In My Humble Opinion

Anugerah Skrin Ke-8

This was pretty last minute, but an episode I produced got nominated for Bualbicara Terbaik for Anugerah Skrin Ke-8 (AS8). My manager told me he had submitted the episode a few weeks ago and I didn't think much about it until the producer of the AS8 came to see and gave me an invitation card and said I have to attend because I have to represent the program.

I was going to borrow something from wardrobe to wear since the dress code said suits for guys. I when to browse through the wardrobe department and didn't quite find anything fancy. That evening, I when to G2000 and Chui Yan helped me picked out a suit, a shirt and pants. Cost me Rm813 for the whole set. I like how it was made of Teflon... almost bullet proof man! My niece saw me wearing my suit and she got all excited and crawled up to my leg and started pulling my pants and wanted me to carry her. I was hesitant at first since she drools a lot but I can't say no to her. I think she was intrigued by the white shirt I was wearing.

Everyone was asking me what would I say if I won, so I thought about it and I thought about all the corny speeches I could have made like, "I dedicate this award too all the women out there, without you I wouldn't be here!" and I'll say it while pumping that heavy pewter award in the air. Another one I thought would get some extra corny points was, "I didn't expect to win, so I didn't prepare anything but I would like to thank..." and then I'll rattle on until they chase me of the stage. Hehe.

I got stuck in a huge jam on the way to PWTC. I thought I was going to be early but ended up 5 minutes late. I walked up from the basement and took the escalator all the way up. When I reached the reception then only I realized I left my invitation card at home. I thought, "shit, now I'm screwed". Knowing them, they're pretty strict on keeping the rift-raft's out of the hall with pretty tight security. I walked back around the public gallery all the way to the start of the red carpet and I saw a TV3 staff guarding one of the cordoned areas. I walked up to him, waved at home and got in pass to the red carpet. As I was doing that, the guards were pushing out 2 photographers without ID. At least the guards knew me by name and just waived me by.

I was standing there on the red carpet waiting for Chermaine. She called earlier to see if she could sit with me since she didn't know anyone there so I thought, sure, I didn't anyone else on the nominee list. I was standing on the red carpet with the camera crews watching them doing interviews, especially my trainee. All the female personalities got stopped and were asked who designed what they were wearing. Even Chermained had a new designer sponsor her for the night.

As me and Chermaine started walking towards the hall on the red carpet, some of the people in the public gallery were waiving and calling to us. Chermaine asked if the dude was a friend of mine and I said no, because I thought he was waiving at you. As we entered the hall, I suddenly realized that the dude might have been a fan calling us over to get our signature. That would have been pretty funny since we're both not particularly well known. Well, at least Chermaine's hot.

We set by the aisle seat at the front centre and I had a pretty good view of the stage. As people started walking up to the seats, I got to see them and some of the actors and actresses who recognized me said hi. The director of Ciplak sat with us, with his mother and friends. Even Datuk Kadir (the former information minister) shoke my hand, tipical politician. I was just staring into blank space and he so happened to walked into my line of sight and made eye contact with me so he extended a hand and I shook it.

The nice thing about live shows like this are that it starts on time because it's broadcasted live. I think today was behind by 2-3 minutes because they had to wait for the news to end. While we were sitting there waiting for the show to start, I told Chermaine, it felt like we were sitting in a bus on a long journey. We sat down at 7:15PM and it was going to end at 11PM.

The show started with Erra and Datuk Siti's duet. The sound system was awsome. The bass was literally shaking the hall. You could feel the sound waves going through you. The presenters were okay, Mastura had a pretty funny presentation.

Somewhere through the 3rd commercial break, I ran of to the toilet. When I came back, they wouldn't let me into my seat because the show started again. Those of us who came back late were just standing by the side of the hall waiting. In the Oscars, they have seat in's, people who would seat in your seat when you when to the loo so when the camera takes a wide shot of the people, there are no empty seats. I remember once during the Oscars, the camera fell on a celebrity couple trying to get back to their seats and they were complaining, "there's someone in my seat!" Was pretty funny.

When my category came up, I was pretty nervous. I didn't actually know who I was competing against. When I saw the nominees booklet then I thought, "damn!". They had Aznil in it and that's pretty much entertainment. I can't compete with that. Wrong talkshow category. True enough, Aznil won for an episode called "Kaki". Don't ask me, I don't know what it was about either. Well, there goes my chance to make any corny speeches. Wardina send me a pretty funny SMS after they gave out the award.

After the show ended, I hung around to chat with my colleagues. I asked Naz's gal if she was giving the evil eye to Fazura. She was practically sitting right in front of them at the podium watching Fazura flirt on air with him. Was pretty funny.

The director of Ciplak won for independent film. His friend was telling him, "well, now you've achieved the most you'll ever do in your life, you're 27 now. This is the highlight of your life!". Haha, I said "what, it's all down hill now isn't it?". Silly buggers.

There was a party after that, I didn't eat dinner yet so we when to grab a bite. While walking out of the hall, there were fans waiting for the stars to come out to take their pictures. There were a lot of transvestites waiting out there! I saw one wearing a small purple tank top and he/she wasn't wearing a bra. His/her C Cup tits were barely covered by the top. I didn't know whether to laugh or look away. Now it wouldn't be indecency now would it if it were man tits? I mean, it's okay for guys to go topless but what if the 'guy' had a C cup tits? My other colleagues were gawking away as well, one of them said, "hey, you stand next to him and I will pretend to take your picture together, but I'll actually zoom in on his tits so we can show others". I declined, I didn't want to be tagged to the transvestite.

At the party, there was a lot of networking going on. Everyone got to meet new talents and a lot of ideas were pitched very fasts. Winning an award gets you more recognition, for example the director of Ciplak met Lina Tan, from Red Comm. and they talked about movie scripts. I met a former host who asked about hosting. Was pretty interesting to see all the networking going on.

We finally left the party and I send Chermaine home. On the way home, we talked about production. I explained to her how producing a new show works since she's starting her TV career.

I have to admit, I don't watch much TV anymore. Before I when to the US to study broadcasting and film studies, I was a TV addict. I loved watching TV and films. Now, I don't do that much anymore, basically because I tend to watch it with a diferent perspective now. I look at everything from the technical point of view. For example, at the Anugerah Skrin, I was looking at the cameras instead to see what camera angles they used and the lights to see whether they were dimming it on cue. I was looking at the hosts and presenters to see if they were reading from their cue cards or doing it naturally. There isn't much of an illusion of entertainment anymore for me, now I just try to dissect everything I watch.

Better hit the sack, I got to wake up early tomorrow!