Chapter 85: The Rumored Manager?
Chapter 85 < The Rumored Manager? >
“So, have you decided on your next project?”
“Ah, I’m putting everything on hold for now.”
“What?”
He had asked me to bring him the script, and now he suddenly changed his mind? I laughed at the bewildered expression on Itaegyeom’s face.
“I just want to take a break. For about two weeks?”
“Oh…”
Itaegyeom nodded in agreement. He must have noticed that something was wrong with me after I suddenly sped up at the final shooting site.
“Take it easy.”
In fact, I wouldn’t really be resting during the hiatus. I had to focus on synchronizing my memories. But I sighed anyway.
‘I need some useful information.’
I had to buy Lim Seunghyun’s body until grandfather lost interest in him. The only thing I could trust was the memories of the past.
Anyway, when I took a break, Itaegyeom automatically got a vacation too.
“Are you going to play games again while I’m resting?”
“No, I’m going to follow Park Manager, okay?”
“Really? Good luck with that.”
I thought he would give up soon, but he kept going to learn the work. Well, he was a reliable person in his own category, so it would be nice if he worked hard and became a lifelong slave.
“I’m leaving.”
“Go ahead.”
“Please rest well, sir.”
I went inside the house, and Itaegyeom and Lim Seunghyun headed outside.
“What are you going to do while I’m resting, sir?”
“I have to go to the office and do some paperwork.”
“Oh, right. You’re not from our agency.”
I had forgotten because we had been together for so long. Lim Seunghyun was an elite from a large company. While I was on hiatus, he would handle the work at Juseong headquarters to assist me.
“And…”
Lim Seunghyun was about to say something, but he closed his mouth.
“Yes?”
“Never mind. I’ll see you next time.”
“Yes, take care.”
Itaegyeom looked at the back of Lim Seunghyun, who headed to the parking lot without hesitation, and muttered.
“He’s so stiff.”
I wanted to be friends with him.
***
“Hello.”
“Are you here? Sit down.”
The day after I went on hiatus, Itaegyeom sat next to Park Manager, who was organizing the data in the conference room.
“What are we doing today?”
“Production company meeting. Is this your first meeting?”
“Oh, yes. Who’s the actor?”
“Yoo Jungwoo, we’re going to adjust the movie he’s going to be in.”
Yoo Jungwoo was a 20-year veteran movie actor and one of the top stars of Halo Media. Of course, I was also one of the top stars.
If he used to be a capital bully who was also an investor, he was now an all-rounder who had both capital and acting skills. In fact, thanks to me, the number of works that came into Halo Media doubled.
“But today will be easy. We’re investing.”
“Really?”
“I was interested in the work. He has an eye for it.”
The most powerful in the movie industry are the investors or the companies that do both investment and distribution. I had a lot of money and didn’t hesitate to invest, and Choi Yujin, who cherished me, ran an investment and distribution company, so I could wield unlimited power in the movie industry.
That’s why the president gave up his pride and clung to me. I could exercise this influence, so Halo Media could also insert their promising actors.
‘Oh, what’s this. He’s pretty nice.’
That was what I thought when I first heard this story. He had the influence to replace the other actors, but he hadn’t done that so far. That meant he was somewhat gentlemanly, right?
‘Wow, what am I thinking.’
I was unconsciously thinking about him. I shook my head vigorously and got out of my thoughts.
Anyway, the subject of the meeting today, Yoo Jungwoo, was also going in with an investment company, so he could negotiate on good terms.
“So we have to make a deal that’s favorable to our actor.”
“Oh… I see.”
“It’ll be easy if you become the manager in charge of him.”
But Park Manager wanted to get away from me. Since the investor was the most powerful, he had to clean up the mess behind me when I was capricious.
No matter how much he paid, the production cost was already decided, so it was troublesome if he had an image of doing whatever he wanted. The industry was small. Park Manager tried his best to package my image. But that was all that leaked out.
“How is Yoo Yeon Seo doing these days?”
“Lately? Nothing special.”
“Wow, I can’t believe you’re saying that as his manager. He used to cause trouble in creative ways all the time.”
Director Park pretended to wipe away tears that weren’t there. He had been in charge of Yoo Yeon Seo since he joined Halo Media. He remembered how he had to run around to different meetings every time Yoo Yeon Seo messed up.
‘He still causes trouble, but not as much as before.’
After the accident, he suddenly canceled the shooting of ‘White Tiger’ but Director Park Ho-jin was good at filming efficiently and minimizing the production cost. The wasted time was compensated by Yoo Yeon Seo’s additional investment. He would have thrown a fit if it was before.
The unauthorized escape incident in ‘Virtual Reality’ was also a headache, but it ended well.
“There was something weird, though…”
“Really?! What is it?”
“Um… It’s not a big deal.”
Lee Tae-gyeom kept quiet about Yoo Yeon Seo’s recent change. Director Park was busy reviewing the meeting materials and didn’t ask further.
“How are you?”
“Director Kim, you’re here?”
Yoo Jung-woo was not a typical star actor, so other directors from Halo Media also participated in this meeting. Lee Tae-gyeom got up nervously and greeted Director Kim.
“Hello.”
“Hey?”
Director Kim looked at Director Park with a strange expression. Director Park nodded.
“You’re the one in charge of Yoo Yeon Seo.”
“Rumor?”
Lee Tae-gyeom took Director Kim’s handshake awkwardly.
“You didn’t know? You’re famous.”
“Hey, Director Kim. Enough with the chit-chat. Let’s look at this.”
Why am I famous? I’m just a road manager. Lee Tae-gyeom followed the two directors with a lot of questions.
“Ah, I didn’t charge my phone. Do you have a spare battery?”
“I do.”
“Good.”
“But don’t you have no time to look at your phone during the meeting? Why charge it…”
The two directors chuckled at his rookie question.
“I need to record.”
“Record?”
“Korean movie contracts are not very detailed. We negotiate and modify everything verbally during the meeting.”
For foreigners, contracts were more detailed because they could get sued otherwise, but Korea was different. The industry was small, so suing someone could backfire.
They negotiated verbally first, and then tried to follow that as much as possible on the set. If something unexpected happened during the shooting, they would have another meeting. That’s why a recorder was essential, and so was writing a meeting report. There was a reason why the directors were busy.
“Do you have time? You write the meeting report today.”
“Uh, okay.”
Lee Tae-gyeom answered reflexively and frowned slightly. Did I follow them for nothing? I could have just run the road… He shook his head vigorously.
“Are there a lot of these?”
“These meetings? One work has about 30 or 40 of them.”
“Wow… You do that many?”
“We have to. There’s a lot to coordinate. While the road managers protect the actors on the set, the directors deal with the production company and protect the actors as well. You’ll see.”
They opened the door to the meeting place.
“Hello.”
They greeted the production staff who were already there, and the meeting started right away.
“If we do as you requested, the production cost will be higher…”
“You know how much we invested, right? You can give us this much.”
“You said you really wanted to film this before, how is the actor’s condition?”
“Can you use a stunt for this part? Our actor said his joints are hurting lately.”
Director Park and Director Kim stated their demands, and the production staff tried to find a compromise to lower the production cost.
“That hotel won’t work, our actor doesn’t like the breakfast there.”
“How about this place? This should be possible.”
“That’s fine. Two standard rooms or a suite or higher, you know that, right?”
They even argued over the hotel they would stay at during the shooting. Lee Tae-gyeom sat blankly and watched their war.
“Shall we take a break?”
“Let’s do that.”
They stopped the recorder after a suffocating negotiation. The two directors were relentless. They tried to get the best conditions for their actor.
‘Wow, they made Yoo Yeon Seo work as a road manager?’
It was possible because it was Yoo Yeon Seo. Lee Tae-gyeom swallowed his saliva. The production staff looked at him quietly as he listened.
“Who is that person behind you?”
“Me? Oh, I’m…”
Before I could figure out how to introduce myself as a mere road manager, not even a director, Director Park answered for me.
“He’s in charge of Yoo Yeon Seo.”
“Really?”
“You better be prepared. He’s the only one who can handle her now.”
I flinched at the surprised reaction of the production staff. What’s going on? Did something happen while I was unaware? Did it go viral on the internet?
“Wow, the manager from the rumor? Nice to meet you.”
“Huh?”
“Yoo Yeon Seo, she’s been doing fine since you came back, right? You’re the manager who used to work with her before, aren’t you?”
“Uh… I did come back after working with her before, but…”
I scratched my cheek nervously. Director Park chimed in. He seemed to be on friendly terms with the production staff, judging by how he spoke casually.
“He’s become quite famous, huh?”
“That actor, he’s changed so much, you know.”
“Yeah, he did. I’m sometimes amazed too.”
“The manager is famous too. How did you manage to tame that crazy guy… I mean, that troublemaker?”
Is he a crazy guy here too? I chuckled bitterly.
As I searched for the reason why Yoo Yeon Seo’s personality had changed, I found out that his old manager, who was supposed to be gone for good, had returned.
And the person who was supposed to be replaced soon was still working with him. So there was a hypothesis that maybe the manager was controlling him well. And that rumor spread from mouth to mouth and inflated.
“I didn’t do anything… He’s been doing well lately.”
I defended Yoo Yeon Seo, saying that the arm bends inward.
“But Yoo Yeon Seo doesn’t want to lower his guarantee, does she?”
“Her? He doesn’t need to. But why are you bringing up the guarantee?”
Director Park frowned. From the agency’s perspective, it was good that his appearance fee was high. Yoo Yeon Seo was a good enough actor for that.
“Well, even if we invest as well, we have to pay within the set production budget… And if we raise the appearance fee of one actor abnormally, we have a lot of troubles too. It’s annoying to have to adjust again even if we invest more in the production budget…”
“Wouldn’t she get more offers if she lowered her guarantee?”
“He would. We prefer cheaper actors, you know. For decent works, even Jin Su-ho level actors lower their guarantees and join… But Yoo Yeon Seo, he doesn’t need to lower his, so he doesn’t miss out on good works, does he?”
He’s already getting a lot of offers, and more here? I was lost in thought. Lately, he had been turning down a lot of works.
Director Park had a similar thought. Among the works that Yoo Yeon Seo was interested in, if the investors were already secured and the IP was good, they preferred actors with lower appearance fees than Yoo Yeon Seo, so there were cases where the casting was canceled.
“Should I ask her?”
“You?”
“Yes.”
I felt a groundless confidence. Maybe it was different before, but wasn’t Yoo Yeon Seo a person who could be persuaded now?
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