Little Pink Starfish

While Self Made Season 2 was being filmed in the United States, Episode 3 of Season 1 aired in Korea.

At the end of Episode 2, an employee from M.O.L Games visited Sedalbaekil’s dorm, and it concluded with Han Si-on eyeing the Apple commercial.

If you rewind the timeline a bit, there was the Busking of Masked Bandit and the webtoon OST contract.

At this point, the structure was clear.

The concept of Self Made Episode 1 was hardship, Episode 2 was overcoming.

And Episode 3 was harvest.

As expected, the program began with the webtoon.

In a camera angle clearly sponsored by the production partner, the webtoon slowly scrolled across the screen while the OST played.

Below, comments from readers who loved the song popped up one by one.

-Are they allowed to show the webtoon this blatantly? LOL

-This is why cable TV is nice LOL

-Did the webtoon sponsor the production?

Since this content had already made rounds in the online community, the viewers of Self Made didn’t react much.

There were some reactions saying the webtoon looked fun.

Then the scene switched to Masked Bandit’s busking.

The two of them continued to perform with strong gestures that didn’t suit the earnest ballad, but that actually made it quite entertaining to watch.

At first, it was pretty awkward.

Neither Lee I-on nor Goo Tae-hwan had ever done anything like this, so they had practiced at the dorm as if choreographing a dance routine.

But effort doesn’t lie.

As the Masked Bandit’s gestures gradually improved, the imbalance with the song became even greater.

Not that it sounded bad.

-Why does it sound more heartfelt LOL

-Is this a confession from the bandit saying it was you all along LOL

-By “you” they mean money, right?

-LOL yeah, it was money all along LOL

-Wow but for real, I’m rediscovering Lee I-on through Self Made. Didn’t know he could sing this well.

-For real. I thought he was just about the face.

-I’m so happy people are recognizing that our kid is a genius ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Indie singers these days seem to hate Lee I-on.

-Why?

-Good-looking and sings well.

-Oh, makes sense.

Then an interesting scene played out.

As Goo Tae-hwan wrapped up the song, wildly firing off a money gun he had prepared in advance, someone approached him.

Glancing at the camera, the person asked Masked Bandit if they were celebrities.

The two shook their heads and made up a story about shooting an indie music video, then received a business card.

It was NT’s casting director.

-What? LOL They didn’t even see their faces!

-Did they cast them as faceless singers? LOL

-Japan has BABYMETAL. We have Bandit Ballad!

-Give us your attention and love. Bang bang.

-What’s with this “bang bang” nonsense LOL

Then came the casting director’s interview from two months later.

Using a future interview like this added fun to the show.

[Their features were completely hidden by the mask, but I had a feeling they were good-looking.]

[A feeling?]

[Yes. There’s a unique confidence that people with exceptional looks have. I sensed that.]

-Come on LOL Just say, “If they were ugly, we’d have them get plastic surgery.”

-That’s the truth LOL

While the public’s reactions weren’t wrong, surprisingly, NT’s casting director was sincere.

After these small scenes, Han Si-on appeared.

Han Si-on had produced nine songs and made all the members, including himself, record them.

Strictly speaking, this happened after filming the M.O.L commercial.

In other words, this took place after the members had achieved their initial goals and returned.

But that would lower the broadcast tension, so PD Kang Seok-woo twisted the timeline.

He presented it as if Sedalbaekil’s activities and Han Si-on preparing for the Apple commercial were happening simultaneously.

Because of this, viewers responded positively.

-These guys are the ones who sold CDs with a CD player included, right?

-Yeah, that’s them.

-I don’t really follow idols, but these kids really work hard.

-Other idols work hard too.

-Of course, but they seem truly passionate about music. Cheering them on.

It depicted Sedalbaekil as going through an extremely tight schedule.

Even after pulling all-nighters recording under Han Si-on’s direction, they seemed to handle their next schedule without showing fatigue.

PD Kang Seok-woo, being a savvy producer, anticipated these viewer reactions.

So he inserted scenes of the members struggling with exhaustion in between schedules.

In a way, this was manipulation, but in the broadcasting industry, they call it direction, not manipulation.

Though the timeline was twisted, the fact remained that Sedalbaekil worked hard and endured tough schedules.

[This is how we got 45 tracks.]

[I didn’t divide parts for the members because I didn’t write the songs to fit Sedalbaekil’s roles.]

[I wrote them to fit the company’s branding. Now let’s divide them.]

On screen, Han Si-on listened to Goo Tae-hwan’s intro, then layered Choi Jae-sung’s intro on top.

The two identical tracks overlapping weren’t particularly charming at first, but then the magic began.

It happened so fast that it was hard to tell what he discarded or kept, but the two tracks became lighter.

It was more like matching spatial elements of sound than harmonizing.

After listening to this several times, Han Si-on added Lee I-on’s voice.

Thus, while Goo Tae-hwan’s voice led the intro, Choi Jae-sung’s voice was layered like a hip-hop doubling track, and Lee I-on’s precisely tuned vocals added reverb-like spatiality.

[Oh, this is good. I’ve never tried it like this before.]

Han Si-on continued this process of building one song out of five tracks.

Naturally, the music was shared with the viewers.

They couldn’t play the full version, but the production team selected the most attractive parts.

-Wow, what is this? The song is so good;;

-Surprisingly, it has that Apple vibe.

-22222 I thought that too.

-I remember Jobs or Tim Cook once said that even if you close your eyes, you should know it’s an Apple ad song.

-Enough with the trivia LOL

Han Si-on’s work was excessively detailed for a variety show format.

Normally, such scenes last 15 seconds to 1 minute at most.

But PD Kang Seok-woo had two intentions.

First, the song was good enough to warrant it. Second, he wanted to build anticipation.

Maybe Sedalbaekil really would land the Apple commercial.

Curiosity about whether they would pull off something big.

But this only half succeeded.

-What’s the title of the second song? Where can we listen to it?

-We don’t know;;

-Has it been uploaded on Sedalbaekil’s official site?

-Not yetㅠㅠㅠㅠ

-Huh? They upload songs there?

-Yeah, sometimes they do when fans request.

-Wow. What’s been uploaded so far?

-The most popular one was Summer Cream Speed Up version.

-Speed up? Isn’t that just increasing the tempo? Anyone can do that.

-Si-on said that simply increasing the tempo ruins the melody, so he rearranged it himself for the speed-up version!

The song earned plenty of goodwill.

But nobody really believed Sedalbaekil would land an Apple ad.

So there were reactions like:

-It looks like they’re trying something, but it’s getting a bit boring.

-Yeah, it’s starting to feel like a documentary.

The already edited broadcast couldn’t be changed based on viewer reactions.

The scene then jumped to Choi Jae-sung shooting the M.O.L commercial.

Thus came the first revenue settlement after a full episode of income activities.

[Wow!]

[Amazing.]

[They earned this much?]

They made 18 million won.

Normally, programs don’t reveal exact figures, but this was different.

How much Sedalbaekil, acting as unknown singers, earned.

And how that would be spent during Season 2’s overseas trip.

These were the focal points of Self Made.

By then, viewers realized one thing.

Just how immense Sedalbaekil’s talent was.

Back in Episode 1, the common assumption was that unknown singers wouldn’t earn much.

And indeed, Sedalbaekil’s early attempts failed.

But with Han Si-on’s advice as a foundation, they tried again and succeeded.

Behind it all was talent and hard work.

-Wow;;; With crazy talent and effort, anything’s possible;;

-Honestly, I thought they’d secretly use Sedalbaekil’s fame early on, but they really went full unknown. And they still earned this much?

-18 million won? They can do anything in the US with that!

-Definitely a luxury hotel vacation confirmed!

-Titty Sun’s reactions are hilarious LOL Such excessive fangirling LOL

-What fangirling? Tell me.

-But isn’t it kind of pathetic how PD Kang later tries to calculate all the additional production costs?

-LOL Otherwise they’d have spent almost 25 million won on production!

-Look at PD Kang’s eyes shaking.

-He’s panicking LOL

-He kneeled LOL

-But seriously, amazing. Standing ovation. And they donated all that money too.

-Guess talent rules supreme in the arts world;;

-It was all Han Si-on’s doing.

But not everyone applauded purely.

-Nonsense LOL Like the webtoon artists or the game company really didn’t know it was Sedalbaekil?

-They said they didn’t. Some webtoon artists with personal streams talked about it.

-Even if they knew, they’d pretend they didn’t.

-If you think like that, what do you believe in?

-I don’t believe variety shows for one.

-People are so naive. You believe this?

-Then are all unknown singers nationwide just fools?

-What are you saying? Sedalbaekil made it with insane talent.

-Like talent alone would be enough LOL Cameras were following them the whole time.

Such suspicion was inevitable.

Broadcasts involve direction and editing.

And in those gaps left by editing, there was no proof that Sedalbaekil was entirely pure.

But Self Made Episode 3 had a kind of magic that dispelled all criticism and doubt in one blow.

When the settlement reached 18 million won, PD Kang Seok-woo humbly groveled before the members.

Even this was for entertainment.

M Show had actually planned an extra budget up to 20 million won.

So 18 million was manageable.

But handling it too easily would be boring, so PD Kang acted humble.

His desperate offer was simple.

[I… I’ll sell the schedule.]

[The schedule?]

[Yes. One full night of complete freedom at a hotel without cameras! 500,000 won per person, how about 2.5 million won?]

He proposed selling off activities the members might want to do in America at reasonable prices.

PD Kang threw out various proposals on the spot.

If all were accepted, the actual expense would only be 3 million won.

Meaning he’d recover 15 million won worth of schedule sales.

Of course, at the time, PD Kang didn’t expect this to be accepted.

He thought a more appropriate deal would be negotiated.

But to his surprise.

[Sure. We’ll take them all.]

Han Si-on readily accepted everything.

-Huh?

-What? Isn’t that being too considerate of the broadcasting company?

-See? It’s all scripted LOL

But no.

[Now that’s settled, let’s calculate this again.]

Han Si-on pulled out a draft contract from Apple’s I Branding Team.