the documentary was already amazing but a behind the scenes too??? now i'm curious about what didn't make the final cut...
oh gosh anon there was quite a bit. actually looking through the deleted bits (bc i ended up putting everything i cut into a separate doc lol), i suppose they fell into like, 3 different buckets: promotional shenanigans, things that didn't fit the core premise, and things that didn't fit with the format
promotional shenanigans: since promo activities weren't covered a lot in the movie (we really only saw montages of the live show winners announcements vs the saja boys and the fansign), i really wanted to make it a point for the girls to interact with their fans. bc i think everything they do - from demon hunting to performing - is bc they love their fans, yknow? and i wanted to explore how that would look like, now having the chance to promote and meet fans without the weight of demon hunting (like when they saw those fans at the very end of the movie), and also after dealing with everything post-gwima (as in, how close they were to losing everything).
there was a lot of little things that were cut, like going to a haunted house (lol here's an old school SNSD video), filming a relay dance (lol here's Dreamcatcher covering Brown Eyed Girls' "Abracadabra"), doing a show like Fantastic Duo where they got to sing with fans (here's an example with Ailee that i lovelovelove); or doing separate appearances like Zoey on Show Me the Money (a rap survival show) or Mira on something like Dancing With the Stars or Rumi on a show like Masked Singer - for any of them, they could've been contestants or judges.
so many options! so the way i decided between what to keep or cut was thinking about a) what activities allowed for different kinds of fan interaction and b) which were my favorite :P
for example on the latter: i had a ton of ideas for the variety show section - like the telephone game but folks have headphones on (here's a Dreamcatcher example lol) or charades but in different languages or even something like the hot wings interview. but i ultimately chose the random play because it's such a staple in promotions, the eating because of course, and the pepero game because gay lol
things that didn't fit the core premise: i wanted as much as possible to parallel/call back to the events in the movie so ideas that introduced new elements (e.g. something with either Mira or Zoey's families getting involved), added too much drama (e.g. i entertained for a bit having either a demon thing happen or something go wrong during the MV filming), or took us too far from the girls and their bond (e.g. Celine playing a bigger role) were cut early on. the subtitle "the road to the international idol awards, 1 year later" was something I happened to develop early on and it ended up being a really nice guide as I decided between different ideas.
[putting the last under the cut because omg this got so long with the choreo snippet]
things that didn't fit with the format: not a lot fell into this category, but figuring out how to use the format to overcome the format was one of the hardest things in writing this fic. what i mean is: by choosing to write it in this format, it inherently introduced distance. i couldn't go into the girls' minds to share their internal thoughts and feelings like i could with regular prose. but! i could use the interviews to substitute for that in a way - hence using the format to overcome the format :D
aside: while i've done the screenplay format before with my youtuber!Ava fic and subsequent follow ups, the interviews were a new dimension. learning how to use them was a big part of the process.
the most important example of this were the choreography and the idol awards sections. i actually considered cutting the choreo section completely because i was having such a hard time with it lol. the initial scene i had in mind was pretty different. actually, i think i have the actual snippet - found it:
[Midnight, or thereabouts. The door opens quietly: Mira enters wearing an oversized shirt and sweatpants, hair in a messy bun, a heaviness in her eyes evident even behind her glasses.]
[She walks over to the stereo. The audio picks up a murmur of 'Comeback.' Mira stretches a bit then begins to dance. Her movements are listless - not quite extending, not quite committing, not quite feeling. She stops, pulls off her glasses in a huff of frustration. Rubs at her eyes; shudders.]
[The door behind Mira clicks open: Rumi, sleep worn and cautious; worried. They stare at each other for a moment before Mira finally clicks her tongue, swiping roughly at her eyes before putting on her glasses. She turns away and walks over to the stereo as Rumi steps fully into the room.]
[Even with the music off, only bits and pieces of their conversation are audible - Rumi's murmured concern, Mira's curt tension]
[The door clicks open once more: Zoey, sleepily rubbing at her eyes and frowning. Mira scoffs, turns away from both of them]
[There's an ache in Rumi's eyes as she reaches out - only for Mira to jerk away]
Mira [agitated, pacing]: "- at you, Rumi. I -" [she seems to cut herself off; then, pleading] "How can you trust me when I can't trust myself?"
[Rumi glances between the two of them, Zoey's gaze echoing Mira's pain, echoing her own. Rumi's response is quiet, her mouth barely moving, shaping around words that look like 'I do' - opens her hands as if to say 'how can I not?']
[A silence falls around them, heavy and aching. Zoey shifts, foot knocking lightly against the stereo beside her. She seems to mutter an apology; pauses. A thoughtful look passes over her face]
[Both Mira and Rumi startle when music starts to play. Zoey walks over to them, stands in the middle with her hands outstretched. Instinctively, both of them reach out for her - only for Zoey to pull them in and clasp their hands together]
[Zoey speaks quietly to them before backing away slowly. For a moment, their hands stay aloft, suspended between them. Then -]
[Rumi lifts their hands, coaxes Mira's to open so that they're pressed palm to palm. The instrumental wraps around them as Rumi leans into Mira's touch, bringing herself closer only for Mira to dance away into a complicated turn that ends with Mira on her knees; penitent, pleading]
[Her absolution comes in the form of Rumi joins her on her knees - a precipice, a choice: stay or face the unknown, together]
(the scene would then continue with them figuring out a key choreography point, but i nixed that as well because of the jacket moment during the first comeback performance)
anyway so you can kinda see how i hadn't yet found the balance between narrating from the so-called camera's perspective vs leaning on the format. said differently: i was trying to write as if the reader could see what was happening - but there's nothing to see; only words. similar to the forum fic - there's nothing to hear; only words.
said differently again: the beauty of movies, tv, etc. is that you can see the thing. on the other hand, the beauty of writing, is the interiority of it, the access you get into the character's thoughts and feelings, and the access the reader has to their own thoughts and feelings as well.
hence why the tricky thing to learn was balancing the illusion of "seeing" the action through a camera lens with the illusion of "reading" the characters' interiority.
... that was a lot of words to say that i learned i had to lean on the interviews more :P which was something @daskum suggested so basically everyone should thank her for how well the choreography section turned out! as well as the idol awards too, as i had the same problem writing the performance scene but everything clicked into place once i started leaning on the interviews more.
okay this is already much longer than i expected lol sorry anon i guess i had much more to say than i thought. if you couldn't tell, i had a lot of fun with this fic! it challenged me in really interesting ways, allowed me to heal the part of my heart that had broken a bit from kpop back in the day, and made me fall in love with the girls and the movie all over again <3
We know that not all of our prompts for the challenge will work for everyone, so we have supplied a short collection of alternative prompts. Feel free to use these as a substitution of any of the prompts on the main list.
Below is a very brief explanation of each of the alternate prompts.
1 - Eternal Sunshine AU
The film The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind presents a world in which one may surgically have their memories of a specific person removed. What would it look like if a member of your canon cast went to Lacuna for the procedure? Should this system be embraced or dismantled?
2 - Interview/Documentary Format
Do you want to just shove a microphone in the blorbo's face and make them explain what they were thinking in that moment? Yeah. He's the excuse.
3 - Pirate AU
Anything is possible when the Pirates of the Caribbean theme is playing. Explore.
4 - Rags to Riches
You know the movie My Fair Lady? No, okay how about Kingsman? Either way, it's simple. Take the character who grew up in poverty and make them cosplay a rich person for plot.
5 - Zombie AU
Who among us have not wondered how our cast would handle a zombie apocalypse? You should share with the class.
so I'd contemplated doing this before I posted the documentary fic but talked myself out of it. but then a kindly commenter mentioned that the last scene reminded them of this Mamamoo video (sorry distracted by rewatching bc this is so silly! i love it) and I immediately thought, "I NEED TO SHARE THIS!" and then @littlemousejelly supported the idea so now here's all the things that i can remember that inspired certain things lol
under the cut to avoid spoilers but mostly because it got a little long lol
gonna start with a fun fact first: i haven't actually watched a lot of documentaries about musicians but back in the day, i was briefly a fan of AKB48 and man when Acchan retired there were *so many* documentaries and interviews. so tbh, I was pulling on my memories of those for this fic
Zoey mentions "Naengmyeon" which is a real song by Park Myung-soo and Jessica Jung lolol here's their live on Music Core (oh god I can't believe I still remember the choreography) it's a silly summer song that actually ranked quite well when it was released
the bit where Rumi starts composing a ballad (which I'm imagining became the one they made the self-made MV for) and Mira and Zoey start harmonizing with her was inspired not by Kpop but by this video where Gabe Bondoc and Melissa Polinar surprised Jeremy Passion when they improvised harmonies during a performance of "Lemonade" (if anyone remembers these three … you're old too :P but also geez just pulling this out so easily??? damn)
Mira as a former ballerina is from various fanarts - here's one by verballocket
i didn't have specific choreo in mind for the "Touch Me" choreography section, but i was definitely inspired by the opening of Sunmi's part switch dance practice for "Gashina" and UAU's "Sacrifice" (dance practice)
lol i'm surprised no one's called me out on the "Fighting!" which is like, a common kinda "get pumped" phrase. i did have to adjust a couple of other terms - e.g. Zoey mentioning later how confusing "comeback stage for comeback" came about after i had to adjust a line bc i confused @gohandinhand lol
the food trucks are definitely things that happen, either paid by the group or paid by the fans!
fun fact: all the usernames mentioned when the girls are going through the comments are from my forum fic :D
the comeback decorations and shenanigans are things that really happen lol! all the monitoring and snacking too
when Mira mentions "the lighting is best here" while taking pictures on the stairs is a reference to the Inkigayo and Music Bank stairs where idols seem to always take pictures lol
the self-made MV is also stuff that happens lol i was thinking specifically about Dreamcatcher's ones, specifically Poison Love bc ... gay.
fun fact: i'm not sure if it's still done anymore but back in the day, rookie groups used to go to the sunbae groups to give them their CDs. i was going to have Decibel do this but ended up having them happen upon their heroes being dorks instead lolol
the mention about doing cowboy concept is because of folks' fanart lol - have this one by soggystyrofoam and this one by lenaskzorel
ending fairy is when they have to hold their end pose and do these little things for the close up - i of course now can't find the video where Jiu from Dreamcatcher was actively fighting against sneezing against the confetti but here's one from their OOTD promotions
the girls sporting temporary tattoos for Bobby's birthday is a mashup of idols sporting temporary tattoos and also Dreamcatcher writing birthday messages on their palms to surprise Gahyun during their performance of 4 Memory
usually first pitch moments are pretty lackluster, but of course Huntr/x would knock it out of the park (literally lol) - but here's an example of a first pitch that was horrible lol (yes i was an SNSD fan hush)
the event where the girls are all drunk is based off of Dingo's Tipsy Live series - see the most recent videos for the venue, though I had B2ST/Highlight's "Ribbon" in mind for the vibe (i.e. how gone they were)
the suit dance is based off of 1theK's suit dance series lol - i'm just gonna keep spamming Dreamcatcher bc why not :P their suit dance for Bon Voyage was fantastic
the variety show was a mish-mash of various shows but definitely heavily influenced by Weekly Idol, particularly the Random Play sequence lol (here's an older playlist, and i guess the more recent ones moved to a different channel?). note that Dreamcatcher in fact had an appearance where they "competed" against a mukbanger (scare quotes bc mostly it was them just chatting lol)
the pepero game is again inspired by a Dreamcatcher appearance on a variety show here - the "previous record" mentioned is Sua and Siyeon lol (which also inspired how Zoey bit Mira lol)
the fansign shenanigans is based off of various idol fansigns / meet & greets lol, so much silliness - oh! the mention of bear onesies was because of princington's art lol
the whole idol awards section is really all a callback to canon. it was the hardest section to write but in the end, i'm really glad with how it shaped out <3
as for the ending stuff:
the girls going into the audience was inspired by bts footage of B2ST/Highlight preparing for their recent Ride or Die concert
the arcade bar scene was inspired by UAU's performance MV for "Good Luck"
the compilation of performances was inspired by idols being cute (acapella), the old Lalala series where they used to do these remix/covers versions of songs (since i've already outed myself as an SNSD fan here's their Gee self-cover with both jazz and rock versions) and also the forum fic (for classical!Huntr/x)
Zoey's costume for the holiday MV was inspired by Jiu's dinosaur costume in the Odd Eye random box video (sorry got distracted by Dr. Siyeon) but Hwasa in the Mamamoo video linked at the very top was almost exactly what I was envisioning lolol. I had initially thought about them jusy being in animal onesies but then i realized it was end of year so holiday season and mistletoe :D
and there you have it! everything else was really in reference to canon as the premise was really "one year later" as mentioned in the summary. if you're still reading, sorry? lol
the documentary fic is literally a masterpiece like how does one create something SO BEAUTIFUL WHAT THE HECK
oh gosh hello! tbh i have no freaking idea lol. but i guess, to give context: i didn't really go into it in my behind the scenes posts but i got into kpop durin late 1st gen (man looking through this list is so nostalgic) though i wasn't active in fandom until 2nd gen - i have lots of intense memories of fandom losing our minds over teasers, staying up to watch livestreams for comebacks (the time difference made for some rough mornings lol) and (during this time of year) all the award shows, and, of course, all the shipping discourse lol
kpdh did an incredible job capturing so much of those feelings of being a fan in the movie that i wanted to a) capture that feeling in written form and b) find closure for that part of myself that had kinda been heartbroken back then
for the first part, i had done the screenplay-esque format with the youtuber!Ava/Dead Mom Recipes fic last year. i had a really fun time with that format and knew i wanted to push it in a new way, which is where those interviews came in. actually also, fun fact: i had originally thought about having interviews and forum posts as part of the story but i decided to focus just on the girls instead - plus, the forum fic ended up scratching that itch
for the second part, i found myself tapping into a ton of fond memories (the behind the scenes posts go more in-depth on this!) and it was both fun and healing to think about HUNTR/X just doing silly idol things and also finding their own healing in the process too
lastly, i really just wanted to focus on the love the girls have - for their fans, for each other, for their music - and like, i just really believe that love is at the center of kpdh, both in the content and in how it was created, yknow?
and lastlylastly, a ton of credit goes to @gohandinhand and @daskum for holding my hand, enthusiastically reading through my crazy drafts, and encouraging me every step of the way. the fic we have today is because of *their* love and support!
