Boosting Performance
Once Yeon-woo and Son Jin-uk’s contracts with LN Entertainment expired and were formally terminated, and they signed official contracts with Saebyeol Entertainment, articles began pouring out in a flood.
Information available to reporters about the brand-new company called “Saebyeol” was limited, so the details that made it into the articles were fragmentary at best.
With capital provided solely by Yeon-woo and Representative Kim Ju-seong, they had secured enough initial funding that no external investment was needed. Unlike the situation at LN, there would be no openings going forward for capital-based attacks from the outside.
Yeon-woo smiled as he watched the company humming with activity.
For a brand-new company, everyone’s handling their work without the slightest hesitation.
Each employee was fully absorbing the role they had been given. No one looking at them would believe this was a company that had been founded only a week earlier.
Most of the management had spent anywhere from a few years to more than a decade running LN, so the company name might have changed, but there was no problem at all with caring for the actors under contract or advancing projects. Even the staff hired through open recruitment and those scouted through personal networks had melted into the team almost immediately and were more than holding their own.
“Hmm…”
Yet Representative Jeong Hyeok was rubbing his chin and letting out a heavy sigh. Yeon-woo tilted his head at the sight.
“Why the sigh, Representative?”
“Because I’m the representative, that’s why the sighs keep coming.”
Jeong Hyeok had always simply carried out whatever Representative Kim Ju-seong told him to do, so he had no real sense of where to start. He sighed again and continued.
“It’s not that. The schedules our actors already had locked in before the contracts—I can see exactly how to handle those. But after that… I just can’t get a feel for what comes next.”
That was originally the captain’s job. Look far ahead, point the ship in a direction, and leave the steering and the rowing to the crew. But Jeong Hyeok, who had always been the one rowing, now had to chart the course himself, and he simply could not get a handle on it.
Watching him, Yeon-woo gave a crooked little smile.
“That’s exactly why Representative Kim Ju-seong is sitting up on the third floor, isn’t it?”
“…Of course I went down there. He was too busy making coffee and told me to figure it out myself.”
“Ah…”
Apparently he intended to raise him the hard way from the start. Or maybe he was just being lazy.
Yeon-woo rubbed his own chin in imitation, then offered the first things that came to mind.
“When we were still at LN, we got a lot of commercial offers for the White Blood cast, right?”
“Yes. Most of the big ones insisted on including Actor Ryu as a mandatory condition, so we turned them all down. Still, the individual commercials for the other members did get shot. LN took care of that much, at least.”
Yeon-woo nodded at Jeong Hyeok’s explanation.
Aside from Dong-ha, every other member of the White Blood expedition team had been unaffiliated freelancers. Han Byeol wanted to focus on school until she entered high school; Jeong Su-yeon still wasn’t sure whether to continue acting or try for an announcer position again; and Jeong Cheol-min had never once signed with an agency throughout his long career as an actor. Whether people simply assumed he already had representation, or because he ran his own acting academy, Yeon-woo had been told that even after White Blood ended, no agency had approached him with an offer.
In any case, every one of those members had now joined Saebyeol Entertainment, so the situation was different from before.
“Then how about we shoot some commercials as a group with the White Blood cast? Let’s build some performance numbers for the company.”
“Oh—commercials?”
Given Yeon-woo’s personal assets, he had no real need to shoot commercials. The other members, however, did.
These are people who trusted me and came to Saebyeol. I ought to let them taste a little money.
Sweet and salty were strong, but umami was stronger still—and stronger than any of those was the taste of money hitting a bank account.
“It’s been a while since White Blood dropped. Think the advertisers have lost interest?”
Jeong Hyeok shook his head hard at the question.
“Absolutely not. Right now, if we just say Actor Ryu is in it, we can pick and choose any brand we want.”
Just that morning he had received a call from an advertising agency practically begging for a favor. Checking his phone for the email, Jeong Hyeok went on.
“Take a look at this long, carefully written email they sent. The roles Actor Ryu has played so far—national hero, a young man chasing his dreams, a doctor who saves the universe. The trustworthiness of that image is enormous.”
“They cleverly left out Master Plan, didn’t they? I did play a con man, after all…”
Yeon-woo’s playful remark drew a laugh from Representative Jeong Hyeok.
“Of course, what the advertisers are really hanging themselves over is Actor Ryu’s popularity.”
“Then let’s use that popularity and move forward with some commercials. The members’ opinions matter too, so how about we gather everyone and hold a meeting on which ones to shoot?”
Jeong Hyeok nodded, feeling a fresh sense of wonder at Yeon-woo’s words. Holding a meeting to decide which commercials to shoot—most celebrities were desperate just to land one. The idea of “selecting” them was almost funny.
Well… it is Ryu Yeon-woo, after all.
He accepted it and nodded again.
The cast of White Blood gathered in the conference room.
“Dong-ha, it’s been a while.”
“How’ve you been? I saw the comeback album, of course.”
Dong-ha nodded with clear pleasure as he looked around at the cast assembled at Saebyeol Entertainment. Yeon-woo had run into him during the mid-shoot for Achedae, but for the others this was the first meeting since they had returned from LA.
“It’s amazing seeing everyone from Teacher Cheol-min all the way to Han Byeol under the same agency.”
“I bought your album, but the photocard wasn’t you.”
“Teacher Cheol-min bought the album?! I brought separately signed copies for the members to give out.”
“Of course I had to buy it.”
While Dong-ha and the others were exchanging greetings and catching up, the door opened and Representative Jeong Hyeok entered with the staff member from Dong-ha’s agency who handled commercial contacts. They projected the various commercial offers onto the screen and began coordinating opinions.
Yeon-woo smiled at the sight of Han Byeol sitting hunched like a little turtle among the adults talking and asked,
“Han Byeol, is there any commercial you’ve been wanting to try?”
As if she had been waiting for exactly that, she pushed one of the many commercial proposals on the table forward.
“I want to do this one!”
Everyone nodded when they saw the brand she had chosen.
“Coffee? I’m fine with that.”
“I looked at that one earlier too—the storyboard’s solid and I thought it was good.”
“Any special reason you want to do coffee?”
She had shoved it forward the moment he asked, so Yeon-woo pressed for the reason. Han Byeol continued.
“It’s the brand my mom always drinks at home. If my face is on it, I think she’d be really happy.”
When Dong-ha and Jeong Cheol-min both voiced approval, Jeong Su-yeon nodded as well.
They had selected three in total so far, and that seemed more than enough for the time being, so Yeon-woo wrapped it up.
“All right, so the ones we’ve chosen are a soft drink, a home appliance, and coffee—three in total.”
The products didn’t overlap in category, and from the storyboards they looked like straightforward image commercials that would be easy to shoot.
Watching the scene, Dong-ha clicked his tongue in amazement. The other members had almost no commercial experience beyond the small schedules LN had handled after White Blood ended, so they didn’t realize—but Dong-ha, who had been active as an idol for years, was different.
“This is honestly the first time I’ve ever sat down with commercials laid out like this and gotten to pick the ones I want.”
If even a single commercial offer came in for the group Dong-ha belonged to, the entire agency would throw a party. Sitting around a table deciding “this one out, that one in” like grocery shopping simply wasn’t how it worked.
Representative Jeong Hyeok answered with a grin of his own.
“Even when I was at the previous company, nothing like this ever happened until I started handling Actor Ryu. It’s a first for me too.”
The detailed schedules would be coordinated among the relevant staff, and the members headed out. Once they had left, only Representative Jeong Hyeok and Yeon-woo remained in the conference room.
“I think it’s about time we start looking at a new project.”
It was supposed to be a rest period, but in truth a great deal had happened. There had been the small-theater play, of course, and he had been busy with company matters and Baeksol as well. Still, the center of gravity of this life was always “Actor Ryu Yeon-woo.”
As if sensing that feeling, Representative Jeong Hyeok smiled.
“Looks like another hit is about to drop.”
“Hey, don’t put that kind of pressure on me already.”
“Shall we start receiving scripts for the next project? At this point, if Actor Ryu says he’s doing it, no producer is going to turn us down.”
Yeon-woo fell silent for a moment at Jeong Hyeok’s words.
Almost none, sure.
But he could not guarantee there would be no interference from Baeksol. If they entrusted production to an outside party, it would be difficult to block in advance.
“I’ve been thinking it might be better if we produce it ourselves. We have Saebyeol Media too, so we need to build performance on the media side as well, not just entertainment.”
Jeong Hyeok nodded as if the point made sense.
“True. Hmm… then we’ll need to secure a solid script first. Is there a particular genre you want?”
Genre…
Yeon-woo thought for a moment, then shook his head.
“Nothing comes to mind right this second. But what if we filled every lead and supporting role with actors from our own entertainment company? Right now none of them have a next project lined up besides the commercials we just scheduled, right?”
“Ah, that’s true. But is there really a need to fill every role only with our own actors?”
Of course the real reason was to leave Baeksol no gap to pull any tricks, but he could not explain it that way.
“I was thinking it might be nice to make a work that could serve as a milestone to commemorate the founding of the company.”
“A milestone…”
A milestone had originally been a stone marker the Roman Empire placed along the roads its soldiers built to measure distance. In modern usage it meant a critical turning point or epoch-making event in a life or in history.
Hearing Yeon-woo’s words, Jeong Hyeok found himself nodding. They had taken on so many excellent actors at once; producing a drama or film in which every one of them appeared together didn’t sound bad at all.
“Then the script will be the key.”
“We’ll figure that part out gradually. We have plenty of time ahead of us.”
Knock, knock.
Just then came a knock at the conference room door.
“Yes, come in.”
The door opened and Gong Min-jeong entered.
“Ah, Senior Min-jeong.”
Yeon-woo greeted her warmly; Gong Min-jeong smiled, returned the greeting, then approached Representative Jeong Hyeok.
“Hello, Actor. Ah—Representative. This is the report you requested last time.”
“Oh, you finished it remarkably fast.”
“Yes, well… it’s something I’ve always been thinking about anyway.”
“Pardon?”
When Jeong Hyeok tilted his head and asked again, she simply shook her head and said it was nothing.
“Thank you. I’ll read it carefully.”
“Yes, Representative.”
Gong Min-jeong bowed and left. Jeong Hyeok checked the cover of the report. Watching him, Yeon-woo smiled playfully.
“Representative. You’re still taking reports in hard copy these days?”
“Does it make me look old? Looking at a monitor just doesn’t give the same feel as holding paper in your hands…”
Yeon-woo shook his head at that.
“No. I’m the same way.”
“If Actor Ryu is the same, then I guess I’m not old after all. Still—I only gave the order this morning and she’s already submitted the report.”
“What’s it about?”
“An analysis of why Actor Ryu succeeded.”
At the unexpected answer, Yeon-woo looked at the report again.