Entertainment Life With A Camera

Chapter 48:

Chapter 48

I don’t want to be a parachute!

“Hello.”

“Huh…”

“Wow… hello.”

As Ian entered the shooting site for the advertisement, the staff members gasped.

“Wow… he’s so handsome.”

“Didn’t we choose our model so well?”

“The camera can’t capture his real beauty. It’s no joke.”

Not only the advertisement staff, but also the employees from Star Hearing headquarters looked at Ian with admiration. 

Especially, Team Leader Jeon Eun-ji was so stiff that she almost fell backwards.

“Team Leader, snap out of it.”

“Huh…? What…?”

The staff members moved busily. 

They gathered around Ian. 

Team Leader Jeon Eun-ji also approached Ian with the advertisement planner.

“You’re here so early. We’re still far from starting the shooting.”

“I guess I’m too excited for my first advertisement. Has Mr. Lee Young-gil not arrived yet?”

“Ah, he’s so cute, I’m going crazy…”

As Ian smiled softly and spoke, Team Leader Jeon Eun-ji blurted out what she was thinking in her mind. 

Suddenly, all the staff members stopped talking and looked at her.

“Did I say that out loud?”

“Haha! This is Team Leader Jeon Eun-ji from Star Hearing headquarters. She’s a fan of yours, Ian.”

The Star Hearing employee who came with Jeon Eun-ji tried to smooth things over. Ian smiled at Jeon Eun-ji and said,

“Oh, then it’s thanks to you that I got to do my first advertisement…?”

“Gasp… no, it’s not. It’s all because you’re so good…”

Jeon Eun-ji’s face turned bright red. She tried to cool down her face by fanning it with her hand.

“Thank you so much. Maybe I can give you an autograph later…”

But Ian’s smile and gratitude combo made her face red again. The people around Jeon Eun-ji laughed.

“Mr. Lee Young-gil is here!”

At the shout of a staff member, everyone rushed to greet Lee Young-gil. Ian also ran to him and bowed.

“Hello, sir! I’m Choi Ian, who will be shooting the advertisement with you.”

“Nice to meet you. You’re very handsome.”

Lee Young-gil smiled kindly and patted Ian’s shoulder.

“I watched your drama very well.”

“Wow… you did?”

“Of course.”

Lee Young-gil had a hobby of monitoring other dramas while he was busy with his schedule.

The shooting preparation was still in progress, so Ian and Lee Young-gil sat on the chairs prepared by the staff and chatted.

“Then, did you also listen to our song?”

“I heard it on New Year’s Day with ‘Along with Legends’. I watched it very well. You sing well and act well.”

“Wow… thank you. I’m also watching your works very well.”

Ian smiled happily at the compliment. 

The camera that was filming the behind-the-scenes captured that scene.

“Then, do you remember Tae-woong? He debuted in the same group as me.”

“Tae-woong? Jo Tae-woong? Oh yeah, I know him. He was a very cheeky kid.”

“Cheeky?”

Lee Young-gil laughed as he remembered acting with Jo Tae-woong.

“He was a kid, so I tried to be nice to him even if he couldn’t act well, but he came to me first and talked to me cheekily.”

“What did he say?”

“Don’t discriminate me from other hyungs and noonas and tell me if I did something wrong, okay? That’s when I realized that I was discriminating him because he was a child actor. He was a proper actor even though he was young.”

“Wow…”

[He’s something.]

Jin flew around and said.

“So I watched everything he appeared in. But then he suddenly disappeared and came back as an idol on TV, what’s that?”

“He was amazing since he was young.”

“That’s right… He acted very well too.”

He was just an ordinary high school senior now, but he had such a hidden talent. Ian felt Jo Tae-woong became more familiar to him.

“What a pity… If he continued his acting career, he would have been successful… Oh, I don’t mean to discriminate idols, okay? You know that, right?”

“Of course, I know.”

Ian laughed. 

He suddenly thought ‘Did I play a decisive role in turning him into an idol when Lee Young-gil approved of him as a child actor?’ and felt uneasy.

“We’ll start shooting soon!”

“Oh dear… it’s time to work.”

Ian and Lee Young-gil got up from their seats.

The concept of this advertisement was simple: Ian, who played the grandson, gave Lee Young-gil a hearing aid as a gift. It was a 15-second advertisement that would air on TV and YouTube.

Ian followed the staff’s instructions and started the advertisement shooting.

***

“See you next time.”

“Take care, sir!”

After the advertisement shooting was over, Ian bowed to Lee Young-gil. 

He had Lee Young-gil’s phone number in his hand. 

As Ian looked at the paper with a touched expression, Jin clicked his tongue.

[Do you like him that much?]

‘Don’t ruin my mood.’

Ian stayed on the site for the post-recording. 

In the meantime, he took pictures with other staff members, took selfies with Team Leader Jeon Eun-ji, and even gave her an autograph.

“Wow… I’m so lucky.”

Jeon Eun-ji forgot her embarrassment and jumped around happily. Seeing her fan like him so much, Ian felt good too.

“I… it’s about the advertisement fee.”

“Oh, is your advertisement fee too low?”

Jeon Eun-ji’s eyes sparkled with madness. 

She seemed to think of taking some money from her salary and giving it to him. Ian laughed and said,

“I want to donate some of my advertisement fee to a welfare organization.”

It was already discussed with his agency. 

He felt a bit sad thinking about the settlement later, but it was killing two birds with one stone: he could improve his image and do a good deed.

His agency also agreed with his idea and didn’t stop him. 

Ian turned his head and saw that Park Dong-soo was talking to the person in charge.

“Oh… really?”

Jeon Eun-ji covered her mouth with her hand as if she was touched. 

After the shooting, the agency and Star Hearing released promotional articles.

Ian Choi of AWY, donates all of his advertisement fee to a welfare organization

‘Star Hearing’, ‘generously’ joins Ian Choi’s donation proposal

***

“The kids’ distribution came out?”

Lee Byung-hun, the CEO of BHL Entertainment, rushed into the planning room. 

A planning team employee handed him a paper with the distribution written on it.

AWY mini 1st album distribution 56,000 copies

The distributor came out three months after the album release. 

There was a graph showing when the sales exploded, along with the distributors of other singers who debuted around the same time as him.

“Was this after Ian’s drama?”

The graph showed a rise in the initial period, then a sharp drop, and then a rebound at the end.

“Yes, the overseas site sales also increased slightly then.”

“How much was the initial sales for the second album?”

“It was a little over 50,000.”

“Ah, if only we didn’t overlap with Mydia, we would have really been number one…”

Lee Byung-hun put down the paper with a satisfied expression. 

The trend was very good. 

Compared to the sales of other rookies, it looked like he could easily win the rookie award.

“Well, there was also an article saying that Ian’s drama got a global OTT contract and exported to 13 countries… It seems like it will increase more.”

“That’s good news, but…”

Still, it felt awkward when only one member rose up. The representative stroked his chin and said.

“Did Jin-hyuk go to film ‘Idol Rapper’?”

“Yes, sigh… But it’s weird there too…”

“Why?”

“They know how to make money after I-One… They did another survival show.”

“Did that end already?”

Lee Byung-hun and the planning team staff sighed deeply.

***

‘Idol Rapper’ PD Lee Jong-soo sat slanted on his chair, watching the cast film with a dissatisfied look.

Co-PD Kang Byung-in was busy pushing one person.

“Our Choice’s Lim Ji-hoon! You were the runner-up on ‘Idol Choice’, right?”

At Kang Byung-in PD’s gesture, the host read the script.

Lim Ji-hoon of idol group ‘Choice’ was a survivor of ‘Idol Choice’, a survival program that recruited ordinary people to compete against idols, after Project Idol.

“Thank you very much for voting for me…”

“You came out on rap survival right away, are you okay?”

‘Project Idol’ was a survival program that received applications from trainees of existing agencies, so the revenue structure was divided by the broadcasting company and each agency.

After I-One became a hit, N-Net was bitter and launched a survival program called ‘Idol Choice’, where they set up their own idol agency and recruited ordinary people to take all the profits.

‘Ah, I’m bored.’

Park Jin-hyuk thought so, but he didn’t stop smiling. 

He never knew when he would get in trouble. 

That was Kim Hyun’s advice.

“I’ll be back in a bit.”

At the assistant director’s words, Park Jin-hyuk got up as if he was frustrated.

“Seon, do you want to go get something to drink?”

“Oh, I’ll just stay here.”

“Really? Then I’ll bring you some water.”

“Thank you, hyung.”

Park Seon of Mykit, who appeared with Park Jin-hyuk, looked nervous and pale.

“Min-hoo hyung, do you want anything to eat?”

“No, I’m good. Thank you.”

Seo Min-hoo, the rapper of MOM who appeared with Park Jin-hyuk on ‘With Legends’, also appeared with Park Jin-hyuk. 

Park Jin-hyuk and Seo Min-hoo became close thanks to ‘With Legends’.

Lim Ji-hoon of Choice was having a friendly conversation with Kang Byung-in PD. Park Jin-hyuk glanced at them and left the set.

***

“Fuck, I didn’t like Kang Byung-in from the start.”

PD Lee Jong-soo threw away his empty coffee can nervously. 

The coffee can went into the trash can nicely.

The planning of ‘Idol Rapper’ was started by PD Lee Jong-soo first. 

The plan to show that idol rappers are as good as underground rappers turned into a mediocre idol survival show after Kang Byung-in PD joined in.

“This PD is patient. Kang PD is making waves at headquarters right now.”

“He has no skills but only does politics. Why should I listen to him?”

PD Lee Jong-soo snorted at the assistant director’s dissuasion.

The problem was that ‘Idol Choice’ did not have as much impact as Project Idol. 

The ratings were in decimal points and the buzz was minimal, so N-Net pushed Choice into their own programs everywhere to promote them.

“There’s nothing we can do about it.”

“No! I don’t want to put that parachute on my show!”

“It’s a headquarters decision. What can you do about it… Just give them some airtime.”

“How can I package Lim Ji-hoon? He has no rap skills… Ah shit… Should I quit?”

“Oh my god PD-nim you already started filming… Let’s just get through this one. Okay?”

The assistant director was sweating nervously at PD Lee’s rant. 

The atmosphere at headquarters was already bad because ‘Idol Choice’, which cost a lot of money, did not perform as expected.

And in the bathroom, Park Jin-hyuk, who overheard their conversation, was shining his eyes, and they didn’t notice it at all.