weddingnovel Chapter 13 Interview
Chapter 13 Interview
Jiang Yongtai stood in front of the turnstile in the lobby of the CJ ENM building, holding his temporary access pass in his hand.
At the reception desk on the other side of the turnstile, an entire wall of screens was playing tvN program highlights.
"New Journey to the West", "Three Meals a Day", "Youn's Kitchen"... all are works by Na Young-seok.
"PD Kang?"
A young woman with her hair in a ponytail and a tvN employee badge hanging around her neck jogged over from the direction of the elevator.
She stopped in front of Jiang Yongtai, slightly out of breath, and bowed.
"Yes, I am Jiang Yongtai."
"I am Zhao Enzhen. Youngseok oppa asked me to come down and pick you up."
She smiled and pointed to her employee ID card.
"I'm currently the youngest PD in the variety show production department, but I won't be anymore after PD Kang comes along."
Kang Young-tae smiled. "Yes, Eun-jin sunbaenim."
Zhao Enzhen seemed to enjoy the title; she could finally shed her maknae (youngest member) status, and she nodded in satisfaction.
"But PD Kang is probably older than me, right?"
"I was born in '96, where's Eunjin sunbaenim?"
"Ah! I'm from '98."
She quickly calculated their seniority, "He's older than me, so let's make things easier for each other."
Jiang Yongtai smiled and nodded.
"Then I'll call you Eunjin sunbaenim, and you can call me maknae."
Zhao Enzhen looked at his smiling face, her gaze lingering for a moment before looking away.
"Yes, that works too."
It's already good that she hasn't lost the title of "senior." Jiang Yongtai switched jobs and has much more seniority than her. If we follow the rules, she should be the one calling him "senior."
"By the way, maknae, you're here for an interview today. Youngseok oppa and the others are already on the sixth floor."
The two passed through the turnstile and entered the elevator.
Zhao Enzhen cleared her throat.
"I heard you used to work at KBS?"
Jiang Yongtai nodded.
"Then you probably aren't familiar with this building, right? Perfect, let me show you around."
She was clearly prepared, and spoke a little faster than before.
"We are now in the CJ ENM building in Sangam-dong."
tvN is a cable channel under CJ ENM. In addition to tvN, there are also channels such as OCN and Mnet, but the departments of OCN and Mnet are not in this building.
CJ ENM also has TVING, which is currently just an OTT platform, but will produce original content in the future.
There's also Studio Dragon, which specializes in television drama production; they produced shows like "Goblin" and "Stranger."
The film department isn't here either, so communication between departments is very difficult. However, I heard that CJ is considering building a new building next year to integrate all departments.
"The broadcasting system is quite different from KBS," Kang Young-tae said.
"Yes, not just TV stations."
The elevator reached the sixth floor, the doors opened, and Zhao Enzhen stepped out first, gesturing for him to turn right.
The corridor was long, with editing rooms and meeting rooms on both sides. The doors of several editing rooms were half-open, and the sounds of rough cuts of a program and editors arguing about timecodes could be heard coming from inside.
The wall is covered with posters of tvN's variety shows from all eras.
"Senior Eunjin, you just said that you were the maknae PD before me."
Kang Young-tae turned his gaze to Cho Eun-jin beside him, "How big is PD Na Young-seok's team now?"
"There are about seven or eight core producers, plus assistant producers, writers, editors, and the whole team has about forty people."
Zhao Enzhen spoke as she walked.
"Youngseok oppa has several independent PDs leading their own teams. I'm currently working on pre-production with writer Lee Woo-jung, and I'm not qualified to lead my own team yet."
She paused.
"However, Youngseok oppa often says that seniority is not the most important thing. When he first joined KBS, he also started as the maknae PD of 'Dream Team'."
She glanced at Jiang Yongtai sideways.
"So if Youngseok oppa values you... at least you don't need to worry about work."
Jiang Yongtai didn't know how to respond to that.
Zhao Enzhen didn't wait for him to answer.
"You were interviewed by three people: Youngseok Oppa, Lee Myung-han, and Nam Seung-ho."
She held up her fingers and counted them one by one.
"Young-seok oppa goes without saying. Chief Executive Officer Lee Myung-han was the one who brought Young-seok oppa from KBS to tvN. He was the Chief Executive Officer of Media Content, and he was responsible for the entire layout of tvN's variety shows and dramas."
She flipped her fingers to the third one, "Chief Nam Seung-ho was just transferred here in early 2020 as the Chief Content Production Officer."
At the beginning of the year, CJ ENM underwent internal organizational restructuring. The Content Production Division was a newly established department, specifically responsible for the production of variety and educational programs. It operates parallel to the Media Content Division, headed by Lee Myung-han.
After she finished speaking, she pushed up her glasses and lowered her voice, saying, "Maknae, actually I'm a little envious of you."
Jiang Yongtai asked why, and she smiled.
"It's rare to see an interview on tvN where you can get Youngseok Oppa, Lee Myung-han, and Nam Seung-ho all in one room."
Jiang Yongtai tilted his head slightly, pondered for a moment, and asked, "Are the two department heads at the same level?"
Zhao Enzhen nodded, "That's right, but Youngseok oppa's shows are currently under the jurisdiction of Director Nam Seung-ho."
She lowered her voice again as they approached the interview room.
"To put it another way, the original head of tvN's variety shows was Lee Myung-han, the head of the department, but now there's a new head."
Jiang Yongtai nodded, instinctively sensing something.
When Zhao Enzhen spoke of Li Minghan, there was a sense of closeness in her tone, the kind of closeness that a team member would show to their elder.
When referring to Nam Seung-ho, the wording is more formal; it's simply an introduction of a superior whose resume is impeccable but whom they haven't worked with yet.
He guessed that Zhao Enzhen herself probably didn't have any direct interaction with Nan Shenghao, but her introduction was clear enough.
Li Minghan is the former master, and Nan Shenghao is the new king.
And in today's interview, the chair in front of him is placed right in the middle of the chessboard between the old king and the new king.
……
Zhao Enzhen led him to the conference room door, pushed it open, and there were three people sitting inside.
Luo Yingxi was sitting by the window. When he saw him enter, he nodded slightly.
In the formal setting of an interview, he couldn't appear too friendly, but he gave Jiang Yongtai a "stay calm" look.
Li Minghan was sitting next to him, right in the middle, and Nan Shenghao was next to him.
"Chief, PD Kang Young-tae has arrived."
Zhao Enzhen stepped aside to gesture for Jiang Yongtai to enter, then bowed slightly to the opposite side before leaving.
The door closed gently behind me, and the room fell silent.
Jiang Yongtai walked to the table and bowed in greeting.
"Chief Director Lee Myung-han, Chief Director Nam Seung-ho, PD Na, I am former KBS Variety PD Kang Young-tae."
Li Minghan is thinner in person than in the photos of Jiang Yongtai that he has seen in industry news, and his hair is neatly combed.
He had already flipped through Jiang Yongtai's resume and project summary more than once, and the edges were slightly curled up.
He looked up and glanced at him over his glasses.
"Please sit down."
Jiang Yongtai had just pulled out a chair and hadn't even had a chance to sit down when a voice came from among the three of them, hitting him directly.
"PD Kang Young-tae".
Nan Shenghao placed his hands on the table, his fingers lightly tapping the surface, his face bearing an expression that was difficult to gauge in terms of temperature.
Jiang Yongtai hadn't even had time to sit properly, and Nan Shenghao didn't give him time to adjust his posture either.
"Although the pilot episode of 'EXIT: The Non-Existent Tone-Deaf' had only average ratings, it received very good reviews within the industry."
However, you spent four years at KBS, did a pilot episode, achieved some success, but it was still canceled in the end.
He flipped over the document in his hand and looked up to stare at Jiang Yongtai.
"Do you think it's just bad luck, or that KBS doesn't know what's good for you?"
The atmosphere in the conference room shifted slightly.
Luo Yingxi didn't look at Jiang Yongtai, but picked up the paper cup in front of him and took a sip of water.
Li Minghan's gaze was still on the resume, but his fingers, which were turning the page, stopped. Clearly, he was also waiting for the answer to this question.
Jiang Yongtai felt something in the air twist, not maliciously, but as a test.
Nam Seung-ho asked the question at the perfect time, without even giving himself a moment to adjust his breathing after sitting down.
He was like a hunter, with the patience to prepare a question and wait for his prey to walk in.
Jiang Yongtai paused for a moment, swallowed back his self-deprecating remark about being "unemployed," and sat up slightly forward.
"No, it's probably because I didn't know at the time that I was doing my last job."
Nam Seung-ho raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"After the pilot episode ended, we waited for a month. That was enough time for me to revise the revised plan four times, and also enough time for the station's decision-makers and production staff to finish their negotiations."
Jiang Yongtai's voice was neither hurried nor slow.
"But I did nothing during that month, just waited. If I could have pushed forward other projects at the same time, I wouldn't have only one show on my mind..."
Unfortunately, that month I was just waiting for a show that had already been sentenced to death.
He paused for a moment.
"I can wait while making a show, but I will never do something like sitting in the editing room waiting for someone else to decide the fate of the show again."
Nan Shenghao nodded slightly and wrote something in the notebook in front of him.
Na Young-seok put his paper cup back on the table, glanced at the project summary of "Transfer Romance" in front of him, and pursed his lips.
Li Minghan flipped back to the first page of his resume, his gaze sweeping over a particular line, and began to speak.
"You worked with Yoo Ho-jin at KBS, and you were also a regular member of the Music Bank team."
His voice was softer than Nam Seung-ho's, and his pace was slower. "In these years as a PD, what do you think is your biggest improvement?"
Jiang Yongtai thought for a moment.
This question sounds very standard, but he knows that Li Minghan has interviewed too many producers. If he gives a technical answer like "I have learned the editing rhythm," the person in front of him will probably just nod and that's it.
Learn to recognize colors.
"What color?"
"The color of a person."
Jiang Yongtai paused.
"On set, if the director switches to a different camera angle, it might just be to capture a couple more clips."
Did the guests lose focus afterwards? Did anyone get frustrated? Did anyone run out of new responses?
These elements form the very fabric of a variety show; they can't be captured by cameras, but they're everywhere on set, and can't be edited out later.
He paused for a moment, then said, "When I first became an assistant PD, I thought the most important thing for variety shows was the planning document. Later I found out that it's not just that. If you can't grasp the details, no matter how good the plan is, it won't come out."
After Jiang Yongtai finished speaking, he fell silent and waited for the three people in front of him to react.
Nan Shenghao didn't move, but his hands, which were crossed in front of his chest, slowly loosened, and his fingers tapped lightly.
Li Minghan twitched the corner of his mouth, clearly a subtle reaction after hearing what he wanted to hear in the answer.
He flipped to the last page of Jiang Yongtai's resume and then closed it.
"Youngseok, come here."
Na Young-seok looked up. "Young-tae."
He knew the person in front of him was capable, but he had to ask the question on behalf of the program.
"I've seen the 'Love on the Transfer' project. You want to film something 'real.' What if the reality hurts the actors during filming?"
Jiang Yongtai did not answer immediately.
Actors in Real Injury...
This sentence didn't remind him of any dating reality show, nor of the pranks Na Young-seok deliberately played on the guests in "New Journey to the West," nor of the moments in "2 Days & 1 Night" where guests lost games and couldn't get food.
He was thinking of a pair of eyes.
Sana stood at the entrance to the fire escape, her eyes stinging the air.
He himself didn't say anything at the time, and that silence itself was a form of harm.
He lowered his gaze, tucked his hand back to his knee, and then looked up.
"If any actor is genuinely harmed during filming..."
He accepted the question and refocused his gaze on Na Young-seok's face.
"The show 'Love by Transfer' has more than a dozen remote-controlled cameras. Every move of the actors is captured by our lenses, but they themselves cannot see it."
Anxiety, breakdowns, emotional breakdowns… if these happen, it's very likely they won't occur during filming, but rather after filming has ended and the person is back in a room without cameras.
His voice was steady. "So psychological support during filming is very important. I need a professional psychological counselor to be involved throughout the process and to refer to their feedback on the scale of subsequent planning."
He paused, then looked directly at the three people opposite him.
"Authenticity is the bottom line, but the bottom line is not meant to be crossed. It is meant to be used to control the risks during the design phase so that the performers will not run into them."
Luo Yingxi nodded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
He loosened his crossed fingers, leaned back in his chair, and shifted his gaze from Jiang Yongtai's face to the cover of the project proposal in front of him.
He had always remembered Liu Haozhen saying that Jiang Yongtai was not talkative, and today he confirmed another thing.
When this person needs to speak, every word is perfectly placed.
Li Minghan, who was standing next to him, also noticed that Jiang Yongtai's answer did not fall into the preset options of "I will stop filming" or "I will continue filming". Instead, he used psychological support and front-end control of the project to break down this dilemma.
This way of answering questions, which avoids choice traps, is something I honed through strategic communication with the guests.
Nan Shenghao moved forward a bit, and when his gaze met Jiang Yongtai's, he decided to ask another question.
"The planning is very clear, and the answers regarding the truth are also spot on, but I have a question."
He looked into Jiang Yongtai's eyes.
"If the show 'Love by Transfer' were produced on KBS versus tvN, what do you think would be the biggest difference?"
Luo Yingxi turned his head and glanced at Nan Shenghao.
This issue was not among the "directions" he mentioned when he consulted with Jiang Yongtai beforehand.
Jiang Yongtai was silent for a few seconds before speaking.
"KBS has the limitations of terrestrial broadcasting. Even if a dating show featuring ordinary people is filmed, the time slot, the scheduling, and whether a second season can be made are not things that the PD can decide."
"KBS's audience doesn't need a variety show that explores relationships after a breakup."
It's not that the program is bad, it's that it's inherently unsuitable for that platform. Like a fish, it becomes an ornamental fish in the right tank, but just food in the wrong one.
Nam Seung-ho raised an eyebrow, seemingly quite interested in his answer.
"tvN is a cable channel with a younger audience who are more receptive to niche topics."
"Love After a Breakup" needs viewers who can understand the concept of "starting over," not just any family audience who can watch it on any channel.
Jiang Yongtai continued, "If we do it on tvN, TVING, as an OTT platform, can reach more young users. Later, we can release unreleased clips to unlock exclusive viewing rights, which will both increase traffic and retain users."
Ground-based waves cannot do this, not because they are incapable, but because the system doesn't require it.
Nan Shenghao looked at Jiang Yongtai in silence for a moment before speaking again.
"Thank you, I have no other questions."
……
The interview ended with a few gentle words from Li Minghan, about ten minutes later than Jiang Yongtai had expected.
When he walked out of the conference room, Zhao Enzhen was leaning against the opposite wall, flipping through something on a tablet. When she saw him come out, she looked up and gave him a forced smile.
"Maknae, how are you?"
"That's fine."
Zhao Enzhen didn't press further, but simply nodded, indicating that she would listen to his personal recounting of the events another day.
Li Minghan was the last to fall behind, and patted Jiang Yongtai on the shoulder as he passed by.
"Youngseok said you have ideas for the show, so do well on tvN. Oh, and please say hello to Hojin for me."
After speaking, he slowly walked into the depths of the corridor, without waiting for Jiang Yongtai's reply.
Na Young-seok walked beside him, holding a half-finished cup of coffee in his hand, his expression having switched from "interviewer" back to "Young-seok hyung".
"Congratulations, Yongtai. The interview is one hurdle, and the actual work will be another. Keep up the good work."
Suddenly remembering something, he reached out and shook hands with Jiang Yongtai.
"Onboarding procedures will be completed next week. Welcome to tvN."
"Thank you, Youngseok."
"Okay, Eunjin, you can take Yongtae around later."
Luo Yingxi gestured with his chin toward Zhao Enzhen, then turned to look at Jiang Yongtai.
"Dinner gatherings in the evening are a tradition, you know."
Jiang Yongtai smiled helplessly, "Okay, I know, Youngseok-hyung, but could you please not drink so much?"
Luo Yingxi chuckled twice and pointed at him.
"What are you afraid of? Just call the person at the top of your phone's contact list and ask them to come pick you up."
Jiang Yongtai smiled.
At the very top...