Life, Once Again!

After Story 251

“A formal screening session will now take place. Everyone, please sit down,” Jiseon said exaggeratedly.

The people gathered in the party room applauded.

“Then before the makeshift screening session, we’ll hear a word from our director. Please make it as short as possible.”

Jiseon sat down. Yoonseok put on an awkward smile and started speaking,

“First of all, thank you for gathering when you must all be busy.”

“I’m here because I’m unemployed!” Haeun said, making other people laugh.

“Anyway, thank you for taking the time to participate. I have prepared this event because I wanted to report to you the results as soon as they were out. I’d appreciate it if you could give me your opinions after watching it.”

“Can we diss it?” Jung Namsoo, the camera director, said as he raised his hand.

Yoonseok coughed awkwardly before continuing,

“I don’t have good immunity to criticism, so I’d like it if you could praise it, but I’ll be waiting for harsh criticism for the sake of my next work. Please don’t swear though.”

He rubbed his hands. He felt even more nervous because these were people he worked with. What would their responses be after seeing the result?

“Please watch at ease while eating and drinking.”

Yoonseok reached out to the laptop that he connected to a beam projector. When he clicked on the movie file, a black box appeared on the screen. White noise started flowing out of the speakers installed on either side.

“Then I’ll start,” he said as he pressed the spacebar.

* * *

“If I had to say anything based on extremely personal preferences, it honestly wasn’t that interesting.”

Yoonseok raised his head slightly. Was the AC off? He was sweating.

“Should I go on?” Haeun said.

“Shake my soul out,” Yoonseok said as he grabbed his shirt and shook it.

There were only two people who had watched the completed film: the video editor and Maru. Both of them praised the film, so he was quite at ease, but it seemed like he had to change his mind.

“The acting was good. I was bad, but I couldn’t find anything to nitpick from any of the actors in how they conveyed their emotions. But I don’t like the story. In the end, Yoo Daejoo just gets deprived of his shop and returns to ordinary like before, right? Ending the story there makes it feel like it wasn’t finished off properly.” Haeun then added, “I know that it’s what you were aiming for, director, but understanding and entertaining are two separate elements.”

“Thanks for saying that. If I could make an excuse as the one who wrote the story, then I just wanted to convey the feeling of being tossed out. Daejoo thought he finally achieved something, but he lost all of that in a single moment. I wanted to display the loss, the fear, and whatever else as is.”

Yoonseok took a breather and scratched his forehead.

“Of course, if that didn’t happen, then that would be my mistake.”

“It’s not a mistake, I’m just speaking based on my preferences. You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“I am. It’s gonna take 8 weeks to recover. I was actually quite proud because it turned out to be good, but you halved my confidence.”

Yoonseok looked at Haeun for a while before smiling and saying that it was just a joke. A hundred people would have a hundred different preferences. There couldn’t be a movie that was loved by all. Even people known as masters of film couldn’t receive love from both the critics and the ordinary masses, so that wasn’t something he should aim for when he just took his first step as a director.

But still, he became very slightly dejected.

He looked to his left and made eye contact with Maru, who was sipping some beer. Maru smiled at him. He had a lot of expectations because Maru had praised it, but… did he praise it just to make him feel good?

Just then, he saw someone raise their hand. It was Bangjoo, who was next to Haeun.

“I liked the story.”

Yoonseok became visibly delighted and waited for his following words.

“Director, aren’t you showing too much of your expressions on your face? I thought you were expecting criticism,” Haeun said.

“I’m only human, so I can’t help it. I got scolded once, so don’t you think it’s okay if I got praised once too?”

Yoonseok looked at Bangjoo. He looked forward to what Bangjoo had to say next.

“Miss Haeun said that she didn’t like how the story was cut off, but I liked it instead. I prefer more realistic stories over happily-ever-after stories like fairy tales. In that sense, I think it’s quite decent that we never get to know what happened to Daejoo who experienced something bad.”

“I feel like my wound is getting healed. Thanks, Bangjoo.”

It was a mistake thanking him. Bangjoo immediately continued,

“But I didn’t like that it was stifling all the time. I think it would’ve been better if there was some time to take a breather midway. If this was a short film, then density like this would be good, but this is over an hour long. Focusing on Yoo Daejoo all the time also makes it slightly boring.”

Yoonseok rubbed his face as he listened to Bangjoo’s words. That was honestly the part he was worried about the most.

His first creation was a short film. Back then, he had a hard time putting all the things he wanted into the story, but the circumstances were different for this film.

It wasn’t that there were any unnecessary parts, but it still felt prolonged. It seemed to be a weak point created by the insufficient number of characters and the cramped space.

No, even that was just an excuse. There were many directors who could create dynamic films inside a cramped phone booth with just a single actor.

“I can’t say I agree with that. At first, it feels like it would be better if there was a refresher scene of sorts, but then, if it does have those in it, I don’t think it suits the film,” said Moon Seokjin.

Following that, other people gave a short comment as well. As they were all film lovers who participated in this film that wouldn’t make any money, their criticism was serious and deep.

“There really are all sorts of opinions, huh,” Yoonseok said after gathering opinions from multiple people.

The opinions were split half-half; half of them liked it and half of them disliked it. The reasons for each were all different as well. If this was before he edited the film, then he would’ve had a headache accepting opinions from all of them.

“The composition is good,” Maru said after staying quiet all the time.

Everyone’s eyes were shifted to him.

“As many of you said here, you may like or dislike the film. I don’t think it’s a big problem that the opinions are split. In fact, I would be more worried if everyone liked it or everyone disliked it.”

Maru looked at Seokjin.

“As Bangjoo said, It would be better if there were refreshers, and as Haeun said, it might be better to add some more story at the end. I don’t think there’s a wrong opinion here at all. However, just because they’re right doesn’t mean that we can gather all of them and reflect on them. Time is limited and we have a lot of ingredients. What the chef needs to do is to pick the ones he needs.”

Everyone nodded at Maru’s words. He had a point. They couldn’t choose everything. If they could pick one, they had to give up on another. In that sense, creating a film had a lot of common ground with cooking.

“I think that director Lee’s edition has properly removed the necessary parts. I’m sure he had a lot of things he wanted to add. I’m sure there were a lot of cuts he really wanted to get in there. But he managed to shake that temptation off well. I can tell because I watched the rough cut before. He has put a lot of thought into this. That’s why I could really appreciate it when I saw the final piece. He polished it well. He really carved it well. It must’ve been hard, but he really finished things up properly.”

Maru’s voice had the effect of making people calm down. Yoonseok inadvertently nodded as he listened. More so than anyone else, he was grateful for the fact that Maru had recognized his work, so he felt satisfied.

He felt proud, embarrassed, and even then, slightly excited, so he looked at Maru while holding back a smile. Maru, who stopped for a moment, spoke again,

“But still, it’s a pity. There were a few cuts I would like to have in there.”

The finisher was a light slap of the stick instead of a carrot. Yoonseok smiled.

“You could’ve ended it on a good note. You just had to ruin everything at the end.”

“I don’t want to see you all smug, okay?”

“I only have enemies around me, huh? But it’s not like everyone’s wrong. But please know, I really did my best. I know that ‘doing your best’ is kinda useless these days, but that’s the only thing I can say,” Yoonseok said as he scratched the back of his head.

“Did anyone say otherwise? You did well. I mean it,” Haeun said as she applauded.

The others applauded as well.

“I guess this is why people like to get on stage or want to get to higher positions. Getting attention and being applauded is exciting. I couldn’t see anything when I was at the award ceremony before, but now I have some leisure.”

Yoonseok turned off the laptop. They were also running out of time for the rental period for this room, so it was about time they cleaned up.

“But did you see everyone’s faces when senior Maru was speaking? I looked next to me, and I saw that everyone was looking at him in a daze,” Haeun said as she looked at Maru with slightly dreamy eyes.

The others chimed in.

“He has a good voice.”

“There’s a reason he did that narration, you know?”

“Narration?”

“Didn’t you know? Senior Maru did a narration for a documentary before. That was all the rage on the internet.”

People who didn’t know took out their phones and checked. Jiseon, who was next to her, raised something above her head and shouted. Looking closer, it was a microphone.

“Uhm, I found something like this. Ah-ah!” Jiseon spoke into the microphone.

“We have some time left over, so why don’t we get an impression from our main actor and a song from him too?”

Finishing those words, Jiseon handed the mic over to Maru. Maru flinched and caught the mic that was tossed to him.

“Isn’t the mood just right to have the director finish things up?” Maru said into the mic.

“We’ll listen to you and then have the director sing as well. We have 15 minutes, so it’s perfect.”

Jiseon clapped in rhythm. Everyone else started to urge him to sing as well. Maru, who looked hesitant, soon changed his expression.

“I guess the wrapper for a festival is always a song. I’ll sing, so everyone please sing along.”

The ‘formal screening’ was gone and a short, but crazed party began.

* * *

“Watch out on your way home!”

People took taxis and left one by one.

Yoonseok felt like things were finally ending. It felt different from when he was leaving the editing room.

“It’s all over!”

“No, it’s not.”

“Oh! That startled me.”

Yoonseok turned around. Maru was there.

“You should be getting ready to submit it.”

“Submit it?”

“Do you think I invested just so some close friends would watch it together? We’re going to submit it to all the film festivals that we can this year.”

“As far as I know, there aren’t many film festivals for independently published films, so there’s not much to prepare. I just need to know the format and submit it within the deadline. Did you think I didn’t even prepare for that?”

Yoonseok raised his chin, feeling smug.

“That’s limited to domestic film festivals.”

“What?”

“We have to submit it to global film festivals too. You’ll have to pick a few film festivals because you can’t submit it to every single one of them. You’ll have to translate the script to English, and if a film festival wants it in their own language, you have to prepare for that as well. It’d be good to create a poster beforehand too. For now, upload it to YouTube and set it to private.”

Global film festivals? That was an idea he was only thinking about in his head, wondering if it was actually possible.

“I didn’t look into that.”

“I won’t tell you to do everything by yourself. I’ll be helping you.”

“Global film festivals, huh? Cannes?”

“That one’s already over.”

“I see.”

“There are other film festivals so look into them for now. You have to keep them in mind so that it’ll be easier to submit your work to A-tier festivals through the committee.”

“Okay. But do you think there’s anyone overseas who would watch my film?”

“You never know, and that’s why we’re doing it.”

Yoonseok nodded. Of course, he didn’t expect much out of it. His goal was to get a few movie theaters to screen it domestically

“You really never know,” Maru said as he tapped on his back.