SCT-Novel Chapter 139: Album (2)
Chapter 139: Album (2)
-Huh? Vanguard already opened their YouTube?-ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋIt's true, I immediately subscribed!!!
-Looks like GN is staying sharp and working hardㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-Of course they had to open it fast, they're super popular in Korea and can pull in fans from Japan too.
-Gotta spread this to other communities!
-Already shared on Insta!!
-Vanguard fan accounts are already going wildㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
-If it's like this, debut teasers for Vanguard will probably be uploaded to YouTube??
-In hindsight, EY was trash and GN is like an angel.....
-ㅠㅜㅠㅠㅠㅜㅠ!! Vanguard's YouTube, seriously!!!
It started with a single community post, but fans’ fingers moved fast, and within just a few dozen minutes, the news had spread like wildfire: the news of Vanguard’s YouTube channel launch. From communities, it spread to SNS, and from there, it reached various messenger apps.
At this point, even the press caught a whiff.
《[Star Talk] ‘Vanguard’ launches official YouTube channel right after group name reveal / Photo》
《Hot and hotter ‘Vanguard’, fans say “Subscribing right away!” to new YouTube channel》
With public opinion and the media both jumping in, it was basically free promotion.
Thanks to that, the Vanguard YouTube channel had:
[Channel Name: Vanguard]
[Vanguard Official YouTube Channel]
[This is Vanguard's official YouTube channel.]
[Subscribers: 11,000]
[Videos: 3]
Right after opening, they gathered 10,000 subscribers. Of course, this was just the beginning. Now that the fire had been lit, the rate of subscriber growth would surely become terrifying.
Currently, there were three videos uploaded to the Vanguard YouTube channel.
-Vanguard - DANCE PRACTICE VIDEO｜Vanguard
-SBC Acting Awards Congratulatory Performance + Rojun’s Red Carpet Footage!｜Vanguard
-Vanguard Talk EP.1｜Vanguard
Footage of the members practicing, the ‘SBC Acting Awards’ congratulatory performance that was still a hot topic online along with Rojun’s prominence, and lastly, a video capturing the daily lives of the Vanguard members. As word quickly spread among fans, the view counts and comment numbers on each video were increasing by the second, by the minute.
And that wasn’t all.
News of Vanguard’s YouTube channel opening even reached Japan. Japanese fans reacted with joy and excitement. The reason was simple. Japan was just as big in popularity as Korea, but in comparison, the content they could watch was limited. For example, the ‘SBC Acting Awards’ was a live broadcast.
But now they could watch it on the Vanguard YouTube channel, so of course, they were jumping with joy.
With the situation like this:
《“Vanguard’s form is insane!”, reached 100,000 subscribers in less than 2 hours after launching YouTube channel! / Photo》
Vanguard’s YouTube channel quickly surpassed 100,000 subscribers, and by around 9 PM, which was 30 minutes later,
-[Subscribers: 207,000]
They had surpassed 200,000.
Anyone could see that this speed was unusual. Naturally, it became a hot topic, and the number of articles increased. This situation, including both Korea and Japan and the influence of shows like ‘Produce That 100!’, was heavily driven by the members’ power, but more than half of that strength clearly came from Kang Rojun.
-I got into Vanguard because of Rojun in Rental Loverㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
More than anything, it was Rojun’s explosive visual. On top of that, the impact he had during ‘Produce That 100!’, and his power as a writer and actor were what attracted subscribers from both Korea and Japan.
It felt like all the buzz and issues from his debut until now were condensed and pouring into the channel’s subscribers.
The subscriber growth rate started accelerating.
Later, when late night turned into dawn:
-Vanguard - DANCE PRACTICE VIDEO｜Vanguard
-Views: 1,503,128 / 2020. 12. 21
As each video’s views surpassed 1 million,
-[Subscribers: 712,000]
The channel passed 700,000 subscribers. And even at that moment, the number was still visibly climbing. Not only Korean fans, but Japanese fans were continuously flocking to the channel.
Then Tuesday the 22nd morning dawned.
Kang Rojun and the members left the dorm. Inside the waiting van, Manager Kim Ki-baek was nowhere to be seen. That was because he had been tied up in meetings since this morning. In any case, the van headed toward GN Entertainment, and the members all opened the YouTube channel they had been monitoring since last night on their respective phones.
The first to open his eyes wide in astonishment was Si-hoo.
“Wow......”
Next were Do-kyung and Kang-min. Especially Kang-min, with his exotically handsome face, rubbed his eyes as if to check whether he’d seen it wrong.
“Is... is this real??”
“Insane.”
Kang Rojun also let out a pure gasp as he scrolled down the group’s YouTube channel.
“This is nuts, seriously.”
It was numbers worthy of that reaction. The view counts of the uploaded videos were.
-Views: 4,821,556
Almost 5 million. The other two videos had also surpassed 4 million and 3 million respectively. Of course the members were freaking out. Additionally, the current subscriber count for the Vanguard channel was:
[Channel Name: Vanguard]
[Subscribers: 1.32 million]
[Videos: 3]
It had exceeded a whopping 1.3 million.
《[Big Issue] ‘Vanguard’ surpasses 1.3 million subscribers just one day after YouTube channel launch...proving themselves monster rookies! / Photo》
《Following the reveal of their group name, ‘Vanguard’ opens official YouTube channel and surpasses 1.3 million subscribers in under 24 hours》
And this was before a full 24 hours had even passed.
Around noon.
The location was BG Pictures, one of the top 3 film companies in the country. In a large conference room, dozens of people were engaged in conversation. More precisely, it was the first production meeting. At the ㅁ-shaped table were familiar faces, including Manager Jang Hak-seon, who had led the meeting with Culture Drawer, and even Director Yoo Ji-heon, a heavyweight always listed among the top names, who had fallen in love with Kang Rojun’s script.
The meeting appeared to be led by Manager Jang Hak-seon, and many, including Director Yoo Ji-heon, were listening attentively.
So, what was the topic of this first production meeting?
The answer was obvious. After all, Director Yoo Ji-heon was present. The topic was the movie script that BG Pictures had recently acquired, written by Rojun. The people gathered around Director Yoo Ji-heon included heads of production teams like cinematography, lighting, and art.
In other words, key staff.
In fact, after getting Rojun’s script, Director Yoo Ji-heon had moved right away.
As of now, they had already completed staff recruitment for pre-production. Naturally, since Director Yoo Ji-heon was holding the megaphone, financing (investment) had also been completed.
With investment and production staff locked in, it was only natural for things to start moving quickly.
Soon, Manager Jang Hak-seon, standing in front of the director and over a dozen key staff, pointed to the screen illuminated by the projector.
“Director-nim, how would you like to handle the storyboard?”
Director Yoo Ji-heon, his face slightly flushed like he’d had a drink, rubbed his cheek.
“Hmm.”
He slowly lowered his gaze. Right in front of him was the newly printed script. On the fairly thick cover, Rojun’s name was engraved.
-Title: Blood Hunt
-Director: Yoo Ji-heon
-Screenwriter: Rojun
It seemed the title of the script written by Kang Rojun was 'Blood Hunt'. Of course, the script was still strictly confidential to outsiders. Only those in the room were allowed to see it. After a brief moment of thought, Director Yoo Ji-heon spoke in his characteristically rough voice.
“We should go with the script exactly as it is, no rewrites.”
A rewrite refers to the process of a director or others modifying or adding new material to an existing script. In short, Director Yoo Ji-heon was saying they would film the script exactly as Rojun wrote it. This was also an acknowledgment from a top-tier director of Kang Rojun’s screenwriting skills.
“Understood.”
Manager Jang Hak-seon nodded and moved on to the next topic. As it was the first stage of pre-production, a wide range of discussions were taking place, from storyboard development and the detailed production schedule to the overall budget and expected production costs. And then,
“Lastly, regarding casting the actors. Hmm- we’ll probably need to dedicate a lot of time to this part.”
Manager Jang Hak-seon, who had already finished actor scouting, printed out the casting board. From S-Class top actors everyone would recognize to A-Class and supporting actors, the board was packed. This was the initial lineup Manager Jang prepared based on who he felt fit the roles after reading the script, though casting could change depending on the actors’ schedules and the director’s opinion.
“Director-nim, do you have any actors in mind?”
“I do. Jong-sik is missing.”
“Ah- Actor Jung Jong-sik. I’ll add him.”
Since actors are one of the core elements of a film, just as Manager Jang Hak-seon had said, many opinions were shared and much time was spent. After about an hour, some actors were removed from the initial casting board while others were added.
At that point, Director Yoo Ji-heon pointed to a specific part of the script with his index finger and opened his mouth.
“And you know, this character, though just a minor role, holds the key to the whole story.”
“Huh? Ah, I know which role you mean.”
“Right. I’d like ‘Rojun’ to take that role.”
A faint murmur rose among the dozen or so key staff nearby. Unfazed, Manager Jang Hak-seon, who had a pleasant demeanor, asked,
“Hmm, but wouldn’t the image stand out too much?”
“Because Rojun’s too good-looking? That’s actually why I want him more. His striking appearance could contrast with a completely different personality.”
Soon, Manager Jang Hak-seon smiled.
“Yes, Director-nim. I’ll set up a meeting with GN right away.”
“Setting up the meeting won’t be hard, but will the casting work out? Rojun seems insanely busy right now.”
“It won’t be easy. I’m sure there are many others interested in Rojun too. But GN might also be aiming for Rojun to appear in ‘Blood Hunt’. The meeting of Director and Screenwriter Rojun will already cause a stir, but if he appears in it as well, that’s another huge boost.”
“Hmm-”
Director Yoo Ji-heon slowly nodded and closed the script he had opened.
“I’ll leave it to you.”
Late afternoon, in GN Entertainment’s spacious practice room.
Kang Rojun and the Vanguard members were gathered in the center of the room. Standing in front of them was Manager Kim Ki-baek. Although the atmosphere was a bit drained, his eyes sparkled. He gave the members a double thumbs-up.
“You’re all doing great. The ‘SBC Acting Awards’ went smoothly and the reaction is still buzzing. Thanks to that, the name ‘Vanguard’ got promoted properly. The PR and marketing team is grinning ear to ear.”
It made sense.
Normally, it takes a great deal of effort for the name of a rookie idol group to become familiar to the public. It’s common for idols to go all-out on music shows. Of course, many idols can’t even make it onto those shows. That’s why PR teams work themselves to the bone, endlessly sending out press releases or circulating content on SNS.
But Vanguard was different.
Manager Kim Ki-baek opened the planner he held in his hand.
“There’s quite a bit to share, but first, about Vanguard’s debut album.”
Si-hoo, Kang-min, and Do-kyung discreetly swallowed hard. Kang Rojun’s eyes shifted with curiosity. Noticing this, Manager Kim Ki-baek’s lips twitched slightly.
“The debut album won’t be a single but a mini album. But instead of having just one title track and the rest as B-sides, you can consider every track as a title song. No matter how many songs are finalized, all of them will have music videos shot at high quality, and you’ll need to record and learn the choreography for each one.”
The Vanguard members were slightly surprised. According to Manager Kim Ki-baek’s explanation:
‘All songs will be title tracks??’
That meant they would need to master the vocals and choreography for all selected songs at once. And on top of that.
‘We're debuting with a mini album?’
It was rare for debuting idols to start with a mini album instead of a single. A mini album must have at least three tracks. In other words, they’d need to perfectly master three or four songs, whatever the final count, before debuting. What was interesting was that none of the Vanguard members looked afraid.
In fact, they looked determined.
Especially Kang Rojun, whose confidence was exploding.
‘Whether it’s 100 songs or 1,000, it doesn’t matter.’
Thanks to that, Manager Kim Ki-baek thought.
‘They’ve got that “can’t hold back” look in their eyes. Fortunately, they don’t seem burdened.’
He could clearly see the fire in their eyes.
“Collecting and finalizing the songs will take some time, but once that’s done, things will move quickly again. Ah, and Rojun, Si-hoo, your song compositions were successfully delivered to the A&R team.”
While talking about the members’ compositions, Manager Kim Ki-baek seemed to recall something and turned his gaze to Kang Rojun.
"Rojun. No matter how many debut songs are decided-"
He laid out what he had in mind.
“How about you write the lyrics for all the songs?”