After Making Stars 2｜In five years, he narrated 468+1 stories of Hong Kong dreamers
“All People Make a Star 5” is coming to an end, and it is the focus of the whole city again. This ViuTV ace talent show started broadcasting in 2018, and it has been broadcast for the fifth time so far, with more than 400 participants. Those faces that have appeared on stage, as an audience, how many do you remember?
Wen Zhuosen, who served as the narrator for the five-season show, remembers a lot, a lot.
On the day of the visit, we compiled a picture of the appearances of the participants of the “Star Making” for several sessions, and used it as a photography background. As soon as the narrator saw the picture, he immediately pointed to the youthful faces on it, and told their names and stories one by one. The more he talked, the more he talked: who advanced to which round, who performed which performances, who is doing what work now… ⋯The reporter couldn’t help admiring that he remembered so many participants, just like “Star-Making Wikipedia”, he only replied “I remember it”, as if it was a matter of course.
The faces of the participants are projected on his white T-shirt, and for Wen Zhuosen, who has narrated more than 400 “Starmaking” stories, these dream-chasing stories have never become blurred.
(This is the second article of the special topic “After Star Making”, see the first article:The data stories of the 468 contestants: Where did they go on the show’s wave?）
More than 400 stories of flesh and blood
On the day we met, “Star Making 5” was still on the air, and work was still going on behind the scenes. Before the interview was over, the narrator had received several work messages on his phone. He said shyly, “Sorry, I thought I’d have to reply to this message first…” as he said, his fingers were already tapping on the phone screen. After saying goodbye to us, he immediately rushed back to the TV station, preparing to watch the new episode of “Making Stars” just edited by the director team, and preparing to write scripts and record narrations.
The audience’s knowledge and understanding of each “Star Making” participant often begins with the few minutes of the program. But for Wen Zhuosen, to tell a good star-making story, in fact, it is necessary to know the participants of the whole session, and there is a lot of effort behind it.
Wen Zhuosen (narrator)
From the first round of interviews, this year’s “Star Making” producer Xu Jinglin, program consultant Hua Jie (Huang Huijun), Feng Yunqian, Chen Lei and other mentors checked in front, while Wen Zhuosen and other writers sat behind and observed quietly, sometimes Questions are also asked of the participants (i.e. interview clips of those contestants on the show). The rest of the time, he silently monitors the social media of the participants, trying to get a sense of who they are.
In the middle of the program, photographers and writers followed the participants to practice and live, and “Narrator” watched a lot of footage, revisited the practice videos of each group, digested their own feelings, and then judged how to write the narration . After the manuscript is written, it will be recorded according to the emotion and tone. Sometimes I have to hold a meeting with the production team to discuss how to edit the part of each contestant… He described that every year during the production period of “Making a Star”, all behind-the-scenes began a difficult period of “rushing to the deadline”. They can’t stop, and even the time to go home for dinner has to be crowded.
As anyone who’s ever worked on Making Stars will tell you, it’s a painful job.
A group photo of the staff after the finals of “Star Making 3” (Photo source: @samm0123)
Despite the pain, Wen Zhuosen found his work interesting. “”All People Making Stars” is not only a talent show, but also a real-life show. The real-life part is very felt.” He described that every time “Making Stars” has more than 90 new faces in front of him, let him To observe, to ask, to know. During the process, you will slowly see that everyone has different ideas and principles, as if seeing three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood people standing in front of you.
It’s like an anthropologist’s fieldwork.
For example, Boris from “Star Making 2” won the first place in the “Eye Catching Idol Election” because he is a YouTuber, and he can directly pass the first round of the competition. Wen Zhuosen still remembers that when he saw his clips, he was deeply impressed by this boy. “You saw that he was struggling because he was selected, “Those who sing and dance so hard, they can’t get in, they even have to go into the resurrection zone, I don’t have to go through screening?” Wen Zhuosen continued to observe, even if Boris didn’t Singing and dancing skills, but practice hard every day for the team performance. Seeing this, even through the screen, he couldn’t help sighing: “Wow, you are really passionate!”
Boris from “Starmaker 2”
Boris from “Starmaker 2”
This kind of observation day after day, after a long time, is unavoidable to be moved.
“Sometimes after recording a person’s Profile (personal file), then the next time we open the factory (recording) and see him, he will say “Hello”. In fact, he doesn’t know you. That Hello is purely a lot of inner feelings.” Occasionally in the future, he will meet in the corridor, and he will sincerely add a sentence “Come on, Good show” to those participants. A simple and flat cheer, but mixed with the true feelings of the narrator.
real charm
Throughout the interview, Wen Zhuosen kept mentioning two words: “truth” and “real person”.
In the middle of 2018, in the first episode of the first season of “All People Make Stars”, the program started to discuss idols and superstars. Just when the audience thought that the TV station was preparing to recruit a new force for the Hong Kong music scene, the atmosphere changed, and the narrator’s serious voice came: “Although there are a lot of people participating in the competition, we can’t find anyone who meets the conditions of being an idol!”
Since that episode, Wen Zhuosen’s humorous narration has attracted a lot of attention. Many viewers like his speech to the point, mean enough, and true enough.
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Later, he laughed at Edan’s white eyes, Jer’s beard, and the middle boundary of 193… adding a lot of laughs to the show. Even so, he still emphasized that he never did mean for the sake of the mean, but when the production team prepared the first season of the program, they expected to attract talented people from all over Hong Kong, but the standard of the participants was lower than expected, so Sister Hua called He first used narration to make fun of the participants for a round to reduce the audience’s sense of gap.
He also understood that the narration draft he wrote was actually enough to affect the audience’s understanding of the contestants. Especially in the first two seasons of “Making a Star”, I was even more impressed, “It turned out that in the few minutes before he opened his mouth to perform, how I introduced him would affect the audience’s perception… It’s like Edan, a person who pursues his dreams so seriously, and followed Fat Boy (Liang Yip) is learning to dance, and the music is not bad, but when he comes on the show, you laugh at him and roll your eyes?”
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Screenshot of “Star Maker 1”
Edan’s eye-rolling expression on the show later became his unique memory point. This made Wen Zhuosen think that if the charm of a real person is enough to impress people, then these slightly magnified flaws can instead become his cuteness. “If someone’s personality is not flattering in itself, even if I praise him, it’s useless, and the audience won’t think it’s true!” In this case, it’s better to keep it real. Talking about imperfect things may also be able to move people.
After all, by witnessing the imperfection of the idols in their amateur days through “Making Stars”, the audience can understand the real people under the packaging and witness their growth.
At the end of 2018, 12 “Star Making” contestants were recruited by ViuTV to form MIRROR, and held their first concert at Jiuzhan as soon as they debuted. When the music started, the bright light shone brightly, and Twelve Sons slowly rose up and appeared on the stage, Wen Zhuosen in the audience suddenly got goosebumps.
Obviously, the last time I saw them was at the backstage of the “Star Making” studio. The twelve wore the costumes they bought and practiced dancing hundreds of times. Meeting again this time, they have become the focus of the stage. “That feeling is: At the beginning, I didn’t predict what their future path would be like, but you have witnessed it now.” The rest is history.
Wen Zhuosen and MIRROR took a photo (Source: @samm0123)
“Turn Candlelight into Dawn and Shine Again”
Many of the participants of “Making a Star” are amateurs. Before the show was broadcast, they were unknown. It was like struggling in the dark, but they met the stage of “Making a Star”. “Glow” has the opportunity to turn the candlelight hidden in the room into dawn, and then form the spotlight on the stage.
“If someone likes you, you can upgrade again and be seen by more people. This is your journey to shine.”
This luminous journey will not end with elimination. Every season of the show, the audience will always be heartbroken and angry for some favorite contestants who left early; like the fifth season, many people complained that Mark Chan, Ritchie, and Carson, who had great singing skills, missed the finals. But the truth is, looking at the many seasons of “Star Making”, there are many people who were eliminated on the show and then entered the music scene and made their mark – like Anson Lo (top 30 in the first season), mansonvibes (top 20 in the third season) , Lolly Talk (members mostly exited early in season 4), etc., are examples.
Anson Lo was eliminated in the top 30 of “Star Maker 1” for a moment
Wen Zhuosen described that after the first “Star Making”, he already felt that the elimination of contestants is not terrible, as long as they are attractive and capable, no matter whether they stay on the show or not, these faces will still be seen in the end.
For example, in the “Star Making 3” audition, he happened to meet Cloud (Yun Haoying) for an interview, and he was already very impressed, but he didn’t expect that she would not make it to the top three in the final. Speaking of this, Wen Zhuosen frowned, and said in a familiar narration voice, “Oh! Cloud! Oh! I wish he had a special honor.” But two years later, she won the Gold Award for the new female singer in the music industry. It’s this girl again.
“Your star-making journey doesn’t necessarily end when Johnny tells you to be eliminated. It’s up to you to decide whether to give up or persevere. If you don’t give up, you debut, and you can continue chasing your dreams.”
Top 20 performances of Yun Haoying’s “Star Making 3”
accompany the audience with sound
Telling so many other people’s dream-chasing stories, but in “Star Making”, it is not only the participants, but also the “narrator” himself. He started to give his voice on the show five years ago, but he has always had a dream of being a host.
This dream originated from the book “I want to be a DJ” that he accidentally read in middle school, and then he dreamed of making a living with sound. After graduating from middle school, I tried to apply for different radio stations, but failed in the interviews. After repeated failures, I was finally hired by DBC digital radio station when I was in college. Although I can only work as a recording studio controller, I am still working quietly behind the scenes and looking forward to the future : The narration of many TV programs is recorded by a radio DJ. Will I have this opportunity in the future?
After leaving DBC, he moved to ViuTV as a writer. Seeing that the writers of other programs had to take care of VO narration due to the limited resources of the TV station, he was “depressed”: “I don’t know if I can do it later?”
In 2018, Wen Zhuosen took a group photo with program producer Hua Jie, director Ji Ge, editor Bao Jie, and KK at the restaurant opened by the contestant Ah Shen in Kwun Tong in “Star Making 1”. (Image credit: @samm0123)
Like many “Make a Star” contestants, Wen Zhuosen just tried to be himself while waiting to be seen. Sometimes the program asks him to help record the guide track to calculate the time required for the actual narration recording. He seizes the opportunity every time, full of energy, and “bombs down with full power”. Perhaps because of this, the chief director of the show began to notice this voice.
The opportunity finally came. When the production team was preparing for the first season of “All People Make Stars”, Wen Zhuosen was invited to serve as a narrator in addition to being a program writer. He described that at that time, he was like “accepting an order at a critical moment”. He never imagined that he would be able to officially be a narrator one day, and he also “had no picture” of this job.
After the show came out, no matter how hard and busy he was at work, he would make time to go home for dinner, ask his mother to turn on the TV, and watch “Making a Star” together. From that moment on, he felt that what he was doing had finally changed—in addition to writing behind the scenes, he could also use his voice to “walk” to the front of the screen and accompany the audience.
He liked to listen to the radio since he was a child, and according to academic research, one of the functions of the radio is to create a sense of companionship. Wen Zhuosen described this feeling as when he liked to watch live broadcasts of “playing games” when he was a child. “When I didn’t have a mobile phone for the exam, I would watch Da Ge play the game. Then I had to study for the exam, and I would drive him to play the game.” It’s like he’s accompanying me.” His love of voice work stems from his desire to be a companion one day, entertaining audiences in perhaps difficult times.
Wen Zhuosen hosted the ViuTV variety show “We are COLLAR”
In a blink of an eye, this voice has accompanied the audience for five years. His narration undoubtedly brought a lot of laughs to the show, but after telling hundreds of star-making stories, will the parties feel tired of repetition? Wen Zhuosen thought for a moment, and replied: “I used to be afraid of this, especially when I was doing the second and third rounds. Before the start, someone would say: Do the same thing again, nothing has changed.”
Then I figured it out. “Actually, a lot of sports are done by a group of people chasing Bo. If someone doesn’t like football, they feel that a group of people are chasing Bo. But if you like that kind of thing, you will like it.” Just like he likes basketball Similarly, even if I just practice shooting and layup repeatedly every morning, I still feel very satisfied every time I see the ball rolling into the basket. In his eyes, as long as he likes it enough, he can always find fun, and the same is true for narration. “Every time I record a tone, play in a position, and then record, it’s actually fun.”
Over the past five years, the program format of “Making Stars” has been similar, and viewers with clear hearts can even predict the direction of the plot (sometimes even the “Narrator” will laugh at himself), but he believes that the biggest attraction of this talent show is , never in the form of the show, but in the performers.
“Star Making 5” MV shooting site (Photo: ViuTV)
“”All People Make Stars” is just right, no matter what the frame is, those who participate are chasing their dreams with their lives… You know what they are going to do is the same, but he just shows you his best You will still be touched by that moment, and feel very passionate, because of those people.”
This storyteller has told more than 400 stories, and his eyes are still shining: “For decades, when you watch concerts, you will always see those songs, those dances, those music, those voices, but the attraction of the performance is that Different people put different concepts into a work. As long as those people are very passionate and love that kind of thing, you will be moved by them.”
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Text/Cheukying
攝／Nasha Chan
Venue Provided by: Leaving Bookstore
【This article and Wave. Pop culture annalsSimultaneous publication]
