Video Essay: FLOW
Captions:
The Novel Coronavirus (CoVid-19) Pandemic has been a major global concern in the past months.
In lieu of this, the Malaysian Government issued a Movement Control Order (MCO) on the 18th of March 2020.
The order stated:
General prohibition of mass movements and gatherings across the country including religious, sports, social and cultural activities.
To enforce this prohibition, all houses of worship and business premises would be closed, except for supermarkets, public markets, grocery stores and convenience stores selling everyday necessities.
Restrictions on the entry of all tourists and foreign visitors into the country.
Closure of all kindergartens, government and private schools.
With such tight restrictions, people have found themselves asking the same kind of questions.
What day is it?
How many days has it been?
What happened?
Public Flow has stopped.
But what didn’t stop?
You.
Your flow of speech.
Your flow of emotions.
Your flow of ideas.
Your flow of life.
Imagine all that expression inside you.
Busting to come out.
Will it ever get back to normal?
To put it simply.
No.
When everything settles down.
That will become the new normal.
Nobody knows what it will be like.
Humans learn from experience.
The flow of time will bring us there.
This is a life-changing event.
It may change the way you look at the world.
Life flows on.
FLOW
2020.
Description:
I wanted to convey an uplifting message whilst document snippets from my daily life in isolation in Malaysia. I wanted to use the sense of sound to emphasize the mundane parts of the day, the use of quick cuts and sharp sounds like *click* or *lock*, etc. The small zoomed-in clips placed next to the wide shots of spaces in the house, in chronological order, creates a juxtaposition between scenes and a sense of scale. I found that focusing on appliances in the house defines the function and purpose of the space. The scene-to-scene flow of the video starts during the day, it transitions to the nighttime and then to the day again. Several of the same shots were reused to creating the idea of a cyclical daily routine. The decision to colour grade the video in black and white was mainly to solve the issue of exposure and consistency throughout, but it also serves to set the tone and mood. The captions were in yellow to create a clear contrast to the background video to allow visual clarity. I decided not to use any voice narration as I felt it would ruin the peaceful yet mundane pace, it would also have clashed with the sounds from each clip. White noise audio from an empty room spanned the entire length of the video to create a sense of emptiness as it creates a feeling of something being there whilst not being. Since the video is only 2-and-a-half minutes long, I think that the viewer will not be able to concentrate on both the captions and the footage, my idea was to allow a second viewing, picking up on the smalls things in the video.
References:
- “Covid-19: Movement Control Order Imposed with Only Essential Sectors Operating: New Straits Times.” NST Online, New Straits Times, 16 Mar. 2020, www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/03/575177/covid-19-movement-control-order-imposed-only-essential-sectors-operating.
- Malay Mail. “PM: Malaysia under Movement Control Order from Wed until March 31, All Shops Closed except for Essential Services: Malay Mail.” Malaysia | Malay Mail, Malay Mail, 16 Mar. 2020, www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/03/16/pm-malaysia-in-lockdown-from-wed-until-march-31-all-shops-closed-except-for/1847204.
Kuang Yi CHIN 3035660897
Hi! I like the contrast you showed for your visuals and your screen text: everything is flowing but in reality, there is a movement control order. The concept is strong. One comment is that some of the scenes are repeated, I believe there could be more things that could show flow, perhaps the flow of relationships, how they have become in this time of the year? Are they strengthened or weakened? How do we connect? You mentioned about a new normal in the video. I believe that is very true. What is normal is largely defined by us and defined by society. What is normal constantly changes. In 2019, it’s normal to get outside. In 2020, it has become a luxury and can be considered abnormal. What is now considered normal can be abnormal sometime later. It’s important to realise what is normal now could be something worth cherishing. Overall, great job!
Hi! I’m appreciated for your great organization, that the ending shots of your film are corresponding with the beginning shots – by reverting or do the opposite version for your actions. This helps to bring up your message of “life flows on” and humans can recover after time flow. In terms of visual, the use of black and white tone lasted for the whole video essay, I’m happy to see so as it work well as a stand-alone series for all shots. You have a good choice for the color used for subtitles, it allows it to stand out, and without blending with the background. However, I hope you can think more about the volume of actions shown different shots, in my opinion, the greater variation in sound volume for the whole video can create a better sound experience – sounds can be a tool to push viewers to the peak of feeling, so maybe volume, especially at the beginning, can be lower. Good job!
Hi! The film The concept of flow is direct, the flow symbolic meaning is clear. The water flow give a impression that the nature is in a flow and didn’t stop, only the society and city are locked down due to the diseases. For the scene that a person stand in front of the mirror provide a impression of loneliness, isolation to the world and rigid of the mind. The knob, rotatory objects gives everyday routine, boring circulation which stops man spirit with the black and white background. But, I have some misunderstanding on some scene. First , somebody have mention some scene is repeated, is there any interpretation that you want to represent? Perhaps, the flow that in the life after the pandemic disease will back to normal? Would it be better if reverse play the video clip to show the back to normal and difference with the previous one?
Second, the garbage bin , you’ve mention ‘everything will settle down’ and back to normal, why you choose this as a symbolic meaning, or by no means.
Other than some minor confusion, the video provides a flow of circulation, well done!
Hi, I really like the point of the video that you used the each clip of your daily life to show the life of people in quarantine. I think it is a very good idea to film it in only black color, which shows the mood that is different from the daily life before the spread of coronavirus. I also like the silence that I could feel the mood of isolation and loneliness that people could feel during this area, that people need to stay inside of their house all the time. I think it is effective to use the subtitle to send the message because it would be distracted if you use the voice over. Voice recording also might hide the living noise in this video. However, even in this situation, I could feel that those message seems very powerful, which shows people that our life is still moving on. For the improvement, I think it would be nice to add the videos or image that could show that life for individual still flows which is not has changed. Over all, I really like your video.
Hi Yi! First of all, I love how simple and consistent the overall style, at the same time, presents a very motivational video. The video itself is a manifestation of your title- FLOW. Where your opening and the end of your video is making a loop, highlighting the endlessness. Small clips of moments in your everyday life in still shots tells story of mundane life, and sings to your title.
I love the way that your video has strong captions which are short yet concise texts with a deeper meaning behind. In a word, your video is quite thought provoking and I appreciate your creativity. One suggestion is that for some specific scenes you may elaborate more so that the audience can have a better understanding of what sort of ideas you are trying to express.
Hi I really appreciate the black and white setting that taste more classic as if Alfred Hitchcock‘s movies and ’those device you applied into this video is really impressive as well. However, there seems lack of background music and too realism. Maybe it could be a bit abstract to convey the main idea behind. It is still very great job and a more artistic movie style 🙂
Hi! The switches, bed, fan and the others remind me of the dull and circulating daily routine under the pandemic. I feel the same when the days seem to enter an infinite loop. I like your idea of using sharp sounds and quick cuts. It’s creative! The black and white colours also make the whole video look artistic. I also enjoy the night scenes near the end of the video. Great work!
Well done on capturing the finer details of flows in daily life. But what about the intangible flows, like those that you have stated? Speech, emotions, ideas, life. How would you convey those abtract ideas? The black and white contrast throughout your film seems to paint a contrasting and more mundane picture to the idea of “busting to life”. Is the flow of life meant to be ironic?
There is sensibility in your framing and cropping of objects and scenes. Appreciate the black and white contrast and tone throughout your film. Your textual narration can be better curated, in terms of length, pacing and timing in relation to your visuals. Was the shifting of perspectives between first and third person intentional? And what is the significance of the garbage scene?