Chapter 005
The assistant director and script supervisor, two members of the directing department, PD Jung Inbeom, Cha Seung-jun, and me.
The small office converted from a garage was crowded with people.
Whether it was a commercial film or an independent film, the two central pillars that kept a movie's production system running were the directing department and the production department.
The directing department, centered around the director, managed and took responsibility for everything within the camera frame, including camera angles and everything happening on screen.
On the other hand, the production department, centered around the producer, managed and took responsibility for everything outside the camera frame, meaning everything happening off-screen.
Sometimes, people who didn't know much about this industry confused producers with directors and thought they were basically the same thing.
That was true for TV dramas, but in movies, the roles of directors and producers were completely different.
PD Jung introduced the members of the directing department to Cha Seung-jun and me.
“This is Assistant Director Park Youngsoo, who is serving as the assistant director for our movie.”
“He's also Director Song's junior from university.”
Perhaps because of his square-rimmed glasses, Park Youngsoo had a rather strict-looking appearance.
He was six years older than me and two years older than Cha Seung-jun.
He also had experience working in the directing department of commercial films.
“It's a pleasure to work with you, Assistant Director.”
“‘Assistant Director’ sounds too formal.”
“Just call me hyung.”
The script supervisor, Woo Jungin, was Director Song's university classmate and was thirty years old.
She had already directed three short films herself.
Her most recent short film had even won awards at several domestic and international film festivals.
“I saw the short film you made last year at the Seoul Independent Film Festival.”
“I really enjoyed it.”
“It's an honor to meet you like this.”
Unlike usual, Cha Seung-jun had an excited expression on his face as he openly showed his admiration.
“Really?”
“I'm actually pretty weak when it comes to compliments, so this is making me really embarrassed.”
The directing department member Jung Taesoo was the same age as Cha Seung-jun.
He had previously worked with Assistant Director Park on a commercial film.
There was also Jo Minjung, who was the same age as me.
And so, on our first day at work, Cha Seung-jun and I finished our brief introductions with the directing department we would be working with from then on.
Under PD Jung's direction, we began familiarizing ourselves with our duties.
PD Jung told us that the cinematography, lighting, art, and props teams had already been decided.
The sound recording team, costume team, and makeup team were still being coordinated.
“How is the casting going?”
At Cha Seung-jun's question, PD Jung said that with our current budget, famous actors were completely out of the question.
Still, just in case, they were contacting several management companies.
“Actually, one of the management companies we sent the script to contacted us today.”
“One of their actors apparently showed interest.”
“Oh!”
“Who is it?”
“Is it a famous actor?”
“Well, he is famous.”
“But honestly, I don't have much hope.”
“So I'm thinking about holding auditions centered around theater actors and newcomers.”
“I'm discussing it with the directing department right now.”
Since I already knew who the protagonist of this movie was, I could guess which famous actor Director Song had gone to meet today.
Perhaps because of that, watching the two of them agonize over the casting was actually rather amusing.
‘Don't worry.’
‘This movie will have an A-list actor attached to it, which is extremely rare for an independent feature film.’
While Cha Seung-jun and PD Jung were discussing the casting, I became lost in another problem.
According to the screenplay, about seventy percent of the locations were outdoor locations, while thirty percent were indoors.
Here, ‘location’ meant an outdoor filming location.
If we started looking for locations now, we could probably secure most of them.
The problem was the indoor scenes.
The climax of the screenplay took place inside a wealthy family's home.
Finding an actual wealthy house to use as a filming location wasn't easy.
At the same time, spending a huge amount of money to build a set just for one or two days of filming was impossible.
“PD, how are you planning to handle the location scouting?”
Normally, commercial films had a dedicated location manager who was responsible for scouting and securing all the necessary locations.
However, with an independent film operating on a tight budget, the production department had to handle the location scouting themselves.
Even if they found a place they liked after considerable effort, they would have to start searching all over again if they couldn't obtain filming permission.
Because of that, location scouting could consume most of the pre-production period.
It was an exhausting job.
“I don't think we need to worry too much about the outdoor locations.”
“Director Song already had most of the locations in mind when he wrote the screenplay.”
“That's a relief.”
“I was worried we'd lose a lot of time because of location scouting.”
“Still, we'll need to send official requests and obtain filming permits for places like parks and roads.”
“So let's get those ready.”
“Yes!”
Cha Seung-jun answered as if sending official documents was nothing difficult.
“But actually, I'm a little worried about the indoor locations rather than the outdoor ones.”
“Building a set is impossible with our budget.”
“That's true.”
“I've been worrying about that too…”
“Why don't we just rent a pension?”
“You know, one of those pool-villa pensions.”
Cha Seung-jun casually suggested it.
He said that in the previous independent film he had worked on, they had rented a single pension and filmed most of the indoor scenes there.
I let out a short sigh inwardly before speaking.
“Seungjun hyung, the indoor scene is where the protagonist returns home after killing the boss of the organization that betrayed him.”
“But instead, he's branded as a traitor and brutally murdered by the organization's members.”
“We have to cover the walls, floor, and practically everything around us in blood.”
“Do you really think the owner of a pension would just sit still after we did that in their property?”
In situations like this, compensation wasn't even the main problem.
Even if we promised to completely replace the wallpaper and flooring afterward, pension owners simply didn't like the idea of filming something like that inside their property.
“Ah…”
“Right…”
Cha Seung-jun finally understood the situation and awkwardly scratched his head.
PD Jung looked at me with an impressed expression.
“Come to think of it, our Gibaek has analyzed the screenplay quite thoroughly.”
