Chapter 115: Malicious Editing
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 115: Malicious Editing
We were practicing right up until the first episode of Awangsil was about to air.
I eventually had to call a halt to it, though, because half the group kept glancing elsewhere.
"Guys, why can't you focus?"
"Hyung, how can you focus right now?!" Lee Cheong-hyeon barked at me.
"Is there some reason I shouldn't be able to?"
"It’s the premiere of Awangsil today!"
"And?"
"And?!"
Lee Cheong-hyeon mimicked me, then let out a deflated laugh.
"Hyung, you seriously have no human emotions."
"Suddenly I'm an android?"
"How can you be so normal? Usually, people worry about how the editing turned out and stuff like that."
"They can't invent mistakes that didn't happen, and we already know I won't come across as the social butterfly type. If you're curious about the performance, you can just watch it when it’s uploaded to MeTube."
"Wow... I'm the weird one here, right?"
Lee Cheong-hyeon looked around, and Kang Gi-yeon shook his head.
So that means I'm the weird one. These punks, seriously.
"Watching the live broadcast won't change anything. Do you really want to see it in real-time that badly?"
"Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand. Because you don't have a human heart."
"Right, so now you're disparaging me as a wooden doll who can't dance."
"Good grief. Now he's even framing me."
I don't know why these kids with such fragile mentalities are so eager to walk into a literal hellfire.
I was planning on watching it alone later specifically so they wouldn't lose their focus and get all restless.
"Hyung, how about we focus and practice for exactly thirty more minutes, and then watch the premiere?"
Jeong Seong-bin made the suggestion while soothing a sulking Lee Cheong-hyeon.
My first thought was, How are they going to survive if they get this worked up over every little thing? But...
Seeing these kids, not even twenty yet, looking at me with such desperate eyes made me feel like I was the one in the wrong.
"Only if we finish the routine within thirty minutes."
I'm too soft-hearted.
No matter how much time passes, I don't think I'll ever become a truly strict boss.
Although we missed the first twenty minutes or so, Awangsil seemed to be heading in a fairly good direction.
First of all, there wasn't much mockery in the real-time comments.
It was largely thanks to the show not getting much attention early on compared to other audition programs, but while the Spark members were watching, it was actually better to have no reaction at all.
Even now, some of them were sitting with their hands clasped, heads bowed low, praying for dear life. For the sake of their dignity, I won't mention names.
However, there was a clear ripple effect from the lack of general public influx.
≫ Song Min-il, I love you ㅠㅠㅠㅠ
≫ Our babies are already in the 'oldest hyung' position ㅠㅠ Time flies
≫ Look at Parte's broadcasting experience, it shows lol
The overwhelming difference in reaction based on fandom size was evident.
I could see the Sparklers working hard to leave comments, but the sheer volume of the other groups' offensive was formidable.
While several groups that appeared first were greeting each other on screen, I scrolled through the real-time comments I had missed earlier on my smartphone.
Then, I reached a rather interesting point.
≫ Gasp
≫ Gasp
≫ Whoa
≫ Gaaaasp
≫ ;; Wow, daebak
≫ For real?
Exclamations that weren't even two words long poured down like monsoon rain in midsummer over a specific segment.
Taking advantage of the others being absorbed in the TV broadcast, I moved the playback bar of the video on my phone to the time the comments were posted.
Then, Lee Cheong-hyeon's face appeared, taking up the entire screen. It was a scene from the pre-interview inserted into the contestant introduction part.
'I figured as much.'
It wasn't Spark's first appearance... no, it seemed the birth of Spark's top visual had given the viewers a massive shock. Well, his looks are impressive enough for that.
Just then, a peculiar sound effect came from the TV.
Looking up at the screen, I saw several groups chatting happily to cute, bubbly background music.
Then, a sound effect of a cold wind cutting through the air followed, the double doors opened, and Spark entered accompanied by a grand, heavy BGM.
Looking at the screen alone, we looked like a group of cool guys who had just finished an epic surfing session in the winter sea a few hours ago, walking past the shy older groups.
I don't think the atmosphere was quite that dramatic. It seemed there was a reason people said you should just view broadcasts as broadcasts.
The suspicious flow continued until Parte entered.
Following the other groups who bowed politely to Parte out of sheer nerves, a shot of Spark briefly flashed across the screen—only slightly nodding their heads before looking away.
"Gasp..."
The sound of Lee Cheong-hyeon catching his breath echoed through the living room like an omen.
"The editing is quite provocative," I added.
We had actually bowed ninety degrees when Parte came out.
These are the kids who have spent over a year hearing me say they should just quit and go home if they can't even greet people properly.
I saw them with my own eyes being excellently trained and working hard on-site, so there was no fault on our end.
They probably took a reaction from when we were listening intently to Yur and spliced it in here. Considering the nature of programs with fast pacing, it wasn't a difficult feat.
"Are we... getting evil edited?" Park Ju-woo asked cautiously.
"It doesn't even count as evil editing yet, but it could happen. Since we're pitted against the Parte sunbaenims from the 1st Competition, they're probably setting up the narrative in advance."
"Then isn't that bad?" Kang Gi-yeon's face was also ashen.
"If it's like this when the Self-PR stage evaluations come out, we'll get a lot of hate."
"...!"
"But it's not like we actually acted rudely, right? We didn't intentionally try to bring down talented people either. That's enough."
"What's the point? No one will know that," Choi Je-ho added.
At least it's important to me. Isn't it more of a problem if you act right when people are watching but do whatever the hell you want when they aren't?
And I had been wanting to keep my distance from Parte anyway. If the broadcast station is going to set it up like this, I'm actually grateful.
However, understanding it with your head and your heart are two different things. I spoke to the kids, who were frozen stiff.
"Don't worry. Even if we get hate, I'll be the one getting the most of it."
"Huh?" Jeong Seong-bin said, turning toward me.
"I only praised the Berion sunbaenims and gave 'Down' votes to all the other teams' stages. You guys didn't say much, so there's nothing to evil edit for you."
"Was the way you led the conversation back then intentional, Hyung?"
"Gi-yeon, the commercials are over."
When I changed the subject, Kang Gi-yeon frowned. Well, what, did you think I did that because I wanted to be called Spark's best MC?
The atmosphere had dampened a bit, but there was one more thing I needed to emphasize at this point.
"Whether we get evil edited or there's a lot of negative public opinion, don't forget what we aimed for. It's fine to get along with other groups, but make sure to keep your distance from the Parte sunbaenims."
"I'm probably going to die young because I can't communicate with you, Hyung."
Lee Cheong-hyeon turned his back to me in disgust.
After the commercials, the rest of the Awangsil introduction and the Self-PR stages followed.
The broadcast time was an hour and ten minutes, but only three stages were shown. Furthermore, since Spark's stage was the very last in the order, the only parts where our faces were properly captured were the pre-interview and the first entrance.
The first episode of Awangsil ended by cramming all the remaining Self-PR stages into the preview for the next episode.
With editing like this from the first episode, it's easy to get labeled as a boring show. They probably tried to create tension, but that only matters once the rankings actually start to diverge.
To make people watch the next episode, it would have been better to put the scene where I say, 'I'll give a Down to all four teams except for Berion sunbaenims,' in the preview. If they just blurred out the Berion part, they could have started a flame war instantly.
At this point, I felt that starting the 'aggro' myself was a good move. You only get hated on if there's an issue to begin with.
Now that I'd seen everything I needed to see, I herded the members into their rooms like a flock of sheep, telling them to go to sleep.
Then, I stayed up all night reading the defensive reactions from the fans of each group that were starting to crawl up.
As expected, the buzz for certain groups showed a significant upward trend after the premiere.
The most prominent was, without a doubt, Parte.
Immediately after the stage ended, the brand and price of the clothes Parte wore for their first stage became a huge topic. They were wearing expensive stuff.
Must be nice. Next time, Spark has to wear single-layered volleyball uniforms that are currently being delivered after I scraped together what little money I had. Thanks to that, everyone is working out their arm muscles like their lives depend on it during every break.
Aside from the luxury clothes of a certain group or some forced controversy about another group, there was also a controversy directly related to us.
It turned out Min-il had been reckless with his fingers on the paid messaging app after the Awangsil premiere.
Mean. 1
[Did you watch Awangsil??]
[Oops ㅠ You saw that scene]
[We're okay lol We were so nervous when we entered that we couldn't even see the others properly]
[There's no end to it if you get upset over things like this! You know, right???]
He was quite clever with his words.
He made it sound as if they had not only been ignored by their juniors but also gave off an ominous feeling that such things would happen frequently in the future.
Thanks to that, within the Parte fandom, Spark became 'the thug group that just gives a half-assed greeting and messes around while even the most senior group enters nervously.'
There are many viewers who try to watch broadcasts as just broadcasts. Many people are aware that these types of programs involve malicious editing or creating issues.
Since it's not manipulation and production teams are rarely punished for evil editing, it's been a long-standing practice.
It was in this context that the reaction 'Let's just wait and see for now' came out when the controversy erupted.
So, I intended not to respond to a certain level of evil editing.
But the story changes when the cast member themselves starts wagging their tongue.
From that point on, comments like 'Would our boy say something that isn't true?' or 'He's a rookie who's still very wary of the broadcasting station, would he have done this for no reason?' were bound to pour out.
I didn't intend to make the fans feel uneasy from the start over something so trivial. I didn't feel good about it.
The most I could do was leave a message...
Iwol
[We all watched the broadcast together!]
[We always make sure to greet everyone properly, so please don't worry too much. Please see it as editing for the sake of entertainment!]
[Thank you so much for watching the premiere with us until late.]
...That was about it.
Even the posts that fans captured and uploaded saying, 'This is why you have to hear both sides!' suffered digital degradation and ended up being mocked with comments like, 'You call this an excuse? lol.'
"If this keeps up, the fans are going to be really hurt."
"Then we just have to not do things that would hurt them."
"But we can't just go there and say sweet nothings only to become a stepping stone for other teams."
I dragged you guys, who were living in Grade 1 pure water, into a place rife with manipulation and unfairness—I can't let us come out with no results. We have to gain as much as we lose.
"Enough, let's just practice. We need to show them a good performance."
I stood up and patted Lee Cheong-hyeon on the shoulder.
Even though they grumble among themselves, the fact that they stand up on their own at the mention of practice makes me think their mindset is still in the right place.
And so, I thought today's Spark would also leap more vigorously than anyone else and excitedly prepare for the 1st Competition... but.
"Hyung, could you try that move one more time? With the facial expression too."
That didn't happen.
The complexion of Kang Gi-yeon, who was watching me, was turning as grim as it had been when I first showed off my dancing at UA.