Chapter 71. One More Bowl of Government Rice, Please
It was a weekday performance.
Thousands of audience members had gone out of their way to come here.
Some of them had probably used vacation days or half-days from work.
I heard the tickets had sold out so quickly that scalpers had even gotten involved.
In the Apollo fan chat room, some veteran fans had offered as much as one million won for a ticket to watch 〈Rebooting〉.
Of course, no fan had sold their soul for a million won.
[There has been a temporary issue during filming. The broadcast will resume shortly, so please wait.]
The security and safety personnel hired to protect thousands of spectators restrained the camera operators and escorted them outside.
Not long afterward, the police arrived as well.
From that point on, the MC took over calming the restless audience.
While everyone sat there waiting, the entire performance schedule kept getting delayed.
Concerts and similar events sometimes ran late.
Night performances especially.
But this was a live broadcast.
If it hadn't been live, Tak Hyun-mo probably wouldn't have gone as pale as Dracula.
I approached Prime Film's production director, Noh Soo-jung.
"Did you get good footage of Blue Moon?"
"Ah, yes. I don't know what in the world is going on... but thankfully their performance ended right before everything happened, so I don't think it'll affect the documentary. Shall we start packing up?"
I shook my head.
"No. Let's keep the cameras rolling here for a little while. This is a massive broadcast accident too, so keep filming what's happening."
If we packed up now, there would have been no point in spending tens of millions on Prime Film.
Tak Hyun-mo needed to see that our cameras were still functioning perfectly.
Apparently the union membership rate was extremely high.
Almost all of the staff had walked out, leaving Tak Hyun-mo practically alone in the temporary control area.
He'd been overjoyed about Blue Moon's new song just moments earlier.
Now he looked ready to cry.
If I were him, the situation would have been so sudden that I'd probably wonder if I were dreaming.
Come on.
Get your head straight and deal with the situation.
Noh Soo-jung and I patiently continued filming while waiting for Tak Hyun-mo.
After frantically calling people over the radio, he finally came running toward me.
The second mentor group's performance had started, so it seemed they'd decided to prioritize the live audience for the moment.
"P-President Do Jun-hyeok. Right now, we don't have anyone who can operate our cameras... Could your people handle them? You already have the Prime Film crew here."
At his request, Noh Soo-jung looked back and forth between me and KBC's cameras.
"They packed up the entire setup before leaving. You can't just start filming with those immediately. And only a few of our people know how to operate broadcast equipment."
"Then what about these cameras? These are already running, right?"
"These are recording cameras. You hired us to make a documentary. When would this team ever do a live broadcast?"
Tak Hyun-mo buried his face in his hands.
"Then... even if it's only recorded footage... can you help us?"
When Soo-jung tilted her head as if she didn't understand, Tak Hyun-mo practically shouted like they were playing a game of Silent Shout.
"Just film it! We have to air it later as a recorded broadcast!"
"We can't! We're supposed to go film Blue Moon's reactions after their performance!"
"Aaaagh!"
Tak Hyun-mo now clung to me with pure agony written all over his face.
"President Do Jun-hyeok! You know what kind of situation I'm in! I already owe you for revealing your new song here, so I'm really sorry to ask this, but please! Let us use your cameras!"
"What? I can't hear you!"
"Please let us use the cameras! Even if nothing else gets saved, we absolutely need the stage footage! Then we can at least air it later as a recording!"
If I agreed right now, it felt like I could make Tak Hyun-mo my personal slave.
"Ah, that's difficult! This performance is supposed to be the climax of our documentary! The members are probably crying from emotion right now, and we have to film that immediately! This project cost us a fortune!"
"Aaaah..."
"And the audience is already in chaos. Isn't it too late anyway?"
Tak Hyun-mo, who had looked completely defeated, suddenly glanced back toward the stage and began stomping his feet.
"How much?! How much did this documentary cost? One billion won? I heard that's around the bare minimum for a low-budget movie! Is it around that much?"
"Why does that matter?"
"Whatever it costs, I'll pay for it! So please, before we lose any more footage!"
Good enough.
I turned to Noh Soo-jung.
"PD Tak Hyun-mo is in a very difficult situation right now. Let's help them film the broadcast first."
"All right!"
Prime Film's dependable camera crew immediately rushed forward, positioned themselves in front of the abandoned broadcast cameras, and began filming the stage.
Shin Hyung-geol, chairman of Root Entertainment, clicked his tongue at the absurd situation unfolding before him.
"Ninety percent of the union staff have gone home. For now, they're filling the dead airtime with commercials. The performances resumed, but they're only recording audio."
The camera operator who had been filming the producer waiting room had suddenly packed up and left.
Thinking something was strange, Shin Hyung-geol stepped outside and saw employees who had changed into union vests staging a walkout.
He had his secretary investigate.
Apparently, it was a protest against chronic understaffing.
"Why bother recording performances that can't even air? That's just wasting electricity. Why don't they turn everything off?"
"The MR and vocal recording only require pressing a button, so they can keep those running. They can also capture the live audience's cheers. The problem is the video, but President Do Jun-hyeok's camera crew is filming all of it."
Do Jun-hyeok?
His secretary explained that the camera crew Do Jun-hyeok had brought for his documentary was now filming the performances so at least a recorded broadcast could be salvaged later.
Come to think of it, Shin Hyung-geol had heard something about a documentary.
"Is that really enough?"
"They won't be able to get trainee interviews or reaction shots from the other mentors and producers. But apparently they can capture the stages well enough. They brought eight cameras."
The instant Shin Hyung-geol heard that there were eight cameras, he couldn't hold back his laughter.
Eight cameras for a documentary?
He had spent that much money just to get good stage footage?
There was no way Do Jun-hyeok had done something so wasteful for no reason.
If he'd wanted to use the full stage performance in a documentary, he could have simply paid KBC a usage fee after the live broadcast.
Two cameras for the members onstage.
One for their reactions after stepping down.
Three cameras would have been more than enough.
Why bring eight?
"Why are you laughing, Chairman?"
His secretary looked confused by his sudden amusement.
"Do Jun-hyeok planned this. Hahaha... I thought the brat was simply arrogant, but he's much more interesting than I expected."
Do Jun-hyeok would probably receive quite a valuable reward from that idiot Tak Hyun-mo for this.
That had to be what he was aiming for.
It was hard to explain otherwise unless he'd known about the strike in advance.
Was Do Jun-hyeok connected to the union?
Common sense said there was no way.
With only eight years in the industry, he'd simply predicted it.
"Should we investigate?"
"No. There's no need. He's just cautious. Think about it. It's not like the employees in Production Division Two only started complaining about staff shortages yesterday."
"That's true."
There were even a few news articles about the issue if you searched for them.
Perhaps Do Jun-hyeok had simply worried that today might be the day something finally happened.
That would also explain why he'd moved the trainee introduction stage later and rushed Blue Moon's performance forward.
"Even I've been in this business for thirty-six years and didn't see it coming... I suppose animal instinct really is more important than experience."
