In 2021, the protagonist P recalls the eerie encounter that changed his life.
Script link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15-zuDA1WthrJLlomYNBzbRYfa7ekBceu/view?usp=sharing
Refrences:
Wojcik, P. R. (2018). What makes the apartment complex? In Urban Living and Global Screen Cultures (pp. 1-20), edited by Wojck, P. R. Durham: Duke University Press.
RTHK. (2020). 疫市錄 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOkEeF4NRqY
Lemon Tree, Fool’s garden, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2setjvNKcxg
Created by: Tam Yan Chi ( Tom Tam) u3035696846
Hi Tom,
l find your video-essay both highly entertaining and informative. I believe the fun part is due to various cinematic and filming techniques, such as extensive use of first-person view and fast-forward motion to deliver the amusing story-line of encountering the “neighbor”, which is a meaningful personification of the virus. For the informative part, I think your video-essay can effectively demonstrate the use of different anti-virus measures to protect yourself.
Your content is a very creative and smart way to present the past habits a person had during the outbreak of the coronavirus. Through the personification of the virus itself, the fear of the protagonist towards the virus is further concretized. The first-person view, fast motion, interacts between the protagonist and the “neighbor” all add up and provide an amusing experience for me. In addition, using “neighbor” to represent the virus is clever, and that contains the message of “the virus was close to us all the time”.
This was a refreshingly entertaining piece on what it is like to co-exist with a coronavirus “body” in one’s home. The comical genre of this allegorical piece worked extremely well with the combination of exaggerated acting, camera and editing techniques. Worth noting is the shot inside the kitchen when the camera was skewed and panned 45 degrees to mimic your eye-line (the resident) as you peered around the apartment for the coronavirus “body”. This was excellently done and a good choice of camera technique to make audiences feel as if they are situated in your shoes and experiencing this first hand. Also, the handgun loaded with Dettol was a brilliant way of merging reality with the virtual world of video games. This hyper-dramatization of the virus and one’s reaction against it really pokes fun at the seemingly absurd measures we go through to protect ourselves against this unwelcomed “neighbour”!
Appreciate the thoughtfully-curated storyline. The filming of the interior domestic space was well-executed and weaved seamlessly from room to room. It offered audiences an insightful glimpse into this private space of yours and how “co-existence” between you and the coronavirus neighbour plays out.