“Can you really do it?”
“Come on, how can you ask that when you’re the one who created it?”
Yeon-woo replied with a grin, causing Director Do Gwang-wook to scratch the back of his head awkwardly. Seeing this, Yeon-woo continued.
“Let’s at least give it a try. Please explain the movements in detail.”
“Okay. Let’s go.”
Yeon-woo and the martial arts director walked to the center of the set.
“Alright, we’ll start from the left. Myung-jin, let’s begin.”
“Yes, sir!”
At Director Do’s call, men in special tights approached.
“I’ll show you in slow motion first.”
“Got it. I’ll try to follow along as best as I can.”
Yeon-woo positioned himself about four steps away from Director Do and began to catch the movements. Director Do extended his foot slightly and rotated his body, deflecting a white styrofoam rod coming from the left with his arm. Then, he turned and blocked another rod coming from a different direction with his outstretched back foot, as if performing a martial arts technique.
“This part is a bit tricky. If you do it quickly, the timing might be off, so you have to get a feel for it.”
Yeon-woo nodded, understanding that blocking with the back foot, which was out of his line of sight, would be challenging. However, the stunt team would aim the rods at his foot, so he just needed to extend it to the right height.
‘When these rods are covered with CG, they’ll become the long limbs of the White Blood Army androids. It would be better to add more weight to the movements than Director Do did.’
As Yeon-woo followed the movements in slow motion, he also thought about where to emphasize the acting. Director Do had only choreographed the action sequences; it was up to Yeon-woo to add the acting elements.
After performing the complex movements and dealing with the men, Director Do jumped to a white line drawn on the floor when an opening appeared.
“Here, when you reach this point, an object will fly towards you. Myung-jin, give me the sword.”
A stunt team member handed Director Do a special effects sword marked with several dots. Another stunt team member, who had been waiting, threw an object that looked like a relay baton.
Timing his swing, Director Do struck the flying baton with the sword as hard as he could.
“You need to hit this as hard as possible.”
CG Director Jung Yo-han, who had been watching the rehearsal, quickly added an explanation.
“You have to make it feel like you’re hitting something heavy enough to create a recoil. The object flying towards you is a photon cannon.”
“…A photon cannon?”
When Yeon-woo asked, Jung Yo-han nodded firmly with a serious expression.
“It’s very important. We debated a lot between a railgun and a photon cannon…”
“A railgun? Well, I’ll do my best to express the recoil.”
Yeon-woo didn’t fully understand the difference, but it seemed like a crucial concept for Jung Yo-han.
‘Right, Director Hwang Min-kwon and Jung Yo-han are close friends.’
For some reason, Yeon-woo found himself nodding.
As the action continued, Director Do began to get pushed back by the men in tights. The choreography naturally led him towards a large hole at the edge of the set.
“Now you fall here.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Director Do replied and then, struck by several batons thrown by the men, he flung himself backward.
Looking into the hole, Yeon-woo saw a ball pit like the ones found in kids’ cafes.
“Phew, that’s the end of one scene.”
Director Do Gwang-wook stood up, pushing aside the colorful balls in the pit. Yeon-woo turned to Director Hwang Min-kwon, who was standing behind him.
“Director, how long is the runtime for this scene?”
“Hmm, hard to say without editing, but it should be around a minute or so.”
This scene was the first to appear as soon as the series’ first episode began. Yeon-woo looked at the white lines crisscrossing the set like a spider’s web, nodding as if recalling something.
‘Hmm, start with the combo scene here, then the cylinder, left, then right, and finally getting pushed into the hole.’
Nodding to himself, Yeon-woo looked at Director Do, who had just emerged from the ball pit.
“Director, how long does it take to do this in real-time without breaks?”
“Without breaks? Myung-jin, how long does it take?”
“About 45 to 47 seconds.”
Clap─.
Yeon-woo clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention.
“Then let’s try it in one take. We should be able to succeed today.”
“Wow! If we can do it in one take, that would be amazing. Hehehe.”
While Director Hwang laughed foolishly at Yeon-woo’s words, Director Do wore a troubled smile.
“The thing is, we’ve practiced this hundreds of times to get it right. Doing it all in one day is going to be tough. Not only do the movements have to be precise, but the timing has to be down to the second.”
CG Director Jung Yo-han nodded in agreement.
“I can fix minor discrepancies in post-production, but for a one-take shot, the overall margin of error needs to be minimal.”
“Let’s give it a try first. If it doesn’t work, we can break it down into parts.”
Director Hwang agreed with Yeon-woo’s suggestion.
“Let’s do that.”
Yeon-woo moved to the central point where Director Do had been standing.
“Alright, let’s start. We’ll go through the movements slowly first. Are you ready, Yeon-woo?”
“Yes.”
Recalling the movements he had just seen, Yeon-woo began to move his body. He stepped forward slightly to the left and rotated his body, matching the stunt team’s swing of the styrofoam rod towards him. Extending his left arm, he deflected the rod and then used the momentum of his turn to naturally extend his back leg in a spinning kick motion.
The stunt team aimed the white rod at Yeon-woo’s foot, and he blocked it with precise timing, using his arms and legs to deflect the incoming rods in sequence.
While Director Do’s demonstration had resembled martial arts, Yeon-woo’s movements were smoother, almost reminiscent of a ballet dancer’s graceful motions. In reality, it was more like the stunt team was hitting Yeon-woo’s foot with the rod rather than him blocking it.
In action choreography, since it’s not an actual fight, if the actor performs half of the action, the stunt team completes the other half by making it look like they are getting hit. For a first attempt, the movements were well-coordinated, and the stunt team was excited.
‘Next is the left, then two from behind.’
Ooh─.
As the action continued, the sounds of admiration grew louder on the set. Although it wasn’t like skilled choreographers memorizing every detail at a glance, Yeon-woo’s extensive close-quarters combat training had ingrained the movements into his body. He focused on remembering the sequence of attacks rather than the specific details of each move.
The result was that while his movements differed from Director Do’s, the timing and positioning were spot on.
By the time they reached the midpoint, Yeon-woo heard a voice from the stunt team.
“Throwing!”
A white baton flew towards Yeon-woo.
‘They asked me to make it feel like there’s recoil.’
Recoil is essentially a repulsive force. It’s the force that pushes two objects away from each other, something Yeon-woo had experienced countless times in his past life. The recoil between gunpowder and a bullet when a gun is fired is stronger than one might think.
‘Think of it like the recoil from a .50 caliber BMG round.’
Drawing his prop sword, Yeon-woo struck the incoming baton with the flat of the blade. As the blade met the baton, Yeon-woo’s arm trembled slightly, as if it had hit a brick, and he pulled back. His lower body shifted backward to maintain balance, while his arms rose slightly, creating the perfect image of deflecting something heavy.
CG Director Jung Yo-han, who had been monitoring the scene, jumped up from his seat.
‘This is it!’
The set was a green screen stage with white lines crisscrossing like a spider’s web. The flying object was a plain white plastic baton. However, with Yeon-woo’s acting, the scene looked as if he had deflected a heavy attack.
Watching the monitor and imagining the CG that would be added, Jung Yo-han could almost see a white light aura. The final image of the protagonist deflecting the attack with his sword played vividly in his mind, as if it had already been edited.
‘I’m getting a surge of artistic inspiration. I can’t wait to edit this.’
Leaving the excited Jung Yo-han behind, Yeon-woo continued with the next movements. Although it was the first rehearsal and the speed was slow with some awkward parts, the stunt team was amazed that Yeon-woo was already matching all the movements from the first try. They watched in awe, their heads turning left and right in sync with Yeon-woo’s movements.
“Hey, at this rate, we could just shoot it as is.”
“Yeah, seriously.”
Yeon-woo’s rejuvenated body, trained daily, and his combat sense honed over many years were on full display. As he reached the final point, the staff shouted again.
“Throwing!”
Seeing multiple batons flying towards him, Yeon-woo nodded.
‘It would look cooler if I deflected at least one.’
Though it wasn’t in the demonstration, Yeon-woo raised his sword and deflected the first baton, then took the rest to his body as he jumped backward into the hole. On the monitor, it looked as if he had been hit by something heavy and was flying back.
“Oh, the scene looks fantastic. I can’t believe this is happening in my life!”
“Min-kwon, you seem excited?”
Jung Yo-han chuckled as he watched Director Hwang Min-kwon clap and stand up. However, Jung Yo-han himself looked even more excited, with a grin stretching to his ears.
‘This is going to be so satisfying to edit. I can’t wait.’
It wasn’t even the actual shoot, just the first rehearsal. Even the martial arts director was watching with shining eyes, slightly licking his lips.
‘Wow, with those movements and flexibility, we might finally have a proper action star in Korea…’
The problem was that Yeon-woo was already a well-recognized actor in other genres, and he was still growing. While the various directors were lost in their thoughts, Yeon-woo emerged from the ball pit.
“Ah, I’m sorry. I think I made a lot of mistakes since it was my first time.”
The stunt team members tilted their heads in confusion at Yeon-woo’s words.
‘What is he talking about? He nailed it on the first try…’
However, Yeon-woo’s expression was serious.
‘It’s been a while, so my hand-to-hand combat feels rusty. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a gun.’
Yeon-woo quietly walked to the center of the set.
“Let’s try it again, please.”
====
***
====
The rehearsal was repeated several times after that.
“Isn’t this perfect already…?”
Director Hwang Min-kwon muttered, tilting his head in confusion. The martial arts director nodded in agreement.
“Indeed, it seems we can shoot this in one take without any issues.”
Typically, before such a shoot, extensive action practice would be done before cranking in. However, due to the nature of this project, practicing without the set and CG would have been pointless. Therefore, they couldn’t practice until the set was fully constructed. Today was supposed to be just a camera rehearsal. But seeing Yeon-woo’s increasingly perfect execution during the rehearsal changed their minds.
“Yeon-woo, I think we can start the actual shoot today. What do you think?”
Yeon-woo nodded at Director Hwang’s suggestion. He felt he had found the answers to the adjustments he had been trying during the rehearsals.
“Let’s do it. I think I’ve got it down now.”
“Then let’s start with makeup. Please follow me, actor.”
Yeon-woo followed the staff to get his makeup and costume set up. When he walked out, Director Hwang’s nostrils flared with excitement.
“Oh, you’re exactly the protagonist I had in my mind.”
From the boots to the black uniform and the tattered robe that looked like a cape, the costume was entirely black, contrasting with the gleaming silver sword at his waist. But more than anything, it was Yeon-woo’s face that completed the look. His otherworldly appearance lent a significant amount of credibility to the fantasy setting.
Before they knew it, Ryu Yeon-woo had transformed into Jung Do-jin from 「White Blood」. Through several rehearsals, he seemed to have found the perfect balance between ‘complete immersion’ and ‘intentional action acting.’
Standing at the center of the set, Yeon-woo nodded and looked at Director Hwang.
“Shall we start right away?”
It was time to show his acting.s