It's over! SERA00 Summer Concert

Last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday marked the 2013 SERA00 Summer Concert! Although it was a lot of work, it was really fun and I'm so glad we saw so many of our fans there! It's kinda busy at the Complex so I'll hopefully get to blogging the concert soon!

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RYK Riyuukan Musicfest SERA00 Interview

Hey everyone!! Sorry I haven't been posting much, but we've been working really hard getting ready for you know what comes in the summer; the SERA00 Summer Concert! One of the four biggest events in SERA00, our great biannual concerts!
The 18th Annual Riyuukan Musicfest was broadcast live Sunday night! As fans who have viewed RYKs of previous years, you would know the basic format of the festival. The performers are invited to participate. First they'll start out with the "carpet walk" which is kinda cheesy since its just a carpet...across the stage...on which we walk to show up on stage o_O
So after the performers are introduced, there will be a period of time for the audience to shop for memorabilia (there are stands set up at the venue). Obviously, commercials for those at home. After, there will be the interviews. Each guest/group will get a period of time. This time we get a longer time slot than previous years :D
After are the individual performances, and of course at the end, the special Riyuukan performance by all the guests together ^_^
"SERA00! You're up next!" the RYK staff called for us in our waiting room backstage. They gave us a couple of instructions first. "As you know, you are the largest group of performers this evening, and the stage has been prepped with the highest amount of seating we can provide. There are eight seats facing the host, and another eight may stand behind each chair. Please decide seating before going onstage."
"Miss Avery is late, isn't she," River commented.
"Ms. Tallan?" Angel turned to Miss Avery's assistant and their complex manager.
"Ah, Miss Avery was actually very busy today, so she is doing her best to wrap things up quickly." Ms. Tallan looked at the notes on her phone. "In case she wasn't back on time, she has prepared a couple of seating plans for several different cases, so we're good to go."
The members nodded. It was consistent of their producer's expert foresight.
"If we are facing the audience, the host is seated to your right. His name is Charlie," Ms. Tallan gestured as if she was onstage. "The chairs fan out in a row on his left, slightly curved towards him. First chair closest to the host is Angel. Then Sassan, Fracken, Luraland, River, Rosie, Harley, Luna. First standing is Evie, Geneviève, Katerina, Reece, Sammi, Yumichan, Imery, Brindle."
"SERA00! Resuming live broadcast in one."
They shepherded us onstage and the audience at the festival cheered like crazy. They played our "Accelerate" as background music as we settled onstage. They calmed down, and the interview began.
"Wow, SERA00!" Charlie greeted us. "You girls are getting more popular every year!"
"Thank you, thank you," the members close to the host (which included me) responded.
"You're all looking very pretty today," Charlie said.
"Please, you look pretty sharp in that pink suit as well," Angel responded. As the leader, she often represented us as the mouth of SERA00.
"Yes, I was hoping to look more like SERA00 today." Charlie struck a bad pose from "Look Up", mouthing the lyrics.
The audience laughed.
"But you're wearing the Dry costume today," Charlie commented, "which has more of a ravaged look and a darker palatte. What is this piece trying to convey?"
Luna spoke up from the other end. "It's supposed to convey our feelings of perserverance. But also, it's about facing your problems head on. If you do that, you'll come out dry, right?" she grinned.
"Wise words, wise words," Charlie said. "Dry is Evie's debut as any type of centre, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is," I bobbed my head in agreement. "I was really shocked when my name was called, like, really, how is it that it is me when there are so many seniors?"
"Mmm, yeah it must be hard," Charlie sympathized.
"But you know, after the initial surprise, it was easy to pull myself together because everyone was really supportive, although it could have been them."
Charlie nodded. "As expected of such a wonderful group of girls." And the audience roared in consent. That's a sure self-esteem booster :) "Speaking of new centres, a warm welcome from all your fans to the 6th generation!"
Yayyy the two sixth gens wave at their fans. "A word from the new 00 rank centre?"
"Ah," Sammi started timidly. It was probably her first time on live television. Yumichan rubbed her junior's back. "I auditioned for SERA00 because I thought it would be a great experience and a wonderful opportunity to work with my favourite idols. Now that I'm here, I really have to thank all of you for accepting us so warmly into SERA00."
"Well said, well said," Charlie boomed, clapping loudly. I'm sure the senior idols know that part of this ruse influences the audience to react positively because the host is doing so, but we won't delve into that ;)
Um I'd also like to say that it seems as if some of the members aren't saying anything at all, but I assure you they were. My memory may have lopped some phrases together.
"Do we have some news?" Charlie asked.
Angel nodded. "We do, Ms. Tallan?"
The fans even cheered for her as she walked onstage to make the announcement. "SERA00's 23rd single has been determined!"
We all glanced happily yet apprehensively at each other, and the fans erupted in cheers.
"The centre will be Mihashi Sakiko. There will be no lower centres. The name of the single is Tea Party."
"So how do you feel about that, Sassan?"
"Ahh, great!" she said, genuinely surprised. "I'm really looking forwards to working with everyone to create music. I haven't been centre since Seventh Heaven."
Charlie looked at the audience in a comical aside. "Straight to the point, that girl is." He straightened up and continued. "If I'm not mistaken, the 23rd single will include a ballot to vote for the 24th Single Elections voted main cast members?"
We nodded.
"Over here," Harley waved. "Are we talking about elections already?"
Rosie, seated beside her, picked up the phrase. "Yeah, isn't everyone forgetting what's happening?"
Charlie played along. "What's happening when?"
"Allow Miss Luraland to explain," River spoke for the girl.
Luraland flipped over her tablet and smiled charmingly. It read "THIS WEEK" -page swipe- "FRIDAY JULY THE 26TH" (shoutout to RL friends! Happy bday on the 23rd and 26th) -page swipe- "SATURDAY JULY THE 27TH" "SUNDAY JULY THE 28TH" "SERA00 PRESENTS" "THE" "SERA00" "SUMMER" "SUPER EXTRAVAGANZA" "CONCERT!!!!"
"WHOOOO!" the girls started the cheer and soon the whole audience was crazed.
"Who's gonna be watching, whether on scene or at home?!?" Angel roared into the mic. The screams were loud. "Yeahhh!!! Thank you everyone!!!!" We stood up and bowed as one.
As we started making our way offstage, our music came on again and I could still hear Charlie saying, "And that's SERA00! Later on you'll be hearing them perform two songs, "Dry" and "Diamond in the Rough", and a performance of "Untold" by their newly formed sub-unit flynow."
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Overseas trip!

Hey guys!
A small team is being sent on an overseas trip to promote SERA00 and stuff! We'll be gone to the USA for four days, and then another five days somewhere in Asia. Catch you back on the 17th!
Our 23rd single that includes the voting ticket for the 2013 elections will be released August.
Please continue to support SERA00!

P.S. ooh, sorry for the late release of this post, I just realized after I came back that it didn't properly publish :(

The Making of Dry: PHOTOSHOOT VER.

The Making of Dry: PHOTOSHOOT VER.
What's up SERA00 fans?? Have you guys listened to Dry yet? It debuted June 30.
~even if there's a sea of - woooooorries, worries/ even if there's a sea of - fear by your side~
Anyways I finally got around to posting another behind-the-scenes post; here you go!

Hey everyone! We're now here on the main photoshoot for Dry! We're all going to take the group photos, and then split up for the singles and small groups.
There will be four versions of Dry released. The Type S version, the Type E version, the limited version, and the theatre version. All versions contain the title track, Dry, the B-side coupling song, and the C-side coupling song. The S version contains the Team Aurora coupling song and the Team Angel coupling song. The E version contains the Team Night coupling song and Team Hope coupling song. All versions contain one of 50 official photographs, and come with a small photobook within the CD cover pages. The limited version contains the coupling songs for all the teams, plus a mini-poster, but off course they only produce a couple thousand of those. The theatre version includes all the team coupling songs and a ticket for the handshake event. It's a meet-and-greet usually held one month after the release date. Of course, there are a set number of those as well, as we can't possibly have half a million fans come to the handshake event. Mathematically, each girl would have to shake hands with ten thousand fans, and the popular members usually get longer lines. That would take forever. And finally, all versions contain a DVD with the music videos and behind-the-scenes material.
The costumes are really cool though. We got them yesterday :D and I guess it was sort of an idea, a piece, of what the music video would be like. After reading the lyrics, I can say that the concept behind Dry is basically something like this: Even if you have a sea of worries and fears, don't swim slowly but barge right through, and you'll come out dry. Isn't that cool? I guess it's another one of those inspirational songs! So the MV should be cool.
Anyways, we're at the photoshoot, and everyone's doing their makeup. We usually do our own makeup, unless it's a special thing that requires the skills of a professional makeup artist. There are over fifty of us, so doing our own makeup is the most efficient way. All of the members are encouraged to use makeup lightly, as they don't want drastic changes in the before & after. Although for this one, the makeup artists suddenly decided they wanted a different, darker, look than the basic ones everyone was wearing, so only ten minutes before the shoot, and they were bustling everywhere, piling on the eyeliner, mascara, and dark eyeshadow. Like, aren't we supposed to be swimming? No wait...Dry...yeah okay.
The costumes. Let's see... So everyone has variations of the same costume. Basically, on the bottom, there's a dark red mahogany skirt, and black pantyhose (is there a nicer sounding word for that -_-), and black combat boots. On the top, I'm not sure how to describe it. It would seem, that there's a white dress shirt, a camouflage patterned vest, and a black cardigan. Except they're all ripped and tattered and hang off your body. As for our hair, I would just say, messy overall. They have this hair clay which they pile into our hair, and then scrunch it up and let it go. It gives this messy, dirty, volumous look. Although some people have ponytails and others have braids, so I can't exactly pinpoint one style.
Kay, I'll be right back, we're taking the group shots now!
I'm back back back! Although to you, it hasn't been any time at all. Basically, for the group shots we just lined up in rows with the front rows lower and the back rows higher up, like in a school class photo. Except we do it in front of a green screen, so that the editors can play around with the background. After that, they took the photo of all the centres in front of the green screen. Then they took the set 50 photos, the ones that come at random with the singles.
The studio is set next to the beach (how convenient), so now, hoping the good weather will keep up, we are going to head outside and shoot the mini photobook photos, and the different CD covers!
They pick a spot where the beach blends seamlessly into the ocean. "Formation one!" the staff call. See? Even stage formations are useful during photoshoots. We get into formation, facing away from the ocean. It's supposed to look as if we're emerging from the ocean dry, although the back row girls are getting their feet wet. The staff are debating whether or not to put green screen around the feet of the back row girls to make it easier to edit, to make it seem as if the sea is parting around their feet. They decide not to.
It's around eight at night, and the sun is setting, giving us a glorious sunset background. "Quick!" the staff are yelling. They want to get this over before the sun sets on us. "
Most of the CD covers feature the top girls. The Type S features the Fab 4 girls, and the Type E features some of the centres and the other media members. The limited edition features only Angel and Luna, but the theatre version features me and Sassan!
Yesshhh I'm back...and the only one dripping wet -__- I guess you'll see us on the cover. Framed by a beautiful fiery sky, I'm soaked in the water, trying to get up, and Sassan is dry, and is giving me a hand up and holding a towel with the other hand.
And so that's your behind the scenes of the Dry photoshoot! Please support SERA00!