Storyboard
Theme and subject matter
In this video essay, I focus on how the pace of Hong Kong changes due to the pandemic. Before I did my site visit, I thought that the pace of Hong Kong was fast largely because of the population. However, after the site visit, I found out that the space, or say environment, also had a great impact on the pace of the city. Thus, by presenting the film from a steady rabbit’s point of view, I want to show the contrast and separation between the paces at different spaces.
Research and making of the video
I did my research in two ways, online research and site visit. From the online research, I looked through different studies and came up with my first hypothesis, which was the greater the population, the faster the pace of the city. However, this was somehow overturned after I visited the campus. There are always many people staying at the canteen, but the pace there is slow because people are enjoying their dishes. As such, I discovered that the place/venue is more important than the population. Then I moved on to research on how the pandemic affects the pace of the city. And the fact is that the younger generation feels that the pace is much faster and time flashes, which is pretty much true to me (maybe due to the lower productivity and efficiency studying at home). Thus, I wished to show this change in my video essay.
When making the video, I wanted to focus more on people’s real behaviors, so I did not add too many effects. The one effect that I used a lot was the composite effect as to show the contrast between the time and the pedestrian. I wish the clock in the background and the moving objects can create a visual impact on the audience and make them feel fragmented and separated.
Reflection
Before I did the research, I thought that there would be many people walking around at the campus. However, due to the pandemic and the study mode, there were not as many people as I expected, which made the contrast between the campus and ones showed in the ‘videos’ not as obvious as I wanted. Anyway, I changed my plan immediately and decided to film the campus shots at some corners with fewer people. Although I made flexible changes, the video essay now totally relies on the videos filmed at other places to show the relationship of the pace of the city and COVID-19, which deviates from the original thinking.
References
World Population View. (2021). Hong Kong Population. Retrieved from World Population View: https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/hong-kong-population
Asian Tigers Group. (2017, March 23). First impressions in Hong Kong: What’s the hurry? Retrieved from Asian Tigers Group: https://www.asiantigersgroup.com/first-impressions-in-hong-kong-whats-the-hurry/
Ogden, R. (2021, January 18). Has lockdown completely distorted your sense of time? This could be why. Retrieved from World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/covid19-coronavirus-lockdown-time
Ogden, R. (2020, July 6). The passage of time during the UK Covid-19 lockdown. Plos One.
Tian Xuemu 3035825057
Your work is very great in terms of it’s creativity, editing approach and storyboard. It’s interesting that the character is a rabbit sitting in front of the laptop. The virtual effect of embedded clock and the accelerated video is a very suitable to illustrate the theme. The storyboard is very clear and nicely reflect in the video. Great job!
Since your assigned space is the campus, the only related documentation is where the rabbit sat and went through its diary. What can we learn about the campus in your video? There seems to be more clips on the road and MTR passages than your assigned space, what is the relationship among them? At present, there is a lack of clarity in some of the elements of your video such as the clock, the overlaying of video clips, the continuous sneezing sound. Is there a significance in the time that you’re showing other than indicating the passing of time? It would be great if there were more carefully considered choices in the process of filming.