Life, Once Again

After Story 114

“When is he coming?”

Jaehyun looked at his junior who seemed curious and said, “Soon.”

“Soon? You mean now?”

“He’s a quick kid. He said he was okay with coming right now, so I told him to come. It’s true that we have some time until it airs, but there’s nothing wrong with hurrying.”

“I’ll go see if the dubbing room’s empty.”

The junior opened up the website for the TV station employees.

“It’s empty today. Shall we sync it with the video since we’re at it?”

“He brought that up too. He wants to do it in the dubbing room.”

“Really? Sounds like he has experience recording audio then.”

“Right. What’s the time right now?”

“Lunch time.”

“Let’s eat before he comes. He says it’ll take about an hour and a half to come.”

Jaehyun took his junior to the company cafeteria.

“Why did you buy so many meal tickets? You should’ve just paid with your credit card.”

“You have to save up whenever possible. I heard that it’s going to go up by 500 won starting next month. If you pay with your credit card, that’ll be an extra 500 won with every purchase, but with meal tickets, you can use all the tickets you bought beforehand. Only if I save up money like this will I be able to drink with everyone else.”

“What a frugal guy. You should’ve shared something like that beforehand.”

“You don’t even have a wife at home. Why go so far?”

After they ate lunch, they got some coffee before leaving the TV station.

There were three cameras in front of the TV station. They were shooting a show.

“They've been shooting a lot here ever since the building got built.”

“They used a lot of money for the building, so they gotta make use of it somehow.”Property © NôvelDrama.Org.

“The building in Songpa is still useful. I don’t know why they built something like this and moved. If they had money to build a new building, they should use it to raise our salaries instead.”

“They don’t have enough money to raise the salaries of the employees but have enough to buy land and build a building. Still, I like it here since commuting has gotten easier.”

“I like that too. Anyway, what do you think they’re shooting?”

“Seeing director Kang Jaeyoon, I think it’s ‘Hot-blooded Youths’.”

“Oh, you’re talking about that thing where they bring in a bunch of young people and have them do difficult jobs, right? I watched it for a bit before, and it wasn’t really something that I liked. I saw a bunch of young kids carrying heavy stuff in construction zones. I have it difficult as is, so watching other people suffering made me wonder what the heck I was doing.”

“Don’t say that. They get a lot of views. In the broadcast industry, viewing rates are the truth and the life.”

Jaehyun waved his hand at director Kang Jaeyoon, as they made eye contact. Jaeyoon, who was a junior of his, smiled and bowed.

“When I look at you like this, it makes me realize you’ve been in this field for a long time. It’s about you quit working on the field and play hooky as a CP at the desk.”

“I don’t want to. I’m going to carry a camera until I’m too weak to walk.”

“You don’t hold the camera, the ones below you do.”

“It’s just a figure of expression. Why are you being so picky today?”

“I’m not being picky. I’m saying it for your sake. Rather than that, it’s almost time.”

He drank some coffee as he listened to his junior. It was 1 p.m., almost the appointed time.

As they were watching the TV show shoot happening in front of the new building, he got a call. It was Han Maru’s number.

“Have you arrived?”

-Yes. I’m in front of the station. But there’s a shoot here.

“You can go around them. I’ll be at the entrance so come quick.”

-I will go right now.

He waited after hanging up. Not long later, he caught sight of a young man wearing a black sweater and jeans. He knew as soon as he saw him that it was Han Maru. His stature was larger than what he saw in the video. He wasn’t breathtakingly handsome, but he did have a charm about him.

“Mr. Han Maru?”

“Yes. That’s me.”

“Hello there. I’m Nam Jaehyun.”

They had a light handshake. The junior introduced himself to Maru as well.

“Did I call you when you were supposed to be busy?”

“I was cleaning at home, wondering if I’ll get any work.”

Just as his daughter said, his voice was considerably good. There was a deep ring to it that he couldn’t tell over the phone. It was a clean and neat tone. His expectations rose.

“Should I call you director, or would you like me to call you producer instead?”

“Call me whatever you want. Have you had lunch?”

“I ate on my way here. It’s good to have a full stomach before working.”

“Right. Let’s head inside for now.”

The dubbing room was on the third floor. Jaehyun asked Maru on the way, “Do you watch documentaries often?”

“I watch all the documentaries from the three major TV stations. Though, I sometimes miss the special episodes.”

“All three major TV stations? That’s quite peculiar. Do you find documentaries fun?”

“Fun is one thing, but I mostly watch them out of habit. I like being at home, so I watch most of the things they put on TV. It’s worth studying from them as well.”

His junior cut in,

“You can study from documentaries despite being an actor?”

“Maybe it’s because I’m young, but I feel like there’s something to learn from anything.”

“That’s true. I learned a lot from adult tapes when I was young.”

Jaehyun laughed and looked at his junior. The junior shrugged.

“Come inside,” he said as he opened the dubbing room. Behind the mixers was a booth that was soundproofed.

It was possible to see inside the booth through a glass window.

Jaehyun went into the soundproof booth with Maru.

“Since you came all the way here, let’s skip the test and try dubbing the video itself. I’m sure this will be a good experience for you.”

“Thank you.”

“Have you worked on something like this before?”

“No, this is my first time.”

“I see. Your vocal tone is really good for now. It’s not a voice you’re squeezing out, so I think it’ll go well with the documentary too.”

Jaehyun got the script from his junior and gave it to Maru.

“This is not official, so you don’t have to be nervous at all. You’re an actor, so you’ve seen scripts before, right?”

“Yes.”

“The lines will be a lot longer compared to what you’ve seen in dramas. There are cases where you have to explain the scene through words, and there are times when you have to transmit your emotions purely through words, so they’ll be pretty long. You’ll probably have a hard time, and you’ll be quite thirsty too. Have a look through it for now.”

Maru’s eyes moved along the lines. Even though this must be an unfamiliar environment to him, he was adjusting easily. He was someone with a strong sense of self. He thought back to what head manager Choi had said about him. They wouldn’t raise a sapling that won’t become big, huh?

“How is it?”

“It’s a heavy topic. It’s also a story that someone has to tell.”

“It’s the reality experienced by people of your age. So? Do you think you can do it?”

“I’ll try it for now. The decision is up to you, producer.”

Jaehyun pulled his chin inward and said, “The documentary video will be played back on the monitor in front of you. I’ll explain before the dubbing starts about when you need to start and when you need to cut off. Relax. You just need to speak into the pop filter. Don’t get too close though.”

“I’ll try my best.”

“Do your best then.”

Jaehyun closed the soundproof booth and left. The junior was in front of the mixer, ready to record.

“Senior.”

“What?”

“Look at his expression. He looks like he’s in his own bedroom. I’m not sure if he’s bold or just numb.”

“It’s better than getting nervous or excited. How did he sound to you? Do you think we can use his voice?”

“His voice is good. We’ll have to see the recording to be sure, but if that’s how it sounds, then I think we can use it. But the quality of narration depends on how good the storytelling is. No matter how good his voice is, we can’t use it if it doesn’t sound good.”

“Let’s hear him out first and tell him if we need anything. I mean, he did come all the way here even though we didn’t arrange anything beforehand.”

“So what? When we were his age, we went around everywhere begging people to give us jobs.”

“Fine, you do you. Turn on the video for now.”

The junior put up the video. Jaehyun placed his hand on the mic button and spoke,

“Can you see the video?”

Inside the booth, Maru said that he could see it.

“We’re just doing a trial run for now, so we’re going to skip to the parts where there’s voice. I’ve marked the scenes on the script, so you can see how we’re doing this, right?”

“Yes, I’ll catch the hints.”

The junior quickly skipped through the video to the first part that had narration. He could see multiple high-rise buildings taken from a bird’s eye view.

Jaehyun explained into the mic.

“First, focus on speaking accurately like you’re reading from a textbook. We’ll have to see if your voice fits the video.”

“Okay. Can I slightly lower my vocal tone?”

“If there’s something you have in mind, you can try it out. As I said before, this is not the official recording.”

Jaehyun took his finger off the mic button and smiled.

His junior said, “I like his attitude of wanting to try various things. I’ll start now.”

Jaehyun put on the headset. Maru’s voice could be heard amidst the faint white noise.

He didn’t look the part, but maybe he got nervous? His breathing noise was louder than what Jaehyun expected.

The paused video started again. A cat walking at the foot of the building appeared. Jaehyun spoke in a small voice,

“Start now.”

Maru’s breathing was completely cut off before his voice kicked in.

-I, am a cat. The flower bed at the foot of Guwol-dong building is my house.

The cat crossed the road to the café on the opposite side of the road. Maru spoke his line at just the right time.

-My mornings always begin with visiting the café in front of the building. If I sit still at the café, I can see many people coming and going. People wearing the same clothes walk in the same direction every day. I find them curious, and on one hand, quite frustrating. What is it that they’re doing?

“Wait a second,” Jaehyun said, stopping the video. He saw Maru in the booth putting down the script.

“Senior. That was better than I expected?”

“Yeah.”

“First of all, he’s stable. You know how rookies slip up when they first say their lines. Their breathing is messed up, they never get the timing right, and they try to add unnecessarily fancy techniques. But he’s quite plain. I can’t tell how good the storytelling is, but it’s good to hear.”

“That’s one thing, but the way he uses his breathing is also not ordinary.”

The junior nodded.

“You’re talking about how mixed in his breathing when he started his second line, right?”

“Do you think he did that intentionally?”

“We’ll see if we continue.”

Jaehyun looked at Maru through the window. Did he really not have any experience doing dubbing? It was not an easy task to add voice to a scene accurately. If that were easy, voice acting wouldn’t be a profession.

The timing of the lines he just said was perfect to the point that there was no need to extract the audio and re-sync.

Although he gave the signal for the first line, it was entirely on Maru when he started his second line.

“We’ll see if he got that right due to coincidence, or if he’s just that talented in structuring a video.”

Jaehyun signaled his junior. He was originally planning to listen for just about 10 minutes, but he changed his mind.

“Mr. Maru.”

“Yes.”

“Are you busy today?”

“I’m not.”

“Then we can take our time recording, right?”

“I’m okay with that.”

“First up, you’re really good, both your voice and your senses in knowing where to begin. We’ll try textbook-style reading for a few more paragraphs. Like before, I’ll tell you where to begin on the first part, but after that, you can try it out yourself. Can you do that?”

“I’ll try.”

Jaehyun put on his headset again and said, “Then let’s continue.”

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