#fmdkami

IN-’VERSE INFO

Following the performances on October 8, the competitors will go backstage to their dressing rooms for a little under an hour while the audience is instructed to vote for two songwriters whose performances they liked the best. These votes will be calculated and combined with online track votes based on a weighted formula, and then the competitors are brought back out. They are first told the cast members that got the most votes in the live voting and the online voting as follows:

- Live audience vote: Youngjoo - Online vote: Taeyong

The final rankings are announced as follows to announce the safe competitors from fifth place to second:

5. Suji 4. Taeyong 3. Joohwan 2. Sun

Choi Jihoon congratulates the four safe competitors and dismisses them from the stage to bring the four remaining on stage (Youngjoo, Kami, Eunah, and Jaewon). The competitors currently on stage represent first place, sixth place, and the two competitors who will be eliminated and he reminds everyone of that. After building suspense, he announces Youngjoo as this round’s winner and announces she’s won a prize: she’ll be invited to perform a solo set on one night of the Topaz Music Festival, a popular music festival held at the venue they performed at this round that will take place in November. The festival is normally for non-idol singer-songwriter types, and this will be the first time an idol has been invited to perform. (admin note: If the mun would like to officially confirm this claim as a prize, please submit this form to the points shop blog to have it added to her career page! The mun may decide the exact date for the festival around their muse’s schedule). She’s individually congratulated and then dismissed from the stage.

This leaves three competitors (Kami, Eunah, and Jaewon) and only one will be safe. After building the tension, it is announced that Jaewon has placed sixth and will be safe to go onto the next episode. This means Kami and Eunah have unfortunately been eliminated from the competition and the final overall ranking for the latest round is ultimately as follows:

1. Youngjoo 2. Sun 3. Joohwan 4. Taeyong 5. Suji 6. Jaewon

On October 10, the idols will once again return to the “recording studio” set they first met at on their first day of filming. Competitors will once again be seated based on their rank (first place in seat one, second place in seat two, etc.). Basic pleasantries will be gone through on camera recounting the last round and reminding everyone of the rules and structure of the show before host Choi Jihoon will inform them of their third songwriting mission:

“After the first and second round, you should all have an idea of who you yourself are as a songwriter and who the rest of the cast are as songwriters. You’ve seen their versatility and the areas they excel in the most, both as a performer and songwriter, but a truly gifted songwriter can work for others as well as they can work for themselves, For this round, you will all be asked to write for another idol who will be performing a song you wrote. No one will be able to get through on an established image or popularity alone this round, as the songwriter behind each song will be kept anonymous until everyone has cast their final vote at the live performances. There will be no additional requirements this round, so put your all into shaping a song fitting of the artist who will be performing your song this round.”

The competitors are given time to react to the prompt before they are dismissed from the main set to their green rooms. In their individual green rooms, they’re once again approached by a camera crew and given a form provided by production with basic information on the idol they’ll be writing for, although the exact identity of the idol is not revealed yet (admin note: please keep in mind muses shouldn’t really be able to narrow down exactly who they’re paired with from information on the forms since the form will be re-typed to remove the element of handwriting recognition and they are not informed the idols are limited to the three in-’verse companies). They’ll react to the information and be expected to talk about their first thoughts. After this, each musician will film a talking head interview in a private room with a small team of cameras and producers where they are asked the following questions:

How are you feeling about the ranking you received last round? How do you feel about it in comparison to your rank for the first round?

What are your thoughts on the song you’ll write this round based on the information you’ve been given about the idol you’ll be writing for?

How will you approach writing a song for someone else differently than you’ve approached writing songs for yourself for the first two rounds?

What are your thoughts on your other competitors at this point in the competition?

From October 10 to October 17, all competitors are given time to begin to work on a song or potential songs based on the information they’ve been given. They will be filmed both through the stationary cameras installed in the studio in their company buildings and will also be instructed to continue to use their self-cam to record their creative process as well.

The guest cast members will be made aware at this time of their role in the show: having a song written for them by an assigned cast member to record and perform. They will not yet be made aware of which main cast member they are partnered with and are asked not to discuss their guesting with anyone.

On October 18, all pairs will meet through either a filmed meeting at a coffee shop or through a filmed video call depending on what schedules allow. This meeting will be the reveal of their partner’s identity and during this meeting, the main cast member should be prepared to show the song they’ve been working on and discuss together with their partner about the song and any changes that may need to be made to fit the idol’s voice, style, or preferences. It is up to the main cast member how much they change to accommodate their partner, although they will not be allowed to completely redo the song at this point.

The main cast member will have from October 18 through October 27 to finalize the song and get vocals recorded from the other idol on the track. The pairs may meet up over the course of this time as they wish to work on recording and finalizing, although each meeting should be filmed.

There will be no “demo” presentation for this episode in front of the other competitors due to the nature of the task. Final mastered versions of all songs are due to the production team by the end of October 27.

On November 1, the final version of each competitor’s song will be released onto the base TV website and voting will open for online audiences. They will be uploaded onto streaming sites a week later so as not to reveal the writers’ identities.

On November 7, all competitors and all of the special guests will go to the regular building with the performance set from first episode, where their songs will be performed and voted on. As with last episode, minor set and prop elements are permitted, but they should be easy for the staff to get on and off the stage. The respective companies will be responsible for the styling and performance preparation of the performer. 

Once filming begins, the competitors will be informed they will be performing in a randomly generated order in order to maintain anonymity of the writers. The audience is asked to vote more on how well-written a song is for the idol than how amazing the performance is since the songwriters are the ones being evaluated. The performing order is revealed to be:

Wei - “Pit-a-pet” (written by Jaewon)

Huiseon - “Baby Baby” (written by Sun)

Aera - “Diver” (written by Joohwan)

Duri - “Heaven” (written by Youngjoo)

Charlie - “Iljido” (written by Suji)

Minjung - “Girl, Interrupted” (written by Taeyong)

As each guest idol is performing, the six songwriters and all five other guest performers will sit backstage in their individual dressing rooms while their reactions are filmed. Since they are in private, songwriters may react appropriately to the song they wrote. At the conclusion of each stage, each competitor will be given time to talk about their thoughts on the performance and song. In the final airing of the episode, only some competitors’ comments will be aired per song.

During the break following all six song performances, each competitor will film another talking head interview (admin note: please wait to complete this interview until all songs have been chosen and listed above):

Talk about the song you wrote for this task. How do you feel it compares to the first two songs you wrote for the show?

How do you feel the idol you wrote for did in performing your song? In what ways do you feel the song benefited from not being performed by you?

Which of the other songs/performances caught your attention the most?

Which song do you expect got the most votes online and from the audience?

OUT OF ‘VERSE INFO

As usual, the rankings for the second round were determined by random generation for spots among who completed the most tasks. In this case, spots one through six were generated by those who had all tasks completed in the #fmdos2 tag on their muse’s blog by the deadline. Two muses did not complete all of the tasks, so they took the eliminated spots. The only exception here is that the admin’s muse will not be eligible for the overall first place ranking unless they are the only muse who completes the most number of tasks. Proof shots of the name picker can be found here (note: admin is in EDT, while the deadline was in KST, so the names were drawn after the deadline).

The winners for separate live voting and online voting were determined using weighted selection based on the randomly generated overall rankings. Rank one got eight submissions into the generator, rank two got seven, rank three got six, etc. and the two eliminated muses got one submission each, and then names were drawn. Proof shots of the name picker for the live audience vote and online vote winners can be found here. A proof shot of the randomizer for performance order this round can be found here. Pairs were made simply by pairing the order of the main cast by seniority directly with the guest cast submissions by order of submission from earliest to latest. Only one switch was made to ensure all muses would be writing for a muse with a skill set or song availability significantly different from their own.

For this task block you will need to submit the following information: the song you would like to claim for your muse to create for this round’s task (and a performance reference if one is available and agreed upon with the performing muse) and the creative claims on it. Please note that the song choice should ultimately be the decision of the mun of the main cast member. Muns may discuss what the performing muse is comfortable with, but the song choice should be based on what the muse would write with the information presented to them and not what the performing muse would necessarily want written for them.

The form link will be uploaded here at 12AM KST October 10/11AM EDT October 9, twenty-four hours after this post goes up. The form link can be found here. A reminder of the limits of creative claims on each muse for the show can be found here. If you think there is a mistake or if a song is released that leads to a necessary update, please contact the main.

Songs Claimed:

Heaven - Gaho

Iljido - Moonbyul

Girl, Interrupted - Miso (prod. 2xxx!)

Pit-a-pet - Yukika

Baby Baby - Suran

Diver - YooA

SONG LIMITATIONS/REQUIREMENTS

The simplified theme for this round is “Written By, Not For”. Please read the prompt in the in-’verse info for full details on what this means.

For all rounds, a song must fit all general rules of music claims (i.e. matches muse position, is not too explicit, must be by an artist in the Korean music industry, etc.) and must receive admin approval.

For this round, these are the additional limitations and requirements on songs that can be chosen:

The song must be solo. This means it cannot be a collab or have a feature.

The song must be performed by the muse assigned by the show and the muse performing cannot have creative claims on a song.

In real life, the song must not be a title track according to Melon and cannot have an official MV. Special clips, live clips, and minimal production lyric videos are acceptable, but the song will have to be re-released on an album in the future to claim such videos as canon to the universe.

In real life, the song cannot have charted higher than a rank of 75 on Gaon’s Weekly Digital Chart at any point.

IN-’VERSE INFO

The following idols are informed they’ve been chosen on July 25 and will be sent a contract to sign: @fmdjoosung, @eunahfmd, @fmdjoohwan, @fmdjaewon, @fmdxsuji, @fmdtaeyong, @fmdxyoungjoo. @fmdkami. They will be told not to share the news of their casting with anyone yet and sharing the news with anyone outside of their management before they’ve been officially announced will result in them being removed from the cast and replaced.

The first day of filming takes place on July 28. Each cast member will arrive at the building that the show’s set is in in a separate van at separate times so that the identities of the other cast members are kept secret. They will be filmed arriving at the building. They will then go through hair and makeup off-camera and will each be assigned a waiting room of their own.

Once filming begins, the cast will be brought out and walked into a set resembling a recording studio with nine chairs (one for each competitor and one in the center for the host) in the following order: Youngjoo → Suji → Taeyong → Jaewon → Joohwan → Eunah → Sun → Kami. They will be able to pick their own seat, though they aren’t told any significance to this yet. Once every competitor is in the room, the host arrives — a well-known senior singer-songwriter named Choi Jihoon (born 1987, debuted in 2005). All competitors are then invited to give a short introduction of themselves in the order of seat they chose, beginning with the seat to the right hand of the host.

They will then be introduced to how the winners and losers of each round will be determined: a mix of online votes based on the track alone and in-person audience votes based on a live performance of the track. Choi Jihoon explains a songwriter who performs their own songs should be able to capture an audience through both their ears alone as well as affect their hearts with a powerful live performance.

Choi Jihoon then informs the competitors of the prize the winner will receive: ₩10,000,000 and all expenses covered for a special promotion period and official single release for a song they create in the final round of the competition. The competitors are given time to react, and then Choi Jihoon continues. He asks rhetorically if they’re surprised by the cast and questions whether they feel impressed or intimidated. Attention is then grabbed by a screen behind the window of the “recording booth” flickering to life. A compilation video begins to play with brief clips of those who named other members of the cast as songwriters they look up to in their audition videos, with the camera team making sure to get reaction shots of those who are shown and named, and then the audition cover video of the seniormost idol in the cast, begins to play. Clips of each competitor’s audition cover video are played in succession from most senior to most junior (Youngjoo (”Aloha” cover) → Kami (”No” cover)   → Taeyong (”Needed Me” cover)  → Joohwan (”Zombie” cover)  → Suji (”Love Shot” cover) → Eunah (”Irony” cover) → Jaewon (”Q” cover)  → Sun (”Artist” cover)) before the screen flickers back to black with white text: “Who will win?” and the lights go back up.

Choi Jihoon has the spotlight again, and he uses it to give everyone a reminder: all of the competitors have their own skill set and each of them can only get to the end of the competition by working hard and winning over the love of audiences, so it’s time to announce their first task. The host reads from a “theme card” as follows:

“Some of you have made a name for yourselves with the public already, while some of you are still working hard to earn recognition as songwriters. No matter how famous you get or how talented you are, nothing is more important to earning the love of the public than having a unique identity as a songwriter and performer. For your first task, you will be asked to create a song that introduces yourself to both the audiences that will decide your fate and your fellow competitors. If you had to make a song to convince everyone to listen to the rest of the music you’ve created, what would it be? What is the song that speaks to who you are as a person and a songwriter? What do you have as a songwriter that makes you stand out from the competition? Answering those questions is your very first songwriting mission. Those who fail to win over the audiences may be eliminated and, if they are, will not be able to move forth in the competition.”

The competitors are given time to react to the prompt before the first filming ends. Before leaving the building, each musician will film a talking head interview in a private room with a small team of cameras and producers where they are asked the following questions:

What are your opinions of all of the other competitors? What did you think of what you got to see of their audition cover videos?

Now that you’ve met your competitors, who are you most afraid to compete against?

What strength do you have that will make you stand out from your competitors?

What are your immediate thoughts on how you plan to approach your first task?

From July 29 to August 17, all competitors are given time to work on their songs. Staff from the show will come and install cameras in the studio they will be working in at their respective company buildings and will also give each competitor a camera to self-film with and are instructed to record their creative process and their thoughts as they create. They are allowed to work on their songs at home, if they have a studio there, but stationary cameras will not be installed in their homes.

On July 31, all of the competitors will be scheduled for individual photo sessions and a group photo session to shoot their profile images for the show (reference). Each competitor will work with the stylist on set to pick from the available wardrobe to pick a casual look that represents them.

On August 18, all competitors will return to the recording studio set. Choi Jihoon will remind everyone of the aim of the show and the tasks and briefly ask everyone to discuss how their songwriting went among each other as a group conversation. Each competitor will then be asked to go back into the recording booth part of the set and give a live “recording” performance of the demo version of their song in front of the rest of the cast (reference). They will go in order of seniority again (reminder: Youngjoo → Kami → Taeyong → Joohwan → Suji → Eunah → Jaewon → Sun). The rest of the cast will be filmed reacting to the performance and will be allowed to comment and give constructive criticism or praise following the end of each demo performance.

Final mastered versions of all songs are due to the production team by August 23.

On August 30, the final version of each competitor’s song will be released onto streaming sites and voting will open for online audiences.

On September 5, all competitors will come back to the same building again—this time on a different set, which is the stage where they’ll perform their song for the live audiences (reference 1, reference 2). Minor set and prop elements are permitted, but they should be easy for the staff to get on and off the stage. The idols’ respective companies will be responsible for the styling and performance preparation of the idol.

Once filming begins, the competitors will be informed they will be performing in order of the seat they chose on the first day of filming. In case anyone has forgotten, the host will remind everyone what this order is, and performances will proceed.

Sun - “Smile”

Joohwan - “That’s Not Me”

Youngjoo - “E.T”

Kami - “Crazy Diamond” [performance reference]

Suji - “Little Wildflower” [performance reference]

Eunah - Swim Away [performance reference]

Jaewon - “Alarm”

Taeyong - “Noid” [performance reference]

As each competitor is performing, the other seven songwriters will sit in raised chairs to the back/side of the stage and their reactions will be filmed. At the conclusion of each stage, the host will ask each competitor the thoughts on the song that was just performed. In the final airing of the episode, only one to three competitors’ comments will be aired per song.

During the break following all eight song performances, each competitor will be pulled into a room for another talking head interview (admin note: please wait to complete this interview until all songs have been chosen and listed above):

Talk about your song. How does it match the theme of “Introduction / Identity”?

How do you feel you did with your performance? What regrets do you have?

Which of the other songs/performances caught your attention the most?

Who do you think got the most votes from the online audience based on the track and who do you think got the most votes from the offline audience based on the performance?

OUT OF ‘VERSE INFO

As stated in the audition post, since the number of submitted muses who completed all necessary steps exceeded eight, the final cast was decided by random name generator. Proof shots of the name picker can be found here.

For the eight muns with muses in the show, congratulations and welcome to this event! For each episode block, you will need to choose at least one song for your muse to write, and there will often be other information you must submit, so a form will be put up for each filming block that you must submit to. For this task block you will need to submit the following information: which seat your muse chose on the first day of filming, the song you would like to claim for them to create for this round’s task (and a performance reference if one is available), and the creative claims on it.

The form link will be uploaded here at 12AM KST July 25/11AM EDT July 24, twelve hours after this post goes up. The form link can be found here. A reminder of the limits of creative claims on each muse for the show can be found here. If you think there is a mistake or if a song is released that leads to a necessary update, please contact the main.

Seats (note: Seat One is the seat to the right hand of the host. from there, all odd numbers are next to each other and all even numbers are next to each other):

Seat One: Sun

Seat Two: Joohwan

Seat Three: Youngjoo

Seat Four: Kami

Seat Five: Suji

Seat Six: Eunah

Seat Seven: Jaewon

Seat Eight: Taeyong

Songs Claimed:

E.T (Heize)

Little Wildflower (Suzy)

Noid (WOODZ)

Alarm (Mino)

That’s Not Me (The Black Skirts)

Swim Away (Sejeong)

Smile (Nafla)

Crazy Diamond (Cheetah)

SONG LIMITATIONS/REQUIREMENTS

The simplified theme for this round is “Introduction / Identity”. Please read the prompt in the in-’verse info for full details on what this means.

For all rounds, a song must fit all general rules of music claims (i.e. matches muse position, is not too explicit, must be by an artist in the Korean music industry, etc.) and must receive admin approval.

For this round, these are the additional limitations and requirements on songs that can be chosen:

The song must be solo. This means it cannot be a collab or have a feature.

In real life, the song must not be a title track according to Melon and cannot have an official MV. Special clips, live clips, and minimal production lyric videos are acceptable, but the song will have to be re-released on an album in the future to claim such videos as canon to the universe.

In real life, the song cannot have charted within the top 100 of Gaon’s Weekly Digital Chart at any point.