Top Star By Luck [EN]: Chapter 166

166

“The idea itself is near perfect.”

Director Shim Sung-bo uttered the unbelievable words like a pebble tumbling from his lips.

The word ‘perfect.’

Except for maybe Martin Scorsese or Stephen King, it was a word that no creator would dare to utter easily, yet it came from the mouth of Director Shim Sung-bo.

‘Am I hearing things?’

What is perfect?

I feel like I’m experiencing a Gestalt collapse [a psychological phenomenon where the mind groups disparate elements together to form a unified whole].

Lee Min-ki was in disbelief, questioning his own ears. Director Shim Sung-bo, without even trying to hide it, spoke with a voice filled with deep interest.

“If you had such an idea from the start, I wish you had told me sooner. You’ve brought a synopsis that meticulously covers everything from the basic structure to trends, commercial viability, and even the convenience of the production process.”

Lee Min-ki could only blink at the continued praise.

He had expected criticism as cold and solid as Arctic ice, but what came was praise like a spring breeze.

“This?”

“Yes, it’s a very interesting story.”

He nodded and continued.

“Of course, just because it’s good doesn’t mean there aren’t parts to fix. In fact, there are many parts to fix. We’ll probably have to cut out half of it and rewrite it. There are just too many parts that would be impossible to use as is in a movie.”

Ah, I knew it.

I thought he was just praising me.

It was a give-a-sweet-and-then-sour strategy.

A give-a-stable-and-then-burn-it strategy.

Just as Lee Min-ki was reinforcing his mental state with a solid iron plate, thinking that the main point was about to begin.

“But that’s only natural since you’ve never written a movie script before, Mr. Lee.”

Director Shim Sung-bo glanced at his phone again and spoke with a satisfied voice.

“I repeat, this is enough. Joo-yeon, what do you think?”

His gaze turned to his wife, who he had married not long ago.

Oh, right.

It wasn’t over just because I convinced Director Shim Sung-bo.

‘Director Shim Sung-bo decides the overall direction, but the final decision is always made with Director Jin Joo-yeon.’

In the end, it meant nothing without the unanimous agreement of Director Jin Joo-yeon.

Just as Lee Min-ki was regaining his composure, Jin Joo-yeon took the baton and opened her mouth.

“Yeah, this is really interesting, isn’t it?”

“……”

She seemed to feel the same way.

Following her husband, she still couldn’t take her eyes off the text and spoke.

“This seems to fit the trends of young people these days. It’ll be quite the hot topic, won’t it? It’s intuitive, just like Sung-bo said.”

“……”

Both directors praised it highly.

And it was none other than the directors who had already come up with their own story.

Lee Min-ki was so surprised that he forgot how to react and could only blink, but Jin Joo-yeon was genuinely impressed.

‘How can someone who has never written a script write like this? Usually, they only know how to string things together plausibly, but there’s no substance. Most of them get caught up in their own details, settings, worldviews, or nonsensical philosophies, so nothing worth reading ever comes out.’

The story Lee Min-ki brought was different.

How should I put it?

Even in the smallest, most insignificant parts, it perfectly captured the real difficulties of the actual production process.

“First of all, I like that we can save a lot on production costs with Mr. Lee’s synopsis.”

“Production costs?”

“Wasn’t that your intention?”

Jin Joo-yeon chuckled slightly at Lee Min-ki’s reaction and said.

“The setting is almost entirely in Korea, and the story mostly takes place indoors, right? It doesn’t require a large set. Maybe just one stage at the end?”

That’s right.

In terms of the story, the element of saving production costs was huge.

To get back to the main point, Lee Min-ki’s story could be briefly described as follows:

[A Korean outsider college student who admires the world-famous pop star William Lockhart starts uploading music on the internet. It becomes a huge hit, and it reaches William Lockhart’s ears, leading them to actually start collaborating.]

A mere fan getting connected to William Lockhart himself.

It was truly a life-changing, bases-loaded comeback [a baseball term for a hit that scores all runners on base, implying a major success].

An outsider college student who turns out to have incredible talent as a singer. That accidentally goes viral on the internet. And luckily, it reaches William Lockhart’s ears.

He likes the music so much that he suggests they release a song together.

‘Half of the story can be filmed in an indoor studio, and at most, we’ll need a club room or a studio apartment.’

It was a strength that came from actively utilizing the stage of internet broadcasting itself.

Even though it’s clearly a music movie, the effort required to set up the stage is reduced. This would greatly reduce production costs and time.

‘Later, we only need to have William Lockhart appear simultaneously on a small scale just once.’

There were many advantages, but the most important thing was separate.

That was the fact that the fun wasn’t sacrificed in this process. It simply reduced production costs without any compromise.

From the perspective of Jin Joo-yeon, who was in charge of managing film production costs at Maiar Pictures, she couldn’t help but like it.

“It’s the most trendy material, and it’s something that anyone would dream of at least once.”

Jin Joo-yeon continued her review, or rather, she was really continuing her review.

“I wanted to feature William Lockhart in the movie in some way, and this would allow him to naturally appear as himself.”

There was no need to feature him only through music.

Why not just have William Lockhart appear, and as himself?

“William Lockhart as William Lockhart. The fans would be satisfied with that, wouldn’t they?”

Overall, the calculations were good.

‘Or, were they really calculations?’

Jin Joo-yeon had a small doubt.

‘It seems like he instinctively caught on to what’s important in film production. Is it because he has so much input? Or is it because he’s good at acting that he has such a broad perspective?’

But.

This wasn’t everything.

While Jin Joo-yeon felt the strength in terms of the film’s production costs, there were also people who focused on other aspects.

“Joo-yeon, I like this part.”

This time, Director Shim Sung-bo nodded and opened his mouth.

“The fact that the main character isn’t a music major or anything like that, but a somewhat unskilled college student.”

This was about the plausibility of the movie.

“It wouldn’t be a big problem if Mr. Lee’s singing skills are a bit lacking. That’s the kind of character he is from the start.”

Being able to solve structural problems.

The fact that they could cover up the slightly lacking singing skills of the male lead, Lee Min-ki, felt significant to him.

‘Originally, even if the actor received intensive vocal lessons until the day of filming, and even if we borrowed the power of machines and experts to cover it up with mixing to the limit… it would have been difficult. If necessary, we would have had to hire another singer and cover it with their voice, but…’

It was solved.

It was a good story structure that could cover that limitation.

From the start, the main character is a non-major!

‘If he’s a non-major, it doesn’t matter if he’s a little lacking.’

Of course, even if he’s a non-major, he can’t be at an unbearable level since he’s the main character in a music movie.

He’ll have to practice until his vocal cords are torn.

But there’s a big gap between a listenable level and the level of a professional, isn’t there? Lee Min-ki’s story succeeded in greatly reducing this gap.

Besides that, there were more than enough elements to praise.

“Mixing in the keyword of internet broadcasting. That’s really big. Young people in their 20s these days would be hooked. Don’t you think so, Joo-yeon?”

“Yeah, and this part, spreading overnight on the internet. It’s good for adjusting the running time. We can speed up the development, and it wouldn’t seem awkward.”

“Is that so?”

“If a music movie starts from the bottom and rises step by step, it takes a long time and becomes tedious. Playing in local clubs, releasing albums, when would we film all that?”

Even the pace of development.

There’s nothing particularly to criticize.

Of course, as Director Shim Sung-bo said, there were some problems with the detailed development.

Such as the main character starting broadcasting because he wanted to impress the heroine.

But.

‘These are parts that can be easily fixed.’

If you’ve drawn a big picture worth 10, does it matter if you can’t do 1?

Meanwhile, Joo Ha-na, who had been quiet for a while, belatedly asked as if she was impressed.

“Like the two of you said, I can’t say anything in detail, but I read it very interestingly. How should I put it?”

The next moment.

The words that came out of Joo Ha-na’s mouth were sharper than any words that had come out of the two directors’ mouths so far.

“It was so much like a web novel that I was surprised.”

A web novel?

Unable to deny it, Lee Min-ki coughed as if he had choked and said.

“Ha-na, do you like web novels?”

“Ah, I’m a homebody, so I read novels all the time on holidays. Usually, it’s romance or something like that.”

I see.

That’s why she noticed.

In fact, Joo Ha-na’s impression was so sharp that it was almost chilling.

Because.

‘It really is a web novel development.’

The process of writing the story is, as Joo Ha-na guessed, the web novel itself.

Some time ago, Lee Min-ki had an idea when he accidentally witnessed the Honey Taste Book Cafe.

‘Come to think of it, in just three years, there was a war in the video industry over web novel IPs [Intellectual Properties], wasn’t there?’

It was the year Lee Min-ki returned to the past.

[A Music Monster Living Twice]

[An Acting Genius from the Forest]

[The Youngest Son of a Conglomerate]

[Forest of Actors]

Video adaptations exploded.

Modern fantasy works with developments unique to web novels began to be adapted into videos one by one, and most of them achieved good results.

‘The fact that they basically removed all unnecessary formalities from the development was a big factor.’

In short, the hit rate was high.

As a result, drama production companies were in a war to preempt the video adaptations of hit works, splurging hundreds of millions of won in advance royalties.

Among them, there were particularly popular keywords.

Namely.

[Turns Out]

[Internet Broadcasting]

Such works were like that.

[Turns Out].

It was the title of stories where the main character wasn’t particularly talented, but in fact, they were extremely talented and did everything.

[Internet Broadcasting].

Rising through internet broadcasting was also a common development that was too numerous to count.

‘I just mixed those two together and added an environment where William Lockhart could easily get attached.’

That’s right.

The story Lee Min-ki presented was exactly the skeletal plot of a hit web novel IP, no more, no less.

Of course, it wasn’t plagiarism.

There are countless works with similar plots.

Why, isn’t it commonly said that the plot of a novel has already come out of [Greek Roman Mythology]?

‘Whatever work the actor referred to, in the end, it was the actor’s eye that put it together.’

From Lee Min-ki’s point of view, he was about to receive praise for bringing the future trend three years in advance, and he even felt a small sense of guilt.

But this was something Lee Min-ki felt because he didn’t know.

That being able to accurately pinpoint the reason for the success of the same work is an innate talent.

Also.

‘Even if you pinpoint the main plot, there are very few people who can complete it as the overall structure of the work.’

Just because you have cooking ingredients doesn’t mean you can connect them to a recipe.

Overwhelming input.

When that input was mixed with appropriate field experience, it could be said that Lee Min-ki’s foresight itself had taken a leap to another dimension.

Of course, there was also luck.

Luck to pick out only one work that was precisely optimized to fit the production environment among countless synopses.

“Overall, it’s a work with few weaknesses.”

While Lee Min-ki was lost in thought, Director Shim Sung-bo was sighing inwardly.

‘I can’t be complacent yet.’

He felt a small sense of enlightenment.

The problem was the synopsis that he and Jin Joo-yeon had been working on together.

‘I was thinking of a story about a singer who was blacklisted by critics and went bankrupt, then made a comeback as a star while working as an anonymous singer.’

The story they had constructed was somewhat lacking in stimulation.

It was orthodox, but Lee Min-ki’s story was a much better version in that it could be filmed in Korea without having to go abroad.

Moreover, it was easy to adjust the main character’s musical skills.

‘At this rate.’

Director Shim Sung-bo blinked for a moment as if resting his mouth.

After much deliberation, he opened his mouth.

“Mr. Lee, how about you participate as a genuine producer this time?”