Chapter 284 (1/2)

Will it get the okay sign this time? From what Mru saw, the director seemed satisfied with what he got. The problem was that Moonjoong wasn’t.

“Looks like it’ll take a long time today as well.”

“Well, this is not the first or second time that happened.”

“Give me a chocolate bar. I’m starting to run out of sugar.”

“It hasn’t even been that long since dinner. Why are you running out of sugar already?”

The staff started taking out their snacks and sweets. It was past 10 o’clock at night. Since the shoot started in the morning, they had been working for more than 12 hours now.

Maru grabbed the chocolate bar offered to him. It was given to him by Geunsoo.

“This should be the last time.”

“The last time of what?”

“The shooting. They’ll probably go to the next scene after this one.”

Geunsoo sounded no different from saying ‘the sun will rise in the morning’. He had that much conviction when he said those words. Just what did he base his thoughts on? Maru had a look at Moonjoong, who was around 10 meters away from him. Moonjoong was looking up at the sky with his hands behind his back, Maru couldn’t read anything from him. It wasn’t that much different to the previous four times he shot this scene.

“You’ll see,” Geunsoo said.

‘You’ll see’ - Maru nodded his head. Maybe masters had signs that only masters could recognize. As a mere mortal, he would never understand what it is no matter what he tried, so Maru decided that it would be better to keep watching. Feeling the thick smell of caramel inside his mouth, he kept watching Moonjoong.

Just then, Moonjoong raised his left hand. The director gave the staff a sign and following that, the slate made a clapping sound. The camera started rolling and Moonjoong started his act. Although Maru was quite far from the scene, he couldn’t hear Moonjoong’s voice, but the pitiful expression on his face as well as the way he walked was enough for him to understand the emotions behind his actions.

“It’s quite long.”

“Do you even know what it feels like to act by yourself for a whole two minutes without a single cut?”

“Honestly, no. Considering the runtime of this movie, 2 minutes is definitely significant, but I don’t really understand the difficulty of filling those two minutes.”

2 minutes. In everyday life, two minutes wasn’t long at all. It was an amount of time that would pass by just gazing at the sky. However, two minutes out of 80 in a movie was a different story indeed.

“You’ll see how absurd two minutes are once you get used to shooting movies. The most scary thing is getting an NG at a minute and 58 seconds. That’s the fun part of a long take. You’ll have to start over those two minutes from the beginning. Phew, that sounds horrific.”

Geunsoo shook his head as though he was the one in front of the camera.

Maru followed Moonjoong’s back with his eyes.

Moonjoong, who was staggering, ended up leaning on a wall before collapsing down on the spot. Having fallen down, Moonjoong covered both of his eyes and started crying. The faint weeping sounds could be heard over the wind. He had curled up like someone in pain and made a disturbing vomiting sound. The neatly piled scrap papers fell over with Moonjoong’s struggles. Amidst that, Moonjoong started wiggling around. He painted a picture where the old man was crying so loud that it couldn’t be voiced through the human vocal cords, and plowed his way through in solitude. He fell, stood up, then fell again. Moonjoong acted as a man that was thoroughly collapsing from the inside out. Under the dusk, he made a path of sadness and despair until he eventually looked around. Under the faint light, Moonjoong’s expression looked complex and indescribable. His face was covered with tears, yet it looked sharp; was scary yet sad like a cracked piece of glass. He expressed the instability of his emotions while shifting between strong-minded and feeble until he suddenly picked up a small hammer amidst the pile of scrap paper. After staring at it for a while, Moonjoong raised it above his head. Pf, pf, pf. The unpaved road was dented with a deep sound. After smashing down with his hammer for a while, Moonjoong started crying again. It was a deep wail enough to put anyone listening to shivers, just like that of a wild beast.

The whispers between the staff had died down to naught. Everyone was focusing on Moonjoong. Maru could see that everyone’s eyes were following the violent smashes of the hammer. It was freakishly silent.

Amidst the silence, Moonjoong continued to act. He was sweating as though his face was sprayed with water. The hammer fell out of his shaking hands. Everything stopped as though time stopped flowing. The freaky silence continued for another three seconds before Moonjoong stood up with a long sigh. Then he stared into the main camera with emotionless eyes.

Maru, who was in Moonjoong’s line of sight, felt as though Moonjoong’s eyes were looking at him. The frightening gaze, captured on the camera, will make the audience gulp, he thought.

“Okay!”

That voice sounded more cheerful than ever. Moonjoong’s cold expression only loosened at that moment as he spat out a deep breath. One person, that seemed to be Moonjoong’s manager, quickly ran up to him and looked over his body. Everyone at the scene started applauding.

Maru did the same. The emotions he harbored deep inside him sublimed into his applause. It was a form of etiquette towards an actor that showed brilliant acting, and also an applause of self-loathing because that was the only way to evaluate such an act.

“Haha, he’s breaking the spirits of his juniors too much,” Geunsoo spoke as he applauded.

Maru could see passion in his eyes. His respect towards Moonjoong, as well as his challenging spirit had to be boiling inside him. Maru also realized that something similiar was happening inside himself as well. He started yearning for something supreme that existed beyond the horizon.

“Now that I think about it, this scene is the one right after my scene,” Maru, drenched in appreciation, suddenly came to himself and spoke.

The scene Moonjoong acted just now was the scene immediately after the elder hears harsh words from the delinquent.

“That’s because we have to shoot in an alleyway, and it would be difficult to do so if there are people passing by. That’s why most scenes are filmed during the night. It would be great if the scenes could be filmed according to the progress of the story, but reality isn’t that easy. The staff do their best to line up the order of events, but most of the time, reality doesn’t allow it. This is why there are many times where the ending is shot first then the beginning. It’s an annoying matter, but what can we do about it? That’s what being a pro is.”

“...Being an actor doesn’t sound easy.”

Moonjoong had to forget his boiling emotions and go back to being a feeble old man. It wouldn’t be easy to do so. Moonjoong returned to the camera and started monitoring the scene. It was just as Geunsoo had said. It seemed that that was the last take.

“Hey! Han Maru, you’re here!”

Hearing a voice behind him, Maru turned around. Jiseok, with a thick smile, was waving at him.

“I came here ages ago.”

“Really? Why didn’t I get to see you then?”

“Because I was with the staff.”

“Oh that’s where you were. Oh, senior Geunsoo. Hello there.”

Jiseok looked as cheerful as ever. After returning Jiseok’s greeting, Geunsoo spoke again,

“You two should rehearse together. You’ll be in the next scene after all. I’ll go ask something to the director.”

Maru told Jiseok that they should switch places. They couldn’t start practicing amidst the staff members. They went back to the tree where Maru ate dinner.

“Wow, so this is what it feels like.”