Hong Kong is a well-developed city as it is one of the world’s financial centers. The urban areas of Hong Kong are filled with all kinds of construction included residential building, institutional, institutional building, specialized industrial construction, infrastructure construction. These constructions all working together seamlessly to keep the city alive. Campus, one of the most important institutional buildings in all cities where almost all university activities take place. Providing a high-quality learning environment for all student, it helps to build the intelligent, self-directed learners that are independent and confident to create a better society. As a university student, I would like to take a closer look at the campus constructions, especially my alma mater – The University of Hong Kong. The video essay aims to explore how the constructions of The University of Hong Kong operate (changed) under the outbreak of covid 19.
Construction, to me, seems to be a living thing. To any living things, life and death are the 2 major questions that they cannot escape from. What is(are) the purpose of life? How long will something live? For construction, they will ‘die’ when they lose their functions regarding the changes in the need of the city. Kowloon walled city may be a great example. However, the construction can last longer by reconstructing themselves. The Mills (南豐紗廠) successfully continue its life after the reconstruction. It reshaped itself to a landmark revitalization project from manufactory (MILL6 Foundation, 2020). A question arises: Are the constructions in HKU experience something similar to these cases (reconstruction vs deconstruction)? As the outbreak of pandemics shows us that we are capable of shifting all learning activities online. So, the video essay (written essay) is designed to try to find out this question.
A semi-field trip was conducted on 16/5/2021. All the footage of the video essay was recorded by using a Sony A7ii. DaVinci Resolve 17 was used to edit the video. No VFX visual effects like color grading, FX effects, and filters were used in the video essay. A storyboard was designed in advance to guide the filming process. It took around 2~3 hours to film all the footage as it was very difficult to get the preferred spots. Finding the right angles was extremely time-consuming. It was often to sacrifice the prefect angles to a less ideal one because it was impossible to get to the location.
I found out that the constructions of the University of Hong Kong may be experiencing reconstruction more than a deconstruction under the pandemic. Although the necessity of the campus seemed to be decreased as many functions of it could be replaced by the internet, there were still a lot of irreplaceable parts. The learning and academic atmosphere could only be found inside the campus. The face-to-face human interactions could not be created through the internet (at least we cannot do this right now). The vast and complex constructions on the campus were still performing their unique functionality. As I observed, there were still constructions in the process that expanding the usage of the building. Let us wait for the end of the pandemic and create more memories on the campus.
Video Essay Construction City – YouTube
Chan Chun Hing
3035792841
References;
MILL6 Foundation. (2020). The mills. Www.Themills.Com. https://www.themills.com.hk/en/
I think the content of this video essay is very rich. The previous paragraph shows a lot of buildings of the University of Hong Kong, which leaves a deep impression on me who has never been to school. Many of the shots were from the perspective of looking up, showing a strong academic atmosphere, the seriousness and oppression that university brings to people. At the same time, many small details also show the background of covid-19, such as masks, disinfectants, temperature detectors, and so on. At the same time, due to the epidemic, many of the university’s facilities are in a state of idleness and maintenance, which also makes people look forward to a new look for the university.
Hi I really enjoyed your video. Your research work about Hong Kong’s constructions are impressive. Also I liked how you used your skills for taking the video. However, it would be better if you could record your voice by each sentence so that no mistakes in pronouncing words can be made. But overall, I really like your video and I could see the current Hong Kong’c constructions in campus.
It is interesting and innovative that you tried to define what construction means to you. Yet, you might need to do a more extensive research on the various concepts of ‘construction’ to better shape your narrative. There are different types of constructions in your video and you would need to point out how different they are and how other people/ scholars refer to them. Moreover, the scenes that you selected can be more relevant to campus, e.g. interior shots of empty classrooms.
Also, a better reference can be chosen as the Mills are a different type of building and it goes through a different state of reconstruction, thus it is not directly comparable. You might want to select other campuses like a secondary school campus/ other universities so that you can have a more straightforward comparison.