THIS YEAR, the Media and the Creative Arts (MCA) Cluster stayed true to their tagline “Four Voices, One Frequency”.
To organize the MCA Week 2010, cluster organizations Ateneo Association for Communication Majors (ACOMM), the Ateneo Musicians’ Pool (AMP), the Ateneo Collegiate Society of Advertising (CoSA), and the Loyola Film Circle (LFC) collaborated with each other to make the event possible.
Themed “Unleash Your Creative Monster”, MCA Week occurred in different areas in campus, from September 20 to 24.
Collaboration is key
According to MCA Cluster Head Joseph Teoxon, this year’s MCA Week was different from last year’s.
“This year we decided to have tie-ups. We wanted our members to be really involved in the projects,” said ACOMM President Bianca Redoblado.
CoSA President Paolo Abrihan said that this year’s MCA Week was an improvement from last year’s. “Last year… we [CoSA] just had a booth. It was interactive but it was kinda boring,” he said.
Teoxon added that “trickling down to what is MCA” was one of the main things they considered for the MCA Week. “We wanted to make our members be aware first of what MCA is and what it does,” he said in Filipino.
Junior Jan Nigel Orencia, a CoSA member, noticed how tie-ups made this year’s MCA Week different. “The whole roster of events felt like a whole celebration of what MCA does…they’re equally distributed among the orgs,” he said.
Four voices, one frequency
Each org prepared different events for the MCA Week. AMP hosted the Open Mic Rap Battle, a freestyle rap competition reminiscent of FlipTop, while AMP Stripped, a series of 10-minute pocket concerts were held at Gonzaga Cafeteria and JSEC.
AMP President Anton Magno said that the main driving force of their organization was the diversity of music, “That’s why we’re gonna have rap battles besides just simple musicians playing, so [that there would be different] genres.”
LFC had BlueScreen 7, the org’s annual inter-committee film competition. Short films revolving around luck were screened on September 20, 22, and 24. The Awards Night was held on September 25 at My Place Sandbox.
LFC President Jopy Arnaldo said that these film screenings weren’t just for LFC members, but for anybody who enjoys watching films. “That’s what filmmakers want right? They want to make their films, say something, and have it heard,” he said.
Together, the AMP and LFC tied up for Pelikula de Musika-Silencium, a screening of a short silent film with live musical scoring at SEC-C Foyer.
ACOMM had two events: Around Town Campus Tour and Graffi-Tawa, both held at SEC-C Foyer. The former was a launch of a music video competition sponsored by the upcoming Studio 23 travel show of the same title; the latter was an exhibit where Ateneans could post jokes on a wall.
Meanwhile, CoSA held My Secret, which was patterned after the community mail art project PostSecret. Then they held an exhibit of entries from CoSA’s Ad Fest competition, which focused on student rights of Ateneans. Both activities were held at the SEC-C Foyer. Together, CoSA and ACOMM collaborated for AdTalks 2010, a series of talks focusing on different fields in advertising.
‘Hype machine’
As culmination and as a ‘hype machine’, “Hoopla!” was held on September 24 at Xavierville 3 Clubhouse. This featured AMP bands, DJs, and the finals of the Open Mic Rap Battle.
Teoxon added that aside from it being a party, Hoopla! also served as a “hype machine” to “promote the future major projects of the MCA orgs.”
