Introduction:
Playground – place specifically designed to enable children to play[1] – represents more than its dictionary definition. It’s not only a place for advocating free play and recreational play[2], but also a tool to rouse interaction between kids and kids, between kids and parents, and between parents and parents. The playground, where kids’ and parents’ perceptions to the current situations are shown by their free talks, perfectly reflects the city’s trait under the threat of COVID-19. After researching the playground in my community, I come up with the following conclusion:
Though the pandemic is not over, the popularity of the playground and interpersonal communication reflect citizens’ positive attitude towards the pandemic, and indicate that the city is recovering.
Challenges:
During the research, the greatest challenge I met is the privacy issue. Unlike public places where people can randomly take photo and record, playgrounds in communities are regarded as private places. In my case, when I asked the community, they insisted that the individuals’ faces and voices cannot be shown. Taking photos or doing recordings for the masses is strongly forbidden.
Conduction of Research:
In response to the privacy issue, I designed a research consists of two parts.
First, I place a camera tripod by my window to record people’ s activities in a day, using time-lapse photography to turn it into a several minutes’ video. In this way, I could have a direct visual reflection on the popularity of the playground. Besides, I sat below the slide where most people can’t see me during the hours. There, I wrote people’s dialogues on paper, deleted the privacy information, and added the dialogues on the raw video. This form is recognized and permitted by the community.
The research was conducted on May 6, and I found that people are having more communications between each others, compared to the depression in 2020. That’s because people are becoming less and less afraid of COVID-19 – the mask production is sufficient, and many of them have already took vaccine. In addition to my previous hypothesis, I also found that there were many constructions around the playground. It is another evidence and symbol of the recovering of the city.
Reflection:
The research of playground is much harder than it looks like, reminding me again of the importance of privacy issues. When the research is conducted in private places, the first thing I need to consider is how to shoot good lens without trespassing the privacy. And in my case, the result is that my video is not like a traditional film. For the next time, I need to plan earlier, consult with the community more, or come up with a better method of photography.
Video production:
Software Filmora is used in making video.
The first part of the video is my memory on the playground, together with a series of photos of the playground. The second part of the video suggests the emergence of COVID-19 and the decline of playground. The third part of the video is a time-lapse recording of the playground from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. The 5 hours’ recording is compressed into one minute to indicate the popularity of the playground and the recovering of the citizens’ interpersonal communication.
The major background music, DI-DA[3], is provided by my friend, Vastll. The music is full of lively and relaxing rhythm. Vastll made some changed to the original soundtrack so it could fit the time nodes in my video. Please allow me to express my sincere gratitude to him.
Wuyang Du
u3583012
References
[1] Playground, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 May 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playground.
[2] Benefits of Playground Interaction for Parents and Kids, www.playgroundequipment.com/playground-interaction-parents-kids/.
[3] DI-DA, Vastll, 25 Oct. 2020, music.163.com/artist?id=12769509.
[4] Shoulder of Giant, Shockwave-Sound, 6 July 2017, music.163.com/#/album?id=35701994.
I really like your video essay, especially the script of your video. I think you have beautifully presented the things that “have changed”, “unchanged” and “reconstructed”. The suddenly-appeared pandemic messes up everyone’s normal life, as well it prevent kids and parents to enjoy their lovely free-time one the playground. But when the pandemic turns to be less aggressive, and people have already got used to wearing masks outside and adjusted their expectations of lives (their minds have been reformed or reconstructed), things get “recovering”: the lockdown ends, the social-distancing law ends, and people are coming back to the playground. At the end, the usage of kids’ opinions are very outstanding by showing something “unchanged” during the pandemic period: the kids’ are having their unchanged innocence and unchanged dreams of finding themselves a better future. It is the same as the previous years that the people who were kids at that time were also dreaming about their bright future. All in all, the “recovering” city really shows how the stabilised social environment can help people to reconstruct their hopes for the future.
Thank you very much for the reply!