Applause and cheers erupted in the Canon Activities Center when introductory videos played before each club’s performance during Culture Night. Students and audience members said the videos represented their cultures well. Staff of the Media Production Center [MPC] explained it was a big project which took about 20 videographers to accomplish.
Each of the 27 videos consisted of an interview with the club presidents and a short explanation about the performance each club would give. The videos provided the audience with background information, showed glimpses of practices, and featured the club’s costumes for Culture Night.
All interviewees said they appreciated the videos. Leata Wilson, a junior from New Zealand majoring in exercise and sport science, said she thought the video of the Aotearoa Club presented the spirit of the club well, especially when it showed the quote “What is the most important thing in the world? It’s people.” The phrase was repeated three times.
“It gives off so many different messages,” Wilson continued, “despite who you are or where you’re from, you’re important as an individual because you contribute to the world in your own unique way. It got you pumped for the performance. The performance portrayed the quote well.”
In the introductory video of the Gamers’ Club, the vice president of the club said, “Not to prove stereotypes, but the majority of Gamers’ Club cannot dance.” After the video was played, members of the club danced “Jump Up Superstar” from the Mario franchise.
Riley Hand, one of the performers of the Gamers’ Club, commented, “I’d like to take the part that I was given, ‘gamers cannot dance.’ I’d like to think that tonight, we’ve proved them wrong.”
The introduction video for the Japanese Club showed two models wearing performing costumes with serious facial expressions and folded arms.
A member of the audience, Ayana Fukushima, a junior from Japan majoring in art, said she liked how the video showed both the pride and integrity Japanese people have as a culture.
“I like Yui [the female model]. It was cool being able to see her different side.”
MPC staff said the videos were a big project, which challenged their department in the aspects of both manpower and time. In the month prior to Cultural Night, about 20 videographers were sent out to film the 27 clubs’ practice for their performances, activities, and service projects.
“There were 27 clubs that performed. We made 27 videos in such a short time,” Ray Xu, a team leader of the MPC and a junior from China studying computer science, said. “It was the first time the school used introductory videos for the cultural night. Everyone [at MPC] worked hard to make it work.”
According to Xu, for each introductory video, videographers needed to record the important movements which contain the essence of the clubs’ cultures. For an example, Xu shared how the video of the Korean Club was made. He said, “We went to their practice and tried to capture some beautiful moments, such as how they did their traditional fan dance and how they danced K-Pop.”
Aside from taking videos, videographers of the MPC said interacting with the clubs also gave them an opportunity to learn about their cultures and witness their teamwork.
Xu shared, “I understood more about their culture through talking to them. I also saw their teamwork during the practice, and how they were not familiar with their dances at first, but later became skillful.”
Pui Hang Yau, a videographer for MPC and a junior majoring in TESOL education from Hong Kong, said it was a special chance for her to see how the students work hard together to spread their cultures.
“They teach each other. They help each other. The clubs looked after their members well. They would sometimes buy food for those who came to practice and encourage them. They did so much just to spread their cultures,” she said.
Writer: Tomson Cheang