10th March 2011: TVB City Visit For Pok Oi Charity Show 2011

Finally, my first time entering TVB in Hong Kong. This time, thanks to Sherman I have the chance to experience going to the city. The event tonight was for Pok Oi Charity Show recording. Basically I met with other Sherman fans at Tiu Keng Leung station and TVB provided a free shuttle bus service from there to Tseung Kwan O TVB city. One thing that I realise while waiting on the line to get on the bus was that 90% of the audience that were there for the event were elderly people. Most were like in their 50's. Seems like TVB is really catered to the 'si nai' group in Hong Kong. It really isn't greatly celebrated as it is among the younger generations in Malaysia. That's a fact. Most of the young people around were fans of singers.

So once we got to TVB city, the bus drove through the security gates that we always see in the series. And as the bus drove through I saw stacks and stacks of props stored all over the place. Mostly props for filming. And then we arrive at the main studio with the brightly coloured neon light '43' sign. And I wanted to like take pictures of it, but unfortunately the ruling in TVB is so strict that no pictures is allowed and also we were not allowed to get down of the bus and wander around. We were stuck in the bus for 5-10 minutes before we were allowed to get down when the studio doors open. Once we got in the studio (biggest one in TVB which turned out to be not that big in actual) and then the TVB worker started asking us to fill in the seats at the right first. She told us that we didn't need to follow our ticket seats. Its free seating. So we managed to grab the 4^th row. And TVB was really strict with regulations. No phone, no camera. Once a camera is held up they will start to warn you and stop you. Phew….

So finally they started to start the recording. And it first started with Anthony Wong, Choi Fung Wah and Chi Lam coming out to do some recording. And Wow!! I was like can't take my eyes off Chor Gor Gor (ChiLam) hahahah! Because he was so good looking and has the height! Although he is a little skinny though. Then they started recording some dialogues for the program and Chilam NGed a few times, once for talking to fast and one for being out of center point. Then after that, all the other artiste and MC came out to take pictures with the media before they start recording part by part. The MCs for the night that we saw was Astrid Chan and Patrick Tang. They came out and talked a little to the audience and thanked us for coming. Other artiste that were there that night included Hotcha, Sherman Chung, Alfred Hui, C All Star, Stephanie Cheng, Alvina Kong, Hanjin Tan and Kiki Sheung.

Kiki Sheung was really pretty in person. She did not look fat at all in person. And probably because she lost so much weight recently too. She looked really pretty. Besides that, she sang really well too together with Hanjin. Hanjin is also a really talented guy. Nice voice, bubbly personality and talented. And I also found out recently that he's from Singapore! Hahaha. Besides that, other memorable incident from the night was that Stephanie had to sing her song twice. Hahaha. I didn't know why, because her first try was actually good. She sang perfectly. Probably it's the camera angle was not taken perfectly. Another thing I learned from studio recording that night was that what we watch on television is totally different from the way they record it.

In the television, we will watch everything flow really well. Beginning to end with all the charity donors officiating the ceremony, playing games, singing etc. However, the process of recording is split into many different parts. When we went there to watch that night, we did not see them play any games, no presentation of cheques etc. They were only filming the part for singers singing because that's the part that needs audience face to be in it, applause and fans taking up banners. That's why that part is open to audience. So all the parts other than singing were pre-recorded with an empty audience. Hahahaa. The laughter and clappings that you may hear when that part is broadcasted into TV are actually fake sounds combined into the recording from editing work! So during the recording process, what we saw were mostly each singer going up on stage one by one to record their singing parts. Not much feeling of watching a full show eh? Hehehee. After the show, Astrid and Patrick thanked us for coming and said 'sanfu sai la' which really reaffirms our purpose to be here. LOL.

Then after that again when we leave, we were asked to leave in sequence and straight into the shuttle bus. Again no camera allowed in grounds of the city. So this whole post has no pictures in it! Only me personal experience. And its a new experience and I would say not truly as what I expected it to be. No wonder fans had to wait outside the road in the cold every time outside of the city to wait for their idols. Swt.

P.S. I did went to TVB toilet. HAHAHAHHAHA