Life, Once Again!

Chapter 523

Although their visit was rather sudden, from their serious expressions, it seemed that they had resolved their internal problems.

“You came to our club last time, seonbae-nim, so I felt like we should be the ones visiting this time. Are you busy right now? If you are, we’ll come back another time. It won’t be that long, so I hope you can hear us out at least.”

Saying that with a foolish laugh, Sora turned around to look at Ando behind her. Ando also nodded.

“I’m not really busy, so it’s fine. Also, we need to get this resolved quickly. The film festival isn’t that far away. But I just heard that you wanted to create a movie with the acting club?”

“Yes.”

“Then wait a bit. I should bring the right person as well.”

Maru called Daemyung over. Daemyung came to the entrance wondering what it was about.

“Daemyung, this is the film production club. Film production club, this is Daemyung, the president of the acting club.”

Maru introduced both parties as the middle man. Ando, the president of the film production club, stepped forward as their representative and greeted Daemyung.

“The film production has something to say to us, are you okay with that?”

Maru waited for Daemyung to answer. Since the film production club expressed their intention to work together with the acting club, Daemyung’s opinion was going to matter a lot.

“For now, come inside. It’ll be a bit noisy though since we’re practicing.”

Daemyung led the film production club inside. The film production club was startled when they heard the loud voices resounding in the large venue. When Daemyung left, Dowook was naturally put in charge of everyone. Although he didn’t like stepping up in front of others, Dowook did what was necessary if the circumstances pushed him to. Maru glanced at Dowook before sitting down in front of the acting club.

Daemyung brought some drinks and handed them out to the film production club members.

“I get the general gist of it, but I don’t know the details. I hope you can tell me the reason why you’re here.”

Daemyung started first. The film production club looked at Ando, and Ando spoke,

“The reason we’re here is to ask you guys, the acting club, if you can work with us.”

“Work with you?”

“Yes. We are going to make a film, and we need people other than just the lead character. Characters that just sit down in class, the chatters, the passersby. Ever since we started trying to add details to each situation, we realized that we need quite a lot of people. That’s why we thought about borrowing the acting club’s power.”

“It’s a collaboration!” Sora said in excitement as she clenched her fists.

“I get what you mean, but this isn’t something I can decide on by myself. There’s an instructor for the acting club, so we operate on a set schedule. It’s not that we don’t have time, but I can’t really make that decision.”

“I think that this is a good opportunity for the acting club as well. It’s an opportunity to practice acting.”

The talker had switched to Sora for some time. Maru looked at Ando. He didn’t look uneasy like he did before. It seemed that he thought it was natural for her to be the one talking.

“We are doing our own practice,” said Daemyung softly, but firmly.

Ooh, Maru was a little impressed. From the way things were going now, it seemed that his intervention wasn’t necessary here. Daemyung was splendidly fulfilling his role as the president.

“However, I get that it’s not a bad opportunity, can you wait a bit?”

Daemyung stood up while taking out his phone. After seeing him leave through the door, Maru spoke,

“Can I have a look at the script now?”

“Yes!”

Sora handed him the script with both of her hands. The tentative title was still ‘Friend’. Below that said ‘Planned by Kang Sora’ and then ‘Produced by Film Production Club’ below it. There were also the words ‘To Mr. Han Maru’ in bold letters. He wondered where she found out about something like this.

He smiled and flipped over a page.

-Scene 1.

The Alarm rings and Minho wakes up. Minho, having woken up, looks around for a while before turning off his phone alarm. Then he eats breakfast. His parents aren’t here. They have gone to work. He feels a little sad about that, but he also thinks that it was good that they weren’t here.

Minho: (sighs).

He eats breakfast. He then takes his bag and goes to school. He sees a black plastic bag on the ground on his way to the school. Minho feels sad since he feels like he’s similar to the plastic bag. He stares at the plastic bag for quite a while before continuing to walk. He sees the school. Minho is afraid of going to school. However, he couldn’t not go in, so he hesitates around the school gates before going in.

Maru nodded while looking through it. When he turned about three pages, he peeked forward, and the gazes that looked at him were pretty intense. Sora especially was acting uneasy. Please tell me what you think of it quickly - her eyes were saying those words.

Since it was a short film, the script wasn’t that long. After reading the last page, Maru closed the script. The moment Sora asked how it was, Daemyung opened the door and came back inside. Maru gestured to them to wait for a little before looking at Daemyung.

“You called senior Miso, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, we would have to split practice to do it after all.”

Daemyung sat down.

“I called the instructor for our club to ask if we can help the film production club with creating the movie. To tell you the conclusion, we can.”

“Really?”

Sora rolled her feet on the ground and shouted yes. At the same time, she grabbed Daemyung’s hand and thanked him.

Maru coughed in a small voice and tapped Daemyung’s arm. Jiyoon was staring this way. Daemyung was visibly startled and flicked Sora’s hands away. While he overreacted a little, Sora didn’t seem to mind.

“Then you’re helping us, right?”

“Y-yeah. We will. I talked to the instructor about it, and she said that acting in front of a camera is just as helpful as acting on a stage. However, you must clearly tell us the number you need as well as the schedule. If you can’t keep that up, we will make it as though we never had this conversation.”

“I will definitely keep that promise.”

“And one more thing. Does the film production club have a camera?”

“Yes! The graduate from our club came today and told us that we can use his until we hand in the film for the film festival. It’s a Sony 6mm camera from 2003. It’s a model that can record and show a live feed of it through a laptop at the same time. We tested it, and the quality is really good.”

Sora visibly brightened when she talked about the equipment. Maru just shrugged when Sora looked at him.

“I hope the acting club can borrow that camera a little.”

“Borrow the camera?”

“Yeah. Of course, only when it’s not being used for shooting the film. If you aren’t going to use it immediately, we want to use it first tomorrow. Can we?”

“That’s also one of the conditions right?”

“Yeah.”

Sora looked at Ando. This time, Ando took out his phone and walked outside. Since they couldn’t just lend other people expensive equipment that wasn’t even theirs, they needed to get permission for it.

“Did senior Miso tell you about the camera as well?”

Maru had asked. Daemyung shook his head.

“No, that was my idea. We are lending people, right? Even if the film does well and wins a prize, the only thing we get out of it is that ‘we had a good experience’, so I felt it was somewhat lacking. That’s why I talked about the camera. It will definitely be helpful if we can shoot our own acting and have a look at it ourselves. While it’s important for others to point things out, I heard that watching your own acting and analyzing it is a great way to improve.”

Also, it’s expensive to rent - Daemyung lowered his voice when he added those words.

“That’s pretty good.”

Maru raised his thumb. As both parties were students, they couldn’t exactly pay hourly wages for each person, so borrowing a high-quality camera was definitely not a bad idea. It could also give the acting club a fresh shock if they could watch their own acting through the screen. The practice rooms for actors weren’t filled with mirrors for nothing. To see and feel and improve, actors needed to be able to see their own acting in the perspective of a third person. In that sense, a camera was a splendid tool.

“Uhm, how was the script?” asked Sora.

“Ah, the script. For now, it looks ok since it has all the basics down. You managed to stick to the synopsis well huh.”

“Then….”

“For now, I will help you out regardless of whether the rest of the acting club helps out or not. You put in so much effort, so it’d be funny to say no at this point.”

“You mean it right? That’s good. I was actually really worried that you’ll refuse. When I was doing it, I was really fired up. I worked with the mindset that I will have you on my stage. Anyway, you liked the script, right?”

Hearing that question, Maru immediately shook his head.

“No. I just checked the bare minimum requirements for the shoot as well as your will. That doesn’t mean I like the script. There are a lot of things that need to be fixed. It’s bothering me and I’m not even an expert.”

“What? Really? I was confident though.”

“Regarding scripts, this guy knows better than me, so can I show it to him?”

Maru picked up the script and handed it to Daemyung. Daemyung looked at Sora.

“May I?”

“Ah, yes. You can read it, but….”

Sora clearly looked suspicious. Maru inwardly laughed. She wouldn’t be making such an expression if she knew who the person reading her script was studying under. Gwak Joon, the author of a bestselling novel with experience in writing a scenario for a full-length movie, as well as writer Bae Chulho, who wrote the historical drama Apgu, which got a peak viewing rate of over 35% on RBS. Daemyung met those two frequently and was widening his horizons. Maru told Daemyung that he wanted to read Daemyung’s autobiography-like novel several times, but Daemyung clearly told him that he had no intentions of showing anyone until it was completed. Daemyung also told him that it was ultimately going to become a script for a play based on a novel.

Daemyung silently read through the script. His round eyes turned sharp for just this duration.

As soon as he flipped over the first page, Daemyung spoke,

“First up, I think you have the wrong understanding of scenes.”

“I’m wrong?”

Sora tilted her head.

Daemyung then continued to read through the script without a word. Silence flowed for a while. The only sound they could hear was the sound of rustling paper as well as the sounds of exercise coming from the first year students of the acting club.

After reading the last page, Daemyung came back to the first page and spoke,

“Hm, fundamentally, you must state which location or venue the scene is happening in. The script is for the reader to clearly understand what’s happening, instead of being left up to deduction. For example, scene 1 should be set in Minho’s room right? And the time should be morning.”

“Yes.”

“If the director is also the writer and the actor, it doesn’t really matter if only he or she can understand it, but many of us here are going to use this script to do the shoot, right? If that’s the case you must be clear about the details. The emotional states can be left up to interpretation, but everything else should be clear and objectively understandable.”

“...Yes.”

Maru saw Sora pull her chair towards Daemyung. Daemyung didn’t seem to have noticed since he was focused on the script.

“Also, I don’t really want to say anything about your writing style, but I think you can write things a little more comfortably. Use short and compact sentences. The longer the sentences are, the more prone to misunderstandings they will be. Oh, about scenes, right? A scene is an event that occurs in just one place and one time. Here, when Minho wakes up and leaves the house, this should be scene 2. Then there are the directions. A script is supposed to be a picture. It’s just a text version of the images that the camera will eventually take. In other words, the script should allow the reader to easily picture the scene in their mind. Writing ‘his parents aren’t here’ and ‘he feels sad’ on the script like this… feels like the writer is lacking skills since they’re replacing everything with explanations, and relying on the actor for everything. Honestly speaking, a script like this isn’t necessary. This is nothing more than storytelling. The script should be something that should be close to the finished movie. That’s the reason for its existence.”

After saying those words, Daemyung blinked once before raising his head. Then he smiled awkwardly. Having finished talking about the script, Daemyung became the round man he usually was.

“O-of course, I’m not saying that what I said until now is entirely correct. You don’t need to take it to heart. I mean it. I don’t know anything. I’m just talking about some things I picked up here and there.”

Just as he was about to put down the script after scratching his head, Sora grabbed his hand. Daemyung weakly screamed.

“Seonbae-nim. Can you teach me about writing?” Sora asked.

Maru laughed while covering his mouth, but then felt something prickle him so he turned his head around. Jiyoon was looking at this place with a plain gaze. There were no fluctuations in her emotions, so it felt even scarier.

He immediately forced Daemyung and Sora apart. It would be incredibly annoying if they caused her to misunderstand or something after all. Just then, Ando returned to the hall. From the smile on his face, it seemed that the talk went well.

“He told us that we can use it to our heart’s content, and wouldn’t mind even if it broke.”

That was very nice. Maru looked at Daemyung. Daemyung nodded.

“Then let’s talk a little more about what we’re going to do with this thing, shall we?” said Maru as he pointed at the script.