Title: Disappearing City
Site: Apartment (the entire apartment or a space/room within)
Director:Nie Jingfeng
Background music: Clean water by Robert Haigh
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/IB9COjjfiL0
Storyboard: 
Transcript:
What is a city?
How to define a city?
What is the relationship between human and city?
Can you imagine an urban place without human?
Can this place still be defined as a city?
Let’s explore such a place…
Texture to texture
No one lives in this apartment.
The apartment is surrounded by vegetation, and the white paint on the walls and ceiling of the apartment has begun to peel off.
A large number of discarded household items were left in the apartment, such as umbrellas, shoes, lamps, and gloves scattered all over the places.
In my understanding,the disappearing city means the disappearance of people’s activities,these “disappearances” are reflected in the absence of human activities.
Therefore, it reflects the inseparable connection between people and space.I will use the human scale to define the city. Only when there are human activities in the space can the space be given meaning.
Video essay
Theme
Today in 2022, the epidemic is still very serious. This creates a lot of limitations in the city center, but it is this limitation that gives me more opportunities to explore Hong Kong’s fringe cities. The location I chose for the apartment was Yim Tin Tsai, a two-story traditional Chinese-style apartment, although an apartment is traditionally defined as a self-contained living unit that usually occupies only one floor of a building but some French-style apartments will also be large double-storey units (Apartment,2020). Yim Tin Tsai was once home to more than 1000 Hong Kong people (Grundy,2013). This place used to make a living from salt fields,in order to pursue education and employment in the city, this place gradually became deserted, and now this place is under conservation, and few people live in it . I want to discuss the topic of the disappearing city by exploring the way of the marginal city. By exploring this abandoned hut, I can understand the relationship between urban architecture and humanities. It’s as if the word “architecture” was defined as “the art or practice of designing and building structures, especially habitable structures”（What Is Residential Architecture,2021）. When a structure is no longer inhabited, does the structure still form part of the city?The apartment I found has been severely damaged because it was abandoned, which reflects the changes of buildings and people’s activities over time. In my understanding, the disappearing city means the disappearance of people’s activities. However, whether it is the completely disappeared Kowloon Walled City, or the desertion of an area in the urban area, these “disappearances” are reflected in the absence of human activities. Therefore, it reflects the inseparable connection between people and cities.
Method and reflection
I hope to set a background for exploration through the way the documentary is shot. In this context, I will use different methods to bring out the transformation and transition of the space, so as to create different perception experiences and visual effects. In my shooting, I will take advantage of the abandoned characteristics of this apartment, start with entering this apartment, and give the audience a general picture first. Then, in the video, I will use the voyeur’s point of view to place the camera from the abandoned and randomly placed chairs, simulating the perspective of the chair, the still image simulates the time when the chair was abandoned, and then rises in a slow spiral The way to turn to the original perspective of the person sitting on the chair, and then through the rotation of the lens, to see the original chair from the perspective of another chair, to achieve the effect of peeping at each other. When shooting from different angles, it will give the audience a different look and feel and express different themes. I wanted to express the sense of the passage of time through the lens. Then I will speed up the process of going up and down the stairs in the video, not only to grab the viewer’s attention, to create a sense of visual relief, but also to act as a transition by speeding up (High Speed Shooting,2018). Acceleration can also distinguish a single scene from other scenes, creating a sense of uniqueness (HECKMANN,2021). At the same time, multiple shot transitions when the camera moves to the wall can create dynamic scenes and create a sense of space at the same time (Camera Movements,n.d.). Finally, by displaying a series of discarded daily necessities, the audience will be prompted to think about the questions raised at the beginning, and to think about the connection between space and human activities. After filming the film and going through this subject, I have deepened my understanding of the marginal cities. In Hong Kong, there are still many such abandoned places. Because of the lack of human activities and vitality, the buildings have become dilapidated, and these places seem to be in the middle of people’s lives. Disappearing from sight, and a building or object disappears in people’s lives, and when people’s memory of it disappears completely, their existence will also be erased. Without conservation work, people wouldn’t remember what was missing. This just proves the close connection between space and human activities. Only when a space has human activities, can this space play the role of space and be defined as a city. Just like many architects take human as the scale of the city, human will give the building practical value and meaning. Just as the residential space will only become its spatial essence when no one lives, but has no function.
(774 Words)
Bibliography
Mcgregor,L.(2022,February 4).Understanding Point of View in Film and Video.https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/understanding-pov-in-film-and-video/
Academy Pace(2020,April 6).Professional Use of Slow-Motion & Fast-Forward in Filmmaking.https://postpace.io/blog/professional-use-of-slow-motion-fast-forward-in-filmmaking/
SHOOT.(2018,October 12).High Speed Shooting, Why And How?https://www.shootonline.com/spw/high-speed-shooting-why-and-how
Yam,S.(2020,September 1).Hong Kong: A City of Disappearances.https://hkprotesting.com/2020/09/01/disappearances/
Time Out Hong Kong(2021,October 10).Hong Kong’s abandoned villages to explore.https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/things-to-do/hong-kongs-near-abandoned-villages
Grundy,T.(2013,February 23).PLACES – Hong Kong’s Abandoned ‘Ghost Island’http://hongwrong.com/places-hong-kongs-abandoned-ghost-island/
Mitchell wall(2021,MAY 31).What Is Residential Architecture? https://www.mitchellwall.com/what-is-residential-architecture/
ENCYCLOpedia.com(2018,May 14).Apartment Houses.https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/art-and-architecture/architecture/apartment-house
DESIGNING BUILDING( 2020,15 Oct).Apartment.https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Apartment
NFI(n.d.).Camera Movements: Everything You Need To Know.https://www.nfi.edu/camera-movements/
HECKMANN,C.(2021,NOVEMBER 28).Types of Editing Transitions in Film — The Ultimate Guide.https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/types-of-editing-transitions-in-film/
Nie Jingfeng 3035934975
the filming angle of the space in the old house is not as a normal human perspective, it is very interesting to reflect the relationship between human and city, as the city have humane activity so that it is a city. the filming techniques make the whole film very tense, and it is very attracting to us question to start the film.
You have a very specific and unique apartment site that you have utilized to ask the research question. Your camera angles are mostly well-thought to assist the delivery of your content. Perhaps you could delve deeper into concepts of the relationship between film/ human/ architecture to define a city. Could an abandoned house be comparable to a house that is never lived? What gives life to architecture?