[Video Essay] Control City

Title: Control City

Credits: CHEN Chi

Youtube Link: https://youtu.be/ZFVOUqHRYDs

Theme:

The video shows the Hai Men high-speed railway station under strict control during the pandemic. In February this year, Shanghai was hit by a massive outbreak. Hai Men, as a city around Shanghai, has been seriously affected. In order to effectively prevent the importation and spread of the epidemic and ensure the health and safety of residents, the Hai Men government requires that “no people leave the area and no gathering is allowed”. As a result, traffic control became very strict and began to affect people’s daily travel.

The video was filmed at Hai Men High-speed railway station. It is the only high-speed rail station in Hai Men and can reach most cities in Jiangsu province. As one of the most important transportation in Hai Men, the high-speed railway station is under strict control after being affected by the epidemic. There is only one high-speed train shift per day, and nucleic acid reports are required to enter the station.

In the video, I showed the control situation of Hai Men High-speed railway station from entering the station to exiting the high-speed railway by recording the form of taking the high-speed railway.

Method of research:

Before making the video, I made many field trips. These field trips helped me with my video material. For example, when I went to the high-speed railway station for the first time, I learned that a nucleic acid report within 72 hours was required to enter the station, so it became one of my plans to show the scene of staff checking the nucleic acid report. In addition, I also learned about the procedures for entering high-speed railway stations during the epidemic through the notification of epidemic prevention issued by the government. Therefore, in order to show the control of high-speed railway stations during the epidemic in more detail, I recorded my experience of taking the high-speed railways to show the control procedures of actual high-speed railway stations.

Video production:

In making videos, I used many skills in screen layout and the video clip. In general, I mainly use narrative structure to record my journey on the high-speed train throughout the video. I recorded the scene inside the high-speed railway station and experienced the scene of prevention and control measures in the high-speed railway station from a first-person perspective. The first-person perspective is to take “me” as the experienced person observing things and telling stories and mastering the whole process. This allows the audience to experience the real Hai Men high-speed railway station in an immersive way, such as experiencing the process of temperature measurement and nucleic acid examination. In terms of video composition, I mainly used nine-grid composition. When shooting, I aligned the scene with the vertical line and the horizontal line, which could make the structure looks more three-dimensional and cleaner. In addition, I also shot a variety of scenes in the video. For example, I took a panoramic picture of the whole high-speed railway station, showing the close relationship between passengers and the station. What‘s more, I also used close-up shots to show the correct methods of washing hands and sneezing on the big screen of the high-speed railway station. These specific prevention measures can show the efforts made by Hai Men in the prevention and control details. In terms of editing, I chose the technique of simultaneous sound and picture editing, which does not have obvious editing traces. Most of them are flat and straight records, which also conforms to my recording style of video. In addition, I also added subtitles and narration in the video, which can help the audience to understand the protagonist and the content they want to express in each picture, and make the whole video more vivid.

Reflection:

During the field shooting, I felt very proud of the observation of Hai Men’s High-speed railway station, because my hometown was able to control the spread of the epidemic quickly and effectively when it was raging. I was deeply moved by the orderly queue of people and the hard work of the staff. It was my first close look at the way the city was run. During the epidemic years, people often complained that traffic restrictions prevented them from traveling far. I have never had a thorough understanding of the epidemic prevention and Control before, and I may have complained about such strict Control at one moment, but now I think “Control City” can bring residents a more stable and safer living environment.

References:

Bell, D. M., Weisfuse, I. B., Hernandez-Avila, M., Del Rio, C., Bustamante, X., and Rodier, G. (2009). Pandemic influenza as 21st century urban public health crisis. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 15, 1963–1969. doi: 10.3201/eid1512.091232

Connolly, C., Ali, S. H., and Keil, R. (2020a). On the relationships between COVID-19 and extended urbanization. Dial. Hum. Geogr. 10, 213–216. DOI: 10.1177/2043820620934209

CHEN Chi 3035835650