Chapter 229 (1/2)

Coming to work on a weekend - that was how Maru felt as he entered the rotary door. Unlike last week, there weren’t many people in the lounge. That made him feel that it was actually Sunday. The appointment was at 11, and the clock was pointing to 10:50.

‘I came at a suitable time’, thought Maru as he took the elevator to the 7th floor. Getting off, Maru looked left and right. He was wondering where he had to go this time.

“So you’re here,” Maru heard a voice from his left. He saw Junmin and Jiseok standing there.

“Hello,” greeted Maru, as he walked towards the two. There was a mug in Junmin’s hands, and the thick fragrance of red ginseng could be smelled from it.

“I’m taking care of my health these days. I don’t have a wife to look after me, so I can only take care of myself.”

“You aren’t thinking about getting married?”

“Your words have thorns in them even though it’s the morning. What, did I ever let you down or something?”

“Of course not.”

Taking light jabs at each other, they changed locations. They walked past the automatic glass door and went to the place where the audition took place. Maru wondered if they were going to use that room again today, but Junmin led the two to the room opposite of that room. All four walls of that room were made of glass. It was possible to see the corridor from the inside.

“Have a seat and wait a while. You can drink some tea if you want.”

After Junmin left, Jiseok came closer and asked,

“Are you acquainted with him?”

“Somewhat.”

“Are you two close?”

“Why would we be? We’re in a business relationship. Rather than that, why are you here?”

“I don’t know. The text message told me to come because of assigning the roles, but I haven’t heard the specifics yet. Rather than that, I never knew that this entire building was that man’s possession. If I knew, I wouldn’t have signed a contract so early.”

“A contract? You have a company you belong to?”

“Yeah, I do. You don’t have one?”

“There’s no way I…,” Maru said up to that point and stopped. He was in a contract relationship with Junmin, so perhaps he could be considered a member of JA productions. Or, maybe it wasn’t like that since the contract was an individual one. Thinking back, the contract was a huge one involving 300 million won, but the contract paper was nothing more than just a few lines on a napkin.

“What’s that? Do you have one or not?”

“I don’t have one. Probably.”

Maru made some green tea with the tea bag and drank a sip. He sometimes saw people walking in the corridor over the glass wall. However, those people only gave the two of them a glance but didn’t actually enter. He wondered if anyone was coming at all.

“Looks like I made you wait,” Junmin entered at that moment. Even though this was the weekend, he seemed busy. Even in the short moment between him entering and sitting down, he was messaging someone on his phone.

“It’s always like this before the filming begins. Producers have to clean up after a lot of people. Others bring their troubles to me even when I stay still. It’s a very enjoyable position to be in, I must say,” said Junmin with a loathing smile. He looked very tired. It seemed that drinking red ginseng extract wasn’t just to take care of his body. Perhaps he was taking them to keep up with all the work.

“As you probably know, both of you will be assigned to a role. Although these roles are extras without many lines in the story, do not ever think about doing things half-heartedly. This is a movie you’re appearing in. The filming will be strict as well and we’ll reshoot each scene as many times as it’s necessary. I said that it is okay to waste as much film as they want so we’ll probably be shooting for an extremely long time.”

Although he stated that as though it was a matter of fact, the contents were something to be taken seriously. Junmin was in charge of the production of this film. If the film director was in charge of filming the actual scenes, the producer was in charge of setting up the environment that allows for the filming. He was the one in charge of finances, and he said the words ‘it is okay to waste’ film. This meant that there would be no cutting corners to decrease the production cost of the film, and it also meant that the actors will be squeezed out of every last bit of their energy.

“Isn’t 35mm film quite expensive?”

“It costs around 300 thousand won. Oh, and that’s per roll.”

“How long can we film with that then?”

“It’s around four and a half minutes, but if you consider cuts and rejoins. It’ll be around four minutes.”

“So that means, if we re-shoot….”

“We would be donating 300 thousand won to the ground every 4 minutes. Isn’t that exciting?”

Maru heaved a deep sigh. Concrete numbers made him nervous. The pressure from other people as well as heavy occasions were things he could endure through deep breathing. That pressure did not result in actual, physical harm. However, this was different. Every NG(no good) scene he caused meant 300 thousand won vaporized into nothing.

“Since it’s confirmed that you’re casting us. We’re getting paid too, right?”

“Of course.”

“How much?”

“It’s quite good. You’ll get 100 thousand won each. The scene where you two will be appearing in will end in a single day, after all. Though, you might get paid more once it gets late into the night. You aren’t thinking that you’re not paid much, are you? In other places, you’d at most get 70 thousand won for being an extra and 30 for just appearing. 100 thousand is actually quite a good deal. What, you think it’s not much?”

“Not at all. It’s more than I expected. But… it doesn’t seem like a lot after hearing the price of a film roll.”

100 thousand won. Right now, one would be lucky to get paid 3 thousand won per hour. Maru also received 2600 won per hour when he worked at the petrol station. His wage increased by 300 won midway thanks to his excellent work, but even that didn’t reach 3000 won an hour. In this era, 100 thousand won for a single day was a lot, especially considering his status as a high school student.

‘But one slip-up means 300 thousand, huh.’

Every slip-up from an actor would burn cash to nothingness. Leaving aside the film costs, just the labor costs with all those people at the scene must be extremely high. This wasn’t a movie involving just one or two people. There would be actors, their coordinators, managers as well as people related to the actual production of the movie. Most of them should be salarymen receiving monthly wages, but there should also be freelancers who would get overtime pay if they worked hours past their contract. The phrase ‘time is money’ also applied to movies. It was extremely easy to see that.

“Wow, I guess we can’t slip up,” said Jiseok as he widened his eyes.

“If we get an okay in one go, the mood at the scene will be very good. However, if the filming time increases by 10 or 20 minutes due to some newbies, they’ll start turning very strict.”

Junmin put down a pile of papers - they seemed to be the script - before continuing,

“Oh yeah. Consider insults something ordinary once the shooting begins. The only people that can get humane treatment on the scene are those that do their jobs properly. Newbies are treated worse than pebbles on the sidewalk so hold yourselves together.”

“Will we get a lot of insults?”

“You’ll listen to more insults than what you’ve heard in your life combined.”

“Wow, they say being insulted increases your lifespan. I might be able to achieve what Qin Shi Huang couldn’t.”