Chapter 69

Chapter 69. Opportunity Breeds Opportunity

Yang Seung-tae visited the 〈Rebooting〉 set to plan the stage and was thrilled by how huge it was.

He said it was large enough to fit a hundred people.

As far as I knew, ninety-nine could fit up there, so a hundred probably wasn't impossible either.

We returned to KBC for rehearsals before filming began.

I busily scanned the faces of the crew, trying to find the clueless-looking man from the GIF, the only one who hadn't turned his camera away.

But the other agency representatives and production staff seemed interested only in the stage set.

That was only natural.

Yang Seung-tae's stage design had just been revealed.

"Huh? What the heck? Where's the dolphin?"

Pantheon's Kim Dae-hyuk, who was standing off to one side watching the stage, shouted in surprise.

Tak Hyun-mo tilted his head as if he found it strange too.

"You're right. Most Blue Moon stages have a dolphin behind them."

We had submitted the music information with 〈Homesick Girl〉 written clearly in plain text.

Why were they still talking about 〈N.Dolphin〉?

That song was old news.

"That's right. There isn't a dolphin. Because this is a new song."

"What?"

Tak Hyun-mo and Dae-hyuk immediately approached me with interest.

"A new song? But it hasn't even been that long since 〈N.Dolphin〉!"

"Wait, that's not even the point. You're debuting a new song here? Does that make any sense?"

Just as Dae-hun had predicted, Tak Hyun-mo's face slowly began blooming into a smile.

"W-Why? Aren't there tons of people waiting for Blue Moon's next song? Why reveal it here?"

Tak Hyun-mo asked while struggling to hide his grin.

"That's true. But the 〈Rebooting〉 set is great, and I'm grateful you squeezed us in after everything that happened. I figured we should at least give you this much buzz in return. Hahaha."

"How could you..."

Tak Hyun-mo pursed his lips, now looking genuinely moved.

In other words, stand on President Do's side instead of President Shin's.

Of course, I was only acting generous after already stuffing myself full, but still.

"Come to think of it, I did wonder why it said 〈Homesick Girl〉 here. Can we promote that Blue Moon will reveal a new song?"

Tak Hyun-mo asked while checking the clipboard in his hand again.

"That would be great for us."

"Thank you!"

I'd been considerate enough.

Surely I could ask for one favor now.

"But PD Tak. I noticed the trainees' introductory stage is first, and the mentor introduction stages start after that. Why did you arrange it that way?"

"Ah, you mean the stage order?"

The trainee introduction stage was followed by Blue Moon, who had the first mentor slot.

Which meant there were ten total stages, and Blue Moon would technically perform second.

"The trainees are all unfamiliar faces to viewers, so we wanted them to make an impact right at the beginning. That way, when we cut to their reactions later, viewers will actually pay attention to them."

That wouldn't work.

According to the GIF, the camera crew's strike began at exactly twenty minutes, right after the trainee stage ended.

Meaning the cameras would stop just before Blue Moon's stage began.

"I'm not sure about that."

"Why?"

Tak Hyun-mo asked, still riding the happiness of hearing that Blue Moon's new song would premiere here.

"You can edit in the trainees' reactions during the mentor stages. And shouldn't the most important final stage belong to the trainees? That's the whole point of the program, isn't it?"

"Ah... that's true too."

"We only ended up first because we accepted the slot you gave us. But you should take care of the trainees. If they finish their stage and then spend the next fifty minutes watching nothing but their seniors perform, do you really think viewers will remember the trainees by the end?"

Tak Hyun-mo nodded in agreement.

"That's a good point. I was only thinking that they needed attention from the very start. We used KBC's old idol-survival programs as references. Since every agency contributed trainees evenly anyway, I don't think changing the order will cause much trouble."

Good.

That settled it.

Only Blue Moon would make it onto the live broadcast.

Now I just had to keep the strike schedule secret and let the union do exactly what they intended.

As someone outside the union, I didn't know their objective and couldn't help them anyway.

There seemed to be some issue involving staffing shortages, but I wasn't sure.

If anything illegal happened during the strike, I could deal with it then.

For now, I would simply feel a little sorry that I couldn't stand with them.

"If everyone's done checking, move to the next set! This is Blue Moon's new song, people! A new song!"

Tak Hyun-mo shouted while hurrying off.

The staff immediately began running around in confusion.

"Wow, Do Jun-hyeok. Aren't you showing off a little too much?"

Someone suddenly said that, making me flinch and turn around.

It was Kim Dae-hyuk messing with me.

"Hey, brat. You have to make noise if you want to survive. Didn't you make enough noise to become a department head too?"

"That's actually what makes me bitter. I never caused as much chaos as you did back at Pantheon. But somehow you're the one who never made department head."

That was because I'd sacrificed myself like Nongae and paved a flower road for everyone else.

While we checked the next agency's set, I kept weaving through the camera crew, looking for the man from the GIF.

Just in case, I went to the far left edge of the stage where he'd been standing in the future image.

And incredibly enough, he was standing in the exact same spot.

His camera had been left set up while he stared at his phone.

I walked straight over.

"I'm Do Jun-hyeok from Universe. I have a question about filming. Could I speak with you for a moment?"

The man glanced at me and replied.

"You don't need to ask me. I don't work here. I'm outsourced staff."

"Outsourced?"

He pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it to me.

[Prime Film]

[Film Artist_Kwang Ho Lee]

[Visual Directing / Lookbook / Wedding / Body Profile / Music Video...]

"Prime Film...? What's a 'film artist'? A movie director?"

"It just means camera operator. And the 'Kwang Ho Lee' on the side is my name. My name is Kwang-ho, not 'Kwang Ho-lee.'"

Kwang-ho let out a hollow laugh, apparently finding his own explanation funny.

Despite the luxurious English wording on the card, his reality in the industry didn't seem nearly as luxurious.

Now that I thought about it, I remembered reading an appeal about staffing shortages on the website of the general media union that Production Division 2 belonged to.

This was already an industry that relied on outsourced camera crews even when there wasn't an emergency shortage.

If they were openly complaining about a lack of personnel, I could imagine how bad things were.

Kwang-ho wasn't part of the union because he was outsourced staff.

That was why he couldn't participate in collective action.

It hadn't happened yet, but...

He must have been completely bewildered when it did.

"Then are you contracted by the day? Who exactly is your employer?"

"Employer... isn't quite the right word. More like a client. Jung Hye-sun, the head of KBC Production Division 2. This division is basically one of our regular customers. And I'm one of the freelance crew members KBC hires often."

Kwang-ho explained that outsourced filming wasn't contracted by the hour.

It was paid per job.

In other words, he received a lump sum for working on 〈Rebooting〉.

"Since I've already been paid, I have to follow their instructions instead of Prime Film's while I'm here. So I guess you could call them my temporary employer."

If KBC regularly hired them, their skills had to be excellent.

The future GIF had shown me that the camera crew would go on strike at that exact moment.

At the same time, it had also shown me that Kwang-ho would not go on strike.

I probably needed to use both pieces of information.

I pocketed his business card and quietly walked away.

Then an idea worthy of Bongyi Kim Seon-dal suddenly came to mind.

Only I knew about the strike.

Well, the union members obviously knew too.

But I meant among outsiders.

So what if, while the strike was happening, I brought in a whole set of cameras and kept filming?

A live broadcast would still be impossible.

But they could edit and release a recorded version afterward.

That could become an opportunity to make everyone listen to me.

I didn't know what use their favor would have later.

But whenever I created a situation first, something useful always seemed to fall out of it.

I called the Prime Film office number written on the card.

After consulting with an employee, I visited the Prime Film studio.

Dae-hun and Jin-hee would take good care of the members.

Now that I'd hired enough employees, it was nice being able to move around freely.

"Welcome! You're President Do Jun-hyeok, the one who called earlier?"

A middle-aged woman greeted me.

"Yes, that's me."

She led me to a low table and handed me a cup of coffee.

"I heard someone from an entertainment agency was coming. I thought an actor had shown up in person, sir."

"Hahaha. I don't hear that very often."

The woman introduced herself as Noh Soo-jung, the production manager.

She explained that Prime Film could handle most of the work listed in their services.

"I heard you even mentioned wanting to film a documentary. What kind of documentary exactly?"

"Ah, yes. Our artists are about to release a new song. We want to document the production process and promotional period, then upload it to the fan cafe."

"Ah~ I know the kind. I understand perfectly."

Noh Soo-jung handed me a neatly laminated information sheet.

Prices were divided according to video type, number of cameras, crew size, and production period.

I checked the documentary section.

It listed one to four cameras, and the price wasn't especially high.

That wouldn't do.

Even if I maxed it out at four cameras, it wouldn't be enough to make Tak Hyun-mo deeply indebted to me.

I needed at least eight cameras to cover the broadcast properly.

"What we want isn't an ordinary documentary. Think of it more like a large-scale documentary film, with polished motion graphics and everything. I'd like to use at least eight cameras..."

"Eight cameras? At that point, unless it's a major project, you'll have equipment sitting unused."

If we used eight cameras, we'd need plenty of microphones too.

Noh Soo-jung asked me to wait a moment, then called over a younger woman who appeared to be one of her employees.

The two whispered together for a while.

They were probably discussing what equipment would be needed for an eight-camera documentary and how much the price would increase.

"We have fifteen employees. If eight cameras go out, then once you include the supporting crew, almost our entire staff will be tied up. So the price might be rather high..."

"I don't care how much it costs."

"Oh. Your company must be quite large."

Noh Soo-jung began calculating the cost with the expression of someone who didn't care as long as she was paid properly.

Then, like the owner of a Dongdaemun clothing shop, she quietly wrote down the required deposit and showed it to me.

It wasn't enough to make me shout hundreds of millions!

But it was definitely enough to make me shout tens of millions!

"Give me the account number."

I immediately transferred the money to the film studio.

I'd been carefully saving up profits so I could finally replace the Starex that Oh Su had promised to replace before running off.

Well.

If I got desperate, I could always turn something else into money.

So I decided to spend big.

"Then when would you like us to start filming?"

"Come to our company starting tomorrow."

I calmly rose from my seat and called Tak Hyun-mo.

"Hello?"

"This is Do Jun-hyeok."

"Yes, President Do! Where are you? I haven't seen you for a while."

I told him I'd stepped out to handle something.

"I forgot to mention this earlier, but we're filming a documentary related to Blue Moon's new song. Would it be all right if we film the stage during the broadcast?"

"What? Ah, yes. Of course. It's live anyway. I'm not sure whether I have the authority to approve filming the other teams' stages, though. It'd probably be better not to film them, right?"

Approval for the other teams' stages?

Tak Hyun-mo would probably regret saying that on the day of the broadcast.

He'd regret it so much he'd want to pound the ground.

And then he'd beg me to please film the stages.

Unless he wanted Shin Hyung-geol to beat him to death, that is.

"Understood. We won't film any other team's performance. Just ours. Exactly ours."