Chapter 614 (1/2)

“It’s killing me. I thought I would be able to touch up the sound with a few clicks, but it wasn’t like that. I have to extract the sound from the video, edit that, and then overlay it over the muted video. It kills me to see it rendering on my junk computer. So I decided to buy a computer at this opportunity.”

Sora spoke as though she was buying a bag of snacks on the way home.

“I’ll help out. It’s not like a computer costs pocket money.”

“It’s fine. I’ve saved up for months now.”

“Oh, you’re buying a computer with several months’ worth of pocket money?”

Sora nodded. Maru did have a suspicion when he found out that she lived in a wealthy apartment, so he decided to stop worrying about the wallet of a rich kid.

“You’re also doing the editing, right?” Maru asked Ando.

“I’m helping out from the side, but almost everything is done by her. I just give her my opinions from time to time.”

“When do you think you’re going to finish?”

“Today’s the 8th, so let’s see. The estimate is the 15th. Of course, we’ll have to do finishing touches after that until we hand it in.”

“So you’re going to edit it until the last moment, huh.”

“Looking at all the footage we took, it really made me want to do better. Isn’t that right?” Ando asked Sora.

“Don’t even start. Some of the footage I thought I was never going to use because it was an NG during the shoot was actually so good. If it was just me, I might have thought that I was overthinking, but Ando-seonbae said the same thing. It’s haunting me. Even though the take was supposed to be no good, it looked better than the original.”

“That sounds like I’ll have to do better in the future. If you need me for any additional shoots, then tell me about it. I’m free except on weekends.”

“You said that the drama schedule returned to normal, right?”

Maru nodded. The drama shooting schedule, which was messed up thanks to writer Lee Hanmi overhauling an entire episode, finally got back on track. He was now pretty free except on Saturdays and Sundays, and sometimes Fridays.

“Alright. I’ll see what I can make before contacting you. Ando-seonbae, let’s go. We don’t have time for this.”

Sora dragged Ando by the sleeve. Ando left the classroom while waving his hand with a tired face.

“So you finished the film?” Daemyung asked as he came into the classroom, looking at the two that just left.

“You can say that the actors’ job is almost over. Editing is not an area I can help out with.”

“A film huh. I want to make one too.”

“Why don’t you write a short scenario over the summer holidays?”

“Summer holidays?”

“You’re gonna have some time left over after the summer competition, won’t you? From what I see, Aram seems to be doing well as the club president. Are you going to go on stage during the winter competition?”

“No. I didn’t go up this time, so I’ll just look after the juniors in the winter too.”

“That’s why I’m saying it. Try making a scenario about 5 minutes long. And try drawing a sketch too.”

“5 minutes?”

“What, is it too short?”

“Yeah, a little.”

“If you try, it won’t be that short. In fact, it might be even more difficult than longer ones, you know? You will only be able to put in the most crucial parts.”

“Now that you say it, that’s true.”

“I heard that writers for publications prepare short stories first. Wouldn’t the film industry be similar? You need to start off with writing a proper short film, and only then will you be able to write longer ones later.”

“A 5-minute film huh.”

“Once you finish the scenario, show it to me. I’ll act in it for you if I like it.”

“Y-you weren’t going to do it without any conditions?”

“If I don’t get paid, I’ll have to see what it is like. If you pay me, I’ll do it without any conditions.”

“Ha, haha. Alright, I’ll try to come up with something you’ll really like. But five minutes huh. I’m not sure how that’s going to work.”

“Try looking things up on the internet. There’s actually quite a lot. There are especially a lot of videos made by people our age. You can refer to those.”

Daemyung nodded before asking.

“What kind of topics do you like?”

“The topic? That’s the director’s job to come up with.”

“There are joint projects, you know? I want to try looking for topics in the range that you want. Acting something you’re good at is good too, but I think acting something you want to do is going to be better.”

“Something I want to do, huh. What about a deep romance?”

The reason he made a joke was because nothing came to mind. He had his hands full digesting what he was given, so he never thought about such things. He chose acting as a way to earn money, and he adapted his acting to the roles he was given just like a factory stamping out items on order. In such a situation, asking things about the labor itself, rather than the benefits of it, was something quite difficult for him to answer.

“You have a talent to put people in a fix.”

“M-me?”

Daemyung blinked with a dazed expression. Maru put his bag on the desk before sitting on the window sill.

“I wonder what kind of acting I want to do.”

“You never thought about it?”

“Have you ever thought about the reason you like math?”

“No, I just do it because I’m told to.”

“It’s the same thing. I somehow stumbled on it, and there are people telling me to do it, so that’s why I’m doing it. Of course, I’m not saying that I dislike acting, or find it not fun. I find it really fun to the point that I can’t think of anything else to do as a job at this point. However, if you ask me specifically what kind of acting I want to do, then it becomes quite difficult to answer.”

“That’s plausible. Hm, then what kind of acting do you find yourself comfortable with? I think this will be easier to answer.”

“Something I can go all out on. I mean like something where I can burst out with all of my emotions. I’m still quite lacking when it comes to restrained acting.”

“Then I guess I should try creating a calm and relaxing scenario.”

“I thought I just said I’m not confident in doing that?”

“That’s all the more reason you should try shooting a film with fewer fluctuations in emotions. Don’t you think it’s gonna be really fun?”

“Sheesh, you really have a knack for putting other people in a tight spot. Don’t you feel that the juniors are avoiding you these days?”

“N-now that you mention it, maybe.”

Daemyung grinned.

“Oh, how are the videotapes coming along?”

Daemyung asked as though he just remembered. Maru jumped off the window sill.

“Thanks for asking. I just entered 1988 now. I should start seeing the changes soon.”

He finally reached the point when Jung Haejoo’s acting would become more polished. What Maru looked forward to was that the conversations between Haejoo and Junmin behind the scenes might be recorded. Yes, watching a good actor’s acting will allow him to learn many things, but if he managed to get his hands on the teachings of the mentor that nurtured the actor, then he would have even more things to learn.