Festival of Ideas - Day 2 

7/10/2022

-By Anirudh Bhadri and Archita Lakhotia

The Festival of Ideas is a brainchild of the Editorial Board of KMC. It illuminates the amalgamation of the arts and sciences. It is meant to showcase the best the institution offers and the essence of what it means to be a student. Every year, this festival is held with eclectic workshops and competitions.

Festival of Ideas is what one can make it out to be. It provides every individual a space to explore oneself through a plethora of different art forms that enable them to uncover their hidden talents. The Editorial Board of KMC aims to showcase talent in all the colleges across MAHE in the form of Art, Photography, and Writing through the premier content on social media.

The second day of the festival, 7th October, got a great start at 4 in the evening with an event called 'Photo Marathon,' which was held in one of the lecture halls of KMC. Photo Marathon is an event that includes a workshop as well as a competition related to photography.

At the start of the event, a workshop was conducted by one of the students of KMC, Anirudh Sharda, who had also served as the head of photography of a reputed student media body in his junior years. The workshop lasted for 30 minutes in which he pondered over many aspects and elements of visual art. 

He began his photography workshop by talking about the three elements one must keep in mind while taking pictures: shutter speed, aperture, and ISO.

Anirudh went on to explain how pictures should be taken in different situations with different shutter speeds. Continuing his workshop, he talked about the various photography techniques a few being rule of thirds, leading lines, and then advised all the budding aspirants of photography to keep the distractions out of the frame. He concluded his workshop by sending his best wishes to all the participants of the competition.

Before beginning the competition, a memento was provided to Anirudh Sharada, for sharing his insights into photography.

Anirudh Sharada's Photography Workshop

After successfully completing the workshop, Participants were pumped up for the competition, where they had to work in groups of two. This visual art competition comprised two rounds: 

1.         The first round was theme-based photography, where the theme was provided on the spot. Apart from this, each group had to do product photography, where the editorial board also provided the product with all the necessary props and lights. The theme for the first round was clicking four photos depicting a college student's life. 

2.         The second round was also about theme-based photography, which was provided on the spot. Throughout the competition, participants were seen clicking pictures of products such as cosmetics and eateries like Oreo.

The grand winners of this eventful competition were Mridul Dhingra and Abhimanyu. Soham and Sedhu finished as second runners-up in the competition; Simran Singh and Rohan Gupta acclaimed the runners-up spot. 

Photomarathon participants trying to get the perfect photo

Simultaneously another competition started at 4:30 PM in another lecture hall in the building called 'Duet Art.' Duet Art is a unique and exciting competition where each team member finishes the other's artwork. Each member was given one of the two contrasting topics. After the first 15 mins, the work of each member was switched with other, for the next 15 mins. At the end of 90 minutes, both must submit one from work (mutually decided)—final results must-have elements of both topics given. 

Duet Art Participants

In this game, no form of communication was allowed between the teammates. The themes given were Light and Dark, Ocean and Space. Arundhati and Navya finished as runners-up, and the Swarupa and Sai duo were the competition winners.

The third event was 'The Reel Deal,' a videography workshop. In this workshop, Aayush Rana and Manas taught how to shoot and edit a professional reel video on a smartphone using simple techniques.

Aayush Rana opened the workshop by showing two videos; one video was shot by someone who was not experienced enough with video shooting, and another video was shown which was shot by a professional. The workshop started by focusing on how different camera movements can make a difference in the quality of the video.

Videography Workshop

Later, the focus was shifted toward the different camera settings involved while shooting and what are some of the common mistakes amateurs commit while shooting the video. The emphasis was also on other stabilization techniques like the Ninja Walk.

During the workshop, the importance of pre-planning a shoot was also stressed. Aayush mainly explained the importance of SFX and the song in the video as it creates a mood for the video and gives different contexts to the background.

 

Open mic scenes

The next event lined up was Story Spinner. Spindling around the words and mysteries of various tarot cards, the event was a story telling event having people with the potential to grasp people in the enigma of their words. The participants were divided into teams of two. Each team was assigned 2 random characters, with which they were asked to develop a story.  The characters ranged from a carpet area to a lady smoking. The story was based on the creative ability of the teams and they were handed 3 minutes to write the story. The main twist pulled in when the teams after putting out their story were asked to pull out a tarot card and based on that bring a twist in their story. The tarot cards had characters like the chariot, death, star and others. The event judged the creativity and the writing skills of the teams and independent on the individuals in a unique way as well.

To withdraw from this fantastic event and to make the night warm and memorable, an Open Mic was organized at the end. A night to remember, the open mic was a plethora of talented people showcasing their insane and diverse talents. 

Starting the night with a delightful piano performance, a guitar performance playing the song Lovely by Billie Eilish was then in store for the audience. The participants recited several poetry performances based on different themes like Durga Puja, unfinished time, and the murder of George Floyd from the point of view of a black cop. 

 

Bringing in another heart and ear-soothing musical performance was a myeloid of old and class Bollywood music, including songs like Zara Zara, Ek Hasina Ajnabi se, and Chaap Tilak. A rich and lilting rap was performed, which enlightened the audience. 

The board then presented a little yet packed video that encapsulated the behind-the-scenes and highlighted the work done by them. 

To conclude the show, there was a speech by the Co-Head of the Editorial Board, speaking about her love for the journey and congratulating the other board members on successfully hosting the event in an offline mode after two years with 250 plus registrations. The board also thanked Cult.Com and Manipal Digest for being their media partners. 

- Pictures by: Shreyas Prasad