Chapter 10: The Final Shoot
"Cut."
The moment Geonwoo's voice reached the end of the alley, everyone exhaled at once.
The sun was already low.
The narrow alley walls still held the heat accumulated during the day.
Yura stood alone in the empty alley.
She held an old camcorder against her chest.
The camcorder Seoyun had once carried.
For Seorin, it was the final trace left behind by her younger brother.
It was also the object connecting the beginning and end of the film.
Geonwoo looked at the monitor.
Seorin wasn't crying.
Instead, she stared toward the end of the alley.
As though Seoyun were still standing there.
Only then did Geonwoo realize he'd been holding his breath.
This was the final filmed scene of the movie he'd never managed to complete in his previous life.
It's done.
Relief came before joy.
Then came a strange emptiness that arrived a little late.
Geonwoo checked the monitor once more.
There was no need to keep going.
The scene could end here.
He quietly raised his hand.
"Okay."
A short silence followed.
Hyeonsu looked up first.
"Seriously... okay?"
Geonwoo looked at everyone.
"Great work, everyone! That's a wrap!"
The entire set erupted.
"We're done!"
"Great work!"
"Wow, it's really over!"
Applause broke out.
Taejun clapped loudly and laughed.
"Director! We're finally done!"
Hyeonsu dropped onto the ground.
"Haa... Finally."
Geonwoo laughed.
"You okay?"
Hyeonsu shook his head.
"No. I'm not okay. I'm exhausted."
"But we finished on schedule. You worked hard."
"Sorry, but we're not actually done. We still have editing."
Geonwoo laughed.
"That's true."
Yura put down the camcorder and approached Geonwoo.
"Great work, Director."
"You too."
Dogyeom ran to his mother first, then returned.
He bowed in front of Geonwoo.
"Director, thank you for all your hard work."
Taejun laughed beside him.
"Our Dogyeom is so polite."
Geonwoo lightly patted Dogyeom's head.
"You worked hard too."
They held a team dinner after the final shoot.
The location was a barbecue restaurant near the university.
Everyone looked happy just hearing the meat sizzle.
The moment Hyeonsu leaned back against his chair, he spoke.
"If someone told me to do this whole shoot again, I don't think I could."
Taejun laughed while turning the meat.
"I feel like you'd do it again if someone asked."
"No. Seriously. I can't."
"Really?"
"Hmm... If they paid me more, maybe I'd think about it."
Taejun burst out laughing.
"Very realistic."
Yura quietly laughed over her glass of water.
"Still, we wouldn't have finished filming without Hyeonsu."
Hyeonsu immediately raised his head.
"That feels good coming from Yura sunbae."
He looked at Geonwoo.
"Hyung, you heard that, right?"
Geonwoo nodded.
"She's right."
He looked directly at Hyeonsu.
"We couldn't have finished without you. Thank you."
Hyeonsu froze.
His expression, which had been ready to turn it into a joke, stiffened for a moment.
"That's embarrassing when you say it seriously."
Taejun immediately joined in.
"This is where you're supposed to cry."
"I'm not crying."
"Assistant Director's Tears of Emotion."
"Just eat the meat."
Everyone laughed.
Dogyeom sat beside his mother and quietly ate.
Taejun asked,
"Dogyeom, filming was hard, wasn't it?"
"It was hard, but it was fun."
"Oh. Maybe you're born to be an actor."
Dogyeom hesitated.
Then he looked toward Geonwoo.
"Director."
"Yeah?"
"I... think I want to keep making movies."
He swallowed.
"Do you think I can?"
Geonwoo smiled quietly.
"Of course. You'll be able to act in more movies."
"Really?"
"Yeah. You're good."
Dogyeom couldn't answer.
His ears turned slightly red instead.
Yura smiled at the sight.
Taejun let out an exaggerated sigh.
"Wow. Director, tell me something like that too."
Geonwoo looked at him.
"You did well too."
"That's too short."
"You did very, very well."
Taejun laughed.
"That's better. I'm satisfied."
Everyone laughed again.
When the laughter settled, Myeongho looked at Geonwoo.
"Director Baek."
"Yes."
"You worked hard."
Geonwoo paused, then bowed.
"I couldn't have done it without your help."
Myeongho chuckled.
"This is the wrap party. Shouldn't the director say a few words? You're usually pretty good at cheesy speeches."
People around the table laughed.
Geonwoo stood.
"We didn't have enough locations. We didn't have enough money. And we didn't have enough time."
Hyeonsu muttered quietly,
"We really didn't."
Taejun nudged him with an elbow.
Geonwoo tried not to laugh.
"But even so, we finished all filming in early June. Thank you for following such a tight schedule."
Several people applauded lightly.
"As everyone knows, submissions for this year's Busan International Film Festival close in early July."
Geonwoo looked around.
"I'm going to spend the next month buried in editing. I'll finish this properly and make something everyone here can be proud of."
He raised his glass.
"Let's make sure we get invited to the Busan International Film Festival."
Taejun laughed.
"I really hope we get to go to Busan."
Yura nodded.
"For some reason, I think we can."
Dogyeom carefully raised his hand.
"Director."
"Yeah?"
"If our movie gets invited, do I get to go to the film festival too?"
"Of course."
Dogyeom's face brightened.
Taejun raised his glass.
"Then we need a toast."
Hyeonsu raised his glass too.
"To entering editing hell?"
Taejun shook his head.
"You're entering editing hell. We're celebrating the end of filming."
Yura quietly raised her glass.
Dogyeom raised a cup of soda.
Geonwoo raised his glass too.
Hyeonsu grinned.
"To Before the Light Reaches making it to Busan."
The day after the team dinner.
Hyeonsu stopped the moment he opened the editing-room door.
"Hyung..."
Geonwoo was already sitting in front of the monitor.
Two external hard drives, shooting notes, storyboards, a cup of coffee, and several chocolate wrappers covered the desk.
Hyeonsu narrowed his eyes.
"We had a team dinner yesterday. What time did you get here?"
"Maybe... two hours ago?"
"So you came early. Why didn't you call me?"
"I wanted you to sleep more. We stayed out late, so I figured you'd be tired."
"You're not tired?"
"I'm fine. I've got caffeine and chocolate buffs."
Hyeonsu looked across the desk.
Coffee.
Several chocolates.
"This is editing hell starting today. If you're like this on the first day, what are you going to do later?"
"If it's hell, we might as well enter quickly."
"That's terrifying."
Geonwoo laughed and moved the mouse.
Funeral-hall clips lined one side of the screen.
Another window contained short notes Geonwoo had written himself.
[Funeral Hall_Take1 / Usable]
[Minjae gaze short]
[Delete if mourners' reactions feel excessive]
[Camcorder insert candidate]
Several clips already had stars beside them.
Hyeonsu blinked.
"When did you mark all these?"
"This morning."
"You're seriously diligent. How does the footage look now that you've watched it again?"
"Still good."
"That's a relief."
Hyeonsu was about to sigh in relief when Geonwoo added,
"The problem is the amount."
Dozens of funeral-hall clips appeared across the screen.
The camcorder.
Incense smoke.
Seorin's hand.
Minjae's foot.
The mourners' eyes.
An empty paper cup.
Even the white chrysanthemums beneath the memorial portrait.
Hyeonsu's eyes widened.
"You calculated all the cuts while shooting, so I thought editing would be easier."
"The direction is already decided. It's just a lot of manual work."
Geonwoo opened his shooting notes.
Small writing beside the storyboard listed the intended cut order.
[Camcorder insert → Seorin's hand → Minjae at threshold → exchanged gazes → camcorder gaze → mourners' reaction → Seorin's question]
Hyeonsu leaned closer.
"True. Your storyboards were so detailed before filming that editing should still be easier."
"The real problem is finishing before the festival submission deadline."
"So editing hell really is hell."
They immediately divided the work.
Geonwoo assembled cuts.
Hyeonsu organized the files and checked backups.
Scenes with audio-sync problems were marked separately.
Unusable takes were moved out of the main folders.
The funeral-hall sequence took shape faster than expected because the intended cut direction had already been decided before filming.
Geonwoo shortened some moments of silence.
He didn't hold on Minjae's unstable expression for too long.
After Seorin asked her question, he immediately cut to the mourners' reactions.
Hyeonsu watched the monitor in surprise.
"This is only a rough cut, but it already feels this natural?"
"It's because of the storyboard."
Geonwoo immediately opened the next folder.
[Dawn Alley]
These were the scenes of Seoyun recording the neighborhood with his camcorder.
Dogyeom slowly walked through the alley on screen.
His hand gripping the camcorder.
His eyes looking at an old wall.
His small feet stopping before a demolition notice.
Geonwoo breathed out quietly.
"Dogyeom did really well."
Time passed quickly.
Lunch was gimbap.
Dinner was cup ramen.
At first, Hyeonsu kept making jokes.
But as the night grew deeper, he spoke less.
His hands slowed as he renamed files.
He marked the same shot twice.
Geonwoo looked over.
"Hyeonsu."
"Yeah?"
"If you're sleepy, go home."
"I'm fine."
"You just opened the same file twice."
"That was... to double-check it."
"And you marked the same shot twice."
Hyeonsu silently closed his mouth.
Geonwoo laughed.
"Hyeonsu, just go home."
"No. I'm fine."
"You don't look fine."
"The director is working. As the assistant director, I can't leave first."
He paused.
"Then I'll just close my eyes for five minutes."
"I'm telling you to go home and sleep."
"No. Five minutes will restore my energy."
The moment he finished speaking, Hyeonsu leaned back in his chair.
And within seconds, he fell asleep.
Geonwoo quietly smiled at him.
"You're working hard."
He saved Hyeonsu's laptop and closed the screen.
The editing room became quiet.
Only the monitor light and faint whirring of the external hard drives remained.
Geonwoo was tired too.
His eyes were dry.
His wrists felt heavy.
His head felt slightly foggy.
But he couldn't stop.
"Just one more hour, then I'll go."
They had about a month left until the Busan International Film Festival submission deadline.
Because rewriting the script had delayed the entire schedule by two weeks, their editing window had become tight.
Missing the festival because they failed to finish editing in time was the one thing Geonwoo wanted to avoid.
"I can do this. I have to."
He focused again and played the timeline.
The scenes were connecting just as planned.
Then faint words appeared in front of him.
[You are deeply immersed in editing despite approaching your physical limit.]
[The conditions for unlocking the fifth sense have been met.]
Geonwoo's hand stopped.
More text appeared.
[The fifth sense has been unlocked.]
[Ability Name: Editing Recovery]
[Function]
·
Physical stamina gradually recovers the longer you remain immersed in editing.
·
·
Concentration and continuous working time increase.
·
·
This effect does not apply to activities other than editing.
·
[Duration]
·
2 hours
·
[Cooldown]
·
12 hours
·
Geonwoo stared at the message.
His stamina recovered while editing?
It was absurd.
[Editing Recovery has been activated.]
[Remaining Duration: 01:59:58]
[Cooldown: 12:00:00 after activation ends]
At first, nothing changed.
But several minutes later, his body began feeling different.
The dryness in his eyes slowly faded.
The heavy fatigue in his wrists loosened.
His cloudy mind cleared.
Geonwoo laughed quietly.
"This actually works...?"
He glanced at the remaining duration.
1 hour, 43 minutes, 12 seconds.
"I was going to work for only one more hour."
A grin appeared.
"But if I've got this now, I might as well do at least two."
Geonwoo looked at the sleeping Hyeonsu.
"Sleep well, Hyeonsu. Hyung will get as much done as possible tonight."
