Superstar From Age 0

Translator: MarcTempest

Editor: AgRoseCrystal

Chapter 555

After finishing their exams and packing up, the [Fire] team headed to the filming location, which was about 10 minutes away from their accommodation.

The third-year students from the stage art team, who had a first-class license, drove the truck loaded with props and equipment to the mansion first, while the rest of the team members followed on foot, carrying their personal belongings.

Seo-jun also walked along with the first and second-year students from the acting department. It was a cold day, cold enough to see their breaths, but it didn’t snow.

“So what did you tell your school before you came here?”

“Yeah, won’t they think it’s weird if you’re gone for a month?”

“I said I went to America.”

He had told his high school friends the truth, that he was filming, but he had lied to everyone else.

“I said it was just a meeting, so it wouldn’t matter if the work didn’t come out. You know, a lot of projects get scrapped at the planning stage.”

Everyone nodded at Seo-jun’s words.

“That makes sense.”

“America, huh… You have a big scale for lying.”

The second-year students exclaimed, and Seo-jun and the first-year students laughed.

As they chatted, they arrived at the filming location. The seniors who had arrived earlier were unloading the truck. The art team, the prop team, and the filming team were all busy.

“Do we just move them inside?”

Seo-jun and the acting students joined in.

“There will be a paper on the door of the first floor. Put the costumes in the costume room and the props in the prop room. Don’t touch the big furniture, the prop team will move them. You don’t want to get hurt.”

Kim Se-yeon checked the list and said. Hwang Ji-yoon seemed to be busy inside the mansion.

“We don’t need the filming equipment until the afternoon, so you can leave them here.”

“Okay!”

Seo-jun and the acting students took the stuff that the prop team members handed them from the truck and went inside the mansion. The filming location, which had seemed empty until yesterday, was bustling with students.

The acting students, who were seeing the filming location for the first time, looked around with curiosity. It was hard to see a mansion with such an old-fashioned feel, unless it was an exhibition hall or a museum.

“I didn’t know there was a place like this.”

“Isn’t it cool?”

“Yeah.”

After a brief tour, Seo-jun and the acting students moved the costumes to the room that had been turned into a dressing room and the props to the room that had been turned into a prop room. The actors Jung Eun-mi and Kim Sung-sik helped them organize.

“Independent films often require the actors’ hands too.”

“We’re part of the [Fire] team, right?”

Hwang Ji-yoon, who had tried to stop them, gave up seeing the two actors smiling kindly.

As Seo-jun and the acting students were about to go outside to move the next load, they saw the prop team (stage art department) entering the mansion with a flashy wardrobe.

The wardrobe, made of dark brown wood with patterns carved on it, looked heavy just by looking at it, but they didn’t seem to have any trouble.

“Wow…”

They couldn’t help but admire it.

“The stage art seniors are so strong.”

“Right?”

Well, they were the department that made the props and decorations for the stage themselves. They must have moved a lot of heavy materials, so they probably had no problem with such furniture.

“It’s not that heavy.”

Seo-jun and the acting students turned around. The prop team leader, a fourth-year student from the stage art department, smiled and said.

“It looks heavy because we painted it dark and gave it a heavy feel, but it’s actually made of the lightest material. It’s much lighter than it looks.”

“Oh.”

It was like the fake props that appeared in movies. The weight of the wardrobe was an illusion.

“What’s that?”

The other team members were moving something like wooden boards to the second floor. The boards were also dark in color like the wardrobe, but they moved them lightly, so they must have been an illusion too.

“That’s the bed of the nameless painter. We’re going to assemble it on the second floor. The mattress is over there.”

After that, every time Seo-jun and the acting students moved the small props, things like tables, chairs, desks, and dining tables also came in. Some of the bulky ones had only materials, as they planned to assemble them at the filming location.

“It feels like we’re moving.”

The students agreed with Seo-jun’s remark.

They spent the whole morning moving and organizing the stuff from the truck to the mansion, and then the [Fire] team went back to their accommodation for lunch and rest.

“Do the side dishes come three times a week?”

“Yeah. We can order more often. And sometimes there will be special dishes.”

They couldn’t prepare meals for more than thirty people (three meals a day) every day, so they planned to get them from a nearby side dish shop.

Of course, it was a bit far away, but the side dish shop welcomed the [Fire] team’s order sincerely, even adding special dishes that they didn’t have before to the menu.

“The food must be expensive.”

“If we can film as fast as possible, we might be able to save a week.”

“The weather has to cooperate.”

Looking at the clear sky, which was bluer than Seoul, Hwang Ji-yoon and Kim Se-yeon worried about the production cost and started preparing for the first filming.

“Actors, please change your clothes and go to the makeup room!”

Seo-jun watched Hwang Do-yoon and Kim Sung-sik enter the mansion. Unfortunately, the first filming of [Fire] didn’t feature the ‘nameless painter’ that Seo-jun played.

“Did we have a makeup team?”

“The art team agreed to do it.”

“Wow…”

Seo-jun opened his eyes wide at Kim Se-yeon’s words and looked at the window of the first floor room that had been turned into a makeup room. They held cosmetics instead of brushes and paints, but they seemed to be good at it.

“Where’s the power strip?”

“Lights! Lights over here!”

As the actors prepared, the filming team, the lighting team, and the sound team started to move busily. Seo-jun and the acting students, as well as Kwon Se-ah, also moved around to find the items they needed.

“Be careful not to step on the wires!”

As the filming team member pulled the electric reel, a long yellow wire stretched from the mansion to the entrance of the mansion where they were going to film. They planned to use the electricity they had drawn from the mansion.

“We’ll move the truck too.”

The truck, which had been parked near the mansion while moving the stuff, moved.

“Ji-yoon, camera, should we prepare all three for now?”

“Yes. How about putting them here, here, and there?”

The filming team and Hwang Ji-yoon discussed and adjusted the camera positions. It was a bit hectic because it was the first filming, but they would get used to it after a few times.

Soon after.

The front of the mansion, which had been empty, turned into a filming location. The lights were bright and the monitor on one side showed the scene that the camera was capturing very well.

“It’s a real filming location.”

“Yeah.”

Seo-jun and the acting students looked at the filming location with excitement. It wasn’t the place where they were going to film, but as actors, they felt their hearts swell just by seeing the camera and the lights.

The other students were similar. They all had faces that were excited with tension. The prop team members who had been assembling the furniture also came out to see the first filming, and the art team who had finished the makeup also appeared one by one.

Then, the actors of the first filming appeared.

Late Joseon period.

The students gasped at the sight of Hwang Do-yoon and Kim Sung-sik, who wore clothes that looked like what the farmers in the countryside would wear in winter.

“Mr. Kim, are you not cold?”

“I’m fine, I have a heat pack inside my clothes.”

“Please let me know if you feel cold. … And you too, oppa.”

Hwang Ji-yoon, who said that, saw Hwang Do-yoon adjusting his clothes and whispered to Seo-jun, who was helping him.

“Seo-jun, don’t you think ‘and you too, oppa’ sounds a bit soulless?”

Seo-jun only smiled, as if to agree.

The tension in the set rose as the actors who finished their makeup appeared. It was time to start filming for real.

Actors Hwang Do-yoon and Kim Sung-sik entered the camera angle, and the other students moved out of the set. As the filming team, the lighting team, and the sound team took their positions, the director, Hwang Ji-yoon, who was near the monitor, opened his mouth with a thrilled face.

His heart was beating so fast that he felt like it would break any moment. It was really happening. He was filming [Fire].

“Thank you all for your hard work in preparing for this in such a short time! November 4th! We will start the first filming of the movie Fire!”

Wow!

A huge cheer and applause erupted. Seo-jun, the acting students, and Kwon Se-ah clapped their hands until they hurt.

Soon, the short and loud cheer subsided. Seo-jun, the actors, and the team members waited for the director’s instructions with bright eyes.

In the quiet silence before the filming, which Seo-jun loved the most,

“Ready…”

Hwang Ji-yoon’s voice sounded a bit shaky.

“Action!”

***

Min-han nodded at the old man’s words to go to the mansion. He thought it would be okay to do some chores at the mansion since there was no work in winter.

He packed his belongings and headed to the Western-style mansion, which was a bit far from the village full of thatched houses.

The Western-style mansion was built by a Western merchant who came to Joseon. It was used as a villa for the merchant and his family at first, but now it was rented out to his acquaintances. The painter who came yesterday must have been one of them.

At the corner leading to the mansion, there was a middle-aged man with short hair. It was Mr. Lee.

“Hello, sir.”

“Yeah. Are you feeling okay?”

“Well, I’m a corpse without health.”

Mr. Lee smiled brightly at Min-han’s cheerful smile.

Mr. Lee had been managing this mansion with Mrs. Go for a long time, and he often gave Min-han some interesting food or items as gifts when he came to the village.

“I heard a new guest came a while ago… A painter, right? He hurt his hand.”

“Ah…”

Mr. Lee’s expression clouded. Min-han could tell from his face that the painter was not in a good condition.

“Yeah. He was young, but he was a famous painter in Hanyang.”

Mr. Lee’s face was full of worry and pity.

“But he got into a carriage accident in Hanyang and got seriously injured. He even got treated by a Western doctor… But it seems like he has a hard time with his daily life.”

Min-han looked puzzled at Mr. Lee’s words.

“Then shouldn’t he stay in Hanyang and get treatment instead of coming to this countryside?”

“The boss said he did all the treatment he could. Now he needs to do rehabilitation to improve his daily life… But he said the patient doesn’t show any will to get better.”

Mr. Lee clicked his tongue and moved his feet. Min-han followed him.

“Maybe he thought he would heal his mental illness by resting in this quiet and scenic place.”

“Mental illness?”

“Hmm…”

Mr. Lee seemed to think for a moment and then opened his mouth cautiously.

“Even if he does rehabilitation, he might be able to live a normal life to some extent… But he said it would be difficult to hold a brush again.”

“Ah…”

A painter who can’t draw.

Min-han sighed with regret. Mr. Lee also shook his head sadly, as if he felt the same.

“So I called you to help him a little. There’s a bit of an age difference, but you’re the only one in the village who’s his age.”

“Uh, uh. I don’t know anything about treatment.”

Mr. Lee snickered at Min-han’s flustered look.

“I don’t expect that.”

He said it as if it was obvious, and Min-han felt a bit annoyed.

“Just keep him company and let me or Mrs. Go know if he needs anything.”

“Can’t you do that, sir?”

He’s got a temper.

He held back from complaining why he called him, but he couldn’t hide his displeasure and spoke in a crooked tone. Mr. Lee smiled at Min-han and opened the tightly closed door of the mansion.

“Wow…”

Min-han, who had only seen the mansion from afar, put aside his grumpy attitude for a moment and opened his eyes and mouth wide in admiration.

The inside of the Western-style mansion was like a different world to Min-han, who had only seen thatched houses every day.

He kept saying wow, wow as he looked around, and Mr. Lee muttered.

“That young master has a temper too…”

Mr. Lee, who had been suffering for days, shivered and looked at the victim, not the victim, who would take his place from now on with a pleased face.

“Let’s go in.”

“Yes!”

The camera followed Min-han and Mr. Lee as they entered the open gate.

“Cut,”

There was a brief silence, and then,

“Okay!”

Hwang Ji-yoon, the director, suppressed her excitement and shouted the first okay, and a loud cheer and applause burst out.