Jeongguk puts the menu down, exhaling a sigh as he leans back into his chair. “What is this eval?! I wanted to join the last one but couldn’t. Now that I actually can they give us this,” the newbie trainee complains, a grumble leaving his lips.
“I don’t mind acting, don’t get me wrong but I have no idea what I’m supposed to do... do we know what kind of probs they’ll give us in general? Can we choose one of the probs provided? I’m just so lost how to even go about this or train for this.” Exhaling another sigh he stretches his arms above his head, leaning further back in his chair.
she could not have been any more enthused if she tried. their last evaluations for the year is something that she knew she would excel at. it was the perfect retribution from last month’s gruelling task and a gift from the heavens above. lord knows she could not quite force herself to do another dance focused evaluation after such a strenuous one.
“here, try this water bottle.” she speaks to her companion, handing out a bland looking bottle with a triumphant smile. “i suppose this is something of a challenge. water is not exactly the most appealing of products to advertise.” picking the most obscure items around it and turning that into a ten to fifteen second commercial is the sort of game she did not know she would enjoy doing. it was a laidback early preparation for this month’s task and one that she can get by any time of the day.
she had only just been recently introduced to the new trainee but she feels already at ease enough to want to work through these practices with her. it was a rarity but after two years in the company, she believes it should be expected of her to be a warm older figure to the new and younger ones. it is a hard task to commit to for someone who barely possesses any inner warmth but at the very least, she ought to try. “let us see if i would be enticed to buy water after this.”
this was her calling; a sign. she knew it. after joining nova, the other trainees were sent to perform at the end of the month. these evaluations were known in the industry, and it was interesting hearing the stories of how many had frozen to death in the hours they were made to perform in bad weather. it made nakyung wonder what they had in store for her once she could join those events.
ever since she was born, the girl was praised for her beauty. during the mgas, she was criticized for being too pretty. now, her very first evaluation is all about looking good on camera. nakyung takes the bottle of water lightly, and then slowly turns around. her hair falls softly over her shoulder and she shows a gentle smile to complement. in her head the song had already started to play before she starts to sing it herself. “라라라라라라라... 날 좋아 한다고…”
her eyes blink as a calculated move before nakyung returns to her usual movements. “see?” yongsun is the one in front of her, not some type of camera. “you can transform anything into a successful cf.” the girl says it with confidence as if she’s any bit experienced on the job. that experience is simply limited to recreating famous cfs with her friends and singing along to sad tunes while staring out windows. “now it’s your turn.”
Exposure is a crucial part of making a group or artist popular, that’s why they often go to variety, music and radio shows during promotions and also try their luck as models and actors. Endorsing products of famous brands is the goal of many and also one of the ways idols and even trainees use not only to make extra money but make their faces known – it’s a good opportunity to be on the commercial breaks of a popular drama or have your face all over the city on billboards and cardboard cutouts.
As a new month dawn upon us, a staff member gathers all trainees in one of the companies’ practice rooms for a surprise visit of model and actress Lee Seonyoung and acting coach Moon Taeri. They share their experiences and some tips before revealing they came for a special lesson and asking trainees to come to the center and do an improvisation exercise with them. Once the guests leave, the same staff returns with some commercial films to show them examples of what they just discussed and inform them that they should keep practicing these clips for the upcoming evaluation that won’t be explained until the day but will be related to the lesson they had.
On December 31st, trainees will return to the same practice room, but this time they will find a professional camera and different props (such as water bottles, make-up, fake fried chicken, phones, etc). Taking turns, they will be randomly handed one of the objects and told to improvise a commercial film to promote it on spot (reference). Trainees have three takes to complete the challenge and all the recorded footage will be watched by everyone, including acting coaches, on the following day so they can evaluate themselves. As fun as it can be, they are instructed to take it seriously and keep it appropriate!
In order to collect +2 POINTS TO DISTRIBUTE AS YOU WISH and +2 DEBUT POINTS, write 250+ words solo or a four-post thread with another trainee involving the preparations for this month’s evaluation. For +3 POINTS IN A RELEVANT SKILL, +2 DEBUT POINTS and +1WK RELEVANT ACHIEVEMENT, write one 300+ words solo about your muse’s cf improvisation. Please tag all your posts with #rkdec19eval and have them up by midnight EST at the end of Tuesday, December 31st. Threads may be continued after the deadline, but points can only be collected if the requirements are met before it.
DECEMBER EVALUATION (for the JANUARY 1 verification form)
[link to thread or solo about preparation]
+2 ___ POINTS
+2 DEBUT POINTS
NEW DEBUT POINTS TOTAL:
[link to solo about cf improvisation]
+3 ___ (RELEVANT) POINTS
+2 DEBUT POINTS
+1WK ___ (RELEVANT CHARISMA) ACHIEVEMENT (number of times taken + current level)
NEW DEBUT POINTS TOTAL:
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ˟ 12월 、december evaluations
( cf evaluations , shampoo ad ) _____________________
sua stares at the empty bottle of shampoo in her hand and wonders why she has to advertise such a shitty product when it’s easily one of the cheapest brands on the market. but that’s the job, sometimes - things that she wouldn’t fully endorse in her entire life can sometimes call upon her for a job, especially if she’s really planning on becoming an idol. and just because she’s acting this out here and now doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll be putting her face to this product in the future.
that’s what she takes into this evaluation, and decides to give it her all - if only because she actually enjoys to do things like this, even if in the end the product is not something really up her alley.
( after all, sua was in the commercials for kt’s mobile game and she hasn’t played it since. )
she starts with her back facing the camera to show off her long, dark tresses that fall in perfect waves. while she knows that this would hardly be the look of her hair after using this kind of product over a long period of time, the point of this is the commercial - the point is to sell. her body does the movement, following the beat of a song heard only in her head. she goes for an active, dancer’s approach just so she can whip her hair around and show it off as best as only sua knows how. in the end, she finally shows off the brand of shampoo with a tilt of her head, hair falling almost oddly perfectly over her shoulders after such a strong surge of movement.
and though it’s true that sua would never use this shampoo in her life, she thinks that she’d probably do well in a shampoo cf regardless.
december 2019 evaluations
commercial film improv
provided object: pepero box
└ ┘
as a master weaver of tall tales (read: liar), chanyeol is an expert at putting on a face and rolling with whatever comes out of his mouth, belief in his lies resting upon his features, often indecipherable whether or not he's joking around or speaking in all seriousness. it's an art he's mastered over the years, a mechanism meant to keep himself from diving too deeply into anything too emotional, a pretense of shallowness to keep him from going over the edge. to put it frankly, park chanyeol is a great liar.
a natural acting talent, he is not.
there's something quite different about being put on the spot, trying to go according to a script or presenting an item to the public for purchase. a lie is simple, made up on the spot, often outlandish and outrageous, spoken with a straight face that says he believes everything he's blurting out. so when they put a box of pepero in his hand and tell him to make up an impromptu cf, he stands there frozen for a few moments, wondering if he can pull this off.
if he were at home, dared to do this by his friends and family, he'd go overboard, crafting some elaborate story of knight and dragons and ghosts for good measure, but he thinks if he remembers the coaches' words, to take it seriously, and it's hard to craft such a large tale in thirty seconds without all the necessary cg and cast extras.
so he goes with what he knows. pepero is heavily linked to couples and romance, and he thinks he's had good practice at that over the past year and some odd months and because jisoo isn't there, the camera will have to be a stand-in for the moment.
he approaches the camera with a smile, as if the lens were her bright brown eyes, pretending to cover its eyes without actually touching the equipment, allowing for a bit of space at the bottom of the shot. he's internally dying inside, hating having to show this side himself in public to others, but he tries his best to hide how badly he's cringing at the moment. "wait. don’t open your eyes yet,” he says, voice much softer and gentler than usual. he pauses for a moment before speaking again. “okay, now.”
he moves his hand and backs up, arms perpendicular to the ground as he does a quick spin. “how many days has it been?” he asks, pretending to take out several sticks of pepero, saying the number ‘one’ cutely as he pretends to eat four of them. “eleven eleven?” he then holds up the box. “then let’s continue to be together for the rest of this box...”
he then steps to the side, free hand making a sweeping gesture as if there are stacks and stacks more of pepero boxes, “and all of these, too.”
he steps back into the center of the shot, as if it’s a new scene, holding up the box in his hand. “pepero. joining hearts since 1983.”
the cf, in his head, is over with that line, and he takes this opportunity to crouch down to the ground, every part of his body curling into itself. he thinks the worst is over, but then he remembers...
He’s lying in bed after a day of practice, scrolling through his phone. A very regular occurrence, though it’s what Moonbok has been watching this past month that is different.
Rather than any gripping drama, MVs or funny animal videos, his video history has been filled with CFs, both current and older ones as he attempts to get his head around the first evaluation Sphere has set for him.
Moonbok won’t lie, he was a little sad that this evaluation was an acting based one as opposed to the general idol performance one he’d been expecting and had been looking forward to. But he could see the reasoning behind it, after all, the success of an idol was partly measured by the endorsements they managed to seize, wasn’t it?
And even if it isn’t the evaluation he’d been expecting, it is an evaluation Moonbok intends on passing. He wants to prove to Baek Jiyoung that she was right in finally granting him a chance to train at Sphere. And if that means he has to try and sell an imaginary product, then so be it.
Besides, it’s a chance for him to let his more charming side out, wasn’t it? Never let it be said that Jang Moonbok was unwilling to use his charms to his advantage.
Spying a bottle of shampoo on his dresser, he scrambles out of bed, suddenly inspired. Grabbing it, Moonbok flashes the imaginary camera a sunny smile, holding the bottle up to his hair.
“My hair is one of my most valuable assets, so don’t expect me to use just any supermarket shampoo on it. For me, the only shampoo I’ll let near my hair is...”
He’s cut off by his roommate’s cackling from the doorway and the evening ends with Moonbok tossing the shampoo bottle at the other male before stalking to bed with a sulk at his performance being cut off.
「 Sparkling Shit, U Buy That Shit 」
⇢ Royal Evals Dec 2k19 | +3 CH ; +2 DB ; +1 WK Acting
⇢ Yuzu shining in what she can do best
“ Yay, nay or gloss was the question. They gave her hair conditioner instead. ”
And so doom day had come. Yuzu was excited more than nervous or scared. She knew how to make a fool out of herself well. If her humor would land in Korea and inside this company just as well as in the international gaming community? She was about to find out. Sitting together with some of the other trainees, leaning comfortably against the person beside her she watched as one by one they went up and delivered their own rendition of an improvised commercial.
Some made her laugh, some made her cringe and for some she actually felt sorry but never once did the girl bother to think up anything for her own turn. Studying the items one by one she had a basic construct for most of them in her head but not wanting to box herself in too much, she avoided overthinking it.
Then it was her turn and the new trainee marched up towards the selection, cracking her knuckles and twisting her neck in her over-dramatic mannerism. The moment she was handed a bottle of conditioner, her lips pressed into a line and she nodded once. She got this.
Taking a moment to think she nodded again when she was ready and slipped right into character. With a swift motion she tugged on her hairband, releasing her ponytail and letting her hair fall across her shoulders. Turning towards the camera with a smile on her lips, hair swaying gracefully behind her it was almost as if she did a slow motion there. “Bringing some colour into my life. But not while ruining my hair structure.” Then she holds the bottle up and flips her hair back over her shoulders as she delivers the perfect line. “Prime Conditioner. So my hair doesn’t just look like cotton candy but actually feels like it too!” She finishes her commercial by raising a strand of hair to her lips, holding it there as if she had a mustache. “And it smells like cotton candy too!” Just a tiny additional line for the entertaining factor, a laugh leaving her lips. She puts a hand before her face then to symbolize some form of scene cut and then lowers it to look directly into the camera with a soft smile. “Prime Conditioner. Touch the rainbow.” Extending her hand forward she carefully bobs her index finger against the camera and finishes up with another bright smile. Then she finally handed the bottle back to the staff with a bow and wrapped up her shot.
Returning to her seat she tilts her head, humming beneath her breath. She could have done better but for a first evaluation? Probably not too bad.
