http://S9VmAoel5KQhttps://youtu.be/S9VmAoel5KQ
The main theme of my video is to show the relationship between the café and the modern city. In a city, life is represented by a fast pace, however, the coffee shop is the opposite exists, the slow part. This video focuses on the cafe as a point of reference for the theme of the slow city.
Asian cities have grown rapidly in recent decades, and China’s cities are among the fastest-growing. Unlike in the West, coffee culture has only become popular in China in recent years as the country has become more urbanized. This rapid development has caused enormous pressure on people, so cafes have emerged to provide a quiet, slow place away from the hustle and bustle of the city. At the same time, this change reflects the new way of socializing in contemporary society – people need a place to talk with close people or be alone. For the whole video, contrast is one of the most important presentation techniques. Use fast parts, such as traffic, crowds, etc. to highlight the slow parts of the cafe.
At the start, I have viewed many videos about cafes on some video platforms such as Youtube. Whether it is a vlog or an introductory video, most videos with a cafe theme are quiet, relaxing, and slow. Using these as a reference and my own experience, I decided to use the cafe to reflect the theme of the slow city.
Secondly, I browsed through restaurant review platforms as well as social media platforms to see what many people were saying about different cafes and what they were looking for in a cafe. The environment is often the most important criterion for people to evaluate a cafe as good or bad. Whether it is quiet enough, whether the seats are comfortable enough, or even whether the photos look good. These additional requirements are even more important than the quality of the coffee itself. This also reflects the fact that people often choose to consume in cafes for the environment rather than the food.
I spent a day visiting various cafes in the city and observing the behavior of the people in them. The environment is similar whether the sizeable commercial chain cafe like Starbucks or a small artisanal coffee shop. Most of them have a relaxing atmosphere with dim lighting and elegant, soothing soft music. Most customers are reading books or using their computers to study and work, while others are having small conversations with friends. Whereas coffee is bought to refresh or enjoy the taste, sitting in a café is more of leisure activity.
Spending a whole afternoon in the cafe is like to be away from the hustle and bustle and wholly immersed in your little world. When the evening came, I stepped out of the café and walked down the road as if I had reconnected with the bustling city. The soft music in the café contrasts with the noisy traffic in the city, the people relaxing and enjoying life in the café contrasts with the pedestrians in a hurry on the road, and even the aroma of coffee in the café contrasts with the smell of dust outside. These contrasts accentuate the time that seems to have slowed down in the café and the relaxing atmosphere.
I edit the footage I capture into a video using computer software. As the main subject is a cafe and to reflect the slow and relaxing nature of the video, the tone of the entire video is dim, and the background music is soothing and relaxing. However, at the same time, the busy parts of the city, such as traffic, pedestrians, etc., are contrasted by the use of different styles of sound to reflect the fast parts. The use of subtitles and narration briefly introduces the content presented in the video.
This video essay gave me a new understanding of cafes in the city. The rapid rise of the coffee industry in Chinese cities in recent years reflects, to a certain extent, the change in people’s lifestyles and the improvement in their standard of living. As fast and slow coexist to achieve harmony, people need a place to relax and unwind in the busy city life. As living standards rise, people have the time and financial means to enjoy coffee – not as a necessity for survival but as an additional need for life.
Zuo Zihan 3035953610
Reference：
Felton, Emma. Filtered : Coffee, the Café and the 21st-Century City. Milton: Routledge, 2018. Web.
中国咖啡行业深度全景解读: 界面 · 财经号. jiemian. (n.d.). Retrieved May 13, 2022, from https://m.jiemian.com/article/6572931.html
【随记】触动80后dna的咖啡馆｜疫情前最后一次去咖啡馆_哔哩哔哩_bilibili. _哔哩哔哩_bilibili. Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1gF411L71L?p=1&share_medium=iphone&share_plat=ios&share_session_id=51A34270-1707-41ED-8A4C-55D5F18B6C6D&share_source=WEIXIN&share_tag=s_i×tamp=1652444648&unique_k=ij3nJ2r
YouTube Search Result. YouTube. Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cafe
I really appreciate the rhythm of your video. Together with the slow pace of your voiceover and the soothing background music, all your video gives me a feeling of relaxation, which quite fits the theme. And I like the smooth atmosphere of the cafe, too. It is a place where I can briefly escape the fast pace real world and just sit and stare.
The use of various techniques such as contrasts in your video is effective in conveying how cafes are ‘slow’. Yet, the video does not seem to convey other aspects of your research into cafes. For example, the comparison between commercial and chain and people’s opinions and preferences in cafes are rather meaningful and could have been presented in the video. You should also make use of in-text citations so that it is clearer how your references inform your text.