Monday, October 22, 2012
121021 - Hyeong Kon at Dream Team Recording
Posted at 2:30 AM
0 comments (+)
Location: 청심평화 월드센터 (경기도 가평군)
Cheongshim Pyeonghwa World Center (Gyeonggi-do Gapyeong-gun)
Timing: 7.00pm
Hyeong Kon once said in an interview that the variety show that he would love to be on is Dream Team, I think those words are coming back to bite him in the ass now, as this is the 2nd time he's called up for DT, but the WEIRD sort of DT that 1. records at night and 2. involves just 1:1 wrestling/shoving and dumping him into cold water. T_T My poor leader. I was expecting an obstacle course this time round, since the location was far-flung from Seoul and so I thought they must have plenty of space to set up a course, but NOOOO..... when I get there and saw the set up, my reaction was immediately "ECKKKK" because not only is it cold water, it's murky-gray water - I think they mixed in some sort of white powder. And I was seated in the front row, right behind the 'pool' and directly on the opposite side of the participants, so they were so far from me for most of the recording. I could not lift up my camera and aim properly at Hyeongkon as it was a closed recording and they requested us to not take photos as it would be visible on the cameras recording for broadcasting... So I could not make sure my DSLR was focused correctly at Leader, with all the equipement in the way, not to mention the 10X zoom was drawn full-out... so the far shots of him at the participant waiting areas are all blurred. T_T
Other idol participants for this recording: Big Star's Feeldog, MyName's Sejong, F1rst's Racoon. (Yeah, I know, except for Sejong, the other 2's names are... O_o) Plus there was Rania and Fiestar too.
I believe some of you whom have watched DreamTeam before will remember an episode where SHINee's Minho was on a floating raft above some murky-muddy water and had to shove his opponent off with a huge cushion sponge....? Basically this episode is the same, just that the platform they were on is stationary, not floating, and to get ONTO it, they had to swing down from 2 elevated metal platforms at the sides. I don't know if Hyeong Kon's opening portion will get shown, but basically he swung, let the rope go a little too late, and landed on his butt instead of on his feet on the platform. Lol! (Luckily, a few milliseconds later he would have totally missed it and fallen right into the water!!!)
The first opponent that he went up against was... Dreamteam's Ace, Ricky. When I saw the match-up I wanted to cry, because Ricky is very experienced at this game, and I knew Hyeong Kon is headed for a dunking - and I was right. ><" So he lost, 0-2, and headed back to the participant stand dripping in the gloopy white stuff. He tied the towel around his waist to cover his legs, which were merely in tights and shorts - it was pretty cold even though it was indoors, the audience were all in sweaters and jackets, and all he had was that and a thin T-shirt, plus he was wet and just dunked into water... poor boy.
Hyeong Kon and the other idols watching Rania and Fiestar's performance.
Having lost his 1st round, I thought that was the end of it but there was a medley round where the 'whites' (all those who lost in their first round) were pitted against each other and the game just ran continuously... so he got to go on again. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing, it's good that he get to appear and participate more but it was at the price of him having to take off the jacket and brave the cold again... luckily he seems to have found some gloves somewhere.
When he was awaiting his turn on top of the platform, I hollered at him and waved my trusty fan so he smiled at me. =) At this point he didn't know I had a camera, he could not see it from his angle - hack, I couldn't see the LCD myself. So I didn't know the dumbo computer chip focused on the ropes and railing in front of him instead. Urgh. (sometimes Auto for digicams are a good thing... facial recognisation mode. >.> )
I don't know the previous victor's name (DT regular I think), but Hyeong Kon went down and shoved him off in 18 seconds flat. YOU GO BOY!
But the next match was a disaster, it was another DT regular, and somehow when he crouched down to try to stabilised his CG and not get shoved off by Hyeong Kon, he pulled/tore his knee muscle/ligament and Hyeong Kon realised pretty quickly that his opponent was having trouble, so immediately signaled to stop the match and camera rolling. From that point on I stopped filming the poor injured guy and just concentrated on Hyeong Kon, out of courtesy - but it was heart-breaking to see how anxious and worried he looked too, even though it was in no way his fault...
Anyway, other then stopping the cameras and calling for the on-site doctor, Hyeong Kon also had the good sense to realise that his opponent must be freezing, esp. since he was in pain and shock, so he quickly grabbed more towels to serve as temporary blankets over the injured man and then helped to carry him off on a stretcher.
After that, the recording had to go on, so the next one up was Racoon vs. Hyeong Kon, but it was pretty obvious Hyeong Kon's heart wasn't in it anymore, so he just sorta plopped into the water - at least it was pretty graceful, a on-his-feet twirl-and-fall, so that was the end of his participation in the whole game. And he didn't get his upper body/head dunked anymore, which I was thankful for as that would have been even more chilly.
So as you can see, he hurriedly put on the jacket again after that. Although it's more of a windbreaker so I doubt it helped much. (I SWEAR I will bring a gazillion heatpacks if he goes on DT again!!!)
After that it was announced that the 2 girl groups would be competing in the same game against each other, just that they don't have to swing in, they are given planks to walk out onto the platform on. The guys came to crowd around the circumference of the pit and cheer them on, so I finally got a prolonged chance to shoot him up close. (Since I was in front row, he was maybe.... 8m from me? My jacket and bag and shoes and pants were in a mess by this time as they had been splattered from the flying white-water mixture when some participants fell in rather spectacularly....)
At this point, since he was at ground level, he finally realised I had a camera on me - well, you kinda have to be blind to not spot my 10cm-diameter lens pointing right at him. ^^;; I had thrown a jacket over the top of it so he couldn't see him from his vantage point on top of the platform earlier, even the guard to my side didn't notice it...
Trying to smooth his hair back into place as the drying mixture made it very stiff... somehow I think he looks really good here. And young. Haha.
Doing random arm-swinging exercises to ward off the cold. At one point when our eyes met, I mouthed "Cold??" and did the cross-arms shivering action at him, and he nodded and did a little tremble/shake. Awww.... ><" Noona really worried about him catching a cold... lack of sleep plus freezing. ><"
All artists gathering for the ending. They had to stay behind for a photo session after that, while I had to immediately leave on the consigned buses back to Seoul as I had gone there with an audience-management company and it was 1.30am and no way I can get back to Seoul on my own, so I could not speak to him or even pass him my letter (I wrote 2 letters, one for him and one for Jaehyung), so I just slotted them on A-JAX's car's windshield wipers (I noticed the car immediately when we came in) and left first.
I have yet to find the time to edit and upload my videos - I was recording videos for almost all of the matches Hyeong Kon was in but I could not look at the LCD properly so half of the time he wasn't even onscreen, esp. as he was swinging out onto the platform, sorry - so lots of editing and splicing is needed. But here are some screenshots.
He waved really quickly at my camera when he spotted it, and luckily I was in movie recording mode so I got it. ^^
Sugohasheosumnida, Leader!! Rest well, Hyeong Kon Oppa!!
Labels: variety show recording
