Chapter 99: Production Presentation (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 99: Production Presentation (1)
Except for when they were getting their makeup done, the members kept their eyes glued to the chatroom, but fortunately, no posts appeared suggesting any dangerous incidents.
Instead, social media was buzzing with reviews of the reverse fan gifts that the fans had diligently posted.
≫ Review of today’s Spark music show reverse gift
I saw the drinks and madeleines and thought, "These guys really know what they're doing~"
But then I saw the self-defense spray and the letter underneath and started bawling.
It was even a handwritten letter ㅠㅠㅠ
I’m sorry I was so blinded by the food that I didn't see your affection sooner...….
└ Omg, a handwritten letter? ㅠㅠ I’m so jealous.
└ Je-ho was my bias and Gi-yeon was my wrecker, but I got Gi-yeon’s letter ㅠㅠㅠㅠ My baby was bragging that he picked out the stationery himself, I seriously need to give him a hundred kisses on the cheek.
└ Gi-yeon has lived a good life, why are you doing this to him?
└ LMAO XDDDDDD
≫ The class of a rookie boy group’s reverse gift
They gave out self-defense sprays worth 30,000 won per person because the dawn pre-recording is dangerous.
+ Handwritten letters
+ Drinks and madeleines
+ Music show photocards
└ I don’t think it’s enough to be called "classy"…… Hmm.
└ Typical trait of a fandom writing this kind of comment: They’ve never received a reverse gift.
└ hahahaha Whatever hahahaha They said the company paid for it anyway, so isn't that a company gift, not an idol gift?
└ The kids wanted to pay for it themselves before they even got their settlement, so the company covered it. You’re really going out of your way to be cynical and ignore their feelings~
└ These are kids who haven't accepted any tributes or gifts from fans since their debut ㅠㅠ They’re always trying their best to do even a little more for the fans! Please look at them kindly ㅎㅎ
≫ I opened the shopping bag and was shocked to see a map of the police station.
└ Quite a unique packaging design.
└ hahahahahahahahaha
≫ No wonder the madeleines were so good.
They were from an expensive place……
Came for the pre-recording and suddenly found the madeleine of my life.
Compared to the time they spent waiting for us, this was probably nothing.
My heart felt heavy. It was a mixture of guilt and gratitude.
Perhaps that was why the wait for the recording felt so long.
And it seemed I wasn't the only one thinking this.
"The fans must be having such a hard time, right? We can just wait in the waiting room, but……."
"I know. We really have to give it our all on stage today."
Lee Cheong-hyeon and Jeong Seong-bin spoke as they looked out at the still-dark sky.
Park Ju-woo was already in a corner of the practice room warming up his voice.
I brought each of them a glass of warm water and said, "To do that, you know the most important thing is not to let your pitch crack, right? Keep warming up your throats."
"Yes!"
Except for the blunt dance line, the three of them answered at the top of their lungs. I don't know which ear they used to listen to my nagging about saving their voices.
It wasn't until 3:00 AM that we were able to meet the fans again.
"Everyone, have you been doing well?"
"We have!"
"You must be so tired because of the dawn pre-recording, right?"
"Not tired at all!"
While it was only right for us to show our brightest selves to the fans who had waited so hard, the fans weren't obligated to do the same. Yet, they welcomed us without a single trace of exhaustion.
I even saw some fans wearing outfits I often saw on the morning commute subway.
I looked at a few of them and asked cautiously, "Um, for the office workers, how did you manage to come to work today……?"
"I took a half-day!"
"Then are you going to work after the pre-recording is over?"
"I don't want to!"
"I'm going to resign!"
How could the complex emotions contained in just a few words be so vivid?
My heart ached for them. How could they go back to the office after this? I couldn't dare think of what to say.
"Thank you so much for spending your precious time off on us. We’ll really work hard on today’s stage!"
I chose my words carefully. I wanted to express this gratitude, even if it was inadequate.
When I bowed, the guys next to me followed suit. Good job, boys.
Whenever there was a break between filming, we talked about all sorts of things.
"The hair dye suits you!"
"Really? But don't you think I-wol Hyung's grey is a bit too dark? He should have gone with something like green too!"
"No way, that would be a tone-clash!"
Occasionally, I would be summoned from the side. Fortunately, many fans stopped Lee Cheong-hyeon's bold suggestion.
Besides, hey! I put a lot of thought into this grey hair. It was the first time in my life I'd ever bleached it.
While many groups use their music video outfits for their first broadcast, today all of Spark wore outfits that looked like Boy Scouts. We just changed the colors to a refreshing blue palette.
"How are our outfits? Are they okay?"
When Jeong Seong-bin asked, there was a passionate response.
I felt a bit embarrassed because I never had a reason to wear short pants except when I went to work out, but it seemed the fans liked them.
No wonder the old Spark guys filmed their music video in shorts even in the middle of winter.
For the record, for this music show, we decided to wear outfits related to the wishes the young Spark friends wrote in the time capsule in the music video.
Starting with my adventurer outfit, the hero outfit, vacation outfit, pajama party outfit, PC Bang regular outfit, and skateboarder outfit were scheduled to appear one after another.
There was a reason the lineup turned out this way.
'Who wrote "Hero"?'
'Me.'
'Choi Je-ho, you're more active in expressing your opinions than I thought.'
There was a guy who said he wanted to wear a hero mask at least once because he only had magical girl warrior toys at home.
'Ju-woo, what's a pajama party?'
'It's when you wear pajamas and order a ton of delicious food and hang out……!'
There was a guy who wanted to have a pajama party like the ones his older cousin sister enjoyed with her friends every quarter.
'PC Bang regular? Do elementary schoolers go to PC Bangs that much?'
'Hyung, haven't you been to a PC Bang during the day? It's basically an after-school academy.'
'Lee Cheong-hyeon, you're quite well-versed in that ecosystem, aren't you?'
'Ah, Kang Gyeon taught me all of this.'
'Why are you bringing me up here?'
And even a guy who wanted to stay at a PC Bang until he spent all his pocket money. They had so many things they wanted to do on Children's Day.
So, since we were putting the ideas into the music video anyway, we got the clothes made too.
I'm worried we'll have to wear skin-tight bodysuits for the next music show. I should start praying hard to avoid that from today.
When Lee Cheong-hyeon asked how the new song was, he was met with cheers.
It was hard for that song to be disliked, but seeing the positive reaction right in front of him made Lee Cheong-hyeon look even happier.
"Spark, we're going into recording."
And with the sound of the short break ending, the recording began again.
The several rounds of recording ended without a hitch.
Kang Gi-yeon almost fell into a panic after a pitch deviation, but thanks to the mind control methods he had been practicing, he made up for all his mistakes in the next recording.
I patted the back of the kid who had finished the recording without showing much outward sign of distress, even though he was dripping with cold sweat.
As their promotions began in earnest, hectic days were expected to pass from today. There was no time to catch a breath just because one music show was over.
"We're filming the meeting for 'Challenge! Life Experience' here too, right?"
The filming for their first variety show of this promotion was scheduled for this morning. It was a relief that we could save travel time since it was in the same broadcasting station.
Until now, there weren't many variety programs Spark could appear on.
Not only were there an overflowing number of idol groups, but as people from various professions like chefs and athletes became active on TV, the movement to specifically invite idol guests was gradually disappearing from the broadcasting world.
However, Spark needed to appear on TV programs.
No matter how diverse broadcasting platforms had become, terrestrial and public variety shows, along with music shows, were indispensable promotional tools.
Until now, we had compensated for the lack of variety shows with a massive amount of self-produced content.
During promotion periods, we uploaded self-produced content weekly, held group live broadcasts at least twice a week, and every member uploaded individual content once a month regardless of whether they were promoting or not.
If you added individual live broadcasts or additional uploads of member content, the number was substantial. At the very least, among groups promoting at the same time, Spark's video upload cycle would be overwhelmingly short.
However, because we replaced everything with self-produced content, there were side effects. The influx rate from external channels was low.
Furthermore, no matter how much you improved the quality of self-produced content, it was difficult to compare it to existing variety shows in terms of quality. Just the camera resolution alone was different.
The difference would be clear just by looking at the individual cams for each member, the technical prowess of the equipment, and the available budget.
I had worked so hard to pull the budget for self-produced content from the cash-strapped UA. We had to take advantage of a broadcast program for once.
With that thought, one program caught my eye while I was looking into various variety shows.
It was a show called Challenge! Life Experience.
A variety show where celebrities experience various jobs, Challenge! Life Experience.
There was a reason such a simple variety show had survived in the era of content deluge.
≫ Teaser for next week’s Challenge Life is out
Selling tanghulu in Hongdae hahahahahahahaha
└ Wow, that looks exhausting already.
└ I can feel the chaos just from the teaser……
The appearing celebrities experience jobs that can be easily seen around them.
For a full-time shift of 8 hours, the recommended daily working hours.
In other words, it was an extreme job experience part-time gig where you suffer as much as you work, but the payoff isn't that great.
Seeing a celebrity do the same work as them and empathizing with the high intensity of labor came across as sincere to many viewers.
Since the purpose of the program itself was to experience various labor sites, it had been mentioned socially several times.
≫ What do you guys personally think is the legendary episode of Challenge Life?
Street Sweeper vs. Haenyeo (Female Diver)
└ That’s hard……
└ Personally, for me, it’s the Haenyeo one.
└ I think the Street Sweeper episode is the legendary one that captured both labor intensity and social awareness! I heard it was used a lot as visual material in schools after that episode aired!
Buzz? Check.
Likelihood of a successful contact? High.
Wholesomeness of the program? Needless to say.
So, I immediately knocked on the Planning Team's door until it almost broke. And I strongly appealed for how much of a rugged life I wanted them to experience.
As a result.
"Guys, we have about two hours of free time right now. Let's sleep for just one hour, get rid of the puffiness immediately, and then move to the meeting room to film Challenge Life!"
Spark began writing their first variety show filming diary with a hardcore schedule right from the start.