Chapter 023
I quickly answered the phone, left my seat, and headed toward my room.
“Hello?”
“Yes, Manager Baek.”
“This is Min Gibaek.”
“Yes.”
“How have you been?”
“So why didn’t you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I was busy taking care of a few things…”
“I was actually planning to contact you soon anyway.”
It wasn’t a lie that I had been busy taking care of various things.
But the truth was, I still wasn’t sure whether I could trust Baek Seonghan and go with him.
That was why I hadn’t been able to contact him readily.
“Of course.”
“It’s completely fine.”
Baek Seonghan told me that the investment decision for the movie he was preparing had come much faster than expected.
As a result, they were about to immediately enter pre-production.
“An interview…?”
Well, even though I’m calling it an interview, it’s mostly just a formality.
So you don’t need to feel too pressured.
I thought about it for a moment.
Right.
He contacted me first.
I can’t keep hesitating and weighing everything forever.
I didn’t know if I could completely trust Baek Seonghan.
But if it was CEO Han Taeseong of Big Picture, then perhaps he was someone worth betting my future on.
With that thought, I decided to attend the interview.
I also recommended Cha Seungjun.
Baek Seonghan said that he already had someone in mind for the position of production manager.
Because Cha Seungjun had previously been a production manager, Baek Seonghan felt bad about asking him to join merely as a production staff member.
That was why he hadn’t even thought about inviting him.
“Oh, I see…”
“But…”
“Should I ask him?”
“I’ll ask whether he’s willing to participate as a production staff member.”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll ask him first and contact you again.”
The office of the movie company Big Picture was located on the 12th floor of a twelve-story building.
At the reception desk, a young man who looked like a security guard stopped us as we entered the lobby.
“Where are you going?”
“Oh, the 12th floor.”
“Big Picture.”
The security guard looked us up and down before handing us a visitor log.
“Write down your name and contact information.”
“Leave your identification here and collect it when you leave.”
Following the security guard’s instructions, Cha Seungjun and I filled out the visitor log.
We handed over our identification and waited for the elevator.
“Damn.”
“This isn’t even a broadcasting station.”
“Why is he being so damn strict?”
Worried that the security guard might hear him, Cha Seungjun moved close to me and whispered.
He was already extremely sensitive because of the interview.
When he had been intimidated by the flashy building, the intimidating attitude of the security guard made him feel even more inferior.
Eventually, he couldn’t hide his insecurity.
“Seriously.”
“Why did he look us up and down like that?”
“That pissed me off.”
I lightly tapped Cha Seungjun on the shoulder.
“Hyung.”
“Are you nervous?”
“Hmm…”
“Is it that obvious?”
“You seem more sensitive than usual.”
Cha Seungjun awkwardly shrugged his shoulders.
On the day Baek Seonghan called me, I told Cha Seungjun that Baek Seonghan was looking for a production team for the commercial movie he was about to start working on.
I also told him that I had been offered an interview.
“But why did he call you?”
“Don’t tell me he’s trying to sneak me in through you?”
I was caught off guard by Cha Seungjun’s unexpected reaction.
I simply brushed it off by saying that Baek Seonghan probably contacted me because I was younger and easier to approach.
Ding!
The elevator doors opened.
We entered and headed toward the 12th floor.
When we stepped out of the elevator, we saw an entrance in front of a glass wall.
A glowing logo read—
‘BIG PICTURES & BIG FUTURE’
Perhaps because I had sent Baek Seonghan a text before taking the elevator, he was already waiting at the entrance.
“Long time no see.”
“The last time I saw you was during the abandoned factory shoot in Paju.”
“So it’s been almost two months, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Time really flies.”
“How have you been, Manager?”
After exchanging brief greetings, we followed Baek Seonghan into the office.
The interior had an open-plan layout without partitions.
It was divided into Production Team 1, Production Team 2, and Production Team 3.
Along one wall were a large conference room and several smaller meeting rooms separated by transparent glass walls.
Baek Seonghan explained that Big Picture currently had three production teams.
Each team consisted of a main producer and a production manager.
They were developing projects centered around directors and writers.
Among them, the project belonging to his Production Team 2 had been confirmed for production first.
“Then are we interviewing with the main producer of Production Team 2 today?”
“Ah…”
“Actually, the main producer underwent surgery for stomach cancer a little while ago.”
“The surgery went well, and he’ll be returning soon.”
“Until then, I’m temporarily filling in as the main producer.”
“Oh…”
“Then who will conduct the interview?”
“The CEO will personally conduct it.”
“The CEO?”
“Yeah.”
“Our CEO is a little unusual.”
“He tends to personally interview even the youngest employees.”
“Ah…”
“Yes.”
Hearing that the CEO himself would be conducting the interview made Cha Seungjun nervous again.
I was nervous too.
I never imagined I’d have a chance to meet Han Taeseong face-to-face this soon.
Han Taeseong…
He had joined J Planning.
He had become the youngest executive in S Group’s Video Business Division.
He had participated in countless movie projects.
In particular, the foreign films imported by Han Taeseong had achieved record-breaking box-office success.
Then, after S Group’s Video Business Division was dissolved, he established his own movie company, Big Picture.
And in less than ten years, he had reached the point where people said—
“I trust any movie made by Big Picture.”
He was a man who had rightfully earned the nickname the Midas Touch of the movie industry.
Now, at the age of forty, Han Taeseong possessed tremendous wealth and connections.
Some people claimed he was a hidden child of a chaebol family.
Others spread rumors that he had enormous connections in the political world.
But none of those rumors had ever been proven.
In fact, this wasn’t my first encounter with Han Taeseong.
Before my regression, back in 2016…
How could I possibly forget that short but intense first meeting between us?
In the autumn of 2016, I had applied for a business showcase held at the Busan International Film Festival.
At the time, I was trying to secure investment for a movie I was developing with a rookie director.
I eventually gave a public pitch in front of numerous investment and production companies and other video-related businesses.
“Did you say Hollywood?”
“To me, that sounds like a compliment.”
“Because Hollywood is exactly what we’re aiming for.”
“We’re not trying to imitate Hollywood.”
“We want to make a movie that even Hollywood would be eager to have.”
Your ambition is certainly admirable.
But what we’re talking about is realism.
The realism of the story.
The realism of production.
“Yes.”
“That’s right.”
“Reality.”
“And that’s exactly what I want to talk about.”
“Korean cinema needs to acknowledge reality now.”
“Times have changed, and the standards of audiences have risen just as much.”
“But the standards of the people making movies are still far below those of the audience.”
“How long are you going to keep producing stories like frogs trapped inside a well?”
“Korean cinema keeps discussing ways to survive because it can’t compete with Hollywood.”
“But when a story that could actually come out of Hollywood appears, they say, ‘Is this Hollywood?’ and refuse to make it.”
“That is also the reality of Korean cinema.”
“Look at what reality truly is.”
“Look at the kind of movies we need to make.”
“Look at reality.”
Despite the countless questions thrown at me, I continued steering the atmosphere by emphasizing the passion I had while developing the movie and my own beliefs about Korean cinema.
Then it happened.
A silver-haired man who looked well over fifty asked me a question.
I recognized him immediately.
He was Han Taeseong, the CEO of Big Picture, a man I had often seen in movie magazines.
Good.
I’m also one of the people who hopes that someday Korean movies will be loved throughout the world just as much as Hollywood movies.
So let me ask you directly.
The director you’re currently working with is a rookie, so it’s true that the production company has some concerns.
If we offered you investment on the condition that you replace the director, would you be willing to accept?
In that instant, my mind went completely blank.
Is he telling me to abandon the director who spent years struggling with me while writing this screenplay?
It wasn’t common, but things like this occasionally happened in the movie industry.
Especially among rookie directors, there were many cases where they were persuaded by a producer who had worked with them from the planning stage and eventually sold their screenplay to a movie company for a cheap price.
On the other hand, there were also directors who abandoned the producers they had originally worked with in order to make their directorial debut and switched to successful production companies or producers.
That was also why Cha Seungjun had left the movie industry in 2014.
But I had never imagined something like this would happen to me.
“Why aren’t you answering?”
“Are you saying that even if it means the movie can’t be made, you still won’t abandon your loyalty to the director?”
“Th-that…”
I couldn’t answer.
Even though the idea of loyalty had long since fallen to the bottom in the harsh world of the movie industry, I wasn’t the kind of person who would throw away years of trust and loyalty in an instant for the sake of immediate profit.
“If that’s really the case…”
“I’m a little disappointed.”
“Once a movie actually enters production, you’ll have to face and make decisions about things far worse than this countless times.”
“If you hesitate over every decision like this, then…”
“It seems the problem isn’t the director.”
“The problem is the producer.”
And so, my short but intense meeting with CEO Han Taeseong came to an end.
In the end, I failed to secure the investment.
“PD!”
“No, Gibaek hyung!”
“Are you seriously out of your mind?!”
“You threw away an opportunity like that?!”
“He said you could change the director or anything else!”
“You could have agreed first and discussed it with me later!”
“The important thing was to get the movie made!”
“That’s the only way we’d have a next chance!”
I had returned after protecting my loyalty.
But what I received from the director was a cold reaction.
In the harsh world of the industry, loyalty was nothing more than a luxury.
While I was lost in those memories, we had already arrived in front of CEO Han Taeseong’s office.
