[Video Essay] City Outskirts: the self preserving Ecosystem

City Outskirts: the self-preserving Ecosystem

Theme and subject matter

This video essay focuses on Pok Fu Lam village, one of the last villages in Hong Kong that are at risk of disappearing and is now part of the World Monument Watch list (World Monuments Fund , 2021). The village is unique for its long history of festivals and life that can only be found once you enter through the mazes of lanes and alleyways. Thus a slow life is created, making it distinct from the outside city life that is mainly characterized by its busy and chaotic speed. Through the video, I hope to highlight how the village can be self-sufficient without the need from outside, hence the title “the self-preserving ecosystem”. This is shown in the videos of farms, stores, and culture that cultivate the main building blocks for their unique life and the slow and easy life that comes with it.

The theme and idea of the video are from the perspective of a character discovering the village and further developing the village, similar to the stories from Christianity of god and his creations in the garden of Eden. The character escapes from city life and founds the village in which they grow and nurture it with a calming urban life to shelter in. Nowadays, people are too reliant on the city to provide them with be it materialistic or psychological needs; used to the constant movement of vehicles and lights of the skyscrapers, it’s harder for us to appreciate the quieter aspects of life as our everyday life steers us away from it.

Research

The research was first conducted to find prominent and iconic locations in Pok Fu Lam village; the locations I picked had importance to the village; for example, they held a cultural value, or it was needed for the village to thrive. After picking the locations to film, I created a storyboard to visualize how and what kind of techniques I would use to film each section of the video. Through my research, I found out that Pok Fu Lam village and any village in Hong Kong were disappearing because of Government properties built for real estate or any other government-funded projects and that it was a rare urban system to have at its current time. During my research, I also discovered that sound pollution was more threatening than I had expected; I have found that sound pollution was responsible for the destruction of many eco-system and is also harming us humans, informing us that sound pollution is a cause of heart-related diseases that comes from induced stress (Dutchen, 2022). As such, I believe the importance of video was crucial to capture the quiet side of Hong Kong.

Video Production

As mentioned, after conducting research, I created a storyboard to visualize how the video was going to be filmed. I watched a video on how to add effects on Premiere Pro and applied some of the techniques learned to the video, such as adding text and a fading effect (Opra, 2023). Since I wanted to create a slow pace for the video, I used long stills with wide-angled shots and added pauses to add a sense of melancholy and calmness. The beginning of the video demonstrated a panning technique to show the character first escaping the city life and discovering the village; panning was specifically chosen to show their transition from a hectic past life to a new calming start. Throughout the whole video, text was added to convey the character’s inner thoughts. Many of the videos were also filmed from a first-person perspective to also show that it was from the view of the character; this also helps the viewer of the video feel as if they are part of the experience. To present the main characteristic of the village, multiple videos were put into one scene to create a montage of long twisting lanes and paths that resemble a labyrinth that conceals you within the village. To put emphasis on certain elements, such as the photographs on the wall that depict the village’s past, I used a combination of close up to pan out to convey the long and compelling history. This technique is shown at the end of the video, where I depict my character has finally completed the village, and thus the technique puts significance and a sense of satisfaction. The video is also accompanied by a calming instrumental in the background to further add a tranquil and leisurely atmosphere to the village’s life.

Reflection

In conclusion, the entire production of the video helped me to understand the important values place like Pok Fu Lam village holds, which is especially prominent nowadays. Also, I believed that I have developed and improved my video editing skills as well as my video filming skills to reflect the many techniques that I have learned throughout the course term. I hope the village would be a great indicator for people to understand the imminent problem of living in dense city life and also learn to appreciate the disappearing key icons of Hong Kong.

References:

Hui Jaden Tatsuya 3035987013