Hyori's Bed and Breakfast

[VidThreeNorth]

This is something I have made time for over the last couple of months. In South Korea in mid 2017 there was a surprise "hit TV show" called "Hyori's Bed and Breakfast". It was a reality show that starred Lee Hyori and her husband Lee Sangsoon, running their home as a "Bed and Breakfast." It also featured Lee Jieun (IU) as a general helper. The choice of Jieun as a helper was interesting because she had very little in the way of skills that were necessary in this line of work. But clearly, that was a deliberate choice in order to add drama and humour to the show. She also has one of the biggest fan bases in the orient to help build viewer numbers.

The show released a bunch of "highlight clips" on YouTube in Korean but allowed "the community" to add and edit subtitles. Unfortunately, so far, I do not feel this worked. Up till around two - three months ago (when I started looking into this) very few had subtitles. I watched what I could and checked other sources (including Wikipedia) and found out more about this show. Eventually, I decided to help out with the sub-titling effort. This is something I am particularly proud of because I do not read, write, speak or understand Korean. So how did I do this? I learned just enough about Korean to use an Android tablet and a Korean keyboard program so I can type in Korean. Since this show (like many others) is fully sub-titled in Korean, I am able to copy-type what is on the screen, then translate it through Google Translate, and then re-translate the resulting "sort of English" into "nearly English". I then turn that into a subtitle file and upload it.

The following is one of the highlight clips I worked on. Almost all the English is mine. Someone else supplied 2 words for me.

If you see an English title, that is mine too.

"첫 번째 업무! 커피 내리기에 멘붕 온 아이유 '백지'⊙_⊙ 효리네 민박 3회",
[Jieun makes her first Iced Expresso Coffee]
Posted by "JTBC Entertainment", Jul 9, 2017,


[2018-10-01 21:20]
Recently someone made an almost complete re-write of the English Sub for this clip. So the wording is no longer mine. It reads much clearer! This is the fulfillment of the idea behind the "community" approach. For the past few months people who needed a translation had mine, and now that someone with better skill has come along, they will have this improved version. I feel somewhat like a "father" in this situation -- without the early morning diaper duties. . . .

 

[VidThreeNorth]

I thought that I would post a follow-up to this topic because I have essentially "finished" the translation work I was doing. Some time around the 3rd clip that I worked on, I decided roughly how many I wanted to do. I decided that I felt it was a shame that this show was being neglected in the English speaking community and that (back then) it was approaching 1 year since it was first aired, with only a small handful of the clips having English subs. I think that after a show is 1 year old, then interest is likely to drop off without a chance of it reaching its potential popularity. I might be wrong about that -- I have no "studies" to base it on, but if a show is over a year old, I think I would tend to by-pass it.

Anyway, I decided that I would work on 6 - 10 clips with a total projected content time of at least 20 min. I think that this much is enough for people to decided if they are interested in it. As I write this, I have worked on 8 clips with a total content time of a bit over 23 min. So, as I see it, "I'm done". I also did what I could to encourage others to work on these translations, and I think I succeeded in that. In fact, there is one clip that I am really happy about because someone re-wrote over half the subtitles in the clip and did a first rate job.

Within the next two months all the clips for the first season (which is what I am working on) will eventually age to "over a year old". I am sort of hoping that by then, over half of those clips will have at least some English sub-titles done. As of now, that looks like a possibility.

For Photographers:

Photographically, I estimate that over half of the show was recorded on the property, using mainly remote controlled very high quality "security cameras" (probably Full HD). But the show also follows the guests on their day trip to various tourist attractions, and the main three characters on their off-site excursions both for work (buying groceries) and personal time. Some of that is done with Action Cameras, but quite a bit is done by "field crews". A field crew might be a single "videographer", or possibly as much as a couple of videographers and an "Assistant Producer - Director" ("PD"). The PD is theoretically in charge, but ends up doing whatever is necessary.

I picked this second clip for us "photographers". In it, the girls take some of the dogs to the seashore for walk. I think that it was all a single videographer. At least I cannot find any part of this sequence that needed any more than that.

It is a good thing for the "crew" that the two girls are highly experienced reality TV veterans. The younger girl Jieun was in her 10th year as a professional performer, not only as a singer, musician, song-writer, but having done many "reality TV" shows (as a guest), hosted TV and radio shows, and from around eight years ago, acting in Dramas (mainly comedies). Hyori has not done Drama acting but have hosted talk shows and done even more "reality TV" shows. So both are experienced and are working deliberately as partners along with the crew. This has implications. They will do what they can to be co-operative. Although in theory, they just do what they want, if a camera operator needs to change a battery, they would stop and wait -- probably for "convenience breaks" as well. There was probably some "can you go back and walk down this path again?" being done too.

I do not have any "insider" info about this production, but I have seen that many shows like this are recorded using "Pro-sumer" level camcorders -- no interchangeable lenses. Sensor sizes would probably be around 1/2" - 1", and probably not 4K capable, though with advanced Codecs. I have seen this on other shows, and it seems to be where their industry is right now. I expect that they are getting in more 4K equipment, but the "evidence" isn't there in the final output.
[2018--7-27 12:38
My mistake! There are at least 2 videographers (they both got in each other's recording at one point) and at least one more staff -- maybe more. I guess they thought this "dog walking" bit was a big deal. ]

Anyway, sit back and enjoy the nice scenery, and be glad you can't smell anything because from the comments, it did not smell that "pretty". . . .


"[돌아와요 효리누나] 표지판 앞, 본인 인증하는 효리(ㅋㅋㅋ) 효리네 민박 4회"
posted by "JTBC Entertainment", Jul 16, 2017,
[Hyori's Bed and Breakfast: Hyori & IU Walking Dogs By The Sea]
""

 

[VidThreeNorth]

I have translated some more highlight clips from this show, and I needed to explain it better to the readers, so I added a long explanation about what I was doing and why. It was a practical explanation, not to do with deep motivations. Anyway, I do not feel that it belonged in the comments of a particular highlight clip, so I think I'm going to move it "here" and later I will post pointers when it is appropriate. The link is to the clip that I posted the original message on. I might leave it there too. I have not decided.

The highlight clip is sort of interesting anyway, so feel free to watch it.

This was the "comment":

The first English Sub for this clip was released yesterday. First, I want to explain that the first subs up to ~1:12 were done by "Jeceryn Sytico", who was doing a really good job. Much better than my work! This is not the first time I've finished a sub that someone else started, and I think there are some things about this that should be explained.

First, when I start a translation, I am usually doing for myself. There is no sub that I can see because I am working on it as I watch it, just the same as anyone else. I am NOT using the special interface that YouTube provides for adding Subs because I can't translate while using it. So I just start into it, and get it done as quickly as I can -- because I want to know "what's going on?"

If someone else has started a translation using the special interface, I don't know about it until I am already "finished" and I decide to upload it for everyone else. When I get around to uploading it, that's when I find out if someone else has started a translation. If it is complete, then in most cases I would abandon my translation because just about everybody else does a better job than me. Really, I know that. . . .

But if it is not completed, then I have to make a choice. The YouTube Subs interface does NOT show me when the previous work was done. It does not show me whether it was "yesterday" or months ago. There is no way for me to communicate with any of the other translators.

Because of this, I will almost always just decided to complete the existing translation with my own work, and submit it. If it is "approved" it is made public.

But that is NOT the end of it. The intention of this system is that it encourages GROUP effort. Changes and improvements can STILL be submitted and will be made available. On a few of the clips this has happened and the results are really good!

Having said this, first I want to compliment "Jeceryn Sytico" on the work that was done before, which as I said before was much better than my work. If you have the time, I hope you can continue with your work and replace what I submitted. I think we will all be happier. But to everyone else who would like to get involved, please also feel free to submit improvements. That is how this system is intended to work, and again, we who need the subs (myself included) will be grateful.

The following is the link to the highlight clip:

"Hyori Gives Jieun Private Yoga Training Lesson HyoriB&B Ssn1 Ep06" published by "JTBC Entertainment", Jul 30, 2017,