The Famous Millionaire

Kwangsu quietly said to Hyunwoo, “It looks like this music video will draw more attention thanks to the seniors’ participation.”

“I think so.”

“Make sure you get the consent from the seniors. Without that, you might be in big trouble.”

That was something Hyunwoo thought out in advance. If their faces were seen in the music video without their consent because of the issue of infringement on their portrait rights, it could be trouble.

“Will do. I’ll get it by all means.”

Kwangsu shot the music video several times and then clapped his hands as if he was satisfied.

“Enough. I think that’s good enough. As soon as you’re done, please let me know before you release it in the music market. Let me have a final review of it.”

“Oh, I appreciate that, Kwangsu,” said Hyunwoo, confident that Kwangsu’s finishing touches would enhance the quality of the music video.

“In return, you should include my name in the video, Okay?”

“Of course, brother. Ha ha. Let me imprint it very big.”

***

At the conference room of the Talent Broadcasting company, four company officials and four experts were in a heated debate on the selection of the final candidate to be broadcasted on Children’s Day as a special animation program.

There were a total of seven animations to be scheduled for broadcasting, and there were 14 final candidates up for selection.

One of the experts had a puzzled look on his face after checking out the panelists’ points on each of the candidates.

“I can’t understand at all why you gave such a low score to No. 11. It is excellent in educational content, unique characters and the composition of the picture. I don’t see anything in that candidate to complain about.”

“That means other candidates are much better,” said one broadcasting official involved.

Still, the expert was not persuaded.

If the other candidates were superior, there must be competition among them for the final selection, but No. 11 candidate was much more superior to the others. In his mind, it looked much better than the others. In particular, the familiarity of the characters was outstanding.

At the end of the day, his puzzle was solved.

These guys are playing tricks again.

Obviously, a high-ranking official with the broadcasting company must have received kickbacks, but there was nothing that expert could do about it. Unless No. 11 was exceptionally good enough to beat other candidates, there was no point in making the case for it.

No. 11 was not chosen, after all.

With a bitter smile he murmured to himself, Yea, you guys get the kickbacks as much as you want. This is the last year you could get the bribe anyway.

This was the final year that they would select the final candidates through the debate among broadcasting officials and animation experts because there was controversy over the fairness of their selection process. So, next year they decided to form a special committee to ensure fairness.

The meeting was over. The final results would be announced one week later.

As soon as the meeting was over, however, Manager Kim with BNB entertainment company could immediately learn the results because Producer Hwang attended the meeting as an observer.

All proceeded as BNB wished.

Manager Kim raced to the president’s office to inform him of the good news. The president stayed calm as he felt the result was legitimate, given the huge kickbacks he gave to Producer Hwang and others. He realized that there was a big challenge waiting for him from now on.

“Did you said the company’s name was Ani & Funny?”

“Right. It’s located in Asan City.”

“Our lobbying paid off this year, but as the selection process changes next year, we might not get what we want from now on. Try to scout the core members of the company, so they can’t make any animations.”

“All of them?”

“You said most of them were contractors and only a few were full-time staff. So, if we scout some of them, the company can not operate normally. Just in case, make sure the contract period does not exceed two years. Got it?”

“Yes, sir. Let me go ahead and scout them.”

***

The next Monday, Hyunwoo went to the head office in Bono-dong.

With the homeroom teachers’ approval, Jinhon and Angela came to the Bono-dong office instead of the alternative music school. Though the school had strong disciplinary measures of its own, it gave the students as much autonomy as possible when it came to their musical activities.

Most kids involved with the Ani & Funny animation went to school, and the only graduate this year, Jihoon Kang, came to the office.

The music video was supposed to be produced with a mix of the actual video featuring their singing and dancing and the animation video. In other words, Jinhon and Angela were the main players while the characters of the animation would back them up as background dancers.

“As the actual video has been done, let’s work on the mixing as soon as the animation work is done. Can you help us, Manager Kyungsu?” said Hyunwoo.

“Sure, will do,” replied Kyungsu.

Everybody got back to work. Some of them were working on the highlight of the ‘Tuti & Angelica,’ while others were engaged in making the animation of the music video, but the staff’s facial expressions looked somewhat unusual this morning. For some reason, they tried to avoid making eye contact with him.

Hyunwoo felt all of them hid something deep inside.

Hummmmm…if they want to say something, they will. Let me wait until this afternoon.

Soon one of his staff received a call from somebody. Hyunwoo picked up the phone instead.

“Yes, this is Hyunwoo Jang of Ani & Funny,” he said in a tone full of expectation. He heard the animation he submitted was selected as one of the 17 finalists, but the result was disappointing.

“I’m sorry, but you have another good chance on Chusok (Korean Thanksgiving Day). Aim for that. You have great potential.”

“Thanks,” said Hyunwoo in a strong tone intentionally.

Kyungsu asked, “What happened?”

“Well, our animation was not chosen. They are telling me there is another chance. Ha ha,” Hyunwoo said, with a hollow smile, but Kyungsu couldn’t smile, as he realized the situation was worse than expected.

Ani & Funny had animation content that could general financial income. It pinned hopes on the special animation work submitted to the Talent Broadcasting Company.

And Hyunwoo’s bold decision to invest in the animation business such as hiring, renting a big office and purchase of new equipment was based on his expectation that the submitted entry would be selected as one of the winners, but all of his efforts up to now failed.

There was a real possibility that Ani & Funny could go bankrupt.

The contractors were much more disappointed. They were full of expectation that they could be full-time staff if the submitted animation was chosen.

They had about 15 working days until the expiration of their contract. Naturally, they were not that enthusiastic about doing their best.

Damn it. Looks like I had better doss around in work for the remaining workdays.

Most of the contractors thought so.

To make matters worse, Ungyu Song, who seemed to have something to talk to Hyunwoo from early in the morning, came to Hyunwoo to speak his mind. He was exceptionally talented in mapping the animation.

“I guess our company will be in the red a lot. You might feel it pretty burdened to give us a check…”

“Not at all. We have just started. Our company won’t collapse, so cheer up and focus on the work,” said Hyunwoo.

However, Ungyu confided to him why he came to see Hyunwoo.

“In fact, I got a call from BNB last weekend. They offered to scout me with good pay.”

“Ah! I didn’t know that,” said Hyunwoo, embarrassed, but it only lasted a moment. Once Ungyu made the decision, there was no point in holding him.

“Congrats! In fact, I was very sorry to you because of your small pay here. I’m glad to know you’re moving to a better-paying company.”

“Thanks for saying that. And I feel sorry,” said Ungyu, bowing to Hyunwoo.

Not only Ungyu but also two other full-timers also revealed that they got the offer from other companies.

One said he got an offer from Q1, and the other said he got the offer from Goldenview.

Then Kyungsu burst into anger all of a sudden, saying, “What the heck is this? Did they make the offer to all of our full-time staff here? Looks like BNB intends to collapse us.”

“Brother, they got the offer from Q1 and Goldenview, not BNB.”

“They are all the subsidiaries of BNB. Actually, I and Sanggyu also got the same offers from them. I realized they’re all BNB’s subsidiaries.”

“Really?” Hyunwoo’s eyes popped out.

Kyungsu and Sanggyu rejected their job offer, while other full-time staffers accepted it.

Although they were a worried deep inside because they felt that the purpose of BNB’s scouting was not to seek their talent but to attack Ani & Funny.

Nonetheless, they had no regrets. Given the current situation of Ani & Funny, it was certain that it would go bankrupt within a year, let alone two years.

“I guess you will receive the best treatment with your rich experience and skills. I’d like to work with you again when the opportunity comes along to us. So, just feel free to contact me anytime,” said Hyunwoo.

“Thank you.”

“By the way, you are not going to quit immediately, aren’t you? Please help us put the finishing touches on the music video. Don’t you think that’s a good way for you to leave in style?”

“Of course. We still have 15 days to go before we leave. We’ll finish the music video by then. Also, we’re going to do our best to finish Tuti & Angelica, too.”

It seemed that they were touched by Hyunwoo’s sincerity, or they thought that someday they might meet again.

Anyway, they bent over backward to finish the music video to the best they could and taught the Ani & Funny kids enthusiastically.

Thanks to their dedicated efforts, Jinhon’s music video was made much better than initially planned, and Hyunwoo felt a dozen times more confident that the music video would hit gold when released to the music market.