Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Optimal Scene

[Ability Name: Optimal Scene]

Geonwoo stared at the words floating before his eyes.

"Optimal Scene..."

Script Appraisal was an ability for examining scripts.

This one dealt with scenes.

"Then does it help me direct the scenes captured by the camera?"

More text appeared.

[Function]

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Simulates scenes from the script using optimal directing choices.

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Allows the user to observe camera placement, actor blocking, eye lines, lighting, props, and cut flow.

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[Usage Limit]

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Maximum of 5 scenes per day.

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Geonwoo narrowed his eyes.

"This will be incredibly useful for storyboarding."

A storyboard was the blueprint for filming.

It organized where the actors moved and what the camera should see first.

If the script was the skeleton of a film, then the storyboard gave the camera its eyes.

"This is exactly the kind of ability I need when my directing experience is still limited compared to my writing."

But there was one problem.

"A maximum of five scenes a day..."

It wasn't a small number.

But for an entire feature-length movie, it wasn't a large one either.

"If I want to prepare filming in time, I'll need to use it on the important scenes first."

One week remained before filming resumed.

That meant he could prepare storyboards for roughly half the script using this ability before shooting began.

"I'll prepare the remaining scenes while filming."

Those scenes could be scheduled for later in the shoot, so there would be no problem as long as the filming schedule was arranged properly.

Geonwoo immediately opened the final revised script on his laptop.

"First, let's check the scenes that decide the overall mood of the movie."

He reviewed the script on the screen and selected the scenes he wanted to examine with his new ability.

They were:

Seorin's final conversation with her younger brother.

The younger brother filming the alley before dawn.

The funeral hall.

Minjae stopping at the entrance because he cannot bring himself to enter the funeral room.

And the camcorder and memory-card clue sequence.

"Let's start with the final conversation between Seorin and her brother."

Geonwoo read the scene on his laptop while thinking about the new ability.

Then...

[Would you like to use Optimal Scene?]

The moment he thought yes, his vision blurred.

The laptop screen disappeared.

So did the desk and coffee cup.

Instead, an old room appeared before him.

Moving boxes were stacked against one wall.

An old photo album poked through a box that hadn't been fully taped shut.

Faint marks remained on the wall where framed photographs had once hung.

In the middle of the room, the younger brother sat with the camcorder held against his chest.

"Whoa..."

Geonwoo unconsciously held his breath.

"It really feels like I've stepped inside the scene."

The camera didn't begin on Seorin's face.

It began through the camcorder's screen.

A shaky image.

An awkward zoom.

The boy filming the room.

Boxes.

Marks on the wallpaper.

Blankets.

Seorin's side profile.

Then the younger brother's voice came.

"Noona, if this neighborhood disappears, our house disappears too, right?"

Geonwoo focused as hard as possible.

He wanted to remember everything he was seeing.

The first shot begins from the camcorder screen.

Then the moving boxes and the marks on the wall.

A close-up of the younger brother's hands.

Seorin's face is revealed late.

One second of silence before the line...

The scene continued.

Seorin answered with a tired expression.

The boy refused to put the camcorder down.

Seorin's voice gradually became sharper.

"Stop saying pointless things and go to sleep. If you go outside before dawn again tonight, I'm seriously going to get angry."

At that moment, instead of focusing on Seorin's face, the camera showed the boy's hands hugging the camcorder tightly.

It shows emotion through the hands more than the face.

Geonwoo continued trying to memorize every detail.

Seorin should look exhausted.

The younger brother feels hurt, but he doesn't cry.

After the room light goes out, only the camcorder's power light remains.

The simulation ended.

His apartment returned around him.

For a long time, Geonwoo sat there in a daze.

"So this is Optimal Scene."

He looked down at his hands.

His fingertips were trembling.

This was on an entirely different level from reading a script and imagining a scene in his head.

It felt like he had entered a real film set and watched the completed sequence in advance.

"I can't rely on memory alone."

Geonwoo opened a desk drawer.

An old tablet sat inside.

A hair-thin crack ran across one side of the screen, and the corners were dented from being dropped several times.

It was something he had used to draw storyboards as a student.

He hadn't used it in a long time, so the battery was almost dead.

But after connecting the charger, the screen slowly turned on.

"Wow. It's been a long time."

Geonwoo chuckled and picked up the pen.

The tablet lagged once before opening a familiar drawing application.

He created a new file.

[Before the Light Reaches Final_Storyboard]

Geonwoo quickly began recreating what he'd just seen.

He wasn't an especially skilled artist.

But detailed artwork wasn't the most important thing in a storyboard.

"A storyboard only needs to make the director's intentions clear."

Geonwoo looked at the first frame he'd drawn.

The room seen through the camcorder screen.

The lines were crooked.

The boxes looked like simple rectangular blocks.

But the composition was clear.

"The moving boxes are on the left side of the frame. The marks from the old photo frames are in the center. Seorin's face isn't visible yet, only part of her side profile."

He wrote brief notes beside the sketch.

[C-1. Start from camcorder screen]

[Shaky room. Moving boxes. Marks left by frames on the wall.]

[Do not show Seorin's face yet.]

Geonwoo immediately drew the next cut.

The younger brother's hands.

Small hands gripping the camcorder tightly.

[C-2. Close-up of younger brother's hands]

[Feeling that he doesn't want to let go of the camcorder.]

[Attachment rather than fear.]

The next shot showed Seorin from behind.

[C-3. Seorin from behind]

[Exhaustion. Tired shoulders.]

[One second of silence before dialogue.]

Geonwoo drew a small arrow beside the cut.

Seorin's gaze would be directed toward her brother, but her face would be shown late.

The audience shouldn't see her expression first.

They should first notice how empty the room had become.

"The feeling that their home is disappearing needs to come first."

He continued drawing the scenes he'd just witnessed onto the tablet.

Soon, the storyboard for the scene was complete.

Geonwoo flipped through it.

"The drawings aren't great, but this is more than enough."

Feeling more confident, he smiled.

"Good. Next is the scene where the younger brother films the alley before dawn."

Geonwoo continued using Optimal Scene on other sequences and recreated them as storyboards.

Some time later...

After transferring all five scenes he could view that day into storyboard form, Geonwoo smiled broadly.

"This is more than enough for the first meeting."

When Geonwoo arrived at the café, Hyeonsu was already there.

A laptop was open on the table.

The final script Geonwoo had sent him was displayed on the screen.

Hyeonsu was so focused that he didn't even notice Geonwoo approaching.

Only after Geonwoo sat across from him did Hyeonsu raise his head.

"Hyung, you're here?"

"What were you doing that you didn't even notice someone arriving?"

"What else? Reading the script you sent me."

"Did you finish it?"

Hyeonsu didn't answer.

He scrolled all the way to the bottom.

The final page.

For a long moment, he said nothing.

"Hyeonsu?"

Hyeonsu slowly closed the laptop.

"Hyung."

"Yeah?"

"I just finished it."

"How was it?"

Hyeonsu couldn't answer immediately.

Instead, he rubbed both hands over his face.

Then he laughed quietly.

"Ah, we're screwed."

Geonwoo raised an eyebrow.

"Screwed?"

"Yeah. Completely."

Hyeonsu tapped the laptop with his finger.

"After reading this, there's no way we can use the footage we already shot."

Geonwoo silently watched him.

Hyeonsu laughed in disbelief.

"I mean, the old script wasn't bad. But this is just insane."

A faint smile appeared on Geonwoo's face.

"That good?"

"At first, the younger brother's death was just the event that started the story. But now you can see what Seoyun wanted to hold onto before he died. The camcorder isn't just a clue anymore. It carries emotion."

Geonwoo quietly nodded.

"And Minjae. He's much more uncomfortable now. He's not simply a bad guy, but he's not completely pitiful either. He's become the kind of character that keeps the audience thinking."

Hyeonsu grabbed his head with both hands.

"Ah, this is seriously annoying."

"Why are you annoyed?"

"Because it's too good."

"What kind of answer is that?"

"If the script changes this much, we have to remake the schedule. Bring the actors back. Recheck the locations. Throw away what we already filmed."

Hyeonsu sighed.

But he was smiling.

"And somehow I'm not even angry. The rewritten script is just too good. This is seriously crazy."

A smile spread across Geonwoo's face too.

"It's really that interesting?"

"Yeah! I literally just finished it and I already want to read it again. Honestly, when you said you were going to throw out a script we'd already started filming and rewrite it, I was nervous."

"I figured. I'd feel the same if a director suddenly told me that."

"But after reading it, I understand why you wanted to change it. It's so good that it's frustrating."

Hyeonsu looked at him.

"We're keeping the same actors, right?"

Geonwoo nodded.

"Yeah. I'm planning to keep them."

He looked at the names written on the script.

Seorin: Han Yura.

Minjae: Kang Taejun.

In his previous life, Han Yura never became a major star.

Not because she lacked talent.

She simply never found a project that properly showcased what she could do as an actress.

Kang Taejun was different.

With strong acting skills and striking looks, he quickly became a star.

However, he wasn't only famous for good reasons.

He was handsome and talented, but his arrogance eventually caused personality controversies.

Even so, Geonwoo needed him for this movie.

"Both of them fit this revised script even better. I also worked on some storyboards."

Hyeonsu's eyes widened.

"You rewrote the entire script in a week, which is already ridiculous, and you've already done storyboards too?"

"Not that many. Just five important scenes for now."

Geonwoo took out his tablet, opened the storyboard file, and turned it toward Hyeonsu.

Hyeonsu looked doubtful as he examined it.

Then his hand stopped.

Geonwoo watched him.

"What's wrong?"

"Wait."

Hyeonsu went back to the first page.

Then the second.

Then back to the first.

"Hyung..."

"What?"

"Have you secretly been taking storyboard classes or something? Why did your storyboards suddenly become this detailed?"

Geonwoo shrugged.

"They look good? That's a relief. If they're this clear, it'll make shooting easier, right?"

"Obviously! Your vision for the shoot is clear, so as the assistant director it'll be much easier for me to prepare and help you on set."

Hyeonsu zoomed in on the tablet.

"Look here. The final conversation between Seorin and her brother. It's just two people talking, but you start through the camcorder screen."

"Yeah."

"You've separated the moving boxes, the empty marks left by the old photo frames, and the close-up of his hands into different cuts too."

"Because the feeling of their home disappearing has to come first."

"And you wrote that we should reveal Seorin's face late?"

"Her emotions come after the space her brother is trying to hold onto."

"That's seriously detailed..."

Hyeonsu breathed out in admiration.

"Hyung, you're really strange."

"What is?"

"The script changed, but the storyboards changed even more. Honestly, I'm almost grateful the accident forced us to delay the whole shoot."

Geonwoo laughed.

"Really? Thanks for saying that."

Then he became more serious.

"Speaking of the accident, let's rent proper equipment this time."

"Ah! I actually contacted Professor Kim Dohyeon about the equipment. He heard about the lighting accident and said he felt uncomfortable leaving us to shoot alone. He might introduce us to an experienced cinematographer he knows."

"Really? That's great. Having a veteran cinematographer on set would help a lot. Since the equipment issue is handled, let's rebuild the schedule."

Hyeonsu immediately opened his laptop.

Geonwoo asked him,

"The script changed, so we should probably do another table read before shooting. Did you check the actors' schedules?"

"Yeah! Do you know how much trouble Taejun hyung's schedule gave me? He complained like crazy when I told him the dates were changing. I eventually managed to calm him down."

"You worked hard."

"But there's a problem."

"What?"

"There's only one day when everyone can gather at the same time."

Geonwoo's eyebrows rose slightly.

"One day? Then we'll have to do the entire reading in a single day."

"Right. We have to finish the full table read that day."

"Can't be helped. I'm the one who delayed filming."

"But with the script changing this much, isn't one day too short?"

"It is."

Geonwoo nodded.

"But we'll just have to do our best with what we have."

Hyeonsu nodded.

"All right. I'll send the revised script to the actors immediately."

"Tell them to study it properly before the reading."

"Got it!"

At that moment, Hyeonsu's phone rang on the café table.

"Hold on. It's the mother of the child actor playing Seorin's younger brother."

Hyeonsu answered immediately.

"Hello, ma'am."

Geonwoo casually picked up his glass of water.

But Hyeonsu's expression gradually hardened.

"Ah... yes."

His eyebrows twitched.

Something was clearly wrong.

Eventually, he ended the call.

"Hyung..."

"What's wrong? What happened?"

Hyeonsu looked at him.

"We have a big problem."