OOC Thread - Draft Thread
20:00 IZMEDUAN TIME
For the third time running, the contest was back in Izmedu after Katarina Zunic's stunning win back in the capital of Vodiznad. RTI's move to host the contest yet again seemed like a move born from insanity; the channel had just staged two consecutive World Hit Festivals, which a country hadn't done since Euskirribakondara's two consecutive hostings in Harrikes in World Hit Festivals 7 and 8. To do it a third time? As the crowds piled in on the current host city (Mousiki) and its venue, the Majcena Foruma, it caused the host broadcast to reflect back on an unbelievable World Hit Festival trajectory. Despite being in the same country for three editions in a row now, the fans were the one constant that kept things dynamic.
Despite the smaller scale of the Majcena Foruma, one could hear the shouts of the crowds resonating within. World Hit Festival 31 was about to start and the lights dimmed...
OPENING SEQUENCE: A NEW BEGINNING
Alajbeg Productions – Towards the Sun
0:00-0:41
The first 40 seconds of the sequence would be a brief recap. The haunting sounds of the theme song saw a projection of ghostly brief cuts to the 30th World Hit Festival. We start off with an image of the Dragulj Arena in the opening sequence of the 30th World Hit Festival, with a grain filter applied. A few piano notes played, with shots of various performances being flashed to screen at every note. However, at the last two notes, a freeze frame of Mercedini's phase II vote was played, and at the final note, a black and white photo of Katarina appeared on the screen, smiling to the viewer before fading gracefully into a CGI rendering of the Dragulj Arena itself...
0:41-1:23
A swooning orchestra sound took over the instrumentation of the song, sounding 'live' as the image was met with a slow moving time lapse of the Dragulj Arena from the night of the contest to the second day. At the 50 second mark, the camera turned around to then move towards the iconic Velikstav walkway in Vodiznad, showing not the capital itself, but the waters that stretched into the deep horizon... There were people out there looking, finding that the water was beginning to rumble, especially at the minute and 20 mark with the drums added in.
1:23-2:04
The song began to develop further as the camera shot moved out of Vodiznad through interspersed shots of the camera's rolling mountains and its seas. Blue streaks of light that shimmered with sparks began to race through the country, passing through small municipalities as it now became a brief tour of southern Izmedu itself. At the two minute mark, the streaks finally reached the host city of the 31st World Hit Festival, in which they pierced through the clouds to reveal the culturally rich seaside city. There was Mousiki in all its glory, presented in a wide shot before quickly zooming into its marina.
2:04-2:50
The instrumentation entered its peak, with orchestral flourishes that were gracefully timed to a quick survey of the city of Mousiki. The camera zoomed through the busy streets rather dynamically, zooming in on moments such as a couple walking down the marina, to a klapa group singing in the city center, and finally, a final shot of a flash mob dance at the host venue, the Majcena Foruma itself. As the wordless vocals built up to their peak during the flash mob sequence, the camera zoomed out to reveal the bustling city of Mousiki once more, with a quick transition to a CGI rendering at night that coincided with the vocalist hitting the highest note. At the music's silence, the shot turned into a blinding white.
2:50-3:18
At the last 28 seconds of the song (which also serves as the leitmotif of the contest itself), the logo of the 31st World Hit Festival appeared very slowly. It started off with the blue World Hit Festival text, the 31 wrapping around itself soon followed by the wave logo that was being 'drawn in.' At the final 15 seconds, the slogan began to be 'written,' painted on the canvas that was the screen. At the end of the song, there stood the logo of the 31st World Hit Festival. Once the parting note of the song hit, the camera began to zoom into the 'O' in World, the canvas of the screen dissolving into a live shot of inside the Majcena Foruma...
The Majcena Foruma itself was encased in complete darkness as the sounds of huge crowd cheers now dominated the broadcast noise. Knowing Izmeduan procedure, the opening video package heralded only one thing, the show was due to start with the opening act. Despite the darkness, one could see the lights of cellphones, etc dotting around the flag, illuminating brief instances of flag-waving. The camera faded away from these shots and focused on the stage, where a single spotlight began to illuminate on someone standing on the central platform of the stage.
OPENING ACT
Samir Galovic – Memento (Inamiam me)
Translation: Memento (Remember Me)
The single spotlight revealed the singer of the opening act, Samir Galovic. The audience did not have long to take in his presence before the song as the opening act started off with a soft piano, with the Majcena Foruma being engulfed in a white light at the inspirational sounding intro. The orchestra itself played a part, with the conductor, Adam Katavic, once again skillfully taking the reigns as he led the song through its brief intro. A white background canvas appeared on the back screens. The camera faded to a closer shot of Samir, just in time for the song to start...
Who knew that one day could last forever
That moment of pure happiness
Etched in my mind like a carving
But it was also the day we said goodbye
Your bags packed and ready to leave
I know you've been waiting
The camera panned around Samir slightly, with him looking into at as he started off the song with a wistful look, backed with a guitar instrumental that befit the nostalgic tone the performance took. The camera circled around Samir as he walked forward. However, as Samir got out of shot, the camera lingered to the background screens, which began to show a drawing of the water surrounding Mousiki, gently lapping around before fading into a shot of Samir quite close to the audience, holding out a hand to them as the song transitioned to the hook.
Jednog dana, ju ću dementi suviše
Ali, ovo nije kraj iz i trenuci
El prijateljstvo smo dijelili
At the switch to the Izmeduan language, Samir elicited quite the reaction from the Izmeduan crowd, with this being the first instance of the Izmeduan language that has been used in the country's opening acts. Samir had retreated back to the center of stage after some intimate moments wit lucky audience members, as he prepared himself for the chorus...
Inamiam me
Molim, aninč te odlaziš
Ju imam o...
Memento, iz mi ljubauri
To nije mnogo
Ali, to je svi ju imam
Da inamiam me
Dok naš život napredova
For the chorus' start, the lights began to shine in various hues of white and blue as the camera panned to a wide view of the stage, with Samir belting out the first few lines of the chorus and arching his back slightly at every large note. With the instrumentation hitting its emotional stride, this coincided with the background screens showing pictures of people from the nations that have signed up for the contest, including all 27 nations that declared interest. At the end of the chorus, the camera faded back to Samir, smiling rather innocently at the camera before it faded to a wide view of the stage, with Samir having disappeared...
We spent that last, fateful day together
In euphoria and pure bliss
Making memories...
I watched the setting sun at the day's end
I saw your eyes so wistful
Knowing what's coming
For the second verse, Samir descended down to the floor to interact with the audience in the front rows. Shaking hands quite briefly keeping in mind that the people in the front would be quite starstruck. The camera maintained close-ups of him as he interacted with the front row on the right-hand side of the stage, with him singing some lines directly to an audience member's eyes, and the camera made no secret of some of the excited reactions that the fans were having. At the last line, he turned his back to the audience, pointing one arm to the background screens, which for much of the verse, was showing pictures from nations such as Natanya, Euskirribakondara, the Blueberry Islands and many other nations.
Pa jednog dana, ju ću dementi suviše
Ali, ovo nije kraj iz i trenuci
El prijateljstvo smo dijelili
At the hook, Samir waved to the audience as he began to walk back, as the background screen continued its slide show like show which the camera focused on for much of the hook. The nations on the screen looked to be randomly selected, now with sights from Estogium, Ethane, and Todlichebujoku being displayed on the screens. At the end of the hook, Samir was back on stage.
Inamiam me
Molim, aninč te odlaziš
Ju imam o...
Memento, iz mi ljubauri
To nije mnogo
Ali, to je svi ju imam
Da inamiam me
Dok naš život napredova
Dok naš život napredova
For the refrain, the configurations of bright blue and white lights returned to shine down upon the stage as the instrumentation peaked once more, with Samir passionately belting out the lyrics while reaching his hand out to the camera whenever it focused on him. The camera shot had an even focus between Samir's emoting and the work of the orchestra, with opportune angles showing one of the violinists playing to the melody of the song, with Adam Katavic conducting to the flourishes of the opening act. At the end of the chorus, the camera cut back to Samir, showing him with a determined look towards the audience, as the guitar solo began to play,
Dok naš život napredova
Samir kneeled down as he belted out this one lyric, putting so much power into his voice to the point that he made it deliberately crackle at the high note. He stood up after this belting this line, the camera circling around him one last time.
Inamiam me
Molim, aninč te odlaziš
Ju imam o...
Memento, iz mi ljubauri
To nije mnogo
Ali, to je svi ju imam
Da inamiam ne
Dok naš život napredova
Dok naš život napredova
The background screens reverted back to the images of the seas, with Samir belting out the lyrics as passionately as he could for the final refrain. The Majcena Foruma was imbued a bluer hue befitting the thematic color scheme of the contest. At the end of the song, the lights began to gently turn off one by one, timed to the parting piano notes as the camera panned to a close up of Samir, zooming in on him as the spotlight on him faded at the last note.
Following the opening act, the crowd cheered rather intensely for Samir. The lights had returned back to a normal state as the camera panned to a wider shot of the stage, with waves coursing through the screens that were artistic variations of the logo as a light blue filter was applied to the lights once more. At the right of the stage was where one particularly bright spotlight shone, and the camera immediate zoomed and faded into that particular part... The spotlight was blinding to the camera to the point where one could not see the person walking towards the stage, but after a few seconds, the hostess of the 31st World Hit Festival was revealed. It was Stela Kiric, Izmeduan comedienne, actress, and now a TV presenter. She was wearing this clothing ensemble, and with a jovial attitude, quite literally jumped onto the central platform and waited to speak until the crowd cheer quieted.
Welcome to the 31st World Hit Festival. Please warmly welcome your hostess, Stela Kiric!
Stela: Wow! Can't believe I'm up here, with almost 10,000 World Hit Festival fans from... literally everywhere. Alright, let's get started.
Holding her card professionally despite the comical tone, Stela smiled into the camera, now going to introduce the show in earnest.
Stela: Welcome to the 31st World Hit Festival! ...as our announcer just said earlier. Of course, before I even introduce what this contest is about, give a hand of applause to the man that performed a few minutes ago. He's an up and coming pop star, give Samir Galovic a cheer!
The camera panned back to the crowd, with the hostess prompted cheer occurring that was met with an especially loud cheer from the Samir Galovic contingent in the audience.
Stela: Alright, let's get down to business. First off, the World Hit Festival is one of the few multiversal song contests in existence today, and the World Hit Festival itself is rather old. We just wrapped up the its 30th edition all the way back in that city of Vodiznad. Well, we ended up winning it, and so we're back here again. Welcome back again, World! This time, we're hosting it in lovely Mousiki. So hopefully, were going to bring some lovely mousik for you all.
A couple of laughs were shared by the pun that the hostess just did, though it barely registered with some of the Izmeduans in the audience.
Stela: It's a celebration of music, culture, and art. The World Hit Festival brings together a lot, and I mean, a lot of countries to celebrate one night of sharing our music together. In total, 17 nations are waiting to show you what they're made of. Audience here and at home, are you ready?
Stela held a hand out as the the camera panned back to the wildly cheering crowd, who were more than happy to answer Stela's question with unbridled enthusiasm.
Stela: Alright! With our little ceremony out of the way, why don't we welcome our first nation up to the stage! Normandy and Picardy, you're up! Good luck Yves!
The camera faded to the audience as a water animation swept over the broadcast, heralding the beginning of the Normand postcard...