[INTERVIEW] MBC documentary producer starts vlog on rustic life

Choi Byul, second from left, a producer at public broadcaster MBC, poses with neighbors of her new house in Gimje, North Jeolla Province. Courtesy of Barim (MBC C&I)

By Lee Gyu-lee

More and more people these days are dreaming about settling down in the countryside and adopting a rustic lifestyle.

Producer Choi Byul / Courtesy of Barim (MBC C&I)

Choi Byeol, a 32-year-old producer at public broadcaster MBC, has chosen to do exactly that by buying an abandoned house far away from Seoul. From her new home, Choi started MBC's first official vlog channel, "Onulun," to share her idyllic journey.

The producer, YouTuber and author of the book, "Onulun," published earlier this month, said the decision to buy the house in the southwestern city of Gimje ― about 200 kilometers outside Seoul ― and to pitch the vlog idea to her company happened very quickly. She came across the house by chance and was captivated by the surrounding nature and serene backdrop.

"In summary, I bought a house but also didn't want to quit my job (in Seoul), so I came up with the idea to have it both ways," Choi said during an interview with The Korea Times, Friday. "Moving to that house was like putting myself in a study room... You can take time to focus on yourself and recharge in Seoul, too. But for me, it just wasn't working out, so I went out of my way and came to the countryside."

After she bought the house in April of last year, she launched the YouTube channel two months later, and it now has over 282,000 subscribers. She began sharing the process of renovating the 115-year-old house and settling into the tight-knit neighborhood.

The easygoing, feel-good videos showing her farming, cooking in her front yard, and interacting with next-door neighbors soothes viewers, many of whom have grown weary of bustling city life. The channel's first episode drew 2.4 million views.

The producer, who previously took part in journalism and documentary programs, noted that she wanted to take a different approach for YouTube.

"For TV shows, there is a clear message, but with YouTube, I tried to avoid that," she said. "When I put myself in the audiences' shoes, watching something with a straightforward, specific message felt overwhelming. So, I didn't want to force any messages or views on anyone."

So she decided to have a go without any meticulous planning, which would not have been possible for a TV production.

"During our first phase of renovating the house, the plan was to have no plan… Frankly, I did worry if it would work out at first. But then, there was always something to capture, something new that I came to appreciate," she said. "Then, I realized that a lot can happen by chance when you let them and go with the flow, like things that we couldn't experience if everything was planned and intentional."

A picture of her renovated house from the book, "Onulun" / Courtesy of Barim (MBC C&I)

The key thing she kept in mind amid the "no planning" approach was to be honest with the viewers. The producer said it was important to show every step of her journey finding herself and trying different things out along the way.

"This is the conundrum that most people at my age, or those living in these days, also have," she said. "So I wanted to show how I work through it and that it is not hard to do. And sometimes, even if something doesn't work out in the process, I wanted to show that it's okay," she said.

Ironically, Choi is living quite a busy life ― sometimes busier than she used to be in Seoul, she said. For the past year, she took on a handful of tasks: editing videos, enjoying life in the countryside, carrying out projects for the channel, and writing a book, which has been her dream since high school.

Cover of the producer's book, "Onulun," published this month / Courtesy of Barim (MBC C&I)

"One of the reasons I wanted to move here and take time off was that I wanted to write ― to take myself away from distractions and focus on myself to write about me. And I found myself doing exactly that as I wrote descriptions to put in the vlog," she said, adding that the viewers' response to her videos made her feel more confident about her writing.

The book takes readers behind the scenes of her life in Gimje and her personal stories, filling in blanks that were left out of the videos.

Since renovating the house and settling in, the producer was on the hunt for the next project for the channel. "(After a while) I began to feel a sense of responsibility and obligation as a producer," she said.

So, she teamed up with a local mill to experiment with rice farming, using sulfur fertilizer instead of chemicals. "Even if I have to leave this town sometime in the future, I wanted to leave behind something good for this neighborhood," she said.

The producer, along with four assistant producers, also opened a cafe recently that offers food and beverages for free to customers.

Noting that the channel is in transition from the "no plan" theme, Choi said she wants to use it to show herself taking on new challenges that seem difficult to accomplish, like making a profit from a cafe that does not take money.

"Using my circumstances to the fullest, I want to try things that seem impossible," she said. "So if it works out, then it's good. And even if it doesn't, I can still share it with the viewers so that they can experience them through me or learn from my mistakes."