A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend the press conference preceding the Mnet Asia Music Awards (MAMA) in Singapore. This was one of the high-points of my short foray into the life of an interpreter, and suffice to say it was a very eye-opening experience.
Here's what it's like to be a reporter at a press conference.
1. It is very, very competitive.
You have to report to the venue far ahead of time in order to get a good seat, preferably at the front, so the moderator can see your raised hand. Worse still if you are a camera man - arrive behind the pack and you won't get any good shots of the celebrities. No one is going to shuffle up so you get a better angle - and why should they?
2. You need to come as a team.
Having no prior experience nor having received any instructions from the company that sent me, I didn't know what to expect. I was also the only employee in this part of the world, and being a start-up, they didn't have the budget to either hire locally or send a team down to accompany me. "Find your own camera-man," they said, "We'll get you two passes, but try and get someone who has a camera."
I ended up asking a favour from a photographer I'd met once, years ago in the fashion industry. I think it was his first time at a press conference as well. We didn't know each other's equipment or working style, and we were awkward around each other. This put us at a severe disadvantage right from the start.
The other reporters came in teams that functioned like well-oiled machinery. Each of them had a defined role and the equipment necessary to fulfill their objectives. I didn't even have a functioning laptop - I thought all I had to do was record on my phone and type out the articles at home later that week.
The reality is, as the celebrities speak, reporters are writing and uploading their articles real-time. The articles are accompanied by photos that the camera-men transmit wirelessly to them, which are then instantly post-processed by a photo editor sitting just beside the reporter.
In other words: about a bajillion articles made it up on the Internet before I even reached home that night.
3. It is very well-rehearsed.
You can see the hours of practice in the perfectly coiffed hair, the crease-less outfits, the way questions are answered without needing much thought, the way they pose subtly behind the microphone, or have specific members answer certain types of questions.
Everyone also has a character expected of them that they must play. They may ham it up in front of the cameras, but the moment the flashes die down, you see them become business-like again.
And yet, despite all their carefully planned actions...
4. You stop seeing celebrities as, well, celebrities.
You see the boredom in their eyes, even though they are too polite and smart to do anything but smile and answer a question they must have heard for the thousandth time. You see the false eyelashes and makeup shading on the nose bridges and jawlines, a trick that fools the camera but not your eyes. You see them as just another person in a crowd, even though you know they are here as objects of fame.
Unlike a television show, which has the power to highlight and focus on a specific person or point, the celebrities do not necessarily stand out in real life. They look surprisingly like normal human beings.
5. Being sincere is a skill.
So why do some celebrities get better press than others?
Simply put, these are the ones who take an effort to engage with the reporters, or the ones who speak with earnest. When Hyoyeon of Girls' Generation walked into the room, she made it a point to look into the eyes of everyone in the first row and smile in acknowledgement. Leeteuk of Super Junior spoke for more than three minutes on a topic that escapes me now, though I distinctly remember how impressed I was at his sincerity. Neither of these two are persons I'd ever paid much attention to before the conference, but they were the ones I left with the strongest impressions of.
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