Chapter 285 (1/2)

Along with the assistant director’s shout, everyone started moving. The next shooting location was a street filled with shops and was located ten minutes away from where they were by foot. As the street was small, vehicles couldn’t get in and all equipment had to be carried by hand. Hand carts started appearing from nowhere, before they were filled with all sorts of equipment. Even shopping carts were used to carry things.

“It feels like a military march all over again,” Maru spoke at the back of the trail. It was past 11 at night. When he looked up into the sky, he could see stars everywhere unlike in Seoul. He suddenly remembered seeing the Milky Way while doing a night march during his military service.

“Camera director, over here!”

Equipment started finding their spots according to the chubby director’s instructions. The lights that had been turned off started lighting up again one by one, and brightened up the street that was absorbed in darkness. People from the PR team started going around talking to the local residents that came to have a look.

“Is someone shooting a movie here or somethin’?”

“Dunno.”

Due to all the commotion, the locals started flocking towards the filming scene. Some of the staff members started approaching them and told them not to approach the shooting set.

“We can’t take pictures, right?”

“You can’t.”

One girl, who seemed to be in middle school, put her phone inside her pocket with pity. While the staff asked the locals for their understanding, more people started appearing and started peeking into the set. The staff had more work to do now. Although the night wind was chilly, the staff members’ necks were filled with droplets of sweat.

Maru passed a bottle of water he was holding to a staff member. The staff member thanked him before going around restricting access to this place again.

“Security is one thing, but we can’t have any accidents happen,” Geunsoo spoke.

Maru nodded his head. As most of the equipment here ran on electricity, there were all sorts of cables on the ground. It was highly likely that some equipment might fall over if someone got their feet caught up, consequently collapsing on a person standing nearby. As such, there were even some staff members specifically tasked to look over the cables.

“Are the lights ready?”

“Yes they are.”

“Recorder?”

“He went to the bathroom.”

“Dammit, does this guy have a hole on his ass? Who’s the youngest member there? Go get him.”

Maru looked at the assistant director that was giving instructions. While the director was organizing his thoughts while looking at the scene, the assistant director was giving out instructions.

“Looks like the assistant director is the busiest one here.”

The assistant director, who was calling someone over the phone, suddenly started frowning and walked up to a man wearing a red baseball cap. He seemed very agitated.

“Doesn’t it look like they’re about to fight?”

“Maybe. Producing a movie requires the cooperation of many people, right? As there are many people, there are just as many opinions and conflicts as well. As everyone here is an expert in their own area, there are many times where they get into conflict. For example, the audio engineer and the generator engineer. The generator is quite noisy, while the audio engineer is sensitive to sound. For the audio engineer, it is excruciating to pick up the generator sound all the time.

“That sounds like how departments within the same company aren’t necessarily on good terms.”

“That’s a good analogy. Yes, a movie is like a company. It’s one that uses a huge amount of money. The people gathered here will all do their best to earn a salary from that money. Everyone wants the company to do well, but there will always be conflicts between different departments. That’s why the director and the assistant director have important jobs. They’re the people that have to lead the whole company.”

“Conflicts between departments, huh.”

After talking with the red-capped man, the assistant director raised up his thumb. His agitated face had disappeared.

“Rehearsal is starting!” The assistant director shouted.

Geunsoo pushed Maru’s back, telling him to do well.

Maru walked towards the assistant director along with Jiseok.

‘It’s hot.’

The heat from the lighting right next to him was immense. Next to the assistant director were many people. They were people that had tired looks on their faces. They were the extras.

“Okay then, listen. We’re now going to do the shoot. As notified before, you just need to walk the streets as naturally as possible. Also, please, I beg you to not look at the camera directly and don’t be stiff. I know everyone’s tired, so I hope you can cooperate so that we can end this quickly. The five of you can start walking from that side of the street, and the couple should stand in front of the standing signboard. Let’s get moving for now.”

The assistant director started placing the extras according to the director’s instructions. The camera director had a look at the video feed and signalled an okay sign. Following that, Moonjoong appeared. It seemed that he had been taking a rest until now.

A trash can was put next to the bench in the alleyway and some trash was littered around. When a messy-looking alleyway was complete, Moonjoong laid down on the bench.

“It looks good. Senior, should we proceed?”

The director crouched in front of Moonjoong and started explaining the scene to him. Maru and Jiseok followed the assistant director until they reached half way through the alley.

“You see the director over there?”

“Yes.”

“You walk up to that spot and do your lines. Don’t mind the camera and just focus on actor Yoon as you act. The three of you without lines can just follow these two here. As long as your eyes don’t look somewhere weird, it won’t look that bad so watch out for that, okay?”

The assistant director patted the two’s shoulders before going over to the next set of extras. Maru greeted the three people he hadn’t seen before today. They talked a little as they waited, and they turned out to be students from around the area. They weren’t professional actors, but were just here because some of their elders introduced them to jobs here.

“Do you two have lines?”

“I have a couple.”

“Okay.”

The three nodded with an expression that said ‘that’s not much’. The director, who was talking to Moonjoong at the bench, slowly walked up to them.

“Listen, we’re gonna go with two cuts. You guys will walk to that side while talking about something non-productive, and start probing around the elder lying down on the bench while watching out for other people. Here, follow me and try acting.”

The director started walking backwards and signalled the two to walk towards him. Maru glanced at Jiseok. Jiseok smiled and looked back at him.

‘Well, it’s the rehearsal now.’