wavenovel Chapter 1368 Booting up
Chapter 1368 Booting up
Chapter 1368 Booting up
"The view and scenery here are really nice..."
Standing on the rooftop of a six-story building in the JB district, looking out at the distant night view, Chi Jingyuan muttered to himself.
Although a music video will be made for "Horizon of Events," since it's a subway song, the focus is on the audio. The music video is just a supporting element, and the time is also quite tight, so the music video design is rather simple. It simply shows some images of Ji Kyung-won singing and some scenery.
However, besides these, there are also some rather brilliant designs.
One of them is a scene of someone sitting at a high place at night, looking out at the night view of Seoul and the bright moon in the sky, singing in the evening breeze... This is the scene that Ji Kyung-won thought of when he was looking at the lyrics and theme. He felt that if it was filmed well, it would be very suitable for the song's artistic and healing theme and lyrics.
They were here to film this scene... SM staff found the filming location in half a day; it was a six-story building in the JB district.
Because of its high elevation, even though the building isn't very tall, the view is excellent. Standing here and looking into the distance, you can see half of Seoul's lights, the twinkling of the bright moon, and the deep night sky. It makes you want to stop and enjoy the beauty of gazing into the distance in peace.
Even Chi Jingyuan, who is somewhat afraid of heights, was captivated by the view. After hesitating for a few seconds, he tentatively walked to the side and was immediately drawn in by the scenery. He couldn't help but exclaim in praise:
"Brothers, you guys really know how to pick a place."
"There are many places in Seoul with night views, but it's really not easy to find a rooftop terrace without railings with a good view. It's not easy for the company's staff to find this place."
The MV director next to him heard what he said, walked over and explained with a smile, and then looked at the night view in the distance and couldn't help but exclaim, "Indeed, it's very beautiful."
The director in charge of filming is from SM Entertainment. He has worked with Ji Kyung-won before, so they are quite familiar with each other.
"Jingyuan, you just sit here and look into the distance. You don't need any script, just lip-sync. Feel free to improvise."
After enjoying the scenery for a while, they started working. Cody touched up Ji Kyung-won's makeup and styled his hair. The director then confirmed with Ji Kyung-won, saying, "We will set up several camera positions to shoot from various angles."
"Um……"
Upon hearing this, Chi Jingyuan nodded in confirmation, letting Cody style his hair from behind. After thinking for a moment, he added, "The lighting could be a little dimmer. I hope this shot can convey a hazy, dreamlike feeling."
"Then……"
After the director nodded in agreement, Chi Jingyuan paused for a moment. A gust of night wind blew by, making him shiver. He couldn't help but laugh and said, "The wind machine probably won't be needed. It's quite windy here... The natural wind should make the filming look more natural."
"Haha."
The cosplayers around them laughed, and the director chuckled twice, then advised, "You should put your clothes on first. It's quite cold, and we need to get ready for a while longer. Don't catch a cold."
After waiting for about twenty minutes, the staff finally got ready, and Chi Jingyuan took off his down jacket and sat on the edge of the rooftop, sweating a little... Fortunately, there were safety measures in place.
"Aigoo, this angle is perfect! And the clouds just happened to be drifting over!" The director, who had been observing from a distance for a while, clapped his hands in delight.
Chi Jingyuan looked up and saw that during the preparation, a few clouds had drifted over at some point, like thin gauze, passing over the moon and blocking half of the moonlight. This created a bright yet hazy light, and the scene looked beautiful even without music or post-production enhancement.
"Hurry up and prepare!"
The director quickly seized the opportunity, and everyone got ready: "3, 2, 1, Action!"
As the director finished speaking, and the accompaniment began softly, as if by telepathy, a gentle breeze lifted Chi Jingyuan's sleeve.
He was wearing a light-colored, oversized, loose-fitting knit sweater with the shoulder line falling two fingers wider than his actual shoulder width. The cuffs were casually bunched up on his forearms, revealing half of his wrists.
Sitting quietly on the edge of the rooftop, head tilted, gazing into the distance.
The office buildings across the Han River were brightly lit, their glass curtain walls reflecting the deep moonlight. Further away, Namsan Tower was wrapped in a warm orange light, drawing a dazzling arc in the dark night sky. Along with the countless cars below, they converged into colorful rivers of light.
The distant brilliance seemed too far away, unattainable, and this quiet rooftop felt too far away, like an isolated island suspended above the city.
The winter night wind, carrying the dampness from the river, swept past Chi Jingyuan along with the hazy moonlight.
The wind seemed to pick up suddenly, blowing his hair back and a few longer strands brushing against his neck.
But he didn't raise his hand to brush it away; he simply sat there quietly, watching the commotion in the distance.
"Where the stars disappeared, a faint white light could be seen."
The accompaniment, with its slight trembling carried by the wind, blended into the winter night air along with the distant hustle and bustle of traffic.
Dim, hazy, ethereal—an extremely romantic and atmospheric composition appeared in the lens and in everyone's sight.
The female cosplayers and staff nearby were stunned by what they saw. They covered their mouths and tried their best not to make a sound, greedily watching this beautiful scene.
Many people instinctively remained silent, only hearing the music echoing around them, until the director shouted:
"stop!"
"Perfect!"
…………
Although the collaboration on the subway theme song "Horizon of Events" originated from a casual idea at a dinner party, once it was finalized, both Ji Kyung-won and Jung Eun-ji put in their full effort.
With several days of dedicated work and the full cooperation of the company, the song "Horizon of Events" was completed very quickly. In just five days, a subway song was created from scratch, and even the music video was filmed. The whole process took less than two and a half days.
This efficiency is considered an industry benchmark.
However, compared to the incredible efficiency of Girls' Generation in completing a reshoot in just one night after the original MV for "MR.MR" was scrapped due to a staff error 14 years ago, Ji Kyung-won is still slightly lacking.
However, he remembered that the song seemed to have been overshadowed by his and Bae Suzy's "SOME"...
Speaking of the music video, he originally thought it would just be a simple music video to match the song, but he didn't expect that the night scene shot would turn out so perfectly. Even he was amazed when he saw the finished product, and the effect of matching the song was even more explosive.
Ji Kyung-won sensed that once the time was right to announce it, he might have another iconic moment.
This year's subway song project has been unlucky all year. Compared with last year, there are almost no hit songs. Even though the original intention of this project was to focus more on the artist's performance and the song's presentation rather than whether it can become popular, it is not what SM wants to see if it is too ignored.
Now that Ji Kyung-won's song is sorted out and they've found the fig leaf they wanted, SM Entertainment is even more eager than Ji Kyung-won himself.
Therefore, under SM's arrangement, "Event Horizon" was directly pushed ahead in the subway song project and is confirmed to be officially released next month, on December 22.
If nothing unexpected happens, releasing a song at this time might even clash with EXO's own album release, which would be quite interesting.
After finishing the subway song, it was already the end of November. Ji Jingyuan had just finished working on the song the day before, and rushed to Netflix early the next morning.
After so much preparation, "The Spy" is finally going to start filming. There will be a script reading session that will last for a day and a half. After the reading session ends on the second day, the opening ceremony will be held, and then filming will officially begin.
In the hotel conference room rented by Netflix, all the main creators of "The Spy" as well as all the main actors and supporting actors were already present, each sitting in their own seats, some reading the script and some whispering to the people next to them, waiting for the study session to begin.
"...Excuse me, could you give me a bottle of water?"
Chi Jingyuan was reading the script when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a staff member carrying in a case of bottled water. Feeling a bit thirsty, he offered to help.
"One bottle?" The staff member immediately came over, grabbed a bottle across the table, and was about to hand it to Chi Jingyuan when the staff member suddenly asked another question as Chi Jingyuan stood up to take it.
Upon hearing his question, Chi Kyung-won glanced to his left, where Kim Ji-won was sitting, smiling at him.
“Uh, then two bottles it is.” Chi Jingyuan immediately changed his mind.
"Okay..." The staff member took out another bottle, but when handing it over, they asked again, "Two bottles?"
“Uh…” Ji Jingyuan paused, then glanced to his right. Lee Sung-kyung, who was also a lead actress, was sitting there with her desk empty, smiling at him.
"Then three bottles..."
Chi Jingyuan changed his mind again, but paused after speaking and helplessly surrendered: "Ani, please give everyone a bottle."
"Ha ha ha ha……"
The actors nearby had been watching this scene closely, and after seeing Chi Jingyuan's reactions, they all started to laugh and tease him. The previously quiet conference room suddenly became more lively.
Although he seemed to have been teased a few times, Chi Jingyuan didn't care at all and even pretended to be helpless.
Actually, all the actors had already memorized the script thoroughly beforehand. The so-called script reading session was one aspect, but more importantly, it was to allow all the actors to get to know each other before filming began.
Many actors are working together for the first time, so there will be some awkwardness and embarrassment between them. After filming begins, every shoot is a money-burning affair, and continuous takes will wear down their enthusiasm. There is no time for the actors to adapt and get familiar with each other. This workshop is the best time to do so, so it is very necessary.
So everyone wanted a lively atmosphere, and some actors secretly breathed a sigh of relief and became more relaxed when they saw that Ji Kyung-won, who had participated in the entire audition and clearly had a lot of power, and who seemed to have a very nice personality as the lead actor.
"Hello everyone, I'm director Ahn Gil-ho... I will do my best to ensure that there are no accidents on set and that the set is happy and enjoyable. Thank you."
The study session quickly began, starting with self-introductions. Director Ahn Gil-ho was the first to stand up and say a few polite words, followed by the director and writer Choi Ran, and then it was the turn of the male lead, Ji Kyung-won:
“Annyeonghaseyo, I am Ji Kyung-won, who plays the role of Jung Ba-rin.”
Under everyone's gaze, Chi Jingyuan stood up and bowed slightly:
"I will try my best to show good acting skills, please take good care of me."
…………
With everyone's deliberate enthusiasm, or rather, their professionalism in being enthusiastic for the sake of work, the one-and-a-half-day script reading session came to a successful conclusion.
The effect was indeed quite good. At least Ji Kyung-won had talked a lot with several of the main actors, such as Lee Hee-joon, who played the second male lead Go Moo-chi, and several other actors who had many scenes with him, and they became quite familiar with each other.
The person he talked about the most was Lee Sung-kyung, who had the most scenes with him in the drama. Before meeting her, judging from her looks and her super model-like figure, one might think she had a rather aloof personality. But once you get to know her, you'll find that she's actually quite lively and cheerful, and she seems very energetic.
She looks a bit like... well, a bit like Sana Minatozaki.
The next day, after the script reading session, all the main creators and actors arrived at the scene to prepare for the opening ceremony.
The altar was neatly set up. On the vermilion altar, three white porcelain bowls were filled with water, rice and fruit. In the center of the altar was a gilded incense burner with three sticks of incense sticks inserted in the middle. The smoke rose up and carried the coolness of winter. The backdrop had the words "Peeping" written in large gold lettering.
After the speeches, a traditional worship ceremony began. The main creative team members offered incense in turn according to their roles, with the lead actors following the director and writer.
As recorded by the camera, Ji Kyung-won led Kim Ji-won and Lee Sung-kyung to the incense table. He stood in the middle, with the two actresses on either side, bowing at a perfect 90-degree angle to offer incense.
After the blessing ceremony, the filming began with a group photo. The main cast members stood in their positions, with Ji Kyung-won in the center, his left hand naturally resting on director Ahn Gil-ho's shoulder, and Lee Sung-kyung standing respectfully beside him.
"I hereby announce that the production team of 'The Spy' has officially started work! Congratulations on the start of filming!"
After the group photo, a "revealing the mirror" ceremony was held. Director Ahn Gil-ho personally unveiled the red silk and shouted auspicious words, while everyone around cheered and applauded.
All preparations for filming have been successfully completed. The first scene will be filmed on Jiangyuan Road, and all the actors will go directly to the location with the crew.
But Ji Kyung-won couldn't go with the crew...
"It's okay, Jingyuan, you don't have any scenes in the first episode, so it won't affect filming."
Looking at Ji Kyung-won, who was saying goodbye with some apology, director Ahn Gil-ho remained calm: "But Kyung-won, are you sure you can make it over on the 3rd?"
Although the drama has officially started filming, the timing just happens to clash with EXO's schedule. Ji Kyung-won is flying to Japan tomorrow to prepare for the Tokyo MAMA on the 31st, and then he will attend the Hong Kong MAMA and MMA in the next two days. These are all very important award ceremonies, and as the core member of the group, he really can't leave.
As the male lead of a drama, Ji Kyung-won felt a little embarrassed that he couldn't attend the filming of the series.
However, the male lead he plays, Jung Ba-rin, won't make his first appearance until the middle of the second episode, so fortunately it won't affect the filming of other people.
Hearing the director's concerns, Ji Kyung-won raised his hand and said decisively:
"PDnim, don't worry, I'll definitely be there!"