Chapter 222
Chapter 222: Chapter 216
After stopping by the warehouse of KOVE DREAM, Hyunwoowoo headed to the office of Ani & Funny. While he was driving there, his cell phone buzzed.
He opened his eyes wide after confirming the caller.
It was the first time Soyun Han called him like this. It seemed she made the final decision.
“Well…I made up my mind. Let me participate in the featuring of the music video Temptation,” said she in a cautious voice.
He smiled from ear to ear.
She continued, “Jinyoung will instantly recognize me when I sing. So, I would like to get his promise first. Again, I don’t want my real identity to be revealed until the end.”
“Of course. You can count on me.”
“And I resigned from the alternative school as of today. Call me at the current number if you want to contact me.”
“Got it.”
As soon as he was done with the call, Hyunwoo called Jinyoung.
After some ringing, he picked up the phone in a sleepy voice.
“Were you sleeping?”
“Well, I shot the scene until late this morning. What the hell did you call me from early morning?”
Hyunwoo informed him of the news that could wake him up immediately.
“Soyun decided to participate in the music video at last. She said she would sing and dance together.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“You should keep her identity secret under any circumstances. I got her approval on the condition that I keep it under wraps.”
He then briefed Jinyoung about his conversation with her. Soyun would appear in the video, wearing a mask to hide her identity and using a different name.
Jinyoung felt the same way.
“Yea, we should accept her demands if that is what she wants. Let me call her directly and reassure her on this.”
“You can do it later when she actually participates. I think you had better keep quiet until then.”
“Okay. Let me rearrange the song to fit Soyun’s voice.”
Jinyoung hung up in a cheerful tone.
After the call, Hyunwoo called Kwangsu Han, the president of Real Film. He wanted to prepare in advance to keep his promise to Soyun.
“Hey, brother, I want you to make a program.”
“What is that?”
“It is about the story of those whose lives were ruined by the alleged sex video scandals. You remember the case of Nami Yu recently.”
“Wow, that will be pretty difficult,” Kwangsu grumbled.
According to Kwangsu, such a program needed professional experts who could analyze the sex videos in question and actual interviews with the victims.
The bigger issue was who was the target of the program.
“I wonder if you’re making this to target Taesu Ahn. Don’t mess around with him. When they feel that this program touches on Taesu, they will never have it on air.”
Hyunwoo felt regretful about it, but that was true.
“Got it. But I want you to make the program by all means. There are some victims for whose grudges I want to work off by all means.
“Are you talking about Nami Yu?”
“Not just her but also Soyun Han. I know something about Soyun, and she is still suffering from that sex video scandal. I know you’re in a difficult position, but please help me.”
“Phew. Let me try,” said Kwangsu, giving a green light to his request.
Kwangsu continued,
“By the way, is it possible to interview Nami and Soyun? The program will take real effects with their interview.”
“Nami would grant the interview, but I’m not so sure of Soyun. Let me ask her.”
“Sure. Let me try, too. I know some video analyzers, so let me search for them first.”
“I trust you, brother!”
“Don’t trust me! I’m being pressed already. Hahaha.”
Hyunwoo hung up pleasantly. And then he headed straight to the Ani & Funny office.
When he entered the office, Kyungsu briefed him about the status of the business.
“Tuti & Angelica’s Season 2 is getting more and more popular. Lots of replies praising Season 2 are coming in from all around the world. There are some fans who complain that we should deal with their history, too.”
Giggling at that, Hyunwoo said, “It’s fortunate that they don’t post hate comments. Are there cyberbullies in other countries?”
“We can’t simply conclude they’re cyberbullies. They just complain we are not dealing with the history and famous figures of their countries. Some of them sending us some tips on that.”
“Really?” said Hyunwoo, showing some interest.
Kyungsu checked his computer and took out one message from a fan overseas.
Hyunwoo read it. It was sent by an Indian names Chatulbuz. He protested why Tuti & Angelica did not deal with famous figures like Gandhi who was famous not only in India but also around the world. He even added an animation story with a mix of factual and fictional elements.
“Do we receive messages like this a lot?” asked Hyunwoo.
“Not many, but I have confirmed fifteen such messages recently.”
Hyunwoo’s eyes sparkled at that.
In fact, he had one headache about the internet cafe under the name of Ani & Funny. Since it opened, more than 2,000 people joined it, and they were still counting.
But the problem was that he didn’t know how to use them because there were not many stories for the internet cafe members to make use of.
In particular, they needed an enormous amount of time and energy to do research on the history of foreign countries and famous foreign figures.
But if they could make good use of messages like Chatulbuz’s, Hyunwoo felt such a problem could be solved in some respects.
“Can you sort out the messages and keep track of them? We don’t have to sit on them if the story material is good.”
“There might arise the issue of copyright. Foreign histories or figures might be okay even if we used them, but we had better be careful when we use them as storyboards.”
“We can buy their copyright,” said Hyunwo, presenting the solution at the drop of a hat
Then he composed a reply to the Indian’s message expressing thanks for submitting it, with the note that he would buy the copyright of his animation story.
Hyunwoo even made a simple contract in English for him, offering $200 for his animation story but didn’t mention any further compensation after it was used by Ani & Funny.
A little later Kyungsu sorted out the messages from foreign fans of Tuti & Angelica.
“They are kind of a hodgepodge. Some just wrote down their own famous figures, some talked about their history in detail, and others submitted animation stories like Chatulbuz.”
Hearing his explanation, Hyunwoo reviewed the material. Kyungsu mentioned 15 messages, but when they were sorted out, it numbered more than 30. Like Kyungsu said, some of the messages were not worth reading as they simply explained their own famous figures.
There were a total of five messages that contained complete stories. If Suhim Yu, the story creator of Any & Funny, handled them more professionally, they could be used as something interesting.
“As for these five stories, please email them about the copyrights of their stories. We are going to pay $200 for the complete stories and $100 for those stories that need Suhim’s finishing touches. And let’s work on the complete stories as soon as their copyright issue is solved.”
“Got it.”
Then he walked down to the first floor and called the students together.
“Hi, is there any progress in your work? By now you might have formed a team of your own.”
They just scratched their heads at his question.
He divided a total of 42 students with Ani & Funny into 21 teams. And he directed them to select 30 more from the internet cafe members.
In fact, it wasn’t difficult to select the team members as most of the cafe members were anxious to get closer to Ani & Funny and scramble for a position.
From the standpoint of the existing students, however, it was not that simple. For the final evaluation of their performance would depend on how talented cafe members they could select for their own teams. That delayed their decision.
But Hyunwoo couldn’t wait anymore.
“I think I gave you enough time. Just submit the storyboard and the list of the team members by next week. Your team members will be changed on a weekly basis, so don’t worry about that.”
“Got it.”
One week later, the 21 teams submitted the storyboards and their team members’ names.
In the meantime, the copyright issues involving the complete stories of foreign fans were resolved. Out of the five contracts, only one was refused.
Hyunwoo asked the managers to evaluate the storyboards of the student teams.
“Please choose the best four.”
“Yes, sir.”
Led by Sanggyu, the managers evaluated their storyboards intensively. As they were all experts, it didn’t take much time to judge the submitted storyboards. With a quick glance, they could figure out which one was organized and interesting.
“I think these storyboards are recommendable. With a few finishing touches, they can be very interesting items.”
Then, Hyunwoo called the students again, and he gave them the prize awards in cash, with the top winner receiving the most. He also assigned each team to a new task.
He handed storyboards to the top four teams, which were well polished by Suhim.
“You guys try to make the animation with this storyboard. I’ll give you one week. Other teams that failed to get chosen this time have to go back and review what’s lacking and deficient. You can pass your work around and read it in turns and try to improve.”
In fact, Hyunwoo didn’t attach much importance to the ranking of their works.
What he aimed for was not grade their performance but to create an environment where they could work harder.
That’s why he didn’t give the students enough time. Even though the level of completion of their storyboards was low, he wanted each team to make as many as possible.
Another week passed.
They submitted the completed storyboards. Though they complained about their hard work, they still racked their brains to complete them.
This time Hyunwoo didn’t grade them. And he had them corrected and refined further by the professional staff and sent them to its Vietnamese branch. He made sure that those stories with the attached messages from Story Mecca got a special note that read:
<The current work was made with the story sent by an Indian fan of Tuti & Angelica. We paid duly for the copyright fee for that.
We here at Any & Funny will actively use the stories sent by our fans and produce them as animated work. If you have good story ideas, please send your messages to Story Mecca.
If your stories are selected and sign the contract, we’ll pay between $100 and 200 in copyright fees.
We look forward to your active participation.>