The Reincarnated Idol Hard Carries an Indie Band - Chapter 45

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Former Idol Does the Heavy Lifting for an Indie Band
Chapter 45
Today, the shoot was happening in our rehearsal studio.
Jo Seong-hun gave the signal, and we played our instruments and sang on cue.
We acted with as much passion and emotion as possible.
“Cut! Alright, everyone come here.”
Now it was time to review the footage we’d just shot on the monitor.
“Cha Seo-ha’s expression looks great, Heo Jun-seong was excellent too. Kang Min’s deadpan look with that sense of weight is good, but Lee Do-yeong and Kim Ji-hu look too stiff right now.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Yeah, our expressions are a bit frozen.”
“Let’s go again. Kim Ji-hu, try furrowing your brow between lines—bring a serious intensity. Lee Do-yeong, you should feel a bit more at ease. Let’s try that.”
“Understood.”
Lee Do-yeong and Kim Ji-hu followed the direction without complaint.
They seemed to be struggling a bit, but their faces were full of joy.
Both of them had only ever focused on music and studying—this was probably their first time being filmed like this.
They had quiet personalities, but they were the kind of kids who knew how to feel curious about new things.
Good. That’s how artists should be.
The shoot resumed, and this time the results were pretty good.
“Wow, both of you have such great expressions now. Why didn’t you do this before?”
“Ha ha, we’ll do better from here on.”
“I’m starting to get the feel for it.”
Both of them looked a bit embarrassed at Jo Seong-hun’s praise.
The way Kim Ji-hu smiled was… how do I put it.
It was nice to look at.
“Alright, let’s move to the next location.”
“Yes!”
We grabbed our instruments and headed to Hongdae.
There were quite a few locations chosen for the Music Video shoot.
An empty lecture room at Jo Seong-hun’s school, a concert venue in Hongdae, a hip alley in Eulji-ro, ST Studio, Hyun’s Resonance, Banwol Park, and so on.
Some of these shots would probably end up on the cutting room floor, and most would be used in short clips.
“Hey!”
“Oh, Kang Min! How’ve you been?”
Nam Do-hun, who had hosted the Band Slam, greeted us.
“Hello. It’s been a while.”
Unlike most of the artists at the Band Slam who had been hostile toward us, this guy wasn’t like that at all.
He’d even let us use his concert venue for free for the Music Video shoot.
And fortunately, no one was using the place today anyway.
“As I mentioned before, you just need to make sure the lighting is set up well.”
“Okay. Let’s run through it a few times.”
The scene we were shooting now wasn’t a performance scene—it was the drama part featuring our band members.
It was a short scene to be inserted for narrative effect, so the shoot time shouldn’t be too long.
“When I give the signal, move the lighting all the way to this side.”
“Got it.”
“And actors, time it with the signal to look at the lens. We’ll be shooting pretty close up.”
“Understood!”
Jo Seong-hun seemed quite actively invested, since it was going to be an important scene.
“There he goes with the detail obsession again….”
“What? Detail?”
“Yeah, this guy’s nuts about analog. Absolutely obsessed.”
“Analog…?”
Curiosity sparked at the comment from the colleague who’d come with us.
“You could just skip this and apply brightness gradient effects in the editing phase. It’d be much simpler.”
“Ah, yeah, that would work.”
“But detailed sensory direction like this is far superior that way.”
As far as I know, this scene we’re shooting now will probably take up about one second somewhere in the intro.
“It’s tedious, but you have to admit his passion is something.”
Jo Seong-hun had seated Kim Ji-hu in front of the Piano on the left side of the stage, was checking the composition, and now was verifying the brightness of the lighting.
Come to think of it, he was more successful as a video content creator than as a singer.
He must have had diverse talents from childhood.
“Alright! Okay, ready to roll! Starting the shoot! Kim Ji-hu, that sense of emptiness! Don’t forget it under any circumstances!”
“Understood!”
Kim Ji-hu answered unusually loudly and cheerfully.
It looked like Jo Seong-hun’s sincerity had come through.
“Alright, scene 1-2! Ready! Action!”
-Whiiiirrr…….
The lighting moved from the opposite side of the stage toward Kim Ji-hu.
The moment the light arrived, Kim Ji-hu turned his head to the left and gazed at the camera lens.
“Ooh…….”
Jo Seong-hun let out a short exclamation.
“Okay! Cut! Wow, Kim Ji-hu, your expression is perfect. Alright, next! Kang Min!”
I thought this guy had a timid personality….
Looks like I was wrong.
He’s really proactive and his voice is pretty loud.
* * *
We shot most of the scenes using the weekend.
With Jo Seong-hun’s help, production went smoothly.
On top of that, since our members had never acted before, we’d created simple storyboards from the start.
Which meant we could shoot at maximum speed.
The Music Video shoot took four days in total.
Jo Seong-hun said he’d send us the first draft of the edit as soon as he was done.
I said I’d definitely thank him, but Jo Seong-hun declined several times.
When I asked if he’d accept a good song instead, he said he would take that.
That’s someone who really knows what he’s doing.
All the work on the Album tracks was complete.
Now the Music Video production was winding down.
The only thing left was the Album cover photo shoot.
There were way too many cover photo options.
A photo of us playing.
A photo of just the instruments sitting there.
There was even a painting that Lee Do-yeong had drawn himself as a candidate.
We even had proposals that homaged famous band albums—the variety was extensive.
“But don’t you think this one is better?”
“No, this one’s good.”
“Cha Seo-ha, I’m not letting you decide this time!”
“Why?”
“Just because! You’re annoying!”
“Ugh…….”
“Is my painting really that bad?”
“It’s rough.”
“That’s too harsh.”
Our five opinions clashed for a long time, but we eventually reached a consensus and picked one option.
“Cha Seo-ha got his way again.”
“That guy’s got an insane gift of persuasion.”
“Then why can’t he do well in school?”
“Seriously! Seo-ha!”
Then try convincing me with better arguments.
Four mediocre speakers ganging up on me aren’t going to cut it.
Kim Ji-hu was somewhat threatening, but he’s just a high schooler anyway.
“You decided?”
Jo Seong-hun, who had been watching the long deliberation, stood up from his seat.
“Yes! We’ll go with this one.”
“Oh, you picked something with good vibes. Nice. Let’s get the shoot started. Everyone, lie down.”
At Jo Seong-hun’s word, we took our positions and started lying down.
I lay in the center, with Kim Ji-hu in an expressionless pose to my left.
Heo Jun-seong squeezed in between Kim Ji-hu and me, casually holding a Guitar.
To my right, Kang Min lay pretending to be normal while gripping Drum Sticks, and between us Lee Do-yeong held the Bass and gently closed his eyes.
“Ooh…….”
Jo Seong-hun let out an admiring murmur as he looked at us framed in the angle.
“Yeah, the mad vibe is perfect. Stay just like that!”
-Click.
* * *
Now it was really just down to the release.
Nine months had already passed since I’d flown into the past back in July of last year.
In less than a year, there had been a lot going on.
I gathered friends to form a band, appeared on TV, and got plenty of hate.
And I’m getting so much love too.
Plus, I’ve reunited with Moon Ga-yeong and Jo Seong-hun, who were former colleagues.
What kind of things are waiting for me in the future?
What are we going to do after this Album is released?
Obviously, we’ll have to hold a Showcase and promote the Album.
And during break, I want to go around and play with my friends too.
After all that’s done as well.
What will we really do then.
What fun things can we pull off.
For a brief moment, my head filled with countless what-ifs.
* * *
Our Audio Track and Music Video were handed over to the distributor.
It was the same when we released “Rendezvous”—it’ll probably take about three weeks before the release date is announced.
Now there are two things we need to do.
First is promotion.
In preparation for the Album release, we created an official SNS account for Octop.
We uploaded the profile photo we’d taken for the release.
We also uploaded individual photos of each member.
The accounts we were following were just us five.
And we still had zero followers.
And the other thing we have to do….
“Hey, how do you do this?”
“I dunno? But why’d you give this to just the two of us?”
Kang Min and Heo Jun-seong were hunched over a computer, scratching their heads.
We’ll hold a concert when the Album is released.
We couldn’t rent a large venue, so a smaller concert space was planned.
In case too many people showed up, we decided to create a reservation form.
Heo Jun-seong and Kang Min were the ones to do it.
Lee Do-yeong and Kim Ji-hu were busy, so it fell as homework to those two.
Cha Seo-ha is an idiot.
Giving those two idiots something like that.
“Should we just have them write it down on paper and turn it in?”
“Oh, genius!”
“That means genius, right?”
“Yeah! How’d you know?”
“I do this thing called learning.”
“Wow, you’re really smart?”
And now here’s Cha Seo-ha, having just arrived at the rehearsal studio and looking at that scene.
“Looks like they haven’t done anything at all…….”
“Oh, you’re here? Cha Seo-ha, this is hard.”
“So-da yo, honto ni daihenda yo!”
“What are you even saying?”
I wish Kang Min would speak Korean.
“It means he’s having a really tough time!”
“Huh? Heo Jun-seong, you actually understand that?”
“Uh ha ha ha!”
“Heh heh heh heh!”
What am I going to do with those idiots, really.
I almost showed off my Taekwondo skills but held back.
“I’ll do it. You two just go outside and fool around or whatever.”
I threw those two idiots out and made the reservation form template myself.
You just go into the site and click the create tab. Why were they saying it’s hard….
Honestly, they’re no help at all.
“Hey! You two numbskulls out there!”
“Huh?”
“What?”
“Share the Octop SNS account address to your accounts, will you?”
“Oh, right!”
“Yaaaay!”
Our five individual accounts all had quite a few followers.
Lee Do-yeong had 11,000, Heo Jun-seong had 8,700, Kim Ji-hu had 16,000, Kang Min had 9,200.
And I had 28,000.
The first promotion push was each of us five posting the Octop official account in our own story.
“Hey, what’re you doing?”
“Oh, you’re here, Kim Ji-hu. I’m making the concert reservation form.”
“Didn’t you leave that to those guys?”
“Yeah, but they couldn’t manage it.”
“That’s literally just a few mouse clicks. They can’t do that?”
“Well, I’ll just do it myself.”
“Sigh, those blockheads…….”
Through Kim Ji-hu’s sigh, the sound of Heo Jun-seong and Kang Min laughing outside formed a harmony.
What am I gonna do with those guys, seriously.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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