This year would be the 14th Festival of Diversity, hence - FODXIV and it was held at St. David's Hall on the 25th of February 2017. I remember blogging about the 12th one which I starred in as a witch back in 2015. However, I didn't manage to blog about FOD 13 in 2016 (it was directed by my close & childhood friend - Nasha and Amin who both did such a wonderful job!) since I was focusing on my final year so the lack of posts last year (BUT, I was very much a part of FOD 13 as well - being the Dikir Barat Choreographer) and it was about Panglima Awang.
With the fellow choreographers. (As to which, Idk how we all ended up wearing something floral because none of us talked about our outfits at all and we ended up being coordinated, coincidentally).
From left to right;
Chinese Dance (ZiShan), Indian Dance (Alyssa), Malay Dance (Nasha aka Director), Contemporary Dance (Eunice) and Dikir Barat (aka meee!)
So that's a brief recap of my dikir barat choreographing days and am extremely proud to have worked with such an amazing team which comprised of first to final years and of different races and cultures as well.
Moving on to 2017's event - FODXIV which tells the tale of Raja Bersiong.
This year I was more of the backstage person, helping the crew out with poster designs and marketing the event to the public. I made a promise to myself that I was going to execute the best designs I've got for this year's event as it maybe my last Malaysian Night ever. (Although, I do apologize for ranting too much. Who doesn't rant when it comes to work.)
Trust me when I say this, editing pictures or making graphics are not easy. Especially when it is for a super large event and everyone's just counting on you to execute the best poster ever in order to draw the public. Because well, image is extremely important, you see. I was a little rusty (since it's been a long time coming since I played around with photoshop) when it came to the first batch of editing the poster since there were a few glitches here and there. Obviously, I wasn't satisfied with how some of it turned out and I had to redo them over and over again.
I thank god that my team was amazing and we had a fantastic photographer (aka Thomas Lee) for the photoshoot, who not only took photos of the cast but the rest of the crew (approximately 150 members). He's super friendly and passionate about his work okk don't play play. Hire him, if needed or wanted!!
You may visit his insta page here for more of his work!! (P/S: He will be one of the photographers for my future wedding, thanks.)
Designed the main poster, individual poster, banner, teaser countdown poster and the booklet for this year's FOD. Back in 2015, I was only able to design the booklet since Ariff was the main designer and he is amazingggg. Inspiration okk?
Anyway, here are some of my artwork (after the amount of batches I went through with my team and ofcourse opinions from my ex GC boss - Harrizal, Kerby who has helped me out so much especially when my photoshop gave me problems and my other close friends hehe.)
The main poster
Banner for Facebook
Exhibit A for the Individual Poster
Teaser Poster before the final day
Exhibit B - Countdown poster (we had a 5 day countdown with each different characters representing each day)
The printed booklet :')
The marketing/promo team who worked very hard in promoting our event and managed to get our poster to be displayed virtually at the Students Union (which wasn't easy). We didn't manage to get access to the Radio Station or School's newspaper but it's better than nothing! They grilled so hard by posting constantly on social media pages and going around university posting the mini posters everywhere (including the damn toilets, I had no peace seriously).
However, I wouldn't say they were the only ones who did the advertising, the entire Malaysian society helped out in advertising and bringing their friends and family to watch the show too. Garnering a total of 900 audience!! Thanks to a certain Malaysian formal event (The Malaysian Initiative) that was going on in the morning which led to an attraction of other Malaysian students and Malaysian Ministers!! to attend the event.
The sponsorship and marketing team
We all did a mannequin challenge (which is on fb, if I do get it I will post it here) and also behind the scenes video which Kerby and I worked on together to edit them both.
Majority of my housemates and when I say this, I really mean 6/7 people are involved in FOD itself.
With Iza (aka one of my favourite singers) being the co-host alongside Abhi.
Favourite FOD actor of all time (Danial Firdaus aka The Flamboyant Tuan Osman)
Didn't manage to get many photos with the cast since everyone was busy greeting their friends after the show and it was pretty hectic since we had to leave the hall immediately.
Mr. Photographer himself.
With le MSSCF president who did such a wonderful job in leading a team of hundreds.
With Nadz (aka ex cast member 2015 and my favourite singer as well hihi)
With ex-boss (FODXIII's director) who's also one of the people who were there for me 24/7.
with the OG crew since 2015.
My favourite Bristol-ians.
and the most annoying crew (14CR) on earth.
Super duper proud of the cast and crew, especially the directors (Jasmine and Sarah) who worked real hard alongside the committee to pull this huge event off. It was just plain indescribable to see the cast and crew grow from day 1 til the very end of it. The amount of stress, late nights and annoyance that we all had to go through but hey, what's hard work without any blood, sweat and tears?
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my marketing team (you know who you are) who has been with me since day 1, my close friends who were there to listen to me and my woes, Kerby who came over to 14 CR late at night just to help me out with my designs because photoshop was being a bitch, ex GC Boss who was constantly supportive of my work no matter what, housemates for keeping me entertained over late night works
and
MSSCF for trusting me with my work although I was hard-headed and stubborn with alot of decisions but thank you for pushing me way over my limit because I know now that I am capable of alot of things. Without you, I probably wouldn't have discovered or learn new things throughout my three years in Cardiff. Trust me when I say that although MSSCF itself is flawed in so many ways, it is still something that I keep close to heart and will cherish as the years pass by.
So, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
P/S: I am more than willing to do graphics for anyone who needs any :D and do not hesitate to drop me an email for further discussions!
Signing off!
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