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| Chef and TV personality Baek Jong-won, left, speaks during YouTube's roundtable discussion, Friday, held in Samsung-dong, Seoul. Next to him are producers Ko Dong-wan, and Leeseul Ye-na. Courtesy of YouTube |
By Lee Gyu-lee
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| "Workman" producer Ko Dong-wan/ Courtesy of YouTube |
During YouTube's roundtable discussion, chef and TV personality Baek Jong-won from channel "Paik's Cuisine," "Workman" producer Ko Dong-wan, and "GiantPangTV" producer Leeseul Ye-na creators shared their experience in finding their individual content style in such a competitive business. YouTube Korea organized the event, Friday, in Samsung-dong, Seoul.
"I went with the concept that breaks away from that of previous reality shows, and this led (the viewers) to find our contents refreshing and funny," said producer Ko.
"Workman" features variety show-like contents, in which TV personality Jang Sung-kyu tries various part-time jobs.
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| Scenes from "Workman," in which TV personality Jang Sung-kyu experiences different part-time jobs each episode/ Korea Times file |
The channel drew over 3.8 million subscribers in less than a year since it opened and has gained significant popularity among millennials with its fast-paced, witty editing and captions.
As the secret behind attracting the millennials, Producer Ko revealed that the videos are screened and confirmed by the interns and younger staff before the release. "For most broadcasters, an episode is screened by the senior management to get approval. However, when we produce a video, our process goes the other way… because they are the main target," he said.
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| "GiantPangTV" producer Leeseul Ye-na/ Courtesy of YouTube |
Noting that doing so needs courage, Ko urged that people need to drop "adultism" and be more open to communicating with the younger generation, to create content appropriate for the YouTube platform. "I think people should be able to admit they can't always be right and take up the challenge in an unprecedented way," he added.
"GiantPangTV" producer Leeseul also expressed that she tried to think outside the box and create a character different from educational broadcaster EBS's previous ones. The channel features a fictional 11-year-old penguin character Pengsoo, which came from the Antarctic to become a star in Korea.
"(Contrary to previous EBS programs) I wanted to create contents that every age can enjoy, even the adults," she noted. "While keeping the educational value and sentiment, I wanted something of equal footing rather than putting it in didactic tone."
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| A scene from "GiantPangTV"/ Korea Times file |
The character created a phenomenon last year creating a large fan base with its straightforward, blunt remarks and humorous personality.
Unlike the producers, Baek expressed that he had no idea that he would be running a YouTube channel, saying "I only started the channel to provide correct recipes to people."
However, due to his popularity and easy-to-follow recipes, the channel quickly drew over 3.3 million subscribers, earning him YouTube Silver and Gold Play Buttons at the same time.
Comparing YouTube to a free bookstore, Baek said the beauty of the platform is that it provides various information on different levels of knowledge. "YouTube would offer basic knowledge for younger people or sometimes have very complex stories that are hard to understand, so the immeasurable fun sprouts from this (variety)."
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| Screenshot of Baek Jong-won's channel "Paik's Cuisine"/ Screen capture from YouTube |
Recalling his past experience of learning to cook, he said his effort to make recipes simple to follow attracted people to watch his videos. "I don't like cookbooks filled with words. They need to be easy because I struggled too when I first began cooking," he said. "I'm clumsy and make mistakes a lot. And this actually worked better in approaching the viewers.
Baek expressed his future goal is to use this worldwide platform to promote Korean food to viewers globally.
"I realized that foreigners visit my channel as they web-search," he noted. "So later on, I want to go around and introduce local restaurants. When those people come to Korea after watching my videos and have positive experiences, more people will have an affirmative attitude towards our country, which would attract more tourists."
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