Kancil Awards 2005 - Part 1

Didn't sleep for the night as the whole month preparation for Kancil Awards 2005 got us all restless. Have to meet the team at 7am Friday morning and pack the gears for the AV show. Jay msg me while I was about to reach the office, "will be late by 30 mins". Hmm... so unlike Jay. It's his real big night this year 'coz he will be coordinating the main AV show through out the night, last year, Johnnie Ho was the prominent dude behind the AV show. well, not because he had earn our respect to lead us but it's because he has the loudest voice and brash in handling events. Most event management would have love him but not us. We trust Jay would do a way better job and we were proved right at the end of the evening. Jay, Kenny, Seth, Khoo and me pack our gears into the company Unser. Only a laptop and a big plastic container! I was amazed. You see, we usually pack two HUGE 21 inch monitors and a 100 tonne terminal from Jurassic era into the poor Unser on previous years because our AVID editing system on it and it was putting a strain on everyone, but thanks to modern technology, the new laptops are holding up playing full resolution videos and stills. We even had time for breakfast leisurely and reach KLCC Convetion Centre at 9 plus with traffic. We asked the guards for direction to the unloading bay and I realised these guys aren't local, they look suspiciously like Gurkhas. Not that I have personally met any Gurkha but they don't sound like any Vietnamese, Cambodians or even from Myanmar. The tone in their eyes prolly hold some truth, we sped off to rejoin the traffic before any of them pull out a Kukri and disembowel our kidneys and livers.

Do not EVER park at KLCC if you're spending more than an hour(check an actual event at the end of the story). We took our gears and went looking for the Ballroom where Kancil Awards will be host later in the evening. It was located on the 3rd floor and the whole walkway/lobby was huge and forms a semi-circle. Fully carpeted and steel structures ala KLIA, you can see the 'Twin-Jagungs' on the left dwarfing the Maxis tower and the rest of 'other' buildings and right in the middle is a pathetic small park trying very hard to copy Central Park of NY. The trees and plants look more like some protected species than pleasant. The lobby walkway before the doors to the ballroom were being decorated with Kancil entries. It's gonne look more like some wedding instead of a real award night, I was thinking to myself.

The ballroom were huge, bigger than last year's venue, the Sunway Hotel's grand ballroom but I noticed it was missing some important 'must', chandeliers. It was lighted with cheap bulbs, hundreds of these little buggers. the stage was set up 8 hours before. Jay mentioned the production crew were only allowed in at 3am in the morning. 3 projector screens were already up, supported by two internal built-in screens on the ballroom, good, at least the architect did some smarts that actually helps. I estimated there were at least 200 table sets cramped in there and we did worry about peeps sitting at the corners would not be able to see the main event but again they would be too drunk to notice the results. We set up our gears as minimalistically as possible. The rest of the staging platform were occupied with huge consoles and mixers, we felt sheepish but superior at the same time.

After setting up our gears, we tested the presentation shows and make sure the terminals are working. Patrick, who's doing the print slides detailing the credits had his PC shutting down on him. It was stuffy and warm inside the ballroom and we decided to bring my PC from office to act as backup. So me and Kenny went back to office to pick it up, hopefully we don't have to resort to it 'coz of the HUGE collection of porn inside my pc! kidding... Took the LCD 19" monitor just incase and in any circumstances, it would look nice on our AV station eventhough hardly anyone notice there were no power cable attach.

Once me and Kenny reached KLCC Convention centre with our stuff, the 'posse' went out for makan/lunch. We walked out to MyDin which is at Jln. Ampang 'coz majority of us are smokers and we definately know the place's smokers-tolerant. Time: 1 something and we have another 12 hours before Kancil's over, sigh the waiting is the most tiresome and boring but I was wondering who's gonne be the MC for tonite's event. We found that out at 2+ in the afternoon, good ol Godfrey(radio deejay, MC, copywriter, VO talent, etc) and surprise, surprise! Ms. Serena. C from Hitz.FM! Kewl. I saw her on the media before but never met her in real life until now. She came dressing casually with a white tee and jeans for the rehearsal at 2:30pm and seems pretty well-versed with handling the event. I knew Godfrey for more than 10 years and he's been hosting Kancil for number of years but after the rehearsal, I was impressed with Ms. Serena's natural glip and her calm oversight about the whole event. And did I mention she looks great? yeah, even before the makeover as seen below posing with lucky Kenny.

Weather forecast has never been so wrong 'coz dark clouds were gathering by 4pm and starts peppering the whole of KL with heavy chunk of water. The crowd starts coming by 6pm and the beer tap opens freely. Free booze is a must for all conmen and women! I noticed a woman who was setting up the beer booth/bar which was sponsored by Carlsberg, I thought she was one of the contractor until she changed her clothes into a cocktail dress by 6 and even went up to stage later for an award for Naga DDB! Datuk Vincent Lee(MD of Naga DDB) is the Chairman for this year's 4As. He uses his own agency employees to do 4As jobs? What a Penny-pincher! Either that, or he doesn't trust anyone except his own batch of slaves. Anyway, this is his first year tenure as prez for 4As and he aimed to please and smother the other agencies. We saw how determined he was to show the world his admiration(carry-balls) for Jennifer chan, MD for BBDO, one helluva hag in the ad industry. I met her before in 95 when I was doing internship at JWT, she's 4x her size now. Never like her, especialy her insatiable ego and thinks the world revolves around her(well, it is since she's surrounded by ball-less/submissive minions.) and her arms, her really huge arms... as big as my thigh!


To be continue...