The MBC Studio Tour is a tour around the MBC Studio, shocking right?
The tour starts by picking everyone up from near either Myeongdong Station or Hongdae Station. From there, the bus will take us to Ilsan to really begin the tour! The translator was very fluent in English and gave knew a lot about MBC as well, always willing to answer any questions he knew or translated any questions we had to the tour guide. The tour guide only spoke Korean for the vast majority of the tour, but he spoke some English too.
The Ilsan part of the tour goes over so many K-dramas, from the sets, to the props, to the scripts, and quite a few more.
The tour guide explained to us all the markings for the sets, such as the lights being marked so and so numbers, or cameras being positioned here or there, and showed us videos of the dramas at the sets. My family, friend, and I all really enjoyed it, especially my friend since she was the most into K-dramas of us. When we were shown the sets, they also showed us scenes from the actual K-drama to more accurately shown how the sets were used when everything came together.
The tour guide had so much energy and would often ask us questions that kept it all the more engaging. He explained how sponsored props were treated verses the easier to produce props in an entertaining manner, while still explaining what would be used in certain dramas verses others.
Something that was really fun was going to the rehearsal room and being given a script for an upcoming scene in a K-drama. It wasn’t translated, but that’s what translating apps are for right? We were explained how even where the cast members sit is important in the rehearsal room and what exactly all the markings in the script meant. We were also shown some K-pop group’s performances on their stages and how they determine what groups and songs get which backgrounds.
We also saw some of the spots where the sets for some variety shows get put up, like Weekly Idol and King of Mask Singer.
The Sangamdong part of the tour covered some of the behind the scenes of the K-pop performances as well as seeing where the news is broadcasted and where idol radio is hosted.
The first time I went on the tour we saw the crew setting it up and were told they set it up and take it down weekly since the space is shared between performances and variety shows. We also got to see where the workers monitor the sound and cameras.
The second I went on this tour we got to see some of a rehearsal show, the first that this tour has done. It was very hectic with the director running from one area to another, making sure everything was setup to his standards. We did get to briefly meet him too. Outside the building we saw many fans who were waiting to get in, but because we were with the tour we got to go in comfortably. We didn’t get to stay during the entire rehearsal but we did get to see Sikkoo, Seo Eve, X:in, Dxteen, and Nexz. We got to see them on stage as well as what the performance would look like post edit, with all the varying camera angles and information about the charts. We weren’t allowed to record anything of course, but it was very fun to be able to see all of the behind the scenes.
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Kala Yee
My name is Kendall Yee, though I go by Kala. I’m a junior getting an alternative education at University of Redlands through the Johnston Centre of Integrative Studies. I love to learn new languages, listen to music, read, and travel.