Life, Once Again!

After Story 172

“Lift the cables when you move them.”

The camera moved. The production crew moved like a delicately-assembled machine. Maru could feel that the staff members were made up of veterans.

He left the gallery and went to the monitor. Producer Cha pointed at the screen with his finger.

“Those were some good eyes you were showing.”

“Should I keep going like this?”

“It’s perfect right now. It’s just the expression I wanted.”

Maru widened his eyes more than he did on the screen and tried expressing his unease.

“How about this?”

“That’s excessive.”

“My eyes are slightly odd, so I think it’ll be more pretty if I open my eyes a little more.”

“Forget that. You’re doing plenty well right now.”

After a round of jokes, he listened to the producer’s instructions again. As they had done several rehearsals before the real shoot, some simple explanations were enough.

After conversing with the producer, he went back to the gallery. Actress Kim Yoonjung and actor Na Jungho, who played his college friends, were talking about their monthly rent.

“I have to come a few more times if I want to go to my part-time job less. Only then will I be able to escape from the pressure of rent.”

“I’m praying even now. Not to God or Buddha, but to the writer to appear more than this. Every time I appear, my bank balance gets more plentiful.”

Actors who received their payment according to their grades were paid according to the number of appearances in an episode. Even if they shot for three days and nights, if they only appeared in one episode, then their payment would be that for one episode.

If they weren’t playing roles that could leave behind a deep impression, it was much better to appear in each episode for short moments, if it was about earning money.

“Both of you moved out of your parent’s houses?” Maru asked as he sat down.

He dropped the formal speech with them during the first shoot. Not only were they close in age, but Maru had also proactively talked to them so that he could feel less of a discrepancy during the shoot.

“Everyone’s the same if they came up to Seoul while dreaming of becoming an actor. Both Jungho and I are living in goshiwons.”

“Noryangjin[1], then?”

“Yeah. These days, there are a lot of people studying for civil servant exams, but there are also people like us who don’t have anything on them living there.”

“Are you eating on time?”

“There’s a supermarket that sells food ingredients that are nearing their expiry dates for cheap. Thanks to that, there’s no worry about food.”

Yoonjung, who was listening, said that her main source of intake was cup rice[2].

“Do both of you have time the day after tomorrow?”

“I have plenty of time.”

“I’ll treat you out. You should come with me.”

“Our main actor is something else alright. But we got treated by you last time. Having you treat us again is a little….”

Both Yoonjung and Jungho smiled awkwardly.

“I’m feeding you so that you can keep taking care of me in the drama. Don’t feel so bad.”

“If you put it that way, I’ll gratefully accept.”

These two were youths who were enduring in Seoul with their willpower alone after having come when they were just twenty years old. There was no need for advice like ‘think about the future’ or ‘look at the reality’ for such people.

A warm bowl of rice and a cup of coffee to drive away sleep would be much more useful to them.

“Oh, right. How were my lines before? I think it was okay since the director didn’t say anything much,” Jungho asked.

“If you’re excited that you’re in a new environment, namely the court, then you should speak a little faster, but if you’re nervous, then you’re doing well right now. You should adjust according to the character you have in your mind.”

“I think I’m going to have stomach cramps if he snaps out like last time.”

“If a minor actor wants directions from the director, then you should sometimes just push forward with it while thinking that you’re crazy. Of course, you have to be prepared to get sworn at.”

“Maru, can’t I use your name this time? If I say that you told me to do it, then I think the director will just laugh it off.”

“What an ungrateful guy.”

“I was just joking. I’m a minor actor, so I don’t dare ruin the flow of the shoot. I’m not sure about anything else, but I sure am good at knowing my own position.”

When Jungho stopped talking, Yoonjung spoke this time. She asked Maru to observe her and tell her if she didn’t look awkward.

Both of them had a great passion to learn acting. It should’ve been hard for them to ask someone of a similar age to teach them, but the two of them politely asked Maru for help.

A pair of juniors asked him for help while being polite. How could he refuse?

Still, however, he didn’t talk about anything in detail since they were in the middle of a shoot. He only told them some tips that they could make use of right away.

“Teacher Han’s lessons are incredible. If acting schools taught like this, I would become a star in no time.”

“The things I’m telling you are only some tricks. The more you learn from studying, the more you’ll find out that what I told you is just an empty carcass.”

“An empty carcass is still good. If I want to learn that, it’ll cost hundreds of thousands of won per month. I’ve been to numerous shoots as a minor actor, but I’ve never gained as much as I did here.”

He twitched his eyes.

“Why are you flattering me all of a sudden? It’s creeping me out.”

“Why else? I’m trying to get you to buy me expensive beef.”

While they were talking, the shoot resumed. As this was a 10-episode drama instead of the usual 16-episode one, the progression of the story was very quick. It should be quite a headache to plot the storyline while taking into account the product placement ads throughout.

Maru could picture writer Yoo who must be agonizing about now. His assistant writers were probably having a hard time as well.

“Lower the reflector a little more.”

Maru slightly closed his eyes at the light and opened them again.

Producer Cha was adjusting the weight of the drama through lighting. The overall picture was probably going to be rather dark.

Having fewer episodes compared to public TV stations was helpful in this case. As they could allocate more time to the shoot, they could focus on making the cuts look good.

“Get ready.” The director signaled.

Maru took a deep breath and started acting.

He took out his phone, which he had put on silent, and looked at it. The seemingly unrelated events created an unpleasant mixing noise as they were combined into one.

The number 1 on the shoulder of the murder case defendant, his neighbor’s number increasing from 4 to 5, and lastly, his sister who had not been in contact recently.

“What is it?” Yoonjung said his line. He was making quick use of what Maru taught him.

“No, it’s nothing.”

He put his phone in his pocket again. While he felt uneasy, he couldn’t be sure of anything. Right now, it was still his delusion. It was more likely that he was unnecessarily worried.

The number was probably a coincidence, his neighbor must be a kind person, and his sister should call back like nothing happened soon.

All sorts of misfortunes wouldn’t suddenly assault him like this. It was ridiculous to think that such a dramatic misfortune would suddenly find its way to him, who had been living an ordinary life until now.

He forced himself to smile. Maru was someone who put a lot of effort into his smiles. A smile stemming from relaxation and being worry-free didn’t suit this situation. He had to leave room for doubt. His smile must tell the audience at home to feel unease and that Murphy’s Law was indeed correct.

He forcefully pulled the corners of his lips to make a false smile.

Here lay the reason he wanted to play Ahn Changsik: the detailed expression acting.

He had to delicately unfold the process of how an ordinary citizen changes when coming across undeliverable malice.

It was a character that he couldn’t help but want to play. At the same time, it was a role that came with a lot of risks.

Producer Cha told him about this during the casting as well, that his facial close-ups will be partial close-ups to bring out every last description of emotions. Especially the hands. He said that Ahn Changsik’s uneasy psychology would be shown to the audience through his hands a lot.

Producer Cha was a pretty daring person. He put aside the easy way out and chose a difficult path. He chose hands instead of one’s eyes and voice that could easily transmit emotions.

Of course, he shouldn’t just increase the proportion of hands recklessly. He would probably use hands to express emotions instead of the face or the voice at the most decisive moment.

Maru had to transmit emotions through his fingertips. Not to mention various gestures, he would have to make use of minute trembling, stiffening, and even the movements of his tendons and bones.

From what he heard, the producer was even thinking about a montage of just the hands. Yang Ganghwan said that he loved these kinds of techniques and readily agreed to it.

As this was the beginning of the story, they were shooting with ordinary angles for the sake of building the background and immersion, but unique filming techniques were going to be used further down the drama.

This was probably only possible thanks to Yang Ganghwan’s admission into the drama, which increased the power of the production crew.

After the court trial scene, they moved to a corridor. While the background actors checked their movement routes according to the explanations, Maru checked his script for his lines. While everything was in his head, he could only feel at ease after he checked all the letters through his eyes.

He would remind himself of the writer’s intent while looking at the script, then consequently overwrite his own thoughts with the character that he had researched.

All forms of acting had to begin with respecting the world created by the writer. Going into the act after studying sufficiently versus trusting entirely in one’s own interpretation — such different attitudes were bound to cause a clear difference. Most of the time, the latter tended to produce negative results.

Of course, if he felt a sense of awkwardness from the lines when he tried saying it on the set, then an edit was inevitable. A line that the producer and the actor could not agree on meant that there was something wrong with it.

Most of the writers were accepting of line changes during the shoot, but some writers did not tolerate any changes down to every last comma.

Thankfully, writer Yoo placed more emphasis on the shoot. His passion to make this successful was quite amazing that he even called Maru, the actor, a few times to ask questions.

The producer, the writer, and the actors were all excited about this new challenge.

From Maru’s experience, the result of a shooting atmosphere like this tended to be one of two things: a huge success or a weird mess filled with passion. There was probably no middle ground.

“Let’s do that again.”

He took out his phone and pressed a speed dial. His manager’s number came up, and after a few rings, he was notified that the phone he was calling was turned off.

He pressed the button again. While waiting for it to connect, he looked at the background actors walking over from the other side.

He fixed his eyes on their shoulders, chasing the invisible number 0 with his eyes.

They shot three or four more times until the angle of the camera, lights, and reflectors were all in perfect positions.

The moment a thick shadow covered exactly half of his face, producer Cha shouted cut.

They then checked the cut they just took through the monitor. It was a blatant use of lighting.

The reflectors, which were supposed to act as fill lights, were put far away in order to create a shadow. The screen felt heavy, stiff, and cold in general. It would probably look even frostier once some color editing was done to it.

“The ending cut looks good. I’m definitely going to be using this. Even if I scrap everything else in the editing room, I’m going to use this.”

“Doesn’t it look too depressing?”

“Impact is what is important. Rather than that, your expression looks really good. You look like a dog drenched in rain.”

Producer Cha smiled and gave him a tap on his waist.

* * *

Ganghwan scratched his head before turning around to look behind him. He saw an actress lying down on the cold floor.

Actress? No, that was a woman who was about to become a corpse.

He approached the woman. The moment he looked into the pupils that had expanded from fear, an uncontrollable sense of pleasure swept over his body.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about anything. So….”

He slowly wrapped his hands around the woman’s neck and pushed his body weight down onto them. He didn’t forget to push the woman’s arms with both of his knees so that she couldn’t struggle.

The trembling sensation that was transmitted through his palms made him want to smile even more, which he forcefully stopped.

It was not yet time to smile. It was an important moment. He had to focus to do it cleanly and in one go.

“Okay.”

Ganghwan immediately let go when the voice woke his mind. The actress underneath him coughed dryly. He hurriedly opened a bottle of water and handed it to her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m okay.”

“I was trying to watch out too.”

“No, you did well. If it was awkward, we would’ve had to do that again.”

He grabbed the actress’ hand and pulled her up. He also dusted her clothes.

The actress stroked her neck and spoke, “But you were a little scary. I was looking up from below, and your eyes were… holy crap!”

The actress who was speaking mischievously while rolling her eyes backwards, took a deep breath again before leaving the place.

Gangwhan clenched his hands and opened them again. Sometimes, being immersed in his role made him feel a sense of crisis.

The better he tried to do, the more he was colored in the ideals of the murderer.

His reason held him back from crossing the dangerous boundary, so there was no worry of causing accidents, but he couldn’t do anything about the subconscious sudden burst of violent nature.

“This looks hella freaky,” said producer Cha while looking at the screen, looking satisfied.

Ganghwan also had a look at the screen. The murderer that he expressed was putting on a perverse smile.

“I was like that?”

“Who else could it be?”

“Looks like I’m going to ruin my image after shooting this.”

“Are you boasting that you’re good at acting?”

“Was it obvious?”

He rubbed his stiff cheeks with his palms. The murderer was seeping into his body.

[1] A district in Seoul known for having lots of goshiwons.

[2] Like cup noodles, but rice instead of noodles.