Chapter 38: A Prepared Director
Two days later.
Thursday, December 24.
Entering its sixth week in theaters, Before the Light Reaches was still screening.
Before getting off the subway, Geonwoo checked his phone once more.
Cumulative audience through the previous day:
1,104,115.
Even after passing one million viewers, people continued coming.
Naturally, the pace had slowed.
The number of theaters had decreased too.
That became even more noticeable after two blockbusters arrived.
But his film had not been completely pushed out.
When Geonwoo reached the TS ENM building, Cha Sookyung called.
"Have you arrived?"
"Yes. I'm going inside now."
"I'm in the lobby too."
The automatic doors opened.
Cha Sookyung was waiting in front of the elevators.
"Executive Director Im Dohyeon will be joining today's meeting."
Geonwoo looked at her.
"He's personally attending the review?"
"Yes."
"For films with large budgets, he sometimes participates directly."
The elevator doors opened.
They entered.
Cha Sookyung pressed the floor button.
"You must be nervous."
"I am."
Geonwoo adjusted the strap of his bag.
The elevator stopped.
When the doors opened, Cha Sookyung walked first.
"This way."
Park Dojin was standing outside the meeting room.
"You're here."
"Hello."
Park checked his watch.
"It's time. Let's go inside."
"Executive Director Im and the review committee are already waiting."
The door opened.
Several people were already seated.
Some were familiar.
Others Geonwoo was meeting for the first time.
At the far end of the table, a man in a gray jacket had a screenplay open before him.
He didn't immediately look up when Geonwoo entered.
Park Dojin spoke first.
"Director Baek Geonwoo is here."
Only then did the man lift his eyes from the page.
He glanced at Geonwoo.
"I'm Baek Geonwoo."
The man nodded briefly.
"Im Dohyeon. Have a seat."
Geonwoo's gaze paused for a moment.
Executive Director Im Dohyeon.
He had never met the man in his previous life, but the name was very familiar.
Even then, Im Dohyeon had been one of the men leading TS ENM's film business.
He had worked in investment and production for years.
People throughout the industry watched closely whenever he decided which film to support and which one to abandon.
Geonwoo looked away and sat.
Cha Sookyung took the seat beside him.
Park Dojin organized his materials and started the meeting.
Items that had already passed practical review were handled without much disagreement.
Throughout it, Im Dohyeon barely spoke.
He alternated between the screenplay and the production-review documents.
Occasionally, he flipped back to an earlier page.
Then, just as Park Dojin was about to organize the next item, Im Dohyeon spoke.
"Director Baek."
"Yes."
Im turned the open script around.
His finger stopped on one scene.
Geonwoo recognized it immediately.
Soldiers were gathering.
Characters moved past one another inside and outside the palace gate.
They had already discussed this scene several times during production review.
"How are you planning to shoot this?"
Geonwoo glanced at the page, then opened his bag.
"I brought something that should answer that question."
He pulled out a thick file.
Only the title of the movie was written on its cover.
Geonwoo pushed it toward Im Dohyeon.
"Storyboards."
Im Dohyeon accepted the file.
He opened the first page.
Park Dojin leaned slightly closer.
The storyboards only contained the lines that were necessary.
The actors' faces weren't drawn in detail.
But their positions were clear.
Camera direction.
Entrances and exits.
Eye lines connecting one shot to the next.
Even positions for torches and lamps had been marked.
Im Dohyeon turned another page.
Then another.
His page-turning gradually slowed.
Park Dojin asked,
"Did you make these yourself?"
"Yes."
Cha Sookyung also looked down at the pages.
The storyboards for The Night the King Died were already complete.
Optimal Scene could only be used on five scenes per day.
While writing the screenplay, Geonwoo had used the ability whenever a scene became final.
Camera position.
Actor movement and eye lines.
Lighting direction.
Props inside the frame.
The order in which cuts connected.
Once he'd checked a scene, he immediately transferred it into storyboard form.
He couldn't do many every day.
But he never delayed them.
The storyboards had slowly accumulated until they now covered the entire feature.
Park Dojin looked at the thickness again.
"You've already finished storyboarding the entire film?"
"Yes."
Park looked through it.
Scene numbers continued from beginning to end.
One of the committee members across the table reached out.
"Can I see that for a moment?"
Park handed over several pages from the front.
The sound of paper turning continued.
Im Dohyeon silently returned to the main-gate sequence.
After comparing the surrounding pages several times, his hand stopped.
"Director Baek."
"Yes."
He spread out three pages.
"If you shoot it this way, it's going to take quite a while."
Geonwoo looked at them.
"Which part do you mean?"
"Here, you take the wide shot."
He pointed to the first page.
"Then here, you follow the character."
The second.
"And here, you shoot the opposite side."
Im looked up.
"If you're changing setups like this throughout the night, you're going to lose a lot of time."
Geonwoo switched the positions of two pages.
"We don't move the camera here."
Im looked up.
"You don't?"
"No."
Geonwoo pointed to the actor on the first page.
"The actor enters from this side."
His finger followed the path into the frame.
"The camera stays on the same axis. We only change the framing."
Im checked the first page again.
Then the next.
The camera-position marker was identical.
"So it's the same setup until here."
"Yes."
"Lighting too?"
"Same lighting. We change it after this."
Im turned the next page.
The torch positions had changed.
For several seconds, no one spoke.
He continued turning pages.
This time, he stopped at a wide shot showing the whole main gate.
"With this composition, you're going to need a pretty large set."
Instead of answering, Geonwoo immediately opened the next storyboard.
Im Dohyeon's eyes moved.
The wide shot lasted only briefly.
Afterward, the camera moved closer to the inside of the gate.
He returned to the previous page.
"You only need the background in this shot?"
"Yes."
