A Guide to SERA00 Meet&Greet Events!

A Guide to SERA00 Meet&Greet events!

So a lot of people new to the SERA00 fandom are usually shocked by the way things are done, basically. Based on the idols-you-can-meet and Asian pop culture, there are definitely things you won't find in Western music. Such as...Meet&Greets! Conforming with the idols-you-can-meet rule, each theatre version of a new single comes with an "event ticket", which may be a handshake ticket, an autograph ticket, photo ticket, or a combination, etc. 

Maybe you've heard from a SERA00 wota or read online, but yes, it's true that management is notoriously strict on the rules set out, so be sure you know them all before attending an event. Right now I'll give all the newbies a rundown!

GENERAL RULES

Usually what you will find in the theatre editions are you-get-what-you-get tickets, meaning that even if your favourite member is Sassan but you get a Luna ticket, you're shaking hands or taking a photo with Luna. Once in a while there'll be a you-choose, but it's not frequent. 

On the ticket there is a lane number (Lane 1, Lane 12, Lane 23, etc.). It's usually posted on the website which member will be in which lane. The popular members get their own lane, so people like Sassan, Angel, Luna, Luraland, Maya...the less popular members go two or three per lane. Rome and I usually are lumped together, Fawn, Poppy and Amity, etc. 

Don't do anything that isn't in the event description. In other words, if it's a handshake event don't ask for a photo, if it's a photo event don't ask for an autograph, if it's an autograph event don't ask for a handshake. The only thing you're allowed to do is give the members gifts and cards. But you don't give it to them directly, there are boxes lined up outside the Lane area with the member's name on them and you leave it in there. If you want to give it directly to the member you have to get it screened by security, who will put a sticker on it indicating its not like a bomb or something. Oh, and of course you can talk :)

Your first breach of rule will earn you a yellow card. So when you go sign up with your ticket, you will come up as yellow and your receipt to the event is yellow. They will know you are an "offender". You really can't trick the security in these events, they have eagle eyes. And your second breach of rule will earn you a red card. Is your receipt red? No. Guess what, you're today's VIP; you have your own bodyguard! Seriously. If you're a red card you have a security following you. It's not fun; everyone in the fandom knows what it means when someone has a security tagging along and they're not a member. It's kinda really very embarrassing so you really don't want to reoffend. And if you reoffend a third time...congratulations, you've earned yourself a lifetime ban to that event. Yay! If you get a yellow and don't reoffend, it dissolves after two years. 

Sooo overall it's a pretty popular event since it's affordable compared to usual Western singers' concerts. Now onto the specifics!

HANDSHAKE EVENTS 

APPROX. CONTACT TIME: 5 seconds

The area with the member, regardless of the event, is kind of fenced off to control flow of people, like rides at an amusement park. So once you get into the area, you have to put down all your stuff on the table so you have nothing in your hands. Then you wait until the staff motions you forward. The member(s) stand behind a long table and basically you just reach over and shake their hands. If there are more than one then you just move down accordingly and shake hands. Judging by experience, you probably have around 5 seconds to speak with the member. When you're done you pick up your stuff and leave. Or join another line if you have multiple tickets. You're not allowed to have someone save a spot for you. You register your ticket by name, and only you can hold it. Yes, bring photo ID and be prepared to show it of needed. You're probably thinking, OMG so many rulesssss D,:  but regardless hoards of fans show up so without these rules can you imagine the chaos?

AUTOGRAPH EVENTS

APPROX. CONTACT TIME: 20 seconds

It's basically the same but a little trickier as there are restrictions on what you can bring to be autographed. Members won't sign anything on you, like your palm or your shirt. It has to be something you can put on the table. You can bring the shirt to be signed, just don't wear it. It has to be relatively easy to sign. As in a flat surface; don't bring a doll of the member. If it has pictures (not neccessarily of the member), it can't be inappropriate. If the security thinks your item is inappropriate then you can't have it signed. Settle for an 8 by 11 poster of the member. You can get two things signed, including the poster if you choose it. I'd estimate about 10 seconds for a member to sign one item. 

PHOTO EVENTS

APPROX. CONTACT TIME: 30 seconds

Popular misconception; no, it is not like an attraction where you have to pay to get a copy of your photo! True, you're not allowed to bring your own device, but we have photographers with professional equipment. (btw might I add, who are all fans like any other, but more on this later). Basically when you register, you register your email too, so that when you get to the front and hand the photographer your receipt, the photo will automatically get sent to your email. You can also access it from your SERA00 Events account. 

So the photo event rules are probably the most strict, and yes, sexist, but it's mostly accepted by the fandom. What happens is, when you get to the photoshoot itself, there's a rectangular mat on the floor in front of the backdrop, and that's where you stand. You cannot move off of the mat when taking the photo. The member will chose herself how close to the mat to stand, or in other words, how close to you. If you are male, you are strictly forbidden to make any physical contact with the member other than hand-to-hand. If you're a girl, they don't really care, but SERA00 has a good deal of male fans and I have to say that what I mentioned above is the most strictly enforced rule out of all. It's kinda sad for you too,  cuz if you come to the photo event with a yellow card or a red warning, members tend to be more wary of you and keep their distance. You're allowed one retake, but to prevent fans from taking advantage of this, you can only choose one to keep. A lot of fans print out the photo and write a letter on the pack and then put it in the same member's gift box at the next event. I have to say, I don't think any member throws those away, not even Sassan who has a box of them ;)

This post is already really long so I'll put the photographer stuff on later. 

So there you have it folks! Please support SERA00!

Arrival of the Idol, and Idolympics!

As some fans may already know, the Idolympics are back this year, scheduled sometime this year. If you've watched this event before, then you'll know it's a big event where idols from different agencies gather and compete on television in friendly competition...or not...

Aaaanyways, it's held in Korea. Normally Western groups don't participate, but since we're technically under YS Entertainment, they decided this year that SERA00 fit under the requirements! However, we can only send one team. The general rule is, you can enter in your respective idol groups, but max number in an idol group is 15, so if you have more than 15 members you have to pick and choose. You can also enter as an individual contestant representing your company, or you can do both. Ah...I feel bad for any idol group with 16 members. 

So this year SERA00 will be forming a team comprised of members from SERA00 and CASUT00, as well as sending a whap of individual contestants. Gotta over-represent North America! Yeah! No, but actually we're probably going to be under-represented since Idolympics is usually only attended by Korean/Japanese/Chinese/Taiwanese idols. 

Somehow we got past the preliminary selections without actually having to do anything >.< Maybe it's cuz we're new. Or the fact that WE'RE HAVING OUR OWN?

Yeah so we're having a dance battle within SERA00 and the top 15 will be sent to South Korea. 

Some members will be going whether they make it into the top 15 or not, obviously people like Sassan, Luna, Angel, and I'm 99.99% sure they'll ask Luraland to go for individuals since she has an angel's voice. Fracken is amazing at dancing, so she'll get in the top 15 anyways, and idols like Harley are known as really strong. 

So far I only know of the dance part, I'm not sure what the other categories are yet. However, it's going to be a legit SERA00 event; not like the elections though, where it's broadcasted live, but rather, management signed a whole TV contract for a six week run. We're going to be done filming before that of course, and the show will be intertwined with performances. It's not like SERA00 Sonic Speed, which is ongoing, it's just a one-shot six-week show. It's called "Arrival of the Idol" for now. 

Okay. Rambliness. Ramble..liness? I don't know. Sorry. So that's the story... Umm...yeah I'm kinda off my game today, stressing for exams. The first one is on Friday, and we still have schedules up until Thursday. Aaaand Aurora has schedule S on Thursday which means we have to perform right before exams. IT'S OKAY THOUGH because I like performing ^__^

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Evie's February 2014 Post Challenge!

Hey everyone! You asked for it (a lot of members did too), so I accept! Last year February was my record month for number of posts at 23, so the challenge this year is to beat that! I promise it won't be really bad posts, because those won't count. So lets go! FEBRUARY CHALLENGE!!
...but first, exams....ahhh :( .......
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Who's the Centre of CASUT00? CASUT00 Positions!

Hey everyone!

Did you see CASUT00 performing yesterday? They don't have their own song yet so we performed covers of SERA00 and other artists. Illusionary's concurrent term is coming to the four-month mark! Only two months left :( it's really fun working with them. 

So anyways the captains of each team and the group's centre have been chosen! JY will be CASUT00's overall leader, as well as Azalea's captain. Team Bluebell's captain is Ava, Narcissus' is Rachel, and CASU-J will be explained separately below. 

As well, a big big congrats to ARRON of Team Azalea!!!!! She is now the Centre of CASUT00! Oh how exciting XD ~~~ I'm wiggling around here behind the screen. Maybe she'll get together with Sassan to learn from her, and then JY can learn from Angel. 

Even though I'm explaining it below, CASU-J is basically a separate group so I will also congratulate Konomi, CASU-J's leader, and Sachi, CASU-J's ace (centre)!

Below: Leader - bolded. Centre - italicized. Age - (parenthesis). 

Team Azalea:

JY (18)

Arron (16)

Madison (17)

Holiday (16)

Team Bluebell:

Ava (16)

Nikki (15)

Clover (16)

Isabelle (17)

Team Narcissus:

Rachel (18)

April (15)

Maylin (16)

Via Rose (17)

CASU-J Members:

CASU-J has three positions, the leader, Konomi, and the "ace", Sachi, but Yuka is the youngest, which isn't actually a position but is kind of well-known since overseas idol groups believe that the cuter the "youngest" (maknae), the more successful the group will be. 

Team Sakura:

Konomi (20)

Sachi (19)

Haruka (20)

Yuka (18)

Please support SERA00, CASUT00, and CASU-J!

SERA00's schedule and our company!

Hey everyone! With the recent announcement of expansion of the Infinity Project overseas, many fans were wondering how our training regime works, since Asian entertainment agencies are famous (or infamous...) for their factory-like production of idols. I've outlined life in the complex before, but I haven't really explained the system itself. 

It's kinda complicated and I'm not the best at explaining, you might have to read it twice XD (warning long post!)

Hmm, I would have to say the system resembles that of its Asian counterparts more than Western. Here in North America, the artist has to pave their own way, but in more than one cases in Asia, artists can be famous even before they debut! Entertainment companies like YS Entertainment scout potential talents and train them, and then package the best trainees into a group and promote them. Often fans are anticipating the groups before their first single. You could even say that is the case of CASUT00, where they were famous before they debuted since they are basically endorsed by SERA00. 

As for our system, it's tailored specifically for SERA00's large numbers so it's not one feature that CASUT00 will be adopting. You could almost compare us to an agency, with SERA00 being the company and us members being its roster...

The three main areas that members are trained in are academics, vocals, and dance. When you're accepted as a 00 rank, you're graded in each category, and there are certain gradings 00s have to obtain before they are considered for promotion. It doesn't stop when you're promoted though, we still attend lessons as members. 

The Academic sector is not like school lessons. Sometimes they teach that too, but it's not first priority. Academics are anything the management thinks you need to brush up on. Since SERA00 is managed under the Infinity Project, a collaboration with overseas distribution companies, we're always trying to break into the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean markets. For example, CASUT00's sub-unit CASU-J is located in Japan. 

As a result, the top members are required to study a range of languages as well as the conventional dancing and singing. Sassan was already fluent in Japanese in addition to  English, now she speaks Mandarin and Korean as well. Angel came with fluency in three languages from her ethnical background; English, Mandarin, and Italian. Like Sassan, she's learned Japanese and Korean, and can speak conversational Cantonese. And of course, since we're Canadian, French... Waaahhh, it's mind blowing thinking of the number of languages Angel can speak. (even without my Angel bias!!) However you guys probably know that it's a common occurrence amongst idols to speak many languages. 

So there are your Academics; if you're not learning languages you learn school stuff, which is mandatory for members 18 and under. Most top members are over 18. Then there's dancing and vocals, pretty straightforwards. 00 ranks have a lesson called Training, that's everything from how to take a photoshoot to acting to how to hold oneself in public. It's not usually the grade in Academics, Dance, or Vocals that holds back their promotion, it's the Training. But after you debut there aren't really any acting lessons anymore. 

Should I post a picture of our schedule? Each day we have to check the database when we make up to see which schedule we have. We have four variations of schedules (because there used to be four teams) and they are called S, E, R, and A. Each variation has the same classes, just in a different order, and are held concurrently. So each day a schedule will be assigned to each team to best meet their work schedule. Only schedule S has the SERA00 Stage; so whichever team is assigned schedule S will be performing that night's stage. So for example, S has a work block in the morning, E has it in the afternoon, R has it mid-day and A has it in the night. They're coordinated so that they don't clash - only one dance class at a time, so others are doing work, vocals, or academics, etc. 

00s have a different schedule, they don't have a work block. They have training, and they have the SERA00 Stage every single day. 

So we won't always go by the schedule. If we have a big scheduled event like group photoshoot or public appearance that requires the top members, we can't just send one team, as all the A ranks are spread out amongst the team. So I estimate we will use the schedules maybe 3-4 days a week? It's enough though, cuz the schedules are packed and they're extremely tiring. 

So if you've gotten this far in the post, yay! Check out guilunacademy.blogspot.com to find out more about our overseas Infinity Project counterpart; YS Entertainment. 

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Updates

Hey everyone, I'm really sorry for not posting as often. I promise the blog will be back on track after exams!

Did you guys know, this blog is nearing its one year anniversary? ^_^

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New Years Concert, 25th Single, and my upcoming solo!

Soooo last night we performed at the 2014 countdown concert, and then today at our own New Year's Encore. It was quite a day...night...day? Time. It was quite a time!

The countdown concert featured many famous artists, and started from 8 pm until 1 am on the first. SERA00 had New Year’s appearances on TV during the day, and we just wrapped up the New Year's Encore. The luckier members, including me, were able to catch a few hours of sleep. 

There were a few developments for me personally. For example, nowadays I’m usually under for Maya, but I got to fill in for Sassan at the New Year’s Countdown!!! Isn’t that amazikoUIEFI89;nooOoooo dontlisten to her yessididssfakj ITWAS ONLYF OR SIX SECONDSSSSSSSJK’\AW839\SIO%@AS

...

Yeah...some of you might have guessed that that was Rome fighting for control of the keyboard. I’ll leave it in the post for fun. Okayyy fine I admit that I only subbed in for her for a couple of seconds at the beginning of the song but that’s okay, I’m still proud of it, although they were six very nerve-wracking seconds. It was the first song of 2014 and it was timed to start right at the end of the countdown when “ONE” turned to “2014”. Sassan was at the podium with the hosts and MCs, so for the time it took for her to wrap things up there and make her way to the centre of the stage, I was supposed to fill in the tip of the formation. Who filled in for me? Yumichan did. She’s an amazing idol (even though she’s still 00 rank omg her skillz) and I’m honoured that she’s my under.

Let’s see, what else? At the New Year’s Encore, I was chosen as the centre of Lollipop, part of Team Aurora’s stage. The members are all mixed up at these special occasion concerts, so the cast members of Lollipop weren't just composed of Aurora girls.

Afterwords, Ms. Tallan told me that I did well and would be given a solo time slot in the Winter SERA00 Concert!! OMG!! I’m already feeling both excited and nervous. The song hasn’t been decided yet. Ideally it would be from a Team Angel stage, since I’m in Team Angel...but Ms. Tallan said that management is wondering whether a cutesy Aurora song like Lollipop would fit me better...but of course it couldn’t be Lollipop anyways because it’s not a solo song. Omg I would actually love so much to sing one of Luraland’s songs...ahhhh can I just dream about it~

The official cast of Heartbeat is not actually out yet even to the members but I was talking with Angel and she hinted as to who would be part of it...not telling ;) So why was I talking with Angel? Well, first, extra lessons have been squeezed into my schedule to prepare for the solo debut- okay fine, solo performance. I can’t actually claim it as a solo debut because I will be singing a SERA00 stage song written generally for any soloist in SERA00, unlike, say Sassan who has solos written specifically for her and debuts a CD with it too. Second because management has scheduled several trio/duets for me during the following SERA00 Stages in preparation of my solo in the Winter Concert.

So Angel and I were discussing basically the details of the performances. First, she said that I would get my own earpiece (yeah, very impressive). So she was like, what colour earpiece do you want? And I was thinking, WAIT I can choose my earpiece colour?! And so she said, yeah, black or white. And I went...oh *little sigh* (sorry for the terrible grammar, and the over-usage of “so”). So, what’s the difference between black and white, you ask? Well, I automatically went for white, because I thought it would be less noticeable, but Angel said that it actually has the opposite effect. Because the white is less noticeable, but not invisible, people do notice it. And they can’t really tell what it is as it kind of blends in...but then again, not really. Whereas the black one people can really see and immediately tell what it is, so they don’t pay much attention to it. Plus the white one has the springy wire going around the ear, where as the black one is slightly bigger but wireless. So in the end I chose the black one. If you’re wondering why I don’t already have an earpiece, only the more frequently performing members have earpieces. This is because in songs, only really the front line needs earpieces. The earpieces allow us to hear clearly how we sound when we sing, and usually only the front line member’s mics are turned on. The rest of us are singing into mics that aren’t on. So those members don’t need earpieces. For the times that they do, they use the “public” earpieces that are shared by SERA00 members who don’t have their own. Yes, of course, they are sanitized after every use. As are the mics, for those who wonder why some singers are literally kissing the mic as they sing.

So please look forwards to Hearbeat, our 25th single, a “medium speed dance number” (as released to us by management).

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Happy New Year 2014!! New 25th single~

Hey everybody!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
How coincidental, this is also my HUNDREDTH post on SERA00's blog!! yay~

I don't have a photo for you, sorry. But I do have new SERA00 news to tell you guys first! It will be officially announced at tomorrow's new year Encore, but SERA00's 25th single is unveiled! It will be named Heartbeat ^_^

Lotsa love,

Evie <3

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