The Merrie Monarch Hula Festival, Hilo, Hawaii, is an internationally acclaimed hula competition featuring the world's best hula dancers. Since the festival was celebrating its 60th Anniversary(2023), I created a promotional video for the team to use for publicity.
My inspiration for the video came from viewing photographs, videos, Hawaiian tribal patterns, and Hawaiian jewelry. I have never attended the event, so my research focused on archived event programs and I interviewed many people to share an accurate depiction of hula, culture, and tradition in my video, which often is stereotyped in the media.
I utilized black and gold for my color palette to highlight the Hawaiian monarch and the royalty of the event. I also used a more cinematic style and chants/drum beats rather than Hawaiian music to depict authentic and traditional Hawaiian dance.
