VPH for me was an exciting journey, full of learning experiences, forming new and intimate friendships as well as a mini initiation into SMUBE.

Pre-VPH thoughts

            My initial purpose of signing up for VPH was because it was a necessary platform to be an emcee in SMUBE. With these thoughts in mind, I leapt right in feet first and just wanted to have fun. Of course, having not entered a similar competition prior to this and my previous experiences having been more of scripted emcee styles, I was rather apprehensive about making a fool out of myself in front of strangers and scary seniors.

            Also, I had my doubts about whether I was good enough to emcee for BE so I was partially worried that I would be wasting my efforts in giving my shot at the VPH and already having made fool of myself in public.

            Thus it was with the greatest dread that I entered the VPH contest. But boy was I mistaken.

Thoughts during VPH

            The first round of auditions was quite relaxed actually and I found the panel very friendly and reassuring. They were also very helpful in offering pointers and tips along the way when I stumbled or where I was nervous. In the short period of time I spent with them in the GSR/audition room, I had several learning points to take away.

            Firstly, my posture and stance was too formal and I had to learn to relax so that my body wouldn’t seem so stiff and the way I spoke wouldn’t be too structured. Also, I had to gesticulate more to emphasize certain points. In addition, I had to put inflection in my voice so that it wouldn’t sound so monotonous. The general consensus was that although I presented myself well, I had to maintain proper eye contact with the people that I was trying to communicate with.

            The second round of auditions was the semi finals in the lecture theatre. This was slightly more nerve wrecking as there were more people for you to make a fool of yourselves in front of. Of course, the emcee (Terence) was very reassuring and told us to relax and not to worry.

            What I took away from this session was primarily that I had to work on letting my personality through. It was here that I too met a few of the people that I would be working and sharing my life with for the next couple of weeks. For our group event, Hui Ying, Michelle, Jane and I found ourselves in the same group and we had a certain synergy in our performance that I think led us to the final rounds. What I took away from the second round was this. That if you worried too much what people thought of you and what you wanted people to think about you, you can never put on a convincing act.

            In between the semi finals and the finals itself, we had several trying weeks of filming, recording and even managing to squeeze in two sessions of  training with the Mark Van Cuylenburg. In chronological order, the filming was first.

            I felt this segment was the most tiring segment of the whole VPH for me. My partner, Seema and myself had over scripted and we spent much of our time trying to cut down the time needed for the short feature. What I learnt here was that TV was very impromptu and more of building chemistry rather than reading off the script. What really worked for us was that we could cover up for each other’s mistakes and we could bounce off what each other said. That led to a better take than had we gotten everything right. Therefore although we both felt TV was an exhausting endeavor, the experience was well worth it.

            The next to follow was to record our own 5 min segment of a radio top 40 countdown. After our lesson with the TV recording, we went in for this one without a script at all, choosing instead to spend our time bonding over nice bowls of dessert. And I must say, the bonding really did pay off. We went in for the recording more relaxed and the conversation sounded so much more natural and was overall more enjoyable for both of us. Seema particularly enjoyed this segment and I must say, I too did find it really fun.

            The two sessions with Mark were really informative and he taught us how to control your breathing and work your voice. The more important session, of course, was the second one where he taught us the important of doing impromptu acting. What was reinforced by Mark from here was what I realized a while back, that when you worry too much about what people think of you, you will never be a good impromptu actor. I think Desmond and Ben did really well for this segment and though I wished that I could be as good as them, I doubt I can,

            The finals were a culmination of everything we had learnt and we were glad that it had finally come to an end.

Post-VPH thoughts

VPH was an exciting fun filled journey and when I say that I’m sure all of us feel the same, with its own ups and downs, but the tips that have learnt from VPH and the experiences in life, towards dealing with others towards preparation and towards making relationships work, all take time and effort and VPH has been instrumental in preparing me for life at SMU and in the work days ahead. I have learnt much from VPH, from the lessons to the processes, from the seniors to my peers, the experience garnered is invaluable and a worthwhile one for anyone to go through.