the faint figure of lovers, as well as the annoyingly distinct blue mat. He would obviously become emotional if he became concerned with them.

It was just as he was about to finish the cut, thinking that he might as well think that there was nothing in the frame other than the actors when he spotted a gray t-shirt that entered the camera angle before leaving. That person was an extra that he simply ignored because he couldn’t find anything wrong with them, even though he had gotten sensitive and would not forgive any flaws.

Jihoon took his eyes off the monitor and checked that person in real life. He was a passerby who would jog from the other side of the actors and run past. He looked so natural that he didn’t seem like he was assigned to a role.

Jihoon was unable to spot that man even as he snapped out at the background actors. If he did not remove the man and woman behind the actors, he might not have spotted him until the very end of the shoot.

The man, who jogged past the actors, kept running like he was going to leave the set before stopping. He didn’t let go of his role just because he was outside the camera frame.

That man knows what he’s doing — this was the first thing that came to Jihoon’s mind. He called out to the man with the gray t-shirt.

“Don’t stand there and go there. Run past the actors from behind and keep running. You saw what those two people were doing before, right?”

The man did not ask questions or stand there in puzzlement and just went to his newly assigned location. Jihoon liked that. Today, he treated all the background actors as a thorn in his eyes, but that fellow made him keep his calm just like the main actors.

He told the camera director to compose the shot like before and went back to the monitor. He didn’t have the assistant director give the signal and spoke into the walkie-talkie himself.

Cue. Along with that sound, people started moving. It turned out just as he imagined. The actors were good from the beginning, so he wasn’t dissatisfied with them. He looked at the background actor who followed them.

Even though Jihoon didn’t even ask, that man kept his distance when the actors were talking and quickly rushed past when the actors took some time to breathe. He didn’t scatter the focus that was on the actors and just left after leaving behind a sense of realism.

Jihoon felt good as though he was cured of a sickness. His sensitivity also became a lot duller and he started looking at other background actors in a good light as well.

“We’re done,” he said, refreshed. He had the assistant director take care of the cleanup and walked over to the background actors.𝑓𝗿e𝐞𝓌𝙚𝙗𝑛o𝚟e𝙡. c𝚘𝚖

“I’m sorry about what happened before. I snapped out at someone totally innocent. I know I shouldn’t be doing this, but I couldn’t control myself. Just think of it as a crazy man going crazy, and don’t take what I said to heart.”

“It must be the heat. That’s what made everyone sensitive.”

When a middle-aged man stepped in, the awkward atmosphere was somewhat relieved. Jihoon repeatedly apologized and had the youngest writer buy ice cream for all the background actors.

“Young man,” Jihoon called out to the man in the gray shirt.

“Yes.”

“Let me ask you two questions. Do you have social phobia?”

“No.”

“Do you feel nervous in front of people and stutter?”

“I don’t.”

“Good.”

Jihoon scanned the gray t-shirt man from top to bottom. His height was just decent, and his face didn’t look bad either. He was somewhere in the middle between good-looking and ordinary, which made it even better.

“What’s your name?”

“It’s Han Maru, sir.”

“That’s a nice unique name. I’ll tell the leader about this later, so keep waiting. It’s nothing difficult, but you will have to say a few lines. You’ll get to see the actors up close too. Not bad, is it?”

“I’d love to.”

“Good. Then see you later.”

Jihoon would never propose something like this to a background actor usually since they were ultimately akin to background props. Having an extra do any lines, no matter how short, might delay the entire schedule after all. Acting was something that was more difficult the simpler it was.

It would be a different story if the leader recommended someone to him, but reaching out to someone like this as the director rarely happened.

“Leader. That young man in the gray t-shirt over there. I heard his name is Han Maru, and I’m going to give him a role later, so don’t send him home.”

“Got it.”

Jihoon sighed in relief and turned around. Thanks to the young man in the gray t-shirt, his head became a lot clearer.

This had never happened before. Whenever the background actors ticked him off, he would always spit out cuss words and end the shoot early, but he felt like he would be able to reach the number of desired cuts today.

They packed their equipment and moved over to Namyangju. The office set had been renovated just as he had requested before.

After greeting the arts director, he looked around the set.

“How is it? This is the meeting room.”

“It’s good. It was way too luxurious before, but now it looks office-like without any unnecessary stuff, so I like it.”

“Our drama is known to be quite plain. I tried going along with that theme.”

“You’re the best, director Jang.”

Jihoon walked around the set with the actors and explained the next cut. As a director, this moment was a lot more important than when the camera was rolling. Without proper interaction with the actors, he would only get crappy footage if he turned on the camera.

After explaining, he was browsing through the script when he spotted the gray t-shirt young man waiting while wearing a suit. His name was Han Maru, huh. Jihoon flicked his finger and called for Maru.

“There’s nothing difficult. You just have to pretend you’re looking at this file and call out the name of the character in waiting. Mr. Park Haechul, Mr. Choi Areum, please go inside. That’s it. Easy, right?”

Maru looked behind him. He scanned the set that was constructed like an office corridor before replying yes. The way he put the file between his arm and body made him look flawless. He neither looked excited nor nervous.

“Have you participated in shoots before?”

“This is my first time. Uhm yeah, this is my first.”

For some reason, Maru repeated himself. He even smiled a little.

“Anyway, please.”

“I’ll do my best.”

He looked strangely reliable, to the point that Jihoon didn’t even think about asking him to try it out once. His senses as the director judged that he would do well.

“Go on then.”

Jihoon looked at Maru, who stood in front of the rows of chairs at the end of the office. Just as he expected, he looked so in line with everything else that he might as well have been cast beforehand.