Chapter 30
Chapter 30
Too Good to Use Comfortably
The storyboard sketchbook?
It didn’t really hold any special meaning for me.
The original existed inside the future app in my head anyway, and I could print out endless copies with my hands whenever I wanted.
I could even download it as digital files.
Right as I was about to casually say, “You can just keep it”—
“Tell me what you want. If it’s something I can do, I’ll grant it.”
“…Pardon?”
“I know this project means something special to you too. But I want it too badly now, so give in. What should I give you?”
It honestly didn’t mean much to me.
It was basically an infinitely reproducible copy.
So I’d originally intended to just hand it over freely.
But once she phrased it like that, the situation changed completely.
“Someday, when I create my own project, please make a special appearance in it.”
“A special appearance?”
“Yes. And if possible, please promote it on SNS too.”
Maybe that request was slightly excessive?
Cha Seoyoon stared at me for a moment before suddenly smiling.
“Alright. I’ll make a special appearance for you.”
“Thank you.”
“If I like the project enough, I might even play the female lead too. At a reasonable appearance fee.”
“Then someday I’ll definitely visit you with a project that satisfies actress Cha Seoyoon.”
“Actress Cha Seoyoon?”
Cha Seoyoon tilted her head as though displeased by something before speaking seriously.
“Just call me Seoyoon-ssi.”
“Understood. Then Seoyoon-ssi should also….”
“Does calling you ‘you’ make you uncomfortable?”
“…Not at all. It feels comfortable.”
CF director Kim Sungjin somehow disliked the large-built “rookie director.”
‘The Cha Seoyoon Na○ki CF is my overall project.’
The full CF ran three minutes long.
And apparently the underwater thirty-second section would be filmed by some rookie director he’d never even heard of.
‘What kind of production process works like this?’
He tried forcing himself to understand by thinking maybe Na○ki, being an American company, wanted to split work Hollywood-style among multiple directors.
But it still didn’t fit Korean production culture.
“But where’s the pool? I don’t see one anywhere.”
“They said she’s not entering water at all. Apparently they’re filming in front of a green screen.”
“What? Then how are they planning to handle things like hair?”
“They said everything’s getting processed through CG.”
“Come on, that’s ridiculous. Even the best Hollywood CG companies would need months just to create thirty seconds of that.”
As the overall CF director, he’d come personally to observe how the underwater scenes would be produced.
But hearing they wouldn’t even use water naturally left him dumbfounded.
“Looks like they’re starting.”
“What exactly are they even trying to do….”
Kim Sungjin grumbled while watching sharply, practically hoping to catch mistakes.
At the center of a space completely surrounded by green screens, Cha Seoyoon put on the support harness.
Wearing a green off-shoulder one-piece swimsuit, she floated suspended in midair from a crane.
Maintaining a perfectly horizontal pose parallel to the floor while waiting for the cue signal.
Then the large-built rookie director lifted his huge camera and took position.
“We’ll shoot on three. One, two, three.”
Kim Sungjin almost burst out laughing.
‘Do young people nowadays seriously use “one-two-three” as standby cues?’
Honestly, even Cha Seoyoon looked impressive for keeping such a serious expression instead of laughing like him.
The surrounding staff also desperately struggled to suppress their laughter.
Then Cha Seoyoon began acting as though she were truly underwater while suspended horizontally in midair.
She drifted leisurely through the water—
then suddenly accelerated rapidly forward.
At some point, her eyes sparkled as though she’d discovered something interesting below, and she sharply descended downward.
Even though she remained suspended horizontally in exactly the same position, the sense of changing direction and diving rapidly downward came through clearly.
She stood in open air,
yet somehow conveyed underwater scenery.
‘Her acting ability really is incredible.’
Finally reaching the ocean floor, Cha Seoyoon picked something up.
Standing upright atop the seabed while curiously examining the object she’d found.
She smiled softly—
then suddenly her expression hardened as she sharply turned around.
The urgent feeling of something dangerous approaching appeared vividly through her eyes.
Cha Seoyoon rapidly ascended.
Twisting her body repeatedly while checking how closely the pursuer followed behind.
Before he realized it, Director Kim Sungjin found his palms sweating as he became deeply immersed in Cha Seoyoon’s acting.
Even while hanging at the exact same angle in empty air without a single drop of water,
she somehow expressed the feeling of performing complex three-dimensional underwater maneuvers.
‘Her facial expressions and body acting are absolutely insane.’
Despite remaining suspended horizontally the entire time,
tiny details—head movements, eye direction, swimming motions from her limbs—
all combined to create the sensation of dynamic underwater movement.
Several minutes vanished in the blink of an eye.
After circling around Cha Seoyoon several times with the camera, the large-built director finally spoke in satisfaction.
“We’re done. Bring her down.”
The crane lowered.
Standing firmly on the floor again, Cha Seoyoon removed the support harness.
Her manager hurried over and draped a robe around her shoulders.
Kim Sungjin also quietly approached while sharpening his hearing.
“Wait, we’re done just like that?”
“Yeah. We’ll make final judgments after checking the rough CG version once.”
“Rough CG? You mean that comes out immediately?”
“Yes. Since the conversion happens live during filming, the actor can monitor it on site together with us.”
“Really?”
Interest appeared in Cha Seoyoon’s voice.
Meanwhile Kim Sungjin barely suppressed the scoff threatening to burst out.
‘At least say things that make sense. Only gigantic Hollywood blockbusters work like that.’
The large-built director turned the laptop toward Cha Seoyoon so she could see it clearly.
Cha Seoyoon sat closely beside him while checking the screen.
Driven by curiosity, Kim Sungjin quietly approached and peeked over their shoulders.
“…!”
He barely managed to clamp both hands over his mouth to suppress the sound escaping him.
Inside the monitor, Cha Seoyoon swam gracefully through the ocean.
Exactly the same relaxed expression she’d shown when the camera first started rolling.
The green off-shoulder swimsuit used for CG post-processing was gone.
Instead, a flowing dress fluttered like fins while she drifted elegantly underwater.
The hair that had been tightly secured in nets during filming now flowed freely and wet inside the monitor.
Schools of brightly colored little fish danced around her as though moving in rhythm with her presence.
Far below in the ocean depths, Cha Seoyoon discovered something and rapidly descended toward it.
[The SeaWalk]
A pair of pure-white sneakers branded with the Na○ki logo.
Unsure what they were for, Cha Seoyoon curiously inspected them from every angle.
Standing vertically underwater while examining the sneakers, her long flowing dress swayed sideways like a mermaid’s tail.
Wondering if they might fit on her hands, she even slipped her hands inside the shoes briefly—
then sharply turned around as the water current suddenly intensified.
A grotesque giant deep-sea fish charged toward her at terrifying speed.
It wasn’t interested in the mermaid herself—
but rather the shining Na○ki logo.
Panicking, the mermaid hugged the sneakers tightly against her chest and swam upward rapidly.
The little fish formed layers of protective walls to hide her from view,
but the giant deep-sea creature ignored them completely and lunged forward to devour her.
Right as the monster’s sharp teeth nearly tore into the mermaid’s tail—
bright sunlight burst across the ocean surface above.
The mermaid exploded upward through the water in a massive splash.
And the moment she landed upon the beach of a tiny island in the middle of the endless ocean—
the mermaid tail disappeared,
replaced by two long beautiful legs touching the sand.
Only after gaining human legs did the mermaid finally put on the sneakers.
Then she sprinted powerfully across the beach as the video ended.
“…”
“…”
Nobody spoke.
Everyone seemed so shocked their lips practically felt welded shut.
“This is only rough-level CG generated live for monitoring together with the model, so there are still lots of weak points. From here, we’ll properly add more CG and….”
“This is rough-level quality? It already looks good enough to broadcast immediately.”
Even Cha Seoyoon’s voice carried disbelief.
Director Kim Sungjin felt every trace of discomfort he’d held toward the rookie director disappear completely.
His fingertips trembled uncontrollably from embarrassment, shame, and excitement.
“It’s rough because it was generated quickly in real time. Anyway, we’ll flesh it out properly from here. Seoyoon-ssi, what do you think?”
‘How is this rough?!’
Director Kim Sungjin screamed internally.
Across every project he’d ever created in his life,
not a single one could even reach the heel of this CG quality.
Generating visuals at this level live during filming itself.
‘Are they secretly some Hollywood CG company?’
Cha Seoyoon replayed the rough CG footage over and over again.
From Kim Sungjin’s perspective, it already looked polished enough to hand over directly.
‘If this gets any better, the quality gap across the overall commercial will become way too uneven.’
He even found himself thinking things like that.
“There’s a problem with this.”
“If you explain the issue, I’ll relay it to the CG director so it can be reflected.”
“It’s too perfect. That’s the problem.”
“…Pardon?”
“If only the underwater section goes around flexing quality from another universe while the rest of the commercial stays normal, it’ll look weird.”
Cha Seoyoon had perfectly voiced Kim Sungjin’s exact thoughts.
Come to think of it, she was right.
If only the underwater sequence stood out overwhelmingly within the full three-minute commercial,
then naturally the remaining two minutes and thirty seconds would feel weak in comparison.
But was that really a problem?
“Then wouldn’t it be fine to let the CG studio handle post-processing for the other sections too?”
“Would that really be alright?”
“Yes. If the directors handling the other scenes organize their intentions clearly, the CG director can apply suitable post-processing to match.”
Director Kim Kyungwook hurriedly stepped forward.
“Understood. Then we’ll discuss additional CG costs for the non-underwater sections with Na○ki as well.”
Cha Seoyoon was already replaying the footage again several more times.
Even though the result had intentionally reduced quality, she still seemed to love it immensely.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the overall CF director standing there with his mouth hanging open in a daze.
Maybe this was the dignity created by a thousand years of graphical technology difference.
【You participated in professional video production under your own name.】
【Tutorial completed.】
A loud alert suddenly appeared.
‘Nothing like this appeared when I filmed Hyejin’s acting or uploaded animation videos.’
Maybe because Hyejin’s acting footage was only practice material never intended for broadcast,
while the animations were entirely generated through the future app’s instant-click system?
The video just now, however—
from beginning to end,
I personally directed the model’s acting and held the camera myself during filming.
So did “Tutorial complete” mean I’d now crossed into true professional territory?
【The “Virtual Reality Experience Monitoring Function” is now unlocked.】
【You can allow registered models to experience Premium Cut-created videos directly.】
【Models can personally enter and experience the story they are meant to act within.】
【Virtual-space experiences will greatly help models deliver superior performances.】
So basically….
Instead of directing desired performances through storyboards,
I could now guide actors through full virtual-reality experiences?
Actors could personally experience scenes beforehand inside VR,
then use those experiences as emotional foundations for their real acting performances?
This was insane.
But….
‘How am I supposed to actually use this in real life?’
I can’t use this at all.
Not realistically.